Soy milk is a white liquid made from water and soy beans. There are different techniques of making it. In the Japanese way of making soy milk, uncooked soy beans are soaked in water overnight. In the morning they are drained, then mashed with some boiling water, so that they look like gloopy mashed potatoes….
Asian Food
Soya Oil
Soya Oil © Denzil Green Soya Oil (aka Soy Oil, Soybean Oil) is a pale yellowish-coloured food oil pressed from Soybeans. It has hardly any flavour, but many people find that even that is too much, giving as it does a slightly soybean aftertaste. Soya Oil made in North America is more likely to be…
Soybeans
Soybeans are rarely consumed on their own as a plate of plain, boiled beans just simply adorned with perhaps oil or vinegar, as one might do with other beans. Soybeans don’t really have much of a taste: they don’t seem to absorb taste as other beans do, nor do they have any kind of intrinsic…
Split Mung Beans
Whole mung beans have a green skin. When the skin is removed in processing, the beans are usually split as well, exposing their pale to dark yellow insides. At this point, they are called “Yellow Mung Beans”, “Split Mung Beans” or even more descriptive, “Yellow Split Mung Beans.” The darkness of the yellow insides will…
Spring Roll Wrappers
Spring Roll Wrappers © Denzil Green Spring Roll Wrappers are very thin food wraps. Made with wheat flour, they are used to make fried Spring Rolls with. They are thicker than Rice Paper Wrappers, thinner than Egg Roll Wrappers. They are usually sold in sheets, frozen or dried. The frozen ones are usually made in…
Star Anise Fruit
Star Anise © Denzil Green Star Anise Fruit is a completely different plant from Star Fruit. The tree that Star Anise Fruit comes from is called the “Indian Almond.” The tree can grow up to 25 feet (8 metres.) It’s an evergreen that will grow true to seed, and so is propagated that way. The…
Straw Mushrooms
Straw Mushrooms are the third most popular mushroom in the world, after Agaricus Mushrooms and Shiitake Mushrooms. They grow in the wild in Asia, but most commercial production is cultivated in Asia on cotton waste mixed with a small amount of straw and agricultural limestone (calcium carbonate.) They are not yet cultivated (as of 2004)…
Sweet Red Bean Paste
This is a bean paste made from red adzuki beans that are boiled, drained, then puréed. It’s called “sweet”, not because sugar has been stirred in, but unlike some other bean pastes such as Miso, it’s not fermented to make it sour. The “sweet” here means not tangy. That being said, some versions actually do…
Tofu
Tofu © Denzil GreenTofu is a fresh coagulated curd product made from soy beans. To make Tofu, soy beans are soaked for up to 8 hours in water. Then they are ground in the water (making soy milk, basically), and the mixture is heated until it reaches 212 F (100 C.) It is then let…
Water Chestnut Flour
Water Chestnut Flour is made from dried, ground water chestnuts. The nuts are boiled, peeled, dried then ground into flour. The flour, which is actually a starch rather than a flour, is bright white fine powder. It’s primary use is as a thickener. It is also used in Asian recipes to make batters for deep-frying….
Water Chestnuts
Water Chestnuts © Denzil Green There are at least three major types of Water Chestnuts: Chinese, European and Indian. “Chinese” Water Chestnuts There are other Chinese Water Chestnuts (such as the ones termed “European” below), but type described here are the ones most of us are most familiar with today. First, they aren’t nuts —…
Whey
Whey is a by-product of cheese and tofu making. In cheese-making, whey is the liquid left over after the fat and protein in the cheese have coagulated to make curds. The whey will, however, still contain some protein that other cheeses can be made from. Cheeses made from whey include Ricotta Cheese, Cottage Cheese and…
Wood Ear Mushrooms
Some of the names used for Wood Ear Mushroom (such as “Cloud Ear” and “Black Fungus”) are the same as those used for Cloud Ear Mushroom. Wood Ear Mushrooms have more of a taste (though still not much), and are less expensive.Wood Ear Mushrooms grow naturally in Asia, but are now cultivated world-wide on saw…
Yak
Yak is one of the new speciality meats (along with others such as buffalo and ostrich) appearing in some American restaurants (as of 2005.) Yak are shaggy, large-horned members of the cow family that have been domesticated in the Himalayas for thousands of years. Their hair is mostly black, with white patches. The average female…