Soy Rocks!

As some of you may know, I have a great love of soy... It can be used to make so many things -- biodiesel fuel, home insulation, wax for candles, and not to mention the numerous yummy food products like soy sauce, tofu, edamame (actual soy beans), an array of vegetarian "meat" substitutes, and of course soy milk.  

Now, growing up, soy milk wasn't a trendy item or even a milk substitute.  Being an American Asian kid, soy milk was a yummy little treat you would get from the Asian supermarket so that your mom could make you happy for dragging you to the store with her.  And it wasn't the same flavor or consistency as the now popular soy milk products like Silk or 8th Continent.  What I drank as soy milk was thinner and more earthy, and pretty sweet.  What most other people know (and often love) is the thick, creamy, more cow-milk-like liquid.  It still has that earthy flavor of soy, but just not as pronounced as the other stuff.  What's great about this thicker, more readily available soy milk is that you can use it with cereal and tea.  And more and more, I find other great uses for today's soy milk.  BUT, I do warn you NOT to have soy milk with coffee -- it's just a bad idea all around.  Even if you're lactose intolerant (like I sometimes am), it's not worth it to have coffee with soy.  This may sound gross, but this is the best way that I can describe the flavor, and others have agreed with me when they hear it -- coffee + soy = what I imagine nutty poo to taste like.  That's all I have to say about that.

More and more I am finding great ways to use soy milk in cooking.  I was very timid about using it instead of milk in recipes because, although it may not be true, I have in my mind that it just can't work the same because it does not have the same fat content that regular milk does that may play a critical part in the chemical reaction of whatever you're cooking.  But, when I have had no regular milk in the fridge, which is usually the case, then I have sometimes experimented and used soy milk, crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.  And so far, I've had good to great results.  I recently used soy milk to make scones, and the scones came out super lovely!  (I highly recommend blending a mix of dried fruit and nuts to any scone recipe to make them delicious.  I used a mix of dried currants and cranberries and pecans and almonds).  I think I used soy milk to make muffins once, and those came out great!  I've also used a little bit of soy milk when making cream sauces, but only when I have some regular milk or cream already in the sauce.  It seems that soy can be ok to use in some baked good recipes.  You may have to experiment to know which ones for sure.  It's good to know that you can use soy milk in some recipes that you may not think it can be used.  I'm very interested in finding out what more I can use soy milk in.  And of course, if you have any successful recipes, I'd be glad to hear about them!