Soak the beans in water for at least 8 hours or preferably overnight.
The next morning, drain the beans.
Rub the beans in between the palms to remove the skin. It should come off easily.
Remove as much as you can.
Then pour the water, with skin floating on the water, on to a sieve. Try not to pour off the beans.
Remove whatever beans in the sieve to the main batch. Discard the skin.
You need to repeat these steps 3 to 4 more times. Don’t worry if there are some skins left.
Drain the beans.
Blend the beans in a powerful blender if you have. I have a regular blender.
Place the beans and add in about half or 1/3 of the water and blend till fine.
Pour the mixture into a bag and squeeze the liquid into a container.
Put the pulp back to the blender and add in fresh water
Blend again, strain and squeeze as above.
Then add in the pulp and the remaining water and blend and repeat.
(Please note that we are using the total amount of water for the whole process.)
If you have a big blender and can take the whole amount, then you can blend only once. But you will not get the full goodness of the beans. You can blend it once or twice
(optional)
Once done, I like to rinse the bag (outside only, and wring it dry) and filter the milk one more time before cooking. This is to avoid the bits getting into the milk.
This time I filter it straight to the pot.
Over a medium fire bring the milk to a gentle boil, stirring frequently to avoid the bottom getting burned.
Watch the milk to prevent overboiling as this can happen anytime.
Once it comes to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes. Stirring frequently.
Remove the bubbles.
Taste that there is not ‘beany’ taste.
Then turn off the heat and let it cool.
You can serve warm soy milk now.
Or, decant into clean bottles or containers and store in the fridge.
You can use plain syrup, coconut palm sugar syrup or sweeter to sweeten the milk.
Or you can use vanilla or other sweet ingredients like dates for flavour.
You can make tofu and tofu pudding from this.