On 2015-08-13 21:24:49 +0000, gtr said:

> The wife recommends I paw through the Japanese and Korean cookbooks on
> the shelf; she's convinced there's something there. I'm too lazy.

After asking the wife she went and dug out the books; in "the Korean
Kitchen" there is a dish that includes soybeans, millet, italian
millet, red beans, short grain rice, short grain sweet rice and salt.
All in pretty much equal proportions. This is ogokbap or chapgokbap. I
can't imagine the soybeans make much difference in it.

She reminds me that we not infrequently get what she believes are
soybeans in various panchan plates before a Korean meal, and that their
texture is almost always too hard: It's like when cooked their still
just a really tough bean.

In "Cooking with Japanese Foods" there is mention made that "black
soybeans" with 35 to 40 percent protein have "become the meat of the
East." (in the book it is an unattributed quote.) The recipes here are
for "black soybeans". The only one of note has you roasting them in a
dry skillet at medium heat for 5-10 minutes until the skins begin to
crack and pop. Then cooked with rice in a pressure cooker for an hour.
If done in a regular rice cooker you have to cook the beans at a
simmer for two to three hours. Not a very exciting dish.

It occurs to me that some of these are in some kind of sauce, likely
miso-based and are a staple for New Year's meals in Japan.

I think maybe these beans are really kinda useless.