Tag: asian dessert

Recipes

Sweet Potato Mochi

by AudreyLeave a Comment on Sweet Potato Mochi

final-bite-editfinal

After a long hiatus, I am back!

With it officially fall, I wanted to try making something with sweet potato. However, instead of going the more traditional route with warm spices like cinnamon, I wanted to give the sweet potato a little Asian treatment.

While I am sure that there is a more traditional approach on how to make these little rice cakes, I went with what I was familiar with. I wanted something with great texture, think gooey-chewy, with a little sweetness. Lately, I have been reducing the amount of sugar in my diet, so I wanted something that didn’t need much help in that department. Because sweet potatoes are cheap and last long in my pantry, I thought this recipe would be an awesome treat that could be made quickly and easily. (It also helps that these can be made entirely in the microwave – a girl has to have a repertoire of quick midnight snacks that aren’t just minute mug cakes.)

Now on to the recipe!

Ingredients

  • 1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped into 1 inch sized chunks
  • 1/2 cup sugar (you can add more to taste)
  • 1 cup mochiko rice flour
  • 1 cup water, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup corn starch or potato starch

Step 1: Place the sweet potato in a microwave-safe bowl, wrap with plastic wrap, and then cook on high until soft (about 4 min). Place cooked sweet potato in food processor (or mash with a fork vigorously) with the sugar. Grind into a smooth paste.

(Optional step: for a denser filling, pour the sweet potato paste into a saucepan and heat the mixture on medium to remove excess water. Boil while stirring vigorously until you achieve your desired consistency.)

Step 2: Let the potato cool down fully and then roll into 1 inch-sized balls. Cover with plastic wrap.

Step 3: In another bowl, pour and mix the water into the rice flour in increments. This will prevent you from creating lumps. When everything is fully combined, cover the bowl in plastic wrap, and microwave for one minute.

Step 4: When the rice flour mixture is fully cooked, it will be elastic and translucent. Using a mixing spoon, stir the dough to give it more elasticity. You want to have a strong arm with this and pound it for at least a minute. Then, while the mix is still warm and pliable, scrape the bowl and transfer the dough onto a corn starch dusted cutting board.

Step 5: Cut the dough into an equal amount of pieces to the sweet potato. (You will yield around 10 pieces.) Dust each piece with corn starch and then keep any unused dough covered with plastic wrap as the it dries out easily.

Step 6: Take one of the pieces and dust off any excess corn starch. Using your fingers, pinch and pull the dough until it is just shy of the size of your palm. Place a sweet potato ball in the middle. Pull at the corners of the rice dough and start to push the dough around the ball until everything is fully covered. Pinch the dough ends together to create a seam.

Step 7: When the mochi ball is fully sealed, flip it over, and shape it nicely with your hands so it is even and round. Cover with plastic wrap and then repeat step 6 until you have completed the batch. Store in an airtight container.

sweet-potato-mochi-collage-small

Uncategorized

Steamed mango pudding

by Audrey1 Comment on Steamed mango pudding

final-5-crop

I thought of this recipe after making my udon egg custard recipe post. I loved how you could take only two ingredients and create a custard. Though I filled that dish with udon noodles and salmon, I wondered about how I could use that technique for a dessert.

Thinking of the instant mango puddings I often got at dim sum as a child, I thought to make a healthier alternative. This recipe can easily be made without any sugar if the mango is ripe enough (or if your pre-made mango juice is sweet enough).

The key to this recipe comes in two steps. First, you must run the un-cooked custard through a strainer to remove random egg bits and mango fibers. Second, this recipe does not taste good when warm. This has to be fully cold to be ready to serve.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup mango juice. You can either grind your own or use pre-processed juice, but try to avoid bottled juice with too much added sugar
  • 1 egg
  • Drizzle of honey
  • Optional: cream or coconut cream for topping

Step 1: Put a cloth towel on the bottom of a deep-depth frying pan. In a separate saucepan, boil enough water to fill the frying pan half-way.

Step 2: Crack the egg into a large mixing bowl. Run a fork through the egg whites to break them up. Then break the egg yolk and mix well.

Step 3: Add the mango juice and honey. Whisk well, then run the liquid through a fine-mesh strainer. Pour the remaining liquid into individual serving cups and then cover the filled cups securely with plastic wrap. Place the cups into the cloth-lined frying pan.

Step 4: Pour the boiling water into the frying pan – there should be enough water to cover the bottom 1/2 to 1/3 of the cups. Cover the pan with a lid and bring the pan to a rolling boil. When the water is fully boiling, reduce the heat to medium and cook another 10-15 minutes. The pudding is done when the top of the custard is opaque and you can push a skewer into the custard and it is solid.

Step 5: Pull the custard cups out of the water and have them come to room temperature. Then when they are cool, but them in the fridge for a couple hours to become fully cold. Serve with a drizzle of cream and sesame seeds.

final-2-crop

mango pudding

 

Recipes

Matcha île flottante with roasted soybean powder and Japanese black honey

by AudreyLeave a Comment on Matcha île flottante with roasted soybean powder and Japanese black honey

final-option-4-crop

I first thought of this recipe a few months back when I did the chocolate almond meringues. I had put the first batch in the oven and found that I still had a cup or two of the whipped egg whites left. Since I tend to do a lot of midnight baking sessions and I didn’t want to have to bake again late into the night, I decided to make a simple île flottante recipe with the leftovers. Unfortunately I didn’t have the materials to make the cream sauce, so I didn’t bother photographing it.

However I decided to revisit the recipe again, only with an Asian twist. Matcha is a type of green tea that takes the leaves and grinds them into a flavorful, bright green powder. I incorporate that into the egg whites in this recipe. In the cream sauce, I use kuromitsu as a sweetener. Roughly translated into black honey in English, kuromitsu is a syrup made from a special black sugar. It has a flavor very similar to molasses.

I first tasted the stuff in a restaurant in Dallas. They topped a serving of ice cream with the kuromitsu and a dusting of kinako, roasted soybean flour. It was delicious. So, I decided to play with the dessert’s flavors. (For those that have never had kinako, it tastes a lot like ground peanuts, though more nutty.)

Enough with my mini story time, here is the recipe:

Ingredients

Meringue:

  • 3 egg whites
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon matcha

Crème Anglaise, recipe partially inspired from one from Epicurious

  • 3 egg yolks
  • 1/2 cup milk, any type
  • 1/2 cup whipping cream
  • 2 tablespoons kuromitsu, or extra dark brown sugar if not available
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Toppings:

  • kinako to taste
  • kuromitsu to taste

Step 1: Whip the egg whites until they have soft peaks. While the whites are whipping, mix the matcha with the sugar. Make sure there are no lumps of matcha powder or there will be bitter lumps of color in the meringue. Matcha is too strong a flavor when eaten straight.

Step 2: With the mixer on low, or stirring slowly, add the sugar mix in slowly. Wait until the sugar is mixed in fully before increasing the speed to avoid a cloud of matcha floating out of the mixing bowl. Whip the mixture until you achieve stiff peaks that are sturdy and hold their own in structure. Set aside.

Step 3: In a small sauce pan, heat the milk and cream while stirring occasionally. In another small bowl, mix the egg yolks and sugar until combined. When the milk/cream mixture starts to steam, remove from heat. Add a tablespoon or two of the liquid into the egg yolks. Mix to combine. This will thin out and warm up the yolks, preventing them from cooking in the next step.

Step 4: Add more milk mixture into the yolks until they create a thin liquid. Add them back into the warm milk in the saucepan. Return the pan to the heat. While stirring constantly over high heat, continue to cook the milk/egg mix. You will notice the bottom of the pan will start to accumulate a thicker cream as the crème Anglaise cooks. This is the beginnings of the sauce forming. Continue stirring, and cook until you create a homogenous mixture that coats the back of a spoon. You know you are done when you can swipe a finger across a sauce-coated spoon and the liquid keeps the trail open. Set the sauce aside.

Step 5: With a spoon, scoop a quenelle of meringue. You can do this by making repeated, sweeping wrist movements against the rim of your mixing bowl. This will make an almost egg-like shape.  (This video does a good job describing the motion, however meringue will not move as uniformly as whipped cream, so no stress if it isn’t perfect at first.)

Step 6: Place your spoonful of meringue onto a plate, this will not be your serving plate. Add a teaspoon of water onto the base of the plate, try to avoid it touching your meringue too much. Microwave for 15-20 seconds. (Props go to Sorted Food for showing me this technique, I swear they are like my mini cooking school.)

Step 7: Pour some of the crème Anglaise into a shallow bowl. Place the meringue into the sauce. (This is where the name of this dish comes from. Île means island, flottant means floating. So the meringue is an island floating in a sea of crème Anglaise of sorts.) Sprinkle the kinako over the meringue and drizzle with kuromitsu.

*Last note, I strongly urge you guys to go to your local Asian grocery store and find kinako. It may be tempting to skip it as it is not a common ingredient, but that topping is what makes this dish. The nuttiness pairs well with the flavor of green tea.

 

final-option-6-crop

final-option-5-crop