029. Cantonese ginger milk pudding

(Date: 24-26 Feb 2013. The 29th recipe in 2013)

I found the following few recipes online but what I found really useful is a science project. A group of secondary students in Hong Kong had investigated the optimal temperature, ph level (aciditiy) and other factors for making this traditional dessert. To me, it's like a myth buster and truly enlightening. The pdf file can be found here. Other recipes I found online include: Magic ginger milk pudding, Ginger Milk Pudding, a Natural Custard by Taste Hong Kong, Ginger Milk Pudding by Kitchentigress, Wikipedia: Ginger milk curd

I have then experienced a bit to find the optimal temperature & ingredient ratios via 4 different attempts (using same kind of milk, sugar & the same knob of ginger).

chocolate bark

(Date: 6 Feb 2013. The 26th recipe in 2013)

The idea of making chocolate bars/barks is inspired from "How to make chocolate bars" by David Lebovitz. I also tried to follow his chocolate tempering tutorial to temper the chocolate before molding. Although the tempering was not quite successful, it's mainly because I didn't keep an close eye on the thermometer (and my thermometer seems inaccurate). I've used several of his recipes in the past, either from his website and his excellent book "Ready for Dessert". Most yield very satisfactory results. Hence I believe my failure in tempering the chocolate doesn't reflect the reliability of the original recipe/tutorial.

Anyway, the resulting chocolate barks are still very pretty. They may not possess the desirable property of tempered chocolates, but still absolutely gorgeous.

Chinese new year pudding

(Date 2 Feb 2013)

The 21st recipe in 2013! This recipe of Chinese new year pudding, a.k.a. Nin Go (年糕)  is from a fellow blogger Sally Ho, which can be found here (link).