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
360ml long-life semi-skimmed milk
1.5T granulated sugar (about 23g)
40ml ginger juice (extracted from 70g of ginger)
What I did
Wash, peel & grate the ginger. Extract ginger juice by pressing grated ginger against a strainer. Stir well and divide the juice into two small bowls. Add sugar & milk into a small milk pan. Heat over the lowest flame. Stir to dissolve all sugar. When temperature reaches 65C, stir the ginger juice so the white starchy precipitation no longer sinks to the bottom. When temperature reaches 70C, remove from heat and immediately pour the milk from about 10cm above the ginger juice. Leave it aside without further disturbing it. It should set to semi-solid pudding after about 5-10 minutes.
For those who don't own a thermometer
Ken Hom, the Chinese American celebrity chef, has introduced a simpler way to make this dessert: Just combine the ingredients and steam it for about 10 minutes. This innovative way may sound betrayal to the tradition. Yet a friend of mine told me many (not all though) of the dessert places in Hong Kong are actually steaming theirs instead of just "colliding ginger & milk" (as suggested literally by the traditional method). I haven't tried this method yet (but tempted to do so later). According to some blog posts I read, this method will yield firmer pudding with less silky texture.
Note to self:
DO NOT boil the milk. It may permanently change the protein structure and make it impossible to form milk curd. DO NOT heat the ginger juice. Heat destroys protease, an enzyme in ginger juice responsible for denaturing milk protein. That is, to transform milk into insoluble semi-solid form (read: the yummy pudding).
What I felt? There are way too many recipes talking about different temperatures available online. Looking at them carefully, the difference may lie into the fact that some recipes do not ask you to pour the milk immediately after taking the final temperature (but to stir the ginger juice instead). It's quite an interesting experience to experiment through different temperatures. I tried heating the milk to 63C, 70C, 75C and 80C. To my surprise, they all set into milk pudding. It seems the chemical reaction behind the formation of milk pudding is in fact more tolerant than it looks. But I found the one heat to 70C seems to have the firmest structure, although I believe the steaming method proposed by Ken Hom should give an even firmer texture that we used to have back in Hong Kong. I have also tried different amount of sugar from 20g-30g before settling at 23g which is sweet enough to balance the strong ginger flavour.
How good was it? 7/10. I like the flavour. But it's not as firm as I'd like. In terms of firmness, it's very similar to greek yoghurt or bio-set yoghurt. But I guess I love firmer puddings similar to creme brulee.
How easy was it? 9/10 - as long as you got a thermometer and not making mistakes like overheating milk or ginger juice, then it's almost fool-proof.
How economical was it? 9/10. Should costs less than £0.5 to make 2 portions - yes. I am not going to pay £5 for one again in Chinatown. Never.
Will I make this again? Yes. Will certainly make this heart-warming pudding again especially in winter. Yet I may try Ken Hom's steaming method. Will post a follow-up about that later.
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