Sunday, November 29, 2009

Nunu's Kitchen - Chinese Custard

Food I make!

There's some sort of obscure Chinese belief, perpetuated by parents who make you eat things that you hate by telling you that it'll make you prettier/taller/skinnier, that in order to get rid your body of the 'dust' that accumulates when you breath in dusty air, you need to eat "tong sui", literally "sweet water" or a sweet broth.
There's all sorts of sweet broths, green bean, red bean, sweet dumplings (my most hated!!!) and then there's my favourite, the custard.
I call it Chinese custard because it differs slightly to Western custards, it has a more delicate silken texture, and is steamed cooked instead of immersed in a bain marie like traditional custards.

Chinese Custard

You will need:

4 large eggs
1 1/2 cup skim milk (I use my mum's measurements; 1 rice bowl)
1 1/2 cup water
2 tbsps white sugar

La Methode:
  • Crack eggs into a large bowl.
  • Add milk.
  • Add water.
  • Add sugar.
  • Mix with electric beater until sugar is dissolved.
  • Allow the mixture to stand for a few minutes so that the air bubbles can escape.
  • If you have a steamer, use a steamer, if you're Asian, use a wok and a steaming rack or a pair of chopsticks laid across the bottom of the wok to create a 'platform' for your bowl to sit on.
  • Pour in enough water to cover about 1-1 1/2" of the bottom of the pot/wok. Remember, your bowl must NOT touch the water!
  • Once the water boils, switch heat to medium and place your bowl onto  rack.
  • Remember how you always wanted to open the oven door to peek at your goodies cooking inside? Well, now you can indulge this to the full, because in order to prevent your custard from getting 'old' meaning all wrinkly and pock marked, you'll have to open and close the pot lid a couple of times while it's inside steaming.
  • When the custard starts to congeal (BEFORE it's fully set), you can switch off the heat, close the pot lid and let the residual heat cook it fully.
  • Remove and eat.
  • Omm nom nom nom nom!



1 comment:

  1. omg i love custard

    is steaming hard to do? i've never steamed anything in my life

    ReplyDelete