Black Sesame Paste and Egg White Custard/Pudding

[Haidee]

Hello, nice to meet you all!

I went to Hong Kong 2 years ago, and one day, our tour guide brought us to this little shop that has the most delicious dessert combination I ever tasted. It consists of black sesame paste and an egg white custard/pudding.

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For the black sesame paste, I found several recipes, all of which calls for rice. I was wondering, will the rice cause the black sesame paste to be more bland, or are there other recipes which only calls for black sesame?

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Next is the puzzling part of the dessert, which is the egg white custard/pudding. It is sweet, and has the appearance and texture of soya bean curd dessert.

So, I hunted up a recipe:

::: Steamed Fresh Milk Custard :::

Fresh milk 2 Cups

Egg White 4

Sugar 4 Tablespoonfuls

Scald fresh milk.

Beat egg white and sugar lightly.

Gradually pour warm milk into egg white mixture, strain.

Transfer to heat-proof bowls, steam.

This recipe was originally the custard with ginger in it, but I omitted the ginger, and it is the closest I can find for the egg white custard/pudding.

The original custard/pudding that I ate didn't really have the egg white 'taste'. I'm not too sure how to describe it.

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I hope there are people here who have tasted the dessert I described here in Hong Kong too. At any rate, advice is welcome! I will try to make this dessert as soon as I have some free time.

[myriadin]

>...black sesame paste and an egg white custard/pudding.

>For the black sesame paste, I found several recipes, all of which calls for rice. I >was wondering, will the rice cause the black sesame paste to be more bland, or >are there other recipes which only calls for black sesame?

For such a possibly pbscure (?) recipe, you may not get a difinitive answer in these forums. Maybe try it out and tell us the rusults?

If you wrote a polite letter to the restaurant, they might give you the recipe (especially if you explain that you're from out of country).

The dessert sounds wonderful. Please post when you have it down!

[pennylane]

You don't add rice to the black sesame paste. If you've seen it in the recipes it's probably because they are recipes for black sesame paste dumplings. The rice is used to make the dumpling, which is filled with black sesame paste.

If all you want is the paste, that's easy. Just toast black sesame seeds and then grind and mix with butter and sugar over low heat until combined. I cannot remember the exact proportions but I think I used equal volumes of each. Obviously it depends on the sweetness and texture you want. Just remember that it will be more solid at cooler temperatures. Don't know whether your dessert is meant to be warm or cold. I have only made the dumplings and for those I generally refrigerate or even freeze the paste beforehand as that makes it easier to work with. Then when the dumplings are cooked it melts inside them and gushes out at the first bite - yummy!

[Haidee]

Oh, the recipe is not for dumplings, the rice is blended with the black sesame. At any rate, I might also try to make the paste according to your recipe to compare with the rice/black sesame recipe. Thanks very much!

[LT Wong]

The rice added to the black sesame is for thickening purposes. If you omit it, you just end up with something more watery than if you had added the rice.

[Haidee]

LT Wong: Now I understand. Thanks!

[onelittlesesame]

I am pretty sure that you probably had sesame paste with tofu curd, since that's the only combination that I've seen at the local dessert shops here in HK.

That said, I never understand how they were going to put the paste with the rice....Do they grind it up together or separately? Or couldn't you just use some rice flour instead?!