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Moon Cakes

Gary Soup

By Gary Soup
in China: Cooking & Baking

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mudbug

mudbug

Posted
Posted
I've used Martin Yan's recipe for filling and I thought it was pretty good. Just subsitute candied winter melon for the stuff he uses. For the pastry I like the recipe Tepee suggested.

Thank you... but looking for a more pure recipe from scratch with fresh ingredients, not preserved ingredients such as candiied melon.

Example: Winter melon pureed and reduced. Boil soy milk, puree, add sugar, add Midori and thicken with cornstarch and eggyolk. (Anyone?)

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chocomoo

chocomoo

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Posted

One of the Taiwanese bakeries here sells the savoury kind of mooncake with pork & mung bean filling, along with the more traditional mooncakes. I used to think they were weird ("ewww, meat mooncakes?" :blink: ) until I actually tried them. As long as I don't think of them as mooncakes, they're great! I think they're Chiu Chow style, with the paper-thin white layered skin(s?), and crumbly mung bean and chewy bits of pork (spiced with...?) inside. I love peeling off the layers :raz:

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hzrt8w

hzrt8w

Posted
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One of the Taiwanese bakeries here sells the savoury kind of mooncake with pork & mung bean filling, .....

........and crumbly mung bean and chewy bits of pork (spiced with...?) inside.  I love peeling off the layers  :raz:

Can these moon cakes be kept long (because they contain meat inside)? Is the pork more like pork-jerky or the real moist freshly cooked meat?

W.K. Leung ("Ah Leung") aka "hzrt8w"
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Apicio

Apicio

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Winter mellon mooncake filling is made with: diced candied winter mellon, bread crumbs, sugar, water, fat and chopped green onions (the white stems and the green leaves). In the olden days when nobody cared about ingesting cholesterol, they also included candied pork backfat, that’s why they call them pork mooncakes in most of South East Asia. Now, winter mellon is a fairly expensive fresh vegetable, if you puree it you will just end up with light green water a process that is not very different from copperizing gold. Candied winter mellon provides that nice crunch that is the main attraction of this mooncake.

Gato ming gato miao busca la vida para comer

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Tepee

Tepee

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I love the teochew ones, but don't have a recipe.  If you provide one, I'll join.

regards,

trillium

The recipe I'll be using is this, but I'll probably add various light shades of green, pink and yellow to prettify it. :rolleyes:

Remember to post your pics!

TPcal!

Food Pix (plus others)

Please take pictures of all the food you get to try (and if you can, the food at the next tables)............................Dejah

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Tepee

Tepee

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Posted (edited)
Wow, I've never heard of anyone making their own mooncakes. Is it difficult? Where do you get the mold?

The degree of difficulty depends on which mooncake you're making.

Ping Pei - Easiest

Jelly - Easy Peasy, but a little bit more time-consuming

Shanghai - Also Easy

Teochew Spiral - Not too bad

Traditional - The most time-consuming of all. The skin has to be given a few washes of egg and finally tea.

Bare in mind, that I'm saying they are easy because I'll probably be using store-bought fillings. I don't mind making the filling if it's a batch or 2, but I definitely don't have the arm-strength to make more. I usually try to find the filling which is the least sweet.

I'll be getting my traditional mooncakes from here.

Here's an interesting article on Jade Mooncake

Another one on why Malaysia thinks they lead in the variety of mooncakes.

There are many places where we can get the moulds (not online, though), but it seems to be increasing in price every year :wink: . However, a good one will last you a lifetime.

Edited by Tepee (log)

TPcal!

Food Pix (plus others)

Please take pictures of all the food you get to try (and if you can, the food at the next tables)............................Dejah

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Dejah

Dejah

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Re: winter melon moon cakes, are you talking about Lo Pah Beng ("Wife Cakes")?

Yes. Common English names: "Concubine's Cakes" or "Wife's Cakes"

"Lao Po Bing" is actually more common to find regarding spelling

winter melon filling (Dong gwa yung)

Reports say the filling tends to be much better made in New York than in San Francisco. Really just looking for a recipe for the filling, not with additions such as candied citron, nuts, bean, etc.

If we are talking about traditional:

Lao Po Bing is Lao Po Bing. It's not considered moon cakes. They do have the wintermelon filling, but they are available all year round, and eaten year round.

Moon cakes have a different pastry. Lao po bing has "layers", but moon cakes are more cake like.

And moon cakes are for celebrating "bat yuet sup ng"...

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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hzrt8w

hzrt8w

Posted
Posted (edited)
.....I'll be getting my traditional mooncakes from here.

I have seen this web page before. Look at the colors of the mooncake pictures. I believe Gary Soup once described that they look like mooncake from Chernobyl! :laugh::laugh::laugh: I'll say the pictures are produced by the same computer animation artists who created CG figures in the movie Mars Attacks!. :raz: You would have thought they would change the pictures by now...

Edited by hzrt8w (log)
W.K. Leung ("Ah Leung") aka "hzrt8w"
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hzrt8w

hzrt8w

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I have seen this web page before.  Look at the colors of the mooncake pictures.  I believe Gary Soup once described that they look like mooncake from Chernobyl! 

TP: when you get your mooncakes from Kam Lun Tai, does the filling of the mooncakes (especially the Pearly Jade flavor) look that green like the one in the pictures?

W.K. Leung ("Ah Leung") aka "hzrt8w"
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Tepee

Tepee

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I have seen this web page before.  Look at the colors of the mooncake pictures.  I believe Gary Soup once described that they look like mooncake from Chernobyl! 

TP: when you get your mooncakes from Kam Lun Tai, does the filling of the mooncakes (especially the Pearly Jade flavor) look that green like the one in the pictures?

:biggrin: Not surprised that y'all are fazed by the color of the mooncakes. I am, too. But, being the wai sik or adventurous eater that I am, I like to try new 'modern' mooncake variations, sacrilegious or not, as they do sell it individually. And, yes, they almost always disappoint. Like this jade one, not only do they add unnatural-looking coloring to the paste, the taste is enhanced by pandan paste or essence. I accept that most commercial food needs some of these additions, but sometimes they are too much. I have problems with fake tastes. Having said all that, I still buy their lotus paste and red bean ones. I find they are least sweet and the paste is smooth and the oil composition just right.

TPcal!

Food Pix (plus others)

Please take pictures of all the food you get to try (and if you can, the food at the next tables)............................Dejah

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chocomoo

chocomoo

Posted
Posted
One of the Taiwanese bakeries here sells the savoury kind of mooncake with pork & mung bean filling, .....

........and crumbly mung bean and chewy bits of pork (spiced with...?) inside.  I love peeling off the layers   :raz:

Can these moon cakes be kept long (because they contain meat inside)? Is the pork more like pork-jerky or the real moist freshly cooked meat?

The pork is more like pork jerky, so these kinds of mooncakes do tend to keep longer.

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Dejah

Dejah

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Oh wow, I just remembered about the seven or so moon cakes still in the freezer.

Are they safe to eat?  :huh:

Sure. I hope you had them in a well sealed container.

What kind are they?

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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mudbug

mudbug

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Are they safe to eat?  :huh:

As Dejah said, sure. Of all places, food is going to be "safe" to eat, the freezer would be it. Flavor, however is a different story and will depend on how the food is stored in and how well sealed it is.

For instance, we've found that literally freezing whole fish (freshly caught the same day) in a container of water so that the result is that the fish is literally frozen inside a block of ice is the best way to do it. The fish is completely protected from freezer burn.

Because you want to maintain the integrity of the dough of the mooncake, it would be best to avoid rapid defrosting to minimize condensation and moisture. Defrost the mooncakes in the fridge overnight and probably the better part of the next day before eating.

Edited by mudbug (log)
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Apicio

Apicio

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For e-gulleters that just caught this thread recently, there was a very good survey of mooncakes in Renee Kho’s blog which has been linked in the early life of this old mooncake thread (that’s how I discovered it) :http://www.shiokadelicious.com/shiokadelicious/festivals_midautumn_2004/index.html/

It touches on a lot of different kinds of filllings, from the traditional to the innovative and also the different regional variations. I suspect that wife’s cake is just one of these regional variations. Besides, the illustrations are lovely and quite appetizing, as opposed to lurid.

Gato ming gato miao busca la vida para comer

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Dejah

Dejah

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Are they safe to eat?  :huh:

Because you want to maintain the integrity of the dough of the mooncake, it would be best to avoid rapid defrosting to minimize condensation and moisture. Defrost the mooncakes in the fridge overnight and probably the better part of the next day before eating.

Oh yeah, right....overnight and better part of next day...Give me a few seconds in that microwave! :wacko::laugh::laugh:

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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hzrt8w

hzrt8w

Posted
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:biggrin:  Not surprised that y'all are fazed by the color of the mooncakes. I am, too. But, being the wai sik or adventurous eater that I am, I like to try new 'modern' mooncake variations, sacrilegious or not, as they do sell it individually.

So the Chernobyl green color is from pandan? Do you like the added taste?

Typically people don't like the dull green color (looks like it's moldy). Their coloring in the picture is not helping. :biggrin:

W.K. Leung ("Ah Leung") aka "hzrt8w"
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Tepee

Tepee

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No, I don't like commercial pandan-flavored mooncakes, mainly because they probably don't purely use pandan juice. Paste and flavorings, which are basically chemical concoctions, are used. These do not enhance the natural fragrance of what little pandan they use, in fact, it drowns with its pungency.

Same goes with the color. I don't know which is worse - the moldy look of the uncolored one, or the one with green food coloring added to it? Even there is coloring used, it should be used to show an end-effect which is as natural-looking as possible, no?

Same goes with the other flavored mooncakes. Ugh.

TPcal!

Food Pix (plus others)

Please take pictures of all the food you get to try (and if you can, the food at the next tables)............................Dejah

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Transparent

Transparent

Posted
Posted (edited)

I've got two types of mooncakes in my freezer - lotus paste with egg yolks and a mixed nut one, I think. They're sitting in their original tins.

The next Mid-Autumn Festival is only a few months away. I should NOT have gotten so many last year.

Oh yeah, right....overnight and better part of next day...Give me a few seconds in that microwave! wacko.gif laugh.gif laugh.gif

"Word!"

Edited by Transparent (log)
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Dejah

Dejah

Posted
Posted (edited)
I've got two types of mooncakes in my freezer - lotus paste with egg yolks and a mixed nut one, I think. They're sitting in their original tins.

The next Mid-Autumn Festival is only a few months away. I should NOT have gotten so many last year.

Oh yeah, right....overnight and better part of next day...Give me a few seconds in that microwave! wacko.gif laugh.gif laugh.gif

"Word!"

"Word!"??? :huh::unsure:

Edited by Dejah (log)

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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Dejah

Dejah

Posted
Posted
Sue-On, ask your kids. Their vocab. :rolleyes:

TP, does it mean "Da truth" :blink::unsure:

"Word!"per Urbandictionary ="I agree." can be used to express agreement and approval in several ways.

1. a: "Man, that song rocks."

b: "word!"

2. a: "I'm not gonna take crap from him anymore."

b: "Word!"

:raz::laugh:

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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