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Ginger milk curd

Ginger milk curd

薑汁撞奶
Set by pouringMilk and eggServed hotWeeknightKids like itTakes carehands-on 10 min · start to finish 20 min

“Keep the flame low and the custard stays smooth.”

Ingredientsserves 1

街市Fresh ginger· mature ginger, grated skin-on and squeezed to 1 tbsp juice30 g
街市Fresh milk· full cream, at least 3.5% fat; skim and light milk will not set200 ml
雜貨舖Sugar8 g

Equipment

  • A cooking thermometer: the milk has to meet the ginger between 70 and 80°C, and the thermometer takes the guessing out
  • A square of muslin or a cloth tea bag, for squeezing the ginger

Method

  1. Grate the ginger with its skin on and squeeze the juice through muslin straight into the serving bowl. The ginger must be mature: the fibrous, thick-skinned, tan root. Young ginger with pink tips has too little of what sets the milk, and that is the first reason a bowl fails.
  2. Use the juice within a few minutes. The white starch that settles at the bottom is what sets the milk, and it sinks as the juice stands, so stir the juice just before the milk goes in.
  3. Heat the milk with the sugar in a small pan until it steams and small bubbles show at the rim, then take it off; do not let it boil. The range is 70 to 80°C: under 60°C nothing happens, and over 90°C it makes a stiff steamed-milk texture or fails outright, which is the second reason. Without a thermometer, take it to the first ring of bubbles at the rim.
  4. The milk must be full cream. Skim, light and lactose-free milks do not carry enough fat and will not set, whatever you do; that is the third reason. Keep the juice to milk at no less than one to ten.
  5. Stir the ginger juice in the bowl, then pour the hot milk in from about 20 cm up, all at once and fast. That pour is the 撞.
  6. Do not stir and do not move it. Cover the bowl with a saucer and leave it five to eight minutes. A stir after the pour breaks the curd as it forms.
  7. A set bowl will hold a spoon on its surface. Eat it hot: this is a winter bowl, made after dinner or late when someone comes home. If it stays milk there is no rescue; drink it as ginger milk, and for the next bowl use older ginger and a thermometer.

Take care

  • Contains milk. The milk is hot when it is poured; children can watch, but the pour is not theirs.

The story

撞奶 comes from 沙灣 in 番禺 outside Guangzhou, where the water buffalo and their milk were, and 順德 counts it with 雙皮奶 as part of its milk cooking. It came to Hong Kong through the 糖水舖 and stayed as the bowl a family makes to show a child that a spoon of ginger can turn milk solid; the Hong Kong Examinations Authority has since made it a Home Economics exam task on enzymes.

Same wall

Steamed egg custard, ginger or milkDouble-skin milk

Lo Fo Tong is cultural food-heritage reference, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, unwell or on medication, talk to your doctor or registered practitioner before changing what is in the pot.