Zhuang Nai - Playing with your food

When I first moved to Hong Kong, desserts were the first things that I got hooked on. There was one dessert, however, that I avoided like a plague - the horrible sounding 'steamed milk'. You'd know when you pass a store selling steamed milk - it usually has a picture of a cow on the sign board, and its windows are filled by rows and rows of chinese bowls.

The menu usually consists of steamed milk with various combinations like chocolate, egg etc... They even have special orders for steamed milk with shuang pi (as in double skin). I mean, to pay for the horrible layer that you get from leaving hot milk to cool, and, pay more to get 2 of those layers!!???!?? the whole concept was just too weird for me, to be honest.

But we were persuaded to give it a try, by a priest, of all people, who swore by it...(ahem... figuratively speaking of course!) We plodded through the tiny alleys of Mongkok to find this hole in the wall shop, I entered somewhat grudgingly.. and emerged A CONVERT! It's a taste that grows on you but what's amazing is how it's made... this shop in particular uses buffalo milk (which I think is thinner) and the lady poured the milk into a bowl and within a minute, it turned from liquid to a soft curd. It was like magic! Of course, like moths to a flame, we ordered more to see her do it again and again (much to her delight... she's a real street magician, this one)

Now we make it at home! It's really a whole load of fun making it.

Steamed milk is also called zhuang nai (or literally, knocked up milk!!) and you'll see why when you see the recipe:


What you need:

- 2 pots with handles (only one needs to be heated over a fire so you can use a plastic container for the other... just as long as they both have handles for maneuvering)
- One old ginger, grated (this tends to be more fibrous, as opposed to a young fresh ginger)
- 1 teaspoons of caster sugar
- 1 glass of fresh milk

(1) Squeeze the juice out of the grated ginger and put 2-5 tablespoons in a boil, depending on how much you like ginger
(2) Heat the milk in one pot till you see smoke rising (do not let it boil)
(3) Quickly stir in sugar to taste (it's meant to be lightly sweetened, so if you're using low fat milk, you can use less sugar)
(4) Here's where you'll need both hands... pour the hot milk from one pot to another for a total of 10 times
(5) Pour it into the bowl with ginger juice... then wait 2-3 minutes for the magic to begin...The milk should curdle nicely

It's a lovely quick dessert to make at home.. It's got a lovely light gingery taste to it and it's much softer than the beancurd dessert (dou hwei) you get. I've put in a table spoon of chocolate into it when heated and it's my favourite version (funnily enough, the chocolate version tastes even better with ginger). Most of all... everyone goes..."wahhhh...." when they see the curd form.. entertainment AND dessert.. what more can you ask for???

There's a scientific explanation to why the milk does this which I'll post when I find it again.

In the meantime, try it! Knock yourself out!!