My daily life of cooking food in Tokyo

Chapter 297 Making Moon Cakes

"Hello, TA-Q-BIN."

Just as the two were packing the tableware, a crisp voice came from outside the door.

Liu Minghui showed joy, secretly thinking that the things he needed were finally ready and sent over.

As the package was opened, Liu Minghui saw a set of exquisite molds as expected.

Molds for making mooncakes!
Whenever the holiday season, think twice.

Although he just went back once, but the Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, Liu Minghui still plans to make some mooncakes.

Eat some for yourself, give some to relatives and friends, and send some back to your hometown.

The rest is just right for the fan group of Dragon Carp Izakaya.

As for whether the taste will meet the taste of Sakura people?
Food may have national boundaries, but desserts basically don’t differ much.

There are thousands of flavors of moon cakes, and Liu Minghui believes that he will be able to conquer all of them.

After thinking about it, Liu Minghui decided to make mooncakes with three flavors to satisfy the tastes of most people.

Too much to chew.

Five kernels and red bean paste.

Naturally, the two most classic flavors cannot be given up.

Coupled with the new-style ice-skin mooncakes filled with custard filling, it is definitely enough to satisfy the taste buds of most people.

Mooncakes may seem simple, but it takes a lot of work to make them.

Especially Liu Minghui intends to innovate.

The three flavors selected correspond to three types of mooncakes, three types of skins, and three types of fillings.

The process is much more cumbersome and complicated.

The first is bean paste mooncakes.

Liu Minghui does not intend to adopt the traditional mooncake crust.

Instead, I intend to use the technique of making mung bean cakes to innovatively produce a kind of mung bean cake mooncake skin.

Then it is filled with bean paste and blended into a perfect dim sum.

Considering that the bean paste itself is very sweet, Liu Minghui did not intend to add sugar to the mung bean cake.

Only take the soft texture of mung bean cake, full of mung bean fragrance, and unique refreshing taste.

After briefly sketching the blueprint of mung bean paste mooncakes in his mind, Liu Minghui started making.

Carefully selected mung beans are soaked for a day in advance.

Then peel and remove the buds, and steam them in a steamer.

Ripe mung beans do not need to be cooled, they are directly crushed with a mud press.

After being pressed into puree, the mung bean cake needs to be sieved in order to ensure a delicate texture.

Grind mung bean puree into fine granules.

Get out of the pot.

Turn down the heat to low heat.

Pour the processed mung bean paste into it and stir fry continuously.

Through the action of high temperature, the excess water can be removed.

Under Liu Minghui's superb technique, a pot of mung bean paste seemed to turn into mung bean soup, moving at a constant speed in the pot.

Only keep mung bean puree at high speed.

Only in this way can it be heated evenly without any burnt burnt that affects the taste and taste.

of course.

In order to ensure the texture and taste of the mung bean cake crust, you can also add some high-grade butter to it.

Butter can make the skin of mung bean cake more moist.

At the same time, it adds a rich milky aroma.

It is the best helper when making mung bean cake, and it determines whether the finished mung bean cake has a delicate taste and a refreshing taste.

Gradually, the mung bean paste in the pot was gradually dried by high temperature and turned into mung bean powder.

Not being lazy, Liu Minghui sifted the mung bean flour again.

Only after enough processes can the exquisite taste of the final product be guaranteed.

The next step is to install the mold.

The difficulty of this step is how to perfectly wrap the prepared bean paste in the middle of the mung bean flour.

At the same time, the degree of dryness and humidity of bean paste also plays a vital role.

It not only determines the difficulty of mooncake molding, but also affects the overall taste and taste of mooncakes.

Excessive moisture will affect the skin that mung bean cakes are made from.

Too little water will make the mooncake taste very mushy as a whole.

become a failed innovation.

Of course, this is not a problem for Liu Minghui at all.

Because he has a unique way to solve this problem, that is temperature!
The bean paste stuffing made in advance is pressed into delicate cubes.

Not only that, but also put it in the refrigerator in advance for freezing.

The impact of the frozen bean paste on the skin of the mung bean cake will be minimized.

At the same time, it can greatly retain the texture and taste of the bean paste itself.

It's a very useful little trick.

As for the bean paste filling, it is also very simple, very similar to the practice of mung bean cake.

You only need to soak high-quality red beans in water for one night in advance and put them in a pressure cooker.

Add water to slightly submerge the red beans, then simmer over high heat until all the red beans are soft and rotten.

Then take it out, press it into mud with a mud press, and then sieve it several times to get a fine red bean paste.

Of course, the red bean paste at this time is not yet a finished product.

You need to stir-fry in a pan according to your own needs.

While frying the excess water, add sugar and butter to adjust the texture and taste.

That's it.

Making moon cakes is undoubtedly a test of the maker's manual level.

How to ensure that the filling is in the middle of the mooncake is the biggest problem.

Otherwise, if it is a little skewed, it is the terrifying existence of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

A cook who can't do manual work is not a good cook!
With his excellent manual skills, Liu Minghui quickly put the mung bean flour and bean paste filling into molds and pressed them.

Got a bean paste mooncake.

The light green appearance looks very fresh.

In the center of the simple pattern, "Dragon Carp" is printed on one side and "Mung Bean" is printed on the other.

It is a very delicate mooncake.

Since the bean paste in the bean paste mooncake is still frozen, now is not the best time to try it.

But Liu Minghui believes that its taste is absolutely worthy of its appearance.

How could he overturn by himself?

Take out the packaging machine that has already been prepared.

Liu Minghui simply plastic-packed the finished bean paste mooncakes, and then kept them away from light.

Wait a little longer, and it will evolve into a very delicious red bean paste mooncake.

The bean paste mooncake is done, and our old friend Wuren mooncake is next.

Liu Minghui has come into contact with Wuren in Yunlong Fried Shrimp before, but he is no stranger to it.

There is not much emphasis on the skin of the five-nut mooncake, just use the simplest mooncake skin recipe.

First, stir the inversion syrup and liquid soap salad oil evenly to make a mixed solution.

Then pour the sifted flour into it.

After cutting and mixing with a spatula, knead it into a smooth dough by hand.

The dough at this time cannot be directly used to make moon cakes.

It also needs to be wrapped in plastic wrap and placed in the refrigerator to relax for about an hour.

By the way, although the sight water used here is very unpopular, it is very simple to make.

In fact, it is a mixed solution of alkali and water.

The ratio is about one to four.

The focus is on the making of the five kernel stuffing.

This is the essence of Wuren mooncake.

Good Wuren stuffing can make people love it, and bad Wuren stuffing can make people cast aside for many years.

Five kernels refer to the five types of kernels: walnut kernels, almonds, peanut kernels, melon seeds, and sesame seeds.

In ancient China, there were five moral principles of "benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faith".

And "five benevolence" happens to be homonymous with it.

Therefore, there has been a tradition of using Wuren mooncakes since ancient times, and Wuren is also the most classic kind of mooncake.

But later, in order to make a profit, the merchant cut corners and replaced the five nuts with cheaper five kinds of nuts.

At the same time, green and red silk will be added, which makes many people have a very bad impression of Wuren mooncakes.

But as the saying goes, it’s not that mooncakes with five kernels are not delicious, but that you haven’t eaten delicious mooncakes with five kernels.

Only after eating the most authentic Wuren mooncakes, can you feel the special charm of Wuren mooncakes.

The moment the aroma of five kinds of nuts explodes in the mouth, it can even make people feel a kind of emotion worthy of the world.

The production of Wuren stuffing is actually very simple, and the most important point is actually the real material.

At the same time, there is also a golden ratio unique to each nut.

The carefully proportioned five kernels are fried and then peeled and crushed into cubes.

Add an appropriate amount of sugar and mix evenly to make an excellent five-nut filling.

Then put the prepared five kernel stuffing into the mooncake skin.

Use a mold to shape the mooncake.

Then brush with a little egg wash, bake in the oven, and then you can get a well-made five-nut mooncake.

With the high temperature baking, after a while, the oven began to emit a unique fragrance of moon cakes.

Fragrant and sweet, smells very attractive.

It's just that after the mooncakes are baked, it's not time to enjoy them.

It also takes a period of time to return the oil to make the skin of the mooncakes softer and more oily, with the best taste.

It will also taste better.

Similar to bean paste mooncakes, this five-nut mooncake is also printed on both sides.

The word "Dragon Carp" is printed on one side, and the word "Wu Ren" is printed on the other.

Coupled with the embellishment of some simple patterns, it is very beautiful.

After the oil is returned, it can be packed into the package bought in advance.

After making two kinds of mooncakes, the last kind of ice skin mooncakes filled with custard filling is ushered in.

This is a mooncake that has only become popular in recent years.

The most notable feature is that when you bite it down, the custard filling inside will have a bursting feeling.

Creamy and not greasy, with a strong milk flavor, it is also a kind of mooncake suitable for all ages.

The making of ice skin is very simple.

Mix orange flour, glutinous rice flour and sugar, pour salad oil into milk and stir evenly.

Then pour the cream-cream mixture into the blended powder and stir well.

Here you can choose to add some natural materials to give the mooncake skin a better-looking color.

Such as cocoa powder, green tea powder, taro pigment, etc.

For a simpler, edible coloring can also be added directly.

In terms of nutrition, it will be slightly worse.

The ice skin made in this way is still raw, milky white in color, beautiful but not ice skin.

It also needs to be steamed for about 15 minutes after being steamed, so that it can become a beautiful and transparent ice skin.

Remember to stir several times during the steaming process so that the raw ice skin can be heated evenly and turn into a perfect ice skin.

Under the action of high temperature, the raw ice skin will gradually become viscous and slowly solidify.

After the water is almost absorbed, you can turn off the heat and leave the pot.

Let it cool down a bit, then you can pack your favorite fillings to make delicious snow skin mooncakes.

After the pie crust is finished, the next step is to prepare the custard filling.

Compared with ice skin, it is a little more complicated to make.

At the same time, the Liuxin custard stuffing is also a test of the quality of the material.

If the material is not good or the material is not strong enough, it will have a serious impact on the taste.

Liu Minghui is not some unscrupulous trader, so it is naturally impossible to cut corners here.

Buy the best ingredients.

Liuxin custard stuffing is actually divided into Liuxin and custard.

The same material to be used is salted egg yolk.

Wash the whole salted egg yolk slightly and put it on a plate.

After sprinkling a little white wine, cover with plastic wrap and steam for about ten minutes.

You can poke it with chopsticks in the middle, if you can poke it through, it means that it has been steamed.

The reason why white wine is added is to remove the fishy smell, so you can choose not to add it.

The steamed salted egg yolk cannot be used directly, it needs to be crushed with a spoon or a spatula.

Then sieve it a little bit to make the salted egg yolk fine.

Take an appropriate amount of fine salted egg yolk after sieving.

Add coconut milk, butter, granulated sugar, milk powder, cheese powder, whipped cream and other ingredients and mix together.

Then put it in the microwave for ten seconds.

Stir until the butter has melted.

Put it into a piping bag, cut a small opening and squeeze it into the mold.

Then put it in the refrigerator to freeze until it is firm, then it can be used to make ice-skin mooncakes with flowing custard filling.

The liquid center has been completed, now it’s time to make the custard part.

Melt the butter in advance, add an appropriate amount of coconut milk, butter, caster sugar, milk powder, cheese powder, and orange powder.

Stir well, cover with plastic wrap and steam for about 10 minutes.

After steaming, according to the wetness and stickiness of the custard.

Add an appropriate amount of light cream and adjust until it finally reaches a state where it can be glued into a ball.

After preparing the fillings, it is the last step, making mooncakes.

A ball of custard wraps a heart, and then wraps it in the ice skin.

Put it into a mold and press it firmly to get a delicate snowy mooncake.

One side is printed with the word "milk yellow", and the other side is printed with the word "dragon carp".

The ice-skin mooncakes filled with Liuxin custard can't be eaten directly either.

It also needs to be refrigerated for two hours.

Let the skin and filling reach a perfect balance before taking it out to enjoy.

Seeing that Liu Minghui had finished his work, Guangzi hurried up to greet him with the prepared towel.

Help Liu Minghui wipe off the sweat from his forehead.

Although there is an air conditioner, in a place like the kitchen, it is still very eye-catching when busy.

Photon in the room said very embarrassedly: "Minghui, it's all my fault that I'm so useless that I can't help you in any way."

Let the photons in the room wipe the sweat off his forehead, Liu Minghui said with a smile:
"Why didn't you help? Didn't you help a lot?"

"If you hadn't patiently helped me deal with those nuts, I wouldn't have been able to finish the mooncakes in a while."

The production of moon cakes is very particular, especially if they want to be very delicious.

Therefore, even if Indoor Photon wants to help, it can only do the simplest auxiliary work.

There is no high or low in life.

Liu Minghui was very satisfied that Indoor Photon could help.

Speaking of this, Liu Minghui took the towel with his backhand, and also helped the photon in the room to wipe off his sweat.

This little fool was busy wiping Liu Minghui's sweat, but he didn't realize that he was also sweating profusely.

Liu Minghui said dotingly: "Work is the most glorious."

"After the labor, it's time to accept the fruits of our labor."

After saying that, he picked up a bean paste mooncake, handed it to Indoor Photon, and said:
"Come and have a taste, does this bean paste mooncake suit your taste?"

(End of this chapter)