Ginger Milk Pudding (薑汁撞奶)

薑汁撞奶 is a Cantonese pudding made with ginger juice and buffalo milk, plus sugar to taste. Without steaming, baking, gelatine or agar-agar, the milk is able to solidify into a custard just by mixing with some ginger juice. Sounds really easy, right? Hey, the devil is in the details!

Recipes for 薑汁撞奶 usually specify the use of old ginger but I've succeeded and failed before with both old and young ginger. It's not the age that matters, but the white stuff you see in the photo above. That's the starch in the ginger juice that solidifies the fats and proteins in milk, turning it into a custard. I've come across old ginger which doesn't have much of it, and also young ginger which has lots. How do you tell if the ginger has lots or not? I don't know. But I do know that if you don't see a thick layer of starch after letting the ginger juice rest a few minutes, you should forget about 薑汁撞奶 and make teh halia instead.

How much ginger juice should there be? The ratio of juice to milk should be 8-10. If there's too little ginger juice, there'd be naturally too little starch and the milk wouldn't set. Too much is bad too unless some of the liquid part of the ginger juice is removed.

The way you add the milk to the ginger juice is critical to the success of the pudding. First, stir the starch sitting in the bottom of the bowl. Stop stirring, then pour the right amount of milk into the bowl in one go. It has to "crash" into the ginger juice, as the Cantonese name for the dessert says. Because the milk fats and proteins start solidifying once the milk hits the ginger starch, the turbulence in the bowl should be just sufficient to mix the starch and milk, then stop asap or the curds being formed would be broken up.

The temperature of the milk has a huge impact on how firm the pudding is. If it's too hot or too cold, the starch may not set at all. The good news is, ginger flavoured milk is quite nice! On no account use this ginger flavoured milk to make ginger tea. If you do, you'll regret it.

The ideal temperature is 75-80°C, i.e. hand-hot. That's for cow milk, btw. For buffalo milk – which is what's used in the pudding's hometown in China –  I suspect the ideal temperature may be different (lower?) because it has more fats and proteins than cow milk and, hence, sets more firmly.

If you want the pudding to be as firm as possible, don't add any sugar to the milk. Instead, make some sugar solution and drizzle it on the pudding like how you'd eat tau huay (豆花).

Finally, because you sooooo need a video to show you how to chop ginger and warm up milk, here it is:

GINGER MILK PUDDING (薑汁撞奶) (Recipe for 2 persons) 360 ml full-fat fresh milk 4 tsp sugar 40 ml freshly squeezed ginger juice, divided equally between 2 serving bowls let ginger juice rest 5 minutes; check amount of starch in bottom of bowls; if there isn't much, do not proceed Heat milk and sugar till hand-hot. Stir ginger juice. Stop stirring, then pour 180 ml milk in one go, quickly, into each bowl. Leave for 10 minutes without moving bowls. Serve.

Pickled Green Papaya

The world is divided into two parts: those who love pickles, and those who hate pickles. ....... . . . .. ... . . ... . . .... . .. . . . . . .

If you're a pickle lover, you'd be drooling over this crunchy, sour and spicy pickled green papaya. If you're pickle hater, no amount of persuasion would make you make crunchy, sour and spicy pickled green papaya. Hence, no persuasion is necessary. .......  . . . .. ... . . ... . . .... . .. . . . . . .

PICKLED GREEN PAPAYA (Recipe for 1 kg) 300 g sugar (1½ cups) 300 g white vinegar (1¼ cups) 1.15 kg firm, unripe papaya, with green skin that has a hint of yellow peel, halve, remove seeds and trim head to yield 1 kg 2 tbsp salt 3 bird's eye chillies, rinse and slice thinly After cutting the papaya, you may find that it's too ripe for pickling, and too green for eating. In which case, please proceed to plan B: Buah Paya Masak Titek. Please note that pots, bowls and jars used should be non-reactive. Heat and stir sugar with vinegar until dissolved. Leave till cool. Rinse papaya thoroughly. Slice crosswise as thinly as possible, with a mandolin if available. Sprinkle with salt and mix thoroughly. Leave till limb and soft, about 10 minutes depending on the thickness. Rinse and drain. Mix with vinegar mixture and chillies. Cover and refrigerate. Papaya may be served after turning translucent. This may take 12 hours if papaya is paper thin and not too green. If totally green and not-so-thin, you'll have to wait 1-2 days. Adjust seasoning after papaya is ready for eating, if necessary, then wait at least 3-4 hours before serving.

Stuffed Tau Pok

Working out the recipe for Chinese rojak didn't seem like work since it didn't involve any cooking. In fact, stirring and tasting was my kind of entertainment. Once I figured out how it was done, I wolfed down a huge bowl of fruits and vegetables. That was my '5 a day' as per doctor's orders, in one shot.

I then made a bucketload of the sauce, and kept some chopped up fruits and veggies in the fridge. When I felt like having rojak, all it took was 30 seconds. Rojak had never been so good and quick.

The readymade supply didn't last long and soon, I had to whip up another batch. This time, oh boy, it seemed like a lot of work!

Making the tamarind water was a real pain 'cause it was too thick for the strainer, so I had to pick out the seeds one by one . . . by one . . . . I counted up to 127, then started chanting, "Om . . . ."

Meanwhile, the peanuts were roasting away. I had to stir them a couple of times so that they browned evenly. And then I had to rub off all the skins. And then I had to toss 'em high in the air outside the window so that the wind blew the skins away. Luckily, the wind direction was cooperative and nothing flew into the house. A round of vacuuming would have made me go "Aaaaargh!" "Om . . . ." again.

Finally, I had to get down to the chopping, slicing, measuring, dragging out the mini chopper to give the peanuts a whirl . . . .

I knew exactly what I had to do, so it was rather boring. I need something new!

Since I was, ahem, a veteran rojak maker (with a grand total of two weeks' experience), making a sauce for stuffed tau pok seemed like the natural progression. I made basically the same sauce as for Chinese rojak but added lime juice, kecap manis, and a thin instead of thick tamarind juice. I also added some palm sugar, which made the sweetness more nuanced. Mmmmm . . . . It was nice. Eaten with tau pok stuffed full of cucumber and blanched bean sprouts, the combination was surprisingly different from Chinese rojak. It was lighter and tasted of veggies, in a good way.

I think I'm done with rojak anything for a while. Oooh, what's that coming out of my ears?

STUFFED TAU POK WITH ROJAK SAUCE (Recipe for 4 persons) Sauce – makes about 1½ cups 60 g palm sugar (4 tbsp), mince and steamed till dissolved 2 tbsp sugar 60 g tamarind (4 tbsp; Orchid brand), mix with 90 ml hot water, drain and discard seeds 1½ tbsp chilli powder, or to taste 90 g fermented prawn paste (Two Boys brand) 1½ tbsp rojak flower (aka torch ginger bud) ½ cup peanuts (80 g), toast, rub off skin, and chop/pound roughly juice and finely minced peel of 1 calamansi lime 2 tbsp kecap manis (ABC brand) 8 pieces tau pok (豆卜, beancurd puffs) 100 g bean sprouts, blanch briefly, drain, and dry with paper towels 100 g cucumber, cut matchstick size, and dry with paper towels 2 pairs you zha kueh (aka Chinese crullers, 油条), separate each pair into two pieces The sauce is similar to the one for Chinese rojak but it's less thick since it's a dip. And it's got a more rounded sweetness from palm sugar, kecap manis and lime juice. Besides you zha kueh and stuffed tau pok, it's also a great dip for tart fruits like green mangoes. Mix all ingredients for sauce. Taste and adjust if necessary. Set aside. Mix cucumber and bean sprouts. Slit one side of beancurd puff in the middle to make a pocket. Stuff with bean sprouts and cucumber. Place tau pok on a rack if not grilling immediately so that excess water from the bean sprouts and cucumber drains away. Stuffed tau pok should be eaten the day they're made while the veggies are still crisp. Grill tau pok and dough fritters till crisp. Cut tau pok into 2 or 4 pieces, and you zha kueh into 5. Serve immediately with sauce on the side. Why not make some Chinese rojak as well? Click here for the recipe.

Chinese Rojak

Once in a while, I go on a binge eating session at a hawker centre to indulge in the "fun stuff". It's a low-carb pig-out so that there's as much variety as possible. Everything is, on its own, not very filling but when they're eaten together in one sitting, leave my friends and I barely able to move. A typical session may see us digging into barbecued stingray, barbecued crabs, stir-fried clams, fish soup, oyster omelette, chendol, ice-kacang and ngoh hiang. Anything else . . . ? Oh yes, we mustn't forget our fibre, so we'd have a plate of fruits and veggies in the most fun way possible – rojak!

I was busy stirring bowl after bowl after bowl of rojak sauce last weekend, trying to find one that I liked. The first mistake I made was with the tamarind water. I followed the rojak recipe in The Best of Singapore Cooking, mixing a walnut size blob of assam with 80 ml of water. That totally spoilt the sauce/dressing 'cause it was way too watery. I had to reduce the amount of water, and leave out the lime juice in the recipe, before I finally got a thick and sticky consistency.

Nailed it? Not yet, not so fast. The sauce turned watery again after I mixed it with fruits. The culprit this time was the (rather) expensive 'crystal' pineapple I had bought. It was really juicy and ideal for eating straight, but not for making rojak. The colour of the sauce wasn't right either. It should be almost black or very dark brown, but mine was more like a medium brown. Also, the fermented prawn paste didn't taste right, in a I-can't-put-my-finger-on-it-but-it's-not-quite-right kind of way.


I was into my third bowl of rojak sauce – making, not eating – and on a roll. Off I trotted to a minimart to look for a different brand of fermented prawn paste. 'This is the one rojak hawkers use!' the friendly shopkeeper assured me, holding up a red and blue plastic tub that said 'TWO BOYS BRAND'. 'Really ah?' I took his word for it, and also picked up a cheap, green and hopefully not so juicy pineapple.

On the fourth attempt, I finally nailed it with the help of the two new ingredients. The sauce tasted quite similar to the (famous) rojak in Balestier – hey, the one Chow Yun Fat goes to! It was a lighter version though, with less sugar and prawn paste – the way I liked it. If you prefer a richer sauce, just add more of both and peanuts, and provide for more sauce. And don't forget to toast the dough fritters and beancurd puffs till they're really crispy. That's the whole point of making rojak, to have you zha kueh and tau pok that go c-r-u-n-c-h! Plus, I can have as much green mango and jambu as I like! Plus, I don't have to wait – hey, the good places for rojak have electronic queue systems!


Was Chinese rojak invented by the Chinese? I hope so. It's a nice symbol of the old immigrants' assimilation into life in the 'South Ocean' with the use of ingredients from China and Southeast Asia. Even the name 'rojak', which means mix, is so apt. Do the 'new immigrants' know that, I wonder . . . .

CHINESE ROJAK (Recipe for 6 persons) 150 g mang kuang (local turnip; yam bean; jicama; 沙葛) 150 g cucumber 80 g under ripe pineapple 80 g green mango 100 g jambu (rose apples) 1 pair you zha kueh (Chinese dough fritters; 油条), toasted till crisp 4 pieces tau pok (beancurd puffs; 豆卜), toasted till crisp Rojak sauce (dressing) – makes 1 cup 90 g fermented prawn paste (6 tbsp) 60 g tamarind paste (4 tbsp), mixed with 3 tbsp hot water and drained; . . . seeds picked out and discarded (Orchid brand) peel of ½ calamansi lime, finely minced 1 packed tbsp torch ginger bud (aka rojak flower), finely minced 4 tbsp sugar 1 tbsp chilli powder, or to taste ½ cup toasted peanuts (80 g), skinless, and coarsely ground The dressing is sufficient for about 1 kg (8 cups heaped) of ingredients. Besides those listed above, other popular choices include green apples, buah kedongdong, cured jellyfish, cured squid, and blanched bean sprouts and kangkong (water spinach). Choose whatever strikes your fancy. Everything should be peeled, trimmed, washed and thoroughly dried as necessary, then cut bite size, into thin wedges where possible. To make rojak sauce, thoroughly mix all ingredients except peanuts. When sugar is melted, add all of ground peanuts except 2 tbsp and stir till evenly mixed. You should have 1 cup of sticky sauce that's as thick as peanut butter. Taste and adjust if necessary. Toss everything, adding dough fritters and beancurd puffs towards the end so that they don't turn soggy. Plate and sprinkle with remaining peanuts. Serve immediately. Why not make some Stuffed tau pok with rojak sauce as well? Click here for the recipe.

Spicy Pickled Cucumbers

I don't know if pickles are part of 'normal' eating for other people but they are for me. In these times when everyone is oh-so-busy, is it necessary to make your pickles? Oh yes it is, when I eat the amount I do! Some folks polish off ice-cream by the tub; I inhale pickles by the truckload. To each his/her own, I guess.

I love achar, my favourite amongst tart and crisp preserved veggies, but making it takes some time. When I want something easier, I go for Jacky Yu's Sichuan style cucumber pickle.

Unlike Nyonya achar, Sichuan style pickling doesn't involve grinding and frying spices or roasting peanuts. A few tablespoonfuls of hot broad bean paste, chilli oil and white sesame oil provide all the oomph needed.

Unscrew a few bottles and pour. How easy is that?

And if I want it even easier, I could opt out of cutting up the cucumbers. A few hard whacks from the cleaver would suffice, which is how it's done by the northerners. They, unlike the southerners, prefer a less fussy approach when it comes to food. Sounds like fun, doesn't it, smashing cucumbers with a big knife?

You could, of course, eat pickles as a condiment. A few slices with any meat – braised, roasted, whatever – would be quite nice. Or you could do what I do. Have a heap of pickles with a few slices of meat.

SPICY PICKLED CUCUMBERS Source: Xi Yan Cuisine II, Jacky Yu (Recipe for 12 portions as a side dish) 1.2 kg cucumbers 1 tbsp salt 2 large cloves garlic, thinly sliced 3 tbsp Sichuan peppercorns, toasted and ground 4 tbsp hot broad bean paste 2-4 tbsp chilli oil, to taste 250 g sugar (1¼ cups) 300 ml vinegar (1¼ cups) 4 tbsp white sesame oil Cut about 2-3 cm from top of cucumbers. Rub cut side of each top against cut side of each cucumber till milky substance appears. Discard tops. Rinse cucumbers and dry with paper towels. Trim tails and cores. Cut into batons. Mix with salt. Leave to sweat for ½ hour. Rinse and dry with paper towels. Mix with all other ingredients and refrigerate, covered. Wait 12 hours. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Pickle may be served after another 12 hours.