I’m a huge fan of Asian dessert. They are not too sweet. Ginger milk pudding is one of them. It is a classic Cantonese dessert that I love making at home. There are few Cantonese dessert restaurant here in Greater Toronto area and this dessert is always featured on the menu. At restaurants, they charge about 4-5 dollars for this dessert! However, this dessert only needs 3 ingredients and less than 2 dollars to make for a whole family. With inflation going these days, I say that is a pretty good.
Ginger facts
Ginger has a strong taste and not everyone likes it. The only time I would eat ginger is if I got a cold or when it’s that time of the month, ginger tea with brown sugar was homemade cure that my mom used give me. While I didn’t like it when I was younger, now that I’m older it’s growing on me. When it’s that time of the month, I drink ginger brown sugar tea to help ease cramps. This dessert is also something that I enjoy if I’m under the weather or having cramps. The pudding is warm because of the warm milk and also weirdly enough, ginger also warms up my stomach and soothes it.
History of ginger milk pudding.
Ginger has a protein called zingipain which basically curdles the milk into a soft tofu consistency. Ginger milk pudding consists of 3 ingredients; milk, ginger, and sugar. It originated from the province of Guangdong in China . While milk is not a dominant ingredients in a lot of cooking, it’s featured in more desserts. The original recipe used water buffalo milk. Ginger is a very common ingredients in Chinese cooking as well as other Asian cuisines (Ginger originated from Southeast Asia). Whoever put these two ingredients together is a genius. The best part of this dessert is that you can control the amount of sugar within the milk and also the amount of ginger taste by controlling the amount of ginger juice put in (you still want to put in enough to make the milk curdle).
Pro- Tip
- Milk with higher fat content is better because it can coagulate better (In Canada, 3.25% is high fat milk)
- Grate the ginger, I find it releases the juice quicker but you can also use mortal and pestle, small blender
- Use a cheese cloth to squeeze out the juice without getting any of the ginger pieces into the juice
- If you don’t have a cheese cloth, use a small strainer and squeeze with a spoon.
- Add the juice quickly and let it rest for about 5 minutes. The final consistency won’t be like a store bought pudding. It’s going to be quite soft and somewhat watery.
Ginger Milk pudding
Equipment
- Measuring cup
- microplane
- strainer
- Cheesecloth optional
Ingredients
- 2 cups milk 500ml
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 6-8 tsp ginger juice (1.5-2 tsp per serving)
Instructions
- Pour milk into measuring cup and dissolve sugar into the milk.
- Microwave the milk on high 30-40s at a time. Once it's hot (not boiling) you can pour into ramekins or small bowls. The temperature should be around 70℃
- Peel about 2-3 thumb size ginger.
- Set a bowl with strainer and cheese cloth, grate the ginger using a microplane.
- Squeeze the ginger to get the juice
- Spoon in the ginger juice into individual ramekins
- Pour in the milk and set it aside to set. You can put into the fridge for 5 minutes for it to set.
- You can test whether the pudding is done by gently placing a spoon onto and it shouldn't sink. Once it's solidify, enjoy!
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