Ginger Crème Brulee (Quick Variation)

Ever tried to make Crème Brulee at home without using an oven?

I love this French dessert, with rich custard base and topped with a layer of crunchy caramelized sugar. This well-known French dessert, Crème Brulee is widely accepted. Yet not all restaurants offer such a supreme dessert in Australia, only offered by some prestige ones. So I tried to make some for my family some time ago. Although it’s not difficult to cook this dessert, I found it took nearly an hour to bake them. Here I found an easier way to make delicious crème brulee, saving much electricity, energy and cooking time with very good results. Sounds great?

Makes 2 serves

Ingredients:

• 2 egg yolks
• 100 ml thickened cream, room temperature
  
• 50 ml milk, room temperature
  
• 1 Tbsp white sugar
• 2 Tbsp freshly grated ginger juice
• raw sugar, to taste

Method:

1. Lightly whisk egg yolks. Add in white sugar, thickened cream, milk and ginger juice, mix well. As you don’t want to have any foams appeared on the surface, so just combine the ingredients, not to beat them.
   
2. Sift egg mixture into ramekins in order to have smooth custard. Cover ramekins with foil (see picture shown above). Use a wok or steamer, steam for 10 to 15 minutes over medium-high heat with a lid. Insert a toothpick in the middle of custard to test if they are cooked through or not. If the toothpick comes out clean, they are done. Let custard cool and refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours to set up.
3. Generously sprinkle raw sugar on the surface of custard. Torch it. Let the creme brulee cool for just a minute. Enjoy!

Notes:

You can use a teaspoon of vanilla instead of ginger juice if you like. Well, this is a traditional way of making crème brulee, I know. However, I love the taste of ginger, just going so well with the custard. Yummy!

If you liked this recipe, you might like the following one as well:

Steamed Eggs With Milk Dessert Recipe

Cantonese Fried Noodles with Shredded Pork

Whenever I went to Yum Cha with my father, he used to order this dish, Fried Noodles with Shredded Pork. I loved the crispy fried noodles, accompanying with juicy pork and assorted vegetables. This is a very popular Cantonese dish that you still can find it at any Chinese restaurants. The price is not expensive after all. That’s why my father liked to order it to feed us. Haha…

My hubby loves it too but not the crispy noodles. So I have to adjust the way of cooking it to suit his taste. Use less oil, lower heat, shorter time to fry noodles.

Ingredients:

• 2 cakes fried noodles, about 200 gm (available at Asian stores)
• 4-5 Chinese mushrooms
• 100 gm lean pork
• 85 gm bean sprouts (available at Asian stores)
• 45 gm Chinese chives
• 1/5 carrot, shredded
• 2 Tbsp ginger, cut into strips
• 1/2 cup chicken stock

Seasoning for Chinese mushrooms:

• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp cooking oil
• 1/4 tsp cornflour
• 1/4 Shaoxing wine

Seasoning for shredded pork:

• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp cornflour
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil

Thickening:

• 1/2 Tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp oyster sauce
• 2 Tbsp water
• 1 tsp cornflour
• Dash of sesame oil
• Pinch of white pepper

Method:

1. Rinse and soak black mushrooms until tender. Slice black mushrooms and combine with seasoning, steam on high heat for 20 minutes with a lid on. Set aside.
2. Trim away the head and root of bean sprouts. Rinse and drain well. Section chives. Cut carrots into long strips. Marinate shredded pork with seasoning for 20 minutes.
3. Blanch noodles in boiling water about 3 to 5 minutes until done, according to the instructions of the packet. Drain well, sprinkle a pinch of salt and a dash of light soy sauce. Mix well with the noodles. Set aside.
4. Heat oil in a wok, sauté ginger strips until aromatic. Discard the ginger or let it stay according to your preference. Fry both sides of noodles over high heat until lightly brown. While frying noodles, you don’t need to stir them, just like the way of frying a sunny egg. If you like eating crispy noodles, then add more oil and use higher heat to fry longer time until you’re satisfied with the result. Or you might like to pop them in the oven to bake until crispy. When noodles are done, remove them onto a platter.
5. Heat oil over medium heat. Sauté shredded pork until cooked through. Add black mushrooms, carrots and stir fry for a while. Toss in bean sprouts and cook until tender. Add chives and pour in chicken stock. Bring it to a boil. Add thickening and cook until preferred consistency. Pour over noodles and serve.

Notes:

1. My mother used to steam marinated black mushrooms. I found this way of cooking mushrooms would add more flavours and tenderness.
2. Before frying noodles, sauté ginger in hot oil. The noodles would absorb all the fragrance and flavour of ginger. This is the secret not to have boring noodles!