Mini Red Bean Pudding Cake (砵仔糕 Boot Jai Go / Put Chai Ko)

Boot Jai Go aka Put Chai Ko is a popular snack sold by street vendors in Hong Kong.  Traditionally, these pudding cakes were steamed in earthen bowls, which in Chinese means “Boot Jai”.  This is how it got its name “Boot Jai” pudding.  These pudding cakes are made from white or brown sugar, rice flour and wheat starch.  Sometimes red bean is also added.  I still remember during my childhood in Hong Kong, the hawker removed the pudding cake from a porcelain bowl by inserting two bamboo sticks and we just held the skewers while eating them.  Besides the Egg waffles, Boot Jai Go is one of Hong Kong’s must try street vendor’s snacks.

Today, I made these pudding cakes using mini muffin trays.  I made two types, one with brown sugar and one with white sugar and coconut cream.  I also made some without red bean as my daughter likes them plain.

Brown Sugar Boot Jai Go:

Ingredients:

60g	Wheat Flour 澄麵
90g	Rice Flour 粘米粉
110g	Dark Brown Sugar 黑蔗糖
2 cup	Water 水
1 cup	Cooked red beans 熟紅豆

Directions:

1. Pour 1/2 cup of red bean and 1-1/2 cup of water into the pressure cooker, and set the pressure cooking time to 25 minutes (sugar can be added depending on your preference).  Discard water once red bean is cooked and set aside;
2. Combine wheat starch and rice flour in a big bowl, add 1 cup of cold water to the flour mixture and mix well, make sure the batter has no lumps (picture 1);
3. In a small pot, combine 1 cup of water and 110g of dark brown sugar, bring to a boil until sugar is dissolved (picture 2);
4. Quickly pour the hot sugar water into the batter, mix thoroughly (picture 3);
5. Scope out the batter to a mini muffin tray with a ladle (while transferring the batter, keep mixing the batter as the starch tend to sink to the bottom) (picture 4);
6. In a big steamer/wok, bring water to a boil.  Transfer the muffin tray to the steamer and steam over high heat for 3 minutes.  Then add red bean to the middle of each pudding and continue steaming for 7 minutes.  If you want to make the plain pudding with red beans, just steam it for 10 minutes straight (picture 5).

Coconut Boot Jai Go:

1. Replace brown sugar with white sugar, also 110g (picture A);
2. Instead of 1 cup of boiling water, combine 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of coconut cream (pictures B & C);
3. Pour sugar, water and coconut cream into a pot, bring to a boil (picture D);
4. Repeat steps 4-6 above.

Note:

• It’s normal that the cake droops in the middle after steaming.
• You will need to steam this for 30 minutes or so if you use a porcelain bowl depending the size of the bowl.  Red bean can be added to the batter just prior to steaming.

Sous Vide Steak

Steak is one of the most popular foods to cook sous vide and since everyone in my family likes their steak medium rare, I decided to adopt the sous vide method instead of the typical grilling method.

Before we start, we need to pick the right steak.  The thickness of a steak should be at least 1.5 inches thick, either bone-in or boneless.  The reason to pick a thicker piece is because we need to sear the steak after sous-vide cooking.  A thinner piece will tend to overcook during the searing process.  Below is an excerpt from the Anova site and a complete guide can be found here .

Strip, Ribeye, and Porterhouse Steaks

Highly marbled cuts like a grain-finished Prime-grade ribeye and strip should be cooked a few degrees higher than leaner steaks like tenderloin as their copious intramuscular fat helps keep them moist while delivering plenty of flavor.  Fattier steaks also have natural insulation which means they’ll take slightly longer to reach the correct internal temperature.

Very rare to Rare:  120°F (49°C) to 128°F (53°C), 1 to 2 1/2 hours.
Medium-rare:  129°F (54°C) to 134°F (57°C), 1 to 4 hours (2 1/2 hours max for temperatures under 130°F/57°C).
Medium:  135°F (57°C) to 144°F (62°C), 1 to 4 hours.
Medium-well:  145°F (63°C) to 155°F (68°C), 1 to 3 1/2 hours.
Well done:  156°F (69°C) and up, 1 to 3 hours.

Here is how we made a mouth-watering sous-vide steak.

Ingredients:
2 Steaks (about 1 pound each)
Salt
Pepper
12 garlic clove

Direction:

1. Preheat Precision Cooker to the desired final temperature according to the chart above.  I like my steaks medium rare, so I set my temperature to 129°F.
2. Generously season the steak (including the edges) with salt and pepper. (picture 1)
3. Put the steak into a bag and add 3 garlic cloves to each side of the steak (if you want herbs, you can add that to the bag as well).  Seal the bag with a vacuum sealer.  (picture 2)
4. When water has reached the desired temperature, drop the bag(s) in the water bath.  (picture 3)
5. You can connect your cell phone to your precision cooker and use the app to set the cooking time to 1 hour.  (picture 4)
6. Remove the steak from the bag and pat dry with paper towel.  Preheat a cast iron skillet and add one tablespoon of grape seed oil until it starts to smoke, add your steak to the pan. (picture 5)
7. Sear one side for 15 to 30 seconds and flip the steak and sear the other side for 15 t0 30 seconds.  Repeat this step once until the steak gets a nice brown sear.  Make sure not to cook for too long.  Immediately serve with your favorite vegetables/side dishes.  (picture 6)

Note:  With sous-vide cooking, you can cut the steak right after searing, the 10-minute resting period can be skipped.