Old Fashion Double Chocolate Pudding

Unsweetened baking chocolate - 2 oz - grated
Sugar - 1 cup
Milk - 1 cup

Cornstarch - 3 tbsp
Cocoa - 3 tbsp
Milk - 1.5 cup

Butter - 2 tbsp - cold and cut into small pieces
Vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp

1- Mix cornstarch and cocoa well before adding in second cup of milk - mix well.
2- On a double boiler, melt chocolate and sugar in 1 cup of milk.
3- Fold in cornstarch cocoa milk goo into the double boiler. Mix slowly over heat. Stir and cook for about 8 mins.
4- Cover the pan and steam for another 8 mins.
5- Turn off the stove and let the pan sit for 5 minutes. Carefully mix in the butter.
6- Wait for another 5 minutes, then fold in vanilla extract.
7- Divide the pudding into small ceramic bowls and serve warm or chill them in the fridge.

N.B. This is a stiff and bitter chocolate pudding. Would be very nice serve with some fresh whipped cream.

* **~* *~** *
The Ceramic cups are made by Mizuyo Yamashita in cone 8 porcelain.

Chinese Turnip Pudding

Kung Hai Fat Choi. I hope you like the new format I am implementing for 2009. I think it would be better if there are more in-progress photos.

For the Year Of The Ox, I will be making a Chinese Turnip Pudding - a recipe from my mum.

**~* *~* *
The Dish
**~* *~* *

Chinese Turnip Pudding

The Pudding:
Chinese Turnip - 3 lbs = shredded
Chinese Rice Flour - 1 cup
White Pepper: a pinch
Salt: a pinch

The Topping:
Chinese sausage - 3 = sliced
Reconstituted Shiitake Mushroom - 8 = chopped
Reconstituted dried shrimp - 4 tbsp = chopped
Scallion - 2 = chopped
Soy Sauce: 2 tbsp

The left is the pudding ingredients and the right is for the toppings

1- In hot pan, saute Chinese sausage, shiitake mushroom and dried shrimp until brown, add in soy sauce. About 8 mins
2- Turned off stove and add in scallion. This will be the topping.
3- Heat shredded turnip in a pot without water for about 2 - 3 minutes.
4- With the heat off, add in rice flour into the half-cooked turnip. Mix well. Add in white pepper and salt.
5- Fold in about 3 quarter of the toppings into the flour turnip mix.

6- Fold the flour mixture into a greased 9" shallow bowl. Arrange the remaining topping on top.

7-Steam for 1 hour or until a chopstick comes out clean when stick into the pudding.

* **~* *~** *
The Ceramic
* **~* *~** *

N.B. This is a 'soft' version of the turnip cake unlike what you would eat at a dim sum restaurant. I eat it with some soy sauce and hot oil and a spoon! It makes a nice food gift if package in a Chinese porcelain tea set. Add a gold and red tie and there you have it.