Strawberry Soy Pudding

My first quarter of 2011 was already totally done in before 2010 could end. 2 months into the new year and I am already in a daze.... I can't imagine how I could have travelled to Bangkok, India, Australia, Shanghai, Korea, celebrated Chinese New Year and still blog in the last 2 months... Just 2 weeks ago, I had been given a new assignment by the Singapore office. With our office lease expiring this year, we are now evaluating our next office space option. I sit on the office project committee and have been given the enviable task of being responsible for the interior design of the office.

I love tasks that allow me to spend other people's money, especially one that lets me work with aesthetically pleasing items. I knew I wanted a clean and fun  modern decor for our office,inspired by the colourful and fun spirit I had seen once at the Google office. When CSN notified me that they had expanded yet again their sites to include AllModern.Com, I immediately went on-line to gather inspiration. So many things caught my eye but these bean bags, in particular were unforgettable. If CSN would ship these to Singapore, I would order these for the new office in a heartbeat!   

I imagine these bean bags going into our cosy corner where we can chill out and unwind - occasionally I can bring treats like these Strawberry Soy Pudding and have my colleagues be my taster.... Dreamy satisfaction.


These puddings were made with the remaining strawberries I had lugged back from Korea. No longer as fresh and luscious as they were last week, I decided to incorporate them into a strawberry mousse and marinated the sliced strawberries in a syrup for garnish.
To keep this a light dessert, I had also chosen to work with a soy pudding base - with a texture that is very similar to the soya bean curd.

When I distributed these little pudding jars over lunch at the office, everyone went... 'wah'.... and I beamed....


Recipe
Soy Pudding  (adapted from The Sweet Trick by ES Koyama)

Unsweetened Soya Milk            300g
Castor Sugar                             25g
Gelatine Sheet                           4g
Fresh Cream                             130g

Method :
1. Place sugar and soya milk in a saucepan and heat until sugar dissolves. Turn off heat. Add in softened gelatine sheet and stir until completely dissolved.
2. Run (1) through a fine sieve into a mixing bowl.
3. Cool down (2) over an ice bath and add in liquid fresh cream.
4. Fill half a glass/ jar with the soymilk pudding and refrigerate until set.

Strawberry Mousse
Strawberries              180g
Gelatine powder         8g
water                         50ml
Milk                          100ml
Castor sugar              30g
Lemon juice               1 tbsp
Fresh cream               100ml

Method :
1. Puree strawberries in a blender. Add lemon juice to Strawberry puree.
2. Mix gelatine powder with water until it turns transparent.
3. In a saucepan, heat milk and castor sugar until sugar dissolves. Turn off heat and add (2) and stir until dissolved.
4. Sieve (3) through a fine sieve and cool over an ice bath.
5. Add (1) to (4).
6. Whip fresh cream until soft peaks are formed. Fold the whipped cream into (5).
7. Scoop (6) into jars with set soymilk pudding. Refrigerate to set.

Marinated Strawberries
Strawberries         100g
Sugar                   100g
Water                   200g
Lemon juice          1 tbsp

1. Cut strawberries into slices or sections.
2. In a heavy saucepan, add water and sugar. Heat until sugar dissolves. Continue heating to reduce syrup until volume is halved.
3. Add lemon juice into (1). Add the hot syrup from (2) to the strawberries. Refrigerate and keep overnight.
4. Use marinated strawberries as garnish and scoop a little syrup over the set pudding.

Strawberry Cream Puff

Strawberry Clan.... a term that is used in Taiwan to refer to those precious youth born in the 80's into small single child families. This is a generation that is born into a relatively affluent society where the pressure on survival and living is not as prevalent as during the more tumultous times experienced by our parents or grandparents. This generation generally demonstrates lower threshold for hardship and setbacks.. they bruise easily at the slightest pressure and wilt quickly in adverse conditions... fragile creatures that don't last well.... just like Strawberries!

I now fully appreciate the analogy. I had gushed about the strawberries I ate in Korea last week.... pretty, garnet ingots that were bursting with sweet flavours. When I raved about the strawberries to L over messenger, he was skeptical. I can't quite blame him, for indeed most of the imported strawberries we get in Singapore/ Malaysia are mild in taste at best and unappealingly sour as they get worse.... The Wednesday morning I was to leave for the airport, I bought 2 punnets of the ruby red fruit, taking care to choose the less ripened ones so that they would last a little longer. The store assistant was quite adamant that they wouldn't be able to last till Saturday - I foolishly chose to ignore her believing that my super intelligent Panasonic fridge would be able to preserve the fruits well. True enough, when I took them out today, I can already spot wilting signs on the pock-marked berries.... a touch of yellow on the calyx, a small smudgy bruise at the tip....
Now I understand why the strawberries we import are usually tasteless... to ensure that they travel well, they must have been harvested before they have a chance to fully develop the sweetness in them...

As I wondered what to do with the strawberries, I had been reluctant to pulp or puree these gorgeous fruits. I had wanted to keep the fruits intact without processing them too much. 2 options came into mind : a strawberry cheesecake topped with fresh strawberries and/or a strawberry choux cream puff. I woke up this morning knowing that I no longer have the luxury to dither and opted for the very basic choux puff pastry and vanilla pattiserie cream. The whole puff was light and refreshing. I had deliberately chosen the butter free pattiserie cream from Bourke Street Bakery's Berry Tart. This was easy to prepare and the simple vanilla custard allowed the strawberries to take center stage.


As I looked at the cream puff photos, I realised there was something 'bare' about them... then it hit me... I should have dusted a little powder sugar over the puffs... well, nothing's perfect but I am contented.


Recipe :

Choux Puff Pastry
All Purpose Flour                 30g
Bread Flour                         30g
Unsalted Butter                    40g (cubed)
Water                                 100ml
Castor Sugar                       2g
Salt                                     1g
Eggs                                    2

Pastry Cream (Please refer here)

Method :
1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. In a heavy saucepan, place water, sugar, salt and butter. Heat until butter is melted and mixture just starts to boil.
3. Remove from heat and add flour. Using a spatula blend flour with butter liquid until a dough is formed and is well mixed.
4. Return dough in saucepan to heat. Continue heating and stirring dough to evaporate moisture.
5. Continue heating dough until dough becomes sticky and forms a thin membrane at the bottom of saucepan.
6. Remove from heat and bit by bit , add beaten eggs into warm dough and mix until well combined.
7. Using a piping bag fitted with a 1cm round piping tip, pipe 3 small rounds side by side on to a baking sheet.
8. Lightly brush the dough mounds with egg wash. (or mist lightly with water spray)
9. Bake at 200C for 30mins. Cool completely and split 'eclair puff ' horizontally.
10. Pipe in custard (pastry cream) and garnish with strawberries.