Matcha green tea Custard
I love this custard. It’s light, healthy and still very tasty. This is a popular dessert in my
cooking class, especially among Asian people—they just love this. I put extra passion into
this recipe to make it perfect.
You will need to put soymilk and sugar into two different mixtures to bind the mixture more effectively.
RECIPE
Ingredients
Matcha green tea mixture
- 1 tablespoon matcha green tea powder
- 2 tablespoons unrefined sugar
- 2 tablespoons warm water
Mixture
- 700ml (24fl oz) soy milk
- 2 tablespoons unrefined sugar
- teaspoon agar-agar concentrated powder
- 2 egg yolks
Black syrup
- 60g (2oz) real brown sugar
- 50ml (1.fl oz) water
Method
1. To make the matcha green tea mixture, place matcha green tea and sugar in a small bowl and mix well. Add the warm water slowly to mix. Set aside.
2. Heat half of the soymilk, all of the sugar and all the agar in a saucepan over a high heat, and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for at least 2 minutes. If you do not simmer agar in a boiling liquid for 2 minutes, it won’t set. Make sure you stir and scrape the side of saucepan with a spatula so as not to leave agar on the side (see the tip).
3. Place the egg yolks and the rest of the soymilk in a bowl and mix well. Add it to the mixture in a saucepan and mix. Then add the green tea mixture. Strain the mixture through a fine strainer.
4. Pour mixture into 4 small ramekins. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until set.
5. To make black syrup, heat the brown sugar and water in a small saucepan over a medium-high heat and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 2 minutes. Consistency is supposed to be still runny. It will become a syrup-like consistency when it cools down.
6.Serve the custard with black syrup.
Tip: This recipe uses a minimum amount of agar agar because I like this custard to be ‘just set’, meaning not fully solid. Make sure you keep scraping the side of the pot and keep stirring. If you don’t do that, most of the agar agar is left on the side of the pot. Or you can simply add a little extra agar. There are a few types of agar agar—powder, flakes and bar. Their strength varies. If you use agar flakes or stick, put in four times more than the concentrated agar-agar powder (2 teaspoons).If you use Japanese agar-agar powder, put two times more (1 teaspoon).
Vegan option: Simply omit the egg. Trust me, it is still nice. Also, omit the egg and use 100ml (3.fl oz) condensed soy milk and 600ml (21fl oz) soymilk instead of using 700ml (24.fl oz) soy milk. You can also omit 1 tablespoon of sugar when you boil the soy milk.
Both these ways are actually easier because you don’t need to cook the soymilk separately. Simply cook all the soymilk (and soy condensed milk) and agar together and add the green tea mixture.
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