Taro Rice Flour Balls in Coconut Milk (Bua Loi Phueak)

Happy New Year! We're already five days into the new year, but I'm still going to say "Happy New Year" since this is my first post in 2010.

This little blog has been around for three years now, and this year I resolve to give it a little more attention than in years past. From now on, you may see posts without recipes (gasp! - I'm still getting used to this), posts that deal more with entertaining and hosting food parties, and more recipes that explore my Thai and Chinese heritage. This has always been a self-expression project of mine, so I'm excited for the new things to come for this blog.

While I spent the holidays in Houston with my family, I spent some quality time with my mom in the kitchen. She wanted to make a Thai dessert for us, so I jumped at the chance to help her. She gave direction to make taro balls out of mashed taro and glutinous rice flour, and I followed. The dessert we made is actually a mix of bua loi pheuak (taro rice flour balls in coconut cream) and pheuak kaeng buat (taro in coconut milk), but I will simplify and call it by the rice flour ball name. I plan on making this again on one of those cold, cold nights to come. And I'm sure we'll be having plenty of those this winter.


Taro Rice Flour Balls in Coconut Milk (Bua Loi Pheuak)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups taro, steamed and mashed
1/2 cup taro, chopped into 1/2 inch cubes
2 cups glutinous rice flour
4 cups coconut milk
1 cup palm sugar (regular sugar will substitute fine)
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:
1. Either by hand or using the dough hook on an electric stand mixer, knead the rice flour with the mashed taro to form a soft dough, for about 5 minutes.
2. Use your hands to form small balls out of the taro dough, making them approximately 1/2 inch in diameter.
3. In a saucepan, heat coconut milk on medium-high. Once the coconut milk boils, add in sugar and salt.
4. Turn down the heat and add taro pieces to coconut milk and boil for 5-7 minutes or until taro is cooked, stirring continuously.
5. Gently add in taro balls to coconut milk and stir occasionally. Once the balls float atop the coconut milk, they are done. Serve warm.

Taro Mochi

Last week's post featured the taro bread I made after reminiscing the food I grew up with in Houston. This week I took the same taro paste recipe and used it in this taro mochi. I've made mochi a time or two before, but I never successfully made a filled mochi until now.

There are so many different ways to eat mochi, I really can't pick a favorite way. I primarily make a simple sweet mochi to top my homemade frozen yogurt, but last year I started frying blocks of plain mochi, wrapping it in seaweed and dipping it in soy sauce for a delicious savory snack.

When making a filled mochi, you have to work fast to get it completely enclosed around the filling. A lot of pinching is involved to seal the ball, and I recommend being liberal with the potato starch to minimize the amount of mochi stuck to your hands.

You'll notice my mochi is purple, and that's because I added in some taro milk tea powder. I did so for an extra oomph of taro flavor, but also so that you can tell what kind of mochi it is by its color. That, and I do love the color purple.


Taro Mochi

Ingredients:
1 cup Mochiko sweet rice flour
1 Tb taro milk tea powder (as used in taro mousse)
1 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup taro paste (described in taro bread recipe)
potato starch, for dusting

Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, mix mochiko, taro powder, and sugar. Add in water and combine thoroughly.
2. Spread mochi mixture in 9 x 11 Pyrex or other microwaveable dish. Cover with plastic wrap.
4. Microwave on high for 4 minutes. Take off plastic wrap and let cool about 4 minutes. Mochi should still be warm yet cool enough to handle.
5. Cut mochi into 12 large squares (roughly 2"x2").
6. Taking one square at a time, spoon 1/2 teaspoon of taro paste in the middle of moch square. Pinch edges together to seal and mold mochi into a ball. Dust immediately with potato starch to prevent sticking.

Taro Bread

Tim and I had a great time in Houston last weekend - we spent quality time with my parents, ate a lot of great food, and met up with some of my oldest and dearest friends. And when I say old I mean longest relationships.

Well, it's been about a year since my last visit to Houston, and I've got a couple things to note. First, I love I-10! Last I saw it, it was still one big mess, but now it's 18 wide lanes of a smooth Texas highway. While driving there, I told Tim that I miss driving, but he corrected me, knowing that I really miss driving on nice freeways like I-10. Tim's right, that's exactly what I meant.

Second thing to note - Houston's Chinatown keeps exploding everytime I visit. Why, I remember when the only supermarkets were Diho and Dynasty, but now there are dozens of them! Dozens! And all the bubble tea shops, cafes, and bakeries multiply right along with the supermarkets. Growing up, I remember our family would frequent a particular bakery solely for their taro bread. Now, it wasn't bread flavored with taro, rather it was a loaf of soft white bread baked with a generous amount of sweet taro paste inside. The loaf was also topped with a light glaze with coconut flakes. I very clearly remember the bread, but all I remember about the bakery is that it's located in Diho square. (I might have to ask around for more details) Well that bread was the inspiration for this post. I took Julia Child's classic white bread recipe and turned it into a taro bread by filling the inside with taro paste.

Making bread is a way to teach me patience. I clearly don't have any as I didn't wait the entire 45 minutes for the bread to double in size before sticking it in the oven, thus my bread didn't come out as full as it should have. I decided to go ahead with the batch to see how it'd turn out, and thankfully it was still tasty, just lacking in the desired texture. I wouldn't change a thing about the taro paste, and now that I have a go-to taro paste recipe, I'm brainstorming what other taro goods I can come up with. I hope you're intrigued. I hope.

Taro Bread
recipe adapted from Baking with Julia

Ingredients:
1/4 cup warm water
1 cup warm milk
2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3-4 cups bread flour or all-purpose flour
1 cup Taro Paste (recipe below)

Directions:
1. Pour 1/4 cup of the water into a bowl and mix with yeast. Let sit for 5 minutes.
2. Combine the milk, sugar, and butter. Blend well with the yeast mixture.
3. Using a stand mixer with dough hook, beat in 2 cups of flour into the mixture. Mix slowly until blended then add the rest of the flour.
4. Increase speed and scrape down the sides til the dough comes together. Add salt and mix at medium speed for 10 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic.
5. Turn dough out on lightly floured surface and shape it into a ball then place in a large buttered or oiled bowl.
6. Turn dough so it is completely coated in the fat, then cover in plastic for 45 minutes to an hour, til it has doubled in size at room temperature.
7. Butter a loaf pan.
8. Deflate the dough, and turn out onto a lightly floured surface.
9. Roll out into a 9 x 12-inch rectangle. Spread taro paste around the middle of the rectangle.
10. With the short end facing you, fold the dough into thirds over the paste, creating a roll.
11. Pinch the seam closed, and pinch the ends enough so it will fit in the loaf pan. Place in the loaf pan seam side down.
12. Cover the loaves with buttered plastic wrap and allow to rise again in a warm place for 45 minutes, or until they double in size.
13. Preheat the oven to 375°F and put the rack in the center of the oven.
14. Bake for 35-45 minutes until they are honey brown.
15. Immediately turn out of pans onto a rack to cool.

Taro Paste

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups small taro pieces (peel and cut fresh taro)
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sugar (up to 1/2 cup, depending on desired sweetness)
1 tablespoon corn starch
2 tablespoons water

Directions:
1. Boil or steam the taro pieces until cooked. Taro is done when a fork easily pokes through.
2. In a food processor or blender, blend the cooked taro and 1/2 water until it becomes a puree.
3. Mix the corn starch with 2 tablespoons water to make a paste.
4. Combine paste into taro puree and pour into a saucepan.
5. Cook taro puree and paste over low-medium heat, stirring in the sugar. Keep adding sugar until taro paste reaches desired sweetness.
6. Constantly stir the paste, and reduce the heat when the paste becomes thicker. Stir over low heat an additional 10-15 minutes.
7. Remove paste from heat and let cool.

Taro Mousse

This is a first for me - participating in Hay Hay It's Donna Day! I do adore Donna Hay, and I also adore all the previous hosts of this event. I've been a long time reader of Helen's at tartelette, and when I saw she was hosting HHDD #11, I had to join in on the fun.

















My attempt at a mousse was this taro mousse. My love for all things tea inspired me to make a mousse that resembled one of my favorite drinks - taro bubble tea.

With previous taro recipes, I found working with fresh taro gave me a headache since the flavor wasn't the same as the taro bubble tea flavor I was expecting. This time, I decided to try it with what actually goes into making the taro bubble tea - taro bubble tea powder. (Similarly, almond bubble tea is made with... almond bubble tea powder!) I can't say for sure that all bubble tea shops make their drinks this way, but I have an inkling many do.

Taro Mousse

Ingredients:
3/4 cup milk
3 Tb taro bubble tea powder
1 Tb sugar
2 egg yolks
1/2 heavy cream
1 pack gelatin
1/4 cup water

Directions:
1. Dissolve gelatin in water by sprinkling gelatin over water, set aside.
2. Heat milk, bringing to a boil. Mix sugar and taro bubble tea powder into milk, remove from heat.
3. Whisk egg yolks, and slowly pour into the milk mixture. Stir gelatin mixture into milk and egg mixture.
4. Place bowl of milk mixture inside a larger bowl with ice. Stir until mixture thickens, remove from ice.
5. Beat heavy cream until it just holds stiff peaks. Gently fold in the tea mixture.
6. Spoon mousse into 4 glasses or ramekins, cover, then chill overnight.
7. When serving, bring to room temperature, and garnish with white chocolate shavings.