Healthy, Smooth & Pure Lotus Seed Paste 健康幼滑純正白蓮蓉餡

Lotus seed paste is a popular Chinese dessert ingredient. Made from dried lotus seeds, it’s used as a filling for mooncakes, buns, sesame seed balls and other sweet pastries. One of the most popular dim sum dishes served at Chinese restaurants is the lotus seed paste bun.

蓮蓉是一種流行的中國甜點餡料。由乾蓮子製成，普遍用作月餅、包子、煎堆或其他美食點心的餡料。中餐館最受歡迎的飽點之一便是蓮蓉包。

Traditionally considered a luxurious ingredient, white lotus seeds are expensive and so commercially-prepared lotus pastes often contain white bean paste as a filler, and also incorporate lots of sugar, oil and even lard in their mixtures. 

Making the paste at home means you can create a pure paste, using only lotus seed and much less oil and sugar for a healthier and more refined outcome. If you follow my simple method, you’ll be able to create a completely natural, delicious, silky smooth and pure Lotus Seed Paste.

白蓮子傳統上被認為是一種奢侈的食材，價格頗為昂貴，因此商業製造的蓮蓉有些會含有白豆沙作為填充物，並且在其混合物中加入大量的糖、油甚至豬油。

在家自己動手做可以保證只需用很少的油和糖便能炒到最純正的白蓮蓉餡料。如果你按照我簡單的方法，很容易便能做出天然、美味、幼滑和純淨的蓮蓉。

( for the Chinese recipe please scroll down

中文食譜翻譯在下方)

Healthy, Smooth & Pure Lotus Seed Paste

Ingredients:
(makes about 480g lotus seed paste)

150g dried lotus seed

500ml water 

80g sugar

½ tsp salt

2 tbsp glutinous rice flour

2 tbsp water

3 tbsp oil

Method:

1 Wash the lotus seeds and then place in warm water (around 50C) for 30 minutes or so to soak and soften. Open the seeds and remove the green centre part - the germ, as it’s very bitter. Rinse the lotus seeds again, drain off then put them into the Instant Pot and add 500ml water. Cover and press the setting for ‘Bean’. Let it cook and naturally release the pressure. 

2  If you don’t have an Instant pot or a pressure cooker, after soaking the seeds in warm water for 30 minutes, and removing the green centre part from the seeds and rinsing, you can then soak the lotus seeds in clean water for 2 hours. Wash and drain again, add in 600ml fresh water, bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for a further 1 - 2 hours, until the lotus seeds are softened, and they become mushy when you press one with a fork or between your fingers.

3  Once the lotus seeds are cooked, and left to cool for about an hour to let the liquid absorbed, use a hand held blender to blitz them in their cooking liquid until it becomes a fine purée. Pass the purée through a fine sieve to achieve an ultra-smooth and shop-bought like paste. It takes a bit of time and patience, but is totally worth it, so please don’t skip this step.

4  Mix up the 2 tbsp glutinous rice flour with the 2 tbsp water, leave to one side. Heat up a good quality non stick pan, pour the lotus paste in, stir with a spatula over medium heat for 5 minutes to cook off some of the water. Then add the oil in, keep stirring and turning to cook for 5 minutes. Next add the sugar and salt, continue to fry the paste the same way for another 5 minutes before adding in the glutinous rice flour and water mixture.

5  Keep stirring and turning the paste over medium heat for a further 30 minutes. As the mixture starts to thicken, fold the paste from the outer-edges towards the centre. Keep repeating until the mixture holds its shape as you do so and you can form a firm block. The whole paste-cooking procedure takes a total of 45 minutes from beginning to end. This seems like a long process, but the end result makes the hard work worth while, so again, if you would like to produce a completely fine and smooth lotus seed paste, this is the most important part, so please don’t skip it.

6  Shape the paste into a block and leave to cool. Then wrap the lotus seed paste in cling film and put in the fridge to chill for an hour before you proceed with using it as a filling for making cakes, buns and pastries etc.

Tips : 

1  My recipe creates a small batch of the paste, is you need more, you can simply double the amount of the ingredients, and increase the cooking time by about 15-20 minutes.

2  If you have made a double batch portion of lotus seed paste, and not intend to use them all at once, you can divide the paste and put into two separate containers, cover and store one in the freezer for future use. It can be kept in the freezer for up to three months.

健康幼滑純正白蓮蓉餡

材料 :

( 可做 480g 左右的餡料)

乾蓮子 150g

水 500ml

油 3 大匙

糖 80g

糯米粉 2 大匙

水 2 大匙

鹽 ½ 小匙

做法 :

1  將蓮子洗淨，放入溫水（50℃左右）中浸泡 30 分鐘左右軟化。打開中間並除去綠色的中心部分 - 胚芽，因為它很苦。將蓮子再次沖洗乾淨，瀝乾水分後放入壓力鍋中，加入 500ml 水。蓋上並按 “Bean”設定。讓它煮好後，自然放壓。

2  如果沒有壓力鍋，可以將蓮子去除中間綠色部分並沖洗後，用熱水浸泡蓮子 2 小時。再次洗淨瀝乾，加入清水 600 ml，煮沸，轉小火，再煮 1 - 2 小時，至蓮子變軟，用手指捏時可成糊狀便可。

3  蓮子煮熟後，用手持式攪拌棒就在鍋中和煲好的湯汁中一起攪拌，直到變成細膩的蓮蓉。將蓮蓉過細篩，以獲得非常光滑且像買回來的一樣。這需要一些時間和耐心，但完全值得，所以請不要跳過這一步。

4  用 2 大匙糯米粉與 2 大匙水混合，放在一旁備用。燒熱一個好質素的不沾鍋，倒入蓮蓉，用鍋鏟中火攪拌 5 分鐘，煮去部分水份。然後加入油，繼續攪拌並翻轉煮 5 分鐘。加入糖，用同樣的方法再炒 5 分鐘，然後加入糯米粉和水的混合物。

5  繼續翻拌並以中火將蓮蓉糊再攪拌 30 分鐘。當蓮蓉開始變稠時，從外緣向中心折疊。不斷重覆，直至形成塊狀。整個翻炒過程總共需要 45 分鐘。這看來是一個頗長的過程，但最終的成果讓辛苦都覺有價值，所以再次強調，如果你做出細膩光滑的蓮蓉，這是最重要的部分，所以請不要省略。

6  待涼後，將蓮蓉用保鮮膜包好，放入冰箱冷藏一小時之後，便可以隨意用作任何你喜歡的甜點美食的餡料了。