Ginger Milk Pudding!

I've always thought Ginger Milk Pudding (Ginger Milk Curd or 薑汁撞奶) was a well known Chinese dessert... well it is somewhat but I didn't realize it originated in Guangzhou, China where my family lives and that I just so happened to be lucky enough to have had it growing up where people from all over the country come to experience! I guess when my aunt said the place we went to was famous... she wasn't kidding! 

So what is Ginger Milk Pudding (or milk curd) , besides being one of the best and healthiest desserts you can ever come across? Its 3 ingredients and is simple and clean as you can get: milk, ginger juice, and sugar (optional). You can say its magic because somehow when adding warm milk to fresh ginger juice you suddenly have pudding. OR you can say its food science at it's best (because I am a nerd at heart).

What makes this work:

• Ginger juice contains an enzyme called protease which works to denature certain milk proteins making the milk water soluble (liquid) to water insoluble resulting in its solid form.
• young gingers aren't ideal because it does not contain as much as enzymes and therefore will not have the successful effects mentioned above.
• temperature: if the milk is too hot (above 70F) then you run into the risk of denaturing the protease from the ginger rendering it ineffective 
• fresh ginger juice because the enzyme is unstable when extracted and therefore will not work if you try to make the juice ahead of time.
• milk fat content also play a part, helping it to form its pudding-like state, its suggested that whole milk be used but I have not read why that is so... 

You can read even more in depth science HERE and HERE. 
In some of my readings, some people found it difficult to make but I don't think you should put too much thought into it. Follow the instructions and you shouldn't go wrong, most important factors: old ginger AND fresh squeeze ginger juice. The ORIGINAL way of making this dish is the use of yellow buffalo milk instead of cow milk but unforunately that is not something easily obtained in the states. Nonetheless, its still very tasty and a perfect dessert for a wintry day. 

Ginger Milk Pudding
from Kitchen Tigress
Ingredients:
makes 2 servings

• 360ml of whole milk
• 40 ml of fresh ginger juice
• 4 tbsp of sugar (more or less for your sweetness preference)

Procedures:

1. Peel the ginger, chop it into small pieces, put into a food processor/blender and pulse a few times to make it slightly more fine
2. Transfer into cheese cloth/ricer/ fine strainer to juice the ginger. Collect the juice and split into 2 bowl (about 20 ml/bowl)
3. Over low/medium heat, heat milk to about 60F or until just steaming and remove from heat and stir it for about 15-30 seconds making sure its not too hot.
4. Give the ginger juice a stir and then pour warm milk into the bowl right about the ginger juice (so it's nice and mixed as you pour into it). Repeat with second bowl. Let the milk/ginger mixture sit for about 5 minutes until the milk solidifies
5. Enjoy warm or cooled.