Decorative Dessert: Souffle Cheese Cake

The cake is made by the bakery of the Osaka New Hankyu Hotel in Japan. It is sold for 1,000 Yen (about US$ 9.70).

Dessert with Mango and Coconut Milk

Ingredients

2 cups whole milk
1 14-oz can coconut milk
1/2 cup raw medium-grain white rice
pinch salt
2 large egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp coconut extract
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 ripe mango, peeled, pitted and thinly sliced
toasted shredded coconut, for garnish

Method

1. Put the milk, coconut milk, rice and salt into a large, heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer gently, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes. Uncover and continue simmering, stirring frequently, until the rice is tender and the pudding is reduced to about 3½ cups, about 8 minutes.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar, and coconut and vanilla extracts. Slowly add the cooked rice mixture, whisking constantly.
3. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan, making sure to scrape the bowl. Set the pan over medium-low heat and cook, stirring and scraping the sides and bottom of the pan constantly with a wooden spoon, until the mixture has thickened and coats the back of the spoon, about 1 minute.
4. Remove the pan from the heat. Transfer the pudding to a bowl or serving dish and lay a sheet of plastic wrap right on the pudding’s surface to prevent a skin from forming. Serve warm, at room temperature, or chilled, garnished with the sliced mango and toasted coconut.

Note: It’s important to let the pudding simmer gently, not boil, and to stir constantly toward the end of cooking to prevent scorching.

Makes 4 servings.

Source: Fine Cooking

Smart Tags Change Color When Food Goes Bad

You might not have to smell sour milk for much longer.

Chinese scientists have developed “smart tags” that stick to containers and change color when a food has gone bad. The gel-like tabs — which are about the size of a corn kernel — are safe and inexpensive, according to the creators, and could be stuck to cans and bottles to spot spoilage, even before the package is opened.

The scientists successfully tested the tags on milk, by exposing it to different temperatures and bacteria until it spoiled. They say tags can be customized to work on canned goods and even medication bottles.

“We successfully synchronized, at multiple temperatures, the chemical evolution process in the smart tag with microbial growth processes in the milk,” lead researcher Dr. Chao Zhang, a scientist at Peking University in Beijjing, said in a statement.

If a product was left out too long or stored improperly — even if customers, grocery-store owners and manufacturers can’t tell the difference without opening it and smelling it –“the tag still gives a reliable indication of the quality of the product,” said Zhang.

How does it all work?

The tags are made of tiny compounds called nanorods that are made out of gold and silver, but only cost one-fifth of a penny each. The also contain vitamin C, acetic and lactic acids, and agar which react with nanorods to change their color. The tags the scientists designed appear red or reddish orange when 100-percent fresh, but over time, they change to orange, yellow and green, which means the food is 100-percent spoiled.

The gold nanorods are naturally red, and over time, the other compounds like silver gradually deposit onto the gold nanords, forming a silver shell layer that alters the shape and composition of the nanorods, a process that ultimately changes their color. This process is programmed to mimic the deterioration of foods based on expiration date, but also spoilage caused by temperature changes.

“Therefore, as the silver layer thickens over time, the tag color evolves from the initial red to orange, yellow, and green and even blue and violet,” he explained.

Researchers took these tags and tested them using E. coli in milk, which created their reference model design.

If a carton of milk was expected to last for 14 days, for example, and the tag goes from red to orange, that would suggest there’s only about 7 days left that the product is edible, he said.

The tags were unveiled at the recent American Chemical Society’s National Meeting in Dallas, and preliminary research on their use was published in the society’s journal ACS Nano.

Source: CBS News

Watch video at You Tube (1:03 minutes) ….

Cute Snack: Egg Pudding in Egg Shell

The pudding is made by the French pastry shop Quatre in Tokyo, Japan.

The puddings are packed in egg cartoon. In the picture above, there are one plain pudding, one strawberry pudding, one pumpkin pudding and one chocolate pudding. The price of the box of four mixed pudding is 894 Yen (about US$ 8.70).

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