Not your typical Mooncake for the coming Mid Autumn Festival
Have you made anything so pretty before?
The Blue Lotus Flower is definitely not your typical Mooncake for the coming Mid Autumn Festival which falls on the 1st of October 2020. It is too beautiful not to share this recipe with you, courtesy of Chef Eric from Malaysia, whom we persistently pursued for over 2 years!!
Chef Eric
Chef Eric is a modern stay-at-home Dad who loves staying home, cooks healthy meals for his daughter and wife who works in a multinational company, and having a food business as a sideline.
He supplies rolled out vegan paste to a Buddhist Temple in Taiwan, has a food catering concern and indulges in his plants and tea.
So, thank you Eric for sharing this Blue Lotus Flower Lotus recipe. Our fans at My Blue Tea really appreciate it.
Lotus
The lotus is one of the most significant flowers in Chinese culture. It symbolizes the holy seat of Buddha. Because the flower rises from the mud and blooms in exquisite beauty it symbolizes perfection and purity of both the heart and mind. It also represents long life and honor.
In the various traditions of India, the Blue Lotus has many treasured and sacred meanings. In “Cosmic Chants” by Paramahansa Yogananda, it is spoken of in reference to his beautiful chant “Blue Lotus Feet”.
In Egypt, not a monument in the valley of the Nile, not a single papyrus scroll is without this plant in an honored place. On the capitals of the Egyptian pillars, on the thrones and even headdresses of the Divine Kings, the lotus appears everywhere.
Recipe for Blue Lotus Flower (Vegetarian)
My Blue Tea (IG: @my.blue.tea) brings you this beautiful Vegetarian Blue Lotus Flower recipe. Let's cook.
INGREDIENTS
Water Dough 1
95 grams – All-purpose flour
30 grams – Cooking oil
15 grams – Castor sugar
1 tspn. – @my.blue.tea Roselle Powder or in this recipe we use
50 grams – Carrot Juice
Water Dough 2
14 grams – All-Purpose flour
50 grams – Cooking oil
20 grams – Castor sugar
70 grams – Butterfly Pea extract water (around 30 flowers) or
½ tspn to 1 tspn – @my.blue.tea - Butterfly Pea Powder
(depending on your preferred 50 Shades of Blue)
Oil Dough
75 grams – Shortening
125 grams – All-Purpose flour
Filling
300 grams - Lotus Paste or Red Bean Paste
(divide into 20 portions)
METHOD to make Water Dough 1 and 2
Rub the oil with flour until crumble.
Dissolve sugar in water, add in the crumbled flour and knead until smooth
Rest the dough for 15 minutes, then divide into 20 pieces.
METHOD to make Oil Dough
Sift flour onto the table and blend in shortening, using your palm and rub in gradually to form a soft dough, divide oil dough into portions of 120g and 80g.
METHOD to make Blue Lotus
Divide the 120g portion of oil dough into 20 pieces. Wrap a piece of oil dough with blue water dough to form a ball. Roll into an oblong shape. Make a Swiss roll. Turn 90°, roll out and make a Swiss roll again. Slightly flatten the pastry.
Divide the 80g portion of oil dough into 20 pieces. Wrap a piece of oil dough with yellow water dough to form a ball. Roll into an oblong shape. Make a Swiss roll. Turn 90°, roll out and make a Swiss roll again. Slightly flatten the pastry.
Place a piece of yellow pastry on top of a blue piece. Roll out into a flat circular shape with the middle thicker than the sides.
Wrap up lotus or red bean paste fillings with pastry and shape slowly into a ball.
Use a sharp knife and cut a line across the top of the pastry. Then make another four slits.
Deep fry in a wok at 150°C to 180°C until the pastry opens up like petals of a lotus flower.
TIPS
The recommended colour to use in this pastry is blue, red and yellow.
Get blue colours from Butterfly Blue Pea Flowers
Get red colours from Roselle Flowers
How to enjoy your Blue Lotus Flower
The Blue Lotus flower pastry is best savoured with a cup of Blue Goddess Tea 蓝铁观音, Oolong Tea a semi-fermented tea, also known as Tie Guan Yin which contains ingredients that can resist the absorption for your daily fat intake and - "the best time in drinking tea for weight loss is half an hour to one hour after a meal, so that it can remove excess grease and help your body eliminate unwanted and hard-to-digest fats"
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