How to make mooncakes – ahead of Mid-Autumn Festival, a lesson from Hong Kong dim sum chef Tse Sun-fuk
- Dim sum chef Tse Sun-fuk at the Cordis Hong Kong hotel gives the Post a lesson in making traditional mooncakes with lotus seed paste and double egg yolk filling
- There’s a knack to adding the two egg yolks to each ball of lotus seed paste; after encasing the balls in pastry, the trickiest bit is moulding them into shape
With the coronavirus pandemic under control in Hong Kong, families will be able to gather and celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival this year – and enjoy eating mooncakes.
Usually square, traditional mooncakes are dense – filled with sweet lotus seed paste and whole salted egg yolks. They are sliced up for sharing while admiring the moon at its fullest on the evening of the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The Post got a lesson in making traditional mooncakes from Tse Sun-fuk, a dim sum chef at the Cordis Hong Kong hotel in Mong Kok who has 30 years’ experience.
Asked if he likes making traditional mooncakes, Tse gives a typically pragmatic Hong Kong answer. “I prefer making egg custard mooncakes because you just need to bake them once and they’re done. With traditional mooncakes you need to bake them twice,” he explains.
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How to make traditional mooncakes with five-star hotel dim sum master chef Tse Sun-fuk
Nevertheless he was game to demonstrate how to make the hotel’s signature white lotus paste mooncakes with double salted egg yolks.