Lotus seed paste

Pâte de graines de lotus

What it is

Mooncakes are priced on two things: whether the filling is white lotus paste, made from peeled pale seed, or the ordinary yellow, and how many salted duck yolks are buried in it. The paste is fried down with sugar and oil for an hour or more until it pulls cleanly away from the pan, and that long reduction is the whole difference between it and a purée.

In the kitchen

Judge it in the pan, not by the clock: a spatula drawn through should leave a furrow whose edges hold for a second or two. Underfried paste weeps oil into the pastry and the mooncake never sets a skin, which no amount of baking will correct.

Goes with

Salted duck egg White sugar Sesame Osmanthus Black sesame Honey Glutinous rice flour

Same species

Lotus leaf Lotus root Lotus seed

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