| Lotus seed paste | |
|---|---|
 Mooncake withsalted duck egg yolks and lotus seed paste filling. | |
| Simplified Chinese | 莲蓉 |
| Traditional Chinese | 蓮蓉 |
| Literal meaning | lotus velvet |
| IPA | [ljɛ̌n ɻʊ̌ŋ] |
| Yale Romanization | lìhn yùhng |
| Jyutping | lin4 jung4 |
| IPA | [lin˩ jʊŋ˩] |
Lotus seed paste is a Chinese dessert ingredient made from driedlotus seeds. It is traditionally considered a luxurious ingredient.
The process for making the paste is similar to that of smoothred bean paste. First, the dried seeds are stewed in water until soft prior to being mashed into a fine paste. The paste is then watered down to a thinslurry and passed through a sieve and intocheesecloth, with which it is squeezed dry. This produces a fine crumbly paste, which is then mixed with sugar or other sweeteners and, often, oil to produce a smooth, sweet paste.[citation needed]
The lotus paste used by most Chinese cooks requires further preparation by drycooking the sweetened paste over heat withcaramelized sugar and vegetable oil. This produces a lotus paste that is tan in colour with a satiny sheen. It is also rich, sweet, silky with a slight fragrance of caramel. Some cooks choose to treat the dried lotus seeds with alye solution before initially stewing them in order to shorten their cooking time.[1]
Lotus paste is used in Chinese cuisine as a filling formooncake,baozi, and other sweet pastries. Another common use of lotus paste is as a filling forlotus seed buns, adim sum item.[citation needed]
Due to the high price of lotus seeds, commercially prepared lotus pastes may also containwhite kidney bean paste as its filler. There are several variations, some of which are darker, close to black in color. These usually have a deeper taste.[citation needed]