Sweet Soups · FFET10303
Zhi ma hu (black sesame soup)
Ground black sesame cooked with rice flour and sugar; served hot as a sweet soup, it thickens as it cools.
A deep white porcelain bowl holds thick black sesame soup with a dark gray surface, topped with creamy white coconut milk that rests on the dense sesame soup, with a pair of wooden chopsticks resting beside the bowl.
Sweet soups served as dessert, such as mung bean soup.
Zhi ma hu is a hot sweet soup of ground black sesame cooked with water, rice and sugar, eaten especially in winter. The sweet-soup form in Guangdong is thicker, like a pudding. There are 2 recipe variations: one blends toasted black sesame into a liquid and cooks it with rice flour and coconut milk; the other stirs black sesame paste into water, adds sugar and thickens it with a glutinous rice flour slurry. No dated record was found.
What
Zhi ma hu is a hot sweet soup: black sesame is ground to a powder and stirred with hot water, and rice or other grains are sometimes added. The core ingredients are black sesame, rice, sugar and water.1,2
Where
Zhi ma hu is a traditional food widely eaten in China; the available information does not identify its place of origin. The sweet-soup form in Guangdong is thicker, like a pudding.1,2
How
One method toasts black sesame, blends it into a liquid, adds rice flour and water, stirs it over heat until it thickens, and then adds sugar and coconut milk. Another stirs black sesame paste into water, adds sugar and thickens it with a glutinous rice flour slurry. A 3rd blends toasted black sesame, cooked black rice and walnuts with boiling water in a blender. Grinding on a stone mill is the traditional method.3,4,5
Why
Zhi ma hu is eaten especially in winter. The available information gives no further explanation of why it is made this way.1
Impact and influence
The same sweet soup has 3 preparations: toasted sesame blended into a liquid, ready-made sesame paste dissolved in water, or sesame, black rice and walnuts blended together in a blender.3,4,5
No tale about this food has been found.
Grandma Li
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
This is the black sesame soup I make at home, with the amounts following a signed recipe: the sesame is toasted, blended into a liquid, cooked with rice flour and water until it thickens, and finished with sugar and coconut milk. This version contains coconut milk, and coconut is not on the allergen list below, so take care if you avoid coconut. The conversion of cups to milliliters is my estimate. A second signed recipe uses ready-made black sesame paste: 150 g of paste stirred into 375 ml of water with 70 g of sugar and thickened with a glutinous rice flour slurry. I did not follow it and mention it just in the tips. How far I toast the sesame and how thick I cook the soup are my own choices.
Ingredients
- Black sesame seeds 1 cup, plus 2 cups of water for rinsing
- Water 5 cups in all, about 1,200 ml (added in stages)
- Rice flour 1/2 cup
- Sugar 1 cup, less if you prefer
- Coconut milk 1 1/2 cups, about 360 ml
Steps
- Rinse the sesame seeds in 2 cups of water and drain them well.
- Dry-toast the seeds in a pan over low heat until fragrant, without letting them burn. I take them off the heat as soon as I smell the aroma; that is my own judgment.
- Put the sesame in a blender with 1 cup of water and blend for 12 to 15 seconds, add another cup of water and blend for 30 to 60 seconds, then keep blending until smooth.
- Add 1/2 cup of rice flour and 1 cup of water and blend until very smooth.
- Pour it into a pot and stir over low heat until it thickens, then add 2 cups of water.
- Add the sugar and coconut milk and stir until it bubbles again.
- Serve it hot, or chill it and serve it cold; it thickens as it cools.
Tips
- That recipe says the soup thickens as it cools. If it gets too thick for me, I stir in a little hot water; that is my own way.
- If you have black sesame paste on hand, the other recipe is much quicker: no toasting or blending, just dissolving, sweetening and thickening, in two steps.
Allergens: sesame