Moon cakes

Today is the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. It also happens to be the one night in weeks where we can't see the moon because of cloud cover. But we still celebrated, as we celebrate the lunar holidays... with food. 

The traditional treat for the moon festival is moon cakes. For years I have run to the Asian market to buy them, often at the last minute. For Y., though, one of the things that makes them a holiday is making the special food, so a while back I purchased a set of moon cakes pressed. Today Y. spent the day in the kitchen making them. 

Well, actually, she started yesterday because the salted egg yolks which go inside needed to sit in their salt overnight. Then this morning Y. rinsed the salt off the egg yolks as her first task. It seems wrong to wash an egg yolk under water, but it works.


Y. made two kinds, pineapple and red bean paste. The last time I was at the Asian market I thought I was being so prepared by bringing red bean paste home ahead of schedule. No last minute running to the Asian market this year. 

I thought.

As I was about to pull out of the parking lot at Aldi, Y. calls me to say what I bought wasn't red bean paste. It was savory soy bean paste and not at all the same thing. My tradition of needing last minute holiday supplies continues. 

I looked all over H-Mart. I probably circled the store five times. I asked and was sent to the bean paste section where I found many items of what I had already accidentally bought. Doing some quick googling I found  instructions for making sweet red bean paste from adzuki beans which I did find. 

While this meant Y. could make the red bean paste moon cakes, it was a bit more time in the kitchen. 

Red bean paste

The results were worth it because the moon cakes were delicious. My personal favorite is the pineapple. 



Now I just need to figure out what we can do with the rather large container of soy bean paste. 


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