More About Moms And Mooncakes

Wikipedia photo

Celebrating the Mooncake Festival recently, I was reminded when I was little - maybe around 5, 6 or 7 years old - that my mother used to make mooncakes.

I remember sitting on our rectangular wooden table (because sitting on the lower chair just wouldn't do for me and I couldn't really see what she was doing) and watching her make these mooncakes. I don't remember much about the recipes (as we all know how I am with cooking) but then this post wouldn't be offering any mooncake recipes anytime soon.

I remember there was some kind of yolk inside it. I think it was salted egg yolks, strained. Then it would be covered with black bean paste. I am not sure what other steps were involved except that there were unshelled watermelon pips stuck on the black bean paste all round before the whole thing is covered by dough. The dough couldn't be thin as it needed to stretch while it was being pressed into the metal stamp with the mooncake logo at the bottom. I really enjoyed playing with this carved stamp as it looked like some sort of misshaped hammer with a big dipper in the middle.

The stamp looked like these but ours was metallic silver
 and looked like a kitchen utensil

So when I see mooncakes at my local Chinese shops during festival time, I am reminded of this time with my mom when she made her special mooncakes while I was happily sitting on the table, eating away some of her melon pips and filling the metal mooncake stamp. A blast from the past!

Again, happy mid-autumn festival to everyone!