Double Skin Milk

Ingredients

• 600ml whole milk, the richest you can find
• 4 egg whites (about 130g)
• 55g caster sugar
• Cooked red beans, to serve (optional)

Before you cook

• Separate the egg whites into a bowl, keeping every trace of yolk out.
• Whisk the whites just until loose, with no ropes of white left.
• Set out four wide heatproof bowls.

Steps

1. Pour the milk into a saucepan and heat it over medium heat for about 4 minutes, until it steams and the surface trembles.
2. Divide the hot milk between the four bowls.
3. Leave the bowls completely undisturbed for 12 minutes, until a wrinkled skin forms on each.
4. Hold the skin back at one edge with a chopstick and pour the milk out from underneath into a jug, leaving the skin clinging to the bowl.
5. Whisk the sugar into the warm milk until it dissolves.
6. Whisk in the loosened egg whites.
7. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve twice, to catch every thread of white.
8. Pour the mixture slowly back into each bowl, aiming down the side so the skin lifts and floats to the top.
9. Cover each bowl tightly with foil.
10. Steam over low, barely bubbling water for 13 minutes, until the custard is set but still shivers in the middle.
11. Lift the bowls out and rest them for 10 minutes.
12. Serve warm, or chill for two hours and top with red beans.