Q I am learning to bake lactose-free cake and pastries because I am lactose intolerant. I have replaced butter with lactose-free margarine and milk with soya milk powder in water. What can I use instead of cheese for baked pasta? What can I use to replace coconut milk?
Kwan Kim Lim
A Because of the dangers of trans fats, I wouldn't recommend relying on margarine or any hydrogenated fat as a butter substitute.
Instead, look for cake, bread and pastry recipes made with oil; for instance, American carrot cake typically uses oil instead of butter.
As a bonus, cakes made with oil are typically easier to mix up and have a softer texture after baking.
Search vegan recipe archives online and you are bound to find some good ones.
Lactose-free vegan cheese substitutes are typically made from grains or legumes, and often some kind of yeast extract, which mimics the fermented flavour of cheese; look for these in health-food stores or gourmet supermarkets, but don't expect them to be faithful replications of cheese.
I find that adding a small amount of brown or yellow miso to white or cream sauces - in baked pastas, for instance - can lend them a cheeselike flavour.
Similarly (or it could be just me), the aroma of natto, Japanese fermented soybeans, hints at strong cheeses, such as ripe camembert.
Coconut milk is not a dairy product and thus is lactose-free and fine for you to use.
Milk substitutes made from grains, such as rice milk, or the oat milk pictured here, duplicate the creaminess of cow's milk but not its taste. They are often sweeter or have a discernible cereal flavour.
Q Could you tell me what is demi-glace? Is it available off the shelves? If not, do you have the recipe for it?
Lim Lay Lay
A Demi-glace (literally 'half-glaze' in French) is a foundational element in classical French cuisine, used as a base to make many different sauces in the brown sauce family, such as sauce chasseur, sauce Robert and such. In a home kitchen, it can be used as is or added to stews, gravies and sauces for depth and punch.
Demi-glace is composed of a rich meat stock (usually veal, though there are variations with beef or pork stocks also) blended with an equal quantity of sauce espagnole. The latter is itself a French 'mother' sauce made of meat stock, a roux of butter and flour, pureed tomato and aromatics, simmered and reduced until thick and glossy.
A recipe needs about 20 times the amount of space I have here, so I can do no better than to recommend the book The Saucier's Apprentice by Raymond Sokolov, for a clear explanation of the many steps required - proper demi-glace takes at least an entire day to make. Blame Escoffier. The good news is that once made, it can be frozen.
Japanese supermarkets such as Meidi-Ya and Isetan sell canned or powdered demi-glace, though be aware that these usually contain MSG. Gourmet and organic stores occasionally have MSG-free versions.
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Get over curdle hurdle
Q I was experimenting with baking a basic yellow cake and it called for whisked egg whites to be folded into the beaten egg yolks, butter, sugar, etc. I noticed that before I could fold in the egg whites, the egg yolk mixture looked like it had curdled. What went wrong and how will this affect the result of the cake?
Fitriya Kustari Dewi Hartono
A The mix of butter, sugar and eggs that is the first stage of a creaming-method cake batter is basically an emulsion of water and fat (plus some carbohydrate and protein). The emulsion can curdle or break, becoming a yucky-looking clotted mass because of two main things: adding the eggs too quickly and letting it get too warm. Our tropical room temperature means that if you add eggs one at a time to creamed butter, curdling is practically inevitable.
Here's what I do. First, ensure your butter is fridge-cold and everything else - even bowl and beaters, if possible - is at cool room temperature.
Beat the eggs or egg yolks and salt together in a measuring jug until smooth and set aside.
Next, beat butter and sugar together until smooth and pale. While beating constantly, trickle in the beaten eggs very, very slowly - it should take at least two full minutes to add them all. Scrape down the sides as necessary.
If at any time the mixture looks oily or soft, cover it with plastic wrap, chill it until it firms up slightly, then continue to add the egg.
Finish by gently mixing in the remaining ingredients, such as flour, liquid or egg whites, as the recipe directs.
If my batter ever curdles, I just keep on beating it at high speed for several seconds, then fold in the flour and carry on. Even a curdled batter should come together once the flour is added. That said, curdling results in some trapped air being lost, so the resulting batter may bake up with less volume.
