Mini Tarts

With Mrs.Yong, I had a good opportunity to learn how to make tart pastry. Not only i find it so much easier than making cakes, with the ready pastry, kept ready for use, we can put all sorts of fillings into it (i am referring to the sweet pastry tarts).

Pastry Ingredients (for about 70 mini pieces)
6oz unsalted butter (president or SCS), 3oz sieved icing, 1 egg, 11oz rose flour, 1/2tsp vanilla essence

Pastry Making
1. Sieve icing sugar into soften butter. Mix and add in egg and vanilla essence.
2. Add flour and hand rub to mix.
3. Keep in fridge for at least one hour.
4. Bake in pre-heated oven at 180C for 30mins.

Cheese Cream Fillings (for about 40 mini tarts)
250g cream cheese Philadephia, 60g castor sugar, 2oz butter, 1 egg

Cheese Tart
Add all ingredients into mixing bowl and mix using a mixer till smooth. Scoop cream into baked mould and continue to bake for 180C.

Egg filling
250ml water (boil n cool), 125 castor sugar, 5 beaten eggs and 100g evaporated milk, 1/2t custard.

Egg Tart
Mix water and sugar. When cool add in beaten egg with milk, custard. Sieve mixure 3x.

Cotton Cheese Cake

Ingredients A: 140g castor sugar, 6 egg whites, 1/2t cream of tartar

Ingredients B: 50g butter, 250g cream cheese, 6 egg yolks, 100ml fresh milk, 1T lemon juice
Ingredients C: 60g superfine flour, 20g corn flour

Method
1. Melt butter, cream cheese & milk over a double boiler.
2. Cool down, add in egg yolks & lemon juice.
3. Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until slightly stiff. Divide (1) and flours 3x (alternately), mix in, stir well till combine (must be fast so air will not lost).
4. Pour batter into a greased & floured 9″mould.
5. Steam-bake (use a tray of water outside your cake tray) at 160C for 1hr and 10mins.

*Haha….obviously having blessed with so much good food is one of the blessing for knowing so many good cook Buddhist Society in Sg.Long!

Crunchy Apple Pie

By the layers of the pie, u can see it is, IT TASTE FANTASTIC !!!!

Ingredients
4 red Fuji or Granny Smith apples (cut into thin slice), 1t lemon juice, 2T raisins, cinamon powder, 80g butter, 1/3 cup cornstarch

Method
1. Melt butter in pan, add in apple (sprinkled with lemon juice) and cook till soft.
2. Add in 1T sugar, raisins and a dash of cinamon powder.
3. Once about to ready, add in cornstarch (to make apple sticky)
4. Wrap with puff pastry (u can handmade or buy readily from bakery suppliers/Pampas puff pastry from supermarket).
5. Bake in pre heated oven at 180C for about 40mins (depends on oven type).

Tips: Instead of pan, use a rack to bake to allow air flow from bottom. Do prick pastry surface before baking.

Steam Mee Sua Kuih

This is a very unique recipe as i have never came across such steam mee sua in any cookbooks or recipe. Contributed by Alicia.

Ingredients
240g mee sua (about 8 stalks, rinsed), 700ml water,250g pumpkin (thinly sliced), 6 black mushroom, 3 clove garlic, 5 clove shallots, and Optional (RM2 shredded pork and 75g dried prawns).

Garnishing - fried shallots, cut chillies and onions
Seasoning - 2T soy sauce, 1T water, 1/2t salt, 1/2t pepper and 1/2 sugar.

Method
1. Fry onion, garlic, then mushroom till fragant. Add pumpkin and fry.
2. Add water and seasoning.
3. Once water boiled, add mee sua and kei chi (for vegetarian, this can replace meat).
4. Fry till dry, pour onto steam plate and steam for 30mins.

Tips: Dish is ready once mee sua looks transparent, with a bouncy surface (test with your finger)

Cherry tomatoes

Most kids do not enjoy eating sour fruits but Qiqi loves them. She can take kiwi fruit, orange (but I don’t like to give it too often), and little cherry tomatoes. Most of the time, I’ll try to find the little organic tomatoes, which is pretty expensive. Every Tuesday, when there is a nite market in my neighbourhood, will surely add this to my marketing list. Some other healthy snacks she has been taking are seaweeds and raisins. Must brainstorm what else are the available healthy snacks to feed my skinny gal.

Bread filled with Curry puff paste

My niece brought back some very delicious homemade curry puff filling. Instead of making it into a puff, we eat it with the Gardenia bread instead since I do not know how to make the puff wrap. The salty taste from the Gardenia bread is really a good combination to the sweet and spicy paste. *yummy yummy*…do try this out