Lazy Egg Tarts

 

When I saw this egg tarts made using puff pastry at Nasi Lemak Lover's blog, I immediately bookmarked it.  Simply because I am lazy and simple or short-cut recipes attract me.  Just so that I had a piece of frozen puff pastry waiting to be used and my girls and I loved loved egg tarts (in any crust), so this recipe came in the right moment.  Each of us had three pieces after it came out of the oven and it was pretty good for a short-cut recipe.  However, I would prefer to use the pie crust for this instead of puff pastry the next time as it couldn't hold lots of filling as I was having difficulty in stretching the thawed puff pastry to fill the muffin hole.  

I would use the custard filling recipe again and make my own crust the next time I feel like eating egg tarts.  Definitely not a bad way to get a quick fix.  However, I would recommend the refrigerated pie crust instead of frozen puff pastry if you don't want to make your own crust and want a quick craving fix..

I saw the recipe at Nasi Lemak Lover and she adapted it from Forbidden Garden.

Ingredients:

Egg custard filling:

240g hot water
100g coarse sugar ( I used 90g granulated sugar)
3 eggs
¼ tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp white vinegar (I used rice wine vinegar)

12pcs frozen square puff pastry, thawed (I used 1 piece of puff pastry, cut into 12 pieces) 


 












Method:

1. Dissolve sugar in hot water, set aside to cool.

2. Break eggs in a mixing bowl, lightly stir.

3. Add in syrup (no 1), vanilla extract and vinegar, lightly stir well to combine.

4. Sift twice, set aside.

5. Divide the puff pastry into 12 pieces and arrange it in a 12 holes muffin pan.

6. Pour egg custard filling in the puff pastry case, about 90% full.  I have some leftover filling which I just pour into a ramekin and bake together with the egg puff pastry.

7. Bake at pre-heated oven at 350'F for 35mins or till golden brown.

8. Remove from oven and leave to cool.

Chinese Pumpkin Sesame Cakes

I saw this Pumpkin Sesame Cakes in a Chinese cooking show recently.  It was a pumpkin recipes special and it featured this and a steamed variety.  For the steamed one, the cooking host shaped the dough into a little pumpkin and then steamed it until cooked.  She served it with some sort of sweet syrup.

I was attracted to this pan-fried version as it looked really tasty.  What's more I am also a big fan of sesame seeds so of course I had to give this recipe a try.  I was also curious of how it would taste like.

I gave it a bite to let you see the texture inside of this cake.  It tasted like nian gao, since it was made of glutinous rice flour I guess.  Slightly chewy and not bad at all.  Mine was not sweet enough, I would prefer it to be sweeter.

Remember to pan-frying it in low heat pan so that you won't burn the sesame seeds.  Sesame seeds burn easily in high heat.

Before pan-frying

Method:

Pumpkin,  cut the skin off, cut into half, seeded and save the seed to roast.

Cut pumpkin into slices.  Steam for 30 minutes or until soften.  Mash with a fork. Squeeze out the juice. Mix in some brown sugar, stir well.  Then add some glutinous rice flour until a dough is formed.  In a plate, spread out the white sesame seeds.  Roll the dough into a cylinder shape, cut and slightly roll it flat with your hand.  Coat both sides with sesame seeds.  Pan fry in low heat until golden brown on both sides.  Drain on paper towel.  Serve.

2 cups smashed pumpkin , 3/4 cup (less sweet)  to 1 cup of brown sugar (sweet).  I only used 1/2 cup of brown sugar and it was not sweet at all.  I think the original recipe was made without adding any sugar.

Siew Mai II (Pork Dumplings II) & Award

Need to take a break from posting my CNY bakes to post this and to pass on this lovely award to fellow blogger friends. :)





I made siew mai again last week, this time using Nilmandra suggestion of adding a pea on top of each siew mai. How was it? Look nicer, right? I didn't have cilantro this time, so I made this without it. I found that the siew mai was more fragrant with the added chopped cilantro. Anyhow, it's still tasted good. Oh by the way, Evy helped me to put the pea on top of each siew mai. She is at this age of wanting to help in the kitchen.

Ingredients:

(A)

1/2 pound ground pork

8 large shrimps, minced

1 tsp. Ginger juice or 1 Tbsp. minced ginger

1 green onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 Tbsp. sesame oil

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. sugar
Dashes of white pepper

(B)

1/4 cup of minced carrots for decoration

Some frozen green peas for decoration

Round wontan wrappers, as needed

Method:

1.  Add (A) in a bowl and stir in one direction until blended.

2.  Take a piece of the round wontan skin and place a sizable amount of filling in the middle, hold the skin up to cover the filling.  Decorate the top with some minced carrots and place a green pea in the middle (optional).  Finish the rest of the siew mai.

3.  Steam in boiling water for 15 minutes, using a bamboo steamer or any steamer that you have.  Serve with chili in oil.

~Forever Friends Ball~




I was given this Forever Friends Ball and The Spreader of Love awards by Retno at Kedai Hamburg. And since I already have the spreader of love award, I only going to claim this forever friends award. Thanks Retno for thinking of me and passing the awards to me. It's very sweet of you and I truely appreciate it. :)

Now I would like to pass this on to:

V's East Meets West Kitchen
Daphne- More than Words
Daily Affairs
Beachlover's Kitchen
Baking Fiends Unite!
Tigerfish - Teczcape
Edith's Precious Moments
Jadepearl's Play-Play in the Kitchen
Big Boys Kitchen
Cocoa-Masakan Istimewa
The Art and Science of Food
Rainbows

Steamed Siew Mai (Pork Dumplings)

Decided to use the leftover filling from the Wontan Rolls with Nori Sheets to make Siew Mai. Serve with my homemade Chili in Oil. Everyone loved it! Guess next time I would have to make more.



Siew Mai is an item commonly served in Dim Sum restaurant. Some more expensive one added one whole shrimp in the siew mai. Homemade siew mai is healthier because the restaurant added lard in the siew mai to make it tastier. Not sure whether they still use lard in preparing their siew mai these days? Because of this we always order the Har Gow (Shrimp dumpling) instead of siew mai.