Portuguese Egg Tarts for POP

This is my second attempt at making Portuguese Egg Tarts. If it were not for some requests by my blogger friends for our bloggers POP, I don't think I will make this so soon. :) The reason was because much efforts were required to make the puff pastry, and I'm not very good at making them!

Anyway, I was glad I made them again and my friends gave good comments too!

I'll be submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #10: Easy as Pie (August 2011), hosted by Janine of Not the Kitchen Sink.

The recipe can be found here.

At Singapore Flyer

My dear father helped me to get some Singapore Flyer tickets at some corporate rates. So I decided to bring my children and my parents-in-law to Singapore Flyer since they have never been before. I've been there once about three years ago for my organisation's function. The young and the old alike, enjoyed the ride very much. As for me, I was busy snapping pictures away!

After the ride, we explored the surrounding in vicinity before adjourning for our dinner.  I brought my parents in law to Orchard Central to take the long escalator ride up to the 11^th floor. It was quite an experience for them. My children felt that it was fun to take the rides, they enjoyed it too!

Actually the purpose for bringing them to Orchard Central was to go for the dinner at Tung Lok Seafood. I love their food very much, especially their salted fried salmon skins. As the children were hungry, I ordered two plates of the fried salmon for them, and in no time, the plates were empty!

These were the foods we ordered.

After dinner, we proceeded to their roof top garden. We took some pictures before going home. I'm glad that my parents in law and children enjoyed the ride and the dinner.

A Pig Out Party (POP)

Few months back, Eelin and myself discussed about having a bloggers' party again. It was quite a while back since we had our last gathering. It is always fun having all the food bloggers meet up, baking and cooking, and finally enjoying the wonderful homemade food, plus chit-chatting. I always look forward to meeting up with my blogger friends as I learn from them on the hows, dos and don'ts of baking and cooking!

Jo has gracefully allowed us to her beautiful abode as the gathering venue. We usually prefer our gatherings to be at some lovely home as it'll be more conducive, and allowed us to laugh and mingle without restrictions. With the confirmation of the venue, the guests and the food, let the party begin!

Esther's Tau Suan

Edith's Chwee Kueh

Jess' Madeleines and Chocolate Friands

Doris' Green Tea Almond Blondies and Chocolate Cake

Jo's Malaysian Fried Fritters

Bee Bee's Hawaiian Pizza

Cathy's Red Velvet Cakes

Zhuoyuan's Salsa with Taco chips and Devil's Cake

Eelin's Bread Pudding with Vanilla Sauce

Grace's Potato Tuna. Check out her Bailey's ice cream too!

And from my kitchen, durian puffs and Portuguese egg tarts!

I want to thank Eelin for initiating this, and all my blogger friends for being so supportive! It's good to catch up with "old" blogger friends, and to get to know new faces too! When it comes to food, nobody knows better than the food bloggers! :)

D Day...Durians and Dining

We had previously wanted to dine out on 6 Aug, which was quite rare as we usually dine in my mum's place. However, I suggested to my sisters to go JB for durians instead. After much discussions and arrangements, the date, the venue and the programme were confirmed!

So, on 6 Aug early morning, a group of 13 of us, in two MPVs, headed to JB, to Dad's friend's place for durians. Dad's friend, Ah Tee, was very kind to wait for us after the Tua's Checkpoint and lead us to his house.

At his place, the durians were already waiting for us. He had bought Mao Shan Wang (MSW), D101 and D13 durians for us the day before. He told us that the durian season was coming to an end, therefore, he could only get us these durians. Ah Tee used to be a durian seller in Singapore. Even though he doesn't sell durians now, he has friends who has durian plantation in Johor. As he pried the durians for us, he shared about his durian experience with us.

A few tips we learned from him about durians:

1. Durians are best eaten in the day, latest by noon. This is because the sugar content in durian is very high. It needs time to be digested. Eating at night do not allow sufficient time for the durian sugars to be digested.
2. Durians are not suitable for those with high blood pressure and diabetic. Refer to #1. Eat with lots of moderation required.
3. The commercial durians have been added fertilisers, which are no good for us. The durians that Malaysians like are "Zhu Jiao" (I don't know if he meant "Pig" 猪 zhu or "Bamboo" 竹 zhu). He mentioned that MSW has a lot of fertilsers.
4. One of the best durians are actually "shan ba" durians. "Shan ba" 山把 means kampong.
5. Do not place durians directly on the floor if you do not intend to eat it immediately. The humility of the floor will cause the durians to crack, and make the durians watery. Best to place them either in a plastic bag, or in a carton box like what he did, at least a layer between the floor and durians. Also, he used rubber bands to tie up the base of the durians to prevent them from cracking up.
6. You can recognise durians' season end when you see small durians instead of huge ones. He called it "liu lian wei" (榴莲尾) durians.

No wonder I've been putting on weight lately, because I've been eating durians at night! Now I know!

After our durian feast at his place, he brought us to "Restoran Kah Kah Loke" for some bittergourd soup. Frankly, I don't really like the dishes. :p The porks served there tasted very porky, which is totally out of my diet! Hahaha... Therefore, I didn't eat much.

After lunch, he left us to go for our shopping at Aeon Tebrau City. Luckily for that, otherwise we would have imposed on him for the whole day! Since I've been to Tebrau almost monthly, we didn't really bother to shop. We ended up in Lavender cafe, spending a leisure afternoon having tea and snacks. I call this pure pleasure! Spending time with my family, drinking tea/coffee, having snacks, and building bonds!

Clockwise from top left: Blueberry cheese cake RM6.00, Seaweed Tuna Spicy Chicken RM3.50, 2C RM2.50, Mascarpone Cheese Mango RM5.80, Almond Peanut Roll RM2.50 and Tiramisu Cake RM5.80.

After our afternoon tea, we proceeded to go to the last stop, grocery shopping before heading back to Ah Tee's place in late afternoon. He brought his family of four, and us to "Yi Jia Restoran" for a good seafood dinner. Ah, this is what I like to have in JB! As we were not familiar in JB (except for Aeon Tebrau City & Aeon Bukit Indah), we didn't dare to venture out anywhere. Afterall, it's not as safe as Singapore! I find that it's always good to know a local person where ever you go. At least, you won't get cheated so easily!

I noticed that the sky was really pretty, with three distinct layers - dark clouds, clear blue sky at the background and white clouds at the foreground.

My twins were playing with their young children. My twins really like younger children!

Clockwise from top left: Yang Chou Fried Rice (big) RM12.00, Salted egg yolk crabs (1.2kg) RM72.00, Vegetable (big) RM16.00 and Shaopi Chicken (big) RM21.00.

There were many other dishes which we ordered, I didn't take pictures because I was busy eating!

Steamed fish (2 plates) RM60.00, Cheese big prawns (big) RM36.00, Fried toufu (big) RM18.50, Three-cup chicken (med) RM15.00, Honey crabs (1.2kg) RM72.00. White rice (big) RM1.00 each, 1 pot of tea RM7.00.

My personal favourite was the cheese prawns and the salted egg yolk crabs! Yummilicious!!

After a satisfying dinner, we went back to his place to pick up the remaining durians that he had bought for us. We requested that he helped to open up all the durians and packed them into containers for us. He obliged readily! Such kind person. Unbelievable, after clearing the durians, there were four big tubs of durians to bring home! After thanking Ah Tee, we left his place and finally head home. It had been a long day for all of us, we were tired but we had a FRUIT-FULL day! 

Guess what, I actually brought home all the tubs of durians as my sisters didn't want them! I already have in mind what to do with those durians. Stay tuned.


Yi Jia Restoran Sdn Bhd
No. 17,19,21,23, Jalan Setia 9/17,
Taman Setia India 81100 J.Bahru
Tel: 07-3597782/012-7187782

Happy 46th National Day, my Singapore!

Apple Tart with Walnut Cream

I was half relieved when my son's PSLE Prelim was over this week! I had planned the week before, to visit my dear friend, Grace. She has been so busy with her baby since February that we didn't have the chance to meet up! I was also busy with the preparation for my son's exams during this period too!

I wanted to make something nice for her. I believe she must've missed baking for a long time! After going through a few recipe books, I decided on an "Apple tart with Walnut Cream" as I found it to be very special. Coincidentally, this month's Aspiring Bakers' theme was Easy as Pie.

I'll be submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #10: Easy as Pie (August 2011), hosted by Janine of Not the Kitchen Sink.

Recipe for Apple Tart with Walnut Cream, extracted from "The Pie and Pastry Bible" by Rose Levy Beranbaum with modification.
Makes a 9" Tart

Shortcrust Pastry, extracted from "Irresistable Pastry" by Alex Goh

Ingredients:
250g Plain flour
150g Butter
2 tbsps Sugar
1 Egg yolk
40g Water

Method:

1. Mix the butter with the flour until crumbly.
2. Add in egg and sugar first. Then add in water and mix to form a dough.
3. Shape it into ball and press it flat.
4. Wrap with plastic sheet and refrigerate for 30 mins.
5. When ready to bake, floured a worktop, and roll out the dough to 3mm thickness.

* Note: The weight of the pastry is 480g. After using it for a 9" tart, I was left with some dough. Therefore, I made them into a few smaller tart base and kept them.

Poached Apples
3 Green apples (or any other cooking apples)
450g Water
12g Freshly squeeze lemon juice
4 Tbsps Sugar
1 Cinnamon stick

Method:

1. Halved and core the apples before you poach them. (Original instructions was to remove the skin, but I didn't.)
2. In a pan large enough to hold the apples in a single layer, combine the water, lemon juice, sugar and cinnamon stick and stir to dissolve the sugar.
3. Add the apples, and bring the liquid to a boil. Simmer over low heat.
4. Turn the apples and continue simmering for another 4 to 6 mins, or until a cake tester inserted in the thickest part of an apple enters easily.
5. The apples should still be slightly firm. Remove the pan from the heat and cool completely.
6. The apples can be used immediately, but they develop more flavour if allowed to sit in the poaching liquid for at least 24 hours and up to 3 days.
7. Transfer the apples and their liquid to a bowl small enough so that the apples are covered by the liquid.
8. Cover tightly and refrigerate until ready to use.

* Note:

• I used four apples, but left 2 halves. So three apples will be sufficient for a 9" tart.
• The original recipe use a vanilla bean. I omit this totally.
• I estimated the water, as long as the apples can lay out nicely in a single layer, half covered, it's alright.
• Do not overcook the apples, otherwise, it won't be crunchy.
• I made a day before and kept it in the fridge for at least 24hours. It made a lot of difference to the apple as it has a very rich cinnamon taste!

Walnut Cream Fillings
100g Walnuts halves, lightly toasted
60g Fine sugar
18g Plain flour
1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon
100g Unsalted butter, softened
2 large Eggs
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

Method:

1. In a food processor fitted with the metal blade, place the walnuts, sugar, flour and cinnamon and process until the walnuts are very fine.
2. Empty the mixture into a bowl and set aside.
3. In a medium mixing bowl, beat the butter until creamy.
4. Beat in about 1/2 cup of the nut mixture until incorporated.
5. Beat in 1 egg along with another 1/2 cup of the nut mixture.
6. Then beat in the second egg with the remaining nut mixture, together with the vanilla extract.
7. Refrigerate until about 10mins before assembling the tart.

* Note:

• After mixing all together, the walnut cream was liquid.
• Place them in the fridge to firm up. Take them out of the fridge 10mins before you start assembling the tart. When it firm up, it's easier to spread. The cream will be thicker and easier to handle.

Assemble the tart

1. Drain the apples well on paper towels. Reserved the poaching syrup.
2. Using a sharp thin knife, slice each apple crosswise into thin slices.
3. Spread the walnut cream evenly in the cooled baked tart shell.
4. Arrange the apples neatly on the walnut cream.
5. Bake in the oven of 180C for 30mins, or until the walnut cream puffs slightly, surrounding the apples and turns golden brown.

Glaze

1/2 cup Reserved syrup from poaching

1/2 tsp Cornstarch

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

Method:

1. In a small saucepan, add in all the ingredients. Stir to incorporate.
2. Heat the mixture till it boils. Stir constantly.
3. Simmer for a few seconds, then remove from the heat.
4. Pour into a small cup.
5. Use a brush to coat the apples and the walnut fillings well.
6. Unmould the tart and serve immediately.
7. It can store in room temperature up to 1 day, or refrigerated up to 3 days. Allow the tart to come to room temperature before serving.

The tart truly delivered what it promised. The apple was still crunchy and developed a full cinnamon flavour. The walnut tart was very fragrant from the ground walnut, and creamy. The sweetness of the overall tart actually came from the walnut cream. However, as I had already reduced the sugar, the sweetness was acceptable. The tart crust was very crispy. Both of us loved the crust very much too! I was glad the tart turns out to be delectable! I would definitely make this again, however, this time, I will use the original tart crust from Rose!