Mini Fruit Tarts

Prepared this specially for mum, a big fan of fruit tarts! Though the steps are simple, it took me around 3 hours to come out with this colourful tray of tarts. But the effort was all worthwhile, to see my family enjoying  the tarts and giving me thumbs up :) Good motivation to continue learning to bake!

colourful....

another variation instead of fruit toppings, i added blueberry jam :P

Mini Fruit Tarts

(A) Tart shell
Adapted from: iloveicookibake

Ingredients: (makes 20)
125g butter (room temperature)
50g caster sugar
½ egg
250g plain flour

Directions:
1. Cream the butter with caster sugar until white and creamy
2. Add egg and continue to beat
3. Fold in flour until it becomes a dough
4. Line the small tart tins with dough. Poke holes using a fork on the tart shell
5. Preheat oven at 175°C for 10 mins and bake for 10-15min till golden brown.
6. Slide tart out from mould and let it cool down

(B) Creme Pâtissière
Adapted from: Not The Kitchen Sink

Ingredients:
240 ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 egg yolks
30 g castor sugar
25 g cornflour

Directions:
1. Place the milk and vanilla extract in a saucepan over medium high heat and bring to a boil before setting aside.
2. Whisk together egg yolks and caster sugar in a bowl until the sugar dissolves and it becomes a pale yellow color. Add in the cornstarch and whisk until combined.
3. Slowly pour in the milk, making sure to whisk continuously. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and heat over medium high heat. Continue whisking constantly until the mixture thickens. Once thickened, remove from heat and set aside to cool.
4. Once cooled, spoon into cooled tart shells and serve with fresh fruits.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Today, I tried making the food that I've been "cooking" in virtual world, in "Chefville", a popular cooking game created by Zynga on fb. :P Upon achieving mastery stars for the dishes, the game actually send the players real recipes of the dishes via emails! haha...so here are 3 of the dishes which I've "mastered" so far...

Broccoli Cheese Soup
Adapted from:  Chefville

Ingredients: (makes 4 bowls)
1/2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
half a yellow onion, diced
500g broccoli, chopped into small pieces
100g cheddar cheese, shredded
pinch of salt
pinch of black pepper
500ml fresh milk

Directions:
1. Saute onions in butter, stirring occasionally in medium sized pot until onions are tender. Whisk in flour completely.
2. Add broccoli and milk, cook on medium heat till broccoli is tender. Stir occasionally.
3. The flour should thicken up the soup. Add cheddar cheese and stir until melted.
4. Season with salt and black pepper.

Cheesey Stuffed Tomatoes

Cheesey Stuffed Tomatoes
Modified from:  Chefville

Ingredients: (serves 2)
2 large tomatoes
1/4 yellow onion, diced
some yellow and red capsicum, diced (to add colour)
2 garlic, minced
200g minced beef
1 tbsp soy sauce
dash of pepper
drop of oil
some parmesan cheese

Directions:
1. Marinate minced beef with soy sauce and pepper, set aside for 15min.
2. Cut a thick slice of the top of each tomato. Leaving a 0.5 inch shell, scoop out the pulp. Invert tomatoes onto paper towels to drain.
3. Grill or bake tomatoes for about 10min.
4. Add a drop of oil to non stick frying pan, add minced garlic and fry till fragrant.
5. Add onions and capsicums, stir fry till onions are brown and capsicums soften. Then add in the minced beef. Remove from heat.
6. Scoop the mixed veges and beef into the tomato cups, sprinkle parmesan cheese and serve.

Tangy Orange Chicken

Tangy Orange Chicken
Adapted from:  Chefville

Ingredients: (serves 3)
(A) Sauce and marinate
juice and zests from 1 medium sized orange
100ml rice vinegar
200ml mirin
2 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp minced ginger
1/2 tsp minced garlic
3 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp water

(B) Chicken
1 chicken breast meat, cut into bite size
1 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
dash of pepper
green onions or toasted sesame as garnish

Directions:
1. Pour mirin, orange juice, rice vinegar, soy sauce in saucepan, set over medium low heat. Stir on orange zest, sugar, garlic and ginger. Bring to simmer for 2min, remove from heat and cool for 15min.
2. Place chicken in a sealable plastic container. When contents of saucepan have cooled, pour a cup of sauce into container, reserve remaining sauce. Seal the container and refridgerate for at least 2hrs. The longer you marinate the chicken, the more flavour it will absorb.
3. Mix the flour, salt and pepper in a bowl. Toss the marinated chicken in the seasoned flour to coat. Heat some oil in a non stick pan over medium heat. Add chicken and brown on both sides. Remove and place on plate with paper towel, set aside.
4. Add remaining sauce to pan and boil over medium heat. Mix cornstarch and water together thouroughly and stir into the sauce. Reduce to low heat, add chicken pieces and simmer for about 5min, stirring occasionally. Garnish with green onions or toasted sesame.

Chwee Kueh

Tried making one of the most popular local breakfast item, turned out to be much easier than imagined. I prepared the chai por the night before, and made the kueh fresh in the morning. In 30mins time, enjoyed the nice warm chwee kueh weekend breakfast with hubby :)

Chwee Kueh
Adapted from:  http://jasnette.blogspot.sg/2005/07/chwee-kueh.html

(A) Kueh
Ingredients: (makes 10 using tart moulds)
180g rice flour
25g corn flour
800ml water
2 tbsp oil
½ tsp salt

Directions:
1. Place the two flours into a bowl and pour about 300 ml water. Mix to form a smooth batter.
2. Bring remaining (500ml) water, oil and salt to boil. Reduce to low heat. Pour in batter and stir constantly till it thickens.
3. Grease a few chwee kueh moulds. (i used tart moulds) Pour the mixture into each mould and place it on steamer. Steam over boiling water for about 10 minutes.
4. Remove from mould and spread topping over it.
5. Serve hot with radish topping.

(B) Chai Por
Adapted from: Baking & Cooking

Ingredients:
4 tbsp oil
50g garlic(chopped)
300g chai por
30g dried shrimps (minced)
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dark soya sauce
1 tbsp toasted white sesame

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a heavy sauce pan. Fry chai por, dried shrimp and minced garlic until fragrant. Add sugar, salt and dark soya sauce for seasoning.
2. Add toasted white sesame.
3. Serve with chwee kueh.

Braised Pork Rice

Made this specially for hubbs... since he loves pork belly meat! Quite a successful first attempt on the whole, but was not satisfied with the texture of the meat, it wasn't soft enough. With some tips from mum, perhaps I should skip the "blanching in water" part and directly braise the raw meat in the sauce. But glad that hubbs enjoyed it... motivation for me to try again next time! :)

mum says everything looks soooo dark!

Braised Pork Rice (Taiwan style?)
Adapted from: happyhomebaking

Ingredients: (serves 2)
10 shallots
2 eggs
5 dried shitake mushrooms (sliced)
10g dried shrimps
250g pork belly
1 thumb size old ginger (about 5g) (minced)
3 cloves garlic (minced)
1tbsp oil
1tsp five spice powder
1tbsp Hua Tiao wine
3tbsp fried shallots*
1tbsp light soya sauce
1tbsp dark soya sauce
3tbsp fine sugar
1/4tsp salt
some water

Directions:
*to make fried shallots, peel about 10 shallots, cut into thin slices. Pan fry with oil until golden (turn off the heat once the shallots turn golden, it gets burnt easily). Drain on paper towel and leave to cool. Reserve the oil. Alternatively, you can use ready made fried shallots.
1. Place eggs (use room temperature eggs, cold eggs may crack easily upon boiling) in a pot and fill with enough water to cover the eggs, add a pinch of salt (to prevent eggs from cracking). Boil for about 10mins. Remove from pot and place eggs in cold water(easier to peel the shells). Peel and remove the shells. Set aside.
2. Wash dried mushrooms, soak in warm water for 30mins. Drain and cut into slices. Reserve the water.
3. Wash dries shrimps, soak in water for 30mins or until soften. Drain and minced.
4. Wash and cut pork belly into 1 cm cubes. Blanch in boiling water for about 3 mins. Rinse the blanched pork belly, drain and set aside.
5. Heat oil (reserved from frying shallots) in a wok. Stir fry minced ginger, garlic and dried shrimps till fragrant. Add in five spice powder, stir fry till fragrant. Add in blanched pork belly, stir fry till browned. Add mushrooms, toss to combine. Add wine by pouring it over the side of the wok, toss to combine. Add in fried shallots, light soya sauce, dark soya sauce, sugar, toss and stir fry to combine. Add the reserved water from soaking the mushrooms. Top with more water until it covers all the ingredients. Bring to a boil.
6. Transfer everything to a claypot or casserole (note: the water level should be over the ingredients by at least 2 inches). Add in the hard boiled eggs. Cover with lid and leave to simmer for about 1.5hrs (turn the eggs around in between the cooking time). Add in salt and continue to simmer for another 10mins. Taste and add additional seasoning to suit your taste.
7. Remove from heat. There should still be some sauce remaining when the dish is done, the sauce will appear glossy and thickened (from the fat of the pork belly).
8. Serve with rice and blanched xiao bai cai.

Hei Mama Egg Tarts (黑妈妈祖传蛋挞)

Quoted from Small Small Baker:

"Hei Mama Egg Tarts is a very hot recipe among the Chinese bloggers and receive very good ratings. The recipe originates from a Chinese blog by Hei Mama (黑妈妈) posted in year 2009. So that's how its name comes from. Along the years, it has also been modified and adapted by many bloggers and readers. Some of them never give credit to the original recipe!"

Indeed, this recipe is really good, especially for a first time baker like me. The steps are easy to follow, and I successfully came out with a batch of yummy egg tarts in two hours time...started "work" after lunch, and these fresh from the oven egg tarts came just in time for our tea break :)

think I overbaked a little, looks more like Portuguese egg tarts huh? :P

Hei Mama Egg Tarts (黑妈妈祖传蛋挞)
Adapted from:  Small Small Baker

Filling: (makes about 20 tarts)
100g sugar
300ml water
5 eggs, lightly beaten
150ml evaporated milk
1/2tsp vanilla essence
1. Heat up water and sugar until sugar dissolves. Leave it to cool.
2. Then add in beaten eggs and evaporated milk. Mix well, sieve the egg mixture and set aside.

Pastry:
300g plain flour
2 tbsp custard powder
1 egg
200g butter
1/2tsp vanilla essence

Directions:
1. Cut cold butter into small cubes. Combine flour, custard powder and mix well.
2. Rub in the cold butter, mix well and add beaten egg, mix to form a soft dough (do not knead).
3. Wrap with cling wrap and refrigerate at least 30min before use.

(Alternatively, you can try out this Melted Butter Easy Method by CookBakeLove)
1. Melt butter. Combine all dry ingredients and mix well,.
2. Add melted butter and beaten egg. Using a pair of chopsticks mix to form a soft dough. Wrap with cling wrap and refrigerate before use.

To assemble:
1. Divide the pastry dough equally into 20 pieces about 30g each (depending on your mould size). Press the dough into tart moulds evenly.
2. Bake tart casing in preheated oven at 180 deg C for 5min. Fill egg mixture into the casing till 90% full and bake for another 15-20mins till edges are brown.