Pineapple Tarts For Chinese New Year

I love Pineapple Tarts.There are many different types of shapes.No matter what shapes,they are all very beautiful.They are also very nice.I've been trying many different types of shapes to suit my mood but it's also a hard job.After that,there's a lot of washing up to do.

Although,I came to love this shapes, picture above,I still prefer the flower types
pictures below

Recipe for the above:

1 kg pineapple jam(I bought the ready made packet)

800 grams all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

4 tabsp corn flour

125 grams icing sugar

500 grams unsalted butter

4 large egg yolks

2 eggs for brushing

Method:

Place unsalted butter in a bowl.Using an electric mixer,cream the mixture for 30 seconds on low speed and turn the speed to medium-high and cream for 5 minutes,until fluffy.Beat egg yolks in a small bowl.Put in yolks.Fold in flour in two batches.Do not over-mix.Lay a large piece of cling film/plastic wrap on the table..Turn the dough onto the plastic wrap and wrap it up.Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180°.Combine the two egg yolks with 1-2 tablespoon of water or milk until it's a smooth consistency.Set aside.Roll the pastry out to desireable thickness.Put enough dough into the nastar mould and pump it out.Put the jam filling in and roll out.Egg wash the top.Bake it in the oven for 20 minutes or until slight brown.



more traditional

Recipe for above pic:

Pastry recipe:

400g plain flour

50g corn flour

1/4 tsp salt

280g cold,unsalted butter(do not allow to soften)

3 egg yolks,beaten

3 tbsp cold water/iced water

6 tbsp icing sugar

1/2 tsp cognac or pure vanilla extract

1 egg yolk +1 tbsp water

Method:

Sift the flour,icing sugar and salt.Mix well to combine.

Rub the butter into the flour with your finger tips until it resembles like breadcrumbs.

Beat the egg yolks,cold water /cognac together.Add into the flour butter  mixture.Turn into a

dough but do not knead.Gather all the crumbs together until it turns into a ball.Chill in the fridge for about 10 mins covered.

Roll out to 7mm thick or how thick you want.Cut the pastry out using the mould

cutter.Place on the lined grease tray with greaseproof paper.Egg wash the sides of

pastries as well as the center.Put the prepared pineapple jam balls in the center of each tarts shells.

Bake in the oven at 160°c for 20 minutes.Cool.Keep in an airtight container.

Then,I made this one picture above.
I bought the ready-made pineapple jam as I think it is much more easier.I hate to cut,slice pineapple.The cooking takes up a lot of time.Pineapple also aren't cheaper nowadays.For those who like to cook their own,here's the simple recipe.;

250g grated pineapple(ripe)

150g sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 cinnamon stick

Method:

1.Bring to a boil grated pineapple,sugar,lemon juice and cinnamon stick.

2.Let it simmer for 30 mins or until thickens.

3.Sieve in 1/2 tbsp corn flour.

Here's an update to pineapple tarts recipe:2015

226 grams butter

3 tbsp sugar

11/2 tsp salt

1 egg yolk

21/2 cups flour(330g)

2 tbsp milk powder

2 tbsp corn flour

21/2 tsp custard powder

1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

Beat butter with sugar until fluffy.Then add in egg yolk.Mix the flour,corn flour,custard flour,milk powder and salt together.Then add to the butter mixture.Add in the vanilla essence and beat again evenly. Make into dough and roll,then shape with cutter.Fill the pineapple jam.Bake in a preheated oven,180°C until cooked.

Glutinous rice ball

Tang Yuan

Glutinous Rice Balls

Tang Yuan is celebrated either on the 21st or 22nd of December every year.This year it falls on the 22nd of December.(when I was young,I always thought it to be on the 22nd december every year)As I was busy on this day,my children help me to make this sweet glutinous rice.They love these round balls,but I dislike it.Therefore,I'm not so keen to make but since they love it so much,I decided to make it for them.I make the dough and they just turn it into round balls..In those days,my late mother bought the ready make dough from the wet market.I prefer to make it myself as it was fairly easy and just glutinous rice flour,water and sugar.

Recipe to follow:
200g glutinous rice flour
150ml or more water if it's still dry a little bit
a few drops  food colouring(red,green,white)

600ml water
75g sugar
                                                                               3-4 screwpine leaves(wash n knotted)
Method:
Combine flour,water and put in a mixing bowl and then mix.knead until smooth and bowl comes out clean.Divide into two or three portions and make into round balls,depending on how big you want the balls to be.
In a big pot,boil the water and sugar and screwpine(pandan leaves) together.When the water boils,dropped the balls into the syrup water.(just like cooking fish/meatball soup)When the balls float,it is ready.

It is never too late to post.I may have posted this late.The festival is over,but it can still be used for next year and the following next,next,next year.





Colourful Layered Cake

It's the school holiday season and Hor!Hor!Hor!Hor!,"Merry X'mas!Let's baked some colourful cakes for X'mas.I know,I should be making a yule log,but I made this one instead.Yum!Yum!Yum!It's finished  in a day!After spending several hours of baking till past midnight! Making this cake layer by layer is time consuming.Mind you,the ingredients are so big,you can just make half of itI found this recipe from a malay website,written in malay and I tranlated it to english with a little alteration to the recipe.I think this cake taste more like a mooncake.By looking at the recipe,I think one would contemplate or hesitate to make this.It's way too much sweet ingredients added and the eggs are too many,but there are still many people out there willing to try.Let's keep going.
Share!share!share! Sharing is a joy:

Ingredients:

12 eggs

450g castor sugar(i reduce it to 380g cos there are many sweet things added)

450g flour

200g horlick

1 tin kaya(300g)

1 tin condensed milk(397g)

1 packet santan(200)

1 bottle peanut butter(340g)

300g cooking chocolate

1 tablespoon vanilla essence

3 colouring of your choice

Method:

Put all ingredients except cooking chocolate into a big mixing bowl(you need a big mixing bowl)and beat till mix thoroughly.Then divide the ingredients into four equal parts.Put the coloring to each of your choice.(i used purple.green,red)
Put the other portion with melted chocolate.
Steam or grilled on top,layer by layer till finished.

I top-grilled on oven temperature 180 degree celcius on a convection oven.Leave to cool on a wire rack.It's best to cut when the cake has turned completely cool,preferably the next day.

Steamed Chocolate Horlicks Cake

A simple to make steam cake

Ingredients:

250g butter
1 cup condensed milk
5 eggs(grade A)
120g kaya
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
200g self-raising flour
150g Horlicks(1 small packets0
100g cocoa powder(mix and sift)

Method:

Beat butter and milk until fluffy.
2.Beat eggs in a separate bowl until frothy.
3.Pour egg into butter mixture and mix well.Add in kaya,vanilla and mix well till combined.
4.Pour into grease tin lined with greaseproof paper and steam for 11/2 hours until cooked.

After I already pour into the tin,I realised that this cake has no sugar added.I checked back the recipe and it's true that no sugar was written on there.Just perfect!Sweet,but not too sweet,just the way I want it.

Evergreen Cake/Kek Lapis

The so-called green,green cake

Butter Cake

Perhaps the most easiest cake to do is this butter cake.It was a cake for the beginner.I remembered me making this cake for the very first time when I was just in my teenage years.The recipe were very easy to remember.I do not have to take out my book to follow.It was just in my head.My siblings called this the old fashioned English cake.

INGREDIENTS;

250g butter
230g sugar
230g flour sifted
5 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoon milk(optional)

Method:

1)Sieve the flour and baking powder together in a plate.
2)Beat the butter and sugar together until it turns fluffy.Add the eggs,one at a time slowly.
3)Add in the vanilla.If milk is used,add in also.
4)Fold in the sifted flour until thoroughly mix.
5)Pour into a baking tray and baked in a preheated oven at 180°C for 45 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.Cool on a wire rack before cutting.Served with tea or coffee.

Rojak

Rojak

Rojak,Rojak.Besides making the ABC ais kachang,my daughter and I also made this special salad called Rojak.Our Rojak consists of cucumber,sengkuang(turnip),pineapple and fried beancurd.Added to it are peanuts and the Rojak sauce.This is enough to make us feel satisfied.Something that we can do by ourself at home.

 

The mixed Rojak

Rojak usually goes with ice kachang

The Rojak sauce we bought from the supermarket.And the colourful ais kachang.

Ice kachang/ABC Special

This feeling is so good!ABC special on a hot,sunny day.This specialty dessert is very popular in Malaysia and Singapore.I made this at home last Saturday and Sunday,along with my daughter.

What we 'd added:cincau,red beans,sweet corn,cincaluk,cocktail,agar-agar and tiny small pearls.We then used a big commercial blender to blend the ice cubes.We don't have an ice shaver machine at home,but we are planning to buy one soon.Evaporated milk,gula apong,sugar syrup and cherry cordial were added to the top.We made the perfect ais kachang that day.It was very cooling.My daughter was very happy that she can make her own ABC Special at home.

my daughter made this one

red bean cendol also make by my daughter
by the way,my daughter is 11 years old

I can't make an exact recipe for this one.You can add anything you want.You can also shave the ice and make it tall like a mountain.For us here,we put 1 tablespoon each for everything.
Here are the things that we bought and used:

Oh!I forgot to mention one thing.It's not in the picture.It's the pearl sago.

Put this according to how sweet you want,but not too sweet

Last of all,add in gula melaka or gula apong or brown sugar in and you are on your way to a tasty ice kachang.Instead of evaporated milk,coconut santan is a substitute.It is more tastier,more fragrance.

Have fun!Enjoy!

3 Layered Tea

3 Layer Tea

Goodness!I can't really see a three layered!My tea wasn't black enough.Nevertheless,the taste was the same as you drink in any drink shop or coffee house.I should have gone out to buy a black or red tea to make my three layered tea.The weather was so hot yesterday and I was lazy to go anywhere except bringing my children to school and back from school.I have only left one tea bag from Lipton.I guess I must have put in too much water for only a tea bag.This is so as to let everyone in my family have an equal share of the tea.My son always called for this drink whenever he was in the eatery shop.This time,I took a turn in making it at home for him.It's not that difficult to make.Some people use gula melaka,but I used gula apong.I wondered these two are the same or not.

Here is how:

30ml gula apong

30ml evaporated milk

some ice cubes

tea

First pour the gula apong into the glass,then put in the ice cubes,then the evaporated milk and lastly,fill up the top with tea.That's it!Enjoy your 3 Layered Tea.

Celebrating moon cake festival

 It's that time of the year again,where the chinese people celebrated the mid-autumn festival.That is also called the moon cake festival.Moon cake festival falls on the 15th day on the 8th month of the Lunar Calendar.However,in these modern age,I don't get to see many people hanging lanterns around their houses anymore.Youngsters today,went out to a special place instead, to have fun with playing the lanterns.One special place that I know of is the "friendship park" in Kuching here.If you live in Sarawak,Malaysia,you will know which place I'm talking about.

People of all walks of life came here to hang lanterns on the trees.The trees are being decorated with colourful lanterns.It was a beautiful night.I met my old friends here.

Perhaps, the most interesting thing of all is the sky lanterns,also known as Gu Ming Teng,in chinese.The night sky were filled with this orange lanterns.Some people say this is a wish lantern.Make a wish before flying it high in the sky.I was scared out of wits of these sky thing.The flame was so big,and I feel danger coming in,like the wind gonna blow the thing down and burned a whole house,but it never happen.It's just my imagination!Still,people got to play it in a proper way!

From far,it looks like stars shining from above the sky,but no kidding,it was actually the sky lanterns.

The night before,I had it celebrated at home.It was the second time I did it at home.The very first time was a very long time ago when my kids were still small.It was at my old house.This year,I decided to do it once again to lighten the mood of everyone.I bought quite a lot of mooncakes.

This chocolate mooncake are not so nice.I prefer the lotus paste

This blog was posted late because I cleaned my whole house.

Celebrated on the 19th day of september,2013
Posted on today,26th september,2013

How time flies!

claypot tofu

Claypot Tofu
Today,I learned how to cook this simple meal.
Ingredients:
3 japanese tofu (sliced diagonally)
A)
5 young corns
1/2 carrot(sliced thinly)
4 florets cauliflower
4 florets brocoli
3 dry mushrooms(soaked)

2 slice of thin ginger
1 clove garlic

2 tbspoon corn flour + 1 tbsp water mix

1/4 cup water
B)
1 tsp plum sauce
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp maggi seasoning

Method:
Deep-fry the tofu until brown.Take it out from the kuali.Set aside.
Fry the garlic and ginger in a claypot until fragrant. Pour the water in.
Add in (A)Stir.Add in the tofu.
Next add in (B)
When cooked,add in the corn flour.Stir and dish it out. Enjoy!

Note: I cooked this according to my taste.You can cook your own taste.

thieves break-in

26th August,2013,Monday- Thieves broke into my home and stole 2 laptops,1 netbook and an ipad..My wedding ring was also stolen along with my family passports and bankbooks.They even took away a windows 7 softwares.Anger suppressing me.My most valuable item was my wedding rings.How unlucky indeed!I kept getting unlucky these days.One of the laptop,belong to my nephew.His laptop was under repaired at my home at that time.Luckily,his was easily replaced by his own father,but not for us.There are many more things that they took and who knows there are some more which I haven't found out yet.Thieves are getting smarter these days.They even robbed in the day time.Mine happened in the night.We don't have any security alarms or CCTV.I just wish I had a dog,a very fierce one.The television was on at that time,when we went out but the thieves still knew that nobody was at home.So,how did the thieves know that there's nobody at home?They must have spy on us.Luckily,no one was at home at that time or else they might have harm us.We all went out for a birthday party with my niece.
Now,everyday,I'm in fear.I couldn't sleep peacefully!Therefore,I felt very sleepy everyday..
I just can't own anything.Not even up to two months!I doze off too while trying to edit my blog!