KookyCulinary

It has been donkey years since I last ate Portuguese egg tart. I remember I was still living in KL when the Portuguese egg tart was very popular. Everytime the bakery near my house comes out with a freshly baked tray of portuguese egg tart, it was instantly gone. I am sure that the novelty has since worn off but I still remember that I loved it.

So when I was browsing through one of recipe books and saw the recipe, I suddenly had a craving for Portuguese egg tart. It turned out to be a very easy recipe especially since I used the frozen ready-made puff pastry crust. The result . . . . .

The only problem I had was that I think the suggested oven temperature was a little too high for my oven. So I didn’t have the chance to let the top crust burn a little. I had to remove it early because the bottom crust was getting a little burnt. Next time I will probably lower the temperature a little. Tastewise, it was good. Will definitely make it again.

Recipe:
500gm puff pastry
200gm whipping cream
300gm milk
80gm sugar
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
1/4 tsp vanilla

• Roll out the pastry to a rectangular shape. Then roll it up like a swiss roll. Chill in the fridge till firm.
• Cook the whipping cream and milk to 70C. Stir in sugar and cook till sugar dissolves.
• Add in the beaten eggs and egg yolks. Mix till well-blended. Add in vanilla. Set aside to cool.
• Divide the pastry into 25gm portions. Flatten the pastry and roll it out and press into muffin mold
• Pour the filling into the pastry and bake at 425 for 20-25 mins.

* Recipe source: Alex Goh’s Irresistible Pastry

Everytime I come back from Malaysia, there is one foodstuff that I would always bring back and that is ikan bilis (anchovies). Actually I can get ikan bilis easily here but they usually do not look fresh, so I try to avoid getting them here. I usually get mine from Pangkor Island and the anchovies are as fresh as they can be.

I use my ikan bilis for making soup and nasi lemak. Another dish that I like to make with my ikan bilis is this spicy crispy ikan bilis and peanuts. This can be cooked and kept in the fridge for those quick meals.

Sorry I do not have the exact measurement. Basically what I do is

• Fry the ikan bilis till crispy. Remove and drain
• Roast the peanuts till fragrant.
• Heat up a little oil in a pan.
• Add in some sambal (I use the bottled sambal)
• Then add in ikan bilis and peanuts and mix all together.
• Add in a little sugar and mix till well-mixed.
• Remove and keep in air-tight container in fridge.

Mooncake festival is just one month away. It seems that many food bloggers have started their mooncake making already. I am still debating whether I want to make any this year or not. The one thing that I do not like in making the traditional mooncake is making the filling. Unlike in Malaysia and Singapore where ready-made filling is easily available, here we have to make the filling ourselves. Personally it is very tedious to fry the red bean or lotus seed filling. Lots of stirring and splattering!

In the meantime, here is a review of some of the past mooncakes that I made:

Rainbow Snowskin Mooncake (For recipe, see this post)

Traditional Mooncake with Lotus Seed Paste Filling. For recipe & step-by-step instruction, see this post.

Pandan Coffee Jelly Mooncake ((*sorry for the blurry photos. This was done pre-blog days! )
I am still trying to find the recipe for this. I made this a few years ago. Will update it when I find it. But I do know that I made it following this recipe with a little modification.

I have something different that i want to try out this year but my only problem is time. We’ll be going off on another vacation next week. So hopefully I will be able to either squeeze in a little time either before or after the trip.

I love agar-agar especially those with coconut milk. It’s very easy to make. This is what I usually bring to a potluck when I am too lazy to make anything fancy. But I usually try to use different molds just to have fun. If you are interested in the recipe, it can be found in my previous post HERE.

I remember during my childhood days, whenever there were festivities, we would always go to a local shop and buy a pound of fresh popiah skin. I love watching the “popiah maker” make the fresh skin. He would hold a ball of dough in one hand, rub the dough on a hot flat plate to form the skin and pulls the extra dough off with a “plop”.

Unfortunately the only popiah skin that are available here are the frozen ones. Normally I use them for making fried spring roll. They are good but sometimes I crave the non-fried version. I have tried to make my own. The dough turned out good but I found out that that rubbing & plopping requires a whole lot of skill!! I just don’t have that skill!! :(  Then someone told me to try steaming the frozen popiah skin, and so I did. To my surprise, it turned out pretty good. Of course, the fresh ones will always be the best but this will do for now till my next trip home.

I forgot to take a photo of the filling. The filling consists of jicama, pork, dried shrimp and chinese sausage.

When I first share this with a South American friend, she thought that it was empanada. Even Lil’ C calls it empanada. She learned it from Dora! She refuses to call it curry puff! I guess they are pretty similar since both are stuffed pastry and they are wrapped the same way.

Back to my curry puff, I have tried making a few different types of curry puff but I always find myself coming back to my shortcut curry puff which is using store bought pie crust. They are so easy and most importantly, taste really good. Yes, I do deep-fry it instead of baking the pie crust. If you like to make it from scratch, I usually use the spiral curry puff recipe from Jo’s Deli.

Mise en place: cooked curry chicken filling, hard-boiled egg & pie crust

Want one?

By the way, out of curiousity, do you put a wedge of hard-boiled egg in your curry puff? I grew up eating Old Chang Kee curry puff which does have hard-boiled egg in it. So I was a little surprised when some of my Malaysian friends thought it was strange to have eggs in their curry puff. What do you think?

Vancouver/Richmond Trip Part 4:

Just before heading back across the border, we went to Kirin for lunch. Kirin is very packed for dim sum on weekends. Usually you can’t get in without a reservation which was what happened to us the first day.

Delicious egg tart, fresh from the oven.

Siu Mai (Steam Pork Dumpling)

Plum sauce steam pork - a twist on the regular black bean steam pork. Not the best looking dish but it was very good.

The little one decided that she didn’t want dim sum, so we ordered pan-fried noodles. Delicious! Noodles were crispy and just the right amount of sauce to soak it a little. The little one loved it so much that she sat so quietly enjoying her noodles that for a moment, I thought she wasn’t with us!

Roti canai or roti prata, however you call it, it’s delicious and one of my favorite food. Usually it is best eaten with curry. But recently it has become my instant go-to snack for my little girl. Since she is not too crazy about curries, I have resorted to other fillings and toppings.

For my instant snack, I use frozen roti canai which can be bought at the local Asian grocery store. If you prefer homemade roti canai, please refer to my homemade roti canai recipe. Anyway, back to the frozen roti canai, just pan-fry it till it’s golden brown and crispy. Then top with any toppings or fillings that you like.

Our recent favorite is this nutella and banana roti canai. Yum! 

We have also tried it with tuna and even kaya (coconut jam). So if you need a quick snack, do try this yummy snack.

Ok, I promise this is the last of my Chinese New Year bakes. How can it be Chinese New Year without pineapple tarts, right?

I actually made the fillings a week ago but have never gotten around the make the tarts. Actually I also could not decide which recipe to try since there are so many different recipes out on the internet! Then on Saturday, I went to a Chinese New Year potluck with my bible study group. There I met a new friend A who generously shared her easy recipe for the pineapple tart. A, thanks for a great and easy recipe. It’s delicious!! Hope you’ll be coming back here for vacation again soon.

When I went back to Malaysia 2 years ago, I noticed that kaya toast are so popular.(I’m sure that it has been a while but I have not been back for 6 years before that trip. So indulge me, ok?? ) Anyway, the kaya toast are no longer just available at the old coffeeshop anymore, but it’s everywhere. I guess it’s one of those food that is timeless and enjoyed by all ages. However, for those of us who live overseas, we don’t have the luxury of walking into a coffee shop and ordering kaya toast. So when craving strikes, we order it from our own kitchen!

Kaya toast, anyone?

This is a very easy recipe for kaya and is cooked in a slow cooker. So I don’t have to worry about burning the kaya.

Recipe:
1 cup coconut cream (click here for a picture of coconut cream)
1 cup egg
2 cup sugar ( I only use 1 1/2 cups. Adjust according to your personal taste.)
3 pandan leaves

1. Mix the coconut cream, egg & sugar together till well blended. Pour into a slow cooker.
2. Add in pandan leaves.
3. Set the slow cooker on low heat. Stir occassionally. It will take about 3 hours or so. Don’t worry when the kaya gets all lumpy. In fact, this is what it looks like after about 3 hours.

Then take a hand-blender and blend the kaya in the slow cooker. Edited to add: Don’t forget to remove pandan leaves before blending.

Result: Smooth & yummy kaya!

For those who live overseas and have been craving for kaya, do try out this easy version. :)