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

Since it’s Lil’ C’s first day of preschool and she loves animals, I decided to make an animal bento filled with all her favorite food. Today’s bento consists of Chicken & Mozarella Ravioli in marinara sauce, broccoli, mandarin orange, colored gold fish and cheese animals.

Lil’ C started preschool this week and we were both so excited! Lil’ C was excited to see her friends again while I was excited to get a couple of hours of free time! I love my daughter very much but it is just so awesome to get a couple of personal time just to relax.

Anyway, going to preschool means that Lil’ C will be bringing back lots of art and craft projects from school everyday. I don’t keep all her art work but usually if I see a nice one, I will label it with a Dymo label maker and file it away in file folders. Hopefully someday I will compile all her art work together and make a scrapbook. Then she can look back and enjoy all her previous masterpieces.

Since she also has her lunch at school, I will also label her lunch box and her drink bottle so that she doesn’t get it mixed up with the other kids. Do you notice that most of the 3 year old girls all carry the same pink princess lunch box? I guess they are all going through that princess-loving phase.

Oops, I almost forgot that I will need to send an extra set of clothing to school to keep there for emergency purpose. I will have to label those clothes too. I guess I have a lot of labeling to do. Thank goodness for my Dymo label maker which makes my work so much easier.

During those pre-cooking days before I discovered that cooking is actually not too difficult and scary, we used to eat out a lot. One of our favorite haunt is the Korean restaurant. I love all the banchans while the hubby love all the meat especially Kalbi and Bulgogi. Nowadays we still eat at the Korean restaurant but not as often as before. That is because we discovered how easy it is to make Kalbi and Bulgogi at home!

All that is required is a trip to the local Korean grocery store for a pack of beef short-ribs and a bottle of Kalbi sauce. Pour the Kalbi sauce over the short-ribs and marinade overnight. Then just grill them or pan-fry them if you don’t have a grill. It tastes just like those in the restaurant. Usually I will also buy some banchan from the grocery store to accompany the beef. 

It’s not the prettiest looking food but definitely very delicious! Another attempt at making claypot chicken rice. A huge improvement over the previous attempt but still not quite there yet. I think it’s the missing salted fish that is causing this dish to be different from the ones that we eat outside. However ever since the day that I found out how salted fish was made, I have been avoiding it. Oh well, I guess I will try again and hope the third time is a charm. : )

Today’s bento consists of whole-grain Dino chicken nuggets (from Costco) with ketchup, fresh grilled corn, carrot sticks and nutella roti canai (asian crispy pancake)

This summer has been a crazy summer. Between travels and visitors, we hardly ate at home. Even if we were at home, we were using the grill. My poor kitchen especially all the baking gadgets have been gathering cobwebs. But now, summer is officially over for us since the litte one will start preschool next week. We have been just trying to have a calm week and settle down before all the school-related activities begin. I also figured it is time to dust off the cobwebs and start baking again. What better way to start off than a batch of fresh baked buns?

A friend asked me how to shape the buns to be like those dinner rolls that you can peel apart and eat. So I will attempt to show how I do it. I start off by making my usual basic sweet bread dough in my breadmaker. After the 1st rise, I remove the dough from the breadmaker, divide into 9 equal portions and place in a square pan like below.

Leave it to proof for about 1 hour. This is how it look like. I would proof it just a little longer if I have more time.

Then heat oven to 375F and bake for 10-15 mins. Remove and brush the top with a little melted butter.

  

My little girl will start preschool next week. Luckily she is still able to fit into most of her clothes and I do not have to buy too many new clothes for her. If I have teenagers, I am sure that I will have to buy a lot more clothes. Then I will definitely have to make sure that I shop at Heavenly Couture. It is a great place to buy discount clothing since all their items are priced at $17.95 or less. Yes, you heard it right! Everything including these 2 sweaters!

Currently for a limited time, Heavenly Couture is offering up to 10% off for Back to School Shopping. So if you are shopping for cheap clothing, don’t forget to check them out today.

I love fried rice and it always comes in handy when I run out of ideas. It’s also a good way to hide vegetables. Just cut them into really small pieces and add it to the fried rice. My little one loves broccoli and carrots so I didn’t have to hide them. Please excuse the ketchup mess! : ) My attempt at decorating with ketchup didn’t quite turn out the way I expected. hehe….. Other stuff in the bento are apple sauce topped with granola bits and cheese sticks

Another day on the grill. This time we have steak. I like to keep my steaks simple. So usually it’s just a sprinkle of seasoning like the McCormick’s Montreal Steak Seasonings on the steak before putting it on the grill. For vegetables, I have corn and green peppers. For dessert, one of my favorite - grilled bananas.