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Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Portuguese Egg Tart

Is Portuguese Egg Tart getting too expensive and somehow had shrunk in size? Do you think or is it just me that the pastry is getting thicker and the custard is just a small dollop in the centre?

My family love Portuguese Egg Tart and I've decided to try my hand at it.  It's easy to make if you get the frozen puff pastry like I did.  It takes too much effort to make the puff pastry from scratch.  Look how fluffy and plump they look.




Makes 1 dozen:
2 sheets of frozen puff pastry

Custard:
1 cup sugar
250ml fresh milk
200ml whipping cream
1 egg
2 egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Mix all together till sugar dissolve, strain.
Line muffin trays or tart tins with puff pastry.
Fill 90% full with the custard filling.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180degree celsius for 20 mins and turn up the top heat for additional 8 mins to brown the top.

Serve hot!

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Traditional Nyonya Home Cook Meal

Today, I've decided to cook typical Nyonya dishes which my late mom used to cook for us when we were little. One of the dish is usually cooked using stingray or 'ikan pari' in Malay.  Apart from stingray, you can also use cencaru (torpedo scad) or kembong  (mackerel).  This dish is called 'Kuah Lada' or directly translated, 'Pepper Sauce'.  Whenever my dear mom cooked this dish, she will always prepare sambal belacan or sambal belacan terung assam to compliment it.  So, yes, I made sambal belacan terung assam since my terung assam plant is giving me lots of fruits.  Another wonderful Nyonya dish that my mom taught us is Sotong Assam.

Mom taught us well and I hope to pass on her wonderful culinary skills of Nyonya Cuisine to my children.  Until then, I shall continue in cooking all the wonderful dishes for my family.

Kuah Lada Ikan Kembong

Pound to a paste: Garlic, onion, garlangal, white pepper corns, candlenut, shrimp paste, lemongrass, tumeric.
Fry paste till fragrant, add tamarind water, brinjal and ladies fingers. Boil till veges are tender, add salt to taste and lastly add the fish.  Once fish is cooked through, then your dish is done.

Sotong Assam

 Marinade cuttlefish with sugar, salt and tamarind pulp.  Shallow fry till it dried up.

Sambal Belacan Terung Assam


The yellow fruit is the 'terung assam'.  It's about the size of limau kasturi in the background.  It's very sour and the whole fruit is full of tiny seeds.  To make the sambal belancan terung assam, you need to fry the shrimp paste (belacan) with a little oil and pound it together with the fruit and red fresh chillies.  Add salt to tast and a little sugar if you like, and add some lime juice.


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