Express Pineapple Tarts (黄梨挞“旺来達”)

"Pineapple tart crust recipe in two ways to share with you here! Happy Lunar New Year to all Chinese!"

Thanks to my colleagues' trial of the pineapple tart making, Margaret and LinSi. Their successful pineaple tarts making gave me confidence to set out my adventure in baking pineapple tarts, first time (chuckling). Both gave me their recipes, and I envisioned these two recipes as one to my first tart production of its own. A million of thanks to them!

Of course, pineapple tarts are always one of the staple food of Chinese New year festival. I, too, want to make some for my loved ones.

Called it the express version, we did the pineapple tarts using ready pineapple fillings (smilling)! Instant (ready-packed) pineapple jam is available in various supermarket stores. It is packed in a packet with the weight of about 300 - 500 gram, costs around S$5 - S$6 per packet.

Not difficult to make the crust, but a little time consuming though. I used around 4 hours to complete few tens tarts. I baked 4 rounds as I have only 1 baking tray at a time (laughing). That makes me a 4-hour long baking job. Otherwise, it could be pretty "express" (winking smile).

Oh ya, there is a harder part, the texture is always too soft to form the shape. Some taught to chill it in the refrigerator, some taught to add more flour. I chose the chilling method as I am worried that the baked crust will be too hard with too much flour.

Different shape you made yields different consistency of this cookie. So, I had the tarts made in two different styles, just to have a feel of the difference in texture in the palate.

Yes, remember to limit yourself with this all-time favourite festive food as each mouthful tart counts about 65 kcal, FYI.

Yields 50 - 60 small tarts
Ingredients for crust:
300 gm plain flour, sieved
250 gm butter, semi-soften at room temperature
100 gm sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

2 egg yolks (for coating purpose)

1 packet of pinepple jam as filling

Method
1) Sift plain flour. Mix flour, sugar and vanilla essence.

2) Rub butter with flour mixture till a dough is formed.

3) Chill in the refrigerator for 30 mins. Knead dough lightly. Dust kitchen table with flour, use a roller to flatten dough into 0.5 - 1cm thinkness.

4) Use a pineapple tart cutter to cut out the crust base. I used star shape bread mould to do as I do not have the actual pineapple tart cutter (laughing).

5) Brush tarts with beaten egg yolk. Then, place a small ball (about 20 cents big) of pineapple jam on top.

6) Preheat oven for 10 minutes, bake tarts at 170C (with both top and bottom heat) for about 15 mins, or until tarts turn into golden brown.

7) Leave to cool on wire rack, and store in air-tight cookie containers, when cooled.


If no choice, your dough is too soft to be shaped with cookies cutter, do the pineapple cookies instead of tart crust (chuckling).

To make into oval-shaped pineapple cookies:
1) Repeat above steps 1 & 2. Instead of flatten the dough, roll it into long strips each about 0.5 - 1 inch thick in diameter. Make into half a thumb size big dough each. Knead and flatten it with finger tips into a layer of skin thickness.

2) Place a small ball of pineapple jam and wrap it around. Lightly pinch the edge of the dough to make it stick. (Remove away any excess when shape is formed, your pineapple cookies' skin need not to be too thick). Roll to smooth and turn it into oval shape, as desired.

3) Polish cookies with beaten egg yolk.

4) Repeat above steps 6 & 7. Serve.

The pineapple tart (star shape) yields more crispy crust. The pineapple is harder when bite, but the crust taste more fragrance in the palate. Conversely, the pineapple cookie (oval-shaped ball) yields softer texture. Feels soft in the palate, easy to bite for older folks and younger children. The pineapple filling is soft and more sticky in a sense.

Same ingredients yielded different kind of consistency ot of it, I am not too sure why, but it happened. I prefer the cookies type.

Hope I have more time to make the fillings by myself next time. :)

Tips: Need not to use electronic mixer, if you do not have one. Beat mixture manually using the whisk/ egg beater will do.
* Butter should NOT be too soft, it has to be in semi-solid form with a little texture on your finger tips. Get Golden Churn Brand (from Margaret's recipe).
* Pinch some dough and roll into thin strips. Place on top of jam into a criss cross style, if desire.
* Add 1 tablepoon of milk powder, if you prefer milky taste (from LinSi's recipe).
* Sprinkle a little of salt into the flour, if desired.
* Use thread to create cross lines on the surface of the cookies for patterns, as desired.

Golden Prosperity Toufu（金玉满堂）

"Gourmet of Fortune for this festive celebration!"

Moon, asked if I am cooking any festive food. Yes, Moon. Here is it. In fact, the idea of creating a category for Festive Gourmet arose, just to house all possible festive food recipes I have cooked or going to cook, for all festive season, e.g. Christmas, Dong Zhi (冬至), CNY, Valentine's day, and etc. For easy reference. Do check it out (smilling)!

So, here's a new one for this CNY. TouFu aka beancurd, in Chinese, it's 豆腐，the word 'Fu' (腐) sounds similar to Fortune (福). Hence, eating Toufu (豆腐) during CNY celebration symbolises possession of fortune (Doufu - 都有福). I added dried scallop in making the gravy. Dried scallop is another staple ingredient you can't miss in cooking CNY festive food.

Of course, the placing of the dish also coheres with the image of a ship loaded with golds. So, I called it "Jin Yu Man Tang 金玉满堂".

Very simple ingredients used, and yet, a very meaningful and prosperous dish.

Serves 4 - 5
Ingredients
1 packet of beancurd aka Toufu, divided into 5 pieces
100 gram of fish paste
200 gram of minced pork meat
2 dried scallops, each for the size of 20 cents coin, soaked and shreded
1 carrot, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small cup of chicken stock (about 100 gram)
Pinch of salt and ground white pepper
Sprinkles of Shao Hsing Hua Diao rice wine (Chinese translation: 绍兴花雕酒)
1 tablespoon of corn starch, mixed with some water to create slurry
1 tablespoon of cooking oil

Seasoning (to marinate minced meat mixture):
1 tablespoon of light soy sauce
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
Pinch of ground white pepper
1 tablespoon of cornstarch

Method
1) Mix minced meat with fish paste. Add seasoning. Combined well. Marinate for 15 minutes.

2) Lightly place 1 spoonful of minced meat mixture on toufu slice. Top with some diced carrots. Repeat step for the remaining toufu slices.

3) Steam toufu slices for 10 minutes. Remove from steamer/ wok. Set aside.

4) Heat wok with oil over high fire. Add garlic and fry till fragrant. Add in chicken stock and dried scallop (add also the remaining diced carrots, if any). Reduce heat to medium fire.

5) Simmer stock for 5 minutes, with lid on. Remove lid, add in salt, white pepper and Hua Diao rice wine.

6) Pour cornstarch slurry to thicken the stock. Heat off, when thick gravy is created. Pour the gravy over steamed toufu. Serve hot.

Tips: Get a box of toufu in rectangle packet. Choose type of toufu suitables for steaming or boiling. Widely available in various supermarket.
* To remain the toufu slices in good shape when placing minced meat mixture, you may form a minced meat ball with barehand instead of spoon, before topping onto the toufu.

Stir-Fried Assorted Vegetables with Fresh Shitake Mushrooms and Fishballs (Family Reunion: 合家欢)

"Eat more vegetables to keep you in the pink of health!"

More vegetables everyday. Mixture of different colours of vegetables with at least 2 cups of amount daily. Regular and substantial amount of vegetables intake helps me stay slim, and healthy, as far as I am concerned.

I love all kinds of vegetables, even root vegetables such as bitter gourd and white radish, or chives and celery. There is this vegetable dish where you can combine many types of vegetables together, and make it very delicious!

It was not me who did the cooking this time... My hubby did. First time evEr (laughing)! Even though I had to hand-hold him (guided him step-by-step) from the start to the end of the cooking, it was a good feeling indeed. For a first timer in the kitchen like him, I think he did a good job (smilling).

Serves 4
Ingredients
1 bowl of vegetables mixture of broccoli florets, cauli flower florets, celery, asparagus, snow peas, and carrots, sliced or julienned.
4 pieces of fresh Shitake mushrooms, cut into halves
8 fish balls
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 tablespoon of oyster sauce
Sprinkles of sugar
Pinch of ground white pepper
1 teaspoon of cornstarch
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
1 small cup of water (50ml)

Method
1) Heat wok with oil. Set fire to high.

2) Add garlic. Fry 15 seconds till fragrant.

3) Reduce fire to medium. Add all the vegetables, fresh mushrooms, fish balls and water. Stir-fry 3 min. Cover wok with lid to simmer for 5 minutes, or until vegetables are just done.

4) Remove lid. Add oyster sauce and pepper, and sprinkle a little of sugar, continue stir-frying for 30 seconds.

5) Mix conrstarch with some water to make a slurry. Stir in the cornstarch slurry to thicken the stock, before heat off. Serve.

This is almost a 1-dish-meal, if you complete it with some sliced meat. If to eat it as vegetarian meal, forgo the garlic and even fishballs. Don't forget to use Vegetarian mushroom sauce instead of oyster sauce.

Here, this dish, counts about 120kcal per portion. Cooking time is rather short, too. It will not be a problem to get this dish ready in 20 minutes!

Since Chinese New Year is approaching, this dish, of course, very suitable to be eaten during the festive season, especially on the eve. Why? This dish is prepared with assorted vegetables (the vegetable family) which resembles the reunion of family. Make sense?! (Laughing)

Tips:Add 1 tablespoon of Shao Hsing Hua Diao rice wine (绍兴花雕酒）, as desired.
*Do not over-cook the vegetables to retain its freshness and bright greenish colour.
* Parboil the vegetables is not necessary in this case as the required cooking time for the ingredients used here are almost the same. No worries about the 'green' taste of the vegetables if without parboil, as it won't have any.
* If you are using dried Chinese Shitake mushrooms instead of the fresh ones, please expect longer cooking time for the dried mushrooms. Pre-soaking is required.

Fried Pork Ribs with Fermented Red Soy Bean Curd (炸南乳排骨)

I find this dish tastes much better and chewy in the palate when using pork ribs in this recipe. Use of 3-layer-pork is nice, too, if you prefer to eat it with some fat.

The fragrance of the fried rib mingles in the palate and creates a very pleasant after-taste. However, some might find it a little salty due to the red soy bean curd. Do not reduce the amount of this red soy bean curd, but you may cut short its marinating time. The longer you marinate it, the saltier taste it will be. Same thing, if you wish to yield a more intensive taste, marinate it overnight!

It is simple to cook, and only 3 ingredients are needed here. Your choice to go with or without the rice wine this time, as it might be good to taste the bone ribs with as less seasoning as possible.

Serves 2
Ingredients
300 grams of pork ribs
2 fermented red soy bean curb (Chinese translation:南乳)
Pinch of sugar
2 tablespoon of corn flour
2 cups of cooking oil (for frying use)

Method
1) Marinate pork ribs with red soy bean curd. Dredge the ribs till all well combined. Mix in sugar. Store it in the refrigerator to marinate for at least 3 hours.

2) Heat wok with oil over high heat. Mix corn flour with marinated ribs, briefly coat the ribs will do. Hit ribs into the wok or deep fryer. Deep fry till ribs turn golden brown. Remove from wok/ fryer, and drain on strainer or kitchen towels. Serve.

This fried pork ribs counts about 280 kcal for a portion of 2 – 3 ribs.

Tips: If you do cook this dish for dinner, I will suggest to cook another soup dish as the fried pork ribs are too dry to go with just the steamed rice.

Chocolate Cookies Recipe For Beginners

"Simple recipe for best homemade cookies. Beginners, you can do it!"

This is the simplest cookies recipe for first-timers and beginners. I am, one of the first timers in baking cookies, too (laughing)! Yes, this is the result of my first cookies baking. Yes, the cookies taste delicious. I brought them to the office the next day, to share with my colleagues. The feedback was good, and I have impressed them with these chocolate cookies, especially the texture. Shapes are kinda odd (I had square and round shapes from all 4 rounds of baking.. ha..), but taste is perfectly good. It feels so crispy to chew and the level of sweetness is just perfect for everyone.

As I said, this is the recipe for beginners. If this is going to be your first baking experience, and not yet got a electric mixer. No worries, use a hand mixer. Unlike baking cake, you do not really need a perfect refine mixture of all ingredients. Hand mixer will be good enough to create a reasonable blend in this case. But of course, more 'exercise' for your arm is expected, if you are using the hand mixer here (chuckling).

This was also another 'bonding session' for me and my girl. She initiated to help me. I got her to sift the plain flour for me while I was preparing other ingredients, and she did a good job indeed!
My girl loves cooking and baking. Perhaps, it is a fun thing to do for the kids (smilling).

Oh yes, one more thing here, I forget to tell you that I am a kind of cook who seldom follow the exact weight/ amount of ingredients to be used, but to follow my 'instinct' in cooking. So, I do not have exact measurement in this recipe. I used a bowl, a regular-sized serving bowl of about 3" depth and 4.5" diameter. I called it the medium 'rice bowl', for my measurement of plain flour and sugar here. Ok ok, I will try to find out the actual weight of each ingredients used, if you need it (winking smile).

Well, just give it a try, you can impress your loved ones just as simple as 1.2.3.

Yields 40 - 50 pieces
Ingredients
2½ regular bowls of plain flour, sieved (about 400 grams)
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 regular bowl of sugar (about 150 grams)
1 bar of hard butter (about 200 - 250 gram), cut into smaller pieces for beating
1 regular egg
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
½ bar of semi-sweet baking chocolate, coarsely chopped (about 70 grams)

Optional:
2 - 3 tablespoons of chocolate chips

Method:
1) Sift plain flour. Mix baking powder into sieved flour. Set aside. Break or chop chocolate bar into pieces. Place chocolate pieces in a microwave-safe container and microwave at defrost mode or low for 1 minute, or until the chocolate turns shiny paste. Alternatively, melt chocolate pieces with double boiler over hot water. Stir chocolate until smooth texture. Reserve for later.

2) Cream sugar and butter in large mixing bowl, beat well with electric mixer over low speed till fluffy. Add in egg. Gradually mix sieved flour into the mixture until well combined. Blend in vanilla essence and chocolate paste (melted chocolate). Add chocolate chips and mix well, if desired.

3) Grease cookies sheet or waxed paper, and place on the baking tray. Drop mixture by spoonfuls each with 1 inch apart on baking sheet. Preheat oven for 5 minute over 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Place cookies into oven and bake for 10 – 15 minutes using the same temperature. Allow cookies to cool on baking tray. Serve or transfer into air-tight container to store, when completely cooled.

This recipe yields wonderful crispy cookies, and the taste is simply fantastic. It leaves mild fragrance of chocolate taste in the palate.

If you do not have chocolate bar, no problem. Use 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder to replace it.

Tips: Texture of the cookies mixture is not so much a form of dough. It is likely to be thick batter form (semi-solid dough). A very thick and yet a little liquid kind of consistency, but no worries, the result of your bake with this recipe will be perfectly fine with wonderful crispiness.
* However, if use cocoa powder, it is likely to form a dough with the mixture instead of semi-solid dough texture as abovementioned.
* Place cookies mixture with about the size of one fifty cents coin on the baking sheet. Do round or square shape, as desired. Remember to leave 1 – 2 inches gap to allow expansion when baked.
* Cookies must be stored in air-tight container to retain its crispiness.

Dry Curry Chicken

"Delicious and Fragrant Dry Curry Chicken"

I like dry curry pork. So as dry curry chicken! This recipe of dry curry chicken, especially. It is because I have added curry leaves and lemon grass stalk this time. Much more frangrant with a hint of lemon grass flavour. The taste of curry is even better with the curry leaves.

Dry curry is more popular among Indian cuisine. Hence, coconut milk in this dry curry recipe is not the main ingredient. You can even forgo the coconut milk as the curry taste here is pungent and strong enough.

This can be a 1-dish-meal as the root vegetables such as potatoes and carrots are included.

Again, dry curry dish is more convenient to be ferried around if you were to prepare a dish for pot luck session out of the house, picnic gathering in the park or to visit a friend's or relative's house. No worries about spilling of gravy here.

Curry dish has always been seen as a 'sinful' dish to diet watchers. But without coconut milk, the calorie-count here is about 280kcal per portion. Eat a little and moderately, just to pamper yourself once in awhile should be a not bad idea, isn't it (smilling)?

Serves 4 - 5
Ingredients
1 medium fresh chicken, chopped into bite size
2 large potatoes, cut into wedges or bite-sized cubes
1 carrot, cut into cubes or bite-size lengthwise
1 packet of meat curry powder, 250 gram (I used Baba's brand)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 shallots, minced
1 stalk of lemon grass
Handful of curry leaves
½ cup of coconut milk (about 100 gram)
Pinch of salt (about ½ teaspoon)
½ cup of water (about 100 - 150 gram)
1 tablespoon of cooking oil

Method
1) Heat wok with oil over high fire. Add curry leaves, shallot and garlic, stir-fry till fragrant. Reduce heat to medium fire, add in curry powder, and stir-fry for 1 minute (be careful of the pungent smell).

2) Place in chicken, stir-fry for 3 minutes. Add lemon grass stalk, and water by pouring around the edge of wok. Add in potatoes and carrots, and sprinkle salt. Stir-fry for another 2 minutes to mix well all ingredients with the curry paste.

3) Simmer for 20 minutes, without lid on, or until gravy dries up. Add coconut milk, and stir fry for 3 minutes. Heat off, and serve.

Tips: Add hard boil eggs and simmer together with the dry curry chicken, about 5 minute before heat off, as desired.

Great Banana Sandwich for Your Children

"Great sandwich breakfast to start off the great day"

My girl loves this sandwich. She could have it as breakfast almost every morning over a period. This sandwich tastes sweet and delicious.

This sandwich recipe is great, and high in nutritional values. Its fillings e.g. banana, contains numerous nutrients such as Potassium which helps in promoting bone health. Banana acts as energy booster as well as an aid to youthful growth and metabolism. The Milo powder (chocolate powder) used in this recipe is enriched with Vitamin Bs. Another form of energy booster.

This sandwich is an excellent breakfast for younger children, teenages and sportmen. Calorie count of this sandwich is about 180kcal.

It is very quick to prepare. What you need is just 5 minute in the morning to get it served.


Serves 1
Ingredients
2 slices of white bread
1 wedge of banana
1 tablespoon of Milo powder (Milo: a milk beverage with chocolate and malt, produced by Nestlé and originating from Australia)
1 teaspoon of butter/ margarine

Optional:
1 teaspoon of condensed milk

Method
1) Cut the edges of breads. Spread a thin layer of butter or margarine on bread.

2) Slice banana, and layer on 1 bread. Sprinkle Milo powder on top of the banana slices. Condensed milk as dressing to be topped over banana slices and Milo powder, if desired. Place 1 bread tops over fillings. Serve.

If you prefer something warm and crispy, make this sandwich a toasted one. I personally prefer toasted version. The bread became crispy, and the heated banana turned soft and warm in the palate.

To make toasted sandwich:
3) Follow the above 1) and 2) steps.

4) Place whole sandwich on the bread maker. Serve warm when it is ready.

The toast sandwich is best to consume it warm. It can be served as snack or tea time.

Tips: Add some condensed milk, if desired. Tops over banana and Milo powder, before placing another bread. Taste will be even better with some condensed milk.

Papaya and Snow Fungus Soup With Pork Ribs

"Savoury Papaya Soup with loads of taste and nutrients"

Green Papaya and Fish Soup is one of the well-known soup recipes among the Cantonese. I like it, too. However, to cook soup with fish, adding ginger slices is a must in order to eliminate the fishy taste totally. Some of us might not fancy ginger-flavour in the soup. So, can we use something else to replace fish in the papaya soup? Of coure, there is. How about pork ribs?

My recipe uses pork ribs, white snow fungus and greenish-ripe papaya. Greenish-ripe refers to not-too-raw kind of papaya. Find much green colour with a little orangy on its rind, and flesh in bright orange. I prefer papaya of this stage as I like to eat it with a little sweet taste (too raw/ green will not be as tasty), and not just for boiling purpose. Eating the papaya after boiled is actually quite "meaningless" as its nutrients have been extracted and emerged into the soup instead. But I simply love to it even with just plain sweetness left in it. Just for the fun of exercising my jaws (chuckling) or to satisfy your crave of having some papayas!

I added white snow fungus, too. Snow fungus claimed to be effective in nourishing the lungs. This nourishing soup is light-bodied, with a hint of fruity taste in the palate. This soup is very refreshing and nutritional to drink it regularly. With minimal calorie count, this soup is about 120kcal per regular serving.

It's quick and simple to prepare which needs only 40 minutes.

Cook it for your family!

Serves 4 - 6
Ingredients
1 small not-too-raw papaya (about 5" long), cut into big cubes
300 gram of pork ribs, blanched
1 palm-sized white snow fungus (Chinese translation: 雪耳), soaked and break into smaller size
8 red dates
1 cube of chicken stock cube
1 pot of water, 50% filled (about 1500 ml)
Pinch of salt

Method
1) Bring a pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add in pork ribs, and chicken stock cube.

2) Add red dates, white snow fungus and papaya cubes into the broth, when chicken stock cube dissolved.

3) Bring all ingredients to a boil again. Reduce heat to low fire, and simmer for 30 minutes. Cover pot with lid. Add salt to taste.

4) When all ingredients are cooked till tender, heat off. Serve.

This soup is colourful, it attracts most children to try when they see it. Give it a try!

Tips: Cook the papaya with its rinds intact, if preferred. Papaya rind contains nutrients, too.
* I prefer to go without the rind. However, peel away the rind very thinly.
* To cook it sweet, forgo pork ribs, and replace it with some lotus seeds and dried longan. Add rock sugar. I will share my recipe of sweet soup version next time.

Delicious Soft Muffins from Choc N' Spice

"Nice muffins for breakfast"

Delicious muffins are easy to find at many stores, but not many stores sell soft and fluffy ones. This famous muffin store, Chocolat N' Spice is one of the those stores selling best muffins!

Their specialties are chocolate muffin and blueberry muffin.

This store has two branches i.e. Tanjong Pagar branch and Shunfu Road branch. I always go to the Shunfu Road branch during lunch, and will sure join the queue when it's not too long, even before getting proper meal for lunch as we know the queue will sure get longer and longer, especially over 12 noon.

I like to get blueberry or cheese muffin (~$1.30 ea) for myself, chocolate chips muffin (~$1.10 ea) for my girl and hubby, and banana walnut one for colleagues (~$1.10 ea). They sell many other flavours such as double chocolate, cranberry, orange peels, grated coconut, and etc. Brownies and apple pies are available, too.

The muffin is so soft and fragrant. Taste of the muffin is not too strong in the palate. Very delicious to eat, especially have it warm. Yummy..

If I pack it home for breakfast in the following day, I will put the muffins in the refrigerator when cooled down. Then, heat the muffins up with microwave by placing them on microwave-safe plate (heat up for 30 second), or heat them up with oven by wrapping with aluminuin foil to heat for 1 minute over 150 °C. Then, I will have it served with some strawberries (smilling).

Check it out at these places:
Address:Blk 320 Shunfu Road #02-12 Shunfu Mart Tel: 9383 0413
Operating Hours:
Weekdays: 8.30am - 4.30pm
Weekends: 8.30am - 2.30pm
(Closed on Mondays & Wednesdays)

Address:Blk 1 Tanjong Pagar Plaza #01-18 Tanjong Pagar Plaza Tel: 9276 2110
Operating Hours:
Mon-Fri: 8.30am - 5pm
Sat: 8.30am - 3pm
(Closed on Sundays & PH)