Wednesday 13 February 2013

Egg Tarts


Mainly adapted from Christine's Recipe. Visit her website for the original recipe. (http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2009/03/cantonese-egg-tarts-recipe.html#.URtSKxEaySM)


Ingredients for the crust:

225g plain flour
125g butter
50g icing sugar
1 egg, whisked
1 tsp vanilla essence


Ingredients for the custard:

3 eggs
90g caster sugar
225g hot water
85g evaporated milk


Methods for the crust:

1. Place butter at room temperature until softened. Whisk the butter and sugar until the mixture is smooth, fluffy and light in color.

2. Add in whisked egg, half at a time, whisk slowly. Add vanilla extract, mix well.

3. Sift in flour and make sure all ingredients combine well. Knead into dough.

4. Roll out the dough to a 1/2 cm thickness. Cut dough with a cookie cutter that is just a bit smaller than your tart tin in size.

5. Line dough in the middle of tart tins, one by one. Lightly press the dough with your thumbs, starting from the bottom then up to the sides. While pressing the dough, turn the tart tin clockwise/anti-clockwise in order to make an even tart shell. Trim away any excess dough.


Methods for the custard:

1. Add sugar into hot water, mix until completely dissolved. Let the water cool.

2. Whisk egg with evaporated milk. Pour in sugar water. Mix well.

3. Sift egg mixture to get rid of any foam into a tea pot. Carefully pour egg mixture into each tart shell.


Baking methods:

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Bake tarts for 10 to 15 minutes until the edges are lightly brown.

2. Lower the heat to 180C. Keep an eye on them. Once you see the custard being puffed up a bit, pull the oven door open about 2 to 3 inches. Bake for another 10 to 15 minutes until the custard is cooked through. Just insert a toothpick into the custard. If it stands on its own, it’s done.






Snow Pears and Apples Chicken Soup

Serve 6

Ingredients:

3 snow pears (cored and cut into quartered)
2 Fuji apples (cored and cut into quartered)
1 whole chicken breast with bones. (Washed, cut into 4 pieces and blanched with boiling water)
$1 worth of mixed Chinese bitter and sweet almonds
2 carrots (peeled and chopped into chunks)
10 seedless red dates
Water
Sea salt


Methods:

1. Boil a big pot of water.

2. Once the water starts to boil rapidly, put in the chicken breast. Cook for 10 minutes.

3. Add the pears, carrots, Chinese almonds and red dates. Cook with high heat for 10 minutes before reducing the heat and simmer for 1 hour.

4. Add the apples and continue to simmer for another 1-2 hours.

5. Add some sea salt as desired.


Do not peel the fruit so that they will stay intact during the simmering. May add snow fungus too.