On Christmas eve..i had the sudden urge to bake these Orange Flans which i've been talking about for sometime now..boy..was it time consuming..i spent almost 4 painstaking hours to complete the whole procedure..haha..sounds like an operation..ended up with very tired neck and back..amatuer..haha..

remember this picture?

Yah..those are my orange flans...they are NOT EGG TARTS..haha..all though they look alike..

SO..the recipes..

*the pastry had to be made separately..so this is gona be quite along list..

Sweet Pastry B recipe...
Ingredients...
A
..70g icing sugar
..150g butter
B
..1 egg
C
..260g flour
..1 tbsp milk powder

Method..
1.mix A until well combined and add in B and cream until smooth
2.add in sifted C and mix until well blended.
3.refrigerate for 30mins or until firm
4.take out and roll between 2 sheets of plastic wrap to the desired thickness and size.
*normally used for making big pie and tart.
* makes more than 10 tarts in those regular tart moulds..

Orange Flans recipe
Ingredients..
..1 portion sweet pastry B
Filling..
A
..4 eggs
..80g sugar (or lesser..depending on preference)
..150g whipping cream
B
..150g orange juice
C
..1orange zest, grated

Method..
1. roll out the pastry btw 2 sheets of plastic wrapto 3mm thickness and line the greased pie moulds with the rolled pastry. leave them to chill for 20mins.
2. line the pastry shells with foil or greaseproof paper and baking beans. bake at 190C for 15mins.remove the foil and beans, then, bake for another 5mins.leave them to cool.
3. filling: whisk A until well blended. add in B and mix until well combined, strain the mixture. add in C and mix well.
4. pour the filling onto the pastry shells. bake at 190C for 25mins or until set.
5. leave them to cool before removing them from the mould.

I had fun when i watched the tarts bloating in the oven..so excited that i even asked my mum to come watch it happen..haha...

Mum sensed something amidst behind all the excitement..she grabbed my recipe book and found the answer to my tart bloating phenomena..

"Over baking will puff the custard up. Wrinkles will appear when the flan is cool and the custard shrinks"

True enough..it happened..and the 1st tray had the most damaging effect..

too much of tanning...

Despite the light burns..it tasted good..maybe alil too sweet..but good thing the others turn out well..mum gave me the best rating compared to my other previous experiments..haha..

i think 190C maybe just too much of heat for this tart..or maybe its just the effect of my oven at this temprature..high fever..hehe..so i have to reduce the heating time n temprature to 20mins at 160C..have to keep an eye on this tarts or they'll turn bad...haha..

try it..dont give em to much of tan like me..haha..

mel did one a few days back i think, i decided to make that again. it seems pretty fun.. eheh

Ingredients

Pastry
200g flour
100g butter
a handful of finely chopped coriander
60g water 

Filling
4 hard boiled eggs
3 crabstick
mayonese
1 tbsp dijon mustard
chopped coriander
salt n pepper (optional)

mix flour and butter till resemble fine crumbs, u can use a dough mixing thing, or use for to break the butter n mix with the flour.
add in coriander and mix again
add in water, abit at the time.. use hands and knead it into a doughball. keep in the fridge for 30 minutes.
take out, roll, flip, fold, roll, fold, fold a couple of times n roll.. roll out into a sheet, then keep in the fridge for 30 mins again.
take out, press with mould and bake at moderate temperature (180-190 C) for 15 mintues or till golden brown.

mash the hard boil eggs and crabstick together. make sure it's really smashed.
add in mayo and mix mix mix, then add mustard and mix mix mix.
add in coriander and salt and pepper if needed.
combine them really well, and make sure the eggs are thoroughly mashed.

put the filling in a piping bag, with a nozzle. pipe the filling out on the baked pastry..
if the eggs are not mashed till it's very very small, it's quite hard to press it out..

dough in various shapes...

done!! not very pretty tho..

mm

i think the dough's a bit flour-y...so..maybe u can reduce it..or add butter.. but the topping is nice.. the trick is..a bit of mustard..

enjoy!

another finger food. Bruschetta with Tomato. I made this a few years back, so i just add whatever that i can remember till it tastes good.. ahahhaha

1 baguette french bread
4 tomatoes (if u can get plum tomatoes, it's great)
1 big onion (the white one)
1 handful chopped coriander
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp sweet vinegar

Dice the tomatoes and onions. mix well
Add in olive oil sweet vinegar and coriander. mix till well incorporated.
add salt and pepper..
slice the bread, spread some butter and toast it.
when it's done, scoop the tomato on top of the bread.. and EAT!

the tomatoes, onions and coriander

time to indulge!

it tastes really good when the bread's just toasted.. crunchy.. yum

i think it's better if u dont buy local tomatoes.. u have to find plum tomatoes, those which has less seed and water and has thicker skin, then u'd taste more of the tomatoes.. and delifrance's baguette is really nice.. just RM 1.++

and.. it's healthy !!!! ahhahaha

we had a christmas potluck yesterday, i made a few finger food.. one of them is this Chinese chicken Parcel.. from Jamie Oliver. recipe here

1 Savoy or Chinese cabbage
sea salt
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled
1 bunch of spring onions, trimmed
1 handful of fresh coriander
1-2 fresh red chillies
1 tablespoon fish sauce
4 trimmed boneless chicken thighs, skin removed, roughly chopped
1 handful of water chestnuts
zest and juice of 2 limes
1 teaspoon sesame oil
extra virgin olive oil
sweet chilli jam, jelly or sauce
soy sauce
1 tablespoon toasted
sesame seeds

Remove and discard the core and outer leaves from the cabbage, undo the remaining cabbage leaves and place them in a pan of salted boiling water for 2 minutes to soften. Cool them in a bowl of cold water, drain and put to one side.

In a food processor, whizz up your garlic, ginger, spring onions, coriander, chilli and fish sauce with a good pinch of salt. Then add the chicken, water chestnuts, lime zest and juice and sesame oil and pulse until you have a minced meat consistency.

Place a heaped dessertspoonful of the flavoured mince on to one end of each cabbage leaf. Fold it up and tuck in the sides, then roll up. Rub a bamboo steamer, colander or normal steamer with a little olive oil and place in the cabbage parcels. They may try to unfold themselves, but once you start putting them next to each other they will hold in place. When they're all in, sit the steamer over a pan of boiling water, making sure the water doesn't touch the parcels and that it's just the steam that's cooking them. Put a lid on top and steam for about 6 minutes until cooked. If you're worried about the cooking time, take one of the parcels out and cut it in half to make sure that the heat has penetrated and that they're cooked.

it was quite easy to do.. actually i havent really cooked alot of chinese dishes, although i'm a chinese.. ahah.. because chinese dishes are .. generally harder to cook  u know u have to control the fire.. and all .. ok so this one was pretty easy, i'm quite happy that it turned out well and everyone ate..

not much pics taken of the food, cause too busy.. =.=

cabbage. after boiling n dipping in cold water

this is the end product! it's minced chicken inside.. it's nice.. hehe

good.. can make this for chinese new year again!

oh yeah !! u can serve with soy sauce with toasted sesame .. or thai chili sauce... nice

take a good look at the picture below..and have a wild guess..what could this be??hmm...seem pretty familiar ain't it..haha..i can bet that you wouldn't be able to guess it correctly..

looks like the sun is up..haha

full details after christmas..have fun..

MERRY CHRISTMAS YOU ALL!!! make sure you peeps keep that appetite going...ho..ho..ho..

*to be continued*

hit by the beer battered chicken..ish..i found this recipe online and thought of trying it out..in hopes to create a nice chicken dish for sun's potluck..my hopes alil dashed with the outcome..so..have to get another recipe..*yikes*

Ingredients..
1 1/2 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs, beaten

3 cups of oil for frying
1/2 cup all purpose flour

Method..
1. rinse chick,slice to 1inch strips. Stir together 1 cup flour n baking powder in a bowl. mix in eggs and beer.
2. heat oil in deep heavy skillet to 375F
3. place 1/2 cup flour in small bowl. coat chic strips with flour, then dip into the batter.
    fry in oil, turn till coating is golden brown.

evrything went pretty fine..other than the outcome that is.after all is done, i realized this batter thingy serves only as the chick coating..nothing more, nothing less.the batter creates a soft kind of crust to the chicken which is nice..d chicken look like pieces of nugget..haha..

needless to say, the chick tasted bland..so i guess a dip with chili sauce or tartar sauce would be the saviour of this chicken..or maybe some cheesy cream in the chicken..

as always, there's the remaing batter..i decided not to waste it..by dipping bananas into it and fry..haha..and it tasted pretty good..i'm starting to suspect that my skills are probably sabotaging me..the main dish which i attempt to make most of the time does not turn out as good as the unplanned dish..ish..not fair..

pisang goreng?or goreng pisang?

or rather known as Dong Zhi festival, or least known as The Winter Solstice Festival. this festival is to welcome the winter, but since we're in Malaysia and theres rain instead of snow, so, maybe this one's to welcome the raining season (althought it has started like a few months back). This festival is held 6 weeks before Chinese New Year.

so, during this kinda chinese festival, my mum would cook alot of dishes to offer the ancestors and Gods. I do remember, that I didnt quite celebrate it for some years. I think it's because if a relative pass away, u can't celebrate it for 3 years (or some amount of years).

This year, i woke up from my 3 hours sleep to help my mum roll out the Dang Yuen. it's made of Glutinous Rice Flour and water, and colouring if u want. There are different types of Dang Yuen. some are plain, with no filling, some has grinded roasted peanut, red bean paste and many more.

preparing some of the food.

grinded roasted peanut with brown sugar

kneading the glutinous rice dough with water. knead and knead.. then u get

of course u gotta add some food colouring to get variety of colours of dang yuen

roll em small, then u get small colourful edible pearls  ( these are no-filling dang yuen)

boil a pot of water. throw the rolled dough in and when it's done, it floats up and the size is bigger.

drain them up and put them in cold water.

when it's done, it should look like this

add boiled ginger syrup... yumm

roll out a dough ball, make a hole in it ..

fill in with some peanuts

then close it back. but.. this is tought u know if u're not familiar on how to make it ..

this is the red bean paste version

when it's done.. a lil too big though

then indulge

a common setting if there's a chinese festival at home. from topleft (clockwise) fried chicken , fried fish, lemongrass pork, taiwanese lap cheong (sausages), steam prawns, cooked rice, cauliflower + carrots, Teow Chew Fishballs with Pork-stomack soup, fried yee mee, dang yuen and paper offerings..

uh.. just for fun  it's christmas soon

slanted-version, because my niece pressed on it

ah.. pretty long entry huh ??

well, happy holidays (tang juik, christmas, newyears...)