Taiwanese Meat Pie (馅饼)

School's examinations starting tomorrow, and I'll like to wish everyone good luck and do well. Okay, I know my daughter is only 7 years old, but I'm already started to feel nervous and stress, wonder how am I going to stress out for the coming years...LOL!! Relax...that's what my husband said to me!!

Alright, my post today...a Taiwanese dessert / snack. I love Taiwan food, I've been there 2 times and I never miss their night market with all lovely and delicious food!! Hoping that I may go again...;p

Taiwanese Meat Pie ( 馅饼 ) or you may call it pancakes but with fillings! Btw, I changed the fillings here. A curry flavours one....hehe! Tasted by few friends this afternoon when we were having lunch, feedback was...GOOD!!

Okay, here's the recipe.....

Ingredients for fillings:

200g chicken fillet (diced) ~ marinade with 2 tbsps meat curry powder and a pinch of salt and sugar.

2 medium local / yellow potatoes (diced)

5 shallots (diced)

1 onion (diced)

2 stalks curry leaves (chopped or you prefer to blend it)

2-3 tsps chilli paste

1 tsp chicken seasoning powder

1-2 tbsps water (add slowly, may need more if finds potatoes are not thoroughly cook)

Method:

~ Panfry shallots and onions until fragnant with 2 tbsps oil then add in curry leaves. Panfry at medium heat until fragnant.

~ Add in chilli paste and potatoes. Continue to cook for about 2-3 minutes then add in the rest of the ingredients. (except water)

~ At low heat slowly add in water and continue cooking until potatoes are totally cooked.

~ Dish up and let cool.

Ingredients for the pastry:

300g plain flour

3g salt

170ml warm water @ 65'C

Method:

~ Place flour and salt in a big bowl, add in water and stir to mix.

~ Mix dough by hands until form a rough dough then place on cleaned surface and knead for 3 minutes.....(ways of kneading, just press dough flat and fold into half and continue the same procedure for 3 minutes)

~ Place dough in a clean bowl and cover with cling wrap. Rest for 30 minutes.

~ Take out dough and roll into long stripes until smooth. Divide into 30g each and its ready to use.

~ After wrapping the fillings, seal properly like sealing a steamed pau then slightly press it flat by using our palm.

~ Heat up a non-stick pan with 1 tbsp oil and panfry both sides until golden brown at low heat.

~ Serve hot!!

Of course you can always change the fillings to your liking. Maybe with black pepper mutton or beef, it may taste good too...:)

Well, as you can see, my wrapping was not good here. Uneven pastry...one side thicker than the other...:( I know practice makes perfect...I'll do it again!!

Cheers!!

Shepherd's Pie or Reese's Pie???

Hi all, here's another recipe that I promised to share. This was the one that I've tried the other day together with the peanut kueh. This was my first time trying a shepherd's pie but somehow I'm not sure how is the actual recipe tastes like....;p This pie came to my liking when I saw my aunt's (Venorica's Kitchen) post last week. Its so easy and something different to serve for dinner instead of noodles or rice we used to have. (My daughter used to complain that she's bored with rice and noodles...haha!)


Well, if you are wondering why I decided to have such a title for this post, this was because of 2 reasons. First, I never try to eat a shepherd's pie before and secondly I've changed the ingredients to suit my very own taste. But of course this was inspired by my aunt...:)
Ingredients:
200g minced chicken fillets
6 small local potatoes (yellowish)
50g white button mushrooms (sliced)
** mozzarella cheese (depends on your liking, I used quite alot)
100-150g carbonara sauce (I used Prego's brand)
1 tbsp salted butter

Method:
~ First marinate the minced chicken fillet with some dried bazil leaves, alittle paprika powder, alittle black pepper and a pinch of salt for at least 30 minutes.
~ Cooked the potatoes until soften and mashed. Add in butter and mix well.
~ Saute the minced meat with 1/2 tbsp olive oil until fully cooked and add in the mushrooms. Stir well, off heat.
~ Then add in carbonara sauce and mix well. (If you find its too watery, then you may use less)
~ Spoon the cooked meat into prepared tray, top with cheese then followed by mashed potatoes.
~ Sprinkle some cheese on top of the potatoes if desire.
~ Bake at preheated oven at 200'C for 25 minutes. Serve hot!

This recipe served a 8x4" and a 6x2" trays. Can you believe that my daughter finished up the small one and asked for more...;p Oh she just love carbonara sauce and that's why I used that and cheese.....YUM!! Now you know why I named such title here...LOL!!!

Cheers!!

Blueberry Yogurt Tarts

Its Sunday, a day that my daughter always look forward to. That is because we have promised her that we'll bring her out to park, shopping then swimming or picnic. Every Sunday, she'll wakes us at 8am sharp and make sure we are on time to start the day..;p But this morning she was late..haha! Think it was because the late night sleep and we've been traveling the whole day back to hometown. And so her schedule was alittle miss out here and there..LOL!! And what's more....a surprise gift from her daddy while shopping to cheer her up...:p She's one happy girl again..haha!
Alright, about today's post is a light and delicious tart that i found in the book "The lifestyle Cuisine magazine" again. I actually made this for my daughter's teachers in her kindergarten. Don't get me wrong, my daughter is no more in kindie but we just make a day to visit her old teachers who she miss..:)


The recipe calls for plain yogurt but I've used a blueberry flavored yogurt instead. I just want the taste to be more concentrated with blueberries. The colour was a beautiful purple with a light touch of yogurt and a crispy chocolate crust...yummy! Again my daughter took 2 of the tarts after her dinner! Too bad I only had a small bite of it, I'm sure to make this again for myself soon..:)
The Crust: (makes 20 small tarts) 250g plain flour
10g cocoa powder
1/4tsp salt
170g butter
40g beaten egg

~ Combine flour, cocoa powder and salt. Rub in butter then add in beaten egg and make to form a dough. (Do not knead too much).
~ Wrap dough with cling foil and chill for 30 minutes.
~ Roll out dough to fit a small pie mould, press and trim off edge.
~ Prick the base of the dough with a fork and bake in preheated oven at 180'C for 10 minutes. (shown above)
~ Remove crust from oven and set aside.

The fillings:

400g blueberry yogurt

20ml fresh milk

90g sugar

2 eggs (beaten)

~ Bring fresh milk and sugar to boil. Remove and leave to cool.

~ Add yogurt and beaten egg into the cooled milk mixture and mix well.

~ Pour filling into baked tarts crust.

~ Bake at 180'C for 25-30 minutes until the top of the fillings are set.

~ Remove from tarts / pie mould to cool.

The decoration:

Fresh blueberries

Alittle icing sugar

~ Place some fresh blueberries on top of the tarts and sprinkle some icing sugar.

~ Chill the tarts before serving.

The crust was good, had a light flavour of cocoa which matched the blueberry fillings perfectly. Its a good dessert to serve after a heavy meal..:) Hope you'll like this as much as I do!

Cheers!!

Durian Cheese Tarts

Hi there, how are you? I've been absent for sometime, and friends have been asking why there is no new post lately..;p I did bake but all old stuffs like chiffon cake and baos. (requested by my daughter) With only 3 of us, those food need some time to finish..;)
Alright, enough for my excuses...bla bla bla..;p

Are you a durian fan? I am, and I'll go crazy with this fruit! The past 2 weeks I've been craving for durians. I just can't let it down..haha! Yesterday while my daughter and me went out for dinner at the nearest mall, I saw some durians!!! And I was like walking faster and faster to that stall, and my girl asked me "mummy why are you rushing"? I told her I saw durians!..haha! Crazy me!



After almost 20 seeds of durians, I thought of saving some for these tarts. Aren't they look lovely..;)


Transform my blueberry cheese tarts's recipe into durian cheese tarts. And top with fresh cream and durian....Wonderful!

Did a small tiny one for my girl to try. She doesn't really like durian, hopefully she'll like this.

A peep the inside of this tart, the soft and creamy fillings are just right to match with the crust pastry.

Here's my version of the fillings:

250g Cream cheese

50g Durian flesh

50g castor sugar

20g butter

1 egg

~ Beat the cream cheese, sugar and durian until light and fluffy.

~ Add in egg and beat well.

~ Transform the cheese mixture onto the baked tarts shells.

~ Bake at 180'C for 15 minutes.

~ Cool and pipe cream topping on top.

~ Chill before serve.

Topping:

250g Fresh cream

20g Durian flesh

~Beat together until its almost stiff.

Cheers!!

Angel Pie (Lemon Cream Pie)

Its our dessert tonight!! Seeing the other bloggers with all the wonderful pies, I also wanted to bake them all. Planning to make the blueberry bakewell tart from Passionate About Baking next week, but for today I just did something simple first.

Found this recipe from the website this morning, and all the ingredients were just right in my fridge. Well, it just meant for me to make this today..haha!





It was lovely and the taste is super good! If you like Lemon Meringue Pie, this is the simple version that you can try..;)

Recipe adapted from Diana Rattray.

Meringue base:
4 egg whites
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup sugar

~ Beat egg white and salt to stiff foam
~ Gradually beat in cream of tartar and sugar
~ Continue beating until stiff peak form and spread into a greased 9" pie plate.
~ Bake at 180-200'C for 30 mins until crust. Then cool.

Filling:
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
3 tbsps lemon juice
2 tbsps water
2 tbsps grated lemon rind
1 tbsp butter
1 cup heavy cream

~ In top of double boiler over simmering water, cook egg yolks, sugar, lemon juice, water and lemon rind until thick. Stir constantly.
~ Remove from heat and add in butter. Blend well. Cool filling.
~ Whip cream until stiff peak form and spread half of the cream in bottom of cooled meringue crust .
~ Top cream with lemon filling and spread remaining cream on top.
~ Chill thoroughly and serve.


Oh I just love the lemon filling. But I find my meringue crust was too thin. The next time I make this, I shall make the meringue thicker, maybe double the portion...;p



A closer look at the layers....yummy! My girl said this dessert is lovely and delicious. She has been asking for more after a piece..:)



Not to worry about the sugar used here, it was just right to the taste. Its definitely a keeper for me. Try it out and let me know whether you like it or love it....heehee..;)

Happy Baking!!