Let me first say that I have never baked a pie in my life till I came across this pie crust recipe. And if you give credit to beginner’s luck that my pie crust turned out unexpectedly well first time round, it has been well if not excellent (hmm..not so modest eh?) ever since. So trust me when I tell you I am not going to re-invent the wheel. In fact I will point you the way to Smitten Kitchen’s kitchen. She has done such a great job with the step-by-step photos that I have to say, go take a look if you need those pics because I definitely found them handy on my first attempt. Oh wait…I think it came in handy for the second and third as well, and fourth and….hmmm..a couple more..I mean many many couple more. Since those couples, I have weaned myself off the pics. I was beginning to find it absolutely ridiculous that I was compelled to load my laptop with the pics before every pie baking endeavor even though I could remember the steps perfectly and know how to get on with it like clock work. Shame on myself! Those pics were like my security blanket. So be warned when you check those pics out. You never know what they’ll do to you. Here’s my own humble pie crust pics and the recipe, needless to say, came from Smitten Kitchen!
For as long as I can remember, pineapple tarts are a signature for Eid. It’s almost a must in most houses celebrating Eid to either bake these tarts or buy them off the shelf or place an order from someone who bake these by request. There’s always a buzz about where to get the best tarts or the best value for taste tarts. And all that trouble is very much rewarded when the guests ooohhsss and aaahhhss over the tarts. However, I never understood what the craze for these tarts were. I didn’t like the floury taste of the biscuit sticking to the insides of my mouth and having to deal with the sticky sweet pineapple filling while managing the biscuit. There’s just too much going on at the same time for me to appreciate the tart. But maybe most people, unlike me, like this excitement.
I would rather settle for the pineapple pie. The pie crust doesn’t impede the flavor of the filling and leaves me to savor it. The pie crust complements the pineapple filling to make the pie eating experience a truly sensual one. And unlike the tart which requires the filling to be cooked for hours in order to make the tart less easily perishable, the pie filling assumes that abstaining from the pie is sheer torture and requires the filling to be cooked for a much shorter time. In fact, even waiting for the pie to cool was physical pain. How do you tell your nose to stop smelling the aroma coming from the oven and your mouth from watering at the thought of relishing the pie? Here’s sharing the pineapple filling recipe just so that you can share my agony and joy.:)
1 pineapple - remove top, bottom, skin and spine (see video below)
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup water
pinch of salt
3tbsp butter - cut into small pieces
Method:
Cut half of the pineapple into 1/4 inch chunks and puree the other half in the blender.
Put the puree and the pineapple chunks into a sieve and leave it to drain the excess juice for about 10 minutes.
In a pot, combine pineapples, puree, sugar and salt and stir.
Mix the cornstarch with the half cup water.
Add the cornstarch mixture into the pineapple mixture and stir well.
Bring to the boil and then simmer. Occasionally stir so that the pineapple will not stick to the base and burn.
Leave it to cook for about 30 - 45 minutes or until the mixture resembles jam.
Add the butter and mix well. Or add the small butter pieces into the pineapple jam just before baking.
Remove from heat, cool and use as needed in you pie recipe.
Tips:
Don’t squeeze out the juice. There won’t be enough juice to cook the pineapple if it’s too dry.
Draining the excess juice will reduce the cooking time to get the jam-like consistency.
Use the pineapple juice in recipes of add it to orange juice for a cool refreshing drink.
Add or reduce the amount of sugar depending on how sweet the pineapple is.
Last summer, spent in Singapore, meant tau huay breakfast almost every morning because the stall was a 5 minute walk away. It would have been every morning but unfortunately, tau huay seems to be a common favorite. So like the saying goes, the early bird gets the worm. Little did I know that my kids enjoy it as much as I do. So a few days ago they asked me when we would go back to Singapore again. Thinking that they missed home, I asked why did they want to go back. Expecting the reply would be that they missed grandma and grandpa or Aunty Leena or the sun or building sandcastles on the beach or being able to wear clothes without the need for a jacket or that that they were being patriotic and missed the country they were born in, I was pleasantly humored when I heard the reply. We want to eat that white smooth jelly thing in the sweet sugar that we had for breakfast in Singapore.” Hmmm….I’d give them a score of 10 for describing tau huay so accurately.
I remember my brother and I used to play a game when we ate tau huay. We’d try to find the biggest slice of tau huay in our bowl and compare whose was bigger. Yeah..it’s a silly game but it’s what I think makes childhood memories so much fun. And the one thing I didn’t want my children to remember of their childhood was that they could only enjoy tau huay in Singapore or miss eating it! I took pity on them. Plus for the cost of the flight back, I could eat many many many bowls of tau huay! In fact, to be precise, I would be able to eat 6000 bowls of tau huay.
Since it’s basically made from soya milk (tau huay chwee) which has been solidified to a jelly like consistency - just not as stiff as jelly, I decided to try my hand at it. As I trawled the net looking for a tau huay recipe to use, I realised that I would need gypsum, the gelling agent, which is unavailable here. Alternatively I could explore using agar-agar powder, which I did have in my pantry. Unfortunately, my first attempt at using agar-agar was a failure. I suppose I didn’t use enough of it to completely solidify all the tau huay chwee. So instead of tau huay, we decided that we would be content with tau huay chwee.
The smell of the tau huay chwee, so distinctly similar to tau huay made it difficult for us not to believe we were not eating tau huay. So until I find the right proportion of agar-agar powder to tau huay chwee to make tau huay, here’s my post on tau huay chwee and I guarantee you it tastes and smells exactly like the one from the stall at home. The pandan leaves make all the difference between the soy milk from the box and the one from the stall. And of course it’s hard to beat freshly squeezed and made with love.
500gm soya beans (soaked overnight with lots of water)
2 litres water (for blending the beans)
875ml water
125ml evaporated milk
2 tbsp sugar
4 pandan leaves
Ingredients for sugar syrup:
300gm granulated sugar
360ml water
3 pandan leaves (tied into a knot)
Method:
Throw away the water the beans have been soaking in. And rinse the beans once or twice under running water.
Divide the beans into four batches. Blend each batch with 500 ml of water.
Line a sieve with muslin cloth/cheesecloth.
Pour the blended mixture into the muslin lined sieve.
Extract as much liquid as you can.
Then sieve the extracted liquid through another piece of clean muslin cloth again to get a residue-free liquid.
Pour the liquid into a heavy base pot, add the sugar, the 875ml of water and pandan leaves and bring to the boil. Keep stirring with a wooden spoon so that the soya milk will not burn at the base.
When it starts to boil, remove the pot from the heat and remove any scum that comes to the surface.
Put the pot back on the heat and bring to a second boil. No stirring required.
Remove from heat and remove scum again.
Do this once more. You’ll notice that the soy milk will have little to no scum by the 3rd boil.
Add the evaporated milk and stir and for another minute or two but do not bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and leave to cool.
To prepare the syrup - combine all the ingredients and bring to the boil. Stir until the sugar dissolves.
Then remove from heat and let it cool before using.
Add sugar syrup to the soy milk and enjoy hot or chilled.
Tips:
Why do you need to bring to boil 3 times?
The cooking time is important, as raw soybeans contain a factor known as a tripsin inhibitor. Essentially, this means that the protein contained in the beans cannot be properly assimilated by the body unless the beans are well cooked. Soy milk should be cooked for at least 25 minutes from the first boiling time.
(thumbnail image and quote extracted from http://www.godsdirectcontact.org/veg/alternativeliving/recipe/8e.htm)
The residue is called okara. This can be used to cook other dishes and is too nutritious to be thrown away.
You can choose to remove the skin from the soya beans before blending or not. Removing the skin makes for a slightly better tasting okara. But I didn’t bother.
From reading up, I’ve learnt that organic soy beans make better tasting soy milk but that could be subjective. However, I did use organic soy beans.
When the soy milk cools, a piece of milk skin will appears on the top of the milk. Remove this first before drinking.
It can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. So I suggest halving the recipe if you’re not a soy milk fanatic.
A word of caution - when the soy milk comes to a boil, it will boil over in a matter of seconds. You need to remove the pot from the heat. Don’t try to turn the heat down.
Have you noticed how when the sun is shining and the wind is a gentle breeze and the trees start to bud and flowers bloom and the playground is filled with children’s voices and lawn mowers hum in the background that all of a sudden, things come alive. And I mean A.L.I.V.E! I just love spring. It’s not here yet, but the signs are so telling and oh so welcoming. So not to miss out on the fun outdoors, I whipped this easy yummy fish dish in no time. Some things, like taste, can’t be compromised. And I’m off….to enjoy the rest of the sun, of course!
Ingredients:
2 swai fillets - washed and cut into 2 (total of 4 pieces), dry wth paper towel
1/8 cup lemon juice
2 tbsp butter
1 clove garlic - lightly smashed
1 tsp of thyme - remove leaves from stem
1 tbsp of Italian parsley - chopped
1/2 onion - sliced
salt and pepper
Method:
Preheat oven to 325F.
Cut 4 pieces aluminium foil and grease it with some butter.
Season the fish with pepper and salt to taste.
In a saucepan, melt the butter and garlic on low heat. Leave the garlic for a few minutes in the melted butter until the you smell the garlic’s aroma. It shouldn’t brown and the butter should not turn brown either.
Discard the garlic. Add the lemon juice, thyme and parsley and a dash of black pepper. Stir and remove from heat.
Place each slice of fish on an aluminium foil. Divide the butter mixture equally and pour on the fish slices.
Put sliced onions on the fish and then fold the aluminium foil.
Put the foil packets on a baking tray and bake for 10 minutes or until the fish flakes easily.
Friday was an eventful day which I could have done without. Just as I finished my leisurely breakfast and was planning what I would do next while waiting for the kids to come home from school, my phone rang. It’s one of those calls you’d rather not receive from school. My little one had thrown up while getting in line after recess. Sigh.
In 2 minutes I got a set of clothes, a paper bag and a pair of shoes, my car keys and I was out of the door and on the way to school to right all things that went wrong. The poor kid was in tears, her tummy was feeling queasy and she’d thrown up on her coat, her jeans and boots. Hmmm…my brain went “I suppose I’ll need to put laundry on that list of to-do things I was thinking about”. So I did what needed to be done in the Health Room, got her signed out, collected some of her things which she’d left behind in class and by the time we were in the car, she was in a much better mood than when I first saw her. *pat on mummy’s back*
The problem was, she still had the pain and by the time we got home, she was running a temperature and looking pasty. Well she’s much better now. I suppose some bug got to her poor little tummy. But that meant no milk, no oily food and being the fussy eater that she is, no boring porridge after 2 doses of that “yucky gooey stuff”. But of course, only because she wasn’t complaining of the tummy ache and the fever had subsided that I relented and decided to try something new that was healthy, without oil and easy on the tummy and tasty. So maybe if you’re looking for tasty-no oil-healthy-wholesome food, you might want to try this.
Ingredients: (Serves 4)
3 pcs chicken thigh - boneless, sliced thinly
1 tbsp cornstarch
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp orange juice
1/4 - 1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 can of cut young corn/fresh young corn cut into 1 inch pieces
2 carrots - sliced thinly diagonally
1 can of sliced button mushrooms - drain the liquid and rinse under a running tap for 30 sec
2 stalks of spring onions - cut into 1 inch lengths
1 tomato - cut into 4 thick discs
1 very thin slice of ginger
Method:
In a small bowl, combine cornstarch garlic powder, sugar and salt.
Combine the sliced chicken with the contents in the bowl and mix well to coat the chicken pieces thoroughly.
Add the orange juice and mix well. Leave to marinate for 10 minutes.
Prepare the steamer.
Then add the water, soy sauce and garlic powder to the chicken and mix well.
Combine the corn, carrots, mushrooms and spring onions. Stir well.
Line the sides of the dish/bowl to be used in the steamer with the tomato slices.
Half fill the bowl with the chicken mixture. So that the gravy will not overflow when the dish is steamed.
Place the sliced ginger on the top of the chicken mixture.
Steam for 10 minutes or until chicken is done. Test by piercing the chicken slices. They should be tender.
Remove from steamer and stir the steamed dish a little to break the chicken pieces that might have clumped together as well as to coat all the ingredients with the gravy.
Here’s my own humble pie crust pics and the recipe, needless to say, came from Smitten Kitchen!
