Si Restless Adam

Thursday- Caramelized Onion & Mushroom Tart

My husband is always a karipap man, not much of a cake person. I guess he has a thing with savory side of kuih muih, compared to me, who is always on the sweet side. But I always ignored him, and keep on baking sweet stuffs. haha 

Yesterday morning, he'd asked me to stop (or slow down? can't remember) making those sweetilicious. How dare he said something like that, it hurts my inner baking soul. ;p He asked me to make more of 'his type of kuih muih'. I.e. goreng pisang with crunchy batter, karipap, jemput2 (pakoras), roti canai, cucur badak, epok2, popia, karipap, karipap, karipap ;p. Bottom line, those kuih muih with 'tepung' since he loves munching those crusty dough. 

Those kuih are so common, and some are not blog-worthy ;p I sighed and start Googling on something different than karipap. (Ok, you can start count the word karipap now). I landed with this yummy looking mushroom tart. The taste is unbelievably SEDAP. +1000 points for the great combination of mushroom, caramelized onion, parsley and butter. We both love it. Never mind, let him win today. I'll bake my type of brownies tomorrow ;P Who's the cook&baker anyway?

Caramelized Onion & Mushroom Tart

(Recipe is loosely adapted from BBCGoodFood's Mushroom Tartlets)

Serving: 4

Ingredients:

375g block all-butter puff pastry (RC Note:I used Borg's, Kawan and Gardenia's are just too buttery for me..)

flour, for dusting

25g butter

300g mixed wild mushrooms or just one type, cleaned and sliced

25g Parmesan (or vegetarian alternative), finely grated

small handful parsley leaves, chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

1 red onion, chopped (RC Note: I added this)
1 egg, beaten

Method:

1. Roll the pastry out on a floured surface and cut out to desired shapes. (RC Note: Blind bake them first to avoid soggy)
2. Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Heat a large frying pan until hot, then add the butter and fry the onion until it nearly caramelized  then add in mushroom. Sauteed until there is no liquid left in the pan. Season, then take off the heat and mix mushrooms with the Parmesan, parsley and garlic.
3. Score a 1cm border around the edge of each tart, then spoon the filling into the centre circle. Brush the edge with beaten egg, then bake the tarts for 20 mins until puffed up and golden. Serve immediately.

Black and White Wednesday- Fig Tart

The tart shell recipe is taken from Ijan of Blogresepi while the custard is from Evan's Kitchen Ramblings' creme patisserie, which is adapted from Donna Hay's Modern Classics 2.

This is just a quick note to let you know that I'm still here, alive. I'm busy with packing and planning for our holiday trip. Yeay@holiday..Boo@packing.. 

I've been a bit under the weather lately and the fridge seems to be my BFF, at the moment. Trust me, I hate this new symbiotic relationship I'm having with my fridge (not to forget, the weighing scale). Why is it so hard to lose weight? *staring at above photo* Hmm..I know. 

As for the fig tart, I won't repeat it. Ever. Don't get me wrong, I love the shell and the creme patisserie, but I hate the whole combination taste. Weird. The first bite was my last. I should've had try Sis Muna Mahdzar Fadaaq's Baked Figs with Ricotta Walnut and Maple Syrup instead. 

I love browsing at fig tarts/figs photos out there. The main reason why I made this tart at the first place ;) Too bad, it didn't turn out quite like those delicious photos..

The Black and White Wednesday is inspired from The Well-Seasoned Cook's Black and White Wednesday-A weekly Culinary Photo Event.

Wordless Wednesday- Chocolate Tart with Peach Topping

Who gets the last slice?

You can get the recipe from my previous entry here.

On Family and Food IV

We spent the long weekend in my hometown. The Eid weekend. Raya Haji was still a Raya Haji to us, nothing fancy like the real Raya. The same ritual of Raya food feast and morning pray. No new cloth etc. We didn't do any qurban this year, but my my Andak's family did.  They chose to qurban one big buffalo and I got a small chunk out of it. Alhamdulilah. For me, buffalo meat tastes better than beef. I love them in kurma. 

Adam,  as usual, being frappy all the time, chasing his grandma chickens around, and being chased by his aunties after that. Good news. My mom is a grandma to nine Boer's babies this year. Bad news. We didn't get to check out the newborns. I bet they're all adorably cute.  

We got back in Singapore on Wednesday, with a loaded trunk of goodies. My mom homegrown's, of course. Kaffir lime leaves, the blue ginger, curry leaves, stalks of lemongrass, pandan leaves, more and more.....those which cost $ for me to buy here, and free to my mom. I wish I could plant those in pots. Dream on. 

Anyway, here's some photos of food I made from my mom's homegrown. 

Kampung eggs. I love half-boiled of them. I cooked some as masak lemak kuning, for Adam. 

Masak Lemak Kuning with eggs, garnishes with turmeric leaves.

Prawn sambal with petai. Make sure you listerine your mouth twice or more after you eat petai. 

Petai.

and my mom's rendang itik (duck rendang). She cooked it. I bought the itik only. he he 

Husband is away again. Sigh. It's 8:30 am. I had to wake Adam up for his playgroup class. He'll be a bit mamai

and hopefully I get to persuade him for a bath... without tricks. 

Oh my. Here's come my routine without him.

Thursday- Lemon Curd

The recipe is taken from my Lemon Cream Tart entry here. 

I'm eating it now with buttered toast.. 

Be jealous =P

Wordless Wednesday- Express Chicken Briyani

Recipe as per told by Miss ADABI Briyani Powder :D

Tuesday- Lemon Cream Tart

Lemon curd. Why is it so hard to make one? The step by step instructions were quite clear, so where did I go wrong? My first attempt was a BIG mess. It was overly sweet, too tangy and gloppy. Yuck. Followed by another failure with dreadful curdling. Sigh. I missed the right thickness (by few stirs only) as Adam was shouting calling for me. Why did he always call me during critical times? Should I blame him for my tragic lemon curd? ;p

Of course, giving up was never part of me lol, I tried again for the third time. I chose to follow Little Teochew's Easy Lemon Curd recipe since the  word 'Easy' on the title is quite convincing.  Instead of cooking it as a stovetop custard, I turned to ban Marie method and did the stirring thingy during wee hours of the morning, so nobody (read: both men) can disturb me. Voila, I got a bowl of lemon curd... and it suits my palate perfectly. Bonus. The combination of eggs, lemon, butter and sugar finally gave in to a smooth and silky curd. Phew~

Back to my first intention, it's time to make lemon tart. So I whipped 100ml of heavy cream and fold a dollop of lemon curd to it. Yummy. As for the crust, I loosely followed Ijan of Blogresepi's recipe. I've halved the flour and subs it with ground almond. (Thanks Ijan! I did try the original recipe tho, 2 thumbs up for it!)

According to Ju of Little Teochew,  the curd will last for a week in a fridge, and 2 months in the freezer. I've a bowl of it in my fridge now, and Im thinking of eating it buttered toast, scones, maybe turn a portion of it as a lemon cake, a cupcake filling, a cake topping and many more things. Yeah, it's overwhelming, but for now, let me just enjoy a slice of lemon tart with my little man :) 

Lemon Curd Recipe 

(adapted from Little Teochew's Easy Lemon Curd)

- 50 to 60g unsalted butter (more butter will make it smoother, but at the same time, fattier too ... you decide)

- 200 to 225g sugar (depending how sweet or tart you like it)

- 2 eggs

- 2 egg yolks

- 120ml fresh lemon juice (RC Note: 100ml will do)

- 1 tsp grated lemon zest, or more if you like (depending on how strong you want the flavour of lemon)(RC Note: I put 1/2 tsp only)

1. In a large bowl, whisk all the ingredients except the butter*. Mix well. Place the bowl over a bain-marie** (water bath) and stir constantly. The mixture may look curdled, but it will smooth out as it cooks.

* If you want a more subtle taste of lemon, do not add the zest at this stage. Set aside with the butter.

2. Once the mixture thickens - it should leave a path on the back of a spoon - turn off the flame and add butter in 2 or 3 additions. If you have not added in your lemon zest, add it in now and stir to mix well.

3. Allow the curd to cool slightly before transferring to a clean jar or bowl. Make sure it is covered to prevent a skin from forming. Chill in the refrigerator. The curd will thicken further as it cools. 

Lemon Cream recipe

100ml heavy cream-whipped

A dollop of lemon curd.

Fold a dollop of lemon curd into whipped cream. Ready to use.

Tart crust recipe (adapted from Blogresepi's recipe)