Nancy Ho

With the success of making hokkien dumpling last year, decided to challenge myself to make Nonya dumpling.
Frankly speaking, making nonya dumpling is a lot more work than hokkien dumpling ...... one thing make small quantity does seems to decrease the workload.
Using my aunt's recipe, here's my product



Need to increase my spices, increase the size of cutting pork and winter melon .... will try again next year
Sigh, the learning window is so short only once a year

Have been wanting to make chicken pie for a long time, never quite do it as I do not enjoy handling pastry.
Somehow, after a few apple pie, i finally got the hang of handling pastry!! Using plastic sheet to cover the dough makes rolling and washing much easier.
Thinking of what snack to buy for grandma, till decided to make my own chicken pie!



This is a lovely recipe from Peony - My culinary jounal
Pastry:
150 gm butter
250 gm plain flour
1 tsp sugar
1 egg yolk
A pinch of salt
1 tsp of herbs ( mixed / rosemary)
100 gm yoghurt

Put all the ingredients, except yoghurt, in a mixing bowl. Rub butter into flour mixture until like breadcrumbs. Add in yoghurt and mix to a dough.
Dough will be very soft so need to keep it refrigerated for at least 30 mins.

Filling: ( adjust to own preference)
1 big onion diced
diced cooked potatoes
mixed vegetable
Sliced button mushrooms
2 chicken breast, diced
oil
½ cup water

Seasonings :
1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbsp water
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp oyster sauce
salt n pepper to taste
Heat abt 2 tbsp of oil and fry potatoes until golden. Set aside.
In a clean wok, heat 2 tbsp oil. Fry the onion until transparent. Add mixed vegetable, mushroom, chicken. Add in potatoes.
Add in water and cook for abt 5 mins. Add in seasonings.
Add in the cornstarch and stir to thicken mixture. Cool and set aside.
this dough is enough to make 6 half-cup muffin size pies.

Roll out the dough, cut the size required and place in a pie dish. Poke holes at the base using a fork. Put 2 - 3 tablespoons fillings in. Cut another piece of dough to cover the top. Poke a few more times using fork on the cover of the pie. Brush with 1 beaten egg. Baked in a preheated oven at 180°C for 25 - 30 mins.




Somehow i had put in too much stock .... need to reduce
Also, I ran out of dough .... that's why the surface looks like patch work!! Still green!!

Yes another apple-like pie, this time i have little helpers to help!!
My friend YY brought her children over to have an idea what it entails to make a apple pie.
Using the knowledge that i had from the previous one, I use Peire Hermes sweet tart dough and dorie greenspan's american apple pie filling to make this one

From the picture, the top of the pie looks very rough as i have insufficient dough for the pie... also the pastry is very soft and difficult to handle
Taste wise, the crust is fantastic different from the usual shortcrust pastry. The filling was not cooked so it preserved the crunchiness of all the apple.
Will post the recipe

Many foodies has been raving about the lovely fruit tarts at Manpuku - Tampines 1.
I am also fascinated, in fact went once but came back empty handed as it was sold out and needs 1 hr of waiting.



Finally, I managed to get 4 slices (that's the max you can have btw) and each slices cost almost $10
Taste wise, i think its nice ..... but the pocket does hurt!!

There are no fancy dinner nor expensive gifts this mother's day, just a simple little paper from my beloved Chloe



Wishing all mothers good health and happiness
A contented mum

Inspired by a book that i read to my daughter ... made this apple crumble pie



The recipe is found in KC forum by yangone
Ingredients

The crust
125g butter
225g plain flour
1/2 beaten egg

The apple filling
4 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
2 tbsp brown sugar
sprinkles of cinnamon powder
lemon juice from a slice of lemon
some water
1/2 tbsp corn flour

The crumble
70 - 80g butter
1 cup self-raising flour
4tbsp sugar

Method
1. Make filling first by cooking the apples with the rest of the ingredients with some water. Add cornflour to thicken.

2. Make the crust by combining the butter, flour and egg to form into a dough. Press dough on to a pie pan. Bake at preheated oven of 180C for about 8mins (or till the base is dry).

3. For the crumble, gently rub the butter and flour to form into crumbs and add sugar and mix well.

4. After crust is baked, pour in the apple filling and sprinkle top with the crumble. Bake at 200C for about 30 - 45 mins or till crust is nicely browned.

At the market, I was at the egg store asking for century eggs.
I saw the lady, gently hitting the egg so our of curiousity i asked "How to go about choosing century egg?"
Afterall everything is inside ... u know what i mean??

She then told me to hit the egg and feel for a harder egg (usually people prefers harder egg)
She also shared a recipe with me to eat century egg.
Simply remove all the outer coating then boil the egg with shells on.
Remove the shell only when cooled thoroughly then you can remove the shell and enjoy the egg.
Interesting ...

I still prefer to put in into my century egg porridge