Spinach Parcels in Filo Pastry

I have a packet of filo pastry in my freezer from God knows when. I thought of making Baklava with it but change my mind when I saw some leftover roast chicken in my fridge. I gather a few extra ingredients from the fridge and decided to make these parcels. It is not that difficult to make these. The only tricky part of this is working with the filo pastry but once you get the hang of it – it’s easy. You can serve this as an appetizer or like us have it for our dinner with some salad.

Meyer Lemon Bars

Lemon lemon. I just love them. I have a huge lemon tree at my backyard but the lemon is not that juicy as for my little meyer lemon plant, it’s not producing any fruits this year. Not sure why. My good friend Maria gave me some Meyer Lemons from her backyard and she told me she love lemon bars. So lemon bars it is. So I made some to share it with her and Linda. I prefer meyer lemons as they are more juicy and less tart. Hopefully my meyer plant will give me some fruits next year but if not I can always get some from Maria.

I used Ina Garter recipe but the next time I make this again I will cut down a bit of the flour for the filling as I like the filling to be softer. For the sugar I cut it down to 2 cups as meyer lemons are not that tangy so needed less sugar.

Pumpkin Tartlets

Is autumn and there are pumpkins everywhere so it is time to make some dessert out of it. I made these cute little tartlets for our Zumba Halloween Party in October. Yes we do eat dessert but in moderation ha ha… After a year of exercising 5 days a week I notice some changes in my eating habits and also my clothing. I don’t over indulge and eat everything in moderation. I do reward myself with some dessert every now and then. I didn’t lose a lot of weight but in some inches all over my body. I intend to keep it that way. I work too hard and make sure I don’t go back to my old habits… oh one more thing; I cut down on eating out. Outside food do have a lot of oil, sodium and also sugar. I guess that helps too.

Now back to these tartlets. Aren’t they cute? I made it into little bit size pieces so that everyone can have 1 or 2 pieces of it rather than having a big slice. But if you want, you can make it into a pie. I know some of you are not a fan of pumpkin but do give this a try. You might like it.

Traditional Cantonese Mooncakes

Is Mid Autumn Festival again and every year the festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month according to the Chinese calendar. This year Mid-Autumn festival falls on September 8th. I am feeling really homesick especially during the traditional festival where my family will get together to have dinner. Our family groups are getting smaller as most of my nieces are away from home either working or studying overseas. Anyway my heart will always be with my family even though we are thousands of miles apart.

I actually have no intention of making these mooncakes but after looking at the prices of mooncakes sold here I just can’t bring myself to buy any. The cheapest box of 4 pieces cost over $20.00 and they are mostly from China. The one from Hong Kong cost over $40.00 a box. I can’t bring myself to pay this kind of money for it. So I decided to make some myself this year.

Mixed Fruits Frangipane Tart

I always have weakness for cute and dainty little fruit tarts. I just love baking them when I have overload of berries or stone fruits in my fridge. I usually buy a lot of them during summer and toward end of the week they don’t look too good anymore so I will usually incorporate them into my bake goods like these tarts.

These tarts not only pretty they taste really good too. With the flaky buttery pastry, sweet and nuttiness of the filling and the fruits provides a slight tartness to the tarts. They were just prefect to have it with a cup of coffee or tea after a meal.

Palm Sugar Coconut Tarts

Carlos has been asking me to make some coconut tarts for the longest time and I finally made some for him last week. I think the last time I made these were a few years ago. I used the same recipe for the pastry of my previous coconut tarts and did some changes on the filling. Since I have quite a bit of palm sugar or gula Melaka brought from Malaysia I decided to use it in the filling as coconut always goes well palm sugar. True enough, we prefer this version of coconut filling to the one using white sugar. These little tarts look so cute and great to have it for afternoon tea. I am planning to make some again for our upcoming tea party. If you can’t find palm sugar you can always replace it with dark brown sugar.

Mini Apple Tartlets

I often have to remind myself not to buy too many apples but I still get carried away and overstocked them. I usually used them in juice but my doctor advised me to cut back on that as it is better to eat them than juicing it. Since I still have a big bag in the fridge and I need to clear them up before I fly back to Malaysia I decided to peel them all and cook it down. With 10 large apples I managed to cook it down to 4 cups. This recipe makes about 20 medium size tartlets and I share them with my zumba buddies. These mini tartlets are the perfect little dessert.

Pear Tarts

One of my neighbors gave us some pear a few weeks ago. Carlos is not a fan of pears and as for me I am just too lazy to chew on apple or pear. In order not to let it go to waste I used it for baking. I used some for making these tarts and some for cakes (will post the recipe up later) I am not a fan of soggy filling so I cooked down the pear first. We just love these tarts especially the flaky pastry and not so sweet pear filling. The tart is delicious with a dollop of whipped cream or you can even serve it warm with some vanilla ice-cream.

 

 

Ingredients for Filling:

3 pound of pears (I used Asian pears but you can use any type)
1/2 cup brown sugar (more if you like it sweeter)
1 tsp lemon zest
2 tbsp butter

Snow Skin Mooncake with Mung Bean Filling

Mid autumn celebration is just around the corner and I’ve seen so many bloggers posting mooncakes. I too get excited and eager to try my hand in making Snow skin mooncake or also known as crystal mooncake. Since I still have a packet of cooked glutinous rice flour in my pantry I decided to make some last week. I just love the moulds that Ann helps me to purchase from Singapore. Don’t you think they are very pretty?

This is my first time making it so it didn’t turn out too well. The texture of the skin is not as smooth as I wanted it to be. I blame it on the glutinous rice flour that I purchase here as I find the texture a bit too coarse. Nevertheless, it tasted ok. Since I am not a fan of snow skin mooncake, I tried a piece and took the rest to my workplace. Everyone seems to like it a lot.

 

Tarta De Dulce De Membrillo /Quince Tart

This particular tart is very popular in Argentina. You can see it in every bakery shops or cafes. This is a simple tart feacturing a filing of ruby red dulce de membrillo (mem-bree-yoh) or quince paste. Sometime this tart can be found with dulce de leceh, sweet potato (dulce de batata), guava paste (dulce de guayaba) fillings too but the authentic one is using dulce de membrillo. It is usually eaten with a cup of coffee or mate .

Like most of Argentine recipes, this tart owes its existence to the Italian immigrants who made Argentina their home during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Carlos being an Italian grew up eating this tart and I even bought a few Spanish cookbooks( I can’t seems to find any English cook book there) so I can make some of the Argentinean desserts and dishes for him.

Date Rolls

I have a lot of dates left from my Christmas baking and I wanted to use it all up for my Chinese New Year baking. I can’t keep the dates for too long as it tends to get dry real fast so I decided to blend it all up in a food processor and used it as the filling of these rolls. It turns out really good and it will be on the bake list for my next Christmas baking.

 

Ingredients for the filling:

600 gram dates – I used Medjool dates
¼ cup sesame seeds – toasted
3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp soft butter
½ tsp cinnamon powder
1 tbsp orange zest
3 tbsp orange juice

 

Kaya Puffs/Kaya Kok

It has been many years since I had kaya puffs. This is one snack that I will ask my sisters to bring if they come to visit me but I totally forgotten about it when my youngest sister came to visit in July. In order to get over the craving and also used up my homemade kaya I decided to make these. For non Malaysian/Singaporean readers, kaya is a jam made from coconut milk, sugar and eggs. It is eaten like regular jam or sometimes make into these puffs.

I used the recipe from Kuali but the result was not the same like the one I had back home. The pastry is flaky but on the dry side as I prefer the pastry to be on the tender side but nonetheless it is good enough to get over my craving. I have to try out another recipe soon.

Mini Fruit Tartlets with Mascarpone Cheese Filling

Holiday season is just around the corner and I am sure some of you are planning on what to cook and bake. I just baked some fruit cakes over the weekend and now it is aging in the fridge and I will douse it with a bit of brandy every now and then. I will be giving it away just before Christmas. Hope it will be ready to eat during Christmas.

I am a bit compulsive when come to buying fruits especially when I see nice and plump blackberries or raspberries even though I have no plan to bake anything. Then it will be sitting in the fridge for a few days and then I have to crack my head on what to do with it before it goes bad. So I made some mini tartlets with it. I think these dainty little tartlets are ideal for entertaining; and you can garnish it with any fruits you like. I gave some to my neighbor and she told me that she ate 8 pieces at one go and I told her it is not as bad as they were very tiny ha ha..

Fresh Fig Tarts with Pastry Cream and Walnut Crust

I love the taste and smell of figs especially Mission figs. It is earthy and mildly sweet and I can’t resist buying two boxes of it when I saw them at the Asian supermarket. Then I fall sick and it has been sitting in the fridge for 2 weeks and I finally get to do something with it late last week. Thank god they were all still good except for one of it.

I never tasted fresh fig until I came to America over 15 years ago. It was at the New York Union Square farmers market. I bought a box of it out of curiosity and fell in love with it ever since. I will always buy some when it is in season. Normally I will just have it fresh with yogurt with a bit of honey but this time I decided to make some tarts and garnish it with these fresh beauties. It's almost too pretty to eat but we are not letting this creation go to waste, though and we devour them up in no time ;)

Spiral Curry Puffs/Karipap Pusing

It is good to be home and get back to my regular posting after being away for a while. You might have notice I schedule the posting here as I’ve been so busy for the past 2 months and hardly try out any new recipes or complicated cooking. I still cook but just some simple dishes. For this posting it is something that I made a few months ago and only get to post it now.

Who doesn’t like curry puff? This is by far one of the most favorite snacks of our household. We can have it for breakfast, lunch, dinner or even tea time. I will usually make a large batch of it and freeze them up and will fry a few pieces at a time when craving strikes. I will usually make the one with just the regular pastry but when I am in the hardworking mood I will do the spiral pastry. Well, this is one of them. I posted this recipe in 2008 but that was over 4 years ago and there are so many recipes lost in the archives that I’d love to re-photograph and rewrite some of it. It will take me awhile to do it, but I am placing our favorite ones in the forefront and I am starting with this Spiral Curry Puffs.

Fresh Salmon and Spinach with Parsley Pastry Lattice Tart

I am a very simple when come to cooking and baking. I don’t like complicated recipes that requires a lot of work or ingredients. But once a while when my crazy mood strike I will attempt something that requires a bit more work especially in baking. Like this tart, the pastry requires an extra step of chopping the parsley and also doing the lattice for the top. Since I have some leftover cheeses in my fridge it is a great way to finish them up too as I used both Ricotta and Parmesan cheese for the filling. Well it turns out pretty good and we had this tart for our dinner accompanied by a green salad and for the other tart I gave it to my neighbor.

Plum Frangipane Tart

I have lots of plums from the backyard tree. They were super sweet and juicy and actually they were the best plums that I’ve even tasted. I Google to find what type of plum this is and they were called Satsuma Japanese Plum. They were a bit smaller than the regular plums, solid red skin, and firm with dark red flesh. They were rich in carbohydrates and Vitamin A and C, calcium, potassium, and iron. It contains high amounts of fiber too. Like other fruits, plums are also low in calories and contain no sodium, saturated fat or cholesterol. We love eating them fresh but with so many of it I reserved some to make jam and also tarts. Actually we are able to finish it all but it is just an excuse for me to do some baking with it :)

I used some of the plums to make frangipane tart. It turns out really well. The pastry dough is buttery and crunchy, the sweet and a hint of bitter tart plums (from the skin) compliment so well with the aromatic sweet almond filling. This is a dessert for summer!

Chicken and Spinach Calzone

I prepared this for our lunch over the weekend. A little change from our regular homemade pizza I decided to make calzone. Normally calzone is made from pizza dough but I made this with Pillsbury biscuit dough. I always have a tube of biscuits dough in my fridge for days like this when I wanted to make something quick. These were a nice size and easy to eat just with our hands. You can change this recipe to include any fillings you like and it is a great use for leftovers meat you have in hand.

Chinese Chives Pocket

These chewy and crispy pockets are favorite Chinese snack here in the US. It is filled with ground meat, eggs and garlicky chives. They do sell frozen ones here but I like making these pockets myself as I can add whatever I like into the filling. You can always modify the filling according to your preference like adding tofu, mushrooms to it or omit the meat for vegetarian version. You can also add as much chives as you wish to it too. I even freeze some uncooked ones so I can have it anytime I wanted to. By the way, I will be away from my blog. My sister and I will be visiting Yellowstones , Salt Lake City , Mount Rushmore and Las Vegas . I won't be able to reply to all your comments as I am not taking my laptop with me. If there is anything urgent you can always email me as I will check it daily.

BBQ Pork Hand Pies/Char Siew Hand Pies

Hand pie is an individual serving of a buttery and flaky pastry stuffed with either sweet or savory filling. This also makes a great portable snack during picnics or small gatherings. These little pies are so versatile that you can use any leftovers meat or even fruit preserve as filling. I like making these and freeze them and when I want to have some I just take it out and let it thaw out on the kitchen counter for 15 minutes and bake it. I made these using some leftover BQ Pork/Char Siew from our previous dinner.