Pineapple Tarts for Beginners

I am not a huge Chinese New Year goodies gal, but I just love Pineapple Tarts.

The good thing is, in Singapore and Perth, you don't have to wait till Chinese New Year to find them.

Singapore's Bangawan Solo stocks a decent albeit soft batch all year round, and in Perth, you can always find some cardboard tasting ones in the Asian grocery stores.

If you want good Pineapple Tarts though, they usually only show themselves during the festive season, when that meek-as-a-mouse auntie suddenly unleashes her secret baking skills and rakes in $$$ with the sale of truck loads of tarts.

Since I am neither in Singapore, nor interested in eating cardboard, I have had no choice but to try and bake my own Pineapple Tarts for the last two years.  

Amazingly, Pineapple Tarts are incredibly easy to make with the right equipment.  I used my Breville Kitchen Wizz Pro.  If you have any sort of mixer than can churn out dough, you will be fine.  If not, you will find yourself slaving away at the counter trying to get the damn pastry mixed.

I found this recipe to be quite fail proof - the tarts taste yummy.  I doubt you will be able to make any money selling these though, because they are the ugliest Pineapple Tarts you will ever consume.

* * * * *

Easy Recipe for Beginners (adapted from Delicious Asian Foods)

> Sift into a food processor/mixer:

3 cups plain flour

1/3 cup corn flour

6 tbsp icing sugar

> Slice in 280g refrigerated butter

> Add in

3 egg yolks

3 tbsp cold water

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

> Mix together using the dough blade until it clumps into a nice ball

> Drop the ball into a cling wrap and refrigerate

The dough can stay refrigerated until you are ready to begin assembling your tarts.  

Simply microwave it for about 20 seconds, until it is soft enough to be flattened using a rolling pin.

Next is the pineapple jam recipe (my own)

> Skin 2 large pineapples 

 

> Mince the flesh (including core) using a food processor

> Throw the mixture and 2 cinnamon sticks into a pan on medium/low heat 

> Stir occasionally

> When it darkens, add in 1/2 cup brown sugar and turn heat to medium/high

The sugar will caramelize, causing the mixture to darken even more, and thicken.

Once it looks like a jam and you can no longer see any standing liquid, remove from heat. and cool. 

Now a lot of recipes will try to make this process super complicated, but really, it is up to you to decide what kind of texture you want your jam to be.  Mine turned out to be fibrous with a bite, and not too sweet.  Many of the recipes I've come across ask for just 1 cinnamon stick, and a lot of white sugar.  But sugar kills, so I just used 1/2 cup, and brown sugar. 

Once again, you can now refrigerate your homemade (be proud!!) jam until you are ready to assemble the tarts. 


I stored mine like this ^

 

I don't own any cookie cutters, so I selected this bottle mouth to cut out the round pastry shapes.

This particular opening is smaller than regular sized tarts, but your pastry will come out bite sized, less than 3cm across, and about 1cm high.

Switch on your oven and let it heat up while you cut your round pastry shapes.

Place the circles on a baking sheet and brush them with a mixture of 1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp water.

Then, using a teaspoon, heap as much or as little pineapple jam onto your pastry, and bake for 20 minutes.  You will know they are done when the tarts start to sizzle.

My Not-a-Baker Pineapple Tarts, ugly but adorable?

These tarts are not too sweet, with a buttery taste and a creamy texture.

 

I also experimented baking some tarts in my Philips Air Fryer

 

I must have put them in for less than 10 minutes, and when I checked on them, the jam was already starting to burn.  I had to take them out, but when I bit into one, I found that the pastry was not cooked through, even though the surface was dry.

I reckon this must be the easiest Pineapple Tarts recipe and hope that those Not-a-Baker out there will feel confident to try making your own Chinese New Year favorite at home.  Look at how small and cute they are! 

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Our Weekend in Mandurah

Mandurah is located about about an hour south of Perth City.

 

It is one of the lovely places we head to on weekends, 

and a holiday destination for people with boats!

  Sitting on the water is Dolphin Quay, where you can find amenities, food and hotels.

Look at the number of boats parked, 

waiting for their owners to come to Mandurah to take them on a fishing trip.

We stayed at Quality Suites Crest Mandurah,

located at 1 The Pallodio.

It is a 4.5 star hotel, ranked #1 on Trip Advisor,

although I would say it's more like a serviced apartment.

There is a regular kitchen with all the necessary equipment, 

2 double bedrooms with fully stocked bathrooms, a lounge with Tv, 

and a lovely balcony with a bbq, 

perfect for grilling that freshly caught fish!

 The apartment was very clean and nice, 

but the real selling point of this place is the fantastic location and views!

*****

Breakfast was at D'Lights Cafe, which was located by the water.

The food was extraordinary, and I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!

Pancakes with Maple Syrup

Big Breakfast

Poached Eggs Florentine

Poached Eggs Pacific

If you ever head to Mandurah, do give their breakfast a try.

In particular, I found the Poached Eggs fantastic, as well as the pancakes.

Kiri Japanese Restaurant

 My hubby and I have strolled past Kiri many Sundays but they have always been closed.

I have also tried to make a booking with them several times but was always unsuccessful!

We have been to most of the popular Japanese restaurants in Perth and Kiri was definitely on our list of must-trys! 

Last night, we happened to be in the area and saw that it looked quite empty so we decided to chance it and stepped inside.  To our joy, there happened to be a table for two available in the dining restaurant!  (The takeaway area is also available for dining, but we've always wanted to experience the dining section.)

The interior of Kiri is dark and romantic - too dark to get proper pictures unfortunately.

 The servers also looked pleasant and were friendly.

Unfortunately, that would be all the good things I can say about Kiri.

We ordered two dishes, which took what seemed like forever to come.

 

The first was this Nigiri Sushi platter. 

While the presentation was beautiful, I was shocked at the portion.  

 Really, 4 pieces of sushi, a spoonful of chopped prawn, 

3 thin, thin slices of salmon sashimi and a tiny bowl of boiled bok choy for $25?

Granted, the sashimi tasted fresh, but it is definitely overpriced 

compared to other Japanese places we have been to.  

Perhaps this is the standard for Shenton Park, but for someone new to Perth like me, 

the locality of Shenton Park does not mean anything special or exclusive.

 

The second dish we ordered was the Kiri Bento $33.

For a signature bento box, this was as ordinary as can be.

The only thing vaguely special about this was the potato croquette hiding in the corner. 

(I later found out that this was beef croquette, but I couldn't taste any beef in it)

My usual favorite, the potato salad, was dreadfully tasteless, 

with a huge un-mashed piece of potato sitting right in the middle. 

The karage chicken was tasty but soggy and terribly greasy.

In our favorite Japanese restaurant (keeping it a secret for now), 

something like this would cost less than $18, and would be DELICIOUS.

***

Now comes the worst part of our dining experience:

Halfway through the sushi in that dark, dark restaurant, 

I unfortunately spotted a COCKROACH scurrying underneath towards my feet!  

I let out an involuntary shriek, which was definitely heard by the server passing by in a hurry.  

Instead of attending to me, she stared as the cockroach ran past her to the next table.

The table next to us also spotted the cockroach and waved at the waitress to inform her.

Her response,

"Well, I don't know where it went so I CAN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT."

.

.

.

.

Business went on as usual.

.

.

.

.

Needless to say, I lost my appetite for the rest of the meal, and could not sit in peace, 

always watching out for that damn cockroach, 

WHICH IS WHAT THAT SERVER SHOULD BE DOING.

A little later, another table also jumped, having spotted the nasty roach.

The server was present to this, but just hurried away like she did not hear anything.

***

In our disgust and haste to leave, 

we also did not notice that the green tea we ordered together with the food was never served.

I was really looking forward to the "Beautiful Japanese Tea from Greentea House" 

(as stated in their menu)

For a restaurant that is always packed and charges premium prices, 

this was a horrible first experience.

What on earth is all the hype about on

???

My hubby came to the conclusion that Kiri is popular 

because it is the only Japanese in Shenton Park.  

Red Opium - My Birthday Treat

My husband decided to surprise me with a dinner date to the Red Opium, one of the hottest places to eat in Perth at the moment.

Red Opium features what they call, Thai Tapas.  Now I love tapas because I get to taste several types of dishes, while not getting filled up on any particular one, and I LOVE Thai food.  I would count Thai as one of my favorite cuisines, next to Japanese.

Mr Bauer admittedly, is not a fan of Thai food, and only eats it to satisfy my craving, so this "review" would be a good balance of both of our tastes.

The first thing about Red Opium, is that it is located in the basement of the most nondescript building, but once I entered, I was swept away by the dark, red & maroon interior that made me feel like I was in Old Shanghai.

By the way, it is almost impossible to get a table at Red Opium, and we were very lucky to be seated due to my husband's perseverance and charm.. haha.  We were among the first to be seated and by the time our first dish came, the whole restaurant was filled.  Perhaps it was the dark, mysterious decor of the place, or the fact that aside from us, and a German couple, every other patron there consisted of Asian women with Caucasian men, but we soon felt like we were out of Perth and had flown right into Bangkok.

 

First order of the day, Cha Yen - Thai Milk Tea!

It was full bodied, with a rich tea taste that wasn't overpowered by milk.

Best thing, for $4.50, it came in a huge jug that lasted us throughout dinner!

My sweet hubby and I, waiting anxiously for our food.

Interestingly, apart from a lone Thai server, all the other servers had a distinct Singaporean accent.  

I'm guessing they were either from Singapore of Malaysia.

The service was very very good!  

We were always checked on and asked if everything was to our liking.  

This may seem like nothing, but think about it, these days, where can we go that would give us such time and attention?  I only recall such service on the Business Class flights with Singapore Airlines.

The first starter, Yin and Yang Dips absolutely blew me away!

The dip in the background is a spicy minced pork tomato dip and the one in the foreground is the creamy prawn and minced coconut dip.
Both were so fragrant and exploding with different tastes, especially the coconut one!
Mr Bauer, who usually does not enjoy many, conflicting tastes in his mouth, gave this the two thumbs up.  The only problem is that the serving size was too tiny!
I seriously need a hugeass bowl of that creamy coconut dip, pronto!

 

The second starter, Salmon Ceviche $17.90 is my favorite dish of all.

 I love sashimi, and words cannot describe how beautiful this tasted, 

with a mix of lemon, onions, chillies, and a generous drizzle of truffle oil, topped with caviar.  

The serving size is also respectable, I had enough to keep eating it throughout dinner!

Our third starter, is an old Thai favourite, Larb Gai (Thai Chicken Salad).

I always order this whenever we go for Thai, so I've tasted a fair number of different sorts of Larb.

I found this so-so, preferring to have a stronger blend of spices in my Larb,  

but Mr Bauer was raving about this particular Larb, saying this is the best he has ever had.

 

Our fourth and final starter, Son-in-Law Eggs, or double-fried eggs drizzled in sweet sauce 

are a traditional favorite.  

Apparently, they were named such because moms would cook it as a 

warning to their future son-in-law to behave or have their nuts served up next.  

I found this dish interesting, but too sweet for my taste.  Plus, I am not a fan of hard boiled eggs. 

 We ordered two mains, and the first was this deep fried fish dish.

It was pretty ordinary, and I found the taste of fish overpowered by a thick tomato taste and the deep-fried batter.  

I also did not enjoy the chunks of peanuts they threw over it.  

To me, it tastes more like something I would eat at a local, Singaporean Zhi Char (cheap, home-style cuisine) and was not worth the price.  

Mr Bauer seemed to agree, because we each too one piece, and took away the rest.

 

It is a good thing we did too, because the final dish that came 

demanded all of our remaining stomach space - The F-Duck.

This is a crispy-skinned, roasted duck leg sitting in a pond of thick coconut red curry filled with veggies, pineapple and lychees.  

It was divine.  Mr Bauer's favorite dish that night.

Now, the interesting thing about this dish is that, when you eat the duck, 

you go... ok, good duck.  And when you sip the red curry, you go... ok, nice red curry.

But when you have the duck TOGETHER with the red curry, something amazing happens.

It's almost like the fat from below the duck skin melts into the hot red curry and creates this buttery, creamy texture, that swirls around the crispy duck skin and envelopes the tender duck.

All the reviews you might have read, raving about The F-Duck?  True.

*****

We truly did not have space for dessert, but we were told that the choices for that night were Mango Sticky Rice, a trio of ice-creams, or a Chef's Surprise. The dessert menu changes every night.

Red Opium is rated #8 out of 1496 restaurants in Perth www.tripadvisor.com

 Their website claims that the restaurant accepts cash only, 

but we were able to pay with MasterCard.

Red Opium is BYO.

Dinners: For the Love of Bacon

We got a kilo of bacon at 60% off from Woolies - hurrah!

It is now sitting pretty in the freezer, waiting to be sliced and served.

Today is Mr Bauer's first day at his new job, so I will be making him something special I think he will like.  You know what they say, everything tastes better with bacon!

I combined this recipe, and this recipe to create dinner tonight.  The result was a quick, tasty and satisfying dish that wasn't too heavy or salty.  Plus, we managed to sneak in an entire cancer-busting broccoli in there without feeling the dread of eating veggies (yes, we are pretty carnivorous).

To get perfectly al dente pasta, try this:  bring a pot of salted water to a boil.  Once it starts bubbling crazily, throw in your pasta and immediately turn off the fire.  Lid the pot and leave it for 12 minutes.

Then, drain and serve.  It was something my mom taught us, years ago, when making our favourite maggi instant noodles.   We were always quite fussy about the hardness of the noodles, so this can also be applied to pasta!

Dinners: Tomato Soup and Leftovers

Today we are making Tomato Soup.
This recipe is definitely one for the books because the results were pretty great!
Be sure to use a large stock pot because this is a pretty big serving.

It's alot of fun in the kitchen chopping things up, but I found a difficulty slicing the tomatoes, because the knife wasn't sharp enough, and it was squeezing out all the juice. Note to self: invest in a Shun.

We did not have enough tomatoes (Note: One tomato is about 80 grams) and the soup was tasting like a bit of a disaster because there was now too much chicken stock, but thankfully, my housemate saved us with some tomato paste and now I feel so Italian, having been able to create a home made tomato soup that tastes like something mama Rosa would be proud of. Bellisimo Munchana, she would comment upon tasting our creation.

We served this with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese and pan toasted multi-grain loaf, and had it together with leftovers from our Chicken Wow lunch.

Home Meals: Chicken Breast

For lunch this week, I'm trying a new Chicken Breast Wow recipe.

Mr Bauer loved the filling; he literally went "wow!" and I think you will also get this response when you try this recipe!

This is my first time realising how hard it is to cook chicken.  Especially in this case, the filling was cooking so much faster than the chicken did.  By the time the chicken was done, some of the filling had already started to burn.  It's a good thing I made extra filling, so I could get rid of the burned bits. 
Next time I try this, I will half cook the chicken first before adding the filling and cooking the rest of it.  Alternatively, you can also serve the filling cold, on top of your pan fried chicken.

With chicken, I've learned not to be too disheartened at the slow rate it takes to cook.  In spite of it being in the pan for what seemed like ages till it was fully cooked, the meat was not dried out at all - and this was chicken breast!

I also discovered a handy trick if you run out of sweet chilli, which the recipe calls for.  Mix a teaspoon of honey into a tablespoon of regular chilli or hot sauce and you get a wonderful sweet and spicy taste that will add a little kick to this dish!

As a side, I'm serving a beautiful Japanese pumpkin we picked up for cheap at the Subiaco Sunday Market. The pumpkin was served mashed with potatoes using this Quebec recipe.  I'll be using fresh whole milk instead of skimmed milk, simply because it's what we have in the fridge at the moment.

I absolutely love pumpkin and am trying to influence Mr Bauer to like it to so I can include it more in our home meals.

Home Meals: Salmon

This herb crusted salmon had a nice crunchy texture and was super easy to make.

I served it with blanched and lightly salted string beans.

*****

In another salmon recipe, I tried making a citrus pasta sauce:

I modified it from an existing recipe online that I can no longer find :(

Rub olive oil and salt into 2 fillets of skinned salmon
Pan fry it until you can flake the fillets
Remove from pan and set aside

Fry some chopped garlic and onion
Once onion turns translucent, add in white wine
Lower heat to medium
Reduce the wine by half, then add in fennel seeds and chilli flakes
Add in lemon zest and lemon juice
Add in the heavy cream and stir

It should taste pretty strong and sour at this point
Finally, stir in the salmon flakes and keep stirring until the sauce is sweetened
If it is still too sour, add in some orange juice, or sugar

Finally, stir in your preferred al dente pasta and serve hot

I will definitely try this recipe again and note the quantity for each ingredient as it turned out quite yummy!

Cows, Pigs and More

Home cooking is the norm in Perth, unlike Singapore, where eating out is common, and cheaper for a young couple.  Trips to Woolworths and Coles take up most of our time spent outside the home and I've found it is worth while getting to know the local grocers better.

We are currently on the hunt for cheaper meat and are sourcing for wholesale butcheries around Perth because, well, we love our meat, and it is getting expensive to keep buying from the big supermarkets.

Here is a list of butchers around Perth city that I've sourced from various online forums/articles:

1) Classic Meats
http://www.classicmeats.com.au/
Unit 5-7, 2 Powell Street, Osborne Park
9242 2133 / 2623

2) Scarfo's Meating Place

http://www.scarfo.com.au/

224 Leach Highway (cnr North Lake Road) Myaree

(behind Macdonalds)

9330-9377

3) Mondo Retail Butchers
http://www.mondo.net.au/data/meat.html
Unit 5, 41 King Edward Road, Osborne Park WA 6017
(end of laneway, last unit on left behind craft decor)
Th - Fr 0800 - 1700h
Sa 0700 - 1300h
9446 4778

4) Continental Meats
http://www.continentalmeats.com.au/wholesale.htm
Rockingham Road
Contact/Address unknown
(opposite IGA next to a motorbike shop)

5) Torres Butchers
http://www.torre.com.au/butchers/perth/contact-us
44 Lake St, Northbridge WA 6003
(opposite Central Piazza in Northbridge)
Mo - Fr 0500 - 1730h
Sa 0400 - 1300h
9328 8317  

I'll check them out and update when possible!

For wholesale veggies, check out the Subiaco Markets (Fr - Su 0700 - 1730h) and Fremantle Markets (Su 0800 - 1800h).