Savoury Cheesy Tarts

Weekend is simply a relaxing day for me and family as we can get up a bit later than usual working day. Have a simple breakfast then carry on with family quality time together. I would usually do my groceries shopping and plan something special for lunch or dinner. Last weekend I have bookmarked this cheese tart recipe from Women's Weekly Foodbook - Easy healthy meal. By looking at the photos of this recipe, it really gives you the mouth-watering and indulgence feeling. Ok, I made this for the weekend. The book called it "Asparagus, prawn and cheese tarts"... well, I would say it is like "Savoury Cheesy Tarts"! You will get what I mean when you taste this tart.

My family gives two "Thumbs up" for this tart, especially my son. They just love those "Western Baked Pastry" My hubby suggested a thicker pastry could taste better for this recipe. The book says roll out the dough as thin as possible. I would say somewhere 0.5 cm will do as it gives you a thicker & crunchier crust to bite on. Keep that in mind the next time.

I have adjusted and modified this recipe as I found the crust dough isn't enough for 4 tart containers (9 cm diameter). Nevertheless, the pastry crust is crunchy and savoury, simply indulgence with the creamy cheesy filling. The filling has a good combination with prawns and asparagus. The cream and grated cheese give you smooth binding texture and sumptuous taste! mama mia! This recipe also gives you the flexibility to add your preferred fillings besides prawn and asparagus if you think it is suitable. You may substitute them with crabmeat, fish fillet, fresh basil, pineapple or capsicum. Just follow your heart and your taste! Enjoy!

Makes 4 serving (9 cm diameter container) tarts FOR CRUST: 400g Plain Flour (I used Premium Flour) 200g Butter, slightly chilled - softened 2 tbsps grated Cheese (use your favourite - I used Mozarella Cheese) 1 beaten egg, to glaze 1 - 2 tsp Iced cold water Extra flour for working FOR THE FILLING: 12 pcs Big prawns, shelled, deveined 200g Asparagus, cut into 2 - 3 cm long 1 tbsp Olive oil 3 tbsp Lemon juice 2 tbsps grated Cheese (use your favourite - I used Mozarella Cheese) Salt & pepper to taste FOR CREAM (mix well): 2 egg yolks, beaten 1 cup Double cream (I used Whipping Cream) Method: 1. Prepare prawns, remove shells and veins. You may chop prawns into few chunks, I retained whole. 2. Cut asparagus into 2 - 3 cm long. Set aside. 3. Prepare the crust. Rub butter and flour on a working top until the texture resembles bread crumbs. 4. Add grated cheese and press ingredients together to form a smooth dough. (add 1 - 2 tsp iced cold water to assist if necessary). Cover the dough with cling film and leave in the fridge for 20 mins. 5. Prepare 4 bowls of (9 cm diameter) large tart container or baking dish. Preheat the oven at 180ºC. 6. Divide dough into 4 portions. Roll out each portion on a floured surface about 0.5cm thickness. The diameter of the dough must be bigger than the (9 cm diameter) large tart container or baking dish. 7. Gentle press dough against sides and bases of the 9 cm tart containers, taking care not to stretch the dough too much. 8. Bake crust in the oven for 15 mins. Remove from the oven and brush bases and sides of each crust with beaten egg. Return to oven and cook for another 5 mins. 9. Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Heat oil in a pan over medium fire. Stir-fry asparagus and prawns for 5 mins. Remove from fire; stir in lemon juice, grated cheese, salt and pepper. 10. Divide stir-fred ingredients between tart crusts. 11. Beat egg yolks with double cream. Pour mixture over each tart. Bake for 12 - 15 mins or until crusts turn golden brown. Note: • Roll out the dough about 0.5 cm thick. • You may substitute the filling ingredients with fish fillet, crabmeat, capsicum, fresh basil or pineapple.

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Fruity Prawn Salad

Salad is my all time favourite, be it fruit or vegetable salad. I used to hook at the salad bar for 10 minutes, just to pick and choose my favourite salad. Salad with raw vegetable such as butter head, lettuce, rocket leaves, Bull's blood, purple cabbage or any other leafy salad are my top selection. Mix them with beans and corn, drizzle with salad dressing. Yummy! Is anyone going for a "salad" party? It had been quite sometime I didn't step in that salad bar full of colourful selection. Should make a date! *chuckle*


Salad comes with plenty of condiments such as chicken meat, prawns, mushroom & fruits! I would standing there and admire those fancy, colourful and fresh salad, especially those serve in the hotel buffet. Am I drooling now? *giggle*. Since I always opt for vegetable salad, this round I want to make some fruity prawn salad at home. It is so easy to prepare and to sweep clean the bowl. I chilled it in the fridge for good 20 mins and it really tastes heaven! Need not to say more here, just grab the ingredients and make a bowl yourself today! I am sure you have to agree with me! Let's go-fruity prawn salad!

Ingredients: 20pcs Big Prawn 1 handful diced Honey Drew 1 handful diced Pineapple 2 tbsps Mayonnaise or Salad dressing Squeeze of lemon juice (about 1 tsp) Method: 1. Dice honey drew and pineapple, chill in the fridge. 2. Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil. Add the prawns and cook until they turn pink and curl up. 3. Drain the prawns, transfer immediately into a large bowl of iced water and set aside to cool. 4. Peel the cooled prawns. Set aside. 5. Remove diced fruits from the fridge, add mayonnaise & prawns. Mix well gently. 6. Squeeze some fresh lemon juice. Chill in the fridge until serving. Note: • I found the method on how to cook the prawns here. • Do not remove prawn's shell before cooking. This way, it can preserves the texture of the prawns. • Transfer prawns in a bowl of iced cold water can make the prawns bouncy and crunchy! • Chilling the prawn salad makes the prawns more bouncy and crunchy too! • You may use other fruits such as papaya, green / red apple or watermelon.

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King Oyster Mushroom Omelet

My choice of mushroom has grown wider nowadays whenever I go groceries shopping to the hypermarket. Last week, there was a lady promoter stood at the mushroom corner, cooking some mushroom sample for the grocers. As I passed by, she offered me to try her cooking. Yes! I was happy to try it and to my surprised, it was simply delicious. What has she cooked? Just stir-fried King Oyster mushroom with garlic, ginger and oyster sauce! I have fallen in love with it immediately! To satisfy my curiosity, I had a chat with her on the King Oyster mushroom - Where did it came from and how to cook it? She is kind enough to explained to me about the mushroom and also few ways to cook it. This King Oyster mushroom is imported from Korea. You can either stir-fry by itself, add into stew or soup, stir-fry with meat and vegetables, add to homemade pizza and so much more! When preparing, this mushroom can be braised, broiled, grilled, sautéed, or stewed to be added to soups, stews, sauces, pasta, vegetable dishes, meats, and seafood.

What else? I grabbed a packet of this King Oyster mushroom and dumped it in my trolley. This mushroom has a blunt cap above and a stout stem beneath. The King Oyster mushroom develops a thick, white flesh that is firm-textured and meaty from the base to the cap. The King Oyster is typically harvested when the stems reach a length of several inches, but can grow to a size of 6 to 8 inches in length. As the mushrooms age for several days and depending on the storage provided, the flesh may darken or turn slightly tan to brown in color, but the quality of the mushrooms should be unaffected.Reference from here

In my mind, I was thinking what else could I make with the King Oyster mushroom? I want to try her way of stir-frying it with oyster sauce, I want to add to my soup, may be I can stir-fry with some meat and vegetables or making pizza? *confused*. I came back home with uncertainty on how to cook this mushroom. Oh yeah! This is my first time cooking King Oyster mushroom. First, I stir-fried it with garlic, ginger, chicken fillet and oyster sauce. It simply delicious! The texture is so tender and smooth. The smell of the mushroom is great! The next attempt, I made this omelet with the stalks part only and dumped the stem part (white stem) into the ABC soup (vegetables and chicken soup)! What a great way to fully utilize this King Oyster mushroom! I used only the "stalk" for this recipe as the stem takes longer time to get soft.

King Oyster mushroom is a species found on the European and Asian continents, genetically related to other oysters, but different in taste. It is probably one of the highest quality mushrooms for its superior taste and ability to keep without spoiling for weeks! Oh yes! I kept mine in the fridge in an airtight container for a week and it still looks good. Don’t be fooled by its size; once thinly sliced it will yield an impressive quantity of food! It shares similar nutritional and medicinal properties with other members of the oyster family. Reference from here

Ingredients: 4 stalk medium-sized Oyster King Mushroom, sliced 1/2 Tomato, removed seed - diced 1 small Onion, diced pinch of Salt (optional) Olive oil Egg Mixture: 3 eggs, beaten 1/2 tsp Salt 1/2 tsp white pepper Method: 1. Rinse King Oyster mushroom, chop away the bottom part. 2. Cut mushroom into half. Slice thinly from the bottom to the top. 3. Use the mushroom stalks only (grayish part) for this recipe. Retain the white stems for soup. 4. Rinse tomato, remove seeds & diced. Set aside. 5. Dice onion & set aside. 6. Mix the egg mixture together and stir well. 7. Heat up 1 tbsp of olive oil on a frying pan. Stir fry onion and mushroom until translucent or mushroom is soft enough. 8. Add a pinch of salt. Dish up and set aside. 9. Heat up more olive on the same frying pan. Make sure the oil is really heated up. 10. Pour the egg mixture onto the pan, wait for 2 second. Add in the pre-cooked mushroom filling on the omelette. 11. Fold the omelette into half, this is to close up the omelette with the filling in it. 12. Cut omelette into half again, flip over to another side to make sure the omelette is evenly fried. 13. Off fire, dish up and serve. Note: • The fire and the oil have to be hot in order to get beautiful omelet. • The amount of oil must be more/sufficient in making omelette to get beautiful omelet. • You may use other ingredients such as fresh basil leaves, baby spinach, capsicum or red chilli. • King Oyster mushroom can be kept for weeks in the refrigerator and it still remain its quality.

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Tempura

Tempura is a dish made by deep-frying vegetables, seafood or other foods in a light batter. Tempura is a popular element of Japanese cuisine, it is distinguished from many other battered and deep fried foods by being much lighter and tending to carry less grease. Most of us will think that tempura is originated from Japanese. But, according to research, tempura was not developed in Japan. The idea of battering and frying foods was brought to Japan by the Portuguese, who explored Japan in the 16th century. Deep fried foods were adapted to Japanese tastes, and the result was tempura, which uses a more refined batter.

Deep-frying food has become popular by various races and countries. Thus, many different batter has been used in their own respective recipes. I prefer the batter to be light, crispy and also taste good. By making tempura with vegetables is also one of the way to coax those non veggie lovers to eat vegetables too. Plenty of vegetables can be used in making tempura, such as long bean, brinjal/eggplant, onion, sweet potato, cauliflower, broccoli and much more. Besides, seafood like fish, prawns, or crab has been the prefect choice of making tempura.

It had been long time I want to make tempura at home as we haven't eat for long time. Furthermore, I can choose my preferred ingredients for the tempura. Thus, I made this simple tempura by deep-frying them with pre-packed tempura mix (it would be a great idea to mix our own tempura batter in the future). As I read through the net, there are so many recipes for tempura batter. The most basic tempura batter is the combination of eggs, flour, and baking powder in cold water. Some adding spices, paste, herbs or wine for the batter.

I did it without the eggs, just mixed the tempura flour with cold water for batter (followed the pack instruction), dipped and deep-fried. It tastes good though even it didn't looks like those serve in the Japanese restaurant. It is crispy and appetizing, but we only can consume moderately and occasionally....


Since, I need to clear some of the stocks in my fridge. I used up whatever that is suitable for making tempura. Long beans, sweet potato, prawns and fish (remove bones). It was one of those days that cook whatever you crave for and make use of whatever you have! Hulala..... Let's eat!

Reference from:
WISEGEEK
WIKTIONARY
WIKIPEDIA

Ingredients: 2 slices of Spanish Mackerel (Ikan Tenggiri) - source here 10 nos of Big Prawns 2 nos of Long beans 1 medium-sized Japanese Sweet Potato 1 packet of Tempura flour-mix 150g 250ml Cold water Sunflower oil Method: 1. Rinse all the ingredients and set aside. 2. Remove fish bones and skins. Cut into quartered. 3. Remove prawn shells, slit with a sharp knife on the inner side of the prawn, remove the vein. This is to prevent the prawn from curled up during deep-frying. (Step-by-step reference on how to remove vein from here) 4. Cut long beans about 2 inches long. 5. Peel off sweet potato skin. Cut into 0.5 - 1 cm thick. 6. Mix tempura flour according to the cooking instruction. I mixed 250ml cold water with 150g tempura flour-mix. Whisk batter until smooth. 7. Heat up sufficient oil in a pot for deep-frying (about 170ºC - 180ºC). Dip vegetables & seafood one by one in the batter. 8. Transfer to the pot, deep fry until golden brown, drain and remove from the pot. 9. Arrange on a plate with kitchen towel to absorb excessive oil. Repeat with the rest of the ingredients batch by batch. 10. Serve while warm with rice. Note: • Make sure the oil is hot before deep-frying. • Seafood doesn't requires long time deep-frying. Remove seafood once it turns golden brown. • You may use other ingredients such as eggplant, onion, cauliflower, broccoli, unagi, crab or squid.

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