The three recipes I have chosen are ..... (drumroll)......
- Impossible Pie
- Portugese Custard Tarts, and
- Ginger Milk Custard (in chinese: 'gurng-jup-zhong-lai' which translates to Ginger Hits Milk)
The Impossible Pie is an old family favourite, which I had my students make in our kitchen lab for the High Protein High Energy diets workshop recently. It is called impossible because you end up with a lovely pie which has a distinct crust, filling and pastry, even though the method is a 'mix everything up in one bowl and pour into the pie dish' type.
 |
| Impossible Pie |
Portugese Custard Tarts: My group of close dietitian friends have alphabet dinners every month or so with the theme being the cuisine from a country which starts with the letter ..A, B, C etc There are 4 couples so we rotate around each others houses and bring either starters, dessert or drinks, and whoever is hosting does the mains. We started almost 4 years ago with an Australian themed party (meat pies, roast lamb, cask wine, beer, and pavlova if I remember correctly). Last night the theme was Portugal. Yes, we're only up to P but there have been 4 babies born to the group in that time!!! Anyway, I was on desserts, so I produced these lovely little tarts. They should have been a bit browner had my oven been behaving!! They still tasted great though!
 |
| Portugese Custard Tarts |
Ginger Milk Custard: I did this divine custard when we had our China themed dinner party (the letter C, a long, long time ago!) Served cold, the initial sensation is cool, silky, delicate and sweet and then the intense heat from the ginger hits your lips, tongue and mouth and follows the custard all the way down your throat. It's amazing. There's also a Ginger Milk Pudding which doesn't have any egg, it just curdles itself because of the proteases in the ginger juice (recipes for this version are available easily on the web).
(sorry no photo as it was too long ago but just imagine the
most pure white delicate looking custard in a dainty bowl)
RECIPES
Impossible Pie
1 dessertspoon butter or margarine
4 eggs
1/2 cup plain flour
2 cups milk
1 cup coconut
1 cup castor sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
Blend all ingredients.
Beat with eggbeater/ mix master for one minute.
Pour into ungreased pie plate.
Bake at 180C for one hour.
Pour into ungreased pie plate.
Bake at 180C for one hour.
Portugese Custard Tarts
(with thanks to Not Quite Nigella for the recipe (which I then changed a bit...): www.notquitenigella.com
6 egg yolks
230g castor sugar
2 tablespoons of cornflour
800mL reduced fat milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 sheets of frozen puff pastry
Custard: put the egg yolks, sugar, cornflour and milk in a pan and whisk together until all the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is smooth. Bring this to the boil slowly, stirring constantly, until it thickens nicely. Put it aside, cover the surface in glad wrap (so it doesn't form a skin while it cools) and allow to cool a bit.
Pastry: lay the two sheets on top of one another and roll them up so that you end up with a 'telescope' shaped pastry roll. Get a sharp knife and cut the roll in to 18 rounds. On a floured board, roll out each of the rounds until they are about 10 cm in diameter. Put one round each into a greased regular sized muffin tin. They will look a little mangled: this adds to the appeal!
Assembly: Spoon the custard equally into the pastry lined muffin tin and bake for 20-25 minutes in a 200 degree oven (unlike mine which insisted on only getting to 150, despite encouragement otherwise, and increased cooking time to about 40 minutes). When they're done, they'll be attractively browned on top of the custard and the pastry edges.
Allow to cool, serve and gobble them up (mindfully!!)
(makes 18 tarts)
Ginger Milk Custard
2 tablespoons of ginger juice
2 egg whites
2 cups milk
3 tablespoons of white castor sugar
Freeze a big knob of fresh ginger for a day or two. Grate the ginger while frozen, squeeze the pulp and collect the ginger juice. Try not to let any bits and pieces get into the juice; put it through a fine strainer or clean chux if you need to. In a small pot, heat milk and sugar, stirring to dissolve the sugar, and remove from heat when milk begins to simmer, just about to boil. Whisk the egg whites and ginger juice together and then pour in the hot milk, whisking quickly. Transfer this mixture quickly into 6 ramekins or small bowls and steam for 5 minutes. Leave to cool to room temperature, then put in the fridge to chill. Be very careful with them once they're done because they are very delicate and will break up and curdle if handled roughly.
Have a great week!!
Fiona xx
