Nuclear egg tarts

I'm still wondering about what to make for pimpthatsnack.com as it's been something I've been wanting to do for agggggggges. Trouble is, most things have been done and in a spectacular fashion. Bearing in mind I'll probably do my exams and it will be forgotten as I get my life back again - kind of like wanting to learn to "crank" ala Soulja Boy whilst I was on sabbatical.

It does seem wrong to write what should be a food blog without pictures - so here's a picture of some chinese egg tarts I made a long time ago. Only they're not really chinese - I cheated and used puff pastry and since I don't like to waste the trimmings, there are some in there that look like they've been through a nuclear fall-out as my friend put it. There is a chinese recipe for puff pastry which does the folding marlarky but instead of layer of butter, it's actually TWO types of pastry folded, one water-based and one oil-based. Unfortunately the oil is lard, although you can do it with vegetable shortening, and the lard made me queasy when I was mixing it in by hand. Rather than go through all that effort again I think I'll stick to my frozen puff which I love anyway, but in you're in ChinaTown and you get some warm egg tarts, you'll notice the difference.

The oddly addictive thing about blogs is, and you do find this going onto other sites, is that the photos are key. People ask each other what camera they use. And I am, er, using the one that comes on my mobile! So very tempted to get a DSLR and you can get them for around £250 which is probably a touch more than what I paid for, for my regular digital camera - HOWEVER when will I use a DSLR?? Other than in the house photographing food? It's heavy, you look like a geek wandering around with it (and yes Chinese people worship cameras and so there are a lot of GEEK geeks out there). Something to think about because, well it's money and I should really care since I've hit a materialistic phase lately and want things like Gucci watches when I'm seriously a Primark, M&S, and H&M type shopper.

I'll pretend to study some more this morning... but if I end up posting again, don't be surprised.

Comments

Rachel Allen's Chicken Pie

Some things should be noted. I'm not a major fan of Rachel Allen. She always seemed such a poor man's version of Nigella. Some trophy wife of a producer somewhere making a lady of leisure's living of cookery shows playing up the Irish accent in a cavernous show kitchen. Perhaps it was because all her helpful "tricks" had already been touted by others a long time ago - like getting the garlic smell out of your hands... But over the years she's kind of grown on me. The format is a little twee, the pink accessories want to make me barf, but she isn't the spawn of all things faux goddess anymore. (FYI I have no idea with regards to her personal life etc, but like my distaste for Ashley Judd, one wonders how she gets good films with little acting skill.) So here I was, tapping away on the internet last week whilst she was on tv, and there it was. A beast of a pie. It was so beautiful. Her job was done. Out I trotted to buy a huge pie dish (we don't own cera...

Raspberry Cream Cheese Buns

What with my new cupcake books arriving from Amazon, one look at the Raspberry Cream Cheese buns on someone elses's site (made with blackcurrant there) and I had to make them. Knowing full well my family wouldn't touch them. Four of these babies were therefore made with big dollops of lemon curd instead, which made delightfully caramelly messes of the tin, but also on the buns, not that I get to touch those - I have eight buns to eat! The original recipe is from Buttercup Bakery book (New York) and one of these days I'll try the dried cherry one from Magnolias (since I own the book...) What you need to know about these is that the recipe is easy - as easy as muffins are, but they sink like heck given the amount of preserves you're putting in them. What they give back though, is something so moist and rich you just want to sink yourself into them. And since I've eaten two of them, I'm doing quite well! As you can see, massive craters. If you don't want that...

Lemon cake a la Raymond Blanc

I made this cake after watching Kitchen Secrets and thought WOW that cake is YELLOW!!! Sadly it seems, this was not something to be repeated with mine. Note to self - retune the tv. Anyway, the recipe is here , but oddly the voiceover lady gets it wrong (based on the producer comments) so when the recipe says add zest only to the cake, and she says add the juice, she is wrong. Ho hum. Having made the cake, I'd say ADD THE SODDING JUICE. Without it, it tastes distinctly... eggy. And not of lemon. So after the first mini cake (I split the cake into two batches - one for work and one for a taster for my hard-done-by dad who had to watch me make cheesecake yesterday and waltz off with it to a friends.) I made some adjustments. 1. Stab and drizzle. If you've made lemon cake before, the usual rule is when it's warm from the oven, stab it with a skewer and pour over lemon juice mixed with icing sugar. 2. His recipe calls for an apricot jam layer of glaze. I used lemon curd. ...

Obsession

Search This Blog