Mung Bean Pastry (Penang Tau Sar Piah)

Tau Sar Piah, a Mung Bean Pastry is a popular snack from Penang. Penang, also known as the Pearl of Orient of Malaysia is located on the north west off the penisular Malaysia. Penang Tau Sar Piah is a popular gift item. In fact, I often get Penang Tau Sar Piah from my friends who make a trip back to Malaysia.

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One morning when I checked my emails, I got the Penang Tau Sar Piah recipe forwarded to me by Ben. This is his way of saying, “honey, can you make this?”. This recipe is from KookyCulinary by BlurMommy. I had adapted the recipe to 1/3 of the original recipe because my conscience told me that it’s too much to make 100 pieces.

This Penang Tau Sar Piah is a sweet and savory little pastry. You can finish it in a bite or two. It is not difficult to make but it’s time consuming. Each pastry is made with 3 little balls of dough and filing. It took me more than two hours to make 33 of this little morsel. Luckily, I had Arkensen helped me to take photos of the steps as it was during spring break that I made this. My hands were oily with the rolling of the pastry.

Ingredients

Oil Dough

  • 7 tablespoons all purpose flour
  • 3 tablespoons + 1/2 teaspoon oil

Water Dough

  • 13 1/2 tablespoons flour
  • 6 tablespoons + 1/2 teaspoon oil
  • 6 tablespoons water
  • 1/4 teaspoon vinegar

Filling

  • 1/3 cup oil
  • 5 shallots, minced
  • 6 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 200g split green bean

Egg Wash

  • 1 egg, beaten

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Source: this recipe is adapted from http://kookyculinary.com/2011/03/27/penang-tau-sar-piah/

Yield 33

Prep time: 2 hours; Bake time: 20 to 25 minutes

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Hong Kong Style Egg Tart

Vanea demonstrated a popular dim sum dessert at the Caring Place Community Kitchen.

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These Hong Kong Style Egg Tarts are best warm from the oven. They are silky and smooth.

Ingredients

  • 30 frozen tart shells
  • 2/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 9 eggs
  • 1 dash vanilla extract
  • 1 cup evaporated milk

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Source: this recipe is adapted from Vanea’s friend family recipe

Prep time: 30 minutes;  Bake time: 20 minutes;  Yield 30 tarts

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Shanghai Mooncake

It’s near mooncake festival.  Arkensen loves mooncake just like I do.  However, I do not have a mooncake mould to make mooncake.  So, I look for a recipe which do not need a mooncake mould and I found one in a cook book which my sister gave me when I left Malaysia.  The cookbook is titled “At Home with Amy Beh”.

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The Shanghai Monncake recipe is more like a pastry recipe.  I made this with 3 types of fillings, lotus paste, red bean paste and just a couple of lotus paste with salted egg yolk.

Ingredients

  • store bought lotus paste or red bean paste
  • salted egg yolk, optional

Sift and combine:

  • 300g all-purpose flour
  • 20g custard powder
  • 25g cornflour
  • 1 tablespoon milk powder
  • 65g golden syrup
  • 90g icing sugar
  • 1 small egg
  • 60g shortening
  • 75g margarine
  • 1/4 teaspoon alkaline water (lye water)
  • 1 egg, beaten, for glaze
  • some melon seeds or almond flakes

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Phyllo Cup

Minoo demonstrated a dessert made with phyllo dough in the South Arm Community Kitchen. It was an eye opener for some of the members of the South Arm Community Kitchen as they have never use a phyllo dough before. The dessert Minoo made is called Phyllo Cup.

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The Phyllo Cup can be filled with various fillings. Minoo choosed to fill the Phyllo Cup with honey filling with berries. Other alternatives are lemon cheesecake filling and espresso coconut macadamia filings.

The Phyllo Cup is very crunchy and light. You really need a plate to eat this Phyllo Cup as the crumbs keep falling off the Phyllo Cup when you bite into it and you can hear the crunch every bite.

Ingredients

  • 8 sheets frozen Phyllo dough, thawed
  • 4 teaspoons sugar
  • butter & milk to brush on the dough or you may just use Pam spray

Filling

  • 3 oz softened cream cheese
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons honey
  • 1/2 cup whipping cream
  • one teaspoon vanilla extract
  • fresh strawberries or other berries

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Salted Egg Yolk Red Bean Pastries

Zoe made a marvelous Chinese pastry in the Caring Place Community Kitchen. The Salted Egg Yolk Red Bean Pastries were very flaky and the salted egg yolk complements the sweet red bean paste really well. A great dim sum dessert for tea time.

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You can see the many layers of the pastry which make this dessert so flaky. You must check out the steps in the instructions below to see how it is done. It is a bit time consuming but worth all the effort. Zoe emphasized that many cooks will not spoil this recipe but many hands are needed to do the rolling.

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Ingredients

Outer layer dough:

  • 450g high gluten (bread) flour (in Canada, all-purpose flour will do)
  • 180g water
  • 180g lard or shortening

Inner layer dough (flaky dough):

  • 300g low gluten (cake) flour
  • 150g lard or shortening

Filing:

  • 15 egg yolk from salted eggs, divided
  • 2 lbs sweet red bean paste

Garnishing:

  • 1 tablespoon toasted black sesame seeds (toast on dry frying pan until fragrant)
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 2 teaspoons syrup
  • 1 teaspoon oil

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Click on the link below for the instructions.

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Baklava

Yvonne shared with us a simplified version of Baklava in the Caring Place Community Kitchen. This version is less sinful than the original version which is drenched with syrup.

Baklava is a rich, sweet pastry found in many cuisines of the Middle East, the Balkans and South Asia. It is made of chopped nuts, usually walnuts or pistachios, layered with phyllo pastry and sweetened with sugar or honey syrup.

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Ingredients

  • any nuts of your preference, Yvonne used a mixture of almond, walnut and pecan.
  • granulated sugar
  • a packet of phyllo dough
  • melted butter or margarine
  • honey or maple syrup
  • a long bamboo skewer

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Sour Cream Biscuit

The Richmond Community Kitchen resumed this week for the fall 2006 session. The Gilmore Park Church Community Kitchen had it’s first meeting on Wednesday.

Jean who is the leader of the Gilmore Park Church Community Kitchen has the honour to be the first to share her recipes. She shared her Sour Cream Biscuit and Apple Cabbage Coleslaw with us.

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The Sour Cream Biscuit is a very simple and quick recipe to prepare. All the ingredients are easily available in our pantry or refrigerator. It took less than 30 minutes from start to end to make it.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3 tablespoons baking powder
  • 1 1/2 cups sour cream
  • 1 teaspoon milk
  • 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
  • 1 cup raisins (if desired)

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Click on the link below for the instructions.

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Simple Stone Fruit Tart

I found this simple recipe from a newspaper and it’s a perfect dessert to enjoy the sweet taste of summer. You may use any stone fruit for this recipe like plums, cherries, apricots, nectarines, peaches, etc. All these stone fruits are high in fiber and rich in vitamins A and C and low in calories.

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The Simple Fruit Tart is best served warm with ice-cream as a topping. The pastry is flaky and the taste is a mix of sourness (depending on the fruit) and sweetness. I think you will like this.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 package frozen puff pastry, thawed
  • 2 cups pitted and sliced stone fruit (you may mix the fruit)
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon powder, or to taste
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
  • turbinado sugar, such as sugar in the raw (optional)

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Click on the link below for the instructions.

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