Serves 6
Ingredients
1 cup confectioners' sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup butter
1 egg, beaten
1 dash vanilla extract
2/3 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cups water
9 eggs, beaten
1 dash vanilla extract
1 cup condensed milk
Directions
1. In a medium bowl, mix together the confectioners' sugar and flour. Mix in butter with a fork until it is in small crumbs. Stir in the egg and vanilla until the mixture forms a dough. The texture should be slightly moist. Add more butter if it is too dry, or more flour, if the dough seems greasy. Shape dough into 1 1/2 inch balls, and press the balls into tart molds so that it covers the bottom, and goes up higher than the sides. Use 2 fingers to shape the edge into an A shape.
2. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Combine the white sugar and water in a medium saucepan, and bring to a boil. Cook until the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Strain the eggs through a sieve, and whisk into the sugar mixture. Stir in the condensed milk and vanilla. Strain the filling through a sieve, and fill the tart shells.
3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown, and the filling is puffed up a little bit.
Hong Kong Style Egg Waffle
The egg waffle shaped like an egg, in Chinese it’s called 雞蛋仔(literally means little eggs), one of the long standing popular street foods in Hong Kong.
Origin of Hong Kong Style Egg Waffle
The Hong Kong style Egg Waffle is a unique street hawker food in Hong Kong. Piece by piece they come in a golden coloured honeycomb shape and gives out a rich aroma of cake flavour. It is in fact hollow in shape … it gives one an extraordinary experience when biting on it as it has a distinct texture of having a crispy shell with inner softness.
In accordance to information available, the Hong Kong Style Egg Waffle is originated in the 1950s. In an effort of making use of some cracked eggs, an Asian grocery shop’s owner made an attempt of developing this egg batter. Sugar, flour and evaporated milk were added to an egg batter and was poured into a honey-comb metal plate to cook into waffle. Traditionally, the Hong Kong Egg Waffles are made over charcoal flames. However, most people nowadays use electric stove tops due to cost efficiency and safety reasons. (Information gathered from http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh/雞蛋仔).
Nowadays, the Hong Kong Style Egg Waffle has its original formula improved to also come in an array of different flavours and they include chocolate, strawberry; original flavour with shredded coconuts, black sesame, etc. However, the original flavour still remains as the majority out of all.
Serves 10
Ingredients
140 grams plain flour
7.5 grams baking powder
1 tablespoon custard powder
28 grams topica starch
2 eggs
140 grams white sugar
28 grams evaporated milk
140 ml still water
28 grams vegetable oil, for making the egg batter
small quantity of vegetable oil, for greasing the mould
2 drops vanilla essence
Directions
1. Firstly mix and sieve the plain flour + baking powder + custard powder + topica starch. Set aside.
2. Beat the eggs and mix in the white sugar using a wooden stirrer. Add in gradually the evaporated milk and still water. Mix thoroughly.
3. Add the sieved flour mixture (1.) into the egg mixture (2). Stir thoroughly until a smooth batter is form. It is important that it forms no lumps.
4. Add in the vanilla essence and mix well.
5. Finally add in the vegetable oil.
6. Cover the batter with cling wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.
7. Take the egg batter out from the fridge half an hour prior to using; allowing it to return to room temperature.
8. Warm up each side of the mould, and brush a thin layer of oil on each side.
9. Pour the egg battle into a large measuring cup for ease in pouring so onto the mould.
10. Pour the egg battle onto the mould filling upto 80% full. Close the mould and hold the handle firm to keep the two sides closing tight. Then flip and turn the closed mould in order to have the egg batter filled evenly inside the mould. Flip to the opposite side of the mould and place it on top of the stove. Use medium heat to cook each side for 1 to 2 minutes until the egg waffle is cooked and can thus be easily removed from the mould.
11. Use a fork to remove the egg waffle from the mould and place it on a cake cooling rack to cool.
12. Repeat steps 8 to 11 until all egg batter is finished.
Beancurd Skin Sweet Soup
with Ginkgo Nuts and Job’s Tears
Serves 1
Ingredients
150g dried beancurd skin (yuba)
10 ginkgo nuts (Ginkgo nuts must be thoroughly cooked)
2 tbsp job’s tears (coix seed) (Job’s tears are not recommended for pregnant women)
70g rock sugar, or to taste
2-4 eggs, optional
~2 1/2 liters water
Directions
1. Rinse job’s tears and soak in water for about an hour. Discard water. Shell ginkgo nuts like this.
2. Bring about 2.5 liters of water in a pot to a boil. Over medium heat, put in job’s tears, shelled ginkgo nuts and dried beancurd skins.
3. Give some gentle stirs to avoid the ingredients sticking to the bottom. The beancurd skins shall start breaking down into small pieces in a couple of minutes.
4. Cover, but leave the lid slightly opened to avoid spilling over (having a stockpot large enough to prevent overflow is thus preferred).
5. Add in rock sugar when the soup almost reaches your desired consistency, about 30 minutes.
6. Gently ladle shelled eggs into the boiling soup one by one.
7. Serve hot after the sugar is dissolved and the eggs are cooked.
Variations
It is also common that the beancurd skins are briefly cooked to retain a silken texture like boiled wonton wrappers. In that case, you may need to make sure both the ginkgo nuts and job’s tears are thoroughly cooked first, roughly 30 minutes, (and also sugar is dissolved) before adding the beancurd skins to boil for another 3 to 5 minutes. Keep a closer look at the yuba; remove it immediately from heat as soon as it reaches your desired size.
Almond tofu
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 can of condensed milk
1/2 – 1 cup sugar
pure almond extract
1 package gelatin
1 cup water
1 can mixed fruit
Directions
1. In a bowl mix the condensed milk and sugar; make it as sweet as you like. Stir until the sugar is mostly dissolved. Add as much almond extract as you like.
2. In a saucepan, mix the water and gelatin together and bring to boil. Pour over the milk and sugar mixture until the sugar is completely dissolved. Cover with a lid or plastic wrap and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.
3. Add the can of mixed fruit and serve in individual bowls.
Red bean paste
Ingredients
1 Cup of dried red beans (aka azuki beans)
~5 Cups of water
1/4 tsp salt
sugar or syrup to taste
Directions
1. Rinse red beans; sort out the bad ones (discolored or floating to the water surface). Cover beans by a couple centimeters of water and soak them for several hours (no less than 2 hours or per package directions). Discard water.
2. With several cups of boiling water, briefly blanch the beans for about a minute. Drain and discard water.
3. In a heavy bottom pot, add beans, salt and water, bring them to a boil. Reduce to low heat and simmer until one tenth of the liquid remains. It shall take you about 1 1/2 hours. You may also want to check it out occasionally to make sure there is no spilling and the liquid does not dry out.
4. For a chunky paste: Mix in sugar while there is about one ten of liquid left. Stir regularly to dissolve sugar, and simmer it to your desired consistency. Switch to medium heat if you want to speed up the process.
For a smooth paste: Drain cooked beans in a fine sieve or colander (save the liquid). With the back of a spoon or spatula, mash beans through the sieve and harvest them with a bowl or pot underneath. Return the fine paste to pot and cook it with sugar as you would for a chunky paste.
Mango pudding
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 pack, approx. 90g mango jelly
1 small tin, approx. 160g condensed milk
1 ripe mango
225 ml hot water
Directions
1. Use 225 ml of hot water to melt the jelly, then allow to cool
2. Dice the mango. Add this and the condensed milk to the jelly. You can also squeeze the mango juice and add for extra flavor
3. Mix well and place in the fridge (for best results, leave overnight)
Osmanthus jelly
Serves 4
Ingredients
10g Konnyaku Jelly Powder
210g sugar (see instruction of the powder packet)
950ml Water (see instruction of the powder packet)
2-3 teaspoons dried osmanthus flowers
Wolfberry (optional)
Directions
1. Add osmanthus flowers to water. Using medium heat, wait for it to boil.
2. Combine 210g sugar and 10g Konnyaku Jelly powder in separate bowl. Leave aside.
3. When water is boiling, switch to a lower heat and drain approximately half of the osmanthus flowers (Do not discard, leave aside).
4. Add in blended sugar and jelly powder gradually into the water and stir constantly to prevent lumps.
5. When the entire portion of blended sugar and jelly powder dissolved, keep stirring till water boils again.
6. Remove from heat and add in the flowers (that was removed in step 3 earlier on) and stir for a while.
7. Put some wolfberry at the base of jelly mould if you like. (remember to soak them in water for around 20 minutes before use).
8. Pour the mixture into mould.
9. Wait for it to cool down a little before transferring into fridge.
Green bean syrup
Serves 4
Ingredients
green beans
seaweeds
herbs (optional) (臭草*)
sugar
Directions
1. Soak the green beans for a few hours. Overnight if possible.
2. Soak the seaweeds until soft and cut into slices of your own preferred width.
3. Boil 8 bowls of water.
4. Add green beans, turn heat down after boiling.
5. Let it simmer for 20 minutes. Then turn heat off.
6. Cover for 20 minutes.
7. Add seaweeds and herb.
8. Turn heat on and simmer for 20 minutes.
9. Add sugar and then turn heat off.
10. Cover for 20 minutes before serving.
NOTE: The alternation between simmering and covering is important to let the syrup become very silky and smooth.