Pineapple Tarts: A Family Legacy

When grandma 'Tok Ha' passed away in January 2010, the first thing that came to my mind, after the initial shock and grief was:

"I have NO idea how to make pineapple tarts. Panic mode!"

This was a genuine family tragedy, one that we continued to fret and freak out about in the coming months after her passing because how were we going to cope celebrating Raya/Eid without Tok Ha's pineapple tarts???!!!

The first Raya without (homemade) pineapple tarts came and went.

Missing pineapple tarts was our way of saying we miss our grandparents Tok Ha and Tok Wi. Both of them had worked as cooks at some point. I remember them working in the kitchen together, they're like machines.

When it comes to Raya/Eid, I have memories of spending school holidays with them, churning out hundreds and hundreds of these wonderful pineapple tarts. None of them were for sale. They were all for family. She bakes these and rationed them amongst her sons and their families, the grandchildren. Our families hoarded Tok Ha's precious pineapple tarts in reserve jars for family consumption only. It was our yearly ration. The ones we put out for house guests were almost always store-bought pineapple tarts.

My first year in college in the US, my dad mailed 50 tarts. I licked every crumb.

Clearly these tarts are a big deal to the family and now we're all freaking out because grandma is gone and so is her RECIPE!

A general note on Malay cuisine: Malay cooking requires a lot of eyeballing

So unless you were paying close attention to everything (color, smell, texture, sound), recipes only count for 20-30% towards your success!

Between 2008 and the present we've been piecing together the recipe but it wasn't until this year that I said, 'fuck it, I'm not going to sit around and mope in a despondent fashion... I'm making some pineapple tarts dammit!'

Grandma's recipe isn't very helpful but I'll post it anyway and I'll post my version at the end

Tok Ha's Surviving Pineapple Tart Recipe:
Pineapple Jam:
Shred pineapple with a grater
Remove 1/4 to 1/2 of the juice
Cook over slow heat until reduced and thickened
Stir in sugar until good (Tok Ha does not measure... just eyeball it)
Dough:
2 (small) blocks of butter (about 250 grams each)
1 kg flour (wtf?)
2 eggs
1 tsp or tablespoon of sweetened condensed milk (up to you)
With softened butter at room temperature, add condensed milk and eggs and blend well. Stir in a little flour at a time and knead until you reach the right consistency.

What I DID:

Pineapple Jam:

2 medium sized pineapples

2 cups of sugar (400 grams)

1 stick of cinammon

2 cloves

Cut pineapples and DO NOT REMOVE THE CORE. You need the fiber more than the juice for this jam. If you have a juicer, use the juicer and save the 'pulp'. If you put in a blender, you have to cook it longer or try to strain out and discard some of the liquid. Otherwise you will be cooking for HOURS like I did.

To save time, use a pan with a large area so that the liquid can reduce faster. Cook the pineapple with cinammon and cloves over low to medium heat until you see it bubbling and getting thicker and mushy like oatmeal. Don't stir so much during this time, it's pointless. Once 80% of liquid is gone, go ahead and add the sugar and stir over low heat until you get the desired color. The amount of sugar is approximate. Use more/less as desired.

Keep in mind that once you turn off the heat, the jam will continue to cook and caramelize so don't overcook until it's completely dry. Turn off the heat, wait for it to cool down, check the texture. You can always heat it again to cook more but once it's overcooked you can't add more water or juice because you'll ruin the sugar structure and caramelization process.

Dough (very similar to Tok Ha's)
250gm butter (salted)
75gm caster sugar
170gm cream (full whipping cream)
3 egg yolks plus one yolk for glazing
400gm cake flour
30gm corn starch

1. Cream butter and sugar together.
2. When it comes together, pour in cream and whip on medium speed
3. Beat in egg yolks for 1 minute.
4. Sift both flours and pour half of it into buttery mixture. Mix on low speed until it comes together and pour in the remaining flour and beat until it comes together. Do not over mix.
5. Let dough sit for 10 minutes minimum before you start wrapping jam
6. Bake at 180-200°C for 20-25 minutes. Dough is better undercooked than overcooked.

For super traditional, Tok Ha's tarts were open faced tarts. I was already struggling making these so I could not make proper open faced tarts.

Enclosed tarts

Buruk tapi sedap je

Final product

Homemade Hummus

 I made heaps of hummus last night after reading this article and being inspired to make my own Stuff. I wasn't ready to take on bread yet, but I heard that making hummus is awesome and delish and inexpensive.

I used the recipe from Mediterrasian blog

4 cloves of garlic (I like extra)

1 can of garbanzo beans (chick peas) rinsed and drained

1/2 cup tahini
 1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup water
teaspoon of sea salt

Extra:
some olive oil
teaspoon of smoked spanish paprika
chopped parsley

garlic hummus

The final result took a LOT more effort than I had imagined, my little food processor is crappy and the hummus was a bit chunky, and I still preferred the taste of store bought hummus. Costwise, hummus is pretty cheap ($3-5) and I probably made twice as much hummus for the same amount of hummus but I don't think it's that much worthwhile.... unless I eat hummus regularly.

Nasi Lemak

I usually have very little time to cook in the evenings after work, and for dinner I'd just make something simple like a salad or stir fry. But last night I made a complete Nasi Lemak and Sambal Sotong dinner for my friends in a little under an hour and a half! I was near losing my mind in the process...

My brain:

Chop onions... Make sambal paste. Meanwhile, put the rice on. Where's the can opener for the coconut milk? Defrost the squid. Peel cucumbers... Boil eggs. Remember to put pandan in the rice. Fry anchovies while the sambal is cooking. Check sambal! Is the squid defrosting yet? Cool the eggs down. Where are the peanuts? Peel eggs and slice. Slice cucumbers.. Clean banana leaf. I forgot to add ginger to the rice!! Taste sambal. Add belacan? People are here already? Throw some keropok in the microwave! etc...

 I'm still blown away if I think about how Ibu (our aunt) and grandmothers cooked in the kitchen. When I cook Malay food, I cheat. A LOT.

Authentic Malay cuisine is super labor and time intensive. The sambal (spicy sauce) takes about 45-60 minutes to cook properly, not including prep time to blend the tumis (sautée ingredients). There's no way I can do it without western kitchen cheats and without having a nervous breakdown.

Cheat List:

I blend the onions/shallots and garlic in a food processor, not by mortar and pestle.

I buy blended chilli (labeled as sambal oelek here in the US), instead of grinding my own chilli paste using dried or fresh (hard to find) red chillies.

Most likely on the shelf next to Sriracha sauce

Buying frozen squid that is already cleaned. I just need to slice them. They also sell pre-sliced, frozen squid, but I stopped myself short of buying those. (There is a difference between small cheat and big cheat)

My coconut milk comes from a tin can. It takes 30 seconds to open a can of coconut milk. Real Malaysian housewives buy freshly grated coconut and squeeze the bajeesus cream out of it through a cheesecloth/strainer. Work those forearms, girl!

From this

to this

*See more photos on the whole process on this blog here

Rich, fat, creamy version

Light version

I get spanish peanuts from the store (the kind that is roasted with skin ON). They are the closest thing to the real deal. No, I'm not roasting my own peanuts.

Pandan leaves

Every decent Malay household, or every other house, cultivates a bush of pandan (*screwpine in English) in their back yard. Pandan is optional, since it's just an aromatic addition. However, small subtle details like this is what distinguishes the best Nasi Lemak from the so-so ones.

Now in Malaysia, you go to your back yard or holler at your neighbor prior to get some pandan from their yard... In the United States, I buy a small vial of pandan essence. Try not to get the ones with green coloring in them (those are used for baking). Add 2-3 tiny drops.

Star Brand is a popular brand back home, I was lucky to find this at the Tai Nam Vietnamese grocery store.

So there you have it. By Malaysian housewives standards, I didn't even cook at all...! Other than the sambal tumis sauce, all I did was just assembling ingredients together!!

The end result was still satisfactory. Although I always miss something when cooking the coconut rice, usually it's salt, but this time I forgot the ginger slices. My sambal is still a long ways from my grandmother's, which makes me frown a little bit every time :\

Pan-fried salmon salad

Happy Monday everyone!

Are you tired of having the same salad dressing (caesar, italian, thousand island etc) over and over again?
Make your own dressing!  It's fairly easy actually. Not to mention healthy! :3

This is what I made for dinner tonight;
Pan fried salmon salad

・Salmon fillet; seared with salt and pepper, pan-fried with olive oil till crisp

・Iceberg lettuce
　Celeries
　Cherry tomatoes
　Rocket salad
　Basil leaves 
    Boiled potatoes
    Fresh oranges

・Dressing:
　Olive oil
　Cider vinegar
　Freshly squeezed orange juice
　Chopped fresh basil leaves

I skipped the measurements and methods because I'm sure you can figure them out.

Now I think that the oranges went great with the salad and salmon, especially since it's getting warmer here. You get that zesty and refreshed feeling after the first taste :)
I'm definitely going to make more of this, and experiment with different kinds of fruit!


How about you? What's your favorite salad dressing for this summer?

xoxo