I’ve had two packets of smoked mackerel pâtéfor a few months now. They keep very well in the freezer but I never knew what to do with them. I think when I bought them I had some idea to make croquettes but never had enough inspiration to do anything with them.
Until today that is. Suddenly inspiration came as I was scouring YouTube and the Internet. I decided on making pâté because I had a beautiful loaf of sourdough gifted to me by my generous sister.
It’s so easy to make! I improvised after watching a few videos and tasting until I like what I tasted.
In a food processor, add 450g of smoked mackerel, 100g butter, 130 g Philly cream cheese, 1/4 finely diced purple onion (or one whole shallot), one heaped teaspoon of ground black pepper. Whiz till very very smooth and add half a lemon worth of juice. Don’t add salt! Well, unless you like it salty. I find the smoked mackerel salty enough. Best eaten super chilled and with very good toasted sourdough slices.
This is 500g I’d smoke mackerel. I took away one piece of that for decoration and for future use (thinking of scrambled eggs with smoked mackerel). Whiz whiz whiz. Make sure it’s very smooth.
So after watching Trevor Noah on Netflix about tacos, I felt that today is the right time to make them. 1. I have just bought tortilla wraps 2. I have sour cream and mixed cheddar cheese 3. I have frozen white fish. I also have two pieces of sirloin steaks in case there wasn’t enough fish.
For the fish marinade, I just used lime juice, olive oil, smoked paprika powder, fresh garlic mince, coriander leaves and salt and black pepper. Pan fry till cooked.
For the sirloin, I used leftover spice mix form the kabsah rice recipe. And pan fry in the hot pan till done.
For the white sauce, I mixed a tub of sour cream with a tub of Greek yogurt, added a tablespoon of Japanese mayo and seasoned with salt.
For the toppings, shredded cabbage, bottled picked jalapeño slices, bottled salsa, shredded mixed cheddar, finely diced onions and coriander leaves.
Tacos is really delicious and I get why a lot of Americans love it. However, it is SUPER messy to eat and not something I’d eat in public. Or bring to work. 😅
Regardless, it’s a lovely change and for us, two pieces of tacos is enough. In the end, we all finished up the fish and the steak slices were eaten on its own as a snack.
Assembly counter. I forgot to add wedges of limes are essential. Squeeze over the tacos before eating! It’s hard to make tacos stand upright! All mine! Yummy yummy! Will definitely try making fish tacos again!
Every Chinese New Year or Hari Raya (Eid ul Fitr) will never be complete without families making and eating these delicious buttery sweet and sour pineapple tarts. And being in a beautiful multi-racial country, I get to enjoy everyone’s festivities many times over. ☺️
Earlier in the year before COVID-19 interrupted our lives, I already received a bottle of pineapple tarts from the office management for Chinese New Year. Now, with the Circuit Breaker in place and Hari Raya round the corner, I decided to finally conquer my fears and make my mother’s pineapple tart recipe.
It’s a daunting task. You definitely need helpers at hand. However, you can halve the recipe or even quarter it and make a small batch. Here is the original recipe:
For the tart pastry:
1. 500g butter (use the best you have. I used French butter and I think that made all the difference)
2. 3 whole eggs (some people use 2 yolks and 1egg but that will result in a delicious but crumbly pastry. Delicious I know but difficult to handle)
3. 900g plain all-purpose flour
4. 1/4 tsp of yellow colouring. You can omit this.
For the pineapple filling: I cheated. I used a store bought ready made filling but added one pineapple of my own. To make your filling from scratch, you need to grate 2-3 fresh pineapples, and then cook it down on a Low flame till it becomes jelly like. Add sugar. You’ll know when it’s ready when all the liquid has evaporated and you can form balls from the pineapple.
And then the rest is easy. Laborious work but easy.
First step is to make the dough. Using a mixer is easiest but you can certainly make this using just a wooden spoon, and a lot of muscle power.
Prep your ingredients. The butter needs to be very soft so that you can cream it with the eggs.Cream butter and eggs. Add flour slowly till you can form a soft dough. Break the dough into four for easier handling and let it rest, covered, for at least two hours.
Once the dough is rested, it’ll be easy to roll. If you can’t roll it, just use your cleaned palms and pat down as much as you can’t and then, using a tart cookie mould, cut the shape.
This is my tart cutter. You can find other types. All you need is a cutter with an indentation hole in the centre for you to place your filling in.Press hard and clean the edges. This cutter is not so good that’s why it’s hard to achieve a clean line. The more modern plastic ones will produce better results. With your thumb, gently peel off the dough. Tada!Fill a tray of the dough first.These pineapple jelly balls are too big but they will make an easier task later. From that pan of jelly, take a small scoop to form into balls. Then eyeball how much you need to fill the dough casing. Once the pineapple jelly is in the dough, you can choose to do a topper with some dough. Roll out some dough till very thin and cut into shapes. Diamonds, flowers, or you can just omit this step. Put a ready filled tray in the oven at 170 Celsius for 10- 15min or until the bottom is done. Don’t over bake or you’ll end up with a hard filling and pastry. The first tart here, you can see where the edges of the pastry was not neatly cut. But many turned out OK so I was pleased. Persevere and carry on. 500g of butter will make about 180-200 of this size tarts. That’s a lot! So if you’re just making for yourself, half the recipe. But I like to give away some to close family and friends so that everyone can enjoy this decadent treat! 😍
I’m only posting this because the filling is good. The mistake is in the spring roll wrappers. They’re not meant for baking in the oven.
So next time I make this, I have got to have fillo pastry, no doubt about that!
For the filling, combing one package of frozen spinach together with one egg, half a tub of yogurt, three tablespoons of cooked minced meat of choice, add cheddar and mozzarella cheese and season with lots of black pepper and sea salt.
The filling should be soft and then place a tablespoon of filling onto two spring rolls and roll. Then you should seal the ends with flour paste. Spray oil on top and bake.
The result wasn’t bad because the filling was very good but it definitely wasn’t a crunchy experience. Next time I’ll try shallow frying the spring rolls. This will prevent the edges from opening compared to deep frying.
Spinach, minced meat and cheese Spring rolls! Delicious and healthy.
So I tried making epok-epok, or curry puffs again. This time I used another recipe and in smaller quantities I feel makes for a much better batch. Also, really, while being stuck at home, there’s only the five of us. And we get sick of eating the same foods so I try now to cook smaller portions.
The dough. I used 2 cups plain flour and 1 tsp of salt. Place them in a bowl. Then on the stove heat two heaped tablespoons of margarine. I used this cheap Planta brand which was a childhood staple back in the 80s before we began importing all the butter and margarine from Australia. Frankly, I didn’t like at all the smell of the melted vegetable margarine. Next time I’ll use real butter instead.
Anyway, into the bowl of flour goes the hot fat. Mix with a spoon till the liquid fat is thoroughly mixed. Add small amounts of water and mix to form a soft dough. By now you’ll need to use your hand. Knead till about smooth and then leave the dough to rest.
For the filling, the traditional way is to use potatoes. I had 5 potatoes cubed very small. Sautéed in oil blended garlic and onions. Add a tablespoon of meat curry powered mixes with water. Then add a tablespoon of ground cumin. Add the potatoes and cook till soft. Add water if the mixture becomes dry. I added also strips of meat that I had from the morning’s meat curry that we ate with roti prata (Indian fried bread). Make sure the mixture is not dry. Leave to cool.
Pinch small balls of dough, flatten and then roll out thin into a disc. Add the filling, fold and then fold in the edges.
Fry till golden brown in medium hot oil.
The dough as it is resting. The filling as it is cooling. The pastry after being filled, folded and trimmed. It’s not easy at first. But slowly we got the hang of it. Fry in medium heat oil. Make sure the fire is not too hot. It’s best served hot. Well, not too hot because you’ll burn your tongue. I was happy with the outcome, though appearance wise they don’t look pretty.
The Occasional Cook 