Pineapple Tarts for the New Year.

Every one loves a TART.

Firstly, I just like to explain why they are so moreish and so popular amongst many during the festive season. If they are baked well like my sister's, then the savoury pastry melts in your mouth as your tongue comes into contact with the base and then when the pastry breaks away the sweetness of the pineapple topping gives it a wonderful contrast in taste and in texture.

Pineapple, as far as I understand from my visit to Taiwan is that it sounds like "Wang Lai" which means ' wishes come true' in the Hokkien/Fujian dialect. That is probably why you see pineapple mobiles hung outside of some Chinese households hoping that all their wishes will come true. That is also why pineapple is served in biscuits there. As far as Singaporeans are concerned, there is a huge population of descendants of people from the Fujian province but if you ask them why they have pineapple tarts during Chinese new year, their answer would probably be.. "I don't know. I eat them because they taste damn good."

I bake them because my Malaysian, Indian friends and my hubby like them. Rani, my girlfriend asked if I could bake her some last Christmas to serve to her friends but she and her visiting family devoured the lot themselves.

My sister Carol prepares her pineapple filling from fresh pineapple but I don't have the patience and so I use 2 large cans of pineapple, drain the juice, add sugar,cinnamon stick and a few cloves, a few drops of lemon and microwave the filling for about 30 minutes and they taste pretty good to me and my friends. :)

As for the pastry, there are two versions I make, one is harder and the other is a softer pastry that has more of a shortbread texture. It is time consuming and I don't eat them much myself but to see my friends appreciating them during the festive season is good enough for the time spent. The softer version is my sister's secret recipe but as usual I never follow them too closely. The ones below is the softer version and totally decadent!
I like to think it does make a lot of difference if you use good butter and free range eggs.

From the oven ....

To the table.....

and enjoyed with a cuppa mint tea.

Next week I might try baking some cookies for the new year...

Bak kwa

Chinese new year is on Valentine's day this year and only a month away so I decided to start preparing for the new year before I get too busy. I don't miss the sweets and cakes much but I do miss the get togethers back home.

Here, I usually have a few friends over for either afternoon tea or lunch. Some years the weather is too hot to cook I'd rather just vege out. However, I try to make bak kwa as Marcelo loves them and I don't see them sold here. Even if it was, I'd rather make them myself as it is done to our taste.

I first made it two years ago when I searched on the net for the recipe and tried to make a healthier version and the verdict was: it ain't bak kwa if it is too lean. I never follow a recipe religiously as some ingredients are not readily available and having cooked for so many years, it's easy to find ingredients to enhance the flavours of whatever I am cooking.

The recipe from Chowtimes from Canada calls for Kam cho which I have no idea what that is so I used a tbsp of fennel seeds which also has a liquorice taste to it and a tablespoon of coriander seeds to give it a crunchy texture. I'm sure it would taste even better if it was chargrilled which I did last year but seeing there is a fire ban at the moment, this is as close as it gets. I have frozen a batch and will grill it on Chinese new year.