Friday, July 9, 2010

Coconut Tart Recipe

I was looking at my fridge and saw I still have some shredded coconut lying around and some left over dough (which I made for my lemon curd tart) in the freezer. So I was thinking I should make something with these ingredients. Coconut Tart comes straight into my mind. I always buy some of these back from Footscray or Richmond, from my usual vietnamese bakeries. So why not I make some of my own.


Pastry:
For the pastry, you can refer to my recipe from Lemon Curd Tart. If you make more dough then you need, you can freeze them. They can last for up to 2 months.

Coconut fillings:
1) 200g of grated coconut
2) 50-60g of melted butter
3) 50-60g caster sugar
4) 1 large egg
5) 3 tablespoon of condensed milk
6) 3 tablespoon water
7) 1 pack of Cherries
8) Small tart tray (my is 11cm in diameter, so I can actually make 5 of these tarts)


In a bowl (I actually mix the ingredient in a warm pot), mix all the ingredients together. Taste them and adjust sugar, butter and milk to you taste liking. When you are happy with it's taste, you may set them aside.

Now we need to work on the pastry. Because I am using a larger tart tray (my is 11cm in diameter), I can actually make 5 tarts from the following ingredients proportions. Lightly grease the tart tray with butter, then press pastry evenly into it. Trim edges to remove excess dough. Fill tarts with coconut fillings to about 90% and a cherry for garnish.

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Put tarts into oven to bake for about 15 mins or until pastry is cooked.

Leave tart in tray to cool before taking them out. That's it, you can then start to enjoy your tart.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Bad Habit Cafe, Daylesford

I should now go back to where I left it a month ago. Daylesford. Want to write about this place we had our lunch. Bad Habits Cafe is located right inside The Convent Gallery, which is just a short drive from the Sunday market.


The cafe is just next to the art gallery and you can see they deco the place with small red umbrellas along the walkway.


Pretty nice and cosy place, and we managed to get this quiet corner for our sittings. I was captivated by the pastel coloured wall and how well the seats and table blend in, creating a mood for this picture.


It was too late to order brekkie, and therefore we jumped right into their lunch menu. I ordered Steak sandwich with their local made sourdough and Peppered beef fillet pie with Tomato Relish, Chat Potatoes and Garden Salad for my wife.


The steak sandwich was average to me. But the sourdough is certainly good.


But this fillet pie is definitely good. We rate it 9 out of 10. So if you have a chance to go to Daylesford, you must give it a try. Overall the food is not bad and the dining experience is good.

Here's their food menu:

Bad Habits Cafe
Cnr. Hill & Daly St, Daylesford
Ph: +61 3 5348 3211
Fax: +61 3 5348 3339



Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Lemon Curd Tart

It's been awhile since I last posted something. Was really busy the last couple of weeks. Today I just want to post this recipe which I tried last weekend, incase I lost it. It is my favourite desert, Lemon Curd Tart.


I will divide this recipe into 2 parts. 

First Part: Making of the Tart Crust (for a 9 inch tart crust).
Here's the required ingredients:
1) 1 and half cup of all-purpose flour.
2) Half cup of caster sugar. I saw some recipes uses brown sugar as well.
3) 1/4 teaspoon salt.
4) 9 tablespoons or 4 and half ounces very cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces.
5) 1 large egg.



Now pulse the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl (food processor will be best). Drop in small pieces of butter into the mix. The butter will be coarsely cut via this process. Stir in the egg, little at a time until all butter is in the mix. Bring the formed dough out to a work bench and very lightly and sparingly, knead it just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped. Chill the dough, wrapped in plastic, for about 2 hours (I was lazy, I only chill it for an hour) before rolling. You can choose to put them in freezer (10-15 mins).

While the dough is being chill, you can actually start working on the Lemon Curd mix. 

Second Part: Lemon Curd Mix.
Ingredients required:
1) 3 large eggs.
2) 1/3 cup lemon juice (2-3 lemons).
3) 3/4 cup sugar.
4) 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into small pieces.
5) 1 tablespoon lemon zest. You can put more if you like, I definitely put more than 1 tablespoon, cause I love lemons.




In a stainless steel bowl placed over a pot of simmering water, whisk eggs, lemon juice and sugar. Cook, constantly stirring, until mixture becomes thick (8-10 mins). Then bring the mixture out from heat and slowly mix the butter. Finally the lemon zest. Allow mixture to cool.

Now the dough should be ready to roll. Oil the 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom using butter. Now roll the dough to 1/2 cm thickness, add flour if needed. Then fit the dough to tart pan, patch up any cracks. You may then freeze the completed dough in freezer for 15-20 mins for it to retain its shape. 

Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius. Then baked the tart for 12-15 min, when it is slightly brown you are ready for lemon curb mixture. (You may need a tin to weight down the tart base during baking, incase it gets bloated). Now set the oven temperature to 160 degrees celsius, pour in the lemon curd mixture and allow it to baked for another 8-15 mins.


Now bring out the tart, allow it to cool to room temperature (if not tart will crack) before putting it into the fridge. Best is to leave over night in fridge. Sprinkle some icing sugar when serving. I can't find my, so I use caster sugar instead. But what's really important is the lemon, so who cares about the sugar.


Now you can have Lemon Curd tart for desert. And for me, no more spending money outside to eat them.



Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Daylesford, Victoria

We head to Daylesford over the weekend, it was a 1.5 hrs drive from Melbourne, and we are lucky to have a sunny and cool weather on that day. I will be writing more on Daylesford over the next posts. We made our first stop at Daylesford Sunday market. Btw, there's also heritage train ride on weekend at the market as well.


It is a huge outdoor market and what really caught our attention is the row of big yellow leaves trees. And stall owners just camp their stalls right below these giant trees. You need to be careful if it is on a wet day, as there will be no shelter to hide, so bring along rain coat or umbrella.


Lots of stalls selling fresh vegetables, food and produce. (And also lots of stalls selling junks too). The vegetables certainly look very fresh and surely is good enough to be use to whip out some great dishes.


We bought some handmade soaps from one stall, but you can get a better deal if you walk further into the market. There's two other stalls selling soap as well. And the best deal probably you can get is 3 for $5.50 or 1 for $2.


Honey freeks can go to O'Tooles honey stall, they say is probably the best honey you can find in the state.


Anyone for a coffee or tea?


Daylesford is also famous for their local freshly made sourdough. This stall here, we saw long queues of people lining up for it. We didn't try it, but I managed to taste local sourdough at a cafe for lunch (more on that on my next post).


Have you heard about lime butter? It is definitely new to me.


Next we head off for lunch at The Convent Gallery. More about that tomorrow ...

Daylesford Sunday Market
Midland Highway,  Daylesford Victoria 3460 Australia
Ph: 03 5348 3503

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Buddha's Day Event at Fed Square

On 15th and 16th May 2010, we celebrated Buddha's Day at Federation Square, Melbourne. We actually volunteered ourselves to help up in one of the information booth. Although at the end of the day, we also ended up selling cyclamen flowers for our temple. But we had a terrific time, and felt really good that we can actually play a part in this meaningful event.



Buddha's Day and Multicultural Festival incorporates the traditions of Buddhist ceremonies and celebrations including the "Bathing of the Buddha", daily Dharma ceremonies, the Wishing Bell and traditional incense offerings, a vegetarian culinary tour of Asia alongside the Yarra on the River Terrace, cultural demonstrations and insights, music, art and craft and community service groups.

While taking a break from my duties, I decided to walk around taking some shots via my mobile phone's camera (forgot to bring my camera). Here I saw lines of queues of people wanting to bath the Buddha. I decided to take some shots and also close ups.


Close up on Buddha statue. Unfortunately we didn't take part in the queue. 


Got caught up by the look of the vibrant colours, and managed to capture some rays of sunlight shinning down onto the Buddha statue. There's plenty of vegetarian cuisine food stalls down at side of Yarra river but we didn't take any snaps of it. Did try out some of the food ... Not too bad.


We have various activities and talks in the BMW auditorium hall as well. But I only managed to sit in for this CH'AN tea ceremony. We were taught on meditation and teacher also shared some Buddhism teachings on living life. One teaching I find it really useful is telling people not to spend too much time and energy worrying on things that didn't happen and start living and enjoying the present. At the end of the ceremony we tasted some tea (although I am more of coffee drinker). The tea leaves actually comes from Taiwan Alishan mountain. 


Lastly we have Lion dance performed by our temple volunteers as well. Overall it was really an enjoyable day. Sometimes we think to ourselves, we are blessed to be able to volunteer ourselves for such meaningful event and to enjoy every moment of it. 


Friday, May 14, 2010

My Grilled Crab

Today I liked to write a post on my grilled crab recipe which I have made some time back.

Here's the ingredients we will need:
- 2 large crabs
- 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 tablespoons of good olive oil
- 1 tablespoon of minced ginger
- some bruised red chilli without seeds
- 1 tablespoon of finely chopped coriander
- 1-2 chopped tomato

To prepare the crabs, bring to boil a large pot of water. Put the crabs, one at a time, head first into the boliling water. Let it boil and then simmer it for 5 minutes. Remove crabs from the water. To clean the crabs, pull of triangular tab from belly. Lift off the shell. Clean entrails and gills from crab, wash then drain.

Next we make our special sauce mix. Mix and stir white wine vinegar, olive oil, ginger, chilli, coraindar and tomato into a bowl.


Place the crabs on a preheated grill. Cooked with the lid closed, brushing them with our sauce mix occasionally. Turn the crabs over after 5 mins and apply mix. Leave it in the grill for another 5mins. Crabs are done when the meat in the leg is opaque.


Place on serving dish and spoon remaining mixture over crabs. You may grill some sweet corns to go along with this dish. And of course some wine to go along.



Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Lake Elizabeth, Otways, Great Ocean Road

We done this trip back in April 2009 during our tour to Great Ocean Road (GOR). We signed up for a Platypus canoe tour at Lake Elizabeth and need to be at the town of Forrest by 5.30am.


Lake Elizabeth, hidden deep in the Otways near the township of Forrest, is an inspiring sight with heavily timbered flanks and calm waters punctuated by the trunks of dead trees, drowned when the valley was flooded.
The lake was created more than 50 years ago when record rainfall sent thousands of tonnes of rock and earth tumbling into the East Barwon River, damming the river and forming a lake in a remote forested valley.


We started our drive at 4.30am from Apollo Bay, and it took us an hour before we reach our meeting place. The drive can be a little challenging as the roads are dark and winding. We are supposed to meet our guide at the front of a small general merchandise store in small town of Forrest.

From Forrest we drove another 10-15mins before starting our walk (around 30 mins) to the lake through Otways forest, with its towering trees and dense fern glades. By the time we got to the lake, the sun is about to rise and the scene of the lake was really captivating (with all the fogs and dead tree trunks). I was lucky to be able to capture the peaceful mood with this shot. Lighting was low and therefore holding the camera firmly was really required.


We prepared our canoe and set off ... Catching glimpse of platypus coming out of their bed for food. We even had breakfast on our canoe and enjoying this untouched nature site.



The whole tour lasted 3-4hrs. The platypus photos are provided by Bruce, our tour guide. Good on you Bruce! We highly recommend you do this tour in your next visit to GOR.


Otway Eco Tours
10 Blundy St Forrest VIC 3236 
Ph: 03 5236 6345 
bruce.jackson@aapt.net.au
http://platypustours.net.au