Harvest Monday - January 30, 2012

Beets, daikon, radish, turnips, and tatsoi greens.

I pulled all the root crops today, they are putting out new leaves,
the bi-annual roots won't grow anymore due to longer daylight, 

but I'll start another batch of seeds for spring.  

Remaining overwintered greens:  chard, spinach, and kale.

Piracicaba Broccoli and Romano Broccoli.

There's not much going on in the gardening department, I started some seeds for green onions, broccoli raab, bok choy, lettuce, and chrysanthemum greens.  I'll be sowing peas, beets, kohlrabi, turnips, tatsoi, more lettuces, cilantro, and some other cold tolerant crops in the coming days.

Drop by Daphne's Dandelions host of Harvest Monday 

to see more garden harvests from around the globe.

Egg Tart 蛋塔

Egg Custard Tart (from April 2006 album)

 

This is a very popular item at dim sum restaurants or Chinese bakeries, you can easily make it at home, think of it as baking a mini custard pie.  The custard part is simple and straight forward, it's the flaky pastry that makes the difference in a good or bad egg tart. When I'm not lazy I make puff pastry crust for the tarts, but you can get away with a good store bough pre-made pie crust as seen from the photo.    

Click here to see a video on how to make egg tarts Hong Kong style. 



Ingredients for approximate twenty 3 1/2" egg tarts:

18-20 partially baked tart shells*

4 large eggs—slightly beaten

2 cups milk

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup sugar

1/8 tsp salt

Preheat oven 375F/190C

Directions:

1. Combine sugar, salt, and milk in a glass bowl, microwave for 2-3 minutes to dissolve the sugar and salt.

2. Add vanilla and beaten eggs to milk, stir and strain the mixture couple times to remove lumps and foam.

3. Pour egg mixture into partially baked tart shells and bake for 15-20 min. or until a toothpick comes out clean, if the tart browns before the custard is set loosely cover the tarts with foil.

4. Do not overbaked or the custard will be rubbery.

*Two 10" homemade flaky puff pastry or pie dough, roll the crust to about 1/8" thick, cut with a 4” cookie cutter to fit crust into tart mold. I managed to get 10 shells out of 1 pie crust, bake the shells at 375°F/190C for about 10 minutes prior to filling.

Note:  I'm baking at high altitude, my oven temperature might be too high for lowlanders, you might want to experiment with lower temp such as 350F/176C if your oven  tends to run on the hot side.


This post is linked to Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard, drop by The Gardener of Eden to see more preserving and cooking ideas.



 

Happy Lunar New Year 龍年快樂 花開富貴

Harvest Monday - January 9, 2012

Happy new year, sorry I've been MIA the past several weeks, I need someone to hit me on the head to snap out of winter doldrums.  I'm posting couple pictures from last year end and the new year harvests.

 2011 year end harvest -- green meat daikon, carrots, and napa cabbage.

 

 2012 new year harvest -- napa cabbage and piracicaba broccoli shoots.

 Garlic for 2012 -- Shangdong and Xian were in good condition, I finally got them planted, whew~

 the Spanish Rojas didn't keep as well as the other two, I will not be growing it again.

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne's Dandelions

drop by to see more harvests from other gardeners around the globe.