Tepee

Michael, you had to ask! If I had the time, I would have attempted to make hollandaise sauce, but I didn't ..... so it's just Heinz mayonnaise.

I'm not a pro, but, you can add a tiny bit of blue to your white royal icing. That'll 'whiten' the icing. edit to add: Just make sure the coloring is not oil-based or the icing will not set.

Awwww...I'm sorry to hear that, Yuki. Which recipe did you use? You have to bake in low heat, 150C for at least 40 minutes, so that the filling doesn't explode. I don't mind trying it again, since it actually takes very little time to come up with one batch. This time I'll do 50/50 lard/butter.

What the heck are you talking about? Apricot sounds interesting, but I've only had duck with hoisin and plum sauce.

"WOW!" I'm speechless.

Everybody!!!! Here comes the Tart (lady)!!!!!!!! I can just picture that.

Thanks, Sue-On. LOL, I do think asparagus is always in season here...sometimes there are only scrawny ones, sometimes nice and thick. The red on top of the siu mai is red bell pepper. Was out of cilantro. For binding, one teaspoon cornflour and one egg. The lobak goh is just your basic one, with lup cheong, dried shrimps, shallots. Not much in mine compared to yours (I remember it well! ).

Ran out of time....so, my siu mai dinner wasn't perfect. Didn't make a proper chilli sauce, DH bought the wrong ginger, so we had old ginger instead. Siu mai is 50/50 pork/prawns. We ate our siu mai with turnip cake (lo bak ko), which I made earlier in the day. When I make this, if it turns out nice and soft, we eat it as it is. However, this time I was a bit heavy-handed on the rice flour, and it turned out harder than desired...so I turned it into char kueh, by frying it with lots of garlic, shallots and dark soya sauce. Hubby's had sambal added to it. Feeling a bit full now..........

How inspiring!

Here you go --- Truly spectacular!

Don't have a flexipan (being a dinosaur, I'm a bit suspicious of that kind of pan), but I wonder if your problem can be solved by giving your filled pans a sharp tap or 2 before going into the oven?

I kid you not! He says it smells like puke!

I would be very interested in this thread....having made 2 very good Jewish e-friends 2 years ago and met another 2 on this board recently. Don't get to see any Jews in my part of the world, you know....

Here's mine. I had a feeling that this will not be well-received. DH hated the cheese (Romano...coz the only cheese he'll take is cheddar and cream cheese). DD#2 doesn't dig the eggplants. Sigh. Made with beef. I salted and drained the eggplants, then pan-fried. Personally, I thought it was good.

Sue-On, I'd send you some, but these pretties (er...not really) won't even make it into a box...reiterate...very fragile. If you plan to take these out of the house, I suggest you put them in cupcake paper liners. The recipe is super simple. Pastry (this is supposedly for 1 batch. I suggest you make 1.5 times) 1 cup unsifted AP flour 1 tblsp sugar 1/4 C lard 1/4 C ice water (I didn't even have to use this) Filling 2 eggs 1/2 C milk 1/2 C sugar (I used 1/3 C) 1 tsp vanilla extract I added a little squirt of yellow gel food coloring. Bake at a very slow oven 150C for 40 minutes. That way the filling won't boil over and get done before the pastry. You have lucky, lucky students.

Here's mine....Ellen Leong Blonder recipe. Used lard, AP flour, sugar for the pastry. Filling was milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla extract. Egad! The pastry was so fragile, you can see from the pix how some of the sides 'dropped' off. The problem was the recipe asked that the moulds be ungreased. Then, after cooling, you have to loosen the tarts off the moulds with a knife. Duh. If the pastry was shortcrust, it would have been fine. Then, with 1 cup of flour, you were expected to cut out twelve 3-1/4-inch rounds. Double duh. I could only get 11 rounds and I was using a 2.5 inch cutter. And, the pastry was less than 2 mm in thickness. However, taste is great. Light, very light. I may try Portugese Egg Tarts later in the week. Before baking

Thanks so much, Sue-On and Kristin, for sharing your notes. Will be useful when I tackle these babies tonite..... Sue-On, I'm sure you've made a lot of people happy with those tarts. Kristin, I bet your tarts would have been perfect if it didn't overcook. Should I or shouldn't I add the yellow coloring? I know they do it commercially to improve on the custard color.

Gul Dekar, you're too hard on yourself. Your siu mais are just a teeny tiny bit on the generous filling side....that's why it's harder for you to shape nicely. Suzy, your hubby and you look so cute....yummy siu mais! Sue-On, great tip on using up the left-over filling. Thanks. By the way, where are your siu mais? Now, I can't wait till Tuesday to do mine!

Ta da! And now, for my 15 minutes of fame.......... First of all, I'm very grateful to all involved in this thread, to Jack (of course! For his excellent course), Dan Lepard, Samuel Kinsey and everyone who had put in their experience. The first time I saw this course was more than a year ago. I always thought it was a good read but impossible to happen because of the distance the starter will need to travel. However, Jack convinced me of the endurance of the starter and he sent me some...took 5 days via airmail. I literally dropped everything to refresh the starter the moment I got it. It didn't respond...for....a...whole....8....days. Slight bubbling initially, then zilch. I wasn't about to let it die on me, so I pressed on to feed it. Second feed, still nothing. Then, I ran out of flour and opened a new bag. Bingo! That gave the starter a new lease of life. Things happened at a dizzying speed after that. 3 more feedings and it was a Thing that couldn't be tamed. Within 1 hour of the 5th feed, it was doubled. Time to make my bread, yippee! I did altogether 4-hourly turns. And, boy, did it grow! When I turned it out for shaping, there were 2 golf-ball size bubbles. My bread was truly alive...I felt almost sorry that I had to bake it. Left it in the linen-covered tin to retard overnight in the fridge. Glazed it with milk/egg yolk mixture. On hindsight, my cuts were not deep enough. Baked in a 15 minute preheated oven, on a baking sheet, for 40 minutes, 220C turbo-fan. Poured in some hot water at 5 minutes, sprayed at 15. Hubby decided to add his touch by taking it out (with 15 minutes to go) and sprinkling sugar on the top. Bad idea. Before the crust could reach the desired color, the sugar started to burn. I had stop baking then. This is the most delicious bread I've ever tasted. The sourness was there, just enough to linger for you to want to take the next bite to get the taste again. Beautiful texture. We all ate it as it is. It was enough. And so, I am now a proud custodian of the Californian/Cambridge starter and I do pledge to spread the good word about its wondrous nature. As such, I would be more than happy to send the starter out to anyone from these regions. Just PM me.

Thanks for the pic and the enlightenment, O Waisik One! Lei gong gom toh double negatives ngo mg chi le ngap mud.<--------country bumpkin talking.

Well I can tell you haven't spent any serious time in the Pastry & Baking Forum. We have many people there that just blow me away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Big time! ← You're too humble! Sure you don't have some Asian blood? Looking forward to more eye candies.....

LOL, I saw this too, and was just about to post it! I'll have to thank Sue-On for curbing my over-enthusiasm in the eG dim sum cook-off. I suppose, as a homecook, I can control the sodium to some extent, but it won't be the same thing if too much fats are removed from a recipe.

This is the site of a very good e-friend, Joanne. I don't know how she did her site but I can't seem to get the urls to the specific recipes. Anyway, just click 'chinese dim sum, pastries and desserts' on the left menu. You'll see the 2 dough pastry/chinese pastry. There's also a how-to for siu mai/shao mai.

Suzy and Sheetz....I am thinking I must be a country bumpkin, because I've never encountered egg plant and glutinous rice siu mai. I would love to see your pics and notes on these. Tks! This cook-off is getting interesting!

Kristin, the mix is usually 50/50. I haven't heard of rubbing shrimp with salt until it's foamy. I'm guessing that's to get rid of its fishy smell. For shrimps, I just add salt and a pinch of sugar to marinate for a short time. I don't know the science of it, but, apparently, the sugar helps it to develop a springiness. The same thing goes for pounding and slamming...to develop a spring when you bite on the siu mai.....something about developing its gluten, perhaps?