Portuguese Egg Tarts

Your egg tarts look more like curry puffs! That's what one reader says about Rasa Malaysia's Portuguese egg tarts.

Indeed, her tarts don't have any of the signature black burn marks. To me, what's supposed to be the custard looks more like an omelette . . . or maybe quiche.

Do you know what's wrong with Rasa Malaysia's recipe?

It's the shortcrust pastry she uses. Hong Kong egg tarts may be made with either shortcrust or puff pastry but their Portuguese cousins are always made with puff pastry. Why? Because, to get the hallmark splodges on the custard, the tarts have to be baked at a very high temperature. How high? About 250°C, which would have shortcrust pastry incinerated. That's why Rasa Malaysia bakes her tarts at 200°C. At that temperature, the shortcrust pastry doesn't burn but then neither does the custard even when it's overcooked (you can tell from the leathery, crumpled top).

If someone said to me that thing in her photo is a Portuguese egg tart, I would say, "On which planet?" Krypton maybe?

If you replace the shortcrust pastry in Rasa Malaysia's recipe with puff pastry and increase the oven temperature, would the egg tarts turn out ok?

Nope, because her custard filling doesn't have enough milk. You know how milk forms a skin when heated? The custard has to form the same skin and it's that skin that's burnt, not sugar or custard. What is that skin? It's the milk protein, casein, which separates from the milk when it's heated, rises to the top, and undergoes the browning process called Maillard reaction. Too little milk means too little casein; too little casein means no skin; no skin means no burn marks even at 250°C, at least not before the pastry's burnt.

A lot of people think PETs' burnt splodges are bits of caramelized sugar. But sugar, or rather sucrose, turns black only when it hits at least 210°C. At that temperature, the pastry would turn black too. Casein, OTOH, browns at a much lower temperature. That's why it's burnt when the pastry and sugar aren't.

Besides a layer of burnt protein, there's something else lurking atop the custard. You notice how shiny the custard is on top? The shine is because of melted sugar, not protein because protein isn't shiny. Some of the sugar separates from the custard mixture when it's heated at 250°C. It then bubbles up to the top, giving the tart its shiny look.

Separated sugar's a good thing except not all of it finds its way up if there's a lot. Some of it may sink to the bottom of the tart and turn the pastry soggy. How do you tackle this problem? By controlling the amount of sugar that separates from the custard mixture. How do you do that? By keeping the oven temperature low if you were baking Hong Kong egg tarts. For Portuguese egg tarts which must be baked at a high temperature, you do it with cornflour. The flour stabilizes the custard and, hence, reduces the amount of sugar separated.

To activate the binding quality of cornflour, it has to be added to the custard and then heated on the stove till the whole mixture reaches the right consistency. If it's too thick, it'll turn into scrambled eggs when it's baked. If it's too thin, it'll allow too much sugar to separate, turning the pastry soggy.

Unless you're making your own pastry, the only tricky step in making Portuguese egg tarts is when you cook the custard on the stove. Remember the thickening is a one-way street. If you overshoot, there's no turning back. Adding milk to thin it down doesn't work. Once the consistency looks right, you should put the pot in a water-bath to cool down quickly.

If you look at online photos of PETs, you'll see that a lot of store-bought tarts have a sunken top. Even Lord Stow's, the gold standard, are picture perfect only some of the time.

How do you stop the custard from sinking as it cools down so that the top stays level?

Again by stabilizing it with cornflour. You see how important the cornflour is but it's missing from Rasa Malaysia's recipe?

And what's with her three drops of vanilla extract for 10 tarts? Three drops? Would these be American plus-sized drops?

If you use readymade pastry shells, making Portuguese egg tarts is a cinch . . . . Well, it is provided you're not using a crap recipe like Rasa Malaysia's. Here's my video to show you how to make Portuguese egg tarts that look like Portuguese egg tarts rather than curry puffs or mini quiches:



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Chai Tow Kway (Fried Carrot Cake)

If you're looking for a good chai tow kway recipe, you've come to the right place. How do I convince you my CTK is good? By comparing to one that's bad, here, from The Little Teochew in a guest post for Rasa Malaysia. 

I've read many recipes for various sorts of steamed cakes made with rice flour, such as chwee kueh, orh kueh, lor bak gou, pak tong gou and, of course, chai tow kway. What's the one common feature they all have? The batter is cooked on the stove before it's steamed. The Little Teochew, unlike everyone else, mixes rice flour with room temperature water, then steams the batter straightaway. Why do the rest of us do extra work? Because unless the batter is thickened before it's steamed, the rice flour would sink and form a hard layer at the bottom of the cake. If you steam rice flour batter without thickening it first, your kway is doomed for failure.

Besides thickening the batter before steaming, recipes for steamed rice cakes have another common feature. What's that? There's a bit of oil in the batter. TLT's recipe, unlike everyone else's, has no oil. An oil-less cake would be gritty, not smooth.

The Little Teochew says,

"Feel free . . . to adjust the proportions of radish, [rice] flour and water.  Unlike baking, there are no hard and fast rules to making [chai tow kway], and a  little more (or less) here and there will not hurt."

A little more or less of water will not hurt? Sorry, that's utter nonsense. For the 200 g of rice flour in her recipe, even a bit more or less of water makes a big difference to the cake's texture. If you've never made steamed rice cake before, imagine it's 200 g of rice you're cooking and it's got the exact texture you like. Now imagine cooking the rice with an additional tablespoonful or two of water. Would the rice be edible? Of course. Would it still be perfect? Of course not. Naturally, what's perfect for you may not be perfect for me. You may use a bit more or less water than me. But you wouldn't want to use a bit more or less water than what would make the perfect rice for you.

Btw, my CTK recipe is adapted from Honey Bee Sweets' chwee kueh recipe, which has none of the a-bit-more-or-less-won't-hurt nonsense. She tells her readers to boil 1,020 ml of water, allow 20 ml for evaporation, and use 1,000 ml to make the batter. The chwee kueh made with her recipe is, I tell ya, as good as the best money can buy.

If you don't change the amount of water and cook the batter before steaming it, could TLT's recipe work? No way. Why? Because her water to flour ratio is wrong. I estimate her recipe has only 2.9 parts water (including the juice released from a craaaazy amount of radish) to 1 part rice flour. In comparison, my orh kueh uses 4.2 parts water to 1 part rice flour even though orh kueh is set a bit firmer than chai tow kway. With a ratio of 2.9, TLT's chai tow kway would be way too hard.

Why do I compare TLT's CTK to my orh kueh instead of CTK? Because my orh kueh, like her CTK, is made with only rice flour. My CTK, in contrast, is made with a mix of rice flour, cornflour and wheat starch. When you use only rice flour, the cake is harder. With a mix of cornflour and wheat starch added, it's softer (all other things being equal). And it's slightly gooey after it's fried. You'll never get the soft gooeyness if you use only rice flour, no matter how much water you add.

Why on earth does TLT steam the radish for 30 minutes? God only knows. I just boil mine. Five minutes is all it takes.

The Little Teochew calls chai tow kway radish cake. Please lah, dat is so anal! Every true blue Singaporean knows chai tow kway is carrot cake in English even though there's no carrot in it. Every true blue Singaporean also knows there's  usually no radish in chai tow kway unless it's homemade. And no true blue Singaporean makes chai tow kway at home except a few crazy ones like yours truly. So what's the point of calling chai tow kway radish cake, right?

The texture of the rice cake depends on not only the balance of flour, starch, water and oil, but also the consistency of the batter after it's cooked on the stove. Thicker batter makes a harder cake, and vice versa, even if the ingredients are exactly the same. You must therefore learn to judge when the thickness of the batter is just right. With my recipe, the kway is very soft but not mushy if the batter is cooked to the right consistency.

To get the frying part right, you need good quality ingredients. How fragrant is the garlic you buy? What about the spring onions, chai poh, eggs, fish sauce and light soya sauce? Your CTK can't possibly be fragrant if the ingredients are substandard. Good quality stuff would need just high heat and sufficient time to brown properly to give you kick-ass CTK.

After steaming your kway to perfection and carefully selecting the best ingredients to fry with, your efforts will go to waste unless you use the right wok. You should use one that's well-seasoned or the kway will turn into mush as you try your damndest to pry it loose.

How do you tell if your wok is well-seasoned? If you need to ask, then it probably isn't! In that case, please do what The Little Teochew recommends. Which is? Use non-stick, of course. I tend to think non-stick is for wimps but I'm sure that's just me. Anyways, did TLT actually make the CTK in her photos? If she did, why is her recipe so bad? Heheheh . . . heh . . . . Maybe she bought the CTK from some hawker centre! Oh well, it's none of my business. I just make CTK my way, for fun.

If you have Singaporean or Malaysian friends/relatives living somewhere where CTK isn't available, please send them this video and tell them to follow my recipe, not the one on Rasa Malaysia's blog:



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