POPIAH SKINS

SINGLE SKIN ON PAN



STACK OF SKINS (well, only about 10!) ON CHOPPING BOARD

Whether you may or may not wish to know why I took on the 'mammoth' task of making popiah skins for our popiah session, I'll tell you anyhow. It all came about when we were discussing after dinner/BS session (yes, we always talk about food as we miss all the 'local' M'sian/S'porean dishes here in Melbourne and we try to replicate the dishes)and the discussion somehow focussed on popiah. You may not know this but I absolutely LLOOOOOVVE to eat popiah and used to buy the fresh skins from a shop in Joo Chiat (they were really expensive and the price kept going up. I could eat up to 7 popiahs in one sitting!!!) - I really enjoyed watching the professionals spread the dough out on the pans and literally 'bounced' the dough back into their palms! Sheer artistry!

OK, so I volunteered to try my hand at making the skins as I had the flat pan, courtesy of my MIL, cos' the popiahs taste so much better with fresh skins - the frozen ones are way too chewy! I started by surfing the net to find the right recipe (they all had different proportions of liquid) and made 1/2 a batch, using 300g flour and about 150 or 200ml water. Needless to say, the dough was too dry, so I threw out that lot after after trying to make it on the pan - the dough didn't stick to the pan at all!! Then I tried the recipe fm a new Nyonya kuih recipe book that I'd bought during my last trip to S'pore in early January but that was a runny batter! No matter, I still tried to make the skin on the pan, based on what I saw on youtube etc. Naw......another batch down the rubbish hatch.

Sorry this 'story' is taking so long but the day of our popiah session is fast approaching (28 Mar) so I decided to give it another try. I even borrowed a stainless steel fry pan and a brass apom balik pan in hope of achieving success on one of those pans. I gave Andrew's recipe another try - made 1/2 batch and waited the 3 hours for the batter to rest (was too impatient to wait the last time)then tried the first skin on the apom balik pan..........hey. it seemed to work but I had really small diameter skins as I was afraid to burn my arm on the sides of the pan....so, I tried making a skin on the flat roti prata pan.... and hey, presto.....the rest is history!

I've even got pictures to prove it! Some parts of the skins are a bit thick, though, as I haven't mastered the process yet but I will get it right some day soon!

Looks like I'll have to make heaps of skins - maybe use 1.8kg or more of flour!

POPIAH SKINS (Recipe fm Nyonya Kuih Passions by Andrew Kow)

600ml plain flour
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tsp salt
600ml water

1. Sieve the flour with salt and cornflour into large mixing bowl, stir water in slowly.(I used my hand - forget the bread maker...tried it....didn't work!!)
2. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic (comment: the dough is more like a batter, actually!)
3. Set aside for 3 hours
4. Heat up a flat pan, grease with a little oil, place a small portion of dough onto pan and fry for 10 seconds over medium heat. Remove (will have pictures next time! OR you can watch how they make it on youtube. )

NB: It's important to let the dough rest for 3 hours. Also, cover the skins with a damp teatowel so that they don't dry out before you're ready to eat the popiahs. Skins can be frozen but they are best eaten fresh.

Q: I wonder whether the skins will have more 'spring' in them if I substituted the cornflour with tapioca flour?

Egg custard tarts

OK, so the tarts didn't look that 'pretty' BUT.......they tasted GREAT!!!
I think I left them in the oven for too long and the temperature was a bit high, so the egg custard puffed up but when I removed them, the custard 'sort of' deflated, hence, the 'crinkled' look!

EGG CUSTARD TARTS 10 Sept 08

Pastry:
160g plain flour
40g rice flour
100g butter/vegetable shortening
¼ cup icing sugar
1 egg yolk, beaten
¼ cup ice water

Filling:
3 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup (60g) caster sugar
1 ½ cups (375ml) milk
yellow food colouring (optional)
½ tsp vanilla essence (optional)


METHOD

1. Make pastry using the rubbing-in method. Leave to rest.
2. Roll pastry to about 3mm thickness.
3. Cut and fit greased 12-hole (10cm) tart pan.
4. Place filling ingredients into a wide-mouthed jug and beat till smooth.
5. Pour the filling into the pastry-lined tart pan till almost full.
6. Bake for 10min at 210C then 10-15min at 200C, until the custard has set.
7. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.


NB: You can brush the pastry bases with beaten egg white (yolk used in pastry) before pouring in the filling. If you replace part of the milk with cream, say ½ cup of cream, the tarts will ‘become’ Portuguese egg tarts.

Original recipe fm Tok Suan (DPA) for 24 small egg tarts
Pastry:
3 cups (375g) flour
180g lard
5 tablespoons hot water

Made on Tuesday 28 October 2008 using 150g plain flour, 50g rice flour for pastry(no egg yolk; used cold water to bind pastry) and 4 eggs / 500ml (2 cups) milk. Produced 16 tarts. Yummy! Next time, try using half rice / half plain flour.

Siew Pau

Ingredients
• 1 cup (150g) plain flour
• 1 cup wholemeal flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 ½ cups raw sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup cooking oil
• 3 cups grated carrot
• 1 cup sultanas (optional)
• ½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Icing:
• 60g unsalted butter, softened
• 250g cream cheese, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup icing sugar, sifted
• 1 cup chopped nuts
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
Method
1. Preheat the oven (not fan-forced) to 180°C. Grease a 23cm square cake pan and line the base.
2. Sift and mix dry ingredients.
3. Add oil and stir well.
4. Stir in beaten eggs then add carrot, sultanas and walnuts. Mix thoroughly.
5. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 40-45min or until cooked. Remove from the oven and cool in pan for 5 minutes, then turn out on a wire rack to cool completely.
6. Meanwhile, beat all ingredients for the icing, except the nuts. Ice cake when it has cooled. Sprinkle chopped nuts on top of cake.