As I mentioned last week, this weekend was Chinese New Year which is a very important thing to the locals here in Singapore and across Asia where many traditions are carried out. When we lived in Switzerland, it was me who was more exposed to the local ways and traditions, here in Singapore that seems to have changed and my Fiancé is the one who is bringing home new foods and goodies for me to try. Chinese New Year was no different, with lots of goodies being bought into our home although some of which I am not sure I will try, like birds nest drink!
Some of our Chinese New Year goodies that my fiancé received from work including birds nest drinks, bak kwa, pineapple tarts and goji berries.
One of my favourite things I have tried are Pineapple Tarts, although he didn’t bring too many of these home as I am sure they were devoured before he left the office! These are eaten here like Mince Pies are eaten at Christmas back home in England and they are a yummy tropical version. You can buy them from many stalls and shops around Singapore often in clear plastic pots with red lids as seen above in the middle of the picture. Last week I thought I would give my own pineapple tarts a try. A quick search on google came up with Poh’s recipe which looked easy enough so off I went to Cold Storage to buy a few additional ingredients I needed. I followed the recipe using the tinned pineapple option rather than fresh. It would have been more useful if I had made the jam first rather than the pastry as the recipe suggests as it took so long to cool down I had to leave it for a few hours before I could continue with the recipe. After draining my pineapple chunks I put them into my liquidiser until they were a smooth puree. I probably should of cooked the jam for longer as I didn’t have the right consistency to be able to make balls but a dollop of the jam on top of the pastries worked fine. I also didn’t have the small star shaped cutter they ask for to top the tarts but I don’t think that was the end of the world. They turned out great and really tasty although I had to wait for the man of the house to have a taste as he seems to be the expert of them now!
They turned out great! The pastry was really tasty. This was the first time I had made my own pastry since moving here as it is normally so hot but it won’t be the last. Using my food processor made it so much easy and quicker so the butter didn’t melt too fast and the jam, although not as photogenic as Poh’s Pineapple Tarts, made the perfect balance. I had one of the red lidded pots in my cupboard from the one batch that did make it through the front door, perfect for storing my authentic pineapple tarts in!
Gong Xi Fa Cai and a Happy New Year to you all, May you gallop and leap into fields bursting with prosperity and success this year of the Horse!
Sip Chomp Chew 
Is the Birds nest drink less than 100ml? ;¬))
Yes, they are less than 100ml 🙂