Saturdays are great for some crazy kitchen fun. This week i'm making a Cheesy Cherry Tomato Puff. Super easy to put together, cheap and yummy. Fun to put together with kids because it's mess free. Here's how:
You'll need 4 squares of frozen puff pastry. Personally i prefer Kawan brand coz it's local, cheap and go
od. Cost about RM 5 for 10 sheets. That works out to about 50 sen/ square.
Peel off 4 squares from the pack and lay them on a flat surface to thaw while you gather the other stuff you need.
Slice up a handful of cherry tomatoes any how you like and arrange them neatly in a sheet of puff. You can swap cherry tomatoes for regular tomatoes but it'll taste less robust. You'll want to keep the tomatoes in the center coz we'll need to pinch in the pastry sides later.
Here're your secret to making it taste like heaven. You'll need Italian Herbs, Paprika, Parmasen Cheese and Mozarella Cheese. The herbs cost less than RM 10 each and last a LONG time. The cheese cost more or less the same as well, but depending on how much of a cheese monster you are...should last some time too.
You can actually do this in whatever order, but i like to sprinkle on the Italian Herbs first. Make sure it's evenly sprinkle in every inch of the pastry. Gives the pastry an even herby flavor.
Following up paprika, this gives it a bit of a tangy flavor.
Parmesan cheese to give it a fully body.
Now load on the mozzarella. There's really no rules here as to how much to load on. Just remember you need to cover it up with another sheet and pinch the sides later. So you'll want to make sure the pastry sheet doesn't rip on you.
This looks about a reasonable load to wrap up.
Satisfied? Now take the other blank sheet of pastry and cover up the loaded sheet. Like so.
The pastry should be rubbery and pliable by now. You can pull it and tweeze it...see...this part the kids will love.
My amateur attempt at "pinching" curry puff style. Haha. Apart from aesthetics, well, pinching the sides makes sure the filling doesn't ooze out while baking. So you want to pinch hard.
Oh, in the meantime, set the oven/ turbo broiler to a reasonable temperature. I use the turbo broiler, so it's about 150 C. Heat it up while you pinch your way through the next puff.
Set the finish product on a baking rack, ready for the oven/turbo broiler. A rack is always better coz that way you don't get oily bottoms for your puff. Leave some space between the puffs coz they literally "PUFF UP" when baking.
Into the oven/turbo broiler they go. 30 minutes it is. They look flat now but wait and see....
20 minutes into baking and this is what it looks like.
Times up. Here's what it looks like after 30 minutes.
Chinese tea always goes well with puff pastry for 2 reasons:
1. They taste great
2. They make the meal less sinful. The Chinese say it has "Fat Washing" properties....hahaha...seriously.
This is Lan Xin Que She (Lan Xin Sparrow's Tongue) tea. Another variation of Chinese Green Tea. A gift from my cousin in Macau. Starts off slightly bitter then taste real interesting as you keep at it. You gotta try it for yourself. =)
Ok folks, this is, or rather was, lunch for me and mum today. Top it off with half a dragon fruit. Just slice the fruit into half and dig in with a spoon. More refreshing than any ice cream sorbet on the shelves. Oh, check out the porcelain tea cup we got from Hanoi's pottery village. Really useful design, comes with a detachable tea strainer and a lid. Cute right? =)
If it looks like this inside, you're on the right track. Have fun trying. =)
