Wednesday, 11 February 2009

Portuguese egg pudding


This is a traditional portuguese pudding usually cooked to celebrate a special day like a wedding day, christmas, birthday or a family reunion.
Now is in almost every restaurants in Portugal as an everyday dessert.
Ingredients:
4 cups of milk
12 eggs
3 cups of sugar
1 tbsp of flour
zest of a lemon
caramel sauce
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 400 degreesF (200º C).
In a bowl beat the eggs until frothy.
Combine the sugar the flour and the lemon zest and beat the mixture into the eggs. Add the milk and mix again.
Pour the caramel into an ovenproofmold, rolling it aroud the sides to coat the mold evenly.
Pour the custard into the caramelized mold.
Place the mold in a larger pan and add water to come halfway up the sides of the mold.
Bake for 1 hour or until a knife inserted in the center of the custard comes out clean.
Cool the room temperature. Then place it in refrigerator tree hours.
Unmold the pudding on a reving plate.

Tuesday, 3 February 2009

Portuguese Custard Tart - Pastel de Nata Tart


The original recipe for "Pasteis de Nata" was invented by two catholic sisters in the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos in Lisbon, and called Pasteis de Belém. Since then the secret recipe has been havily guarded by the onwers of Pasteis de Belém cake shop.
Today there are many recipes which try to imitate the original. This gorgeous tart is one of these and I hope you like it.

Ingredients:
25o gr ready-made puff pastry, thowed if frozen
1,5 dl water
250 gr caster sugar
1 tbsp plain flour
3 egg yolks
1 egg
2,5 dl fresh cream
zest of lemon


Preparation:

Roll out the pastry and use it to line a 23cm tart ring.
Then prepare the custard : Mix the sugar and the water in a saucepan, bring to the boil during 5 minutes. Let cool completely.
In a bowl combine the flour with two tabsps of fresh cream and add the egg yolks, the egg, the fresh cream and the lemon zest. Mix well and spread the custard sauce over the base. Bake for about 45 minutes (heat the oven to 180ºc degrees), until golden brown and cooked. Serve it cool and dust the tart with icing sugar.