Thursday, January 25, 2007

Pistachio tartlets with clementine custard

Recipe of pistachio tartlet (crust only) yield: 10 tartlets
  • 1/2 cup + 2 tsps flour
  • 1/2 cup + 2 tsps ground pistachio
  • 1/2 tsp sugar
  • a pinch of salt
  • 2 Tbps chilled butter (veg shortening for non-dairy), sliced to 1/4-inch
  • spoonfuls of cold milk/ water

Directions:

  1. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, pistachio, sugar and salt. Drop in butter slices and use a pastry blender to cut them as the size of tiny bean. Add milk (or water) very little by little, you only need the mass just holds together, don't make it dough wet nor sticky! Wrap dough, chill in fridge for half an hour.
  2. Pre-heat oven 375F. Roll the dough to no more than 1/2 cm thick. Use cookie cutter/glass (mine the dia. 7cm) to cut out circles, lay them into a mini-tart tray. Bake until the edge just turns slightly golden. Unmold to let cool.
Recipe for clementine custard
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 Tbp corn starch
  • 1 Tbp flour
  • a pinch of salt
  • 1/2 cup + 1/2 cup clementine juice
  • one egg yolk
  • zest from one clementine (only if your clementine is organic)
  • 1/2 tbp butter
  • dash of lemon extract

Direction

  1. In a bowl, whisk 1/2 cup clementine juice and yolk to combine, set aside
  2. In a pot, well mix 1/2 cup clementine juice, sugar, starch, flour and salt, turn the heat on, stir constantly, bring to boil.
  3. Add half of the boiling mixture into yolk mixture, whisk immediately (tempering). Then return the whole yolk mixture into the pot, keep stirring and heat (on low) until boil. Turn the heat off, add butter and lemon extract to combine.
  4. Spoon the hot custard into the pre-baked tart shells.

For non-dairy version, just spoon marmalade into the pistachio tartlets to serve.

My note:

  1. For the shells, I like the above specified method which will yield very flaky texture. I wish it could be more green though, so I may experiment another method (which will yield shortbread-alike crust), in that case I'm probably allowed to increase a lot more pistachio.
  2. For the custard, it's very light and not fatty, but in a tartlet it really can go further rich, I'm thinking cheese version, or Bea's egg-enriched version.

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21 comments:

Ilva said...

I love these ideas! Great thinking!

FH said...

WOW!! Gattina,you are an unofficial Indian from today like Linda!Thanks for mentioning IRD!!:D
Looks great and very appropriate entry.Check out my flag colors in Aroma!:))

Anonymous said...

No need to say that I love these! YUm yum!

Sia said...

hi gattina,
my first visit to ur blog and i cant remove my eyes from it. love the way u present the recipe. just now i have started baking and where else i can find more recipes to try than urs.. will be visiting u often..
cheers
sia

Patricia Scarpin said...

Dear Gattina,

These tartlets are so tiny, beautiful ... Perfect!

I think it's so sweet of you to think of a non-dairy alternative.

I love all citrus things and have never eaten clementines - I'll try to find out if I can find them here!

Anonymous said...

How beautiful! They have all the colors down perfectly. And it looks scrumptious!

Mishmash ! said...

Gattina, Another beautiful presentation and quite colourful. Looks like you try something new everyday ! :)

Shn

Callipygia said...

Gattina you clever girl, what a great combo. Clementines have such a nice flavor. Oh and I made your perfect pizza dough and split it with a friend. Rave reviews we now feel that we can rival the local pizzeria.

archana said...

I just can't take my eyes off that second photo. Fabulous !!

Anh said...

Gattina, beautiful tartlets! I have never tasted clementine, not sure if I can find it here... But I love fruit tarts, all types!

Chawanmushi said...

Hi
I love looking at your beautiful food photos :-)

Kajal said...

Good idea for recipe.Nice entry for theme of republic day.Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

A very good way to join this important event. Great idea the pistacchio tartlet. Yiu are fantastic in your kitchen! Have a good weekend with your family. Kisses

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Clementines? I've been seeing this in a few blogs and recipes, but don't think they are available here :(. But it's enough for me just 'feasting' on yours :p

Pooja said...

Hi Gattina,
thanks for participating in theem of the Week with your Pistachio tartlets with clementine custard . :) . I am glad to recieve it .
As asha said I also feel the same :) . thanks for joining us and mentioning it over here.

-Pooja

Lis said...

beautiful!! I love clementines =) I like the look of the clear filling tartlett.. it looks like a jewel!

Brilynn said...

What an excellent combination for orange white and green! I'm impressed, but then again, I always am with you.

Bong Mom said...

Loos verry verry pretty Gattina

Gattina Cheung said...

Ilva, thanks for your compliment!

Asha, :D :D :D I don't know Indian cooking, but I like your food!

Bea, thank you :D

Sia, thanks for your visit and your kind words :D

Pat, to be honese with you, I don't taste clementines particularly special, maybe I'm too used to their taste (Chinese eat tangerine and similar fruit very often), but it's sweet and nice. I know some vegetarian won't even eat egg or dairy products, so I come up the other version as well. Thanks again sweetie, for always giving me encouragement! *hug*

Sher, thanks! I had to enhance/correct the photos from Photoshop. My camera just totally incapable of taking any green hue correctly *sigh*

Hi Shn, thank you!

Callipygia, of course your pizza can rival the local pizzeria! :D Talking about the latter, I see some of them don't seem making everything from scratch, instead, they buy doughs, sauces and such from a supplier, what they do now is only fabricating. So the difference between this pizzeria and that one is... bad and the worst *sigh*

Archana, thank you my friend. I'm still gasping... from the moment I decided on joining the event, then rushed to the kitchen, photo-taking, posting,etc were done in 2 hours (because after that hour I was busy). Glad you like the photo :D

Anh, I'm sure you can... your country is much better in fruit growing! They don't taste much different from tangerine to me, except more mild and sweet.

Hey Cecily!!! Love to see you here! I still owe you fig cookies recipe (I suddenly remember I forgot to sent you pm... kicking my butt!). I didn't jotted down the recipe that time, but will get sometimes to look for its link (in fact I've sent the link to Rustic, didn't see her make it though as the cookies were rather complicated)

Kajal, thank you so much for your kind words :D

Francesca, I think I seen you changing your blog address, will check it out and "talk" to you there *Baci*

Angie, for me clementines really no big deal... I like our own tangerine (kam?) better, more fragrant! I think China grows clementines too (?)

Pooja, I'm the one to thank you, you're such a great cook! Today I made your cumin paratha again, it's always a big hit!

Lis, oh yeah marmalade! But you're sweeter than my clementines XOXO

Brilynn, oh you're such a darling!

Sandeepa, thank you so much :D

Anonymous said...

Very impressive and an interesting use of the colors. Great job!