Is your favourite Tan the new elected President?

          Mine is not ...........what a pity......but he almost is! What's the point......he's still not!!! For the benefit of those outside Singapore, Singaporeans went out to vote for our new President on Saturday. There were four candidates running & all four share the same family name Tan. My favourite, Dr Tan Cheng Bock, garnered the second hightest votes, lost to the winner by less than 0.5%! Maybe if the Tan who had the lowest votes had not contested, my favourite Tan would have won.......oh well........ 

         Saturday also marked the last weekend before Eid, the most important festival for Muslims in this region, which falls on Tuesday. Unfortunately, to say the least, the government decided to hold the Presidential Election on such a busy weekend for Muslims. So much for  being more understanding.......There were so many Singaporean Muslims who were on duty as election officials who were stucked at the polling station the whole day when they could have spent their precious Saturday preparing for the festival! My husband was one of the officials.... And for him, the election also caused some sleepless nights, planning & coordinating his team ....& that is on top of his regular job! 

            Alright....enough about the election...let's talk about food..... Saturday night is the last night my family & I broke our fast at home for this Ramadhan. We'll be breaking our fast tonite, the eve of Hari Raya, at my mum's place. Saturday afternoon, after finally wrapping up my cake-baking session for Eid, I baked some quiche. This time, I made an Asian-version quiche which I called Beef Korma Quiche. I've made this before for a few gatherings & the guests loved it, so do my family & I! The recipes for the pastry & custard are from my pastry-making course at BITC. The filling is quite similar to curry puff filling.

I'm submitting this entry to Aspiring Bakers #10: Easy as Pie (August 2011), hosted by Janine of  Not the Kitchen Sink!

Beef  Korma Quiche

Pastry:

200g medium protein flour

10g milk powder

2g salt

100g cold butter

+/- 120g ice-cold water (you may not need to use all)

Combine flour, milk powder & salt. Cut up butter into small cubes. Rub in butter into flour using fingertips until the flour looks like fine breadcrumbs. Then add in water just enough for the the dough to bind. Wrap in a plastic and leave in the fridge to rest for about 20 minutes.

Remove from fridge. Roll out dough till about 4mm. Cut out pastry & place in moulds. Poke some holes on the pastry using a folk. Leave to rest for about 20 minutes. Then bake the dough for about 10 minutes in the oven at 180 degrees C. Remove from oven.

Fill pastry with filling, then pour custard over it . Garnish with coriander leave & red chilli. Bake in over for about 30 minutes until the pastry turns golden brown. Ensure the bottom of pastry is cooked as this part tends to take longer to cook.

Custard:

2 eggs

110g fresh milk

90g whipping cream (I used coconut milk)

salt & pepper

Beat eggs & add the rest of ingredients. Mix untill well blend.

Filling:

200g ground beef

3 pieces cardamon

2cm cinnamon stick

3 pieces cloves

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 cm fresh ginger, minced

3 tbsp korma curry powder (add water to form  paste)

1/2 onion (chopped into small pieces)

salt

vegetable oil

Heat oil in a frying pan over medium fire. Fry cardamon, clove & cinnamon stick until frangrant for about 1 minute. Add garlic & ginger & fry for another minute. Add  korma curry paste & fry for about 2 minutes. Then add in meat & salt. Finally, add in onion. Cook until meat is almost dry. Set aside.

Garnish:

coriander leaves

red chilli (sliced)