Week six down. Three more to go. Happy Mother’s Day to all – especially to those who have been bravely taking on the multiple roles at home during this difficult time. Happy mother’s day to myself too.
It seems as if we are fighting a losing battle. When are the numbers finally going to go down? We are still at the peak. We will still have to keep on fighting. But I think many of us are getting tired by now. This evening, I decided to switch off my work laptop earlier and to swear off it for the weekend. Because it’s Mother’s Day – let’s recharge.
This year, I will not be able to celebrate Mother’s Day with my mum. It’s not my first time though, because we rarely celebrated Mother’s Day in the past when we were young. We only started to do so after most of us started working, started forming our own families, started moving out and started having our own children. This weekend, we are staying away from her so as to protect her from harm, so that she can continue to stay well. This weekend, we will stay at home to protect ourselves and to show our love for the rest of the mothers who are staying at the frontline to fight this battle for us.
This tart combines the mild and delightful fragrance of coconut and pistachio to form a tart base, filled with a lighthearted, familiar taste of vanilla panna cotta. It’s a perfect way to eat my way into the weekend, to calm my nerves and to slowly savour the delights of staying at home (with a five-year-old child) before week seven starts.
Let’s appreciate the imperfection of life at this point in time and to have faith that things will get better very soon.
Ingredients (Pistachio Tart):
- Pistachio: 100g + extra (roughly chopped)
- Plain flour: 1 1/4 cups (163g)
- Icing sugar: 1/3 cup
- Salt: 1/2 tsp
- Unsalted butter: 113g (1 stick)
- Cold water: 1.5 tbsp
- Egg white: 1
Method (Pistachio Tart):
- Blend 100g pistachios in a blender till it becomes powder form.
- Add plain flour, icing sugar, salt and unsalted butter into blender. Blend till mixture starts to come together.
- Drizzle cold water into mixture. Blend till dough starts to clump.
- Place dough onto baking paper. Place one more baking paper on top of dough.
- Roll out with a rolling pin till 3mm thick. Place over tart tin and cut off 1cm from overhanging pastry.
- Chill 30min.
- Preheat oven at 180 degrees Celsius. Poke holes onto base of tart with a fork. Blind bake with rice and baking paper for 20min.
- Brush with egg white to seal base. Bake another 15min till golden brown. Set aside.
Ingredients (Vanilla Panna Cotta):
- Milk: 250ml (1 cup)
- Caster sugar: 2 tbsp + 1 tbsp
- Vanilla pod: 1
- Gelatine: 3 tsp + 1 tsp
- Thickened cream: 250ml (1 cup)
- Salt: 1 pinch
- Water: 1 cup
- Frozen blueberry: a handful
Method (Vanilla Panna Cottta):
- Combine milk and 2 tbsp caster sugar in a saucepan.
- Scrape the seeds from a vanilla pod and stir into milk mixture.
- Sprinkle in 3 tsp gelatine. Stir on low heat till dissolved.
- Mix in cream and salt. Stir till well-combined.
- Pour 1/2 cup into tart shell. Freeze 10min to seal base.
- Pour remaining panna cotta into shell. Chill to set for 2hrs.
- Combine water and 1 tbsp caster sugar in a saucepan.
- Sprinkle 1 tsp gelatine into mixture. Simmer over low heat to dissolve.
- Add in a handful of blueberries. Use a masher to mash the blueberries.
- Strain to get translucent jelly water. Pour this mixture on top of set panna cotta.
- Chill for 1hr to set.
- Garnish with remaining crushed pistachios to serve.
Disclaimers:
-
The original recipe used rose water essence in the panna cotta but I have changed it to a vanilla-flavoured panna cotta. The jelly right at the top was supposed to be raspberry too, but I used blueberries instead. The original intention was to get a jelly topping with a bluish tint. Never did I realise that blueberries, frozen ones at that, are purple in colour when mashed!
-
I have accidentally spilled some panna cotta over the tart pastry (between the pastry and the tart tin), hence the whitish tinge on the tart exterior. Ops, will be more careful next time round!
Serving:
1 25-cm tart (about 8 slices)
