Saturday, March 13, 2010

Milk tart & grocery shopping


So Rebecca and Deanna asked about milk tart in the 29 gifts post. Milk tart is a South African staple but I've never made one. Have just found this easy recipe though so I may just take a bash at it one day when I'm 3 kg lighter!

Milk tart is absolutely delicious and yet so light that you can easily finish a whole tart between two people in one weekend.

Not that I know this from personal experience ;)

It has an almost-custardy filling with cinnamon sprinkled on top. Yummy!

It's the type of thing that everybody eats and if you take it as your contribution to any function, it WILL be gobbled up. I promise you!

An aside... A friend of mine moved from SA to Las Vegas (long story... she met a guy) and once took a milk tart to a party.

EVERYONE LOVED IT and started ordering them from her. South Africans, get this - she started charging them $20 (R150) to make one, which they were all gladly paying. We buy them here for about R20 which is why I love the story! Supply and demand in action LOL


This recipe and pic from Hulett's website


Crumb crust made with 1 packet of crushed Tennis biscuits (coconut biscuits/ cookies) and 125g butter, melted.

FILLING:
500ml (2 cups) milk
Piece of cinnamon stick
60 - 100ml Huletts White Sugar, depending on personal taste
2 eggs
45ml (3 Tablespoons) cornflour
45ml (3 Tablespoons) flour
3ml (½ teaspoon) vanilla essence
30ml (2 Tablespoons) butter
Cinnamon and sugar for sprinkling

Method

CRUST:
  1. Combine the crushed Tennis biscuits and the melted butter, and press into a pie dish.
FILLING:
  1. Heat the milk with the piece of stick cinnamon to just under boiling point.
  2. Meanwhile, lightly beat the eggs with the sugar, then add the cornflour and flour.
  3. Pour the hot milk onto this mixture, stirring rapidly. Return the mixture to the heat and cook, stirring till the mixture becomes very thick. Thorough stirring is important to prevent the mixture from catching on the bottom of the pan, and to prevent lumps.
  4. Off the heat, add the essence and add the butter. Stir well till the butter is melted.
  5. Pour the mixture into the prepared tart crust. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

*************************

okay, onto more fun things:

SHOPPING!!!!

We have an agreement where D does the grocery shopping while I do the laundry.

This works because he sticks to the list EXACTLY and we spend a lot less money this way.

However, I am apparently "too fussy" about the veggies for the babies' food so he told me I need to do the shop every second week.

Watch that grocery bill skyrocket.

Although secretly, I really don't mind - I can spend HOURS in the cleaning products aisle looking at all the new stuff.

Who does the grocery shopping in your house? And which is your favourite aisle?

6 comments:

  1. Um, YUM!!! I'm very tempted to give this a crack tomorrow. I'm a sucker for anything like that. Delicious.

    That story about milk tarts in Vegas cracks me up. That sounds like an interesting story in itself - talk about love! I've read stories about "Down Under'ers" setting up meat pie stores in New York and doing well (http://www.cuisine.co.nz/index.cfm?pageID=27979&r=4) and then there's Flat White in Soho that's giving the Brits a lesson on proper coffee.

    As for shopping, yep - I think boys are cheaper shoppers on the whole, well that's our experience anyway. I get sidetracked by new shiny things. GS sticks to the list. He doesn't buy the brands that are on special, but he still comes in at a lower cost because he isn't suckered into the non-list items like I am.

    This week I did the shopping online. Kinda stuck to a list - and best of all they brought it to me. Love it. Quite pricey though - so limit that to every couple of months seeing as I can actually walk to a store :O That's shocking to fess to isn't it?

    Happy weekend to you and yours my dear :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yum, is right!

    At 23 weeks there are definitely days that I feel like I'm in the 3rd trimester. Work is hard, and then at the end of the day it's all I can do to throw dinner together and plant myself on the couch - where I'm likely to fall asleep around 8 or 9. And I'm sitting a lot more at work, lol!

    OK going to peek at your 23 week belly pics now! lol! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. That sounds really yummy! And $20 is very reasonable for that. You make SA sound like such a wonderfully inviting and cheap! place to live and nothing like the post apartheid reconstruction they teach us about here!

    DH likes to grocery shop. I work at the store. I end up grocery shopping with the girls alone while he works. Figure that out? He insisted that I "stole" the grocery shopping from him so I gave it back, with the girls. Ever since then he's been too busy! Go figure! I usually stick to my list, the down side is I work there so I am always picking up odd-n-ends and things that weren't on my list. Roughly $80 a week in total!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I do all our groccery shopping and I just LOVE it!!!! Yeah I know call me crazy! My favorite isle is the fresh fruit and veggie section in Woolies, I can seriously load a trolley full just from that isle!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Usually, both of us do the grocery shopping. It is like family time. However, lately I have been doing it while DH is at work and my oldest is at school. That way I only have to drag out two kids. I do it first thing in the morning at Sam's Club (business memembership so doors open at 7am!) I love every isle in that place! I love stocking my house up with food and other necessities.

    ReplyDelete
  6. How weird! My SA friend just told me yesterday how is is desperately searching for a milk tart recipe! I sent him your link straight away.
    So thanks!
    Hubby and I usually do the shopping together, we make a good team, we choose, we pack, he carries! poor guy.

    ReplyDelete

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