Mama Chan has made these for years and years. They are up there with the classic custard tarts you get from a Chinese bakery.

Custard:
500 ml milk
¾ c sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp white vinegar

Flakey pastry:
1 c flour
125 g butter
½ small c milk
1 tsp vinegar

This recipe makes 18 tarts.
Heat milk to almost boiling. Stir in sugar to dissolve. When cool add eggs and vinegar and beat lightly until mixed.

Grate cold butter into flour. Add vinegar and milk. Bring together to form a d...

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Spring blossoms in Union Square

What a joy to spend eight days in SF and NOT have a bad meal! First lunch off the plane was at friends Nick and Sabrina’s place in the Castro for homemade lentils and tortillas with all the trimmings – fresh avo, salsa, rice, chutney. It replenished our stomachs and our souls. Then Nick whipped up a Trader Joe’s brownie batch and even used vegan buttery sticks – moist and chocolatey.

Nick and the ingredients of his bodacious brownies

We...

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This is an easy-peasy custard Mama Chan usually makes when she has yolks left over from making a pavlova or meringues.

¾ c milk
1 ½ c cream
½ c sugar
4 eggs yolks

Mix all ingredients together and pour into baking dish. Bake at 150 C for about 30 mins until set. The strawberries worked well as a decoration for colour and a complementary taste to the custard.

Mama Chan uses this recipe to make Chinese-style custard tarts (you can just use all milk if you don’t have cre...

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Ginny admits: "I just used a bought puff pastry which is cheating, but hey, who as the time... it was still nice. and I only made half the filling. left over as custard it was really good! nice and lemony..."

filling:
2 1/4 cups milk
1 1/2 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp cornflour
4 egg yolks
1/2c caster sugar
2 strips of lemon rind (thick)

whisk 1/4 c milk, flours and egg yolks until smooth
combine sugar, lemon rind and 1/4 c of water in a pan and sir over low heat til sugar dissolves, then bring to the boil....
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