SPECIAL DONG ZHI

posted in facebook on 22.12.2008 Tuesday

Mission: Make 3 tarts- almond-walnut tart, corn-ham tart and chocolate banana tart

Date: 21.12.2008 Sunday
Time: 11:00am-5:00pm
Venue: Kolej 2 in Universiti Putra Malaysia
Little chef:
1.Gita (she has an oven)
2.You Ping (she has great interest in cooking and reads a lot on cooking)
3.Chia Ying (she likes to bake this & that, but she doesn’t have a chance)
*These 3 ladies share a common thing: they are beginners in making tart.
Consultant: Stephanie Chew, possesses experience in making cookies, cakes and so on.

After weeks of hard work, tension and tiredness overwhelmed me. Therefore, I want to love myself and do something to please myself. Making egg tart was what I had in mind. Actually it was planned in early November. As I was too busy, so I assigned Stephanie and You Ping to work out a plan. This was their assignment.

Prior to making tarts, we had discussion until 2:00am, going through the steps and distributing the task. Stephanie, who acted as our consultant could not join us, so she briefed us during discussion. Each of us was showered with excitement, hoping the very Sunday to arrive soon.

Finally, the day came, we brought what we need to Gita’s room. We were like moving to a new house because there were lots of things. Some incidents happened during tart making. Here are some lessons that I sorted out.

Lessons that we learnt:
~When you cannot change the environment, you have to change yourself and adapt to the
existing condition.

We applied this saying fully. Even though we did not have some apparatus like rolling pad, weighing machine, pot, and so on, we still managed to find substitution.

~Never follow a recipe blindly. It only serves as a general guide line.

We did what is stated in the recipe but it turned out that the flour dough that we had was not enough for 3 tarts. Hence, we excluded chocolate banana tart. Some details might not be cited in the recipe. In the end, we all agreed that practices make perfect. Only after several trials, we will know how to make a delicious tart.

~Complete apparatuses are needed in order to make life easier, especially for beginners.

Although we managed to find substitution, the result that we had was not that outstanding. Pastry making was time consuming also due to some technical problem. Without oven, don’t ever think of making tart. Now the real problem arises, it costs RM1XX (the lowest price), should I get one in order to bake this and that?

Conclusion:
Overall, we managed to “produce” something, the great mission was completed. The products of the day may not be as good as those appear in bakery shop, but still can be eaten. I am happy with You Ping & Stephanie’s assignment, I decided to give them pass with flying colours. All of us enjoyed the tart making session, cheers!

Acknowledgement:
Thanks Gita, for allowing us to use your oven. Thanks for joining us as well in making tart.
Thanks You Ping, for contributing so much effort in performing the “tart project”.
Thanks Stephanie, for giving us advice and suggestions to make our dreams come true.

p/s:

The sunny Sunday afternoon air smelt good, with laughters for the whole afternoon. Nice aroma flying around the room, filled our hearts with joy, satisfaction and happiness.

After refreshing myself in this sweet atmosphere, I restored my energy. Worries and burdens were left far away, I was ready to welcome a new week. Yet, it proved my another theory-when your mood is a bit off, do something that you love to do, then the happiness level will rise to 100%. Trust me, it works.