@Rooster this is a less sweet version
3 Likes
Second the thanks @Phoenikia - love the concept, but traditional ones way too sweet for me also. Saving this recipe.
1 Like
Oh yum.
Classic (box) custard - for cake and custard, trifle, berries, lots of other stuff.
My favorite use is the first - fresh sponge or pound cake, drizzled with (thin) custard.
Depending on your liquid ratio, it can get quite thick and gloppy (at which point I don’t like it).
For trifle you do want it slightly thick (but again, for me, not set-thick).
It’s just cornstarch, sugar, and vanilla flavor iirc.
3 Likes
Contents as our current tin - maize starch, salt, flavouring, annatto
2 Likes
@Rooster re Bird’s custard powder.
Look up “salted egg yolk custard buns” for Cantonese/dim sum version.
Andrea Nguyen has her version without salted yolks, maybe easier if you (like me) can’t source salted yolks.
I enjoy these buns as one of the dim sum items. But some places’ buns have a very tiny amount of custard. I eat them mostly for the custard!
In Hong Kong
Very little custard
Now I’m wanting to give it a go 
2 Likes
Cool!
Custard powder comes from Hong Kong. Too bad that so few things are imported from HK, Taiwan, Korea or Singapore etc. Seems 99% of Asian foodstuffs come from China. If you have ever visited Taiwan or Korea you’ll notice straight away the country is extremely clean and ingredients are of very high quality. Not to mention food handling safety is competent.
Some of the things I got today.
Fish will last 2 meals. The smoked belly pork is for wrapping round the fish chunks for searing and roasting. Price used to be eur15/kg.
1 Like
You should make your own salted egg yolks! The ones you get from the market are typically duck eggs, but you can even use chicken eggs if duck eggs are a problem. They are very easy and I love salted egg yolks.
2 Likes
Finally! Checked the website of a supermarket I don’t shop at. Even though they don’t have it listed on the site but they do have it in their inventory somewhere. This supermarket chain also owns wholesale (to restaurants) supermarket suppliers, department stores etc. Barilla is the only brand with bucatini in stock in the whole country. I made an order and paid a fee for delivery. Costs twice as much as the Turk stuff but even the Turks are out of bucatini.
I’m OK for a while.
I’ve been curious about this “wild spinach” for years, and finally got it. Tastes a big stronger and the stalks are more stringy but not a problem for me.
“Wild” spinach, yeah, if you were born yesterday. Costs between 2,50 - 3,00 euros for 2 bunches. Regular spinach costs 1,20 euros for 300 grams (less than a pound). Note that regular spinach cooks down massively.
1 Like
Strange that tinned sardines are hard to find at regular supermarkets where I live. Mostly tuna mackerel, herring and salmon now. I’m glad Turk supermarkets still have sardines, and I get smoked sprats from the Poles.
Half a wild hare. Wonder what they did with the upper body of the hare. This chunk lasted 3 meals.
Seafood from the market today. The octopus was just cooked and still steamy.
Just ate the brill for dinner. I made a deep incision along the backbone and ran the knife under the flesh on both sides all the way to the fins to make a pocket, stuffed with fresh garlic and ginger, poured over some alcohol and steamed.
5 Likes
Finally, Korean potato noodles now come in square nests. The long threads make a huge mess when I have to break them up to cook.
Korean soya sauce. I only use tamari but I also use Korean soya sauce sometimes.
“Sichuan” XO sauce with shiitake.
My standard mung bean noodles.
Taiwanese soya bean paste. From Kaohsiung no less. No idea how to use this paste. In stir-fries?
“BBQ sauce”, also Taiwanese. I bought it before and used in stir-fries with squid and other seafood as it’s mildly fishy. Years ago I did brush it on meat to bbq but thought it tasted a bit weird with meat but it was just me, I’m sure.
Thai red rice. We rarely ever eat rice but if the partner absolutely must then I cook red rice for one and freekeh or some other grain for myself.
Finally visited the new Turkish supermarket near the Saturday market. It’s a Turkish enclave with many Turkish businesses, supermarkets and restaurants. Unfortunately, these days I can’t spend a lot of time looking at every product in the supermarkets. Managed to find Turkish manufactured bucatini again and it’s even cheaper at this new shop than other Turkish shops I frequent. Only 60 cents! (Barilla costs 1,80).
I always buy Syrian freekeh, trying Turkish and Jordanian soon.
Btw, just want to mention the “Impala” brand of sardines from the Philippines are terrible. Avoid it. The bones are edible but very hard, I discarded them. Sardines have no taste, as does the “tomato sauce”. Moroccan sardines by Durra brand is tasty and cheap (70 cents). Very little oil in the tin, big sardines with no scales. The partner says next week we go back to this particular Turkish supermarket and clear the sardine shelf.
2 Likes
Not a big fan of these noodles. It’s a big bag (almost 2kg). I see many noodle meals in a near future. Kelp for stock and wheat starch for (bao) dough.
Young marrowfat peas. I got one from different supermarkets (already ate 2 jars before this photo was taken). Dried peas are available in the colder half of the year and no frozen at all. We don’t know that acidity helps preserve the lovely green colour. Dried and potted marrowfat peas here all have this unsightly brown colour. In the UK they are bright green in all forms.
My new favourite thing. Just rock it back and forth, it crushes whole garlic cloves efficiently. The holes are BIG and easy to clean.
I eat raw garlic every day so having 3 is useful as I don’t usually turn on the dishwasher every day.
Will put one in my “kitchen box” for when travelling.
2 Likes
I know this will sound dumb, but I’m not quite getting how the garlic thing works. Is it like those old fashioned apple corers where you press down and it comes the apple, and gives you 5-6 even slices? Are you just pressing the garlic through those holes? It doesn’t help that this looks like a mini version of a toy that I bought my nephew so it’s completely screwing my sense of logic and how this can be applied to cooking. 
The crushing is easier if you rock it left and right. Pressing down like using an apple corer works too, but requires surprisingly more strength. It’s meant to rock left and right.
I don’t peel before crushing (also not with the standard press). Press down lightly on the glove loosens the papery skins, it works just like flattening it with the blade of a big knife. Remove the skins then crush all the gloves together.
