Making Top Hats Or Pie Tee Shells & Other Snacks For Chinese New Year.

Two days ago, I suddenly thought of frying Top Hats or Pie Tee shells. Pie Tee snack is one of our family's favourite snacks. It has been quite a while since I last made Pie Tee snacks for the family. I checked the ingredients and found everything I needed in the refrigerator. I also found the Pie Tee metal mould tucked away in the corner of my kitchen shelf. I planned to make it yesterday morning after breakfast but somehow it got delayed till later in the afternoon.

My Top Hats or Pie Tee shells project got started around 3 pm.

The recipe is simple but to fry the shells is not so easy, especially when I am doing it alone without any helper. Frying takes a long time but it takes a jiffy to finish eating these. Some refer to these shells as Top Hats because they do look like Top Hats.

• First, prepare and mix the ingredients together to get the batter ready. 
• Heat up the cooking oil in a pot or kuali. Make sure the depth of the oil should be more or preferably 1.5 times the height of the Pie Tee mould.

• Once the oil is heated up, lower the fire to medium and heat up the Pie Tee mould. Do not overheat the mould.
• Take out the mould from the oil, let the oil drip from the mould and lightly tap the bottom of the mould  onto the kitchen paper towel to remove excess oil.
• Then dip the mould into the batter, making sure the batter is about 0.5 cm below the top of the mould.
• Lift up the mould to check and make sure the bottom of the mould is covered with batter.
• Then dip the mould into the hot oil and jiggle lightly the mould in the oil with up and down movement. The top batter will come free from the mould and spread out.
• Let it remain in the oil till the batter is firm enough to retain its shape. Then lift the mould away from the shell.
• Use a pair of bamboo chopsticks to turn the shells in the oil till they are evenly fried golden brown.
• Lift them up from the oil to drain on a metal rack and later transferred to a tray lined with kitchen paper towel to absorb excess oil.

• When cooled, place the shells in air-tight containers lined with oil absorbent sheets. 
• These Top Hats or Pie Tee shells are then filled with stir-fried Chinese Turnips (Yam bean, Jicama, sengkuang or bangkuang). The filling can be substituted with diced fruits or veggie salads, etc.

Frying Top Hats / Pie Tee Shells Video

There are other better recipes out there but meanwhile I am still using this recipe which I copied from some online source few years ago and I can't remember where exactly. I like this recipe because the shells turned out like Top Hats and easier for holding the filling.

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I have been busy making homemade CNY snacks for these 2 weeks. Just a little bit of this and that. Homemade are way much cheaper and tastier too. The following are the snacks I have made.

Nga Koo Or Arrow Head Chips

Deep Fried Crispy Arrow Heads Chips (Nga Koo). This year I bought only about 7 kg of arrow heads. Last year I bought and fried about 13 plus kg. If you are interested in the simple steps of making these chips, you can click here to read.

Meat Floss Rolls

I bought 1/2 kg of meat floss to make these meat floss rolls. I bought the spring rolls skin (5 x 5 inch square) and further cut into 4 quarters to fold these meat rolls. I usually fold these after dinner and deep freeze them until I am ready to deep fry or bake them. If you are interested to know the simple steps of making these meat floss rolls, you can click here to read.

For the past years I have deep fried them but this year I tried baking them to cut down on oil usage. I haven't found the right temperature or how to get an even golden brown but taste wise, they are crispy. Suits me fine because these are for home consumption only.  The best part is that they are not oily.

Prawn Crackers From Teluk Intan

This was a last minute decision. A friend and I bought 1 packet each these dried prawn crackers few days ago from our regular rojak shop. I sun dried them, ready for deep frying.

I broke them into shorter length before deep frying. Once deep fried, the crackers will expand in size.

Once cooled, these are kept in air tight container ready for consumption. They are usually eaten by itself. Some likes to dip it in rojak sauce or some chili sauce. 

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The following flower photos are for joining Floral Passion/Floral Bliss.

 Red Trumpet Lily Bud.

 Red Trumpet Lily Flowers.

Purple Periwinkle Flowers.

Linking To Floral Passion/Floral Bliss.

I am told you can solve all kinds of mysteries.

If you can tell me the meaning of those words,

I will clothe you in purple robes, with a gold chain around your neck,

and make you the third ruler in the kingdom.

(Daniel 5:16, The Living Bible-TLB)

Little Purple Leaflets From My Purple Shamrock Plants.

Today, I am sharing again about my Purple Shamrock or Oxalis Triangularis. If you want to read more, you can click here for my more detailed previous post.

A hanging pot of Purple Shamrock.

One day while watering my plants, I noticed something unusual.

I noticed a leaflet growing together with the flowers on the flower stalk!

Not only on one flower stalk but on other flower stalks as well.

These small leaflets are not the same as the normal leaves.

The normal leaves grow out of the earth from the tubers, but not the leaflets.

Linking to Flower Wednesday.

Sing praises to the Lord!

Raise your voice in song to him who rides upon the clouds!

Jehovah is his name - oh, rejoice in his presence.

(Psalm 68:4, The Living Bible-TLB)

Growing 4 O'Clock Flower (Mirabilis Jalapa) In My Garden.

I now have growing in my garden some plants that are called 4 o'clock plants or 4 o'clock flowers. In July, we were in Fraser's Hill and I collected some seeds from the 4 o'clock plants growing besides a rest house that we passed by on our evening walk.

 I collected seeds from both the yellow and deep pink flowering plants but they got mixed up by the time I reached home. I germinated some of the seeds, hoping to get seedlings of both colours growing.

I am happy that the seedlings were of both colours growing in my garden. I am now enjoying the yellow and deep pink flowers.

Surprisingly, I also have these light orange or beige flowers blooming from the yellow flowering plants.

These are the seeds of the 4 o'clock plants. They are easy to germinate. I just pushed each seeds into the soil about half an inch deep.

Baby seedling of 4 o'clock plant in a flower pot. Another common name is Marvel-of-Peru. Its scientific name is Mirabilis Jalapa.

These are the flower buds. Very excited to see the colour of the flowers.

More branches, more flower buds.

Yellow flowers were the first to appear.

Pink flowers appearing too. I was overjoyed because I have plants from both colours growing!

 Such a sweet beige colour.

 Initially I was worried about the curled leaves but later they turned out well. 

It is named 4 o'clock flowers because the flowers only open late afternoon around 4 o'clock. The flowers are closed for the first part of the day. Everyday we get new flowers blooming.

They like warm weather and my plants are exposed to full sun.

I have read from the internet that the flowers especially the red ones can used as food colouring and the juice extracted from the leaves are used for healing of wounds and inflamation.

 The black seeds can be easily collected to propagate new plants. Seedlings grow easily from seeds that dropped onto the surrounding area.

It is claimed that the seeds are poisonous but they are used for traditional healing in crushed powdered form. I grow these plants for their pretty flowers and not for their medicinal uses.

Linking to Flower Wednesday.

If a child asks his father for a loaf of bread,

will he be given a stone instead?

If he asks for fish, will he be given a poisonous snake?

Of course not! And if you hard-hearted,

sinful men know how to give good gifts to your children,

won't your Father in heaven even more certainly

give good gifts to those who ask him for them?

(Matthew 7:9-11, The Living Bible-TLB)

Western Style Dinner At Bunge Bungalow.

We had Western style dinner for the 2nd night's dinner. We made a special request for 4 lamb chops and 3 chicken chops. 

Our dinner started with mushroom soup.

And some toasted bread with butter to go with the soup.

Chicken chop with a sausage, blanched cabbage and half a tomato. I interrupted my neighbour's dinner for this picture. 

Mustard paste and mint sauce (no pic. of mint sauce to show).

Hey! Now where is my lamb chop picture? Did I forget or did it went missing? We were served a generous portion of lamp chop. I like my lamp chop with the mint sauce plus a little bit of mustard paste.

For dessert, we were served banana pudding cake. We have tasted this on our previous trip.

We are suppose to eat the banana pudding with this sauce.

Since there is no lamb chop picture to show, I will show you our young man enjoying his lamb chop.

Hmmm....so delicious!

Photo credit: Tsang

This photo came in late. It was taken on the 1st night dinner but I will post it here. Thank God for the food and happy fellowship.

There was no mist that night and the sky was very clear. From the bungalow's sitting room, we can see the lights from Genting Highland quite clearly. On a clear day, we can also see the high rise buildings very clearly. This is the best I can get with my smart phone camera.

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The following photos are for joining Flower Wednesday.

Pink Trumpet Flower.

Purple Flowers.

Can someone help identify these flowers?

Pretty purple leaves with tiny flowers.

I don't know the name of this plant.

Can someone help to identify this plant?

A Red Rose drenched with rain water.

Linking to Flower Wednesday.

Seek him who created the Seven Stars and the constellation Orion,

who turns darkness into morning and day into night,

who calls forth the water from the ocean and

pours it out as rain upon the land.

The Lord, Jehovah, is his name.

(Amos 5:8, The Living Bible-TLB)