I love pineapple tarts

I can't remember the last time I went back to my hometown, but I finally decided to do so. And I had to choose the perfectly right time to go home where Chinese New Year is just around the corner. Which also means a long list of housechores to do. My mom's favourite chore for me would be to scrub the outside floor and drain which I really dread doing. I really see no point in it cause this are the places which really go un-noticed. No one goes "Wow. Your drains are sparkling clean. I wish I had drains like that."

For a whole week I had to feint hibernation to escape from housechores. The only thing I helped mom with was to help out with the preparations for pineapple tarts. Nice to chew, nice to taste, hell to make.


The basic ingredients for pineapple tarts - pineapples!


The grinding of pineapples. The worst process of all. The grinder is so damn dangerous where a slight mistake can be bloody. It is during this process where extra spices like skin and blood is added to the paste. (Mom's cookie business drops drastically after customers read entry) And to make things worse, the pineapple happens to be a very acidic fruit. Once a cut appears, the rest of the process will be hell. The rest of my process was hell.


This would be the process where the grinded pineapples are sieved to get rid of its juice.


Which results in infinite supply of pineapple juice. This is where we add some sugar and boil the juice so that it can last longer. I take my juice without sugar where it will ferment a bit after a couple of days. It tastes like pineapple beer after it ferments and I totally love it. Well, friends get disgusted with tomato juice and say that I have weird taste for loving it.


Further cooking of the paste where real spices like star anis and sugar and some other stuff is added to it and cooked till the paste is all dry and nice.

That would be it for the preparation for pineapple tart paste. After that would be adding it to the pastry and baking. These tarts are my favourite for Chinese New Year. Without them, CNY just wouldn't be CNY.

Happy Early Chinese New Year greetings.