beyond the call of duty

  After an early rise to get some eggs for the custard, I was on the way to baking the nata. This was the first batch so I follwed the recipe (almost) to the letter. The quantities were almost accurate and the technique varied a bit but the end result was almost totally spot on.

It's all in the wrist.

  I'm most happy with the pastry as that's the part that is the most technical and easiest to screw up. It's an unusual pastry as the flour is mixed only with water. The butter is only added in-between the layers of pastry, which ends up with a very crisp, yet creamy pastry case. With a very big caveat, I'm happy to say I nailed it. The caveat is that I've never made a pastry like this before and though it's good enough to impress me, I'm not sure how well it would go down in a suburb of Lisbon.

Anyone for Nata?

  The result, which you can see above, was small, light, crisp and insanely sweet. Merely reading the custard recipe is enough to add three inches to your waistline. It's basically a bag of sugar with some milk and egg yolks stirred in. When I do it again, I'll be backing off the sugar in a big way and, though I may be breaking with protocol, I think lemon would make a nice addition.

  There is a major problem with Portuguese custard tarts. Like the finest pastries, they are best eaten fresh and the yield of the recipe I followed was thirty six of the little diabetes bombs. Knowing they have a shorter shelf life than a mayfly set the clock ticking loudly; I had to get rid of them pronto and eating all of them, though an attractive proposition, would have necessitated the leaving of a suicide note and I'm not ready to go yet.

  As a result, I've been running around finding willing volunteers all day. The last four will be scoffed tomorrow morning when I take them with me to meet Cosmo and his new toy. What? I didn't tell you Cosmo got a new toy? Come back tomorrow to find out more. Right now I'm off to watch Blade Runner in preparation for the sequel which I'm seeing later in the week.

Kirk out

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