Recipe - Making "Pie Tee" (Top Hat)

"Pie Tee" (Top Hat)

Pie Tee (Top Hat)

Pie Tee is a thin and crispy pastry tart shell kueh filled with sweet mixture of thinly sliced vegetables and prawns. Similar to popiah, the main filling is shredded yam beans/bangkuang, round beans and carrots. It is a popular peranakan dish.

Ingredients

Pie Tee Cup

200 gm self raising flour

50 gm rice flour

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1 egg beaten

½ tsp salt

½ tsp oil

Cooking oil for deep-frying

Filling

1 kg yam bean/bangkuang (peel and cut into thin strips)

8 shallots (slice thinly)

2 cloves garlic (chop finely)

50 gm dried prawns (wash and pound)

2 carrots (peel and cut into thin strips)

200 gm round beans (slice thinly and diagonally)

2 firm bean curd (tau kwa); cut into strips then fry it

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp salt

Pepper

Water

Procedure

Pie Tee Cup

Sift all flour. Place beaten egg into a mixing bowl. Whisk egg, flour, unsalted butter, oil and salt together. Add water gradually and whisk until well mixed and smooth. Let the batter rest for an hour and strain into a smaller jug. Heat oil. Make sure the oil temperature is reasonably hot. Immerse the mould into the hot oil till the mould is heated through. Shake off excess oil. Dip the mould into the batter and then into the oil and quickly lift up the mould slightly above the oil. Jiggle the mould lightly until the cup is separated from the mould. At times, you may have to ease it off the mould with a sate stick when the cup is hardens. Let it fry till golden brown, remove and drain on paper towel. 

Filling

Heat oil into a wok/pan. Fry shallots. Remove the fried shallots and set aside. In the same wok or pan with shallots oil, fry garlic till lightly brown, add dried prawns and fry till fragrant. Add yam bean/bangkuang and stir well. Add soy sauce, pepper and water. Bring to boil, lower the heat. Simmer for about an hour until yam bean/bangkuang is soft. Add carrots and round beans. Taste it and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Once the filling is almost done, add tau kwa and simmer for another 10 minutes.

To serve, put the filling and top it with omelette, fried crispy shallots, (refer recipe :  http://5foodway.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/jennifers-secret-ingredient-in-her.html) fine ground peanuts and coriander leaves. Serve with some blended chilli. (refer recipe hainanese chilli sauce; http://5foodway.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/recipe-ah-mais-special-hainanese-chilli.html ). Eat it immediately.