Pastry cups with prawns and yam bean (kueh pie tee)

The pastry shells are made using a special mould called a pie tee. As the moulds are difficult to find in Australia, we’ve substituted wonton wrappers and baked them in a mini-muffin pan to mould them.

• makes

  25

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  15 minutes

• difficulty

  Mid

Ingredients

• 25 square wonton wrappers
• 2 tsp vegetable oil 
• 8 green prawns, peeled with tails intact, cleaned, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 200 g yam bean (see Note), peeled, cut into julienne
• 1 carrot, peeled, cut into julienne   
• 100 g green beans, thinly sliced on the diagonal
• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• ¼ tsp white pepper
• 250 g fried firm tofu, cut into 5 mm cubes
• fried Asian red eschalots and coriander leaves, to serve

Chilli sauce

• 100 g (about 6) long red chillies, sliced
• 8 cm-piece ginger, peeled, roughly chopped
• 10 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• 75 g (⅔ cup) white sugar
• 95 g (⅔ cup) tomato sauce (ketchup)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice or white vinegar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 180°C. Using a rolling pin lightly dusted with flour, roll out each wonton wrapper to a 12 cm square. Using a 9 cm round cutter, cut each wrapper into a round, then lightly press into a greased mini muffin pan. Bake for 5 minutes or until crisp and golden.

To make chilli sauce, blend chillies, ginger and garlic with 125 ml water in a blender to a smooth paste. Transfer to a bowl. Add sugar, tomato sauce, lemon juice and ½ tsp salt, and stir until combined and sugar has dissolved. Refrigerate until needed. Makes 1 cup.

To make filling, heat 1 tsp oil in a wok over low heat. Add the prawns and stir-fry for 4 minutes or until just cooked. Transfer to a bowl and set aside. Return wok over low heat, add remaining 1 tsp oil and cook garlic for 2 minutes or until light brown. Add yam bean, carrot, beans, soy, 2 tbsp water, white pepper and ½ tsp salt, and cook for 3 minutes or until vegetables are cooked but still crisp. Transfer to a bowl and keep warm.

When ready to assemble, stir reserved cooked prawns and fried tofu through vegetable mixture. Fill pastry cup three-quarters full with the warm filling. Serve topped with fried Asian red eschalots, coriander leaves and chilli sauce.

Note

Yam bean (mengkuang) is a crunchy root vegetable available seasonally from Asian food shops. Substitute plain or savoy cabbage.

 
As seen in Feast Magazine, Issue 12, pg53.

Photography by Chris Chen

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.