Crostata

For 1 crostata:

- 125g unsalted butter
- 250g flour
- 80g sugar (white or brown)
- 2 egg yolks
- jam of choice

1. Mix room temperature butter and sugar into a cream.
2. Add the yolks to butter and mix evenly again.
3. Sift the flour and add all at once into the butter mixture.
4. Work with hands, mix the flour and butter into a neat dough.
5. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
6. Heat the oven to 180C, grease the baking tray with butter. Sprinkle a tb spoon of flour in the tray and shake the flour around to coat the tray. Discard excess flour at the end.
7. Cut 2/3 of dough and roll out thin enough to cover the whole base of the baking tray. Spoon over the jam of your choice (here I used figs jam).
8. Using the remaining 1/3 of dough, roll to long strips and lay them across the crostata. First make the outer ring then the central diameters before secondary lines.
9. Bake at 180C for approximately 30min till the dough looks slightly golden. Cool before serving!

滷豬腳 Taiwanese pig feet stew

Recipe adapted for rice cooker.
- pieces of pig feet/knuckles.
- 5 garlic cloves
- 3 chili
- 1 inch of ginger
- spring onion
- 1/2 cup soya sauce
- 1 cup rice wine
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 滷包 (twnese spice mix pouch)
- salt

1. Wash and boil the pig feet briefly to remove any dirt or hair fragments.
2. Roughly chop the ginger and spring onion to 4-5 chunks. Slightly crack each garlic clove.
3. Place all the ingredients: feet, chili, garlic, sugar, soya sauce, rice wine, spice mix and water into the rice cooker pot.
4. Cook! If you don't have a rice cooker, you can also stew the feet over medium-low flame until tender. For rice cooker, cook first with half a cup of water in the outer pot, then 1/3 cup again. Fish out the spice mix pouch after the first cooking stage to avoid overpowering taste.
5. Check that the stew is salty enough, add salt if required. Leave the feet overnight in the stew sauce, cook again for the final time next day with 1/3 cup water in the rice cooker (or over flame) to tenderize the skin.