While westerners prefer to end their meals with dessert, the Chinese in Saigon eat fruit,  probably because there is so much of it around. This doesn’t mean that they don’t eat sweet things – they certainly do and they’re sweeter than sweet.  Ice creams are popular but many of the desserts we have grown to love aren’t really Chinese at all!  Almond Tea is hugely popular and in years gone by was sold by vendors on a door to door basis.  Nowadays it isn’t necessary to grind raw rice and almonds by hand as we can use rice flour and almond paste.  This recipe for almond tea with baked puff pastry is an unusual recipe for 

one to serve after a Chinese meal.  All the ingredients can be purchased which makes it perfect for the busy executive.

Ingredients

• 5 tbsp sweetened almond powder
• 1 teaspoon honey
• ½ tsp grated lemon zest
• 10 ginkgo nuts
• 1 cup water
• 1 puff pastry sheet, thawed and cut into a squares

Method

• Preheat oven to 200 C degree
• Bring one cup of water to boil and add in the almond powder, lemon zest, ginkgo nuts and the honey, stir well and set aside .
• Transfer equal portion of the boiled almond tea into two little soufflé dishes.
• Top the soufflé dishes with the puff pastry squares and stretch them to cover the dish opening tight.
• Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the puff pastry turns golden brown, serve hot.
• This recipe can be increased.