What we did on Mother's day

An e-card chosen for me by my Quay Lo

We had a popiah party on Mother’s Day. While we were preparing all the ingredients, it reminded me of how lucky my youngest nephew is for surviving a nasty car accident on the eve of Mother’s Day three years ago. We were supposed to have a popiah party then also but it did not happen. Since then, I have not attempted to have a popiah feast until Mother's Day this year. On the positive side of that incident, I found that it had brought our family and my step-brother’s family even more closer together. Life is so precious that you really have to appreciate it every day because you don't know what is going to happen tomorrow.

I did not expect the kids to join us because I knew when they are all grown up and working, Sundays are a time that they want to spend with their partners or friends but it was a pleasant surprise, they all came unannounced and that was the most precious Mother’s day gift from all of them. There are two persons that I wish who were there with us and they are my step daugther Erin and her hubby, John. Although they are far away, they are always in my thoughts. She posted this on my facebook wall on Mother's day. It makes my day to know what I am to her.

To make popiah involves a lot of work, with much preparation, but it is rewarding because during the feast, when each person rolls their own "popiah" we had so much fun trying to compete with each other to make the best looking one. The dining hall was filled with laughter.

While we were doing the preparation, my Quay Lo took some time off to take photos of the making. He also made me a glass of ice cold sun tea, isn’t he sweet? I did not know that tea can be brewed by putting the jar of water and tea bags in the sun. It was quite good. We learn something new everyday don't we? After I cleared off from the kitchen, he continued to work on the dessert. I will let him tell you about it later.

POPIAH

The preparation

The ingredients

Assembling the popiah

The final product

INGREDIENTS:

50 fresh popiah wrappers

FILLINGS:
3 medium jicama, julilenned
1 medium cucumber, julienned
water enough to cover jicama and about 1 in above them
200g fresh lettuce leaves (wash and drained dry)

200g French beans (sliced)

2 bean curd (diced into small pieces)

200g prawn (shelled, deveined and cut into small pieces)

2 Chinese sausage, thinly diced
2 eggs omellete, thinly sliced
1/2 cup deeps fried shrimps
2 heads garlic, chopped and deep fried
20 shallots, thinly sliced and deep fried.

SEASONINGS for jicama:
4 tbs oyster sauce
1 tbs sugar
3 buillion chicken stock

Sauces:
1 cup Hoisin sauce

¾ cup chilli sauce

METHOD:
In a deep pot, add in garlic oil (from deep fried garlic) until heated. Put in the jicama and the seasonings and bring to boil. Turn to medium heat and stew for 30 mins or until jicama is limp. Taste the jicama, add more salt and sugar to taste. Dish out the filling and keep aside to cool. The filling might be slightly watery.

Lay a piece of the Popiah wrapper on a flat board. Spread one teaspoon hoi sin sauce and 1/2 teaspoon chilli sauce on it (more or less up to individual). Place a lettuce leaf over the sauces. Add in a bit of each prepared ingredients. Fold up the two sides of the wrapper and roll up. If you wish, you can scoop a tablespoon of the filling juice on top of the Popiah.

Hi everyone, designated Quay Lo here.

LEMON CREAM and LYCHEE TART

You will need: 
One 8 inch tart pan

Your favorite pie crust, but just one side for a tart, so can be your favorite crumb crust. 
Two medium size mixing bowls 
An electric blender or a food processor An electric mixer 
A table knife and a pastry fork 
Oven, pre heated at 375⁰F (190⁰C) 


Crust: 
I made a ginger snap cookie pie crust that did not work out all that well but we will likely try it again. In retrospect I think it simply over baked as the pictures suggest. We decided to go ahead with publishing the recipe because the filling was delicious. (even though we sort of ended up serving it as a pudding with bits of salvaged crust). 


Filling: 
3 oz cream cheese, allowed to soften at room temp 
¾ cup lemon curd 
½ cup powdered sugar 
1 cup whipping cream Seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean (or two tsp pure vanilla extract) 
1 20 oz can of lychees in light syrup, completely drained 


Directions: Crust: 
We'll let you know the outcome of the re-attempt at a ginger snap crust. For now, if you wish to try this filling, insert your favorite tart crust here. Certainly a graham cracker crust would be fine here. 


Filling:
On a clean cutting board whip the softened cream cheese until fluffy (I use a table knife and fork, alternating strokes, which seems to work very fast.) In a mixing bowl combine the cheese & lemon curd until well blended.  In a power mixer bowl combine vanilla, whipping cream, and powdered sugar and whip on high speed into stiff peaks o Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the whipped cream mixture into the cheese mixture, until well blended.


Topping: 
Completely drain the lychees in a colander, shaking occasionally to eliminate all of the syrup which can be discarded.  Slice each lychee into half.


 Assemble the tart:
Using the rubber spatula scrape the filling mixture into the completely cooled crust, smoothing the mixture to a flattened top o Layer the top with drained lychee halves, round side up, until the tart is fully covered.  Decorate with mint sprigs, maraschino cherries Serve with a dollop of whipped cream and for added elegance and balance, a soft dry champagne such as Martial-Couvreur Green Label.

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