Wednesday, May 11, 2011

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.

32 comments:

  1. My family used to do pohpia gathering too. It was fun!

    I'm sure u r a great step mum. :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Quay Po and Quay Lo!

    What a wonderful collaboration post you both just shared with us. Veronica, I'm so glad that your youngest nephew is able to join you for Mother's Day. It's so true that we need to appreciate life everyday and let the people around us know how much they are appreciated as well. I actually never knew what popiah was and had to google it half way through reading this post. Blush...teehee. This dish looks absolutely amazing. I love the colours and the contrast of textures here. Ok, OMG, it just occurred to me what dish this is. Hahaha! I now know exactly what this is. My Grandma used to make this for us quite often. You used a bit different ingredients so that threw me off a little. A wonderful dish indeed! Your presentation is beautiful too.

    Gary, your lemon cream and lychee tart is one of the most unique tarts I've heard of. I've never had the combo of lemon and lychee together, but can imagine how delicious this would taste. Love your presentation as well. I know my kiddies would have fun picking off the lychees one by one as they eat this. Thank you to the both of you for such a wonderful post. Hope you both enjoyed the popiah party.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mmmmm...yummy. Btw, where did you get the popiah skin? Am looking for some good ones. Most I found are very thick

    ReplyDelete
  4. Like i said earlier, you will have a wonderful mother's celebration, this had happened to you. This will not happen to me,as my another half is not that romantic and no interest on any celebrations even on his birthday..furthermore this time he has been away abroad for business trip. So I just had steamboat outside with my kids and sister who staying nearby. I like popiah too and I can get fresh popiah skin nearby my area. And Thanks to Qualo sharing the tip on tea drink and dessert, they are yummy!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Would LOVE to taste the Popiah! Looks so yummy, and great presentation too.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Glad you enjoyed Mother's day ! nice dihes:)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Veronica, your popiah looks so cheerful, colourful and tasty :)!! Absolutely delicious!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Everything looks wonderful! The wraps...the lychees - gorgeous!

    ReplyDelete
  9. wow! the popiah is so artistically presented! and pretty deft knifework there to get the ingredients juilenned so finely! I'm sure your family had a smashing good time. but hor... shouldnt stitch and the rest be working hard while you rest on Mothers' Day? LOL

    ReplyDelete
  10. What a wonderful Mother's Day cerebration...and such gorgeous food! I want this next year :) And that tart looks fantastic...nice job there Quay Lo :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Glad to know that you had a wonderful mother's day. Both wrapers and tart looks awesome. Yet to get Lychee here, when i get i will try.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi Veronica and Quay Lo :)

    Glad you had a wonderful time at your Popiah party on Mother's Day :) wish I was next door and can sneak in for a bite ( shameful to say this )

    The popiah looks yummy and the lemon lychee pie looks delicious. Toast to Quay Lo...he can bake !

    Veronica, I am giving this to you....Versatile Blogger Award, you truly deserve it :) Love your blog, ...and please stop by http://www.elinluvdelights.com/2011/05/i-won-versatile-blogger-award.html to collect it!

    Have a nice day !

    Cheers,
    Elin

    ReplyDelete
  13. omg that looks like a lot of hard work!! but im sure it's all worthwhile from the delicious looking dishes you have whipped up together :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Yum, those rolls look gorgeous and delicious! :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Veronica, Happy belated Mother's Day! Looks like u'd a great time :) I'd a sumptuous Abalone Seafood Steamboat at home with my mum on that evening. I'm trying to spend as much as with her since she's not living with me.

    Your popiah feast looks absolutely inviting. Great way to celebration an occasion.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Aw, Happy Belated Mother's Day! :)

    The celebration looks beautiful! The food exquisite...

    ReplyDelete
  17. Wow, preparing this popiah is back breaking! So thoughtful of your quay lo to help out with the dessert and gosh, sun brewed tea, yum!

    ReplyDelete
  18. hi quay po, i can read that the bond in your family is so strong and those unexpected visits from the kids surely was the most precious gift of all. I can imagine that popiah feast must have been so fun, seeing each and everyone making their own popiahs, if no experience, you will get all forms of popiahs, fat and skinny ones, generous and stingy ones too!
    now i know we can also brew tea by 'sunbathing' them!and that tart sounds really special and yes, that filling sounds delicious too! Burnt crusts also never mind, i'm sure everyone walloped them happily!

    ReplyDelete
  19. That sounds like a wonderful Mother's Day celebration!!! And, it was beautiful, too! blessings ~ tanna

    ReplyDelete
  20. best mother's day celebration EVER! <3

    ReplyDelete
  21. I love poh piah but yes, there is a lot of prep work involved. At the end, it is all worth it :). Quay Lo's lychee tart looks sensational!

    ReplyDelete
  22. As LeQuan commented, this is a wonderful collaboration and I will add one, I would love to try these dishes;-)
    Any holiday that brings my family together is a good one because as you mentioned everybody is busy now with their own lives.
    You have a beautiful blog here and I will return to see what you are making in your kitchen;-)

    ReplyDelete
  23. Oh my, the popiah looks wonderful! Thanks for sharing your recipe and preparation, I bet they are fun to make!

    ReplyDelete
  24. What a great post! Thanks for stopping by my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  25. That tart looks so delicious, I LOVE lychees!

    ReplyDelete
  26. LeQuan: Different Asian have the own version of spring rolls. I love the Vietnamese one very much. I will definitely try doing that some time soon.

    As regards to the lychee tart, I am sure your kiddies will enjoy picking out the lychee, it is funny how kiddies love anything that is round and button-like.

    Cathy: I got the popiah skin from the market in SS15, Subang Jaya. If you want some, let me know I can give you the number to order from the guy. I should say it is a good one.

    NEL, Cath, Jaruti, AngelLove, Belinda, Tanna, Kelsey, Julie, Marnely, John: Thanks all for dropping by and leave a me a positive comment. I really appreciate you all taking time to do that.

    Alan: By right I should be resting and others do the work for me hehe. The problem is I am one that do not know how to relax and frankly, I always feel more happy giving than receiving.

    Sonia: Most Asian men are not very romantic because they are not brought up that way. Although they are not so demonstrative in showing their love openly, they love their family in a different way.

    No-Frills Recipe: Oh yes, it is back breaking especially for a old lady like me.. hehe. That's why, can only do this once in 3 years:D

    lena: your comment always give me a chuckle. My family especially the kids are rather "chin chai" when comes to food, they wollop anything homecooked probably because they eat so much of the outside food.

    Pacheco: Thanks for your visit and I will delighted to see you again soon.

    Shirley: Wow, I am sure my Quaylo will flip to see you use the word sensational for his lychee tart hehe.. thanks so much for your kind words.

    ReplyDelete
  27. mNhL: Since you and your family do popiah gathering too, you will know exactly how much fun we had. I would love to think I am a good step mum:D

    ReplyDelete
  28. Wow, those popiah look amazing! So full of bits. It's interesting what you say about two food cultures coming together - it's the same with my Austrian boyfriend and I (half Kiwi, half Japanese), he was brought up with a lot of meat and I not but we've learned to appreciate each other's taste.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Sasa: thanks for checking my blog out and drop your comment. Appreciate it. Hope to see you around. I enjoyed reading your post. You write beautifully.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Both the popiah and the lemon cream and lychee tart look lovely... what a fun way to celebrate Mother's Day together as a family! :)

    ReplyDelete
  31. Kenny: ya, we had lots of fun. Love spending time with my family.

    ReplyDelete

I love to hear from you. Your comments mean a lot to me. Thanks!