Quay Po Cooks: The Picnic Game

Showing posts with label The Picnic Game. Show all posts

Friday, June 29, 2012

I am going picnic with my X

Louise, the host of "The Picnic Game" left a comment on my last year’s post on a dish called Xerem that I brought to “The Picnic Game 2011”. She invited me to join in this year's game. By the time I contacted her to tell her I will be going, guess what? What you are thinking right now is absolutely correct. Yes, I have to go picnic with my X again.

It’s Months of Edible Celebrations Picnic Day again!

I’m going on a picnic, and I’m bringing…

A - Artichokes Steamed and Dressed with Mayonnaise

B - Baked Beans

C - Cauliflower Tabbouleh

D - Dunkin' Donuts

E - Eggplant Casserole

F - Frosty Summber Salad with Cranberry, Pineapple and Beets

G -Goat Cheese Mixed green Salad with Cocoa Nibs

H - Halibut and Salsa Verde

I - Iced Coffee Two Ways

J - Jubilee Sandwich

K - Key Lime and Ambarella Juice

L - Limoncello Biscotti

M - Mini Meringue Kisses

N - Nougat Brownies

O - Ozark Pudding

P - Paletas de Chabacano y Manzanilla

Q - Quinoa Salad

S - Strawberry and Kiwi Chocolate Tart

T - Thai Fish Cakes in Pita Pockets

U - Udon Salad with Honey Sesame Lime Dressing

V - Vegetable Salad with Lime Dressing - Rick Bayless

W - Watermelon With Fresh Mint and Lime

X - Xim-Xim De Galinha

Xim-Xim De Galinha

Adapted from Food.com By FLKeysJen

with modification.

This is a Brazilian dish with seafood and meat. This is a very delicious dish with an explosion of flavors. It is best served with steam plain rice.

Ingredients:

2 pieces of fried chicken breast with skin on

2 tbs lemon juice
1 lemon rind

½ tsp sea salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

2 tbs dried shrimp

1 large shallot, diced

1 ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped

1 tbs olive oil

1 tbs minced garlic

3/4 cup water

8 big prawns, shelled and deveined

3 red chilli, diced

2 tbs ground roasted peanuts
1 tbs ground cashew nuts

1/2 tbs minced ginger

1 tbs canola oil

Method:

Marinate the chicken in the salt, and pepper for half an hour and brown the chicken breasts. Drain off the oil with paper kitchen towel and cut them into bite size and set aside. Blend dried shrimp, shallot, lemon rind and tomatoes in a food processor into a thick paste. Heat the oil over medium heat in a pan and add the garlic. Saute garlic till brown and add the paste and stir fry for about 5 minutes. Add the shallot, tomato, and shrimp paste and stir fry for about 10 minutes. Add in chilli and ginger and stir fry some more. Add water and lemon juice. Let it simmer for another 10 minutes on low heat. Add ground roasted peanut, roasted ground cashew and drained chicken pieces. Let it simmer for another 10 minutes or till chicken breast is cooked. Add in the prawns and let it cooked for another three to five minutes before turning off heat. When ready to serve, drizzle the canola oil over the xim-xim and cook for a few more minutes.

A LITTLE ABOUT THIS QUAY PO

Before I was married to my "Quay Lo" (Guaylo) husband, I did not know how to bake or cook. Subsequently I learned some baking and cooking Western cuisine from him, and providing his food for him launched an interest in cooking in general. Many of my Chinese friends and family told me that "Quay" is the wrong spelling for devil in Cantonese. The right spelling should be "Kwai" or "Guay". Well, somehow I like the spelling "Quay" better although I have to agree that it does not sound very Cantonese. Try asking a Westerner to pronounce "Kwai" and you will probably hear "Quay" haha. Whether is "Quay" or "Kwai" or "Guay, just know the devil woman is me when you see Quay Po Cooks. My hubby said if people pronounce "Quay" as "Key" is even better because I am the key to his heart. LOL!

Only now, have I started to learn the traditional Cantonese cuisine of my Mum. She cooks fabulously and all her specialties are divine. These two interests, my husband's Western food, and my mother's traditional food, prompted me to document them so they will not be lost.

Here, I wish to share my cooking and baking experience with my readers. I also hope to inspire those who do not know how to cook or bake to do so because, trust me, if I can, you can too.

Something I'd like to mention is that I find that many people are rather unwilling to share their recipes. However, for me, I think differently. I think good recipes should be shared thus allowing as many people to enjoy it as possible. Unless those recipes are for doing business, I don't see why we want to keep them all to ourselves. So if you are generous in sharing your recipes, you are welcome to share on my blog. Send the recipes to me and better still with pictures of the final products and I will be very happy to post them them with credits to you of course.

Our cuisine is a deeply embedded part of our culture. When two cultures come together under the same roof the results in the kitchen can sometimes be comedic, sometimes confrontational, but more often it is a journey full of surprises and discovery. There is joy in our food. If we think upon this, it is intuitively obvious. This blog is a journey of joy and sharing, reflecting what the French like to call "joie de vivre" (joy of living). No one could be more different from one another then my husband and my mother. Yet one thing they share in common is knowing intuitively that food, cooking, and sharing can be avenues of joy in life itself. So herein, help yourself, to a little joy and , if you like it, share it with your own family and friends. Joy is something that should be shared.