Quay Po Cooks: braised beef tri tip

Showing posts with label braised beef tri tip. Show all posts

Friday, January 25, 2013

I don't burn bridges

I am often told by my mum not to burn bridges. I woukd hear that advice most often when I was changing jobs. My mother always reminded me not say anything about my ex employer unless it is positive. She reminds me often not to say anything unless it is positive about friends, fellow emplloyees, and acquaintenances. So for all my life, I heeded her advice and I kept in touch with all my ex bosses, ex colleagues, ex business partners, and ex customers. My Mom was right. A large list of friends (they like to call this our "contacts") can be a store house of advice, or knowledge that you wouldn't have otherwise. Even more compelling they can be there for help, provided that you are willing to be the helper too. For example, when I told my one of my ex colleagues who is now the marketing manager of a local company, that my son was looking for a job, she immediately said that she could take him in. Unfortunately my son did not like to do sales and left the organization within the probation period, but I will always feel grateful too her for extending the opportunity. In another example, I recently needed to buy some new mattresses for a condo we were renovating, I got a generous discount from one of my ex customers who is part owner of an established brand. Burning bridges is the perfect metaphor. We can immediately recognize that we cut off an avenue and instantly grasp that it is better to hold close. When there are many rivers to cross during our life times, it is far better to cross a bridge than to swim. Don't you agree?

Just recently one of my ex bosses, Dato Aru Suppiah, whom I have allways held in high esteem and one of the people in my life that I have allways felt grateful to know, celebrated his BIG 60. He invited me and my Quay Lo to his birthday party. For many years I've kept in touch with him, long after I left his company.

His party was held in our favorite Italian restaurant, Nero Vivo. We ave always loved the food and service of this restaurant but alas on this evening it was short of the mark. Most likely iit was due to the big party of over a hundred guests.

The set up

The Menu

The meal we had (sorry about the quality of the pics, these

were taken with my iphone)

We were delighted to be able to share this very special moment of his and it was yet another lesson in cherishing your friends forever. Be ready to give back in times of need, and never ever burn a bridge. Mum got that one right!

At the party, I told Dato Aru that I now have my own food blog and one of these days, I would love to cook for him. The following dish will be one to consider. This simple recipe produces an aromatic beef lovers ecstasy.

Braised beef tri-tip

INGREDIENTS

1kg beef tri-tip

1 can dark beer such as Guiness

beef stock, enough to cover meat

2 tbs oil

Rub Ingredients (enough for a 2 kg meat)

1 tbs sea salt

1 tbs ground black pepper

1 ½ tbs minced garlic

1 tbs minced shallot

1 tbs cayenne

1 tbs chopped fresh thyme

1 tbs chopped fresh rosemary

1 tbs chopped sage

METHOD

Mix the rub ingredients together in a bowl. Sprinkle the rub on the meat on all sides, and massage the rub into the meat. Cover and let sit at room temp for an hour. Heat oil in dutch oven on high heat, sear all sides of the meat. Remove it from the dutch oven and set aside. Deglazed beer. Return the meat into the dutch oven and add beef stock till just covered meat. Place dutch oven into the preheated oven at 150 degrees C. Braise for 3 hours. Transfer braised beef tri tip to cutting board and let stand for 15 minutes before cutting and serve with your favorite steam vegetables or roasted vegetables.

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.