You must love her

The author of this guest post today needed no introduction. In fact, some of you might have known her longer than I do. She is a talented food blogger, a good friend and for sure a rare find. You must love her. She is Wendy of Table For Two Or More. I have been her ardent reader ever since I entered into the food blogging community. When I am out of idea what to cook or bake, her blog is one that I will go to, to draw inspiration. 


Oh, I have met Wendy in person and she is as bubbly as she sounded on her blog. I am looking forward to meet her and other Bloggers from the Northern States in Malaysia again soon. So far, I have enjoyed every food bloggers gathering or individual meet up. What can be more fun than meeting with warm and friendly people with plenty of yummilicious home cooked food and bakes to share? 

Coming back to Wendy, I admire her for being very adventurous with food ingredients and her knowledge about them. You have to be knowledgeable to use them to create your own recipes and that is what she does often. Most of all, I admire her generosity in sharing valuable tips in cooking and baking with us. It was great knowing her and it is wonderful to have her footprint on my blog today.

Let us now enjoy yet another great recipe from her. Don't blink your eyes.  Hey Wendy, how did you know brussels sprouts is my Quay Lo's favorite? Do you have sixth sense? LOL!

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There's one thing I know about Quay Po that I am very sure none of you knew. Do you want to know what is that?

Veron.... I'm going to burst your bubble!

........................ *drumroll*

Ta-dah! Quay Po's mom is also from Kampar. Same as me. Grew up drinking the same water source from the hills. Ahh... feels good to know that.

The world is small. During my first meet up with QP, we chatted as she sent me back home to PJ after a smokey BBQ at Reese's. And we are both glad that we had that bit in common. It's always heart warming to know someone came from the same place as I did. First time meeting her and we yakked and yakked all the way until I reached.

Ok now, back to the blog post..

Last year, I tried making this, but it wasn’t nice. I didn’t read the details and cooked it over high heat and it smelled awful. How awful, hmmm…. Sulphurous? Like… bad vegetables almost rotting?

When I got my hands on the beautiful green balls again, I reread the whole thing carefully. It should be cooked over medium heat, but then the stoves we have here seem to be hotter than those in Western countries. And I learnt that brussel sprouts should never be overcooked, if not, it’ll be smeeeeeeeeeeellly

So, I cooked this over medium low heat this time and boy! These were good. The lower heat retained the fresh taste of butter. I also changed the apple cider vinegar to lemon juice as I find the vinegar to smell rather offensive in this dish. I also added sugar to the hazelnuts to add another dimension of taste to this cooked salad. Crispy, sweet, crunchy, buttery with a light hint of saltiness… delicious!

This recipe is pretty easy to do, just there are some details that one needs to take note. This amount serves 2 as a side dish, but I can just finish this up all by myself.

Brussels Sprouts Chiffonade with Hazelnuts

Recipe source: WendyinKK

Idea derived from : The Family Kitchen

150gm Brussels sprouts

½ Tbsp butter

¼ tsp salt

10 hazelnuts or more, chopped

½ Tbsp butter

½ tsp sugar

1 tsp lemon/lime juice

1. Wash and trim brussel sprouts. Cut into half lengthwise and slice thinly to create chiffonade.

2. In a cold pan, on medium heat put in butter. When butter starts to melt, turn heat to low. (don’t wait for fully melted).

3. Put in brussel sprouts chiffonade and spread it around. Do not toss them. Just leave it there for 1 minute. After that, lightly toss it and cook until slightly wilted. Put in salt and toss it. Taste to see if it’s salty enough and to check its doneness. Should be crispy but cooked. If it taste sulphurous, it’s overcooked. Place cooked brussel sprouts into a serving plate.

4. In the same pan, put in butter and chopped hazelnuts.

5. On low heat, sauté hazelnuts until they are very very slightly golden (you will notice it is no longer as white but turns to a cream colour). Put in sugar and cook until the sugar melts.

6. Pour hazelnuts and all that is in the pan over brussel sprouts.

7. Pour lemon/lime juice over just before serving.

2nd best Chinese Chicken Salad

My Quay Lo told me that his daughter’s mum makes one of the best Chinese Chicken Salad that he has ever tasted.  I have yet to get the recipe from her. It aroused my curiosity of how a Quay Lo Chinese chicken salad taste like. So I googled the web and I found this recipe from Ellie Krieger. As usual, I made some modification and I am very happy with the result.  Wow! this salad is very refreshing and tasty and I assures you that this will please our Asian palette. However, I will still try to get the recipe from Darlene because I know it must taste better than this because when my Quay Lo speaks so highly of her salad, it MUST be TOP NOTCH! You know it is so true that when you had the best, you will not want the 2nd best.  Perhaps when we visit USA next and when we get together, we might request her to make this salad for us? This reminded me of our get together during our last visit. We had so much fun at the Japanese Restaurant. The food was SOOO delicious and all of us were SOOO stuffed. Fond memories are very precious! Got to do that again soon! 

For now, take a look at this 2nd best in my Quay Lo's book...

Chinese Chicken Salad

Largely adapted from Ellie Krieger at Food Network.com with modification

Ingredients:

4 tbs soya sauce, divided

2 tsp sesame oil, divided

2 tsp toasted sesame

1 lb skinless, boneless chicken breasts

1/2 head napa cabbage, thinly shredded (about 6 cups)

1/4 head red cabbage, shredded (about 2 cups)

1 large carrot, shredded (about 2 cups)

3 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced, greens included (about 1/2 cup)

300g toasted chestnuts

4 oranges, sliced

1/3 C lemon juice

2 tsp minced garlic

2 tsp minced ginger

2 tbs sunflower oil

2 tbs brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp thai sweet chilli sauce

1/4 C toasted cashew nuts

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine 1 tablespoon soy sauce and 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil. Brush onto chicken breasts and place into a baking dish. Bake for about 13 to 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely before cutting into 1/4-inch slices.

In a large bowl, combine Napa cabbage, red cabbage, carrot, scallions, toasted chestnuts, orange slices and sliced chicken. In a separate bowl, whisk together 3 tablespoons soy sauce lemon juice, garlic, ginger, oil, 1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil, brown sugar and chili sauce. Pour dressing over salad and mix well. Top each serving with roasted cashew nuts.

Cauliflower potato salad from left over otak-otak

When you have left over otak otak, you can try making this salad.  Imagine the salad being coated with the savory fish mousse.  I am lost of words for how to describe its deliciousness. You got to taste it first hand to experience the explosive flavors that come from the spices and herbs used to make the otak otak.  I recommend that you serve this salad with some freshly baked baguettes.  If you want to make this a main meal, just add a hard boil egg to it to make it more wholesome.   

Ingredients:

200 gms Cauliflower, cut into smaller florets, boiled

2 medium size US russet potatoes, diced, boiled

1 head of Romanian lettuce

50 gm anchovies, mashed

2 cups otak otak without the daun gadok

Salt to taste

Method:

Boil potatoes and cauliflower to just cooked but not soft. Mash anchovies. Put otak otak, mashed anchovies, cooked potatoes and cauliflower in a mixing bowl and mix well.  Salt to taste.