Quay Po Cooks: mint leaf

Showing posts with label mint leaf. Show all posts

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Mint leaves and egg soup - Featured in Group Recipes

Mum taught me to be independent at an early age. When I was 9 years old, she taught me how to cook rice and fry eggs. The first soup I was taught to make is Mint leaves and egg soup. This soup is extremely aromatic and delicious. I love it and whenever I see fresh mint leaves in the market, I never fail to pick up a bunch or two to make the soup. The Chinese believe this light and clear soup is very cooling for our body system and and drinking the soup will also help relieve flatulence.

Mint leaves and egg soup

Ingredients

2 bibs of garlic (chopped)

80 gms mint leaves (leaves only)

1 egg (lightly beaten)

1 ts vegetable oil

½ litre water

Salt and white pepper to taste

Method

Heat wok with oil and fry garlic till fragrant. Add min leaves and stir fry for just a while. Add water and bring it to boil. Lower heat and simmer till mint leaves is limp. Add in beaen egg and stir. Add salt and pepper to taste.

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.