Quay Po Cooks: poached pear in wine

Showing posts with label poached pear in wine. Show all posts

Thursday, March 8, 2012

I am his pear and he is my vanilla ice cream

Last night, while I was peeling the skin off the anjou pears, I was thinking, how many women would love to have an hour glass shaped body instead of a pear shape. It is funny how food triggers thoughts, sometimes sad, happy and crazy ones.

Do you know that you can work wonders with your body and make a fashion statement with the right choice of clothes, colors and fabrics irrespective of what body shape you have? Of course we need to look into the mirror to identify our body shape first. I know what shape body I have, do you?

I have read many articles about how to camouflage figure flaws and here are some tips that I could still remember which I would like to share with you.

There are many body shapes but here are the five most common ones:

Hourglass Shape

Woman with his ideal body shape could carry all kinds of fashion especially low cuts and tight fitting dresses. Wow! This is the dream shape of every woman.

Apple Shaped

Apple shaped woman will look good in off shoulders tops, straight dresses but please avoid tight blouses and jeans.

Lollipop

With this lollipop shape body, one must remember not to wear any dresses that draws attention to their top. No high neck dresses but V-neck.

Brick Shaped

Since Brick-shaped women look musculine, they should look great in low waist jeans and loose blouses but got to avoid boxy jackets, double breasted coats, mini skirts, box pleats and trousers in stiff fabric for they do not want to look more masculine.

Skinny Straight Shape

Skinny straight shaped body, like hourglass shape body could carry many kinds of fashion. However, they should not choose dark colors as that will make them look skinnier.

Okay, are you ready to see Quay Po's body shape? She is "A pear, full of spices, and aging like red wine!" Did I say aging like red wine? OOOO How I wish.

Poached pear in spiced red wine

If you have a pear shape body like me, here are the tips on what to wear to make a fashion statement.

Thes are tips that I jotted down in my notebook long ago on what are the best dresses for me. Too bad, I have forgotten the source.

"One of the best dresses for a pear body shape is a wrap style. Keep things simple around the middle of the torso, and you want something that will skim over the hips.

Look for a dress with an A-line skirt. Something that flits out at the bottom will give you more volume at the ankle and leg, which will perfectly balance your hips.

Look for features and details within a dress that will really define and show off your shoulders. Use soft frills from the shoulder to bust and capped sleeves to point to your slim waist. A belt will further emphasise your waist.

Deep V-necks will lengthen your torso and draw attention to your top half, whilst a belt is great for nipping you in at the waist.

Look for stiff, crisp cotton fabrics, or floaty organza material, which will skim, but not cling to, your hips.

If you're worried about any lumps and bumps on your lower half, opt for some body control underwear - some control shorts will do the job.

Prints can help disguise your problem areas, but remember, opt for one print head-to-toe to really streamline your look.

Shoes that match your skin tone will help elongate your frame, and have a slimming effect."

One thing to remember though, your body shape does not define you. Be proud of yourself and love your body irrespective of what shape you have.

Anyone interested in making poached pear in spiced red wine for dessert? If you do, just click on the photo to get the recipe.

Whenever I find anjou pears in the supermarket nearby, I will always grab some to make this flavorful and refreshing dessert. Having this with vanilla ice cream is a good match, like me and my Quay Lo! I am his pear in spiced wine and he is my vanilla ice cream! LOL!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Poached pear in spiced red wine

I have posted a poached pear recipe last year when I first started my blog. Back then, I was a newbie and not even sure how to write a proper recipe. Today I found a better recipe than what I used before. It is from Sara Buenfeld. This is a good one and I would love to share with you.

Largely adapted from Sara Buenfeld’s recipe

Ingredients:

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 bottle red wine

225g caster sugar

1 cinnamon stick

1 star anise

6 pears, peeled, but kept whole with stalk intact

Method:

In a large saucepan, put in the wine, sugar, cinnamon, star anise and vanilla extract and bring to boil until sugar dissolved. Turn heat to medium and add pears into the pan.Poach the pears, covered, for 20-30 mins, making sure they are covered in the wine. The cooking time will very much depend on the ripeness of your pears - they should be tender all the way through when pierced with a cocktail stick. Take the pears out of the pan and let it cool before putting them in the fridge. Boil the liquid to reduce it by half so that it's syrupy. Serve each pear with the cooled syrup and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!

Note: You can make these up to 2 days ahead and chill.

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.