My Blog is 1 year old and I am having hell of a rolling time.

Before I share with you my disappoinment, let me share with you my joy! My blog is one year old yesterday. I am amazed myself for being able to sustain one year blogging because I could not imagine I will have readers to want to read my posts. Like I have said before, I don't write good English nor I have any writing style, but I know I will always write from my heart. I am not shy to share my joy and my disappointments with you and be sincere in what I share. I am sure Quay Po Cooks is still here today because of all the encouraging words from you all.  Each and every comment and visit means a lot to me. I know many visited me but did not comment but I know you are there. Thanks for dropping by. I appreciate the love and support from all of you.  THANK YOU, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!  HUGZZ and LOVE to you all. 


My disappointment is self inflicted. It is the result of being stubborn not wanting to use the sponge cake recipe to make swiss roll. 

I had a lot of egg whites in my fridge and also some berries which I wanted to use up. I thought I could use them to make the swiss roll.  So, I found this meringue swill roll recipe and give it a try. The meringue sheet came out nice but then, the moment I roll it, it breaks.  Yes, another failure and I ended up with a wrapped meringue cake instead of swiss roll. My Quay Lo did not like the taste of this cake because he said it is too “eggy” for him and it is too heart"achy" for me because I failed again! My maid likes it and said it tasted good so I gave the whole cake to her after I photographed it. 

I am running out of time to send in my entry for the Apsiring Baker #9.  Tomorrow, I will give one more try and this time I HAVE to use the sponge cake recipe and keep all my fingers crossed! Looks like I am having hell of a rolling time this July trying to roll out a REAL swiss roll. Quay Po, don't give up, read this quote:

"You must do the things you think you cannot do."

by Eleanor Roosevelt

Meringue wrapped cake

Adapted from taste.com.au with modification

Ingredients:

5 egg whites, at room temperature

2/3 cup caster sugar

3 teaspoons cornflour

150g fresh blue berries

150g fresh strawberries

2/3 cup mascarpone cheese

2/3 cup thickened cream

Method:

Preheat oven to 190°C. Grease a 2cm-deep, 25cm x 38cm (base) baking tray. Line with baking paper, allowing a 2cm overhang at both long ends. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites in a large bowl until soft peaks form. Add 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating after each addition until dissolved. Sift corn flour over egg mixture. Using a large metal spoon or spatula, fold corn flour into egg mixture to combine. Spread meringue over prepared tray. Bake for 12 minutes or until just firm and pale golden. Meanwhile, place a 40cm piece of baking paper on workbench. Sprinkle with remaining sugar. Carefully turn meringue onto paper. Remove lining from meringue. Allow meringue to cool.Place one-third of the berries in a bowl. Using a fork, roughly mash. Set aside. Whisk mascarpone and cream in a bowl until soft peaks form. Add mashed berries. Gently swirl through cream mixture. Spread berry mixture over meringue, leaving a 1cm border on all sides. Wrap the berry mixture with the meringue. Wrap baking paper around the cake and place, seam side down, on a tray. Refrigerate for 2 hours or until well chilled. Remove baking paper from cake. Torch the top of cake and top with berries. Slice and serve.

Ruguh-Love's cousin, Ruguh-Crush

I first saw this dessert at the Picnic Game 2011 hosted by Louise. Yummychunklet brought this with her.  First of all, I was attracted to the name, Rhubarb Ruguh-Love and then I was intrigued by the photos of this dessert.  Rhubarb Ruguh-Love is a twist from the Jewish pastry, Rugelach which has a cream cheese pie crust with fruit preserves and nuts filling.  However, I am not too fond of cream cheese pie crust and so I only adapted the idea of the housing the filling in croissant shape dough. I made the filling with thinly sliced rhubarb and strawberries, omitted the nuts and wrapped with the sweet pastry dough. This is a dough recipe I learned from Chef Lejuene from The Academy Pastry Arts Malaysia last weekend at the tart class. I love this recipe because it gave a crust that was very light, tender and flaky.  It also had a glorious butter flavor which is heavenly. The method used is so simple even an amateur baker like me can do it. I am sure it is a piece of cake for many of my friends and readers who are experienced bakers. There are more recipes that I learned from Chef Lejuene that I will eventually share with you, so let this be the first. For now, you can use this recipe to make all kinds of pies and tarts. Let your imagination run wild and come out with your own creation and please don't forget to share with us.

Since, the original idea is from Rugelach and I adapted the twist from Ruguh-Love, I would like to call mine Ruguh-Crush! So if you have a crush for someone, send him or her this dessert and when asked what is the name, say Ruguh-Crush. Hint! Hint! /blush

Ruguh-Crush

Ingredients:

For The Coating
adapted from mathastewart.com

1/2 C plus 1 tablespoons sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

113 g unsalted butter, melted

Sweet Pastry Dough

Adapted from Academy of Pastry Arts Malaysia’s recipe

Ingredients:

250 g all purpose flour

150 g unsalted butter

5 g salt

125 g icing sugar

2 eggs

For The Filling

1 C rhubarb, thinly sliced

1 C strawberry, thinly sliced

1 1/2 tbs sugar

3 tbs flour

Method:

Sift flour, salt and sugar.  Cut butter into small pieces. Mix flour and butter by hand till reaches sandy texture. Add eggs and knead for 1 minute. Divide dough into two and form dough into two disc. Keep in the fridge for 2 hours.

Unwrap 1 piece of dough and place on a floured work surface. Roll into an 11-inch round and, using a pizza wheel, cut into 8 equal wedges. Repeat process with remaining pieces of dough.

To Fill: 
Spread 1 level tablespoon rhubarb and strawberry mixture on each piece of dough. Starting with the long side of the triangle, fold corners in toward the center and roll up each piece to enclose filling. Repeat process with remaining dough.

Make the coating: 
In a small plate, mix together sugar and cinnamon. Dip each ruguh-crush first in melted butter and then in sugar mixture to coat, pressing on open ends to enclose. Place on a baking sheet with lied baking paper, 1/2 inch apart. Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees F or 175 degrees C for 30 minutes or until browned. Let cool for 30 minutes before serving. It taste very delicious with either whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

How many kinds of friends have you?

There are a few kinds of friends in my life.  There are my real life friends, business friends, social network friends and the recent addition is my food blogging friends. 

My real life friends are those whom I am sharing a big part of my life with. They are the ones I trust and feel safe to wear my heart on my sleeve. They are the ones who are not afraid to tell me that I am a bitch when I act like one and still love me. If I were to end up in the hospital, they will be the ones who will rush to visit me and let me know I am okay.  If I am no longer in this world, they will miss me and remember all the memories we have made together during our life time. I do not need to mention names but you know who you are.  I love you all very much and thanks a million for being part of my life.

Next, I have some business friends whom I still keep in touch. These friends are those I see or chat on the phone once in a while but I am happy to know that they are keeping well and vice versa. I am very grateful for the business support that were given to me in the past.

A couple of years ago, I have some facebook friends, most of them are my real life friends and some are new FB friends whom I have not met in person but  enjoyed our chats whenever we catch each other on line.  Then, ever since I started food blogging last July, I made many new friends from the food community.  These friends are mostly family orientated , warm, thoughtful and generous in sharing their knowledge related to cooking, baking and travelling. Diane from My Life in the Charente is one of them.  I was so delighted to receive a post card from her yesterday.  The joy of knowing that I am in her thoughts is heart warming. Diane, many thanks, I love the post card and I appreciate your friendship. 

  

The post card from Diane

If you want to see enchanting places like those in the above post card, but are not keen to fly the tedious hours like me, Diane's blog is where you should go.  I saw many wonderful places through her eyes.  She is not only a good writer and story teller, she is a skillful photographer and takes breath taking shots of all the wonderful places she has visited. 

Diane, I would like to give you back the joy you have given me. I baked this cake to feast your eyes for now, since you are so far away. Hopefully one day you and your other half will come to Malaysia for a vacation and spend an evening with me and my Quay Lo so that I can bake this cake again to feast your tummies.


I have many packets of rhubarbs in my fridge. Would you believe me if I told you that I have bought the whole shipment of rhubarbs from the supermarket near my home the last time I went there? I am not kidding, I really did! LOL!  So now, you know why a new way of using them up will not escape my eyes? My mum was curious about how the taste of this red celery looking plant, so she took a small piece and said it was sour and nothing special.  She wondered why both Quay Lo and I like it so much.  Although rhubarb is sour but when combined with sugar and baked with a mixture of brown sugar and butter in pies, crumbles or cakes, it tastes sweet yet retaining a little tartness and that makes it appealing to the palette. I am quite happy with the outcome of the upside down cake I baked except that it is a little dry but eating it with vanilla ice cream seemed to balance that up. Other than that, the cake could be taller if I had used the right size spring foam pan but mine was 10-ins not 9-ins. Anyway, the two flaws did not stop the cake thief from stealing a slice when the cake was left to cool on the rack. I am sure you already know who he was. 

Rhubarb Strawberry Upside Down Cake

Adapted from The New York Times – Dining and Wining, with modification

This recipe was featured in Asian Food Channel (Official) Facebook page

on 22 October 2012

Ingredients:

2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature, more to grease pans

3 cups rhubarb, rinsed and sliced into 1/2-inch cubes

1 cups sliced strawberries

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar 1/2 cup light brown sugar

2 cups cake flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

Zest of 1 lemon, grated

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 large eggs

1/3 cup sour cream

2 teaspoons lemon juice.

Method:

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Line the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan with parchment paper. Butter the paper and sides of the pan. Wrap two layers of foil under the pan, and place it on a buttered baking sheet.

2. In a medium bowl, mix rhubarb, strawberries, cornstarch and 1/2 cup granulated sugar.

3. Mix the brown sugar and 1/2 stick butter in a pan over medium heat. Whisk until smooth and bubbling, about 2 minutes. Sift together the cake flour, baking powder and salt.

4. Whip 2 sticks butter in a mixer with a paddle attachment for 2 minutes. With your fingers, blend the remaining 1 cup sugar with lemon zest until the mixture is uniform in color. Cream together with the butter at medium-high speed until it is light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, stopping to scrape down the bowl halfway through. Add the vanilla and mix well. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in the sour cream, then the lemon juice. (It’s O.K. if the mixture looks curdled.) With the mixer set to low speed, add the flour mixture, 1/4 cup at a time, until well combined. Scrape down the mixer bowl in between the additions.

5. Pour the brown-sugar mixture into the cake pan, then spoon in the rhubarb and its juices. Spoon in the batter so it covers all of the rhubarb. Smooth out the top.

6. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until the top of the cake is firm to touch and a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out without any large, moist crumbs.

7. Place the pan on a wire rack, and cool for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the cake, place a plate on top of the pan and turn it upside-down. Release the cake from the pan while still warm or else it will stick.

A Guest post by my Quaylo - The fruits of seasons and a family kitchen

A high point in my earliest food memories was an oft featured treasure from my mother’s ovens that caused ripples of delight any time we became aware that she was baking these. So fragrant were the smells that permeated our small home when my mother was baking that, in my recall, we all became a little giddy. Never more so than when we knew she was baking pie. It almost didn’t matter to us what kind of pie she was making, they were all great. Mom was a master at taking advantage of the best available ingredients. In this way her pies were woven into our sense of the seasons. In hindsight it isn't any wonder why I still love pie so much. Pie is a part of my biorhythms. It is a little sad that today's hot house production and global supply lines have rendered these seasonal dependencies a thing of the past. We can have any pie, any time we want. That is a substantial dilution to anticipation, that thrill when something we are waiting for gets closer and closer. Examples of pies that marked our seasons are distinct in my memory. For example the salad days of summer were made all the richer by the freshly picked peaches, which, when cradled in one of my mother's unbelievably flaky, lard based, crusts, was elevated to a culinary status that paid homage to mother nature's wonders. Since we helped pick the peaches at the orchard my father would drive us too each year, we had a connection to these pies that went beyond the simple enjoyment of eating them. It was almost transcendental. However, it wasn't just peaches, but also cherries, strawberries, and blueberry pies that marked our summer days as much as the warm sultry evenings during which we ate them. Today, a home-made summer fruit pie invokes memories of heading for the patio to escape the hot house, and the smell of freshly mowed lawns, the sounds of crickets, and the feel of cooling grass between our toes. Of course, after the weather had turned, and our care free days yielded to school days, there were pumpkin pies at Thanksgiving. They joined the fresh apple and pecan pies that became the standards of late fall and winter. Again, we were often the agents of the harvest, going back to the same pick-your-own orchards for apples, or finding pecan trees under which to gather the fallen bounty, or selecting the large pumpkins for our Halloween from the farmer’s market. My father had several prime pecan trees we went to each year, and they had an abundant output. Two of these were huge, ancient sentinels in the largest of the city parks. I often wondered why we were the only ones that hiked back to these trees to gather the pecans that had begun to litter the floor with the first cool fall winds. The pumpkins so deftly carved for Halloween were never allowed to wilt on the porch and instead were cleaned and stewed to put by for Thanksgiving pies. My mother never wasted anything.

One particular pie stood out. The fruit came from my father’s annual garden, along with the early asparagus which was another product of a rhizome plant. These popped up and grew as early as mid April, making it a sure bet for spring time. I am talking about the rhubarb, which traces its cultivation back thousands of years. The Chinese prized its root ball and stalks for medicinal qualities. Rhubarb roots are harvested in the fall from plants that are at least six years old. The roots are then dried for later use. The root was used in various preparations for use as an anticholesterolemic, antiseptic, antispasmodic, antitumor, aspirant, astringent, cholagogue, demulcent, diuretic, laxative, purgative, general tonic [1]. My father was an avid reader and world traveler, and he may have known all of this. But there was only one thing on his mind when he came into the house triumphantly carrying the earliest stalks of this remarkable plant. PIE!

Only the red stalks of the Rhubarb plant are used as an edible "fruit"

Today rhubarb is widely grown in hot houses year around. One rhizome can yield as many as three harvests per year. It isn’t a very popular pie filling here in Southeast Asia, but then pie is not particularly a popular dish except in kitchens that see western baking. Still, during a recent visit to Singapore, a friend of ours purchased some for us from a local market after I spoke about it the night before at dinner. Carefully wrapping the fruit and carrying them back on her return flight to Kuala Lumpur, Quaypo made sure the treasure was secured. In the meantime, I stayed on to finish my work, and almost forgot about the rhubarb until my own return a few days later. As soon as Quaypo reminded me I was on it. I chose to mix some strawberries into the filling I made, and wisely recruited Quaypo to make her crust as she has the same golden fingers for pie crust that my mother had, even though she is handicapped by the out of favor lard, in favor of a vegetable based alternate. My father loved the sharp tartness of a full rhubarb pie, but I favor a milder blend. The result was far better than I expected. The very tart rhubarb stewed up plump and juicy, and was balanced by the less tart strawberries and the sugar in the recipe. The pastry was typical of Quaypo’s talents. The memories of those pies of my youth were, well…priceless, which is why I am sharing them with you.

Best,

Stitch aka "Simplifried"

Strawberrie – Rhubarb Pie

Ingredients:

1 1/4 c Sugar

1/8 ts Salt

1/3 c Flour

Zest of 1 lemon

1 T fresh lemon juice

2 ts vanilla extract or 1 pod scraped

2 c Fresh strawberries

2 c Fresh rhubarb, cut in 1" pieces

3 T cold butter

1 T Coarse sugar

Pastry for 2-crust pie

Procedure:

Combine 1 1/4 cup sugar, salt, and flour. Arrange half the strawberries and rhubarb in a pastry-lined 9 inch pie pan. Sprinkle with half the sugar mixture. Repeat with remaining fruit and sugar mixture. Dot with butter. Drape top crust and flute edges to make high-standing rim. Brush top of pie with cold water and sprinkle on coarse sugar. Cut steam vents in top crust. “Collar the edge of the pie with aluminum foil. Bake in hot oven (425 F) 40 to 50 minutes or until rhubarb is tender and crust is browned.

[i] The Rhubarb Compendium

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QPC Pink Princess Smoothies

When I was cleaning up my fridge yesterday, I saw some remainders of strawberries and blueberries.  There were not enough to make pies, tarts or cake so I decided to create a smoothies out of them.  I like my creation and I will name it Pink Princess Smoothies. Not bragging but it taste very refreshing! LOL!

Ingredients:

1 cup blueberries

8 whole strawberries

1 jigger of Campari

1 tb condensed milk

2 big scoops of vanilla ice cream
1 red cherry
2 slices of lime, remove the seeds

6 ice cube

Method:

Put all the above into a blender and blend till smooth!  SIMPLE!