Quay Po Cooks: pickled cucumber

Showing posts with label pickled cucumber. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

The longest delicious meal I have ever had! and I made Otak-Otak

Before I give you guys the recipes for the Pickled cucumbers and Otak-Otak, I would like to share with you my first time meeting my blogger friends last Saturday. There were seven of us and we had a potluck gathering at Reese’s place at the poolside. Although it was my first time with these wonderful food lovers and cooks, I feel I knew them a long time and I was very comfortable in their company. We eat, chat and laugh a lot. In the following photo collage, you will see some of the food we had that day.

They are:

1- From Tracie http://bittersweetflavours.blogspot.com/

Nian Gou Puffs

2- From Sonia http://nasilemaklover.blogspot.com/

Ikan kembung in banana leaves

Yee Sang

3- From Reese http://reesekitchen.blogspot.com/

Lemon grass, pandan soda drink

Lemon grass chicken wings

Sausage

4- From Swee San http://thesweetspot.com.my/

Vietnamese rice paper rolls

Ispahan Mini Cakes

Nasi kerabu (jointly with Wendy)

5- From Wendy http://wendyinkk.blogspot.com/

Bak Kwa

Jelly candies

Alive and kicking prawns

6- From Pei-Lin http://dodol-mochi.blogspot.com/

Rojak

7- From me

Shanghai Noodles (I added some prawns this time)

Pickled cucumber (scroll down to see recipe)

Otak-Otak (scroll down to see recipe)

Is your stomach growling after seeing all the nice food?

As food bloggers, there is no way we do not take pictures of the food right? Even Sonias’s son, Desmond will not give up the chance to do so for his mum. Sonia, you trained him well. LOL!

As Swee San was the only one who knows how to start the fire, she did the most work and got herself all hot and sweaty. Thanks Swee San for the hardwork. You can see how hard she worked in the following photos.

While all of us were busy preparing the food, chatting and eating, the young gentleman, Desmond (Sonias's son) and the pretty young lady, Cheryl (Reese's daughter) were getting aquainted and enjoying themselves.

The rain did not stop us from continuing our eating and chatting session as you can see we moved everything up to Reese’s apartment and continue the fun.

So much for the bloggers meet, here comes the two recipes which my friends would like me to share:

Pickled cucumber

Ingredients:

2 cucumbers, remove seeds and diced

2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

2 red chilli padi (birds chilli) finely diced (for very spicy)

1 red chilli, remove seeds and finely diced (for less spicy)

1 tsp roasted sesame

1 tbs plum sauce

1 tbs water

1 tsp oil

salt and sugar to taste

Method:

Heat oil in sauce pan and fry garlic till fragrant. Add plum sauce and stir fry for a few seconds, add chilli and water. Add salt and sugar to taste. Stir fry for a min or two. Let cool and mix well with cucumbers. Refrigerate for at least 24 hours before serving. Taste better when serve cold.

*****************

Otak-Otak

I was so flattered. Desmond loves my Otak-Otak

Ingredients:

(A)

500gm salmon fish fillets, cut into 2 inches x 1 inch x ½ in thick

225 ml thick coconut milk

2 eggs, lightly beaten

8 pcs kaffir lime leaves, removed the spines and finely sliced

20 pcs betel leaves (blanch in boil water and let dry)

½ tsp ground white pepper

½ tsp salt

½ tsp sugar

20 pcs 6 inches x 8 inches banana leaves, cleaned (see video on how to soften the leaves)

Ingredients for the paste:

(B)

10 pieces red chillies, seeds removed and sliced (don't remove seeds if prefer more spicy)

2 stalk lemongrass, finely sliced

4 petals of Bunga Kanta (phaemaria - pink rojak flower, finely sliced
1/2 in galangal

10 pcs candlenuts, roasted

1 pc shrimp paste approx. 1.5 in x 1.5 in

4 cloves garlic sliced

5 shallots, finely sliced

1.5 inch fresh tumeric

1 tsp Maggie chicken stock

Method:

Clean fish, remove skin and cut them accordingly. Blend all paste ingredients (B) in a blender. If you want it to taste even better, pound the spices using mortar and pestle instead. In a large mixing bowl, add in (A) & (B) and mix them thoroughly.

Method of making banana leaf parcels for steaming:

In each banana leaf, place 1 or 2 betel leaves. Place 1 pc of fish and spoon the paste enough to cover the piece of fish before wrapping. Use staples to secure the folds and place the parcels on the rack of a steamer for approximately 7 mins or until fished is cooked and paste is set. Serve hot.

See video on how to make banana parcel

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.