Quay Po was very "saucy" yesterday

The meaning of “saucy” is "impertinent in an entertaining way; impossible to repress or control". Will you be surprised if I tell you that President Abraham Lincoln had used the perogative word “saucy” and had written out his true feelings about a lady visitor in a short note to himself? This note now belongs to the Library of Congress.  Interesting ha?

My use of the word in today's title is really just a bit word play as I worked in the kitchen making a big batch of cranberry sauce to go with my Quay Lo's roast turkey for Christmas. What lady doesn't enjoy being a little "saucy" now and then even if it only means you made "sauce"? 

As promised in my post on our Thanksgiving celebration last month, today I am sharing the simple recipe of my homemade cranberry sauce. Once you taste this homemade cranberry sauce, you will never want a store bought one. It is full of flavor, compliments fowl, lamb, or pork and is super easy to make. Even though I add a citrus note (well, maybe "chord" is a better word than "note") to the preserve this sauce is more simple in flavor than a chutney as it strikes a balance between tart, sour, and sweet. Perfect!

QPC homemade cranberry sauce

   

  

Ingredients:

(A)

24 oz bag fresh or frozen cranberries

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp allspice

½ tsp ground nutmeg

2 cinnamon stick

(B)

1 cup orange juice

1 tbs orange zest

1 tbs lemon zest

Method

Place ingredients (A) in a medium pot and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium and let it cook for 15 to 20 minutes or until most of the liquid has reduced, stirring occasionally. Add in ingrdients (B) and mix well and turn of heat. Let it cool to room temperature. Remove cinnamon stick and serve.

Note:  Cranberry sauce can be made days ahead and serve cold or brought to room temperature before serving.

Pot luck "LUNNER" (lunch and dinner)

Usually during long holidays, Wendy of "Table for Two or More" will come to KL which gives us the opportunity to meet up, catch up, taste each other’s food, and eat till we drop. Over the recent holiday we had a pot luck “LUNNER” (Lunch and Dinner) and the theme was finger foods. We were reminded by Wendy to make small portions because what we wanted were varieties not quantity. Swee San of "The Sweetspot" kindly offered to host the “LUNNER” in her beautiful home. 

That morning I was  full of anticipation  and got up very early to prepare the food shown below to take to the feast. 

Goody bags for each of my friends - Almond Crisps

(click on any picture to get the recipes)

For finger food, I made pancetta wrapped prawns with gorgonzola cheese

to go with lemon tahini mayo dip dressing

This is another variation for serving the prawn as a starter

(You may click on the photo to get the recipe)

I made two desserts

American soft chewy big thick chocolate chip cookies

using my mother-in-law's recipe

(You may click on the picture to get the recipe)

Apple tarte tartin

(I have not posted the recipe yet, it will be up next week)

Here are the contributions from all my friends. Every dish was made with passion that shines through, don't you agree?

Prepared by Wendy of "Table for Two or More"

Cucumber cups with dried prawns sambal

Mieng Kam Kadok

That is how you eat it. 

Prepared by Esther of "The Fuss Free Chef"

Meat balls

Dragon fruit jelly

Prepared by Sharon of "Feats of Feast"

Shepherd pie

Crackers with caramelised onion mayo

Scotch quail's eggs

Prepared by Swee San of "The Sweetspot"

Double baked potato skins with guacamole

Cassis pear milk chocolate entremet

Prepared by Shannon of "Just as Delish"

Stuffed grape leaves

 and finally Prepapred by Yen of "Eat Your Heart Out"

Moist Brownies

We all agreed that we planned the portion of foods very well this time and there was not much left to “tap pau” (take away). This is the way to go for all future pot luck “LUNNER” so when is the next one?  LOL!

I wish to thank you all for the delicious foods and especially Swee San for being so gracious to host this gathering in her home. And a big thank you to Swee San's mum for taking this group picture for us.

Stir fry bean sprouts

Stir fry bean sprouts (tai tau nga) in dark soy sauce

Ingredients:

250 gms bean sprouts

½ cup water

1 tbs dark soya sauce

1 tbs light soya sauce (less if you prefer to be less saltish)

1 tbs chopped garlic

Method:

Remove roots and clean bean sprouts. Heat cooking oil and fry garlic till fragrant. Add bean sprouts and stir fry till properly coated with oil. Add dark soya and light soya sauce. Mix well and add water. Bring the liquid to boil. Let is boil for 2 min or until the stalk of bean sprouts is slightly translucent. Transfer to serving plate and serve.

Chwee Kueh and one of my favorite childhood games

In Cantonese, we call this “Voon chye go” and this is something that reminds me of my Mum’s good friend in Ipoh.  I called her “Ah Tai” (means the eldest).  According to my Mum, she got this nickname because she spoke with a very loud voice and all the neighbors on the street respected her and gave her "face" because she is the oldest and a very generous person.  She used to serve food and drinks to her mahjong “kakis” (mates).  One dish that she served that left a deep impression with me was her chwee kueh (rice cake).  They tasted out of this world delicious.! I remembered “Ah Tai” stayed in this famous street in Ipoh in one of the old shop houses. The street used to be called Theatre Street before our Government change all the streets’ name in Ipoh to Bahasa Malaysia.  Mum went there to play mahjong with her and her other friends. While Mum was playing mahjong, I would be playing with other children who lived there and one of our favorite games was kicking this colorful object which you will see in the photos below.  I have not seen this for 40 years since I moved from Ipoh to Kuala Lumpur. The other day when my Quay Lo and I went to have lunch in one of our favorite Chinese coffee shops, we walked pass a shop and many of these were displayed outside on the varendah.  I turned to him and told him I must buy one and share my story about it with my friends.  Don’t ask me what this is called in English because I don’t have a clue.  Any of my Asian friends can tell me?  In Cantonese, it is called “Yin”.  Now you may want to know how did we play the game.  Okay, each of us would have our own“Yin”.  To play the game, we needed to kick this up in the air with one foot and continue kicking as many times as possible without letting it drop on the ground.  Once dropped on the ground, that will be our score. So who got the most score would be the winner. You will be surprised to know that the “Yin” we owned was one that we handmade by ourselves and we would decorate our “Yin” with very colorful tin can sheets and feathers. We would make it look very attractive and took great pride in it. We would compete with each other to own the best looking "Yin".  Sometimes we so admired our friend’s “Yin” that we made our “Yin” as a price to the winner.  It was a lot of fun kicking "Yin". In my opinion, games played during my childhood days were more outdoor, creative and interactive as compared to games played by kids today.  The next question for those who has never seen or heard of this game may be curious to know what this is made of.  They are made of  one very long nail with a rather big flat head and many layers of round rubber sheets and tin can sheets of about 3 to 4 cm in diameter. All the sheets were punched with a hole in the centre just big enough to let the nail go through.  The top and bottom layers had to be rubber.  In between were numerous tin can sheets.  Rubber bands were used to tie the feathers to the tip of nail.  Yes, it is that simple to make a toy for ourselves those days. It practically cost us nothing and yet we could derive hours of pleasure from it.

Now, coming back to chwee kueh, here is the recipe. Mine may not taste as good as At Tai’s but my mum and my friends love it so I presume it is worth sharing this recipe with you. 

Makes 30

Ingredients:

(A)

300g rice flour

½ tsp corn flour

2 C water

¼ tsp salt

(B)
3 C water

3 tbs oil

Toppings:

(C)

3 tbs oil

3 tbs garlic, chopped

150g dried preserved radish pieces (chai poh)

¼ tsp pepper

4 tbs sugar

Method:

Grease chwee kueh moulds of 4 cm diameter and place on steamer to heat. Mix (A) together in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.  Bring 3 C water to boil. Add to A and blend with a whisk to get a slightly gluey consistency.  Pour batter into each chwee kueh mould, filling to just below the brim.  Steam for 20 mins over moderate heat. Ensure water is boiling before covering the steamer.  Cool before scooping out.  Top with (C).

To make topping (C):

Heat the oil and fry garlic till golden. Add preserved sweet radish and fry for 5 mins till fragrant.  Add pepper and sugar.  Add more sugar if a sweeter taste is desired. Fry for another min.

You can serve this with sambal belacan or hoi sin sauce or tauchew sauce. 

Note: Vary the amount of corn flour to adjust texture.  Use moderate heat when steaming to prevent dimples from forming. Also, put vinegar into the boiling water in the steamer so chwee kueh will be white. There are 2 types of chai poh. Use the sweet one and not the salted. It is better to prepare the toppings before hand and keep in the freezer for a week. Steamed chwee kueh, if kept in air tight container in the fridge can last for 2 days.

 I have submitted this entry to  Malaysian Monday.  Do check out  3 hungry tummies or test with a skewer for more information.