Quay Po Cooks: baking

Showing posts with label baking. Show all posts

Monday, November 26, 2012

Up close with Anna Olson

Both my Quay Lo and I love to watch Anna Olson’s shows on Asian Food Channel. Her recipes are simple and easy to follow yet yield beautiful bakes. I never thought I would see her show live! My thanks to Asian Food Channel for bringing her to Kuala Lumpur.

Anna Olson is a professionally trained pastry chef with over fifteen years of experience in the culinary field. She has, or has had, her own cooking shows such as "Bake with Anna Olson", "Sugar" and "Fresh with Anna Olson". All her shows have been aired on the Asian Food Channel.

I was the first person arrived at the event because I remembered the time wrong. It was 2.30pm and not 2.00pm.

It was a blessing in disguise because I got myself a seat in the front row very near to the demo counter. So, I could see Anna more clearly. LOL!

Before Anna's arrival at the demo room, I met her husband, Michael Olson.

He is a big guy like my Quay Lo and he too has that million dollar smile. Michael was busy getting everything ready for Anna's demo. When Anna finally arrives, she was briefed by by him. This is truly a husband and wife team.

Finally, after a long wait, the emcee, Will Quah announced the arrival of Anna Olson and gave us an introduction.

By sheer coincidence Will is a friend of my son's and they have performed on stage together. Will is well known in the local entertainment scene as a fluent emcee. So I was happy to say hello and grab a shot with him.

After the introduction, the demo started and the first thing Anna made was Tourtiere.

Cooking the filling for tourtiere

Rolling out the pie crust

Placing the crust into the pie tin and put in the filling

The final product

Each of us get to taste one of the mini tourtieres.

I did not eat mine but brought it home for my Quay Lo to taste.

Tourtiere's (pronounced tor tee ays) are savoury pies made with spiced meat, including beef, lamb, and pork (in other venues), especially in French Quebec Canada, where they are popular as a snack around the Christmas holidays.

Next, Anna went on to make pumpkin crème brulee tarts.

I would like to thank Lach of Alice George Communication for the invitation to the Anna Olson baking demo, and a very BIG thank you to my friend Evelyn of Missyblurkit for passing my contact to Lach. I enjoyed the chance to see one of my inspirations up close.

I am not sure if I can share with you the recipes but once I get the green light to do so, I will. I would especially like to try making the pumpkin creme brulee for Christmas. Pumpkin is not particularly at the top of my favorites list, but in this recipe I think I could be pursuaded.

For now how about making the traditional creme brulee instead.

Please click on the picture to get the recipe

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.