Kylie Kwong Returns

Last week we celebrated Big Bro's birthday. Sis channeled Martha (driven, focused and slightly deranged) and slaved over the stove for two whole days in preparation for the big birthday feast. Sis has really started to enjoy cooking Chinese, even if really is more Kylienese than it is Chinese. Kylie's recipes are a little like Nigella's in a sense that they are quite ad hoc and perhaps not the best to use if you don't like tweaking and guessing. Having said that, the dishes are guaranteed to be hearty, rustic and flavourful. I'd gladly have that any day over fussy and pretty food.

She made several dishes, some hits and some misses. Especially with my mum who eyed everything warily. She wasn't quite sure what to make of this "Chinese" dinner. After all, how does one eat rice with oysters and lobster & foie gras salad? The oysters were not Kylie's recipe. Sis had modified a recipe from one of the foreign gourmet magazines. It was a combination of mirin and saishikomi, and topped with chives, cilantro and spring onions. They were good but I prefer my oysters raw. The dish that I thought I would love the best turned out to be my least favourite. Not because it tasted bad. It was just too much! The lobster, poached egg and foie gras salad looked fantastic when Kylie made it on her tv show. Sis used chicken egg instead of duck. She also used foie gras instead of foie gras pate. I had one helping and even then I barely finished it. Something about the gooey egg yolk and foie gras combination that made me slightly nauseous. What a shame!

The duck was the favourite of the night. The duck is first marinated with crushed pepper and salt. It is then steamed and left to cool and dry out in the fridge. Then it is boned and deepfried before being drizzled with a thick caramelised orange sauce. I loved the hint of cinnamon and star anise in the sauce. It also had the pungent saltiness from fish sauce which balanced out the sweet oranges perfectly. The result, a superbly intense orange sauce. Lovely! My favourite was the salt & chilli squid. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary but it was just done really well. I'm tempted to post a picture of my sister spacing out halfway through dinner but think she would kill me! Poor sis, think she passed out at 10pm! Thanks for cooking us dinner Sis.