I call this lil’ number, Oo (pronounced O-o) toast. Oo means ‘yes’ in Tagalog. And when I made this, I was like ‘Yaaas!‘
WHY I AM DOING THIS???
So before I talk about this toast, I wanted to take a little step back. Lately a lot of friends and family have been asking me ‘So what are your plans with this blog?’. And not in the ‘Stick to your day job kind of way’, but more in the vein of ‘You’re doing great! Make me something yummy to eat soon, k?! Of course it is so flattering and motivating to hear. But to be totally transparent, I’m not 100% sure what I want to do with this in the future. I currently love my non-food related day job and this blog continues to be a hobby, a creative outlet. And even though it may seem like a lot of work for a hobby (sometimes it feels that way too), it brings me so much joy to cook, to photograph, to learn, and to create beautiful things. Plus the more I do, the more I find more inspiration to keep going.
About a year and a half ago, I ventured out to start meeting some of the people behind the blogs and instafeeds that I’ve been cheering on. So we had a lunch IRL (that means ‘in real life’ in case you didn’t know, lol). And I was so beyond happy to find out that they were just as kind and inspiring in person as I found them on social media. From there I’ve continued to connect with more and more amazing women just as sweet as they are talented. And this reason alone is enough to keep at it! I love the community so much.
Even though I’m not sure where this side hustle will take me, I know I love it and will keep doing it until I don’t. However, I have been feeling the urge to be a little more purposeful and create more goals with this space. If you’ve been following along, you’ll notice I really aim to cook seasonally (insert a million reasons why here), but I’m not particularly dedicated to one type of cuisine. I truly love all food and love exploring new ingredients.
But in the midst of growing older and raising my own little ones, I find myself wanting to create recipes that incorporate more of my heritage. So what is my heritage? Well, my Dad is a very down to earth man originally from Texas. He’s a very meatloaf and potatoes kind of gentleman who doesn’t like anything spicy. He does however, love mayonnaise especially when making tomato or pickle sandwiches. My Mom, who spent most of her childhood in Hawaii, is Filipino. When it comes to food, she loves it all and has always taught me to be adventurous. She’s also a fantastic cook, which is not surprising as her parents loved cooking as well and used to own a Filipino restaurant in Southern California.
So basically you can expect to see more filipino inspired recipes coming your way with a bit of Texan influence mixed in.
THIS TOAST
Ok so back to this toast. If you’ve seen my instafeed, you already know I’m a big fan of piling everything on my toast. And this one is the same, a total knife and fork situation. To start, I wanted to incorporate a leafy green vegetable that my mom used a lot growing up. This is Kailan, or Chinese Broccoli. I sautéed it over high heat in coconut oil for just a few minutes. I love its crunch!
Ok and then the quail eggs. Quail eggs are found all over the Philippines. A common street food is Kwek-Kwek, deep fried quail eggs that are bright orange in color as a result of the ground annatto. Annato is derived from the seeds of the achiote tree and is a common natural food coloring. Its taste is very earthy, similar to turmeric and has a slightly peppery quality as well.
To add a little bit of my Dad’s influence into this dish, I created a mayonnaise sauce to drip all over it and really bring all the ingredients together. The sauce is a combo of mayonnaise (a favorite condiment of my Dad) with annatto, a little patis (fish sauce), fresh lime juice, and date syrup. I just love that bright orange color, especially against the deep green.
Lastly, I topped with some finely chopped cashews for crunch and crushed red pepper for heat.
I’m pretty proud of this toast and am so excited to share more recipes inspired by my heritage. Hope you enjoy and as always, thanks so much for reading friends!
Valerie
- 1 bunch Chinese broccoli
- 6 quail eggs
- 4 slices of bread
- Crushed red pepper
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- Sauce: ¼ cup mayonnaise
- ½ teaspoon annato powder
- 1 teaspoon patis (fish sauce)
- Date syrup
- Fresh lime juice
- To make the sauce, place all sauce ingredients (mayonnaise, annato powder, patis, date syrup, lime juice) in a bowl and whisk together to combine.
- In a small saucepan, heat water on high heat to boil. Once the water is boiling, add the quail eggs, and boil for 2 minutes. Remove the quail eggs, place into a bowl of ice water to cool, then set aside.
- Toast bread.
- Place coconut oil in a medium sauté pan and bring to medium heat. Add the Chinese broccoli and sauté for 4-5 minutes until the leaves are softened.
- Peel the quail eggs and cut in half. Then you're ready to build your toast.
- I like to add a lil butter to each piece of toast. Then I pile on the Chinese broccoli. Top with a few halves of quail eggs. Drizzle with sauce, and sprinkle with cashews and crushed red pepper.
- Enjoy!
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