The Finger Food Post

Edna celebrated her first birthday recently (Has it really been a year? *whew*), and we had a party at home for her. Well, the party was in her name, but I suppose it's more a party for the other members of the family because the guests were invariably Noel's friends or Ethan's pals. Edna took it all rather well, though. She had lots of chickpeas to munch on, so she didn't mind the crowd ooh-ing and aah-ing over her antics. *grins*

So, party food!

This is certainly an easy-to-make finger food that can be made in advance. All it requires to be ready is to be popped into the oven and heated up before serving.



Bacon Wrapped Quails' Egg

Ingredients:
Bacon Slices
Quails' Eggs
Cheddar Cheese
Cucumber

Method:
1. Boil Quails' Eggs so that they become hard boiled. Shell the eggs and put them aside.
2. Slice the cucumbers thick, then cut them into half. The cucumbers are meant to act as a base to hold the skewered bacon roll in place.
3. Slice the Cheddar Cheese, and cut the slices about the size of the egg.
4. Wrap a bacon slice around the egg and cheese, skewering the bacon with a toothpick. (See picture above)
5. Push the toothpick through the bacon wrapped egg into a slice of cucumber like so:
6. When required, put the bacon wrap into the oven at 200 deg C for about 10 to 15 minutes, or until the bacon sizzles and the cheese melts.
7. Serve hot!

And yes, before you mention it, this isn't exactly a healthy food item. *winks*
But it's a party, and it's a treat.


A healthier version of the bacon roll would be the cocktail sausages. This is another finger food item that can be made in advance of parties since it's served cold.


Cocktail Sausages
Ingredients:
Chicken Cocktail Sausages
Cheddar Cheese
Canned Pineapple
Cucumber

Method:
1. Cut cucumber into small cubes, removing the seeds. Likewise, cut the cheese and pineapple slices about the same size of the cucumber.
2. Skewer the ingredients together with a toothpick.

Voilá! Enjoy!

Another Bread Post: Roti John

Roti John has a very interesting history. It was invented in Singapore in 1976 by an enterprising Muslim hawker named Shukor, whose Caucasian expatriate clientéle frequenting his stall at the Taman Serasi Hawker Centre beside the Botanic Gardens, always ask him to fry up an onion omelette to eat with a side order of french loaf. Shukor decided one day to fuse the onion omelette together with the bread that voilá! Roti John was born.

Why Roti John? Well, roti is Malay for bread... and John? Well, at the time, all Caucasians were generically called John. *grins* So in honour of Shukor's clients, he named them Roti John.

The added minced/slices of beef/mutton came slightly later, but you'll be hard-pressed now if you were to find any hawker selling Roti John sans meat.

So here's the recipe:

Roti John
Ingredients:
100g minced beef
1 large onion, chopped
3 eggs
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 loaf crusty french bread, sliced like a subway sandwich, then cut to fit into frying pan

Method:
1. Mix the minced beef, chopped onion, eggs, salt and pepper together.
2. Heat up a frying pan with about a tablespoon of cooking oil.
3. Scoop the beef mix onto a piece of bread.
4. Quickly press the bread, beef-side into the hot oil. Hear the pan sizzle. Smell the aroma of the oil meeting the egg and onions. Use a spatula and give the bread a good press down and then flip it over to make the crust crispy.
5. Remove from the pan and slice the bread smaller if needed.

Serve with Sweet Chili Sauce.

Sweet Chili Sauce
Ingredients:
About 3 tablespoons of Chili Sauce
About 1 tablespoon of Ketchup
About 1 tablespoon of Sugar
About 3 table spoons of Water

Method:
1. Mix all the ingredients together. The mix should be a bit runny rather than thick.

We made Roti John for Edna's first Birthday party last week, and it was a favourite with our guests. We made chicken curry to accompany the Roti John.