table for one

Before I could even bake a batch of pineapple tarts, the Chinese lunar new year is already over!

This year, I was terribly late in preparing for the Chinese new year. I couldn't even complete my spring cleaning chores. Nevertheless, we didn't miss any of the family gatherings and feasting and were never short of any new year goodies.

As the festive season is over, now is the time to try to clear the leftover goodies! For the past two weeks, I have been helping myself to one mandarin orange a day, but there are still a dozen or more left in my fridge. There's also leftover bak kwa despite having been diligently helping myself to a slice or more every time when I feel like having some 'bak kwa sandwich'.

With some broccoli and cherry tomatoes, I pulled together the usual festive goodies into a one dish meal for my lunch...mandarin orange and broccoli salad.

It was a quick and easy meal with minimal cooking. I only need to chop the bak kwa into small bits before toasting it on a frying pan and blanch the broccoli. The unsalted cashew nuts which I bought from the dried goods stall in the market were already baked and ready to eat. They look plain and raw but trust me, they are really tasty and a much healthier option than those which are salted or fried.

I prepared a very light salad dressing just to bring the ingredients together. It was a simple mix of 2 teaspoons of mayonnaise (I used Kewpie Half Salad dressing which has 50% less fat than the usual kewpie mayo), 1 teaspoon of rice vinegar and half teaspoon of Sriracha chili sauce just to give it an extra kick. The dressing is so light that the mayonnaise was almost non existence.

I wouldn't say this is a healthy meal since it contained half a slice of calorie-laden bak kwa (3 slices of bak kwa is about 7 bowls of rice!!), but the other ingredients did help to balance up a little. The overall combo is to my liking...savoury, sweet, tangy and juicy...a very satisfying meal on its own.  I had this two days in a row, and I would certainly make it again even long after the festive season is over.