Golden Churn, the Gold Standard for Butter - Now With An Olive Oil and Avocado Oil Blend

I've always associated that distinct gold tin of golden churn butter as the essential-est of ingredients in a good butter cake, and when ingredients of distinction meet Chef of distinction, it's definitely an invitation I cannot say no too.  Chef Wan has always been one of my culinary idols, and when I got the invitation from the good peeps at Salina & Associates PR, to witness the unveiling of the new line of Golden Churn, I was rather thrilled at the opportunity of seeing him in action.

A light hearted moment between Chef Wan and Salina before the start of the event.

Mr Jonathan Sekhon, General Manager of Sales for Ballantyne Pty Ltd,  Australia introduced the two new brands that were being unveiled, which were the blends of spreadable Golden Churn Butter with Olive Oil, and Golden Churn Butter with Avocado Oil.  A butter purist like me actually prefers pure butter without any fancy additions, unless it's truffle, but I was quite curious to try.

Apparently Golden Churn has been in Malaysia for at least 70 years, which is quite a feat.  I still know people who swear that the only acceptable butter for butter cake is Golden Churn.

And what better way to introduce the two blends, than with the inimitable Chef Wan doing a cooking demo, using the aforementioned product.

TV host Serena See was the emcee for the day.... obviously quite a glitterati event.

Chef Wan regaled us with stories about his childhood, how his family used to live in the air force base in the military quarters, with very limited room, and how he began cooking at a young age.

Both the butter blends have 25% less fat than the usual butter, (how is that a good thing???), and the avocado one has all kinds of miraculous qualities, such as improving skin tone, potassium for regulating blood pressure, and dietary fibre to control sugar levels.  So it really is a case of more butter is better for you...

He mentioned how most people associate the butter with butter cake or cake in general, so he thought he'd use it for something different.  He also extolled the virtues of the blend, as people are getting more health conscious, and how virgin olive oil and avocado are good for health.

The first dish demonstrated was a Lebanese Chicken Rice....don't ask me why "Lebanese", perhaps it was the spices used.  Generous dollops of the butter were plonked it, and it wasn't long before the entire venue was filled with a delectable aroma.

To be honest, I am always a bit "skeptical" at these celebrity chefs cooking demos as they usually have a ready made end product which is what we usually get to try, as opposed to eating the actual stuff that was cooked.  So I was curious to see whether we really got to that dish he cooked.

 At some point in the demo,...this happened...

Yes, he actually said that.... he's absolutely hilarious and totally entertaining.

Using the Avocado Blend, he whipped up some savoury corn muffins, and quipped, if your eggs are big, use two, but Malaysian eggs are usually small, so I use three...

In this case, we got to sample some pre made muffins.  I loved the buttery-ness of it and the savoury flavour was reminiscent of Kenny Rogers corn muffins, which I love.

And the moment of truth, the way he seemingly randomly "campak"ed (tossed) everything into the pot, I really wondered how the end product would taste.  But of course, that is the mark of true genius and a real cook, going by gut feel, instead of measuring to the last millilitre or gram, like a chemistry lab experiment.  It was absolutely delicious!!!  My hero, Chef Wan. Oh, and Golden Churn of course.

Putting the finishing touches to the rice....

And there we have it, Chef Wan's Lebanese Chicken Rice using the Golden Churn Spreadable Butter With Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

That gorgeous tinge of green from the Avocado...

EPILOGUE

We were given a lovely party pack with two tubs of the butter to try.... being a minimalist, I had my spreadable with plain toast, and some sauteed mushrooms with another generous dollop of the butter

Absolutely yummeh.....

And lurve lurve lurve the cheese board and wooden spoon.

Watch out for the new line of Golden Churn in supermarket shelves.

When The Fatboybakes Falls Sick......

I have always prided myself on almost never falling sick. Even after my trans Malaysian Qing Ming tour, where we suffered the effects of Yeet Hei (Heatiness, equivalent to consuming 20 durians), I fought off the impending cough by pumping myself with liberal doses of vitamin C, fruit juices, ( a healthy cocktail of carrot, celery, bitter gourd, orange juice, every morning, freshly made in juicer) and looked like I was about to emerge victorious. Meanwhile the nefarious army of germs were regrouping, like the orcs of Sauron, as I basked in my temporal victory, and even made a pavlova to celebrate.

This was on the Tuesday night. I even went to the gym, for Body Combat. The family ooh-ed and ah-ed, (the adults only, the kids looked at the fruit and went, EUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH), when I brought this out for dessert. I am confident in saying that since making the one for Lemongrass, I am now confident I have mastered the art in making a decent Pavlova nest, crispy and crunchy on the outside, soft and tender on the inside, almost marshmallowy, but lighter. Initially the stars did not seem aligned for this dessert to happen. Blueberries had shot up in price, nearly doubling (to RM22 a punnet) since two weeks ago, (and people complain about 20 sen in hike per kg for noodles), organic passionfruit was nowhere to be found, leaving the option of those expensive shrivelled types, which cost RM6 each, ..... and the base of the meringue nest broke.

But good deeds beget good karma, and as I trotted to Bangsar Village again, later in the afternoon, to check for Lemongrass if they sold bulgur, (for tabouli), I found the passionfruit I was looking for, and the stars looked aligned again.

So, after a hearty family dinner, a good workout, glorious dessert, I plonked myself in front of the TV, relegating the parental duties of homework assistance, reading to the kids etc, to their mother, who does it so much better. Also, I feel, the father participation should be occasional, so as to make it "special", and not taken for granted. Ya wat, it's like Unkaleong who always jual mahal for invites, so when he DOES show up, people think its a big deal.

I digress. As I was in this happy state of affairs, little did I know that this little army of cretinous bacteria were regrouping, and at about 10pm, launched their attack. Charrrrrrrrrge, I coulda sworn I heard them say.


Suddenly clutching my heart.... okay, maybe not that dramatic, suddenly, that Grease Song ran through my mind...
I got chills.
They're multiplyin'.
And I'm losin' control.
'Cause the power
you're suplyin',
it's electrifyin'!

Badabush, it hit the way the opposition hit the National Front on March the 8th. I started shivering, and thought I had been teleported to a winter in Siberia. It's a horrible feeling.

By midnight, my temperature had risen to 39.5C, and I administered some panadol, ....it was dark, they could have been the ones for menstruation for all I know....

The next morning, visit to the doctor. Antibiotics. Continued sleeping. Total hours in bed = THIRTY SIX. Gosh, I never knew I was capable of that much sleep!!!!! Did Lemongrass, whom I chat with REGULARLY on MSN even bother to sms to find out why I was unannouncedly missing in action for that entire duration? NOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

By Thursday evening, I was returning to some semblance of normality, and as I hadn't eaten for the last 36 hours, I suddenly felt a craving for THIS:

BUTTERCAKE!!! Bizarre, don't ask me WHY!!!! I just had to have cake. And nothing the the aroma of golden churn wafting through the oven to make me feel that I was alive again....the sun was breaking through the dark clouds of Mordor, as the orcs were slaughtered by the forces of Good.

I have to say, the buttercake, with Golden Churn, was absolutely yummy. The others in the household, deprived of my delightful company for the last 2 days, delightedly chomped up the cake, which was finished in no time. (it did last a day la).

Friday, I was about 80% there, and so, for bible study, as an offering of thanksgiving.... I decided to swamp by cell group with food, spiritual and physical. Have always wanted to try this recipe from the Golden Chocolate Book, ORANGE CHOCOLATE SQUARES.

It's only today that I realised there's a blood pressure monitor in the background. Anyway, to cut a long story short, PTOOOOOOOOOOOOOI, its a horrible recipe. Okay, granted I didn't follow it to a T, but in fact, the original recipe would have been even WORSE, I reckon!!!

So, to really potong steam, DON'T EVEN BOTHER trying it. It ranks right up there with Lemongrass's baking disasters of late. At least her mitosised choc chip cookies tasted okay. These look okay, but taste horrid. HORRIBLE. The son took one bite and spat it out. The adults were a bit more polite, and said, "not that bad la". (which is the Adult equivalent of going "Ptoooi")

But the saving grace were these babies. My favourite, Pigs in Blanket. Seeing as to how I had spent a lot of hours curled up in a blanked recently, it was a dish after my own heart.

The name is inspired by Nigella Lawson, but I didn't follow her recipe this time. Instead, I used a cream cheese based pastry, (usually for Rugelach or cream cheese spirals), which is lovely, light and aromatic. See, I do feed them well. (my cell group).

Anyway, I think I'm almost fully recovered, except for this slight cough I cant seem to shake off.