izreen's incidental indulgences

Cake To Hit That Spot

2010-09-06T22:49:00.000+01:00

Had been tweeting about trying to find a moist chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, but as always, its either you can't find it or the price is too dear to fork out. Being an loyal shopper at Tesco, I chanced upon a moist chocolate cake recipe that was pretty easy to whip up in a jiffy in one of its promotional catalogues. With the oven already out, I might as well bake my cravings myself.

Moist Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

1. In a saucepan, mix together 1 cup cocoa powder, 1 cup of canned milk, 1 cup of oil, 1 cup of fine granulated sugar, 1/2 cup of sweetened condensed milk.
2. Heat the mixture until the sugars, cocoa and liquids are well combine. Set off the heat and let cool.
3. Beat 3 eggs in a mixing bowl till airy and frothy.
4. Mix in 1 1/4 cup flour and 1tsp each of baking powder and baking soda in slowly.
5. At this juncture, you can either choose to bake the cake mixture or to steam it (for about 1 hour if you use all the cake mix, 40 minutes if its in small container). I did half and half. Cool down throughly.
6. For the peanut butter frosting, whip together 1/4 stick butter and a couple of generous tablespoonsfull of chunky peanut butter. Gradually whip in icing sugar until the frosting stands in soft peaks. Spread over cake.

Cut a nice generous wedge of it and enjoy. The next time, I'm definitely turning these into cupcakes for ease of enjoyment.
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Food of The Past

2010-08-30T06:52:00.000+01:00

It has been a long, long time since I tasted Roti Khurasan. Back in my boarding school days in Kuantan, our weekly trips to the pasar malam behind the schoolcompunds would include a stop at a stall manned by a member of the (now hopefully defunct) AlArqam group. This guy would be wrapping what looked like burgers in filo pastry skins, then deep frying them until golden brown. However, one bite of this delicacy would reveal that this ain’t no ordinary burger, as between the burger baps lies not the normal beef patty, but a mince concoction.

In the spirit of Ramadhan and all that, I decided to remake this snack of my youth. Instead of using the normal mince beef, I decided to make it a time (and cost saver) and used a tin of corned beef (halal, of course!). But you can use minced beef as well, just remember to season well with salt and pepper.

Roti Khurasan

1. Defrost your filo skins and a cup of mixed diced veg.

2. Finely dice ½ a large onion and a celery stick.

3. In a wok, sauté your diced onion and celery in a small amount of oil till softened (I actually scrapped the coagulated oil from the corned beef and used it to sauté the onions).

4. Add in some kurma powder and let the spiced onion mix sauté till fragrant.

5. Add in the corned beef which has been broken up. Stir well in the wok to combine.

6. Throw in the softened defrosted mixed veg, stir well to combine.

7. Halve you bum baps. Spread a thick mixture of the mince on the lower half of your bap.

8. Here’s the more-ish bit – top mince with your desired goo. I’ve tried cheese, lingam chilli sauce AND mayo on it and it tastes decadently good, burger sepah style. Cover mince with top half of the bap.

9. Carefully wrap the burger buns in the largest filo pastry square you can find, sealing the edges well with a cornflour solution.

10. Deep fry in oil over a medium fire until golden brown.

11. Drain well and enjoy.

Seriously lip licking yummilicious to the core. Any excess mince filling can be used for samosas!

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Reinventing Leftovers

2010-08-29T13:28:00.001+01:00

Half of the beef stew I made for iftar last week was frozen well, in mind for a yummilicious weekend beef casserole. Since last night saw the Family come on over for iftar at my pad, demolishing leftovers was definitely on the agenda, so the beef stew was defrosted ready for a second life.

Initially, I planned on making good old southern biscuits to top off the casserole, but I ran out of baking soda and working with natural yoghurt in lieu of buttermils didn't appeal to me at the 11th hour. Instead, I made a cheesy cumble mixture which was an equally delish topping fr the casserole.

Beef Casserole with Cheese Crumble Topping

1. Dish out the beef stew in your ovenware dish. Top with grated mozzarella cheese.
2. In a bowl, measure out 1/2 cup of flour and 1/4 cup of oats.
3. Finely cube 1/4 stick of butter and rub it into your our mixture until it resembles golden breadcrumbs.
4. Add in grated parmesan cheese, some garlic powder and if you wish, some mixed herbs.
5. Top the crumble mixture onto the caserrole.
6. Place the casserole into a preheated ove at 200 degrees for about 25 minutes.

Serve and enjoy the comfort of having something hot and cheesy after a long day of fasting.
Yums.
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The Day I Used Up All The Eggs I Had In The House

2010-08-16T05:28:00.000+01:00

On top of the steamed otak-otak I did for Iftar, I also whipped up the Thai dessert of pumpkin sekaya, basically a sweet custard set in a pumpkin. Adventurous indeed, but I was tempted to try it out as I really love this dessert. Imagine my surprise at how simple it was!

Pumpkin Sekaya

1. Choose a pumpkin of your desired size – I got a wee itty bitty one for less than RM2. Cut of the top (as a cap to the pumpkin bowl), remove the seeds and wash thoroughly, both inside and outside.

2. In a bowl, whisk together coconut cream, 3 eggs, a dash of salt, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, and heaps of sugar. In this recipe I used dark brown muscovado sugar plus white sugar - and got a lovely smokey, caramel-ly custard.

3. Pour the custard mix into your pumpkin, making sure to only fill them up halfway through, as the custard will expand and potentially overflow. Place the pumpkin cap back on top

4. Herein, you have two options, you can either steam your pumpkin through or bake in a bain marie. I chose to steam it. The next time I do this, I will wrap my pumpkin tightly in cling film before steaming it so that any overflow of custard is contained.

5. Once done – the pumpkin will be as soft as anything and the custard set through, chill it thoroughly. I stuck mine direct in the freezer for abt 1 ½ hours.

6. Cut and serve.

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Steamed Pots of Fishy Custard

2010-08-16T03:05:00.001+01:00

The first time I made steamed otak-otak, I was in Nottingham, bored out of my wits and made an agak-agak measurement out of the ingredients. The second time I made it, it was in Rohani Jelani’s cooking school and it tasted fantabulous! This time, I just had to make it again coz it would be a lovely addition to my Thai themed iftar. Sorry, no photos this time round.

Steamed Otak-Otak

1. Take a nice tenggiri filet and cut into chunks. Set aside to chill whilst you prepare the spiced custard.

2. Pound / blend 6 small shallots, 3 cloves of garlic, ½ of thumb of galangal, a lemon grass stalk, 3 candlenuts, 6 reconstituted dried chillies, ½ teaspoon of belacan (I used belacan granules instead).

3. In a bowl, mix together 3 eggs, 125 mls of coconut cream, a dash each of salt, pepper, sugar and finely shredded kaffir lime leaves.

4. Pour in the pounded spices to the custard mixture.

5. Line your containers (be it ramekins, bowls, whatever) with daun kaduk (wild betel leaves – fortunately, these grow in abundance outside my house!) and arrange your sliced fish in them.

6. Pour over the custard mixture over the fish.

7. Steamed your otak-otak for abt 15 - 20 minutes, depending on the size of your pots.

8. Serve warm.

Delish!

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Beefy Goodness

2010-08-15T15:29:00.001+01:00

So, this weekend's iftar was a whole exercise in smoking out the kitchen. Throughtout the week, I was dying to get my hands dirty in making beef stew, and beef stew it was on Saturday night. I made enough leftovers to be frozen and turned into a casserole sometime throughout the week - just add mash on top, brown and serve.

Was still in IronMommyChef mode, so decided that the main dish for today was Thai inspired. Thus, my pick of the day was Beef Paprik!

Beef Paprik

1. Slice up a chunk of beef thinly and cook it up in some water with a chunk of ginger and salt thrown in for good measure. Let beef tenderise and set aside, reserving the cooking liquid as well.
2. Pound up some garlic, fresh chilli and red onion until fine.
3. Saute the pounded ingredients in oil till fragrant, then pour in the beef and stock.
4. Add in veg of choice - here I used cauliflower, celery, carrots and french beans. Also throw in a few kaffir lime leaves (I'm lucky to have it growing behind my house in my neighbour's pot!). Cook till veg are tender crunchy.
5. Add in seasoning and some oyster sauce. Stir fry well, dish up and serve with hot rice.

Stir Fried Veg - Again

2010-07-22T04:50:00.001+01:00

I have a love for glass noodles. So, as much as I can, I will incorporate it in any kind of stir fry I make most times.

Stir Fried Veg with Glass Noodles.

1. Trim asparagus stalks, make up a batch of carrot batons, clean up some oyster mushrooms.

2. Soak some glass noodles in cold water till softened.

3. Saute some garlic and thinly sliced shallots in hot oil till softened.

4. Add the veg and cook till tender crisp.

5. Throw in ¼ segmented tomato.

6. Add in some oyster sauce and a wee bit water.

7. Throw in the glass noodles and stir fry till all nicely married together.

Serve with rice.

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Stir Fried Seafood

2010-07-22T04:44:00.002+01:00

In memory of Paul, the predicting octopus.

Stir Fried Squid.

1. Clean your squid and separate the tentacles from the main body.

2. Marinade the squid in a mixture of turmeric powder and curry powder. Season with some salt.

3. Saute some onions, garlic, ginger and celery in oil until softened, add the marinated squid with about 1/4 cup of water.

4. Cover and let squid cook through.

Serve with hot rice.

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Tsukune - Japanese Chicken Dumplings

2010-07-22T04:39:00.002+01:00

I came across a rather interesting recipe for tsukune – Japanese chicken dumplings – which can be boiled in broth or pan fried as little patties. Simple and can be made in advance. Absolutely lovely!

Tsukune in Chicken Broth

1. Grate a large carrot.

2. Mix in minced chicken, an egg, finely chopped shitake mushroom, cornflour, salt and pepper.

3. Make up a pot of chicken stock with a chicken carcass, root vegetables and seasonings. Strain and then add additional root vegetables and shitake mushrooms. Let boil merrily away.

5. Shape your dumplings using spoons (rather like quenelles) and drop them into the broth, letting them cook through for about 10 mins (depending on the size of your dumplings).

6. Serve with the vegetables, glass noodles and seaweed.

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Simply Simplistic

2010-07-12T02:49:00.002+01:00

A quick chicken stir fry for someone who was not in the mood to make up something more elaborate. Apologies!

Chicken Stir Fry version God Knows What Number

1. Slice up a deboned chicken thigh into thick long slivers.

2. Heat up a wok and sauté some sliced up onion until soft, then bung in the onions.

3. On high heat, throw in your chicken, stir fry till it loses all it’s surface pink.

4. Throw in a handful of cut up French beans.

5. Add in a segmented tomato.

6. Add in a tablespoonful of oyster sauce.

Serve with hot rice. I had leftover stock so I made up some more veg soup with tofu as the other course.

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Slurping One's Lunch Down

2010-07-11T10:31:00.003+01:00

With OtherHalf and the maid down with bad coughs, the best meals to feed everyone in the house would of course be something soupy. Having experienced how easy it was to concoct a really good fish stock (thanks to the recent Bayan Indah experience), it was a nice soupy fish soup filled with veg and served wigth glass noodles.

Soupy Glass Noodles

1. To make the fish stock, set aside all the fish bones and the fish head from your filleted mackerel. Fry them in your wok, drain all excess oil and set aside.
2. Whilst the bones and head of that poor (un)fortunate fish is frying, heat a pot of water until it boils. As and when the fish bones have been fried, dunk it into the stock pot.
3. To the stock pot, add in about 3/4 thumbs length of ginger, 3 big cloves of garlic - sliced, 1 length of celery stick, a quartered lengthwise carrot and a handful of dried anchovies. Let the pot's contents simmer merrily away until you feel that it should be ready. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Just before you serve, strain the stock. On high heat, add in chinese cabbage, shitake mushroom, sliced carrots, tofu, basically whatever veg your heart desires. Make sure the contents are boiling merrily away.
5. Glass noodles need no blanching. I normaly buy the pre-portioned packets, so just place one portion in a bowl, top with the soup and veg, then serve, garnished with pieces of fried mackerel.

Here Chicken, Chicken

2010-07-10T13:20:00.003+01:00

The best thing about just having attended a cooking class is that you are up and rearing to get back to the kitchen and whip up yummy dishes for the family. After Rohani Jelani's Fishy Business class, I adapted one of her dishes to make tonight's dinner.

Chicken in Lemon Sauce.

1. To prepare the lemon sauce, mix juice from a lemon, plum sauce, sugar (about 5 - 6 tablespoons) and water (just over a cup) in a saucepan. Cook until nice and syrupy, then add in thinly sliced lemon rind. Cook for a further 2 - 3 minutes then set aside.
2. Take about 2 deboned chicken thigh fillets and pound them with a rolling pin until err... tender. Cut into pieces, season with salt and pepper.
3. Heat oil in a frying pan. Coat each chicken piece in cornflour, shake off any excess then fry till golden brown. When cooked through, drain well.
4. To serve, you can either opt to serve the lemon sauce seperately or pour over the chicken pieces. Garnish with lemon slices if you have them.

Tender Stalks of Yumminess

2010-07-10T13:15:00.000+01:00

To accompany the lemon chicken, I made a simple stir fry of asparagus and carrots.

Stir Fried Asparagus and Carrots

1. Trim your asparagus and carrots into even sized batons.
2. Pound a small handfull of dried anchovies, 1/2 an onion, 3 - 4 cloves of garlic and a deseeded red chilli in a lesung.
3. Heat some oil and saute the pounded ingredients till fragrant.
4. Throw in your vegetables, stir fry till tender yet still crunchy
5. Lightly season with salt.
6. Dish up and serve.

Chicken Korma – The Healthy Version

2010-05-29T07:00:00.002+01:00

There have been many a time where OtherHalf is yearning for a curry or korma when his wife is on strict protocol of healthy eating. So, today, I took pity and whipped up a healthy chicken korma. Well, husbands don’t need to know what exactly what goes into the pot in order to make it a healthy version. All he knows is that it is yums and tastes exactly like what he wants.

Healthy Chicken Korma

1. Blend together onions, garlic, ginger, a big tomato and a generous helping of korma curry powder.
2. Heat up a wok and sauté the blended mix in a bit of oil – I used virgin coconut oil – until it smells heavenly fragrant.
3. Add in your chicken pieces together with a cup of water and let simmer till thickened.
4. Separately boil a potatoes and set aside.
5. Season your dish well with salt.
6. Finish off with a smattering of daun sup (spring onions) and finely slices celery stalk

For OtherHalf’s meal, I served the korma with nasi minyak.

In my case, it was with a side salad.

So there you go, luxurious, healthy eating.

Tomato Chicken

2010-05-29T06:57:00.001+01:00

Another simple slap dish meal which is good to go.

1. Defrost a chicken breast and season with oregano, salt and ground pepper.
2. Chop up a few cherry tomatoes coarsely.
2. Heat up a pan with a wee bit of virgin coconut oil and pan fry your tomatoes until softened.
4. Add in your chicken bits with a dash of water and cook through.

I served it with some parboiled green beans. Looks little, but to my surprise, I couldn’t even finish the whole lot.!

Here Fishy Fishy

2010-05-29T06:51:00.002+01:00

Fish is an excellent, healthy source of low fat protein. And to me, the easiest to whip up in the interest of time. A plain fish, such as dory, can benefit from all the added flavor of herbs and spices. Here’s a dish of Cajun pan grilled fish I whipped up earlier, paired with stir fried vegetables.

Cajun Fish

1. Defrost dory fish.
2. Sprinkle generously with Cajun spice mix (easily bought from grocery stores everywhere), a dash of oregano, season with salt and pepper and a sprinkle of lemon juice. Let sit for about 5 minutes.
3. Heat up your grill pan and slap that fish onto the pan, turning when one side is cooked. Timing would depend on the average thickness of the fish.
4. Dish up and enjoy with your side dish of veges

My Retaliation Meal

2010-05-23T07:58:00.001+01:00

With OtherHalf enjoying his nasi goreng and satay, you think I was happy to watch him eat whilst having cravings for satay?

Of course not! So, for my alternative, I rustled myself a chicken salad, satay style. Bearing in mind, I technically can't have satay sauce, but with all the hip hop I've been doing, I think I would be able to get away with a small cheat.

Chicken Salad, Satay Style

1. Defrost a deboned chicken thigh, and marinade with ground cumin, ground coriander, paprika, salt and pepper. Grill or pan fry dry and set aside.

2. Shred up some romaine salad leaves and julienne some japanese cucumber and carrots. Heap in a bowl.

3. For the salad dressing, take a tablespoon of satay sauce, add with a wee bit hot water, and toss your salad with the dressing.

4. Finish off with your chicken on top, serve and enjoy.

I must say that this is pretty munchilicious!
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A Treasure of Leftovers

2010-05-23T06:44:00.002+01:00

Sometimes, having too much leftovers can be deemed wasteful. But in my case, mosttimes, its pretty great especially when one is required to cook on demand. I spent most of the morning trawling for a water heater only to find out that I can replace just a small part for a fraction of the price. Bah! Anyway, since I was near a satay outlet, I bought a bit for the family.

But wait! Aren't I on healthy eating mode? Well, we'll get to my meal later, but in OtherHalf's case, satay alone wasn't going to appease his appetite. So, having raided the fridge, I managed to find enough ingredients to whip up a quickie meal.

Nasi Goreng On Demand

1. Chop up some red onion, garlic, celery, green beans and carrots. Saute in some oil till the veg softens, adding water if necessary.

2. Chop up some leftover fried chicken and add to the wok.

3. Season with a wee bit of salt, pepper and ground chilli flakes.

4. Add in your leftover rice - in my case, I had a tupperwarefull of nasi lemak! On high heat, wok fry the whole lot together.

5. Break in an egg and continue frying and tossing the whole lot until all egg is fully cooked.

Serve with the satay and eat your fill!
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Mediterranean Chicken

2010-05-20T13:23:00.002+01:00

Olives were at one time a wretched piece of fruit (or is it a vegetable?). I recall some friends making a chicken dish made of green olives and the taste of the olives almost made me reach for the nearest bucket. However, I guess as one's palate becomes more refined over the years, I seem to savour the taste of olives more and more. I especially relish the taste of black olives nowadays, and it seems that my 3 year old daughter has now followed in my footsteps. At times, we can nearly come to fisticuffs over the olives in a pizza pie.

Now that olives have become palatable, I made up this quickie of a mediterranean chicken dish. It's a simple, one pot dish that would take a scant 15 minutes of one's time. Healthy and full of vitamins.

Mediterranean Chicken

1. Roughly chop up a big tomato.
2. Dump tomato in a pot with 1/4 cup of water and 2 sliced up cloves of garlic.
3. Cover pot over medium flame and let simmer till the tomato breaks down.
4. Add in italian herbs and cubed chicken pieces. Season well with salt and pepper.
5. Add in chopped up olives and green beans. Cover pot and cook till the beans are tender yet crunchy.

Plate up and enjoy.

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2010-05-18T05:59:00.003+01:00

The picture might look a tad sad, but it is one of the easiest and simplest dinners I could make up.

Steamed Chicken In A Jiffy

1. Defrost a chicken piece – I like using deboned chicken thigh.

2. Marinade in a bit of blended onions, garlic and ginger, together with some light soy sauce.

3. Add in shredded coriander leaves and about a tablespoonful of water, then season with pepper. Salt not required as the soy sauce is salty enough.

4. Zap on high in the microwave, covered for about 3 minutes, or until cooked through.

5. Serve on a bed of japanese cucumbers.

Simple and delicious.

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Cheats Beriyani

2010-05-18T05:53:00.001+01:00

Poor hubby has been pretty sick of watching and sharing his wife’s healthy food. Since the Maid had prepared nasi minyak the day before (which he didn’t partake as he got in pretty late), I decided to take pity on him and concocted this cheats beriyani chicken using whatever I had in the fridge.

Cheats Chicken Beriyani.

1. Set aside 3 – 4 pieces of ready to fry chicken drummets and let it defrost well and good. You can opt to zap it on high in the microwave for about 1 minute.

2. In a bit of oil, sauté loads of sliced onions and a blend of onions, garlic and ginger until fragrant.

3. Make up a paste of 1 tablespoon of kurma powder and 1/3 tablespoon of chicken curry powder with a little water. Saute in the paste with the onions until it is well fragrant.

4. Add in the chicken drummets together with about a cup of water and let simmer till well reduced and the chicken is cooked.

5. Add in about 1 ½ tablespoons of coconut cream and season to taste.

6. Just before serving, add in shredded coriander and mint leaves, some raisins and cashew nuts.

Serve. Yums? Yums (according to hubby, that is).

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Chicken Curry - The Healthy Route

2010-04-25T11:45:00.003+01:00

So, after I'd busted my health drive plan to kingdom come today as a result of the cooking class pressie I treated K'run, I have to be very very good for dinner tonight. Despite being on my feet for most of the day, it was back into the kitchen to whip up this rather tasty, healthy chicken curry, which is kind of an adaption from Chicken Vindaloo (only that I was too skint and lazy to procure the various separate spices).

Healthy Chicken Curry

Trim all visible fat out of three 100 gm pieces of chicken and set aside.
In a blender, blitz together 3 large chopped onions, 2 large chopped tomatoes, 2 cloves garlic, 1/2 thumb's length of ginger and 1 1/2 tablespoons of curry powder. Add water as necessary to get the blender blitzing well.
Heat up a non-stick pan, add 1 tbsp of virgin coconut oil. Saute the blitzed ingredients till well fragrant.
Add in the chicken, saute together with a cup of water, topping up where necessary.
Let the curry simmer until the chicken is cooked.
For those who are not on a health drive, boil potatoes in salted water till tender and add just before serving.

Heck, i'm just surprised at how easy and tasty it turned out to be! This shall be eaten with cucumbers tonight.

Healthy Steamed Chicken

2010-04-23T09:32:00.002+01:00

After looking at a health clinic's food spread for a function, I was inspired to eat my own healthy version. It's s simple, it will confound you!

Steamed Chicken

Take a 100gm piece of chicken (thigh preferable) and remove all obvious fat.
Grate ginger and garlic and rub into chicken.
Add a dash of light soya sauce and water, sprinkle with ground white pepper.
Steam for about 15 minutes until chicken piece is well cooked. Alternatively, partially cover with plastic wrap and zap in microwave for 5 minutes.
Remove and serve on a bed of cucumbers, with juice and all.

Variation: do the same with white dory fish. It is yums!

Swiss Mushroom "Burger"

2010-04-23T09:19:00.003+01:00

Thanks to a few MukaBuku status updates, I found myself craving for a good old burger. Unfortunately, that good old burger is amongst those forbidden items I could indulge it. But, hey, with a little ingenuity, I came up with this recipe!

Swiss Mushroom 'Burger'

For a 1 person serving, put 100 gm minced beef in a bowl and combine with 3/4 tbsp of instant oats, salt, pepper and italian herbs. Mix well with fingers, shape into a patty as big as your palm (thickness upon your own hearts' desire).
Heat grill pan (I used my good old tefal frying pan) and plonk burger patty on it. Let it cook well.
In the meantime, shred a bowl of iceberg lettuce.
Once burger is well cooked, remove and place on top of lettuce.
Using the same (unwashed) pan, add in your sliced mushrooms with a dash of water. Let cook until it exudes yummy juices.
Once cooked, pour the whole lot onto the burger et al.
Sprinkle geneously with garlic powder.
Serve with sliced tomatoes and enjoy!

Healthy Eating From Now On

2010-04-23T09:17:00.004+01:00

As blogged in the main blog much earlier, this Madame is kickstarting a health drive. So future posts from hereon will be on healthy food, easy and quick to prepare with no fuss whatsoever. Sure, it seems too simple to be true, but trust me, they are yums and good enough without you thinking you will be on an extreme diet. So, peeps... hope you stay tuned to this frequent, albeit boring, foodie updates.

ps - oh ya, the meals here are based on a 1 person portion. Feel free to adjust as necessary!

And The Buck Stops Here

2009-11-18T08:36:00.002Z

Actually, I would love to pepper and punctuate this blog entry with copious amounts of the f-word (to be used as verb, noun, adjective, whatever). However, due to delicate ears (and the prospect of a severe ear bashing from the Parents) I will tone down this entry (no matter how steamed up I am inside).

From this day onwards (and since most of the Bosses have already found out anyway), I will make it be known that this Madame has decided to take a career progression leap and has tendered her resignation from the Company (and the Parent Group of Companies) with effect from 6 November 2009.

No more pussyfooting around the bush - I am glad to say that I will be going up the corporate ladder doing things that I am unable to do so presently. It will be a good boost to my morale and personal well-being (take that you vindictive, petty idiot who (remainder of the sentence shall be left unspoken for the time being)!). My lovely directors who are wishing me well are wishing me off with many a good advice in my stead - I have a lot to learn from those I love.

I don't expect a company farewell - too many issues at stake. It is sufficiant that my lovely colleagues are planning weekly farewell makan sessions for my remaining 2 1/2 months with the Company - hahaha, I mega love you gals. I hope to exit quietly and gracefully (if possible).

Whatever it is, I know I will enjoy forging new ties with the NewCo full steam ahead (pun intended). Management being upset or otherwise, I don't really give two hoots (or a rats ass about it) - all I know I am going off to have fun.

So take that and sit (your puny, considerably thick skinned hiney) on it.
Sekian.

Fast(ish) Food - My Style

2009-11-15T08:43:00.004Z

Goodness gracious me - it's been yonks since I have updated this blog of mine.

So, after months of gorgefests on the local takeaway scene, this Madame has decided enough is enough and she will start (re)opening her own personal little cafe with weekend delights in store. So, on the menu today is

Taiwanese Beef Noodles

In my pressure wok (or a big stock pot), mix 5 cups water, 1 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup packed brown sugar (thats about 6 generous tablespoons), a 1" cube of ginger (smashed up with the butt end of one's kitchen knife), 3 cloves of garlic (smashed as well), 1 bunch of scallions - take the white part only, 3 rounds of dried tamarind slices (asam keping), 4 whole star anise, 2 cinnamon sticks and a packet of the local pizza parlour's dried chilli flakes (or 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes).
Let the mixture boil, reduce heat then simmer for about 10 minutes.
Add in chunks of beef to the mixture, put the pressure cooker on and cook till softened and tender.
At the same time, cook a pot of chicken soup - simply put a chicken carcass, a large carrot, smashed up ginger and garlic cloves, a chicken stock cube, salt and ground white pepper in a pot of water and let it boil.
Cook some noodles in salted boiling water.
Cut a potato into batons and some french beans roughly the same length. Zap it in the microwave for about 2 minutes till tender then toss in some butter.
Slowly open the pressure cooker to release the steam and feast your eyes on braised beef.
Assemble a lovely bowl of beef noodles by first placing noodles in a bowl, with about 2 tablespoons of the beef stew on top of it, arranging 3 chunks of beef, the carrots (from the soup), the potatoes and the french beans on top of the noodles, cover with chicken soup and more of that stew.
Serve and smack your lips in delight.

Yum... it almosts tastes like the stuff dished out at the similarly named outlet in AmpangPoint. Another variation on this is to use glass noodles (instead of spaghetti). I am so going to raid the cyberspace for more Taiwanese recipes.

Frozen Food Is A Godsend

2009-07-08T07:08:00.000+01:00

Indeed. From this point thereon, I will stash my freezer chockfull with drummets, fish fingers, fishballs, ground beef, burger patties etc. Convenience food at its best. So, last night, I just raided my fridge and came up with

Kung Pow Chicken

Pre-fry about 7 pieces chicken drummets in hot oil until golden brown, drain, zap it in the microwave for 2 minutes and set aside.
In some oil, fry a handful of cashew nuts till golden brown and set aside.
Fry up about 5 pieces of dried chilli till crispy and set aside.
Slice up a big onion in quarters, then seperate. Peel and slice about 2big-ish garlic cloves. Cut up a capsicum in large dices.
Saute the onions till softened, then add in the capsicum. Add in the pre-fried dried chilli as well.
Add some oyster sauce, tomato sauce, chilli sauce and some water to the wok. Let simmer.
Bung in your chicken and mix well.
Lastly, add the cashew nuts and serve.

Reincarnation of Levtovers

2009-07-06T01:21:00.003+01:00

I had quite a bit of leftovers from the shephard's pie that I made a week ago. They were frozen, waiting to be turned into something delicious. Thanks to a leftover loaf of bread from office, I made this yummy meat rolls for today's brekkie.

Meat Rolls.

Flatten a slice of bread with a rolling pin.
Spoon ground meat filling at one end.
Roll up the bbread slice all the way towards the end.
Place on tray.
Continue steps 1 - 4 till your loaf is finished.
Refridgerate overnight.
Beat up 2 eggs.
Dip rolls in egg.
Deep fry them till golden brown.
Serve.

As a variety, one can also use sardines or chicken pie filling. May attempt a chicken mushroom and cheese variant one day.

Easy Peasy Yums

2009-07-06T01:09:00.003+01:00

Another easy dish to prepare. Normally served with my chicken rice. I just call it

Ayam Goreng Hitam

Marinade chicken thighs in soy sauce, oyster sauce, garlic powder, honey and ground pepper. Leave for at least an hour or so.
Prepare oil for frying - fry the chicken pieces until caramelised on both sides.
Place fried chicken bits in a bowl, pour the marinade on top and blitz in microwave for about 3 mins High.

Please forgive me for the messy bowl - I was in a rush to go shopping and there wasn't time (on my part) to wipe the sides clean.

Meal In A Jiffy

2009-07-06T01:01:00.003+01:00

Coming home late-ish from work, one just doesn't have the energy to whip something complicated. But witha few store cupboard essentials, one dish is ready to serve, with enough leftovers for tomorrow's brekkie!

Sardine Curry

Chop up onion, garlic and ginger finely. Saute in oil till softened.
Add in a piece of cinnamon, cardamom, coriander seed and star anise. Fry till fragrant.
Add in a paste of fish curry powder mixed with water. Stir fry till it becomes uber fragrant.
Add in water. Let the whole pot simmer.
Add in tinned sardines sans the tomato paste.
Add in some tamarind pulp.
Season with salt.
When all merrily simmering, add in some coconut milk.
Dish up and serve.

Rice one night, then with instant prathas the next day.
Jadilah.

As Mum Dropped By

2009-07-02T02:54:00.002+01:00

The Parents decided to drop by for Maghrib prayers en route to another appointment last night. Fortunately, I had just came back from grocery shopping and the freezer was stocked with ready to cook items. So, in the one hour alloted to me, I managed to whip us three dishes.

Dish #1 was

Tumeric Prawns

Clean and de-moustache your prawns.
Marinade prawns with 1/2 teaspoon tumeric powder and curry powder each.
Slice up an onion, some garlic and a stalk of celery.
Heat oil in wok, saute the onions, garlic and celery till softened.
Throw in the marinated prawns. Stir fry with some water added to it and let prawns cook.
Once prawns are fully cooked, season with salt, dish up and serve.

As Mum Dropped By - Part 2

2009-07-02T02:45:00.005+01:00

Dish #2 was

Beef Brocolli

Slice up about 3 cloves of garlic.
Thinly slice up some beef.
Saute garlic in oil till fragrant, add the sliced beef and cook till tender. Add a bit of water and cover if necessary.
Add in brocolli florets and cover wok till veg becomes tender yet still retains its crunch.
Add in some oyster sauce and black pepper.
Lastly, add in some washed straw mushrooms.

Dish up and serve.

As Mum Dropped By - Part 3

2009-07-02T02:15:00.004+01:00

Dish # 3 was

Stir Fried Kailan and Carrots

Slice an onion and garlic. Saute in very little oil till soft and transluscent.
Wash baby kailan.
Peel a carrot and cut into fine batons. Add to softened onions.
Add baby kailan, fry till wilted.
Add in some water and an achovy stock cube
Stir fry some more and serve.

Crustacean Critters

2009-06-22T08:18:00.003+01:00

Got this new vegetarian cook book off the shelves of my local supermarket. I know, I'm not vegetarian, but the recipes looked pretty yummy and tempting. As this Madame had a batch of prawns frozen in her freezer, she whipped this up for the family dinner.

Margarine Prawns

1. In a wok, melt a tablespoon of margarine.
2. Add in a handfull of fresh curry leaves.
3. Throw in your prawns and fry till pink-ish.
4. Add in a generous splash of milk and some bruised birds-eye chilly.
5. Let cook till the juices have evaporated.
6. Dish up and serve with rice.

Easy wasn't it?

Mmmmm... Balls

2009-06-18T07:23:00.005+01:00

Meatballs that is.

Having fully equipped my kitchen, I was in the mood for having Swedish style meatballs for my weekend lunch. However, the pocket didn't really allow the family to go to the BigBlue&YellowBuilding's cafe for the real thing, so what this Madame did was to whip up them li'il round things in her own kitchen.

Swedish MeatBalls
1. Thaw a 500 gm of ready minced beef.
2. Finely chop a big-ish onion - be it, red, white or yellow.
3. Whiz up two slices of days old bread in the food processor to make up breadcrumbs.
4. In a bowl, hand mix together the minced beef, chopped onion and breadcrumbs well. Season well with a dash of salt and ground black pepper. (For an Italian variety, also add a generous amount of mixed herbs and oregano to boot!)
5. Chill well in the fridge until ready to cook.
6. To cook, simply bake or grill them - the little toasted oven works well for this, no worries. Let them cook until they are pretty well done on the outside - make sure there are no red bits left in them. We don't want any salmonella poisonning around here.

Mushroom Sauce
1. Melt a generous portion butter in a pan.
2. Stir in a couple of tablespoonfulls of flour. Take it off the heat and whisk it well, so as to fully incorporate the flour into the molten butter and to cook the flour.
3. Put it back on the heat and let the roux go brownier before adding in chicken stock.
4. Whisk well till thickened.
5. Add in chopped and/or sliced mushrooms, season with some ground pepper.
6. Let it simmer and bubble before taking it off the heat.

Simply assemble a plate of the baked meatballs together with some mixed vegetables and fries, ladle over the mushroom sauce and enjoy.
Yuuuuummmmsss....

Two in One Dish

2008-07-16T20:02:00.001+01:00

I got this of a Chinese cookery show on BBC. It was rather simple to whip up and was great with plain hot rice porridge – suitable for under the weather folks like yours truly.

Lamb and Spinach Stirfry

Marinade thinly sliced lamb and Chinese mushrooms in oyster sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil and a splash of water.
Sauté finely chopped garlic in some hot oil, add in spinach leaves, lightly salt it and cook till wilted. Set aside.
Using the same wok, pour the lamb, mushrooms and marinade in the wok and cook till hot and bubbly.
Pour the dish directly on top of the spinach and serve.

Beef Hor Fun

2008-07-16T19:59:00.001+01:00

Beef Hor Fun

Soak some hor fun in hot water till softened.
Drain thoroughly and fry in some vegetable oil. Set aside.
Sauté some chopped garlic in a hot wok till fragrant.
Add in some thinly sliced beef and cook till browned.
Make a cornflour solution, add in oyster and soy sauce and dump the whole lot in the wok.
Add in frozen mixed veg and spinach leaves.
Once sauce is thick and bubbly and veg all wilted, serve on the hor fun immediately.

Harrira

2008-07-16T19:33:00.001+01:00

A traditional Middle Eastern stew of lamb and chickpeas that would be eaten during Ramadhan for iftar. What better way to break my Rejab fast at present?

Harrira

Sauté chopped onions, garlic and celery in butter till softened.
Add chopped ginger, ground cinnamon and black pepper and sauté till fragrant.
Add some lamb bits into the pot and cook till browned.
Add a tin of chopped tomatoes and tinned chickpeas.
Add in water, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer covered.
Make a cornflour solution and add to stew to thicken.
Stir in chopped coriander and some lemon juice prior to serving in nice, warm bowls.

2008-07-16T19:30:00.001+01:00

Clearing out the fridge. Found some overripe bananas, milk, eggs and a few crusty rolls.
Looks like a banana bread and butter pudding is on the menu then.

Banana bread and butter pudding

Cut the crusty rolls into cubes.
Make a custard sauce with milk, eggs, sugar, butter and some ground cinnamon. Soak the bread in the custard for about ½ hour.
Mash up the overripe banana.
Layer the custardy bread and banana in a bowl.
Bake the whole lot in a medium to high oven for approximately 45 minutes.
Serve with a sprinkling of cinnamon.

Braised Wontons

2008-07-02T18:42:00.004+01:00

Since I still had wontons lurking in the depth of my freezer, I decided to make a dish out of them.
Braised Wontons

Boil your frozen wontons for 5 minutes, toss them and set aside.
In a hot wok, fry the wontons in a some oil together with sliced garlic.
Add in sliced chinese mushrooms.
Add in some oyster sauce, soy sauce, some water and sesame oil.
Let the sauce reduce.
Serve.

Speedy Spinach

2008-07-02T18:31:00.004+01:00

One of my favourite vegetables is spinach. When I was a kid (still am, sometimes!), I would perpetually demand for spinach. Easy to say, 5 days a week, there would be spinach on the table. Spinach was also instrumental in allowing me to breastfeed the li'il kiddo for 9 months. Now that spinach is very much in season, guess I will be having loads of this vegetable then!

Speedy Stir Fry Spinach

Wash and toss the spinach leaves.
In a hot wok, saute some sliced garlic and dried shrimps in oil till fragrant.
Add in the spinach leaves.
Stir fry till the leaves have wilted.
Serve.

Pulut Panggang

2008-06-24T19:04:00.004+01:00

Well, with serunding at hand, what better thing to do but some lovely pulut panggang - which is (technically) glutinous rice with a savoury filling encased in banana leaves then grilled over hot coals. But since we are in a country where banana leaves are hard to find (and expensively dear when found!), one has to improvise, as usual!

Pulut Panggang

Soak glutinous rice overnight.
Make up some coconut cream and add some salt to it.
Set up the steamer and place your glutinous rice in the container. Sprinkle generously with the coconut cream and steam for 15 minutes.
Periodically sprinkle more coconut cream till the glutionous rice is cooked through. Let cool awhile and set aside.
Prepare tin foil wrappers by cutting them into rectangles and lightly oil one side.
Put in a handful of glutinous rice, flatten and shape into a rectangle, add in some serunding in the middle and roll the whole lot up, compressing all the way. Secure the ends tightly.
Place the parcels on a baking tray and place under the grill for a few minutes (or ontop of a grill pan).
Serve for your afternoon tea time treat.

Yummmmssssss.

Serunding Daging-Kelapa

2008-06-24T18:38:00.002+01:00

When travelling, it is always best to bring one's own provisions as a back up. Since I am here without Mumsie to help make me some, no choice but to make my own. And surprise surprise, it was pretty simple to make, pack and go!

Serunding Daging-Kelapa

Toast your dessicated coconut in a wok till it turns slightly light brown. Set aside.
Blend shallots, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, galanggal and dried chilli into a paste.
Cut your beef into small slivers and chill before use.
Heat oil in your wok and fry your paste till fragrant.
Mix curry powder with water until you get a thick paste, add to the wok and fry till fragrant.
Add your beef in, stir to coat, and let simmer till cooked.
Once beef is cooked, add in your gula merah, salt, air asam and let the mixture reduce until almost dry-ish.
Add in your toasted desicated coconut, stir to combine thoroughly over low heat.
Once you think it looks ready to eat, trust me - it's ready to eat!

ps - Mumsie apparently includes some pounded dried shrimp in as well. I was not willing to sacrifice them this time round, heh heh.
pps - my lauk Raya repertoire seems almost complete. Two types rendang, lodeh, serunding, pulut.... wah, not bad eh? Maybe should learn how to weave ketupat cases from Daddy.

Ramadhan Delights

2008-06-08T19:24:00.003+01:00

Hubby used to go quite mad for ayam percik everytime ramadhan came by. However, not much chance of simply going out and buying hot fresh ayam percik staying abroad. Since I had a houseful of guests one Sunday and needed to whip up something that could be prepared well in advance, what better dish to make?

Ayam Percik

Slash your chicken drumsticks and marinade in tumeric powder and salt.
Pre-roast your chicken for 30 minutes. Alternatively, you could grill you chicken on your grill pan till semi cooked.
Blend the following ingredients: shallots, garlic, ginger, galanggal, lemongrass, a sachet of instant stir fry vegetable paste, chilli boh, chopped mixed nuts and fish sauce.
Heat some oil in a sauce pan and saute your blended ingredients in the oil till well fragrant.
Add in coconut milk, dark brown sugar and salt. Let the sauce simmer till nice and thickened.
Drench the pre-roasted chicken with the sauce and return the chicken to the oven for another hour till nice and cooked, turning the chicken several times and basting it throughout. (Similar steps for grilling them).
Serve with etra sauce on the side.

This was a lovely hit that afternoon. Yummies.

Pasta Schmasta

2008-06-08T19:15:00.004+01:00

Am on a roll to clear out my fridge and pantry prior to flying off to the land of fondue and raclet. So what better than to whip up a pantry staple like pasta pasta and more pasta?

More Pasta

Saute some sliced up sausages (I used quorn vegetarian ones) till lightly browned.
Add in sliced fresh mushrooms, saute till softened.
Add in mixed veg and toss in your cooked pasta.
Add in some light garlic and herb cheese spread with a splash of skimmed milk.
Season with pepper and garnish with parsley before serving.

Creamy Cauliflower Soup

2008-05-27T15:02:00.000+01:00

I have been having a craving for this since yesterday. So I whipped it up and had it for today's lunch. With this grey weather out there, this was simply comforting.

Creamy Cauliflower Soup

Cut the cauliflower up into small florets, place it in a saucepan and add enough water to barely cover the vegetables up.

Cover the pan, let boil till the cauliflower is very very soft.

Add in a chicken stock cube and let simmer.

Blend the contents of the saucepan.

Put back on heat. Mix 1 tbsp of cornflour with some skimmed milk and add it to the blended soup.

Watch the soup thicken, add in a cheese slice and 1/2 teaspoon of ready grated parmesan cheese.

Serve with oat crackers.

Yum....

Not Instant

2008-05-26T12:33:00.005+01:00

After reading the ingredients from one of instant sauces I shipped from KL, I realised that it wasn't so difficult to make one's own pongteh dish.

Ayam Pongteh

Brown your chicken bits in some oil. Set aside.
Blend an onion, garlic, ginger and saute in the oil.
Add 1 heaped teaspoon of black bean sauce (taucu), some pepper and sugar.
Add in some water, some sliced potatoes and the chicken.
Cover and let simmer till cooked.

What Do You Do With Excess Ingredients?

2008-05-26T12:20:00.003+01:00

Why, reincarate them in another dish of course!

In making those 50 odd wontons, I had spare filling but no wonton skins! Never fear, with some vegetables in the fridge, you can have a brand new stir fry dish.

Excess Stir Fry Veg

Heat some oil in the wok and throw in the excess wonton filling. Stir fry till cooked.
Add in 1 tbsp of oyster sauce.
Throw in a generous handful of bean sprouts and stir fry quickly over high heat.

Done.

Morsels of Parcels

2008-05-26T11:01:00.004+01:00

Necessity is indeed the mother of invention - in this case, my wonton making efforts. Thanks to a little oriental cookbook picked up dirt cheap, I spent my breakfast making a batch of yummy (halal) parcels to be frozen and used whenever I feel like having them.

Wontons

In a bowl, mix together minced chicken, chopped up prawns, chopped up reconstituted dried shitake mushrooms, chopped up spring onions, finely diced carrots (to replace water chestnuts), 1 egg white, salt and pepper.
Get your wonton wrappers, add 1/2 teaspoon of mixture and seal the edges with cornflour mixture.
Freeze.
To prepare for consumption, drop a few of the wontons in salted boiling water and let cook for 3-4 minutes

Little wonder what we had for dinner that night - what else but wonton noodles?

Fish Pie

2008-05-26T10:53:00.005+01:00

Still on the fish theme and it being a cold and drab rainy weekend, what could be more comforting than a fisherman's pie?

Fish pie

In a saucepan, add milk, two bay leaves, salt and pepper. Add salmon, white fish and prawns into the milk and let poach to cook.
Remove the seafood and set aside.
Make a cornflour mixture of one heaped tablespoon of cornflour with a little water and add to the milk on low heat.
Stir milk to it thickens. Add dried parsley and some more seasoning.
Add the seafood (I added some crab sticks as well) to the thickened sauce and pour into a baking dish.
Top the seafood with mashed potato and let brown in an oven for about 30 minutes on gas mark 5.

Steamed Otak Otak

2008-05-25T12:06:00.005+01:00

I love otak-otak. Basically it's a fish custard, or rather, fish encased in spiced custard. Having seen it sold in various kopitiams at rather inflated prices, I decided to whip some up myself.

Steamed Otak-Otak

In the blender, blend together shallots, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, galanggal, a packet of instant fried vegetable paste (the one sold by Adabi works well), 3 eggs and half a tin of coconut milk. Blend till mixed together and season with fish sauce, salt and pepper.
Cut some deboned white fish (or any deboned fish desired) and place into individual bowls.
Pour the custardy mixture into the bowls and stir to combine.
Cover bowls with tin foil and steam for 30 - 40 minutes.

More Stir Fried Veg

2008-05-22T12:05:00.004+01:00

Don't laugh - ini memang lauk bodoh. But since Inky loves it, letak je lah.

Stir Fry Veg

Cut and trim runner beans, carrots and mushrooms.

Saute in a little oil.

Add a dash of water, cover and let steam for a minute.

Add a bit of oyster sauce and stir fry around till covered.

Wallah. Done.

Here Fishy Fishy

2008-05-22T11:35:00.004+01:00

In line with my melancholic post on my other blog, I find that I am running out of ideas on what to cook! So, instead of the usual chicken, or chicken, or chicken, I whipped up this slap dash sweet and sour fish for tonight's dinner.

Sweet and Sour Fish

Take two chunks of ready battered fish fillets and cook them to instruction - I used oven baked cod fish slices. Set aside once cooked.

In a wok over high heat, mix together some chicken stock, fish sauce, tomato sauce, chilli sauce, vinegar, salt, sugar and pepper.

Add some defrosted frozen mixed veg.

Thicken sauce with a cornflour solution.

Pour over fish and serve.

Loh Mah Kai

2008-05-18T20:32:00.002+01:00

Everytime I go for dim sum, this is the one dish I have never failed to order. Essentially glutinuous rice drenched in soy sauce with chicken and mushrooms, I never thought it was so simple to make until I tried it for myself. A wee bit time consuming, but a success nonetheless!

Loh Mah Kai

Wash and soak glutinuous rice overnight. Steam the rice for at least 30 minutes.
Slice up a piece of deboned chicken and marinade it in a mixture of oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, sesame oil, white pepper, sugar and chinese five spice powder for at least 2 hours.
Soak up dried chinese mushrooms and slice them up.
Heat some oil in a wok and fry the chicken and mushrooms till cooked.
Add in some more dark and light soy sauce and white pepper.
Mix in the glutinous rice with the sauce mixture.
Arrange chicken and mushroom slices on the bottom of an oiled rice bowl and compress the glutinous rice on top of them. Press down.
Add chicken stock to the bowl contents.
Arrange the bowls in the steamer and steam them for 30 - 40 minutes.
When ready, upend the contents of the bowl and serve.

I was looking for silicon ramekins make these but istead found the kiddie bowls sold in Ikea to be perfect instead - and at a fraction of the price as well! So there you go.

Chinese Lemony Chicken

2008-05-18T20:05:00.003+01:00

Seriously didn't know what to whip up for OtherHalf's dinner, so after having googled all my favourite flogs and videos, I just concocted this in no time.

Chinese Styled Lemon Chicken

Flour chicken bits and fry them in oil till cooked and browned. Set aside.
In a little fresh oil, saute pounded garlic and ginger till fragrant.
Add in some chicken stock, lemon juice, lemon zest and a wee bit of sugar.
Add in a cornflour mixture to thicken.
Toss in the fried chicken.
Add in chopped spring onions.

Delicious eaten with fresh rice.

Beef-A-Leeky

2008-05-16T19:45:00.000+01:00

An favourite of mine in Chinese restaurants and as made by Mumsie

Stir Fried Beef with Leeks

Slice your beef up thinly and set aside.

Heat up a wok with some oil and saute a sliced up big onion as well as a few thin slices of ginger till the onion has softened.

Add in the beef slices and stor fry till the beef has cooked through.

Add sliced up garlic and baby leeks to the dish. Stir fry till thoroughly cooked and wilted.

Add in some oyster sauce, lightly salt and pepper it.

Serve

Cooking (Almost) Like Mumsie

2008-05-15T22:14:00.004+01:00

There is an aromatic smell wafting around the Pad, remnants of tonights dinner. Aaaah... heavy with the smell of curry overtones, with coriander undertones and the sweet sweet smell of onions. Adapted from an online recipe and from my Mum's, I must say, this version of opor ayam is almost like my Mumsies!

Almost, but not quite.

Opor Ayam

Prefry some chicken bits, (boiled eggs and boiled potatoes, if desired) till golden brown (chicken need not be fully cooked). Set aside.
Blend together onions, garlic, ginger, galanggal, lemon grass and ground coriander seeds.
Saute the blended ingredients in hot oil till fragrant and almost golden brown.
Add in a tablespoonful each of curry powder and kurma powder. Stir into a thick paste.
Add in 1/2 can of coconut milk and water.
Tip in the fried chicken.
Season with salt and let chicken and sauce simmer away merrily.
Just before serving, add the fried potatoes and eggs to the chicken to coat and serve.

Yums... This will definitely be my Raya dish (as is Mumsie's year in, year out).

More Vegetable Stir Fries

2008-05-13T15:34:00.004+01:00

Really, it it was up to me, I would turn vegetarian most days. However, with a growing hubby and kid, I highly doubt if vegetarian meals would provide the necessary sustanance for them! Since I managed to grab hold onto some home made tempeh, what better to do than a stir fry vegetables dish with fried tempe added into them?

Sayur goreng tempe

Slice up the tempe and fry them in oil. Set aside.
Saute 1/2 sliced onion in hot oil with a handful of soaked dried shrimps till fragrant.
Add in sliced green beans and carrots.
Add in soaked su un (glass noodles)
Add in light soy salt.
Add in the tempe.
Stir fry till combined.

Ayam Bali

2008-05-11T16:20:00.004+01:00

I read up this recipe and it sounded so simple I just had to try it out!

Ayam Bali

Brown chicken pieces in hot oil and set aside.
Blend an onion, 4 cloves of garlic, a 2 cm piece of garlic, about 1 tbsp of sambal olek, some crushed nuts (to replace candlenuts).
Fry the blended ingredients till fragrant
Add in 1/2 tin of coconut milk, a tbsp of kicap manis and 1 tbsp of gula melaka
Add in the chicken pieces.
Season with salt to taste.
Let simmer on low heat.

You'll be glad to know it was finger licking good with hot fresh rice. I definitely was.

Cucur Udang

2008-05-11T16:13:00.003+01:00

My Mom and Maid make the best cucur ever. I have yet to master such skill, but suffice to say, what I did was similarly yummy.

Cucur Udang (Kering)

Pour sifted plain flour in a bowl

Mix some salt with a little tepid water and slowly add it to the flour.

Break in an egg, stir and add more water till it becomes a clumpy batter.

Add in soaked dried shrimps, chopped up coriander leaf and spring onions.

Add a dash or two of pepper.

Drop batter into hot oil by the spoonful and let them brown.

Dip in sweet chilli sauce.

Fried Tuna Pasta

2008-05-11T16:12:00.001+01:00

I concocted this one boring afternoon. It wasn't that great, but since hubby ate it up, it must've been either yums (to him) or that he was darned hungry.

Fried Tuna Pasta

Saute chopped up onions in butter till soft.
Add in a can of drained tuna fish.
Add in some defrosted mixed veg.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Add in the macaroni.
Stir fry the whole lot.

I really could do better than this, honestly, but was at a dead end on what to cook.

The Lazy Cook

2008-05-11T16:08:00.003+01:00

Hey, it's a tough job trying to keep up with the Jones', thinking of what to cook on a daily basis. So, when the L-bug strikes, this is what coms out of the hearth.

Burger-N-Onions

Defrost some beef burgers and cut up into strips.

Fry burger in a wok.

Toss in two huge sliced-up onions, lower heat and let the onions soften and caramelize.

Add lashings of worcestershire sauce to the dish.

Serve.

Told ya it was lauk orang pemalas.

KItchen Tag

2008-05-09T20:53:00.002+01:00

As a (part time) housewife, you can either be a cook or a cleaner. Admittedly, I am of the former variety. I hate cleaning up, but give me wet ingredients and I don’t mind whipping up something special for the family. The kitchen contents seem to be growing by the day. I’ve just got myself an almost new electric steamer from the flea market for a song. I’ve accumulated quite a number of cookbooks, so much so I have had to clear out space on one of the shelves in the kitchen.

Despite that, there are so many things on my kitchen wishlist. So, here’s a self made tag of my own.

Five things I want in my kitchen
1. The Tefal pressure cooker wok.
2. A small 300 ml mini food processor or chopper
3. A brand new Tefal cookware set
4. Grill pan
5. Ramekins – either stoneware or silicon based

Five things I plan on cooking pretty soon
1. Ayam bali
2. Opor ayam
3. Loh mai kai
4. Serunding daging
5. Sago pudding

Five things I have to get from the grocery store / supermarket
1. Oyster sauce
2. Seafood
3. Glutinous rice
4. Egg noodles
5. Assorted vegetables

I know not many people log into my f(oodb)log, so I tag whoever feels like doing this. Just leave a comment and I’ll look it up at your respective blogs! (although I seriously want to read CikPuan Loly tag on this one, and maybe from Xora as well, oh and HanieSuriya pun. Spank you ladies!)

In A Rush

2008-05-08T23:32:00.004+01:00

This is what you whip up when you are so late in getting back and tummies are growling for dinner.

Quick Seafood Noodles

Blanche instant noodles in water till soft yet still firm to the bite. Set aside.
Saute chopped up cloves of garlic and the chopped up white part of spring onions.
Add in fish balls and shrimps.
Add in a generous heap of oyster sauce and a dash of water
Add in white pepper to taste
Add in the noodles.
Add in the chopped up green bits of the spring onions and shredded surimi crabsticks
Stir to combine

Serve.

Telur Masak Kicap

2008-05-07T17:57:00.001+01:00

What began as a rather slap dash dish of telur masak kicap became a glorified one full of veges. What can I say – I am a vege lover.

Glorified Telur Masak Kicap

1. Fry two eggs over easy. Set aside.
2. Sauté two large sliced onions till softened.
3. Add two cloves of garlic to the onions.
4. Add in sliced fresh mushrooms, sliced carrots and sliced green beans to the wok.
5. Add in some water and soya sauce.
6. Let simmer and the dish is ready for consumption with hot rice.

Pengat Pumpkin

2008-05-07T16:26:00.005+01:00

Well, butternut squash, really. The closest you get to a labu. With a sizeable 1/4 squash lying forlornly on the fridge shelf, it was the only thing left I had yet to try.

Pengat Pumpkin

Peel and cut your pumpkin into sizeable chunks.

Boil the pumpkin in thin coconut milk over low fire with a generous handful of sago seeds till the pumpkin is tender and sago seeds have gone transluscent.

Add thick coconut milk and enough dark brown muscodavo sugar to taste.

Serve warm or cold (my preference is cold).

Yums.

More Summery Pasta

2008-05-03T19:18:00.003+01:00

With the advent of summer, some light pasta is always welcomed. So here's one without any cream or milk, light as anything.

Summery Pasta

Saute some sliced (horizontally) baby leeks in butter till wilted though. Set aside.

Saute sliced fresh mushrooms and then add in roughly chopped garlic.

Add in a tin of chopped tomatoes.

Add in a generous pinch of dried mixed herbs and ground pepper.

Add in the leeks.

Toss some freshly cooked spaghetti with the sauce.

Garnish with a pinch of parmesan cheese and chilli flakes.

Glass Noodle Brocolli

2008-05-02T19:32:00.003+01:00

This dish can go either way - as an accompaniment to your rice and meat dishes or a noodle dish on its own. Tip: this is a great way to have noodles without the heavy carbo of normal noodles!

Glass Noodle Brocolli

Soak your glass noodles (su un).

Saute chopped fresh musrooms, carrot slices and brocolli florets till tender.

Add oyster sauce and a dash of water. Stir fry to coat through.

Drain the glass noodles and add to wok. Stir fry to mix all together.

Yums...

Kuih Ketayap

2008-05-02T17:26:00.003+01:00

This kuih is also known as kuih gulung or kuih dadar. But whatever name it is known by, it is still yummy. I whipped this up for Aunt Sara and Suhaila, MakZah's friends, who have a second home in Nottingham. Boy, was AuntSara glad to see something familiar - albeit, rather Westernised.

Kuih Ketayap.

Whizz up skimmed milk, 2 eggs, flour and a pinch of salt in your blender. Add green food colouring and pandan essence (if you have it - I didn't, thus substituted it with vanilla essence). Let it stand.

For the filling, combine dessicated coconut, dark brown muscovado sugar (in lieu of gula melaka) and 1/4 cup water in a wok. Heat and let the flavours mingle.

Make lots and lots of thin green pancakes with the batter.

Spread your coconut filling onto a pancake and roll away (or in my case, make fat thick envelop parcels).

Serve to your guests a taste of Malaysia.
Not bad eh?

Vegetables Galore

2008-05-02T17:17:00.003+01:00

I love my vegetables and the more colourful they are, the more I love it. Here's something simple that can be whipped up in a jiffy.

Broccolli With Crab Meat Sauce.

Steam brocolli until slightly tender then set aside.

In a wok, heat up about 1/2 cup of water, add a chicken stock cube and let it simmer.

Add in sliced up dried chinese mushrooms, carrot batons and sliced up imitation crab meat.

Season with salt and pepper.

Make a solution of water and some cornflour and add in to slightly thicken the sauce.

Pour sauce over the broccolli and serve.

Wasn't that easy?

Tale of the Jaundiced Seafood

2008-04-29T18:29:00.003+01:00

Ahahahahaha... this is the westernised name of course.

Seafood Masak Kunyit.

Prepare your seafood - I used baby octopus and prawns for this dish.
Slice a big onion in rings. Also take slice up a small knob of ginger.
Heat up a wok with a tablespoon of oil in it and saute your onion rings and ginger slices.
Throw in your seafood and add a dash of tumeric powder with a light splash of water.
Season with salt and let the seafood cook through.

Serve with fresh rice.

Labu Masak Lemak

2008-04-29T15:45:00.006+01:00

I had a craving for this when I was preggy with Inky and to this date, I love any pumpkin / squash dishes. Butternut squash is a yums vege, so it's lovely in this coconut milk broth.

Labu Masak Lemak

Place peeled chunks of butternut squash, roughly sliced white cabbage, chopped carrots, 1/2 finely sliced onion and a handful of drief shrimps in a pot with enough water to just about cover the whole lot.
Simmer over medium fire, covered until the cabbage and squash is soft and tender.
Add in topped and tailed french beans.
Throw in softened fu chuk (tofu skins) and su un (glass noodles).
Add in 1/2 cup of thick coconut milk and salt to taste.
Let simmer a while and then serve.

Daging Kawah

2008-04-21T19:06:00.003+01:00

My ArwahAtukEsah is a brilliant cook and my cousin Azie has taken on my initiative to collate Arwah's recipes. Brilliant innit, what the cyberworld can do for you? Anyway, this recipe is an adaptation of ArwahAtukEsah's beefsteak recipe. I call it "Daging Kawah", literally as it is slow cooked in a kawah.

Daging Kawah

Blend the following ingredients: shallots, garlic, ginger root.

Marinade beef with the blended ingredients, garam masala and a tablespoon of cornflour for at least 30 minutes.

Fry up batoned potatoes (I cheated by using ready made chips) and chunked up carrots. Set aside.

Heat a big wok and pour in a ladleful of oil. Fry up sliced onions and garlic till softened. Slowly add the marinaded beef, add in ground cumin seeds, ground cinnamon, star anise, and let it fry awhile.

Lower the heat, add in some water and cook till the beef softens. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

The gravy should be nice and quite thickish by now. Add in a tin of peas, and the pre-fried potatoes (chips) and carrots.

Dish up and serve with fresh rice.

Yummies.. I cooked quite a big serving so we had this three days in a row!

Mussels Masak Nyonya

2008-04-15T14:29:00.003+01:00

I still have some of that Nyonya sauces I shipped over from home. It was a Friday and there was a fish van selling mussels at the kerbside, so, why not, eh?

Mussels Masak Nyonya

In a wok, heat up some oil and stir fry some sliced onions, garlic and celery stalks.
Add in two tablespoonsful of instant nyonya sauce and fry till fragrant. Season with salt.
Add in a dash of water, throw in your washed mussels, stir to coat, cover and let it steam for about 5 - 10 minutes.
When all mussels are open, dish up and serve.

Bingka Jagung

2008-03-22T08:02:00.005Z

You know, had I been in this situation back in KL, I would never have cooked all these kuih muihs or dishes - the lure of instant fast food via kopitiams and kedai mamaks were too strong. But now that I know very well that I can cook stuff that I could have easily have bought, I guess there will be less eating out, more cooking in and the family digesting more wholesome, nutrituous food.

Having seen this recipe here, I decided to adapt her recipe into a one stop, no fuss bingka recipe using only one's blender. However, a word of caution. One needs a rather big blender for this - mine is a 1.5 liter one.

Bingka (or Kuih Bakar) Jagung

Preheat the oven to 160 deg celcius (gass mark 5-6 i believe).

Open a tin of creamed corn. However, since I had no cream corn available, I took the equivalent of a tin and a half of frozen corn and placed it in a sauce pan, added enough water to just about not cover it, added a dash of salt and let it cook/simmer for about 10 minutes. Thereafter, I just upended it into m blender and blitzed it to one's desired consistency. Pour the creamed corn out and set aside.

Back to your blender, break in 4 eggs in it, pour in about 230 gm of sugar into the blender and blitz it until it becomes creamy pale and frothy.

Add in a tin of coconut milk (about 400gm/ml), half a tin of water, some salt and blitz again till well blended.

Pour in 250 gm of self raising flour into the blender and blitz again till well blended.

Add in a generous teaspoon of vanilla extract, 2 tbsp of melted butter, pour in the creamed corn and blitz until well and trul combined.

Pour into our loyangs (or our pyrex, or our baking tin) and bake in the oven for 45 to 60+ minutes.

Let cool and serve.

We had guests last night and judging by the replenished plate, I must say that this kuih was a lovely success - OtherHalf and Inky could not stop munching on it! And since it is so easy to make, this will be my annual kuih raya as well!

Still In The Maulidur Rasul Mood - Lontong Johor

2008-03-20T19:20:00.006Z

Opened my ranting-cum-musing blog to find out that Mumsie had duly informed my paternal side of the family of the existance of this blog at a makan-makan session at my cousins' place.
Hi Azie!!!!
*wave wave wave*

So, since I still had a tupperware of unfrozen rendang and a packet of nasi hempit sitting in thr fridge, it was practically screaming at me.

Make Lontong Johor! Make Lontong Johor!

Alright. I hear you, loud and clear. However, since I had to stay back at the BeriFirm and finish drafting a couple of things, I didn't manage to catch Mumsie as it would've been too late at night to call her up for the recipe. However, thanks to the internet, all I did was google "Lontong" and wahlah - the recipe flashed infront of me. As such, the Lontong Johor was a tea-time cum early dinner delight for all of us, Inky included!

Lontong Johor

Soak some tofu skins (fu chuk), su un (green bean noodles) and dried lily bulbs (bunga kinchan I believe) in hot water till softened.

Finely slice up two onions and a couple of cloves of garlic.

Pound a generous handful of dried shrimps.

In a pot, heat up some oil, then saute the onion, garlic and dried shrimps till fragrant.

Toss in a handful of fresh prawns, fry till it loses it raw colour.

Add in a tin of coconut milk, some water to thin it down, salt.

Add in some carrots and potato which had been cut into batons, the drained fu chuk, su un and lily bulbs into the broth.

Add in some tumeric powder until you reach the desired yellowness.

Add in green beans.

Let it simmer till the carrots and potatoes have softened down enough

Serve with your nasi hempit and rendang.

Mind you, this is a pared down recipe, but the norm would include turnip, fried tofu and tempe in the lodeh and the dish served with a boiled egg and sambal kacang.

Another time perhaps!

Meanwhile, whilst I am jubilant at having achieved something so close to Mumsie's air tangan, I have to figure out how to remove the lodeh stains from Inky's bib!

Salam Maulidur Rasul

2008-03-19T15:53:00.005Z

Somehow my brain was not working in the right mode today. I knew that family and friends back home would be celebrating Maulidur Rasul on Thursday, but I forgot that we celebrate it one day earlier in the UK.

*doink doink*

So, upon realization of that fact, Madame here quickly bundled up herself and a rather sleepy Inky and rushed down to the grocery store to procure the necessary ingredients to whip up a family speciality - Rendang Esah. This beef rendang dish was always made by my late paternal grandmother, ArwahAtukEsah for all occassions and Mumsie dearie has perfected it. However, this was my first time whipping it up so I just selawat banyak-banyak, and with a Bismillahirrahmannirrahim, I got to work.

Rendang (Tok) Esah (in memory of Arwah Aishah binti Ali)

In a blender, coarsely blend the following ingredients: a generous handful of pre-soaked and drained dried chillis (if you like it hot, then add more to one's desire), about 2 tablespoons each of coriander seeds, cumin seeds and fennel seeds (biji ketumbar, jintan putih and jintan manis), four onions, a head of garlic, a thick thumb's length of ginger, two stalks of lemon grass, some fresh tumeric root and galangal root.

Cube up your beef and marinade the cubed beef in the blended aromatics for at least one hour (mine sat in the fridge for about 1 1/2 hours).

Heat up about a cup of oil in a big wok, and fry some cinnamon sticks, cloves, mustard seeds, star anise till fragrant.

Pour out the beef and marinade into the hot oil and let it bubble and toil.

Halfway through, add in a generous portion of shaven gula merah (in the absence of gula merah, I used about 500 gms of dark muscodavo sugar).

Salt the dish generously, stir in a couple of dried tamarind slices (asam keping - but since I didn't have any, I used 1/3 of a bottle of lemon juice! Improvise dahlings!).

Let it cook until dry, remove as much oil as possible from the dish and serve with nasi hempit or even better, lemang.

Eh, macam menjadi... wooooootttt!!!!
One heritage dish down, lots more to go...

As Close As One Could Get To Satay

2008-03-11T20:50:00.005Z

I miss having satay. My favourite is beef tripe (perut) - that's how Johorean I can be! So, since I cannot just run out and buy satay off from the streets of Notts, I just had to concoct my own satay! In this case, this is an all in one satay dish - satay ayam covered in delicious satay sauce!

Satay Goreng.

Cut up approximately 4 deboned chicken thighs into cubes.

Blend together an onion, a lemongrass stalk, an inch of galanggal, about 1 teaspoon of coriander seeds, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, tumeric powder, chilli paste (I used ready made sambal olek - hmph, tak pedas langsung!), some ground white pepper, a generous splash of light soy sauce and about 3 tablespoonfull of pati santan.

Marinade the chicken with the blended mixture for at least an hour.

Once well marinaded, heat up some oil in a wok, tip over your marinaded chicken and start frying the whole lot.

Add in some more pati santan, about 3 - 4 spoons of dark muscovado sugar (as I don't have any gula melaka here), a generous dash of tamarind juice, bashed up dry roasted peanuts and salt.

Fry the whole lot until it dries up.

Close, but no cigar.

Oh well, whatever works lah.

Banana Bread

2008-03-09T17:05:00.004Z

Fruit, when nearing its expiry date, goes really really cheap here. And oevr-ripe bananas are a boon as they can be made into many types of dessert!

Banana Bread

Mash up 3 bananas and add in 125 gms of butter to the mashed banana.

Add in a teaspoon of honey to the banana mixture.

Sift together 250 gm of self raising flour with 3/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon in a mixing bowl.

Add in 125 gm of sugar and the mashed banana mixture into the flour.

Add in 2 eggs, one at a time, and beat the cake mixture well.

Pour into a greased cake tin / Pyrex bowl and pop it into an oven Gas Mark 3 (about 150 deg celcius).

Bake for 1 1/2 hours before checking with a toothpick.

Let it stand in the cake tin for about 5 - 10 minutes before turning it out and serving it.

Hamburger Pitta

2008-03-09T16:58:00.006Z

Weekend breakfast can give one quite a headache. So guess what we had this morning?

Hamburger Pitta

Fry up two hamburgers in a dry pan (don't add oil as the burgers will exude its own fat). I used halal spicy-ish lamb burgers here.

Whilst the burger is cooking, cut it up into strips in the pan.

Warm up pitta bread, stuff it with cut up lettuce leaves, some mayo and the burger strips.

Chow down.

Teh Tarik

2008-03-09T16:43:00.005Z

Its 9 pm and one wishes one was back home in KL where one can just drive out for a cuppa teh tarik at one's whims and fancy. Alas, one is far away in UK where shops are closed by 9 pm and all that is open is the local kebab parlour. Thank goodness for Malaysian friends here who give me tips on how to concoct your own teh tarik.

Homemade Teh Tarik

Boil a pan of water with 3 tea bags till you get a strong black tea.

Pour in a jug and add condensed milk as desired.

Tarik puas-puas.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah.
Yuuuuuuuuuuuummmms.

Seafood Noodles

2008-03-09T16:34:00.005Z

After a somewhat heavier lunch of rice, all I felt that night was some noodles. As I had just returned from grocery shopping at the local Hyperama, it was a perfect opportunity to whip up some seafood noodles.

Seafood Noodles

Chop up 3 cloves of garlic and toss in a pre-heated wok with two tablespoonfulls of oil.

Once fragrant, toss in your desired seafood (I had prawns, clams and chopped up baby octopus), Stir fry for a while.

Pour in about three cups of water and let it boil.

Pop in a chicken stock cube, some sliced carrots and let the concoction boil.

Season with salt and white pepper.

Add in some sliced chinese cabbage.

Make up a cornflour solution by adding some water to a heaped tablespoon of cornflour. Pour the cornflour mixture and watch the soup thicken.

Add in an egg and stir quickly so that egg threads are formed.

Served over boiled egg noodles, with a dash of sesame seed oil all over the dish.

Stir Fried Chinese Cabbage

2008-03-07T19:49:00.003Z

I am of the opinion that chinese cabbage is one of the best type of vegetables available. It is crunchy, naturally sweet and goes very well in stir fries.

Stir Fry Chinese Cabbage.

Soak about 5 pieces of washed dried chinese mushroom in hot water till softened.

In a wok with a small bit of oil, saute 1/2 sliced onion till softened.

Add in sliced carrots and the sliced chinese cabbage. Add in a few spoonfulls of the soaking water from the mushrooms and stir fry till the vegetable has softened.

Add in the sliced mushrooms and stir fry for another minute.

Just before serving, lightly dash the vegetable dish with sesame oil.

Enjoy.

Fish Head Curry

2008-03-07T19:38:00.004Z

Hey, living abroad doesn't mean that one cannot indulge in local Malaysian delicacies. However, necessity (or rather craving, in this instance) is the mother of invention. So, since fresh salmon is cheap and in abundance here, nothing beats a good dish of salmon fish head curry. However, this is done pretty simply and quickly.

Kari Kepala Ikan Salmon (Salmon Fish Head Curry)

Put in two generous tablespoonfulls of oil in a pot and saute 1 1/2 chopped up onion in the hot oil until softened.

Make a thick paste by mixing two heaped tablespoonfulls of fish curry powder with a wee bit of water. Add this to the softened frying onions. Fry the paste in the oil till fragrant and 'naik minyak'.

Add water to the frying paste mixture, plonk in the fish head and let it simmer.

Add in vegetables of your choice (such as carrots, okra, 1/4 head of cabbage). Just make sure that all the veg is being submerged in the kuah.

Salt the dish and let it simmer.

Add in some tamarind juice (or, in my case, a couple of dashes of lemon juice) and simmer till fish is all cooked and softened.

Enjoy with rice.

Some people are of the opinion that salmon is a pretty 'fishy' (hanyir) fish, but if you use fresh fish and with the right addition of lemon juice, I think the salmon is eradicated and makes the dish ultra yummilicious!

ps - this is Inky's favourite dish! Tonight, she ate more then 12 suap of rice and fish!

Nasi Lemak - Where Art Thou

2008-03-06T21:15:00.000Z

Hi, my name is Izreen and I have never cooked nasi lemak on my own.

Why bother when you could easily get you mum to whip it up in a jiffy or you could just drive out to get it? But staying abroad means that one would have no choice but to whip up your own dishes and improvise with what you have in your pantry cupboards.

It looks quite close to what I have back home, but I think I need to learn from Mumsie, my sifu.

Nasi Lemak, Sambal Udang, Fried Giblets and Liver eaten with cucumber and egg

Make the rice by:-

Placing rice, coconut milk, water and a dash of salt in the rice cooker with a bruised knob of garlic and (if you have it) daun pandan (screwpine leaves).
Press the cook button and let it cook.

Make the sambal udang as follows:-

Blend reconstituted dried chillis and garlic till you get a rough paste.
Fry the chilli paste in oil until the chilli oil slef exudes (er.. minyak naik?).
Add salt and a wee bit of sugar tu the paste and add in sliced onions to the paste.
Add a wee bit of water, add in the prawns and fry till all mixed up well and smells heavenly.

Make the fried giblets and liver as follows:-

Marinade the chicken giblets and liver in curry powder and salt.
Fry them in oil.

Serve nasi lemak, sambal and the fried offal with a boiled egg half and cucumber. Kalau ada ikan bilis and kacang goreng lagi sedaaaaaaaaap.

Mee Goreng (UK Style)

2008-03-06T19:08:00.000Z

I honestly thought I had posted this recipe, but as MarinaDelRay pointed out: it was nowhere to be seen! Silly moi *doink doink*. It was sitting in the drafts folder after all this time. Anyway, here it is dear, something that would take you about 20 minutes from start to finish (provided one multitasks at it, heh heh).

Mee Goreng (UK style)

Boil your spaghetti in salted boiling water till very very lembik.
While the spaghetti is cooking, make up the rencah by heating up about three tablespoons of oil in a big wok. Saute sliced onions till soft.
Once the onions have softened add in some chicken bits (or minced chicken) and fry them.
Add in about 1/3 small can of tomato puree and a tin of chopped tomatoes, stir and then add in some chilli powder (if you have chilli boh, even better!).
Salt the rencah, then add in the sliced vegetables of your choice - I used sliced spring greens (just like sawi), carrots and fresh mushrooms.
By this time, you can drain the spaghetti and immediately add the drained spaghetti to your rencah.
Stir, stir, stir till all amalgamated and 'mesra'
Serve and enjoy.

I Feel Like Chicken (Chop) Tonight

2008-03-05T18:16:00.004Z

After having seen a picture of the kopitiam chicken chop dishes in many a food blog, this Madame decided that she would attempt her own kopitiam chicken chop dish. And, dare she say it herself, it turned almost like the real McCoy.

Kopitiam Chicken Chop (aka Hainanese Chicken Chop)

Take two (or more) pieces of deboned chicken thighs. They should be the ones lying flat across. Tenderise the chicken slabs by puting it flat in a plastic bag and carefully knocking it flatter with a hammer (or, if you have it, a meat tenderiser is a much better option).

Make a batch of breadcrumbs by whizzing stale bread in a blender. Set aside.

Dip chicken slabs into flour, then egg, then coat with the breadcrumbs.

Fry chicken slabs till the breadcrumb coating is nice and golden brown. If you have a deep fryer, all, the better. To be on the safe side, I always nuke my fried chicken in the microwave on High for 2-3 minutes in case it is not fully cooked through (always be careful with chicken! You can easily get food poisining if not fully cooked). Set the cooked chicken aside.

To make the sauce, fry 2 sliced onions in a pan till soft and browned at the edges.

Pour in a few healthy globs of HP brown sauce, a wee bit of water and a few healthy dashes of worcestershire sauce. Stir and add in a cubed tomato and some canned peas. Season with ground white pepper. Let simmer and set aside.

Assemble the chicken chop dish by plating the breadcrumbed chicken, ladling the sauce over the top and serving it with some fries (in this case, I had onion rings!) and some boiled veg.

It was really quite good, albeit a pretty hefty portion to eat.

Buuuuuuuurp.

Boleh bukak kedai after this.

Warm and Hearty

2008-03-04T19:26:00.005Z

What with the weather being so wonky out there (back to winter, people, poor poor spring flowers out there!), I whipped up sup daging (beef soup), reminiscent of what Mumsie used to make when we felt like having something light-ish yet hearty. Pottered around in the kitchen with what I had and wallah, looked and tasted almost like Mumsie used to make! Yummehs...

Sup Daging

Blend two bulbs of onion and about 5 cloves of garlic to a paste.

Saute the blended onions in hot oil till fragrant, add in the aromatics (i.e. a cinnamon stick, some cloves, star anise, coriander seeds) and fry till fragrant.

Toss in the beef chunks (I had a mixture of beef chunks and those on the bone), stir well to coat.

Add in a dash of kurma powder (Malaysia mari, ok folks!).

Top the beef up with water.

Add in chunks of potato and carrots, boil till the beef has tenderised.

Season to taste and garnish with daun sup and a splash of lime.

Serve with bread or macaroni (just like Arwah AtukEsah used to make).

Fish Masala

2008-03-03T20:13:00.003Z

We love fish and all kinds of seafood. Having read this recipe at the back of a packet, I was eager to try it out.

Fish Masala

Melt a generous heaped tablespoonful of ghee in a wok.

Fry sliced onions in the ghee till lightly browned.

Add in garlic powder and some pakistani curry powder (or garam masala).

Add in sliced firm white fish.

Fry it all together, then add roughly cubed tomatoes.

Add in roughly chopped coriander leaves.

Season to taste and serve with rice.

Note: this recipe can even be made with prawns. Use huge tiger prawns for desirable results.

Lunch for Guests In A Jiffy

2008-03-02T17:33:00.003Z

I had guests for lunch and whipped up this spaghetti goreng and fried chicken wings in a jiffy. From start to finish, it took me about 30 minutes.

Spaghetti goreng

I had earlier posted this recipe, so I'll skip this. Just check the lables under noodles and pasta and you'll find it.

Fried Chicken Wings

In a bowl, marinade the chicken wings in curry powder, garlic powder, dark soy sauce and some salt. For better results, marinade for a few hours (covered and placed in a fridge), or else you'll get the pale chicken as above.
Deep fry the chicken in hot oil till cooked.
Finish off with a quick blitz in the microwave oven on high for a minute or two.
Serve.

Smackingly good, I tell ya!

Nasi Goreng Tuna

2008-03-02T17:30:00.003Z

I usually whip this up in a jiffy for a quick, nutricious breakfast. Very very simple - I learnt it from my dad!

Nasi Goreng Tuna.

Saute chopped onions (I love onions, so I chop an onion and a half!) in hot oil till soft.
Add in 1/2 can of tuna fish chunks (drained, of course).
Add in defrosted frozen veg.
Add in the leftover rice.
Stir fry, stir fry, stir fry.
Break in an egg.
Stir fry, stir fry, stir fry.
Season generously and serve.

Cheesy Pasta and Vegetable Bake

2008-03-02T17:26:00.004Z

I love this dish when served in the uni cafeterias. However, it is so much cheaper to whip it up yourself than going to the nearest pub / cafeteria all the time!

Cheesy Pasta and Vegetable Bake

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 6.

Boil some pasta in plenty of salted boiled water. Once cooked, set aside (but do not drain until step 4 below).

Make the cheesy bechamel sauce by melting two generous tablespoons of butter in a pan, whisk in about two tablespoons of flour and then about a pint of skimmed milk. Whisk till thickened.

Add in generous handfuls of grated cheddar cheese, season to taste and set aside.

Mix in defrosted vegetables, the drained pasta and the cheese sauce till all amalgamated. Pour the mixture into a pyrex dish.

Sprinke grated parmesan, cheddar and parsley over the top.

Put the dish into the oven and bake till the top turns meltingly golden delicious.

Serve with crusty garlic bread.

Pasta with Creamy Chicken

2008-03-02T17:23:00.003Z

Pasta with Creamy Chicken

Saute sliced up chicken thighs in butter until cooked.
Pour in 1/2 tin of cream of mushroom soup, add a handful of frozen veg ( I used peas here) and let bubble.
Season to taste and serve on pasta.

Pasta Al Funghi - The Cheats Way

2008-03-02T17:20:00.003Z

When feeling lazy, what better than to make a bowl of pasta?

Pasta Al Funghi (with mushrooms)

Make the sauce by saute-ing some sliced mushrooms in a generous knob of butter till the juices come out.
Add in about 1/2 can of mushroom soup and let it bubble on low heat.
Season to taste and pour over freshly drained pasta.

Steamboat Slurps

2008-03-01T20:24:00.002Z

It was a cold, blustery, wintry day in early Spring. What better than to have a steaming bowl of steamboat noodlesfor lunch to warm one's insides? However, since I don't have a steamboat set, it was all assembled on the stovepot and dished up to be slurped quickly (or s quick as hot soup could be slurped up)

Cheats' Steamboat

In a pot of boiling water, dissolve two chicken stock cubes and add in a dash of ground white pepper.
Add in sliced chinese cabbage, reconstituted dried mushrooms, sliced carrots, prawns, clams, surimi sticks, egg tofu and an egg.
Serve with noodles and slurp to one's heart's content.

Fried Noodles - Again

2008-03-01T20:20:00.001Z

One of the disadvantages of being abroad is that it can be quite a pain not being in easy reach of the stuff you would normally drive out for. Today, I had a craving for some Chinese styled fried noodles. So, after making a trip to the local Asian grocery store, I reached home and whipped up a quickie lunch before cleaning up the house and setting out to fetch Inky from the babysitters.

Chinese Styled Fried Noodles.

Soften a pack of fried instant noodles in boiling water until al dente.
Heat about 2 tablespoonfuls of oil in a wok and fry 2 chopped up cloves of garlic till fragrant.
Throw in some prawns and clams and stir fry for a bit.
Add the noodles with a tablespoonful each of oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and light soy sauce.
Stir fry all around, and at the very last minute, throw in a handful of bean sprouts and chopped spring onion.
Serve hot and fresh from the wok.

Not quite char kway teow, but pretty much similar!

Tuna Casserole

2008-02-16T21:39:00.000Z

The night's dish was a pasta based one. I am currently taking advantage of the house oven and the abundance of bread - having found out how easy it was to make fresh breadcrumbs. Wallah, so I whipped up a tuna casserole.

Tuna Casserole

In a saucepan, softened a diced onion in a knob of butter till softened, then add diced carrots (or some veg of choice, such as peas and/or corn).
Add a tin of drained canned tuna, fry it all till fragrant.
Add in a cup of skimmed milk.
Add in a cup of canned cream of mushroom soup.
Season to taste.
Add in boiled pasta, stir well, then take it off the heat. Pour into a casserole dish.
Make up fresh breadcrumbs by whizzing slices of stale bread in a food processor (my blender worked equally well for this). Add grated parmesan to the mix.
Top the casserole dish with the cheesey breadcrumbs and bake in an oven Gas Mark 6 until the top is light gold and crunchy.

Serve with mixed veg.

Tastes From Home... Part Deux

2008-02-15T21:43:00.004Z

I sacrificed another jar of the nyonya sauces I had earlier shipped from KL as I was in the mood for Nyonya laksa.

Nyonya Laksa.

As per instructions, dilute laksa paste in boiling water.
Add coconut milk.
Add seafood of choice (I used prawns and surimi sticks) and veg, if desired (I used french beans and fresh mushrooms). Unfortunately, there were no tauge in supply.
Pour over egg noodles.

How much more simple can it get?

I Feel Like Chicken Tonite

2008-02-15T21:23:00.004Z

I didn't feel like having rice. Since I had loads of time to kill, I managed to whip this up (whilst YMing MarinaDelRay at the same time.. sorry babes!)

Chicken Parmesan and Two Potato Rosti

Chicken Parmesan

Take two fillets of chicken, season to taste with salt and pepper.
Make a batch of breadcrumbs by whizzing stale bread in a food processor, and add a generous amount of grated parmesan to it.
In a frying pan, fry the breadcrumbed fillets till lightly golden.
Transfer to an oven tray and continue cooking the chicken in an oven Gas Mark 5 till the chicken is properly cooked. (don't mind the crumbly topping in the pix - I had spare breacrumbs and decided to top it. Shouldn't have, really)

Two Potato Rosti

Grate 1/2 sweet potato, a large potato and an onion in a bowl.
Season generously with salt and pepper and add some mixed herbs to it.
Form into patties and fry them in some oil till cooked and brown.