Twisted Tissues

You know the tissues you normally stuff in your gift bags? those thin papers? sometimes you might get them in the box when you buy a pair of shoes? (depends where) well, there's plenty to do with them. dont throw them away! and no more stuffing them in your gift boxes or a bags. twist them instead!



You dont need much to decorate your gift boxes or gift bags. just a tad bit of that thin tissue paper. it helps if you have coloured ones. try crumpling it just a liiiitttle bit before you roll them into a flower. twist the ends to make it like a stem so that it'll be easier for you to tie them onto your bags.



I used a recycled white bag, got it from the chip shop! add your flowers and bring some life to the bag! no more going out to get ribbons or tying a bow!



Of course you can! keep on trying!

Grilled Thai Chicken Chunks

It was half 6 and all i had in the freezer was chicken breasts. our favourite butcher (in Belgium!) has gone for summer vacation, they're closed for a month! half an hour left before my Home & Away starts (yes, yes, i still watch that programme). flip through my new recipe book i recently bought in the UK, and on page 98, i found one that suits the moment - Grilled Thai Chicken Chunks - with my favourite ingredient - Corriander!





GRILLED THAI CHICKEN CHUNKS

2-3 Chicken Breasts cut into small chunks
Fresh Corriander - chopped
1 Green Chilli - deseeded
1 Red Chilli - deseeded
1 whole Lemongrass - chopped
1/2 tsp tumeric powder
1/2 tsp Garam masala
1 1/2 tsp Brown sugar
2-3 tbsp Thai Fish Sauce
1 tbsp Lime juice
salt

Method:
1. Make marinade by blending chillies, corriander, lemongrass.
2. Add tumeric, garam masala, brown sugar, fish sauce, lime juice and blend until smooth.
3. Add marinade with chicken chunks in bowl. (if possible let to chill or set aside for at least 1/2 hour. - obviously i didnt have the time i put it on the pan straight away! it still worked!
4. When the chicken chunks are throughly marinated, barbecue or grill them on a pan turning them frequently and basting it with the remaining marinade.
5. Serve with steamed rice and garnish with chopped fresh corriander.

Managed to finish just on time. i get to enjoy my Home & Away, Hardy and i get to enjoy our dinner! :)

Hokkien Noodles

I was born and bred in JB, the southern state of Malaysia. and i grew up with certain food and taste. one of which is Hwa Mui's hokkien mee. those who have tasted it would probably agree that it is the most original - wrapped in flat clear plastic and newspaper and the best in town!

And back when Hardy and I were dating (those lovey dovey days), one of our eating places was at this one place called Group Base. yes, its a weird name for a eating place (mind you it took me several attempts to recall the name after gueeses such as garupa and seabass!).

They've got quite nice hokkien noodles there. the sauce were really thick black and everything was balanced. i quite like it. but you'd really need to tuck those paper napkins in your collars if you order the dish!

Anyway, last weekend was my attempt to try out this favourite noodles of mine. quite far from hwa mui's, close to group base's but jadilaaa for the 2 of us who are far from our previous base.



HOKKIEN NOODLES

4 packets of Udon Noodles
Cooking Oil
5 cloves of garlic - roughly diced
1 whole chicken breasts - cut them into strips
Big Huge Prawns/ Squid/ Fish Balls/ Fish Cakes
Chinese Cabbage/ Pak Soi - sliced

Sauce
3 tbsp dark thick soy sauce
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
salt
1 tsp white pepper
1 1/2 tbsp cornflour
1 cup of water

Method
1. Mix all sauces in a bowl.
2. Boil udon noodles and once ready set aside.
3. Heat oil in wok, and add in garlic.
4. Once browned, add prawns, chicken and all your other seafood (if you choose to have them).
5. Pour the sauce and let it simmer for 2 mins.
6. Add your udon noodles.
7. Throw in your chinese cabbage/pak soi in the wok and let it cook for another min
8. Voila!!!!!

And back home, i'd have mine with pickled green chillies which i havent had the time to prepare this time around.

Crunchy and Spiced Beans with Potatoes

We occationally have our indian nights where i'd like to think that i'm practising my indian cooking. whether or not i've improved, that's a totally different matter!

We used to go to the UK quite a lot for our holidays some 20-25 years back and i grew to love the indian take-aways at Edgware Road and the ever so popular Khan's at Bayswater. Back at home, a good family friend owns a REALLY GOOD indian restaurant called Sheesh Mahal at PJ and Ampang and i dared myself in trying different dishes.

Now that i'm far from the UK, even further than malaysia and sheesh mahal, and not to mention the fact that there arent that many affordable indian restaurants down south, i cook my own. Will write more on them. but this was what i cooked alongside my bottled tikka masala yesterday.



CRUNCHY AND SPICED BEANS WITH POTATOES


2-3 Medium sized potatoes
A handful of fresh beans
2 Cloves of Garlic - chopped
1 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp Chilli Powder
1/4 tsp Ground Cumin
1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds
1/2 tsp Corriander Seeds
1 tbsp Garam Masala
Vegetable Oil
Water
Salt
1 Whole tomato

Method:
1. Cook the potatoes in boiling water until cooked through. DO NOT overcook as it will mushy and we dont want that!
2. Drain and set aside to cool.
3. Cut them into bite sized pieces.
4. Heat oil in pan and cook garlic, tumeric, chilli powder, ground cumin, mustard seeds, corriander seeds.
5. Stir well for 2 mins and add just a tad bit of water if it sticks to the pan.
6. Add beans and stir for a minuite.
7. Add the cooked potatoes.
8. Add the garam masala and salt, stir well.
9. Lastly, diced a tomato and chuck them in.

Sticky Business

Decoupage is an art of decorating an object by gluing paper cut outs onto an object, a small box, a wooden tray, or even an item of furniture. each layer is sealed with layers and layers of varnishes to make it shine. i've always been a fan of decoupage and even tried in on eggshells (which is something i did back home, but will surely try again and post up in here).



My previous decoupage project i made was on an ikea white vase, still using the method but i think they work best with wooden objects.

This is another decoupage i made using an cheap plain wooden box and some serviette cuttings. it is so simple but needs a lot of care when hadling and pasting them. as you can see, mine's still lack of care! but as they say, practise makes perfect!



I did quite a lot of them, when my son's sleeping of course! the best way to start is cutting the paper first and keep them aside. and when you have the time, you select the ones that you need, and paste it on your objects. remember the glue must be in the object and not on the paper. once done with first coating, put it under the sun or set aside to dry. and once dried, apply another coating. i used a special serviette coat, of course there's plenty of decoupage glue and varnishes on the market.



I make my own gift boxes! simple but sticky!! :)

Bubur Pulut Hitam

I havent blog much about the desserts i've done. so here's one, i did just a few hours ago to satisfy my husband's craving for bubur pulut hitam. bubur means porridge, pulut hitam is glutinous rice. to tell you quite frankly, i dont really fancy any type of bubur, and i cant even remember if i've tasted this one prior to making one. but whether i like(d) it or not, i had to taste it in order to taste if its close to what he seems to be telling me.



Hardy found a packet of black glutinous rice at the toko and asked me if i know how to cook them. hey, i'm up for it! anything that can satisfy my husband's tastebuds and tummy, i'm game! i didnt know cooking them would be so sticky and you had to put quite a lot of sugar! but i managed to reduuce them to prevent us from putting more weight since we got here.

The colour puts me off, but as they say, dont judge the book by its cover! the taste was simply superb!! i wasnt sure as to how many gula melaka i'm suppose to add in, so basically, this recipe is just based on trial and error. i tasted it many times along the way.



BUBUR PULUT HITAM (my 1st attempt)

1/2 packet of Black Glutinous Rice
1 ltr of water
1 packet of Coconut Milk (use fresh coconut milk if you can)
150g-250g Gula Melaka
2-3 tbsp White Sugar
2 Pandan Leaves
Salt

1. Soak the rice for at least 1 hour before you bring it to boil. Boil together with pandan leaves.
2. When its half way or gets sticky, add gula melaka and white sugar. (sorry i didnt keep track on how much exactly i put them, hope the estimation helps!)
3. When it's about done, add 250ml coconut milk and stir well.
4. Keep the remaining coconut milk for you to add them yourself later on once it's off the stove! this one's slightly much more thicker than the previous that you added in.

It took me close to 2 hours to prepare them, slowly cook them to almost perfection, frequently tasting them at different stages and Hardy took hardly 2 mins for him to wipe it off the bowl! licin! i must have done good! ;)



It's really nice! where have i been all these while?!?!??!!

Grilled Chicken Wings

Back home, at the stalls, there will be a few that sells grilled chicken wings. this is one part of the chicken that they dont really fancy over here, therefore we can get them really cheap.

Of course it'd be nice to have yours at the stalls, eating on a stoll, your food on a foldable table, the boys shouting "teh o ais limau satuuuuu" (one ice lemon tea), the sound of the fire from the woks, with the whole atmosphere, but when you're far from all that, you'd tend to make do.

This was my attempt to make do! no atmosphere, but taste was quite near to home.

GRILLED CHICKEN WINGS

Marinade the chicken wings with oyster sauce, soy sauce (i used kicap pekat ABC as it is way thicker than the rest), a tad of salt and just a hint of white pepper for at least 1 hour. as usual, the longer the better.

One option is to add one or two drops of sessame oil.

Have a tablespoon full of cooking oil ready to spread onto the chiken about half way through grilling.

Grill it in the oven. check regularly if you set it high. i normally set mine at 200c on mormal grill speed and 180c on turbo grill. (thank you whirlpool for the best oven!)

Serve with thai sweet chilli sauce for starters or steamed white rice as part of your dish.

A Malaysian Breakfast

The Malays eat Nasi Lemak (coconut rice) for breakfast - yes.. rice early in the morning. not just rice, but it is accompanied by boiled eggs, dried anchovies and peanuts, cucumber slices and sambal tumis (lots and lots of cooked red chillies!). nasi lemak is available in most malay hawker stalls throughout malaysia and singapore during breakfast time. it is a heavy meal to start off your day, therefore i wouldnt recommend people to practise the malaysian diet!!

I normally cook this during the weekends when Hardy has slightly more time to enjoy his breakfast, rather than a 5 min one before dashing off to work.


NASI LEMAK

RICE

Long grain rice - 1½ cups
Coconut milk - ¾ cup
Cooking oil - 2 tsp (to prevent the rice from sticking together) - if you have a good rice, you might not need them
Water - 2 cups
Ginger - slice them up thinly
Shallots - slice them
Pandan Leaf - tie a knot (i didnt use any)
Lemongrass - (whack one up and chuck it in the rice cooker)
Halba - (those brown things which i think in english is called fenugreek?)
Salt

1. Wash rice in cold water and drain. Soak in coconut milk for 10 minutes.
2. Pour 2 tsp of oil in the rice cooker, add the rice and let the oil coat the rice.
3. Now add the water.
4. Add ginger and shallots.
5. Add in pandan leaf and lemongrass.

Basically, its the same method as cooking the normal rice, but substitue the water to coconut milk. the fruity essence of the pandan leaf, lemongrass and the nutty flavor of the coconut milk will infuse into the rice.

Make sure you switch the rice-cooker to the cook mode (i can't tell you how many times i've forgotten to do this and waited hours for my rice to be ready!)

EGGS and CUCUMBER

Boil the eggs and later cut into halves
Slice some cucumber

ANCHOVIES
Fry them in a pan of hot oil but be very careful not to burn them. it should be golden and crunchy.

SAMBAL TUMIS

Dried chillies
Shallots
Garlic
Belacan (Dried Shrimp Paste) - You must be able to handle the smell!
Asam Juice
Salt & Sugar to taste

Method:

1. Take out all or some of the seeds of the dried chillies as required so that the sambal will not be too hot. do this by simply snipping the chillies across into two and the dried seeds will tumble out.
2. Soak the dried chillies in water (the longer the better) and later bring it to boil.
3. Put the dried chillies, skinned shallots, garlic and the baked blachan and some water (just enough to cover the ingredients) into the blender and grind till fine.
3. Put some oil into a saucepan, add the chillie mixture and stir well till it changes colour.
4. Add the the prepared assam juice.
5. Cook for some time until the chillie mixture turns a little dark red. do not overcook as the mizture will turn darker and darker.
6. Add salt and sugar to taste. this is not a sweet dish and sugar should be added just enough to give it that saucy sharpness and no more.

I've practise long and hard for this but as usual, i dont really have the right measurements and quantities on how much each ingredient should be used. i should get the measurements.. i know.. will try to do it next time!

Ayam Goreng Ku nyit nyit nyit

On my laziest days, this is what i'll do - Chicken with tumeric. hardly have time these days as aidan's been on gear 4 crawling, climbing, pulling, grabbing...

You'll find tumeric powder being sold at most turkish shops, as well as asian tokos. but you will find no problems in finding them back home, in malaysia for certain. it is one of our essential ingredients, as most malay households will have them in our kitchens. if you're new to this spice, and not quite sure how it tastes like, this dish would probably sum up its flavour. as usual, you can add loads more to it but the simpler the better. i've added some curry leaves to give it a little bit more spice!

CHICKEN WITH TUMERIC

Chicken breasts -cut into strips
Onions - cut into rings
Tumeric Powder
Salt
Curry Leaves - make sure they're washed!
Green Chillies - cut into chunks
Cooking Oil

Saute the onions and curry leaves, add the chicken strips until its golden and cooked. sprinkle some tumeric powder and stir well. put in the green chillies and later add salt to taste. if it sticks too much on the pan, add a tad bit of water. easy peezy!

Lettuce

Sometimes when you want to avoid eating stir fried vegs, and bored of steaming or grilling them, try this. i can assure you that this is the simplest vegetable dish ever! and all you need it simply minimal, you dont have to even roll up your sleeves to do this.



Boil the lettuce for about 1 1/2 to 2 mins, but make sure that they are not overly boiled and still have their crunch. take them out of the pot, and into a bowl, and pour a couple of tablespoonfulls of oyster sauce on the greens. mix them well, and top them up with fried shallots.