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.

Trully Johor

While we were in Switzerland last couple of weeks, we managed to spoke to the Ambassador (who happens to be a childhood and a family friend of my mum), and he invited us to his charming, elequent home in Bern, 1.5 hours drive from Zurich. I really ought to write something about this humble, warm man, as he captured our hearts with his voice and later when we met him with his heart. i will write about him and our trip to switzerland in my other blog soon.

Well anyway, we arrived at his home, 1 hour late, after stopping over at Lindt the cocolatier factory. His housekeeper greeted us with umbrellas as it was raining and welcomed us. he specifically asked his cook to make lodeh, being a johorian himself. and it was one hell of a dish cooked by the 23 year old cook!! we havent had lodeh for a very long time. back in malaysia, it was my family signature dish prepared during Eid, alongside, rendang daging , fried chicken, kuah kacang (peanut sauce), and sambal kelapa (coconut sambal). and let me tell you - what a day, to be enjoying this delicacy, on a rainy day!



It was superb! and not to mention the humble host too! we didnt quite get enough of it and so we asked dad and mum if they could kindly do their famous lodeh!

To those who are not familiar with it, you might ask what lodeh is. lodeh is most popular in the southern state of malaysia, Johor and parts of indonesia. it is something like a vegetable stew, where the method is actually stewing the veges in coconut gravy. usually, south east asian cooking is seldom vegetarian but this dish is an exception.



At the verge of a boil, carrots, string beans and cabbage (in that order, since carrots take a notoriously long time to cook) are plonked into the fragrant curry thickened with coconut milk to make the broth translucent. it should then simmer until the vegetables starts to lose their crunch.

Fried tofu squares, tempe (fermented soy bean) , softened su-un (glass noodles) and soaked dried tofu skins are added towards the end. We malays add our nasi impit (pressed cooked rice) which is then being cut into small squares to the stew.

I'm not sure everyone has patience for this, thus that was why i asked mum and dad to do it for us!

Thank you Dato for a lovely metting at your humble home, and compliments to the chef. thank you mum and dad for a wicked meal!!

Doosje

I love all kinds of boxes. at one point i even collect shoeboxes - the really good ones. there are simply too many nice wrapping paper these days, you'll get attracted to them easily eventhogh you have no presents to wrap! what i do is i'd wrap the shoeboxes up with those nice wrappers and store my old photos and cards, whatever you fancy. most of my boxes are back at home now, but i'm starting to collect them again.

This is currently my gem. saw them at "blokker" and i just had to get them! i think i have 7 or 8 of them, with different sizes. who knows, they might come handy one day. i'm currently using them to store my ribbons, my flowers, my coloured papers and cards, all my itsy bitsy things.



The things i collect!!

Lasagne

My favourite italian classic which still remains a frim family favourite. i'd never thought it'd be this easy! and to my mind, it is not worth making in smaller quantities. why? cause it freezes well and it will be handy when you have no time to prepare any food, just get it out of the freezer and put them in the oven. so if you have a small household, you can make them into two small baking dishes and freeze the other one for later.



I normally serve mine with bread and dips, foccacia and balsamic, but this time, i've run out of them, i only had normal wit brood, to which i spred some olive oil, crushed garlic and herbs and pan grill them. i later cut them into long slices.



CLASSIC LASAGNE

Minced Beef
Lasagne Sheets
Olive Oil
Onions (chopped)
Canned Plum Tomatoes
Tomato Puree
Beef Stock
Salt
Ground Black Pepper
Fresh Parsley (chopped)
Oregano
Parmesan Cheese or Mozarella Cheese (grated)

1. Preheat oven to 200c
2. Heat frying pan with olive oil. Add onions, garlic, minced beef. cook meat till browned, breaking it up as the meat cooks.
3. Add canned plum tomatoes. stir well.
4. Add water and beef stock.
5. Add tomato puree to thicken the sauce.
6. Season well with salt, black pepper. chuck those oregano and fresh parsley in the pan.
7. Blanch one or two sheets at a time in boiling water for 3 mins, then plunge into cold water.
8. Plce a layer of the sheets on the bottom of your ovenprrof dish, pour the white sauce, and the meat mix over the lasagne.. repeat the layers until all the sauce and lasagne are used, finishing it with a layer of the lasagne sheets and topped it with parmesan or mozarella cheese.
9. Bake for 45 mins or untul cooked through.

WHITE SAUCE

I'm sure they have those bottled, ready made white sauce at the supermarkets. but you can try this if you have plenty of time in the kitchen.

50g Butter
50g plain flourr
600 milk
salt
fresh ground black pepper
200g grated cheese (optional)

1. Melt butter in a saucepan and stir in the flour. cook over low heat for 30 seconds
2. Remove from the heat and gradually stir in milk
3. Return pan to a low heat and stir constantly, until sauce thickens.
4. Season to taste with salt and pepper
5. Stir in cheese, keep stirring until the cheese melts.


(p.s: k.na, dad still prefers yours!)

Prei

I love this vegetable. we call them prei over here. i put them in my chicken soup, vegetable soup, stew, pasta sometimes.. and i've just found out that i can stir fry them too (where have i been!?) no fuss therefore its a must - for all to try!



Its a beautiful vegetable, i'm sure you'd agree. i'm still looking for more ways to cook them, as a main dish.



STIR FRY LEEK

Leek
Garlic
Oyster Sauce
Sesamee Oil
Maggi Ikan Bilis )(anchovy) Granules or Udang Kering(dried shrimps)
Salt
Cooking Oil

Method:
1. Heat oil in wok
2. Saute garlic
3. Add Leek and stir fry for 2 mins
4. Add in Oyster Sauce and a little bit of water
5. Sprinkle the granules
6. Add a dash of salt
7. Add 2 drops of sesamee oil

Rondos

Next time you see those rounded rondos used as a coaster, grab it! provided that they arent any stamping on them saying this hotel, that hotel. but if you see them being sold anywhere, dont think of it as just a coaster! there's so much you can do with them!

I glued it using a serviette coat on the lid of a plain wooden box. my intention was to paint the round box first but i didnt have the paint in stock. so i indulged into my boxes and found these strings i bought some time ago.



I plan to do slightly more than one, fill them up with coloured mints, and have personalized name tags as my party favors!