Home made grind chillies

The grind chillies after it was blended

You can get this much for 1/2 kg of dried chillies

Did you notice that the grind chillies that was sold in the local market was a way TOO salty? Preparing it  yourself is more satisfying. Here's the procedure and preparation of your DIY grind chillies. 

Ingredients: 

1. 1/2 kg of dried chillies
2. some cooked water

Procedure:

1. Cook or boil dried chillies until it is really soft. You may also throw away the seed of the chillies if you want. It is better if you do this..but it depends on how much you have to do it though. 
2. Sieve the chillies that are already cooked
3. Let it cold for a while 
4. Later, put the chillies in a blender. Add a little bit of water (that was already cooked)
5. Blend all the chillies- finely
6. In a container, put the chillies you've already blended. 
7. Store it in the fridge. The compartment at the centre to be exact.

Squid with coconut gravy

You might seriously notice that nearly 80% of the lauk cooked used santan or coconut milk as its base ingredients. This was due to my husband's request that there needs to be 2 lauk, the least (ok?) for dinner or lunch. One is dry (examples are fried mix vegetables, ulam and etc.) and another is lauk with gravy (one of the exampke is here). Basically, it is not that difficult to prepare one such lauk (I mean with santan).

What you need to have is (1) 200 ml of santan equals to a box of Ayam brand santan- mix it with 2 cups of water, (2) 1/2 kg of squid, (3) 1 lemon grass, (3) tumeric, and (4) salt to taste. In preparing it firstly you need to:

1. In a pot, put squid and tumeric (you need to mash it using lesung)
2. Let the squid to become a little bit tender. To ensure this, let the water from the squid to be dried. It takes a few second for this process.
3. Once the water is dried, then only your pour the santan milk and water 
4. Add salt
5. Cook it for another few second before turning off the heat of the stove

Isn't that simple? Above is the picture taken when I served it for lunch yesterday. Together with it, I also served  sambal belacan and fried mix vegetables.

What a frustration!

 

These pictures worth a thousand meaning to depict my frustration when I tried to prepare keropok lekor the other day. I used cold water to mix the fish and sago flour. As a result, the keropok lekor was really 'hard' to eat. Your head could almost be shaking when you eat one. So my suggestion when you want to cook keropok lekor, NEVER use water. Some recipe in the website, did state that water can be used. But I DOUBT it.. 

Laksam

 Seceduk bancuhan yang diletakkan diatas tudung periuk 

Bancuhan yang kurang pekat spt. yg disarankan dari resepi asal

 Laksam yang telah siap digulung

Sepinggan laksam 

Last two weeks I cooked laksam. The recipe was taken from a magazine, Mingguan Wanita printed in 2009 if was not mistaken. Indeed, it was really easy to make the laksam. Yet, I still could remember the way my mother  cooked it. The recipe couldn't challenge my mom's, though. Now, here's the recipe. 

Ingredients for the laksam itself: 

1. 2 cups of wheat flour
2. 2 cups of rice flour
3. 2 cups of water 
4. salt to taste

Procedure of cooking laksam:

1. In a bowl, mix wheat flour, rice flour, water and salt (henceforth I named it as laksam mixture)
2. Stir it to ensure all ingredients are mixed well
3. Heat steamer
4. Using a pot cover (small cover pot that can fit into the steamer), pour one ladle of laksam mixture
5. Wait for only 5 minutes or so for it to be cooked 
6. Once you remove the cover pot from the steamer, place it on a table or floor. It's time to fold the laksam. I use my fingers and a spoon to fold it. Be extra careful because it is really hot. Yet, I suggest that you fold the laksam while it is still hot. 

Ingredients for laksam's gravy : 

1. 1/2 kg or a kilo of fish (of any type)
2. 200 ml of santan (I purchased Ayam brand. I small box equals to 200 ml. Mix it with 2-3 cups of water depending on how much condensates you want it to be)
3. salt to taste
4. 1 onion and a couple of garlic

Procedure for cooking the gravy for laksam:

1. Steam or boil the fish. If you boil the fish, don't throw the water. You'll need it to mix it with the fish later
2. Debone the fish
3. In a blender, put the fish you've already debone. Add water (as I recommended in no. 1)
4. Use sieve to sift the fish and bones 
5. Concerning the bones, don't just throw it like that. Instead, blend it altogether so that you can add also it in the gravy. It's much tastier. Trust me! So, you need to sieve and sieve until you really sure that it is really VERY FINE.

Serving:

1. In a plate, cut laksam using scissor. You may need 2-3 roles of laksam for one serving
2. Pour a ladle or two of kuah laksam onto it 
3. Spread, cabbage or cucumber, belacan (shrimp paste) and grind chillies on it. Alternatively you may use long beans as well.

I really love laksam. And this is a worth of a cooking experiment!

Soy bean condiment

 

If you were to look at the recipe- fried banana, you will see that soy bean condiment is served together with fried banana. So, here's the recipe: 

Ingredients: 

1. 5 tbsp of soybean ketchup
2. 2 garlic
3. 2 1/2 tbsp of sugar

Preparation procedure: 

1. In a lesung or using mortal and pestle (which is widely use in many Malay houses), put in garlic and sugar
2. mash both ingredient until it is mashed finely
3. Add in soy bean sauce  

Fried Banana

 

Fried banana 

Fried banana with soy bean condiment

Pisang tanduk

I am not sure to categorise the fried banana in which category. It doesn't sound right if it was categorised for kuih muih. But, it seemed appropriate if I put it under minum petang or food for afternoon tea. But what about doughnuts or pizza? Those are also eaten in the afternoon in the house. A puzzle that is  not worth solving at the moment. Best of all, fried banana fits into both categories. I didn't use rice flour in the recipe like the one sold in many kedai goreng pisang (though I have it in the kitchen). Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1. 1 banana of medium ripe (I use 1 pisang tanduk. Above is the picture)
2. 10 tbsp of flour 
3. 1 egg
4. some water (depends on how much you want it to be concentrated)
5. a  pinch of salt
6. Oil for cooking

Cooking procedure

1. In a bowl, put flour, egg
2. Add in water
3. Add in salt
4. Stir the mixture 
5. Dip banana into the mixture 
6. Then fry it

Fried banana is served when it is still hot. Also you can prepare sambal kicap (soy bean cordiment) as the side dish. In particular you can dip the banana with the soy bean cordiment. A serving style that was practice by Javanese. My sister in law (Kak Ana and Abg Zul, they were Javanese). So when they serve pisang goreng, the cordiment would also be served. Simply delicious..

Sup daging lembu/ Beef soup

Beef soup is always the family all time favourite. The kids love soup and hubby also likes it. It takes a lot of patient to let the beef becomes tender. But it is worth the effort if everyone enjoy the dish you prepared for them, agree? Here's the recipe.

1. 1 kg of beef
2. 2 quarts water or more
3. 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
4. 1 onion, chopped
5. 4 potatoes -sliced
6. 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
7. 1 sup bunjut adabi 

Cooking Procedures:

1. In a large pot over medium heat pour some water. Also, put in sup bunjut adabi (or any brand).
2. Saute onion and pepper. Then put the mixture into the pot where beef is placed. It took me nearly 2 hours to make the beef tender
3. Add potatoes when beef is tender.
4. For serving, add tomatoes, lemon or limau kasturi and soup leaves. p/s: You may also put tomatoes together with potatoes. 

 

Here's my version of beef soup. The meat that was bought from Pekan sehari

Chicken in Coconut Gravy/ Udang masak lemak...without cili padi

If you were to observe the recipes that are in this blog, almost of them didn't use cili padi as one of the ingredients in cooking the dishes. This was simply because I have three kids at home who are too picky when it comes to the food I cook for them.For instance, the eldest will only be eating prawns while the second will only be eating its gravy. So, it's not easy to satisfy every child's preferences. In short, appreciate our mother s while there are still with us...I was not fortunate at that. Al Fatihah to my parents.

Ingredients

1. 1/2 kg of prawns 
2. 1 Lemongrass
3. 2 cups of coconut milk which was already mixed with water
4. 3 potatoes
5. turmeric leave- optional

Procedure

1. In a pot, put prawns and turmeric. Let it cook for a while
2. Bruise the lemongrass and chuck it in the pot
3. Add coconut milk and potatoes.
4. Cook for another 15 minutes. Keep on tirring to evenly spread the gravy all over the chicken. p/s: make sure to use small or medium heat to avoid bubbles cause by the coconut milk. 

Mix vegetable again...

French Toast

Usually french toast is eaten for breakfast. But I guess, if we are running out of idea what to serve for afternoon tea, french toast would be okay. As long as you hot drink is served. Here's the recipe  for french toast..

Ingredients:

1. 4 eggs
2. 1 teaspoon sugar, optional
3. 1 teaspoon salt
4. 1 cup milk
5. 10 to 12 slices white bread
6. butter

Procedures:

1. Break eggs into a  bowl and beat lightly with a fork. 
2. Stir in sugar, salt, and milk in the mixture.
3. Over medium-low heat, heat pan that was already coated with a thin layer of butter or margarine.
4. Place the bread slices, one at a time, into the bowl or plate, letting slices soak up egg mixture for a few seconds, then carefully turn to coat the other side. 
5. Put it onto the pan (non stick) to fry it 
6. Slice it according to you preference

Prawn Curry

 

Ingredients

1. 1/2 kg of prawns 
2. 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder
3. 1 tbsp of lemon or tamarind juice
4. 1 medium of finely sliced onions
5. 2 tbsp finely minced ginger
6. 2 tbsp finely minced garlic
7. Some curry leaves  and tumeric leaves
8. Oil to saute 
9. Pinch of salt
   
10. 3 cups of coconut milk. Approximate measure of the santan that was mixed with water (all in all you would have a ratio of 1 cup of santan equals to 1 1/2 water)

Preparation Procedures:

1. Wash and clean the prawns. Add a pinch of turmeric powder and soak the prawns for 5 minutes. Drain and keep aside.
2. In a pan, pour a little bit of oil to saute onion
3. Add curry leaves, ginger and garlic and saute for a few more minutes.
4. Once the onions become translucent. Saute for around 2 minutes
5. Add santan milk and lemon or tamarind juice
6. Reduce heat to medium and add the marinated prawns. Cook uncovered for 12-15 minutes.
7. Switch off the stove and cover the pan.

fried oyster mushroom

Ikan Bakar/ Grill fish

 

The fish on set to be grilled

 

Grilled fish ..ready to eat/serve 

How many of use still use this type of grill to grill fish? I still use it since this was the only grill available in my late mother in law's house. Arrange the fish as you can see in the photo. Turn on the heat and for 10 minutes or lesser, the fish is ready. The side dish would be tamarind cordiment that you also add in it some chillies, onions, belacan, salt and sugar.

Fish cake n vege.

 

Fish cake and mix vegetable that can be eaten with noodles or rice.

Egg role with vegetable filling

 

Was still wondering why do I cook this for lunch? Purple cabbage, prawns  and onions was used as the filling. Hubby said, "seram la warna purple kobis ni"...

Banana Cake

I baked the cake when I was having a mild head ache. I thought of stopping but then I was in the middle of baking it. Well, here's the recipe.

Ingredients

1. 75g (1/3 cup) softened butter
2. 110g (1/2 cup) unrefined (golden) caster (superfine granulated) sugar
3. 1 large beaten egg
4. 225g (2 cups) plain wholemeal (all-purpose) flour
5. 2 level tsp baking powder
6. 4 ripe bananas

Method

1. Grease and base-line a loaf tin. Heat the oven to 350F.
2. Put butter, caster sugar and egg into a bowl. Sift in flour and baking powder. Using an electric mixer, whisk until thoroughly combined. Add the grated lemon and orange rind if using.
3. Slice the bananas into another bowl, and mash to a pulp. Add to the flour mixture, along with the walnuts and whisk again thoroughly.
4. Spoon the mixture into the tin or cases and bake until risen and browned, and springs back when pressed with a finger. A loaf takes about 50 minutes. Muffins take 15-20 mins.
5. Leave cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning on to a wire tray.

As can be linked from http://www.healthy-eating-made-easy.com/banana-cake-recipe.html

Mak Bee and papaya

 

The ever simplest desert. Slice papaya and put kuah rojak Mak Bee onto it (which Kak Chik bought when we went to Penang last year). Still not expired yet! 

Nasi ayam again...

 

Cooked just yesterday while hubby went for solat Jumaat. Upon eating it, my hubby teased me, "Dah amik gambar?" Takpe...

Daging masak lemak

 

Daging masak lemak without cili padi though the kids won't be eating it. They would be eating the potatoes only. Not worth the effort for the time spent in preparing it. So, the dish is cooked for hubby and myself.

Ingredients: 

1.  1/2 kilo meat 
2. 2 lemon grass
3. 3 potatoes
4. 1/2 inch tumeric 
5. 1-3cups of santan milk (that was already mixed with water)
6. a pinch of salt
7. tumeric leave if available 
8. Mash tumeric.  

Procedure for cooking: 

1. I used 'lesung batu' to do this 
2.  In a pot, add in tumeric, santan milk (with water), lemon grass, meat. Cook until meat is tender. It required for about 30-40 min. for the meat to be tender
3.  Add in potatoes 
4. Turn off the stove when potatoes are cooked

Abg Haziq's fried rice before going to KAFA

This is how I fry the eggs..mamak-style fried rice.After breaking 2 eggs

Eggs almost cooked..after this you just need to stir it..and it's ready

Although there is rice and some 'lauk' available, my eldest frequently requested for fried rice. The simplest fried rice cooked more or less for only seven minutes or so. Hidangkan bila panas! After eating this for lunch, off he went to school in the afternoon. 

Wonder what we can do with chicken legs?

Fried mix vegetables with chicken legs that was used as the 'base' flavour. The usual cooking procedure of frying mix vegetables was applied in this recipe.   

Banana muffin aka Apam kukus pisang

 

The banana muffins that was prepared last Wednesday. Plenty of bananas in the house. The recipe was adapted from Chef Hanieliza's blog. Took about 40 minutes to finish baking them.

Raisin bread

Haziq requested to eat raisin bread the other day. Since I have some raisins in the fridge, I make this raisin bread. This was the first time I made raisin bread. The recipe here is the combination of the one that I got when I bought mauripan yeast as well as some websites for making the bread.

Ingredients

1. 1 package of Mauripan yeast, 11 gms
2. 1/4 cup warm water
3. 1 cup raisins
4. 1/4 cup soft butter or margerine
5. 1/4 cup sugar
6. 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
7. 1/2 cup scalded milk
8. 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
9. 2 eggs, beaten

Preparation procedure:

1. Mix yeast and flour and sieve it 
2. In a large bowl, combine raisins, butter, sugar, salt, and hot milk; stir to dissolve the sugar.
3. Cover with a clean dish cloth; let stand in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours or more
4. Place dough in a lightly buttered bowl, turning once to grease the surface.
5. Punch dough down and make it into small portion. Cover and let rest for 45 to 60 minutes, or until almost double.
6. Bake at 375° for 25 minutes
7. Remove loaves from pans and let cool on racks.

Taugeh masak lemak

The preparation to cook taugeh masak lemak was similar to cooking sohon masak lemak. Instead of using sohon, you replace it with taugeh. One of my favourites!

Labu masak lemak

Labu masak lemak is cooked with some pumpkins, coconut milk and dried fish. The dish is eaten with rice and suitable to be served for dinner or lunch. Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups of pumpkin
2. 1 cup of coconut milk (or 1/2 small box of coconut milk + 1 cup of water. I usually use skim coconut milk where you can purchase at many retail shops. It's 5% low in cholesterol)
3. 5 dried fish (of any type but the best if ikan parang)
4. 2/3 tbsp of pepper

Preparation procedure:

1. Pour in water and coconut milk
2. Let it boil for a while
3. Add in pumpkin
4. Add in pepper
5. Let it cook until pumkin is tender

Fruit with mayonaise n raisin

If you have mayonaise at home and some fruits, mix all them together and spread raisin on it. It's ideal for breakfast..kids also enjoy it

Keropok lekor

Keropok lekor (fish chips) is usually serve for afternoon tea in many Malay houses. It doesn' take a lot of effort to cook the keropok lekor. All you need to have are sago, fish, salt and ice cubes. Here's the ingredients in particular.

Ingredients: 

1. 1 packet of sago (in Tunas Manja it cost RM1.75 per packet)  
2. 1 kg of fish
3. 3 cups of ice

Preparation procedure:

1. Debone fish
2. Put the fish in a blender.
3. In a plate or container, put the fish that you've already blended
4. Add in ice cubes

Pinch a little bit of the mixture and roll it. The size of one keropok lekor is more or less like the one you see in the picture here. More or less 15cm each. Boil it for 15 minutes.

Let it cold for a while before you fry it. Refer to the picture here. You can also eat it like this. It's no more raw! Another thing, if look at the ingredients, no water is used. Only if ice cubes are not available then water can be substituted. I observed this when my mother made keropok lekor. Also she once worked in a keropok lekor factory when I was a child. I could still remember the procedure and the do's and don'ts.. not to mention the fishy smell. I felt dizzy when the smell was strong.

Fry the keropok lekor. Here is how it looks like after you fried it. You may also eat it with chilli sauce.

Fried beef with ginger

Another one of my favourite dishes. It was just waiting for the meat to be tender that makes the dish take a little long to prepare, I supposed.

Ingredients

1. 1/2 kg of beef meat
2. some tomato, ginger, carrot, red chillies
3. 5 tbsp of soybean ketchup
4. 3 tbsp of chillie sauce
5. 3 tbsp of tomato sauce
6. onion and garlic (saute)

Preparation procedure:

1. Poach or boil meat until it is really tender 
2. Heat the oil
3. Saute onion and garlic
4. Add in beef (fry for 5 min or so. It was already boiled earlier)
5. Add in all the sauces
6. Add in all the vegetable

There you have it. Serves it hot. This is a chinese dish and as such it's good if you can have more ginger. Ginger is said to heal motion sickness!

Fried egg with variety of sauces

A simple dish for a quick dinner. Preparation time is less than 10 minutes. What you have to do is fry eggs, then pour some water. And finally add soy bean sauce, chillie and tomato ketchup. Once in a while for a dish like this I think it's just perfect. What more if you have 'L' virus or 'M' virus occupying you.

Sohon masak lemak

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 small box of coconut milk (portion of water and coconut milk 1:1 1/2)
2. a little bit of sohon  
3. 2 white taufo
4. water for soaking

Preparation procedure:

1. Soak sohon in water until it is soft
2. In a pot, pour in water and coconut milk
3. Add sohon
4. Let it boil for five minutes or so before turning off the heat

You may also add prawns or dried prawn for the dish if you like

Nasi ayam/ chicken rice

This was the chicken rice cooked for dinner last night. Yet the rice comes with soup, soy bean sauce, and chillie sauce. I didn't take photos of those side dishes. Cooking chicken rice is not that difficult. Moreover, you just prepare one dish but everything is in. What I mean, you have protein, zink and carbohydrate all at the same time. Do try the recipe down here.

Ingredients
1 cup of rice (ratio of rice and water 1: 1/2)
chicken cube to make soup
1/2 chicken depending on the size (it's better not to chop it)
oil for frying
onion and garlic (optional)
some spices (cloves, star anise,cinnamon and cardamon)
5-7 cups of water for soup

Preparation procedure for soup
1. Boil water in a pot
2. Add in chicken and chicken cube
3. Let it boil for 15 minutes (just right for the chicken to halfy cook)
4. Heat oil
6. Fried the chicken

Preparation procedure for rice
1. Wash rice thrice
2.  Add in rice and water
3. Cook for 7 minutes

For serving, pour the rice into a cup. Take a plate and pour the rice onto it. Then put slices of tomato and cucumber beside the rice. Only cut the chicken when you want to prepare it. Baru nampak cam kat kedai, he he!

Kek lapis masam manis (Layered sweet 'n' sour cake)

During the recent Chinese New Year, my brother in law's (thereafter Abg Zul) sister from Johor paid a visit to his house. She is a really cooking master regardless of dishes. Baking cakes is one of her specialities besides making curry puffs, really soft doughnuts and lot more. In fact, all of Abg Zul's sibling can cook. Since she was in Pekan, I had the chance to ask her how she baked kek lapis that she bought that day. The recipe here was written while we're having afternoon tea. I followed eveything that she said. These include covering the steamer with cloth as you can see in the first photo. Also, putting the layers in plastic bags as to ease baking. You need to cut at one of the corners of the plastic bag.  

One thing I need to state here was that I used cream cracker biscuit. Supposedly, 'biskut tawar' was to be used. Due to that, the cake was a little bit oily. Earlier she told me that I could substitute 'biskut tawar' with biskut marie. Frankly speaking I didn't like the latter that much.  'Biskut tawar' can be purchased at the retail shop or kedai runcit. Below is the ingredients and the preparation procedures as was told by Abg Zul's sister. p/s: I didn't have the chance to snap the photo showing the layers of the cake. All were gone..my hubby ate only two small slices of the cake.

   

The steamer that was covered with cloth

The second layer with haw flakes on top before steaming it 

Plastic bags use to load layers

Here's the cake.

The ingredients and the preparation procedures was told by Abg Zul sister's in her words as can be seen below. So, I think it has to remain as such.

Bahan-bahan:

2 buku butter
2 cawan biskut tawar (blend and sieve. Blending is a must but you may omit sieving it)
10 biji telur (seperate white and yolk)
2 cawan gula halus
6 sdb susu pekat
2 sdb ovalette
4-5 packet of haw flakes
1 sdk even vanilla

Cara penyediaan:
1. Putih telur diputar sampai pekat (please refer to the condition of how the egg has to be in my ealier post i.e. baking carrot cake) 
2. Dalam bekas lain, campurkan kuning telur, ovalette dan gula halus. Putar sampai putih pekat. Asingkan
3. Dalam bekas lain lagi atau ditengah-tengah bancuhan kedua, campurkan butter dan susu
4. Campurkan biskut yg telah di'blend' tadi. Colour 3 warna (refer to the photos above to know what I mean)
5. Panaskan air kukusan
6. Lesekkan loyang dengan marjerin yang telah diletakkan kertas minyak atau 2 keping kertas A4.
7. Taburkan lapisan pertama dan bakar lbh kurang 15 minit utk setiap lapisan.
8. Lakukan lapis demi lapis sehingga adunan habis.
9. Biarkan beberapa ketika sblm dipotong *cautious: avoid eating the cake when it is hot (I really mean it, it's HOT).

Muffin with peanut butter filling