Exotic Salad...

One thing I love about going back to enche hubby's hometown is to go to the fish market... we will surely make a point to do marketing every time we went back to Sungai Besar.... it's cheap and fresh... I love those makcik selling all sorts of ulam.... 

These are some of the ingredients I bought last weekend.... if you are looking for cili padi yang memang hot.... which you hardly found in Shah Alam.... here's the place... I always have this issue of "rambang mata" when buying chillies over there...so end up buying from few shops... the quality of hotness is superb... meaning you just need a few shots to bring you the flaming hot flavour to your dish....

Other stuffs I bought, young galangal, lemongrass, pineapple, petai, daun kesum, ginger etc..

When I have all these ingredients in hand.... my recipe thinking process will automatically enhanced..... and I love cooking when ingredients are fresh and available... the chopping, squeezing ahhhh... is very satisfying.......

This time, I'm preparing a more exotic salad......Chicken F_ _ t Salad ... I have once shared this recipe but no harm sharing it again just in case someone missed it......

 Ingredients

Chicken F_ _t 

Glass noodles

Lemongrass

Tomatoes

Chilli Padi

Shallots

Lime Juice

Salt , Sugar &  Pepper

Fish Sauce

and don't forget the magic spell

A drop of love

 

 Methods

 Boiled chicken feet until soft. De bone it (Put aside)

Soak the glass noodle in warm water until soft (Put aside)

Slice/dice all other ingredients (Tomato, lemongrass, chilli padi, shallots)

Toss everything in a mixing bowl

Add fish sauce, salt, sugar & pepper

Squeeze the lime

Add the chopped coriander leaves

and finally

drop the spell (Mom's love) to the dish..

 .

.

.

.

.

.

.

very easy ... I just love the texture of chicken F_ _ t... crunchy, chewy and hmmmmm... best of all... the bite of chilli padi, onion and coriander leaves and the soury zest of lime ...make this dish taste to perfection... try this... or you can get this from most of Thailand Restaurant....

New Gap Membership

Went to KLCC last week to start my Raya shopping... just found out that GAP is introducing a new membership scheme..... all this while, I've been using my friend's membership to enjoy the discount privilege.... since I'm now a big fan of gap... or gap is now my favorite label for kids wear... might as well just sign up for membership...

Yes, I did it..... paid RM30 for membership fee and I got all these.....

.

.

.

.

.

last year's shopping for raya from GAP....(ignore the date on picture) .... those clothes I bought, are still in good conditions ... memang betul kata pepatah orang dulu-dulu...alah membeli menang memakai ...

  

 .

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

and this is this year's catch for raya.....

 

 .

.

.

.

Bought most of it from GAP KLCC, Pavilion and all the way from JPO.... sanggup drive to JPO shop and drove back to KL....just to get the DVF range yang dah tak available in any Gap outlet.....

 .

.

.

.

.

.

and my craze on GAP is unstoppable .....I've ordered online too.... more to come......online shopping for gap is always the cheapest... most of it , I just paid about 20% from the original price... it's so worth it... they have periodical promotions on going from time to time.... as good as having 40% from the discounted item.... but the only challenge is that, they didn't ship to Malaysia.. but I have a solution for that.... I'll use HopShopGo service to ship for me.... have been doing this quite a number of time... so far I have no issue buying from any US Merchant especially Ebay...

Can't wait for my order to arrive.....

Oreo Chocolate Pudding

Try and error recipe.... recipe from my sister in law.... why I didn't like to write about dessert is to list down the ingredients with the exact quantity... otherwise the entry will be meaningless to readers... unlike normal dish where you can just estimate roughly how much you need for each ingredient...

Puding Chocolate Oreo

After a bit of modification on the sweetness, this is my version for Puding Oreo........

Ingredients

20gm of agar-agar

1500 ml water

2 cups/125 gm of sugar

2  cans of evaporated milk

2 cups of MILO powder

3-4 packets Oreo biscuits.

Method

Masakkan agar-agar sehingga hancur. Masukkan gula sehingga larut. Tuangkan susu kedalam agar-agar. Bahagikan sukatan kepada dua bahagian. Tmbahkan MILO dan tuangkan ke dalam acuan... apabila hampir keras... susunkan biskut oreo yang telah dibelah dua keatas agar-agar. Tunggu sebentar sehingga agar-agar sejuk sedikit sebelum menuangkan sukatan agar-ahar putih....

 

Senangkan? Pasti menjadi kesukaan anak-anak mahupun dewasa..... caught you papil..... ha tak puasa yee.... puding oreo punya pasal ..

and Alhamdulillah rezeki bulan Ramadhan... ada yang berminat nak order.... 

 

.

.

.

.

.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies is an evergreen cookies not just for festive season but it's all year round. It has been my dream to bake my own cookies with proper oven.... alhamdulillah, I made it... and I made it my way.. a very sinful version of Choc Chip.. don't try if you're not ready for a blast of chocolate indulgence and the nutty crunch.... But the bad thing of having this jars of cookies available in your home means that I need to increase my effort to do more workout and  get the calories intake burned in an equal amount....and my pimples are everywhere on my face because of the nuts last warning... stop scrolling if you're not ready for this cookies monster.....

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

1 butter

3/4 cup sugar 

2 eggs

2 cups of flour

2 1/2 cups of oats (blend)

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup of mixed nut

1/2 bar of grated Cadbury chocolate

1 cup of Chocolate Chips

Method

Beat butter and sugar (Don't over do it)

Put egg and vanilla essence

Add flour and oats

Add the rest of ingredients as below.

I used pecan & almond for the nuts...

(next time,I may use macademia and buttersctoch as a combo).. how about it

Mixed well and place the dough in the refrigerator for 1 hour before baking... don't forget to use cling wrap to preserve the moisture...

 

 

Make a small ugly rocky shape as shown below...

within 10 minutes... dough is ready to be baked

 

Bake for 15 minutes at 170 degree celcius

 

Let it cool before putting it in a jar

 

Use a baking sheet ...

 

.

.

.

.

yesssssss

my kuih puasa is ready...

It's so easy... and while placing the dough in the refrigerator for 1 hour, I made this in between.....

Kuih Semprit

Soto Ayam Istimewa

Despite battling going through heavy traffic jam everyday to reach home from work for Iftar, I will still make a point to prepare something for the family from my kitchen.... alhamdullillah so far, never thought of buying the main dish from Pasar Ramadhan... reason being, my 6 years old daughter is fasting, and my 5 years old boy is also learning to fast.. feeding their empty stomach with outside food can be very risky .... 

Might as well just prepare something simple .... like this..... if I can refer to as simple...

SOTO

Ingrdients

For the Soup
Water
Chicken
Sup Bunjut
Ginger Juice
White Pepper
Salt
Dried Shallots
Dried Garlic

Fried Chicken
Chicken (Quartered)
Grated ginger
Garlic
Tumeric powder
Salt
Oil for frying


Pegedel

Potato (Fried)
Dried Shallot
Salt
White Pepper
Egg

Mashed it and form a small round ball shape....then flatten it....*Tips, the potato must be fried until golden brown and immediately put in the stone mortar to mash it until smooth in order to form the shape easily. Deep in an egg and shallow fry until golden brown.

.

.

.

.
.
.

Side ingredients
Nasi Impit or Lontong
Su'un (goreng)
Chinese Parsley
Beansprout (Celur)
Fried Shallot and Garlic
Sambal kicap

.

.

*Tips on frying soto ingredients...
Use the same oil to fry everything in this chronology

First : Shallots and Garlic
2nd : Su'un
3rd : Potato
4th : Chicken
5th : Spare aside for pegedel

Why in that manner.... ha... minyak tu dah wangi dengan gorengan bawang.... terus meresap ke kentang dan ayam..... kalau pakai minyak fresh goreng ayam... dapatlah ayam goreng yang rasanya flat....

*Tips on Fried shallots (Bawang Goreng)

If you notice, fried shallots & garlic is widely used in this recipe.... even the soup used the bawang goreng instead of just onion..... I am very particular in choosing fried shallot... most of the one selling added flour to the onion... even scarier I heard they added straws to get the crisp...my goodness..

To make this bawang goreng, you have to use only this one particular type of shallots and it is most expensive ... Thai shallots.... the price now is about RM15-16 per kg... easily found in pasar malam but not the one in big hypermarket...... this onion will gives you the crisp when frying...

 

and the only place where I can buy this is in Indonesia... Surabaya or Bandung... they eat bawang goreng as a snack.....very healthy snack

 .

.

.

.

.

see these tiny hands....

 .

.

.

.

.

happily "meratah" the bawang goreng... I have to hide my bawang goreng.... so every time I make my bawang goreng before dish... I doubled the quantity so that I can eat half of it while cooking..... very nice... try it....

.

.

.

.

.

and that tiny hands belongs to....

 

 .

.

.

.

what I am trying to share with you guys , you don't need a complicated ingredient to prepare for a dish.... all you need is the secret technique of using simple ingredient which you can easily found in your local store....that's why I'm giving you lots of tips...

Ok back to my soto..... Here we are..... imagine if I have to buy all these from Bazar Ramadhan?.... just a portion for 9 of us.... can't afford to bring my kids to dine out... once in a while maybe.....so what I ate in the restaurant, I'll try to cook it at home... cook , failure, improvise, cook, success.... the cycle repeated....

Tom Yum Seafood

During our recent Pattaya Trip , we found this Muslim Restaurant and ordered Tom Yum. It was so tasty... feel like taking flight now for Iftar in Pattaya.. that will be just a dream ok...

and during our visit to Bangkok, we found this shop selling variety of herbs and spices in Chatuchak Market ... It's a spice galore... you can buy any spices that you need for a Thai dishes....there are many shops selling herbs but I go for the lowest price not the shop size... and bought this... It is meant for sample so that everytime I want to cook Tom Yum I will just grab ingredients which is inside the packet....

 

Yesterday, suddenly enche hubby reminded me on this and ask whether I can prepare Tom Yum for Iftar... bingo, it's easy... so, take this one piece of sheets with instruction to make Tom Yum....

Pour everything in pot , boil until simmer

 

 .

.

.

.

Continue to follow the above instruction, you can never be wrong... trust me.... a pot of spicy Tom Yum is ready to be served...

tasted so authentic and the aroma...hmmmm ... one thing I like about using Thailand Tom Yum paste as compared to the local one is that, the soup is not oily.... the colour is pale but it is very tasty...

 

.

.

.

.

.

Now that I'm left with 1 time cooking of Tom Yum paste.... looking for option how to get the Thailand authentic Tom Yum paste... perhaps it may be good idea if I buy online..... or if you need one, just click this link... they shipped internationally. RST Spices ...don't forget to click what's available for Muslim only.... I will definitely go to their stall if ever I had a chance to go to Chatchucak Market again...

 

Picture from the blog owner appeared on the link

Dried Chilli Prawn with Cashew Nuts

Dried Chilli Prawn with Cashew Nuts

 

Another chinese style dishes for Iftar.... Sorry for the look but the taste...hmmmm awesome....

Ingredients :

Prawn 

Dark Soya Sauce

Oyster Sauce

Black Vinegar

Onion

Garlic

Salt and Pepper

Dried Chilli

Capsicum (optional)

Cooling oil

Method :

Heat oil in a pan and fried prawn. Put aside. Reduce oil, saute the onion and garlic. Add all sauces and finally put fried prawn, capsicum, cashew nuts and dried chilli. Add salt and pepper to taste... and sprinkle the magic ingredient... i.e love to your dish .... perfecto...

That's it.... easy to do if you know the right ingredient...... i.e the sauces.... the tip is... just buy any sauce and herbs on shelves from the grocery shop and have it in your kitchen stocked up.... you will never know when you need it....

.

.

.

.

.

.

Must have ingredients in Dapur Magika Kak Lin

Kerabu Pucuk Betik

Happy Monday all,

I am sure everyone has a great weekend... I hope so...celebrating Iftar with beloved family.. so do I, taking opportunity going back to kampung for Iftar with my mother in law...

Today, I am going to share with you one of my many favourite dishes which I managed to learn from my mother in law.... digging her secret of authentic Java dishes.... kalau tak belajar dari sekarang mungkin akan-akan datang resipi ni dah pupus... rasanya dalam tempoh hampir 15 tahun of my happy marriage... I dah hampir boleh dikatakan expert untuk menyediakan hidangan masakan Jawa.... antara resipi pilihan yang biasa ai sediakan untuk sentiasa menambat hati suami dan anak-anak.... tak kira dari masakan yang paling simple hinggalah yang paling complicated, semua ai belajar dan praktikkan sebab semuanya sedappppppp sesssaaangattttt... simple but tasty. Complex but yummy... so macamana nak resist?? Most of it ai dah share in this blog... untuk rujukan anak cucu ai... supaya mereka tahu asal usul...

Soup (Not just ordinary soup)

Ayam Goreng (with secret marinate)

Soto (Resipi turun temurun dari Embah yut)

Pegedel

Sambal Tumis Goreng (Favourite during raya)

Sambal kicap

Ayam masak semur  (@ Ayam masak kicap)

Sambal Taun (Authentic)

Pecal lele 

Sambal Pecal

Tomis... 

Nasi Ambeng

Gulai Lemak Ketam berempah(My favourite)

Pajeri Nenas or Terung

Nasi Impit @ Lontong (Wrapped in Daun Pisang)

Cendol (belum expert)

.

.

.

.

.

and bumbu kerabu......

and today, sharing with you most authentic bumbu kerabu and this time, I used "Pucuk Daun Betik" , "Bunga Betik" and Beansprout to go with the "Bumbu"

Kerabu Pucuk Betik

Bahan -bahan

 Pucuk Daun Betik

Bunga Betik

Taugeh

Rebuskan sehingga empuk ... ai masukkan beberapa helai daun jambu semasa merebus untuk menghilangkan sedikit rasa pahit.... ada yang kata, bubuh daun senduduk... frankly, I don't know where on earth to get that leaf..

Untuk bahan bumbu :

Sebiji kelapa  parut

Cili padi

Bawang merah

Bawang putih

Cekur @ kencur

Udang kering

Belacan

Asam Jawa

Garam

Gula

Minyak untuk menumis.

Tumbuk dan gaulkan bahan tumbuk dengan kelapa parut dan asam jawa...  Panaskan minyak dan tumiskan kelapa yang telah digaul bersama bahan tumbuk, garam dan gula hingga secukup rasa... Sentiasa kacau macam nak buat kerisik sehingga kering untuk mengelakkan dari hangus.... Bumbu ni boleh disimpan dan dimakan dengan sayur rebusan yang lain seperti nangka muda, pucuk paku daun meranti dan sebagainya... masak dengan ikhlas dan sambil sesnyum pasti menghasilkan satu juadah yang cukup rasa dari air tangan sendiri..... mesti cuba tau.... teori saja tak mencukupi...

 

Di sini ai copypaste sedikit info tentang khasiat bunga betik:

*******************************

Sumber : http://petuasejagat.blogspot.com/2010/02/4-khasiat-pucuk-betik.html

Khasiat pucuk betik pun tak kurang hebatnya. Ia dikatakan mampu;

- Mengatasi sakit migrain.

- Merendahkan tahap kolestrol dalam darah.

- Menurunkan tekanan darah tinggi.

- Melangsingkan badan.

Terdapat 2 cara untuk anda memanfaatkan khasiat pucuk betik:

1. Memakan pucuk betik atau daunnya yang masih muda yang telah direbus.

ATAUPUN

2. Anda minum air rebusan pucuk betik dan daun muda tadi sebanyak 1 atau 2 gelas sehari.

Namun begitu, memang diakui yang daun betik ni rasanya agak pahit. Tapi saya harap anda dapat menahan kepahitannya jika benar-benar mahu menikmati khasiatnya.

*******************************

 

Yang pahit itukan penawar...

Halal Chilli Pan Mee

Chilli Pan Mee

Have you ever thought of Chilli Pan Mee? Some of you may not have heard it before ... it's common among Chinese and from what I gather, it was originated from KL.. there's one famous Pan Mee stall nearby my office... you can never get halal Pan Mee served because they used P_ _K & L _ _D as one of the main ingredients.. With my minimal research done... I have attempted to my dream to it Chilli Pan Mee realised.

So from the images I googled, it can be done... just need to swap the pork to beef. Others are the same.... I'm so eager to make it and I even bought the pasta machine... but yesterday, as a first timer, I short cut few processes .....which is the preparation of dried chilli and the pan mee itself..  I bought the ready made one. but not bad....

There are  3-4 major components/processes to make Pan Mee.

Stage 1. Dried Chili Paste.

This is most important ingredient in Chili Pan Mee. The hot spicy chili gives it the extra oooomph!

1. Dried Chillies - soaked - 2 handful
2. Fresh red chillies - 2
3. Dried Shrimp - 1 palmful
4. Shallots or onion - 5 shallots or 2 mid sized onion
5. Garlic - 3 cloves
6. Oil - 4 TBSP

Blend the ingredients. Then in a wok of oil and low fire, stir-fry slowly (at least 30 mins) until dry and golden brown. You will need some patience on this and watch the fire as you need to get the chili really dry but you can't burn it.

Stage 2. Minced Meat Sauce


1. 500gm of minced beef - marinade with salt, pepper and a dash of soy sauce and some starch
2. Oil - 2 TBSP
3. Dark Soy sauce - 1 TSBP
4. Oyster Sauce - 1 TBSP
5. Salt, pepper, soy sauce, 1/2 cup of water

In heated wok with oil, fry some shallots before putting in the minced meat. Stir fry till cooked, add in dark soy sauce and oyster sauce, and water. Stir till blended, add salt and pepper to taste.

Stage 3 Other Condiments

1. Fried Ikan Bilis (Anchovies)
2. Poached egg
3. Vegetable soup (Used potato leaf @ daun cekur manis)

Ok you can do all this separately, but this is my simple steps to reduce additional work and cleaning.

First I will fry the anchovies. Remove when done but leave a handful in the wok. Scoop up access oil. In the same wok, I will put in water to boil the soup with the anchovies base. Let it boil for 15 mins in low heat. Then I will crack on egg in the soup to make the poached egg. Crack the egg in the big soup ladder and leave it in the soup. Do 2-3 eggs depending how many people wants poached eggs. Remove cooked eggs and leave it in the individual bowls. In the same soup, put in some vegetable for the vegetable soup! Simple right ??!! :) You have all 3 ingredients ready, all from just one wok!

Stage 4 The Noodles (Ready Made)

They add on lard for better taste... but my chinese friend suggest me to use kuih chakoi as a subtitute...I don't have it yesterday

 

Overall review and rating from me, 

Firstly , there are quite a no of tedious process to go through... just like preparing porridge with variety of condiments... but once everything is ready, you'll be satisfied and enjoy the mee ... eat it while it's still hot.

Secondly, I  found the hardest part is to prepare the poached egg... need way lot to improve... i used vinegar as many suggested to do the poached egg.. but its still a failure to me... the above is the best after 3 attempts. very ugly... the trick is to get a prefect poached egg for Chilli Pan Mee, you need to have a melt yolk... as this will provide you with some liquid as the mee can be a bit dry...

Thus, I still prefer the soupy noodles... i.e fish head noodles will still be in my top list...

but will still keep doing this until it become my signature dish... haha

Happy Friday you all..... have a great weekend!!!

Bruschetta with Beef and Cheese

Hi all, Italian starter in the house... Bruschetta is back... I love this recipe... among the easiest things to cook on earth... too easy until I can't resist to add on few additional ingredients... I've once posted on the basic Bruschetta recipe (even that I did add cheese on it) ... 

This time I added beef (it's left over from my Chilli Pan Mee ingredient) and parmesan cheese to the baguette .. It was unplanned meal and everyone felt hungry after performing solat terawih... since all the ingredients are available... then quickly prepared this ...

 

 

.

.

.

.

.

and within 8 minutes of baking in oven, my Bruschetta is ready to be served.... hmmm I love the basil and tomato combo....

Here's my bruschetta for our supper after solat terawih....

Pre Ramadhan Breakfast Ride

Happy Monday readers..... Ramadhan is nearing soon.... tomorrow we will Insya Allah be performing Solat sunat terawih... something to look forward to.

Yesterday, after a loooooooooooooong break, we went for a ride. Thank you enche hubby for making this happened... it was a short breakfast ride to Hutan Lipur Lintang.... destination is secondary, best part is to be with friends and meeting new friends..

Helppppp.... I am short of idea... I'm blank and the words just didn't flow... was it because of Monday? or perhaps it'll be good to write in my mother tongue language....

now switching

ha... barulah rasa lebih santai dan lebih relax... chill.

PAUSED....

Tuesday - nothing happen.. status quo

To be continued......

Ah ha.............

By this time, it's already Wednesday.... so hard for me to get this post done.... I guess it will be just another wordless Wednesday post .....

Apapun, I have only few photos to share...

Ice cream pose from the pillions and a lady biker Shima (2nd from left)... ice cream compliment from Mr Jepp .. for his pre birthday celebration...

.

.

.

.

and the riders

  .

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

hmmm sempat jugaks verangan pose kat RG...jangan mare.....

Lasagne

Lasagne

I am a big fan of Italian cuisine... but as I always said, it's not easy to get the standard that suit my malay taste bud in an ordinary restaurant that has Italian food displayed in their menu. Put aside the pure Italiannies fine dine restaurant... they may serve the best Italian food but again I'm concern on the ingredient they used to prepare the food... I know that wine is commonly used in Italian food....and most of the restaurant hardly display the Halal sign... so as a muslim and a mother of five, what option do I have? I guess you know the answer... to do it yourself.. homemade...

I have wanted to bake this lasagne since years ago...but I don't have an oven..... so moment we moved to our new home, there are to baked base dishes that I have been repeatedly doing.... The Roast Chicken and Lasagne...

The above was baked in my oven.... and this  is how my oven look like...... a stand alone oven, you can bake 3 whole chicken at one go.... and it's just perfect.... I'm contended... syukur alhamdulillah... it was really a good investment.... I mean...it's worth to sacrifice my LV bag and bought this instead.....

Back to Lasagne Recipe

The basic main ingredients

Lasagne Sheets (I prefer Barilla) and you can get this from any Giant store.

.

.

Ragu Sauce

In Italian cuisine, a ragù (pronounced [raˈɡuː]) is a meat-based sauce, which is commonly served with pasta.

(from Mr Wikipedia)

and what is in my Ragu Sauce (Red Sauce)

Onion

Mince Beef

Sliced Mushroom

Celery

Capsicum

Pasta Sauce

Tomato Soup

Italian Herbs

Salt and Pepper

and what more you need??

Roux

Roux /ˈruː/ (also rue or panada[1]) is a cooking mixture of wheat flour and fat (traditionally butter). It is the thickening agent of three of the mother sauces of classical French cooking: béchamel sauce, velouté sauce, and espagnole sauce.

(again from Mr Wikipedia)

Butter

Flour

.

.

.

then use the Roux to make a

Bechamel sauce with cheese (White Sauce)

Béchamel sauce (/bɛʃəˈmɛl/ or /beɪʃəˈmɛl/;[1] French: [be.ʃa'mɛl]), also known as white sauce, is made with a roux of butter and flour cooked in milk. It is one of the mother sauces of French cuisine and is used in many recipes of Italian cuisine, for example lasagne. It is used as the base for other sauces (such as Mornay sauce, which is Béchamel with cheese).

(again from Mr Wikipedia)


it is made of ......

Roux (see above)

Milk

Parmesan Cheese

Mozarella Cheese

Herbs

Salt and Pepper

With the basic of these 2 sauces.... you have open an opportunity to create a variety of Italian dish... just play around with the ingredient for flavours. Example you can add chicken, mushroom, beef, lamb, salmon, prawn, seafood... name it....

and for lasagne... you just layered the sheets in your bakingware in the following order...start from red sauce, lasagne sheets, red sauce, bechamel sauce.... and repeat 3 to 4 times...

Now it's ready to be baked...

 

.

.

.

.

.

I purposely posted different lasagne pictures that I made ..... they differ in size and thickness.... but they are all have same taste ..Awesome... aunthentic italian taste....and kids just love it....

To me... my lasagne should have these features

Moist

Well baked (Brownies)

Cheesy

Soft

.

.

.

.

and guess what...with this oven...mean

my mini quiche is bacckkkkk