Spaghetti tomyam

Was in the mood for something soupy and spicy, so came up with spaghetti tomyam. Daun limau purut and cili padi were from our garden! Avoided shrimps to save me the agony of hidung gatal.

1. Tumis 2 ulas bawang. Masukkan daging (or ayam or whatever).

2. Tambah air, biarkan mendidih.

3. Tambah serai (dititik), bawang (potong labu), daun limau purut.

4. Tambah cili padi, perasa tom yam, sedikit air limau nipis.

5. Tambah sayur-sayuran.

6. Perisa dengan garam.

7. Serve as lauk or in this case, with spaghetti.

*I know some people add fish sauce. Unfortunately, dah habis di dapur.

Onde-onde

I had initially planned to make this for Iftar in Ramadhan ... never got round to doing it till now ie almost 3rd week of Syawal. Pathetic. Still, it's here, and it was delightful eating onde-onde made purely with daun pandan extract rather than green colouring.

Onde-onde

1. Mix 1/2 packet tepung pulut with air daun pandan (one recipe called for 240 gm tepung and 180 mls liquid). I simply cut up several daun pandan leaves and blended it up with bit of water. Mix till get 'dough kental'.

2. Prepare kelapa - grated coconut with pinch of salt.

3. Prepare sugar - lecek gula melaka.

4. Roll into ball-shape, make small indentation, put gula melaka, drop into boiling water.

5. Once it's cooked, it will float up. Take out from pot, strain and mix into grated coconut.

6. Serve and pop into mouth :)

Shepherd's Pie

Adventurous mood continues ... today tried Shepherd's pie. Dina helped to cook ... pre-UPSR stress buster! Happy to report that this recipe works :)

1. Peel, wash and boil potatoes in pot (I only had 5 biji) of salted water. When done, mash with butter (recipe called for 4 tablespoons ie half the block, but I used less). Season with salt + pepper.

2. Saute 1 chopped onion in 4 tablespoons butter. Add carrots/mix veggie. Then add minced beef (I used the one packet I had in the freezer).

3. Add 1 teaspoon Worchester sauce; then 1/2 cup beef stock.

4. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Simmer until liquid dries up a bit.

Place beef mixture into pan, layer with mashed potato. 'touch up' the surface with a fork.

Bake in broiler 200 degrees for 30 minutes ie api atas.

Nasi lemak kukus

Yesterday I was a bit adventurous in the kitchen and decided to try nasi lemak kukus. It certainly took a bit more effort, but it was worth it because the final product was much nicer ... lagi lerai. Worth a try!

nasi lemak kukus

1. clean beras and soak in santan cair for at least 2 hours. Santan should cover the rice grains.

2. prepare steamer by boiling water with 3 pieces of daun pandan.

3. Steam rice grains till 1/2 cooked (about 10 minutes).

4. in the meantime, saute bawang merah + 2 b putih + 1/2 inci halia + kulit kayu manis.

5. When done, mix onion mix with santan pekat + salt.

6. Pour 1/2 cooked rice into santan pekat. Mix well and allow to soak for 10 minutes.

7. Return to steamer till cooked.

pasta

Had some leftover roast chicken from dinner last night. That became lunch. Very easy to do.

1. Cook pasta as per instructions.

2. Warm some olive oil, saute few cloves of chopped garlic, add chicken meat, tomatoes, chopped green stuff (we had daun sup in the fridge).

3. Toss pasta in above mixture.

4. season with salt & pepper.

Eat while hot.

Baked bananas

I had an empty shelf in the oven while baking the chicken pies, so decided to bake some bananas that was just lying around in the kitchen. After 40 minutes this was what happened. Sliced the banana, drizzled honey on it and oh it was so good!

chicken pie

If I recall correctly I've posted the recipe for chicken pie many months ago. This time I've tripled the recipe for the pastry and got enough to bake 2 trayfuls! Plus I've got new pastry cutters that was rather delightful to use.

Lompat Tikam

One of my favourite local desserts. Various steps are involved in the preparation but it's worth it.
1. Pulut - soak few hours in water, add red colouring + few pieces of asam keping. When red enough, strain, steam few minutes till done.
2. About 300 gram tepung beras, add water + air daun pandan (+green colouring if so desired) + bit of kapur (I used sodium bicarb) and mix till betul2 cair. Heat over slow fire. Keep stirring and stirring and stirring till thick. This takes quite a while and is good upper arm exercise!
3. Take santan pekat, heat with about 1 tablespoon of tepung beras.
4. Make air gula - brown sugar + water + daun pandan.
5. to eat, mix all.

Baked sweet potato

If you are baking something in the oven, can chuck in sweet potatoes as well. Scrub the sweet potato, pierce to let out steam, place on baking pan, bake 180 degrees for one hour. Almost effortless. We ate it with grated coconuts (with bit of salt and sugar sprinkled on).