Friday

LAKSA EMAK




Laksa Utara Mom's Style

I have captured this photo almost 3 weeks ago but I was too busy to write this lately. Ya, it was during last Aidil Adha... Mom cooked Laksa for us, and we ate it for 3 days with additional some other food and dishes off course. Because all of us are MONSTERS... we eat everything and a lots plus 'MUST BE TASTY' .... By the way... mom, abah and kiddos left to Jitra again 2 days ago. Kuala Lumpur seems to be a lonely place once again, I don't know... When everybody is around, the house is filled with love. But I am still lucky to have love all around me, love waiting for me and love kept longing in my heart.... In short, love is all around no matter where you are. Like right here in Malaysia... no matter where you go, you can always find Laksa anywhere.
There are many kinds of Laksa, for as I know... Laksa Sarawak, Laksa Johor and Laksa Utara or Laksa Penang. It was named by the state originated, Laksa Utara or Laksa Penang came from northern itself. Rice noodle serve with sour soup made of fish, normally Mackeral or Tuna is used for the soup. The fish was bring to boil earlier and pounded or blended, then the bones are separated from the meat. With sufficient water and other blended ingredients added into the fish, soup shouldn't be too thick or too dilute ... It is well served with hard boiled egg, shredded cucumber, lettuce, onion and pineapple, lime wedge and not to forget chili and shrimp paste or 'Sambal Belacan'... that's KICKING for sure....

Thursday

BUBUR KACANG HIJAU


Green Beans Sweet Porridge

Sweet... Delicious ... Healthy... that's how I described this wonderful dessert. Green Beans Sweet Porridge, this all time favorite dessert ... back in Manila, I learned how to cook Champorado ...Chocolate Rice Porridge, glutinous rice cooked in milk and chocolate powder... a good choice for breakfast. There is similarity in Asian's dishes, for example this Green Beans Porridge ...In Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam... Where in Bangkok, there are many varieties of sweet soup or sweet porridge which you can easily buy from the street. Ya, it is colorful, nice and cheap... my love for street food. All kind of sweet soups, Mung beans, Jackfruits, rice dumplings, yam and sweet corn. The sweet porridge and coconut milk are cooked separately, when ready to serve then only mix it together with thick coconut milk.
Our sweet porridge here usually cooked with coconut milk and add in sagu mata ikan (tapioca pearl drops), but mom prefer to cook with evaporated milk instead of coconut milk... less cholesterol and healthier. For me, I love the milky taste and it is non oily. Since everybody is still in holiday mood, which means food fiesta... Mom cooked one big pot of green beans sweet porridge, it's nice to have this dessert eaten with buns or add in durian for those who fancy richer and aromatic taste. Some love to have it cold or with ice cubes, and can even freeze it ... u can make traditional Malaysian ice cream, like those days... I used to make few flavors, green beans, sweet and sour asam boi, sarsi, soursoup, chocolate and lime. It was during my time in primary school, I brought those ice cream to school and sold for 50 cents each. Ermmm.... It was fun to work in the kitchen when you can make pocket money out of it especially for a 10 year old girl... But now, this traditional ice cream is less popular since there are more popular brand in the market. Anyway, it will be nice to have 'Aiskrim Malaysia' once awhile right...??

Sweet green beans porridge :

200 grams green beans
1 liter water
1 cup evaporated milk
1/2 sugar
50 grams tapioca pearl drops
Screwpine leaf or pandanus leaf

  • Boil green beans with water till soft.
  • Add in sufficient water, pearl drops, pandanus leaf, sugar and milk.
  • Bring to boil and ready to serve.




Wednesday

NASI BERIYANI EMAK




Nasi Beriyani Aidil Adha

Every holiday is just like Food Fiesta for us at home... Everybody is around everything that we want is on the table... Just name any each of us favorites... Mom shall fulfill everybody's demand and she shall cook all kind of dishes. Nasi Beriyani is one of our favorites, as usual she will cook extra for us to pack and bring back home to Kuala Lumpur. She will pack the rice complete with the side dishes for each of us, she always thought that we might be missing this good Nasi Beriyani but actually it is not about that Nasi Beriyani alone, we are missing her in person. It is great to spend time with mom and dad, and I am glad to have time for another family gathering. Seeing all these beautiful faces making me feel like the time has stopped ever since everybody is right here before my eyes. Ya... that is how I feel when I am with my loved ones, the time just stopped there...
How do we enjoy our holiday??? Ya, eat and eat and eat.... We love to eat...!!!
Nasi Beriyani is a rice dish cooked with ghee, herbs and spices. It aromatic, fragrant and very tasty. Normally serve with few main dishes such as beef, chicken and vegetables. Mom, as usual will cook Beef Rendang, Ayam Masak Merah and Vegetable Dhall Curry. This rice dish is just perfect for any kind of celebrations and wedding reception, it's all time favorite I may say....

Nasi Beriyani :


2 cup Basmati

4 cup water

2 tablespoon ghee

1 onion

3 garlic

1 inch ginger

1 small size carrot
1 teaspoon cumin powder

1 teaspoon anise powder

Bay leaf

Cinnamon

Cardamon

Salt
  • Blend onion, garlic and ginger.
  • Heat ghee add in blended ingredients and other spices.
  • Shred carrot add in.
  • Wash rice and add in water.
  • Add in salt and cook well in rice cooker.
  • Add in rice and sauted ingredients together and cook well in rice cooker.


LONTONG EMAK




Nasi Impit and Kuah Lodeh

Special day with special dish, this is my favorite ...lontong or Nasi Impit with Kual Lodeh. Nasi Impit is rice cooked compressed in heat proof small sized plastic pillows, which can be bought easily in supermarket nowadays. Plastic pillows filled with rice cook in boiling water till the pillows become hard filled with cooked compressed rice. Let it cool and cut into cubes ready to serve with gravy and other dish.
During old days, Nasi Impit was cooked traditionally and it was complicated... believe me... Rice was cooked with excess water to make it softer. The cook rice will be placed in a box specially made by wooden planks, place the wooden cover and weigh with traditional pounder made by stone which is heavy enough to compress the rice. When the rice is cooled and hard enough, cut into cubes to serve. It's not easy right? But now practically convenient and time saving ... This is how it got the name 'Impit' ...means pressed, the cooked rice was 'Impit' .... Thanks to food technology research and development. This is why we have to appreciate those people before us, for their knowledge and their effort.. It's because of them for who we are now... Appreciate the history for the benefit of our technology .... This is how Japanese educate their young generations to produce more history lovers and advanced in technology development.
This is how I see them during my stay in Tokyo few years back. In the city itself buildings standing tall and hi-tech but they themselves standing proud with their pride and culture, there is the beauty of history through the years.
But you don't know how much I missed this Nasi Impit and Kuah Lodeh when I was in Tokyo, It was during Aidil Adha and I was so much craving for it....
Kuah Lodeh is a dish made from coconut milk with vegetables and beancurds. Cabbage, carrot and long beans shredded, beancurd and tempe cut into small pieces and deep fried. Mix those ingredients into the yellow coconut gravy. Served well with peanut sauce, a bit spicy but just nice with milky coconut gravy. Lovely !

Masak Lodeh :

Cabbage
Long beans
Carrots
Beancurds
Tempe (fermented soya beans cake)
250 grams Coconut milk
Turmeric powder
2 Chilies
2 onions
5 garlics
Tamarind peel
Sugar and salt
  • Blend chili, onion and garlic.
  • Coconut milk, turmeric powder and water bring to boil.
  • Add in blended ingredients.
  • Add in tamarind peel, salt and sugar to taste.
  • Add in shredded vegetables and deep fried beancurds and tempe.
  • Ready to serve.



HAPPY HOLIDAY


American Chocolate Cake

Still on holiday, everybody is here except for two of my brothers back in Kuala Lumpur working. Ya, when I woke up it's a beautiful morning and surely it's a beautiful day... I woke up with a sleepy smiley face being surrounded with beautiful smiles. Shara serenade me with a beautiful song 'Run to you' and keep on repeating the same song over and over again. I was caught between the lyrics, IT'S BEAUTIFUL.... a song by Lady Antebellum. It's true when the time passing by, what we see around is the world turned changing, sometimes life gets harder, people going crazy and problems getting ugly... so what you need is a someone to rely on, I can't be alone, you can't be alone too, nobody can be alone...!!!
Ya, everybody needs somebody to run to ... that's how we play by the rules here, it's written there... So, that tells why I run ... we run and you run too... YEAH ...for now I have all these beautiful faces right before my eyes... the loves of my life... even the world out there is going crazy ... I am still glad that I have another day to be embraced by hugs and kisses.
For this wonderful holiday and for the love of chocolates, I made this delicious American Chocolate Cake. Moist chocolate cake layered with smooth chocolate spread, the chocolate spread was prepared earlier. It was cooked with a double boiler and let cooled for half an hour till the sauce become a little thick and poured cover around the whole cake. Sprinkle some thousands on the cake and it is just beautiful for a beautiful day... May everybody around the world have a beautiful day as well, loving is believing ...

Chocolate spread :
100 grams chocolate compound
100 ml milk
1 teaspoon cornflour
1 teaspoon butter




Tuesday

ORANGE BUTTER CAKE


How to make orange butter cake ....

Ingredients preparation ahead from baking process or 'mise en place'. All ingredients weighted in the right amount and set aside. Sieve flour, baking powder and milk powder. Leavening agent or any kind of ingredients in powder form need to be sieved in order to get a smooth texture of flour and powder.


Place butter and castor sugar in mixing bowl and cream mixture with K beater in a medium speed for about 10 mins. The mixture will turn out white in color due to the mixing of milk and fat comes from butter.


Separate egg yolk from white and set aside separately, use hand gently to hold egg yolk and place in other bowl. Use another mixing bowl for egg white and during separation process avoid water, egg yolk or any alien ingredients from the mixture. Egg white meringue might not be fluffy and airy if mixed with other liquid. Mixing bowl need to be wiped clean before use.


Butter and sugar mixture turn a little pale in color, so add in egg yolk little at a time. This is to avoid cream and yolk to curdle and yolk will be separated from cream if not mixed properly. After a little mix of egg yolk let it beat for awhile till the mixture is well mixed then only continue pouring little more of egg yolk.


In another mixing bowl, place egg white and beat with whisker till fluffy and medium stiff . Beat with medium high speed till meringue become airy.


Add in cream mixture in egg white meringue a little at a time and let it well mixed.


Next, add in sieved flour and mix well too. In baking process, dry ingredients will be mixed with creamed ingredients before adding in liquid, procedure has to be in the proper steps to avoid mixture to curdle.


Add in squeezed orange juice, the taste will differ in the using of additive flavor such as emulco and essence. Natural flavor is more tasty and smells better.


Zest orange peel, avoid the white meat of the orange peel. It's bitter, zest the outer part which is orange in color only. Mix in orange zest into the batter slowly fold with spatula and don't over beat the batter.


Cut parchment paper in appropriate size to the mould of the baking tin. Place parchment paper at the bottom of the tin.


Weight the cake mixture in a good amount for each tin, divide into same quantity for each of the tins. Scoop mixture with spatula into the tins not more than 3 quarter metric of the tin to avoid mixture from over spill.


For loaf size butter cake, bake in 180 C for 30 mins and rotate the tins after 1st half to allow cake to bake evenly. Cake will turn less soggy after 1st half of baking, rotate the tins and bake till cake is well cooked. Use metal tester or wooden stick to check, no more batter or uncooked mixture sticked to the tester indicates that the cake is done.

Orange Butter Cake
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 orange
  • 3 eggs
Enjoying my Aidil Adha celebration with family back in Jitra, well my mom ordered for orange butter cakes. Ya... I I BOSS ...I love butter cake... we love butter cake ...mmmm... mmmm... who doesn't ????
So, I believed sharing is the way of describing the significant of Aidil Adha.. Today, I am happy to share the recipe and method of baking this tasty Orange Butter Cake ... To those pilgrimages in Mekah, May be granted with a 'mabruh hajj' and safe journey ... Happy holiday everybody and Good Luck...!!!

Monday

BALIK KAMPUNG TREAT

Sour Curry Fish

I am in Jitra for now, seems like I have left Kuala Lumpur yesterday with a full sack of sweet, sour and bitter taste of life from an extraordinary story ....the beautiful things is I am just an ordinary human being. Can you see how great the life is...??? WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD... OH YEAH... And another great thing is, I left Kuala Lumpur for the crave of mom's cooking... That's what I am looking forward.... 6 1/2 hours journey isn't a problem to me when it comes to mom's food. The first thing I will do after hopping off the car, run into the kitchen and start stuffing my mouth with mom's cooking... BELIEVE IT OR NOT...!
Ya... the 6 and 1/2 hours journey on the bus, really testing my patience and also made me thinking deeply into certain matters. It was making me headache actually plus my hungry tummy crying, I purposely made myself hungry so that I can eat more when I reach home... Greedy CT hahahaha....
And my waiting was so satisfying .... As I opened the lid, It was Ikan Masak Asam Pedas or Sour Curry Fish ...Warm rice with splash of sweet dark soya sauce and fresh cut cucumber. Nothing can compromise that...!!!!

Ikan Masak Asam Pedas

Ingredients :
1/2 kilo cut Mackerel
Onion
Garlic
Ginger
Galangal
Turmeric powder
Lemongrass
Dried Chilies
Shrimp paste
Tamarind juice
Kafir lime leaves
Salt and sugar
Cooking oil
  • Blend dried chillies, onion, garlic, ginger, turmeric powder, galangal and shrimp paste.
  • Heat oil and add in blended ingredients and crushed lemongrass.
  • Saute till brown and add in tamarind juice.
  • Add in fish, salt and sugar to taste.
  • Not too long and add in kafir leaves.
  • Ready to serve.




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