zue's oven

Kek cawan "merah Baldu"

2011-10-17T18:22:00.000-07:00

a request from my school mate who is in India, sorry Nozi, took so long to write this, hope this helps, a recipe extracted from one of my collection of cookbooks.

RED VELVET

2 1/2 cups cake flour- sifted
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
( whisk all three )

1 1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup veg oil
( with an electric mixer on med high speed, whisk these two until combined

Add eggs ( 2 ) one at a time. beating until each is incorporated.

mix in:
1/2 tsp red gel-paste fod colour
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

reduce speed to low, add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk ( 1 cup ), whixking well after each.

Stir together:
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
and 2 tsp distilled white vinegar, in a small bowl ( it will foam);

and this mixture to the batter, and mix on med speed 10 sec.

pour into your papercups or into the muffin tin lined with papercups, about three quarter full, bake for about 20 minutes in a pre-heated oven ( 350F )

nice to be eaten with cream cheese frosting

My first reaction when I ate this Red velvet was mixed. I didn't quite like it at first, it tasted rather funny , but when I tried it again, I just had to have more, one cup was not enough and I ate it even without the cream cheese frosting , but it tastes much better wth the frosting.

Ayam Masak Minangkabau

2011-08-04T00:01:00.000-07:00

my ancient/antique 'gem/treasure'

"Zue, nak resepi", the subject /title in my email inbox.

more than two decades ago, i would not ldream of getting such remarks from anyone

why?

because I coud not cook!

not that I am a good cook now, but much better than I was twenty five years ago!:-)

thanx to my Sains Rumah Tangga classes, my umi ( who wrote in my 'ancient'recipe book, sambal ikan bilis, sayur air ,etc ), my housemates, when I was studying in UK, and all those cooking programmes on TV . Gradually I learned to cook, from the basic to more difficult ones, and sometimes I did it the other way round, like this dish for an example.from me asking for recipes from people and now it's the other way round. It's an achievement to me......ye lah, for someone who did not know how to cook . then, there's this other recipe too, delicious too, ayam Masak Portugis.

but here I am talking about this frequently cooked ( I think I made this more than I made chicken curry in my kichen )

ayam Masak Minangkabau,

the name itself is a bit complicated , with its spices, cumin, fennel seed, coriander seed, etc.....( well, at least, to me...) , unlike the more normal ones like curry, masak merah, masak kicap, kurma but I knew how to make this one than the others. It took me sometime to be able to make my first chicken curry!

With this dish, there's no ready made paste like the curry or kurma ( even kerutuk has its ready made paste ), I have to prepare them myself.

I will share with you the recipe which I had been using since my school days ( when I first learned how to make it but only started making them in my universiti years. ( or was it during the school break ( after my SPM exam )?

straight from my 'kitab' , this is a re-written version after some of the words in the original version became almost invisible.

the original recipe.

but I will write it here anyway, just in case some of you are not able to read my tiny handwriting

AYAM MASAK MINANGKABAU

(Charmey dear, I copied it word for word from the book )

4 tah ayam- potong dan sapu garam

BAHAN A ( digiling ):

4-5 cili kering

5 ulas bawang merah

2 ulas bawang putih

2 camb minyak

1 camt tomato sos

1/4 camt gula

BAHAN B (digiling):

1/2 inci belacan

1/4 inci lengkuas

1/2 camt jintan manis

1/2 camt jintan putih

1/4 inci kunyit

1/2 camt ketumbar

1/2 pt santan ( 1/2 biji kelapa)

1/2 camt susu cair

1/4 helai daun kunyit

1/4 cawan air

CARA-CARA:

1. Panaskan minyak. Goreng bahan-bahan yang digiling*

2. Masukkan ayam 5-8 minit

3. Masukkan sedikit air panas jika ayam melekat

4. Masukkan susu cair, sos tomato, gula, perasa,daun kunyit dan air.

Masukkan santan.

5.renih hingga empuk dan kuahnya pekat.

6. Hias dengan daun bawang dan hidang dengan nasi tomato

Nota: * bahan A dan B

sedap dimakan bersama nasi putih panas, atau dengan ketupat ( sebagai ganti rendang ) and also makan roti canai....sehingga menjilat jari you....

Macaronii au gratin...again....

2011-08-02T18:22:00.000-07:00

What can I say, they like it, alhamdulilah,My kids love it and so do my customers.

this re-entry of macaroni au gratin recipe was prompted by a request from a lady in chennai.
this recipe was from one of the other bloggers and I thank her for sharing this wonderfully delicious and scrumptious recipe

200g macaroni- boiled
70g parmesan cheese

Filling:
200g chicken, prawn, squid, fish filamen
50g minced meat
1 potato, thinly sliced
1 onion, chopped
2 tsp black pepper

white sauce
4 tbsp butter
5 tbsp wheat flour
2 1/2 cup fresh milk
1/2 cube chicken stock ( melt with 1/2 cup of warm water )
2/3 tsp salt

1.fry mixture for filling, pour in some water to soften the potatoes. keep aside.
2. for the white sauce, melt butter over med flame. put in flour and continue whisking not to let the batter crumble.Pour in milk, chicken stock mixture & salt. Keep on stirring till the sauce thickens, turn off the heat.
3. pour in filling mixture into 2 and blend in well.
3. mix together macaroni into 3, pour into desired caserole dish, sprinkle with the parmesan. ( I like mine with lots of cheese and therefore I added cheddar and lots of mozarella on top.)
4. Bake in a preheated oven of 220 C for about 15 to 20 minutes or until all the cheese melts ....yummmm or it turns golden brown, like in the picture ( err....this is how I like it )

macaroni au gratin, baked and ready to be enjoyed
bon appetit!

p/s hope this recipe helps Aslamah! Don't forget to try it for berbuka.

Pancakes on Saturday morning

2011-07-29T20:34:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning, the room was dark because the curtains were still not drawn, as my daughter was still sleeping in my bed, hubby is away for a few days. I had an uneasy sleep last nite, somehow I felt restless, at 3 am, I went downstairs to double check whether the doors were locked. Went to the kitchen, okay, both grill doors and the wooden doors were locked, checked the front door, yup, locked and bolted, drew in the sliding door's curtains. i always imagine someone's staring inside and thankfully it was all my imagination, thanks to all those creepy and scary I had seen over the years......

this morning, woke up , switched on the laptop in my room and checked my emails, while doing that, browsed through the old magazines and found a few recipes which I thought I might want to try later. One of the recipes I found was this pancake recipe

looks easy and I have all the ingredients in my kitchen, but I didn't bother to make the 'sauce'

I had been making pancakes also known as 'serabai barat' using the recipe which I learned during my school days and that's why I decided to try another version.this one didn't require the 'rubbing' method, so didn't have to get my hands dirty here. Another difference is this recipe separated the eggs and the last step was to fold the stiff egg whites into the batter

whatever or whichever method or recipe used I still get the bubbly effect on one side and smooth effect on the other side and they both taste equally good. I eat it while it is still hot straight from the pan.....yum.......with the rain pouring outside.......

be it on it own, or eat it with jam ( my way ), or chocolate spread ( my daughter's way) or with butter spread ( my son's way )

they taste yummmy.....will make this again.

now, what's for lunch?

Spaghetti bolognese with meatballs

2011-07-29T02:58:00.000-07:00

these two recipes were prompted by requests through my facebook photo album and I am sharing this with them, so that they can also enjoy a taste of Italian in their kitchen once in a while, like I do with my family.
my version of simple spaghetti bolognese with meatballs:

heat olive oil in a pan
saute chopped onion and garlic ( crushed)
then, add in minced meat, fry till the meat is cooked
add in meatballs ( optional)
note: you can also add in diced carrots if you like at this stage

pour in a bottle of spaghetti sauce( store bought )
sprinkle some oregano
parsley, basil, thyme,
black pepper
( or just buy the bolognese spices or italian spices)
add in a blob ( one tablespoon )of tomato puree
add in some water , with beef stock cubes
to taste, add in salt and a bit of sugar
taste it, and it's done, after simmering for close to half an hour.

meanwhile or before you start making the sauce, boil some water
when it starts to boil, sprinkle in some salt and put in the spaghetti, boil it till the pasta is tender.
my way of testing whether the spaghetti is ready or not, is by throwing it on to the wall, if it gets stuck there, then it is done, if not, boil it some more, make sure to clean the wall afterwards, okay....hehe....
I like to eat mine with hard boiled eggs.

LASAGNA

or a formal written recipe for the bolognese is as follows:
BOLOGNESE SAUCE:
725g/ 1 1/2 lb minced meat
1 large onion
1 garlic
2 tbs oil , preferably olive oil
400g can peeled tomatoes
4 tbs tomato puree
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp thyme
1 litre ( 4 cups) water
salt, pepper

chopped and fry the onions in the olive oil
stir in minced meat,
then put in the rest of the ingredients
bring to boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 to 25 minutes.

Note: can also use this bolognese sauce as the sauce for lasagna

the difference between lasagna and spaghetti is the cheese ssauce:

CHEESE SAUCE:
60g/2 oz butter
1/3 cup plain flour
salt, pepper
pinch of nutmeg
2 cups milk
125g/ 4 oz chedar cheese
3 tbsp grated parmesan

method:
melt butter in a saucepan
add flour, salr, pepper and nutmeg, blned until smooth, stir over heat for a bout 1 minute
gradually add in milk, stir until sauce boils and thickens
reduce heat, cook 1 minute
remove from heat, stir in grated cheddar, stir until cheese melts

Note: detail recipe for lasagna is in my earlier post.

Bon appetit!

easy like Friday morning, noon....with macaroni.....

2011-04-02T19:16:00.000-07:00

au gratin for last Friday's brunch. You will need , of course, macaroni and I like to use the small elbow macaroni, just boil it the normal way we do pasta,boil a pot of water with a bit of salt, when it starts boiling, add in the macaroni and boil till the pasta becomes soft

and drain'em

while waiting for the water to boil, you can start with the white sauce, simply melt butter, add flour, whisking to avoid it from curdling, followed by milk and chicken stock, stirring occasionally at all times till the sauce becomes thick

Actually, mean while, in between , before or after those two you can start making the filling. Mine, was a mixture of chicken , meatballs, fish fillet, crab meats and something which I didn't quite know what they were called which I found in the freezer and just threw them all in.,that is after sauteing the onion . when all the chickem etc are well cooked, add in thinly sliced potatoes and a dash of black pepper, abt 2 tsp, add in a little bit of water to soften the potatoes

Once all three main ingredients are ready, you just mix them all together

the filling

mixed with the white sauce

and in goes the macaroni, mix them well

done, and just before it went in the oven, sprinkle mozarella cheese on top. what I did was , I put in a bit of parmesan cheese, cheddar and mozarella, loads and loads of mozarella!

into the preheated oven at 350 temp, and bake for about 15 to 20 minutes ( depending on your oven ) it went,

ting! the timer went off and Voila!

bon appetit!

chocolate Mousse Tart-

2011-01-23T17:22:00.000-08:00

Chocolate mousse tart (recipe simplified and extracted from one of my cookbooks collection )

Biscuit base:

3 oz digestive biscuit

3 oz amaretti biscuit

2 1/2 oz butter, melted

Mix all and press into the base of a 9" spring form tin. Chill in the fridge.

topping:

7 oz plain chocolate

4 oz milk chocolate, broken both types of chocolate into pieces

3 large eggs, esparated

2 oz caster sugar

chocolate flake bars to decorate ( optional/ can do without )

Melt the chocolate, double boil method , cool slightly add the egg yolks and mix well.

Whisk the egg whites until they form soft peak, add in caster sugar and whisk until stiff

fold the chocolate into the egg whites and then pour onto the biscuit base. chill in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight.

when you want to eat it unmould and transfer onto serving dish and either decorate it wth the chocolate flakes or none if you like.Can even eat it on its own, taste as good.

2010-10-28T05:51:00.000-07:00

soothing pink and white

2010-10-23T06:13:00.000-07:00

pink and white .... always works well together, many people's chosen colours, soothing to the eyes, heart and soul. .....sweet, romantic and blissful. a simple flower ribbon as the finishing touch with single white and pink clear crystal flower completed the whole sweet look.

instead of colouring the white fondant with pink colour, I decided to make all the roses using white fondant which I made the previous night and later sprayed a few with dry pink powder colour. It gave a different kind of nice to the roses.

six packs of four vanilla cupcakes, with buttercream and fondant deco.An assortment of deco with roses as the main flower, with rolled roses and white butterflies.

All six, packed and ribboned before they were placed in paperbags

besides the fondant deco roses, I also made 50 pink and white roses, 25 of each.

very minimal and simple deco. one rose in the middle with small star nozzle and kelly green leaves, finish off with small blossom with pearl beads.

the other 25, white roses on soft pink base buttercream with kelly green leaves and silver dregges scattered on the base

individually placed in a cup with dome cover.

not forgetting, two packs of lasagna.

as I am updating this entry, received an sms from farah:

"Sedapla k.zue lasagna, suami yg x bape suka pun leh mkn, tq:)

six paperbags whic I prepared earlier, as usual I drew the pictures and Batrisyia did the colouring

now that the cupcakes are in the bags, which ribbon should I use to complete the task

I decided to go for simple red and white ribbon. These would later be given to her neighbours.

buah tangan ikhlas dari

2010-08-18T04:21:00.000-07:00

Lasagna

2010-04-28T18:54:00.000-07:00

Daging halia and asparagus....beef , ginger and asparagus

2010-04-20T05:09:00.000-07:00

mmmmm......sedaaaaaap ......

'Lama dah mama tak buat masak ni, daging dengan sparagus tu", said my eldest daughter. Thats true, I forgot how long ago did I make this dish, one of the recipes from Chef Wan's "Sedaaaaapnya....." book which I bought many many years ago and had his autograph on the third page of the book.

So, when we went groceries shopping last Friday, bought the asparagus, and after sending Batrisyia to school yesterday, made a quick stop at the wet market where I bought the senangin fish and bought the batang pinang ( also bought tulang rusuk,for curry or soup for other days )

I need to marinate the beef with the following:

oyster sauce,salt, juice of young ginger , beef cube and Tabasco sauce ( searched everywhere for it, in the fridge, in the larder but ..nil, I thot I had it ) so I marinated the beef without the Tabasco sauce and left it in the fridge.

When I went out to pick up my youngest daughter from school, I decided to stop by at Gi*nt and looked for the missing ingredient and thankfully the store had it an I just bought a small bottle because this is the only recipe that I knew which used Tabasco sauce and it would be a while before I am making make this dish again, unless somebody request for it again.

Add the Tabasco sauce into the marinated beef.keep aside.

Heat up a little oil in a shallow pan and fry some crushed garlic, sliced young ginger and asparagus.

then just add in the marinated beef and stir for a while till th ebeef is tender and you are done!

salt

"Lama dah mama tak buat

Gulai ikan versi rempah giling

2010-04-20T00:45:00.000-07:00

I have found the rempah which suits my hubbys tastebud for fish curry, even if it is not 100%perfect but close.....not Ad*b*, nor B*b*s or Allag*pp*, but home made , not by moi ( i wish it was, but no...wishful thinking on my part ) by a lady who sells coconut milk and kerisek at the local wet market here in Alor Star, at the Souq Al-Bukhary market to be exact.(Thanks to her I can now make gulai ikan yang pecah minyak)

Whenever I feel like making fish curry, be it the whole ikan termenung or ikan senagin or maybe fish head ( ikan merah or jenahak ), I would drop by at her gerai and bought the fish curry paste.It only cost RM1 for one dish or maybe two dishes of gulai ikan depending on the quantity of fish used.

for the above recipe, I used ikan senangin, quite a big one, but I just bought the tail part which cost RM10 which I bought yesterday morning after dropping Batrisyia off at her school

Here's my version of fish curry:

Heat oil, fry sliced shallots , garlics, curry leaves and ( blank... I suddenly cant remember what this net ingredient is called), yang bijik2 tu, ?#@&?
okay, got it, halba campur:)

then, once fragrant, add in the home made (giling or blended i dont know) fish curry paste, stir until cooked.
Add in a little water , and a lttle asam jawa juice too.
leave it to boil and add in coconut milk
and the fish too
if you like, you can also add in some ladys fingers and tomatoes
salt and sugar to taste,

done.

Siakap kukus

2010-04-18T03:32:00.000-07:00

I finally found the simplest, the easiest and the yummiest steamed fish recipe. Didnt quite knew how to make this dish before though I know that this is one of the easiest recipe to cook fish, simply throw anything in and steam ahead, but not to me, I struggle to make 'ikan kukus but when I came across this recipe on TV during Chef Kamarul's show. It's one of those shows where he would be cooking a few dishes with a celebrity or an artist and I thot I'd give a try . Guess what? I've got thumbs up from my kids, especially the youngest who could easily finish off the whole small siakap on her own, I'd stick to this recipe for now.

here's the recipe ( semua main agak2 ya....)
SIAKAP KUKUS
one siakap, cleaned and place in a deep bowl or plate and rub some salt and squeezed some lemon juice on it.put aside.
get the steamer ready.
meanwhile, heat cooking oil in a small frying pan, fry sliced lemon grass with sliced onions till fragrant,
then add in a few cloves of garlic and a little chunk of sliced ginger, red chillies, green chillies, cili api.
then, add in some oyster sauce to taste.
add in some water for the gravy.
place the fish inside the steamer tray and pour the gravy on top of it. If you like, you can also put in thinly sliced carrot
cover the steamer and steam the fish for about 10 minutes.
before serving, just sprinkle some spring onion on top for colour.
serve with hot rice

lasagne

2010-03-29T19:52:00.000-07:00

mmmmm.... not good at taking photos, dunno if it looked scrumptious or not but it din't fail to impress my kids...they loved it, so they said...hehe.....

"Tsara'! Ameer! Batrisyia!" Time for lunch! It's Garfield's favourite food today!", you could hear the mum of the house calling her kids down for lunch yestersay afternoon. what prompted her to make lasagne, I don't know. Perhaps, the fridge was running low on stocks of chicken, fish, etc? No.. still had some chicken pieces in there, meat, yes, another portion of prawns, but no more crabs or squids, tulang rusuk, fish..time to go 'early morning'shopping again, time to stock up the freezer

Ameer asked me, have I made lasagne before? Of course I did. One time? no. Twice? No, thrice? No... many many times already but not so often. there was always a long gap in between unlike spaghetti bolognese or spaghetti goreng.

well...just felt like it, once in a while, you just didn't feel like having rice for a meal or rather you were clueless as to what to cook for the meals. It happened to me so many times, sometimes I would just stare at the freezer shelves, looking at the fish,sometimes we had bawal. merah, siakap, grut grut,terubuk, kembung, kerisi, etc and they stared right back at me!

saw the unused portion of the minced meat (i forgot what I used the other half for), some meat balls and remembered that there's still half a jar of bolognese sauce still in the fridge, balance of the spaghetti bolognese which I did last week, I still had the cheddar cheese block, still intouched and the expiry date was very near, that triggered me to make lasagne, after all, it's been awhile, so okay, let's be Italian today.I mean, yesterday.

here's the actual recipe which I obtained from couldn't remember where. Had been using this recipe since my student days:
LASAGNE
1 lb minced meat
425g tin tomatoes
1/4 pt beef stock
2 tbs tomato puree
1 onion
1 garlic
1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp sugar

Chopped and fry onion and garlic, then stir in the minced meat.then , put in the rest of the ingredients.
Bring to boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes.

CHEESE SAUCE:
60g/ 2 oz butter
1/3 cup plain flour
salt, pepper
pinch of nutmeg
2 cups milk
125g/ 4 oz cheddar cheese
3 tbsp grated parmesan

Melt butter ina saucepan, add, plain flour, salt,pepper, nutmeg. Blend in until smooth. Stir over heat for abt 1 minute. Gradually add milk. Stir until sauce boils and thickens
reduce heat, cook 1 minute.
Remove from heat, stir in grated cheese. Stir until cheese melts.

Layer pasta, meat sauce and cheese sauce. then repeat
Sprinkle with grated cheese. Bake in moderate oven 375f/190C or gas mark 5. for 30 minutes or until browned and bubbling. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Feel free to try, I did the easier way, by using the bolognese sauce which came in a bottle, forgot which brand did I use, either Pr*ego or D*lm*o

Anything Italian, pasta I mean, is just yummy.....bon jorno!
Ciao!

amboi..amboi..amboi....

2009-12-01T20:59:00.000-08:00

caught in the act...but she didn't mind it the least...:-)

kids will be kids and young girls will be princesses to their mummies ....

it's 1 noon., my cupcake deco is half way done, my fruit cake is still bare, so what am I doing updating this blog...it's not that i don't have anything to do right at this minute but i just need to take a breather.It's been a long night and there will be more long nights after this.

chocolate, green and white

2009-11-11T01:08:00.000-08:00

choc moist banana cake

2009-11-02T00:46:00.000-08:00

this is how it looks like inside, chocolate moist cake is sandwiched in between two layers of chocolate banana cake. Actually I was experimenting on these two cakes wondered how it would taste like if I mixed /combine these two and the outcome was rather good.A splash of ganache on top and in between the layers too.

Trial and error, testing---testing....I decided to call this combo: choc moist banana cake .

Aidil Fitri 2009

2009-10-22T01:56:00.000-07:00

Salam Aidil Fitri.Marble cheese brownies for my mum and mum-in-law for Eid.

1 Syawal , a very quiet Syawal morning, my eldest daughter and my son having ketupat and rendang

2 Syawal.... the journey back to hometown . After visiting mum in law and relatives in alor Star, we headed back to my home town to beraya with my parents. we started the journey at almost dusk and reached there at 12 midnite sharp.

3 Syawal

smile...you are on candid camera....Tok Umi wanted to have photos with her grandchildren.

Abah and umi with their cucus and two daughter

bilalah depa ni nak balik..... (perhaps that's whats on her mind, while lounging on the chair in front of the house)

4 Syawal di Taman Stadium...tak cukup di dalam, di dapur, bersila di depan pun jadilah...

satay...satay.....mari..mari...

happening...kereta penuh kiri kanan jalan di taman stadium that night...

4 Syawal- it's satay time!

5 Syawal

kanak2 riang...

Anak siapa ni.....

2009-10-22T01:52:00.000-07:00

ayunyer.....duk bersimpuh atas katil,

my sweet moment

2009-08-11T21:47:00.000-07:00

when I first saw her on TV,I was mesmerised by her, something about her made me glued to my seat and watched her spreading good words to mankind while quoting and singing the Quran verses melodiously and translating them in between.
She's truly one great lady and when a good doctor friend of mine smsed me asking if I would be interested to attend the program " An Evening with YBhg Dato' Dr Fatma Elzahraa" which was scheduled to be held on 8th August 2009 at the Holiday Villa here in Alor Star, I straight away replied a big "YES".

the program was a joint effort between Usahawati Negeri Kedah and the "Badan Kebajikan Wanita Kedah Kuala Lumpur/Selangor.This is an event not to be missed.

To be able to see her in person and be able to capture this sweet moment with her, is truly a sweet and memorable experience.I extended the invitation to a few friends and according to my doctor friend, the tickets were selling like hot goreng pisang! They even had to add in extra tables since the response was overwhelming. I'm sure everyone else wouldn't want to miss this great opportunity.

On that day, I went with good friends of mine, Yus whom I have only just known a couple of months back and how do you think we met? thru a blog, a blog of a friend ( also because of a Mothers Day chocolate cake and we later became friends too)and thru my carrot walnut cake . What beautiful things a cake can do to us, don't you think? Through my cakes, I get to know many beautiful and nice people. Alhamdulillah.

Yus offered to drive us to the venue and how glad I was because I was not really keen on driving the car up the spiral carpark .that's another story. Another good friend of mine , Nani, also went with us, the lady who has a daughter by the same name as the great lady speaker, the lady who ordered Power Puff Girls and Dorami cupcakes and cakes for her daughters whom I have known since my A-Level years. Another friend was also supposed to join us but it was unfortunate because she was down with fever and flu on that day.Hope you and your kids are feeling much better now, Jay..( her short name)Another friend of mine couldn't make it either but she bought the tickets for her mum and mum-in-laws and her granny and so they all went without her.

Saw YBhg Dato' entering the hall, with an aura that filled the room with great sweetness and warmth.The evening started with a brief introduction of the Badan Kebajikan by the Emcee and followed by the moment that we were waiting for. the topic for the day was about our heart ( hati or jantung). I wouuld like to share a few things that I managed to learn that day, afew short notes that I managed to scribble in my small notebook which I hope can be used as a reminder to me , now and in the future.

'Hati" , our heart is the most important organ in our body. It will make us who we are. If any of you are watching the Korean series " Summer Scent" which I had been following without fail, it's about a girl who received a heart of a girl whose boyfriend now falls in love with. Her heart was so strong that it totally changed the character of its recipient. She fell for him , of course, and he fell for her maybe because of the heart which was beating inside the girl, his girlfriend's heart who was missing and yearning for his love. I don't know how it ends because the last episode was on Thursday where she only just found out that her heart donor was actually the girlfriend's of the man he falls in love with. Can't wait for the next episode tomorrow night.

Back to our "ceramah ugama", about heart.

Ciri2 hati baik: yukminunabilghaiib......
untuk mendapat hati yang baik:
baca lah surah al-Fatihah 17 x daily
bacalah 5 ayat pertama di dalam surah Al-Baqarah
bersolat

Bad characteristics (nauzubillah):
1) riak
2)dengki
3)tak boleh memaaf
4) bakhil/kedekut ( in kelantan slang, "kupik" as YBhg Dato' said it )
5)sombong
6)berasa lebih dari orang lain

tuhan tak mahu tengok muka orang2 berikut:
-bakhil
- derhaka ibubapa
- mabuk arak

How to lawan syaitan:
1) banyak2kan sebut "auzubillahhiminasyaitanirrajim"
2) always berwudhu'
3)pasang/baca surah al-Baqarah di dalam rumah ( boleh juga pasang CD or cassette)
4)kawal mata ( you know what they said, "dari mata turun ke hati")
5)Baca 3 "Qul" sebelulm tidur dan masa bangun
6)jangan tinggal zikir, zikrullah/ zikir banyak2( esp read the Quran)
7) Attaubah( bertaubat)
8)Nak masuk rumah, bagi salam walau pun tiada siapa di dalam rumah
9) nak tutup tingkap or nak buka pintu, say with "Bismillahirrahmanirrahim"
10) Bila keluar rumah, bacalah "Bismillahtawakkalalallah"

How to fight nafsu:
1) Ilmu ( majlis ilmu ugama)
2)bersahabat dengan orang baik2
3)puasa banyak2
4)buat sunat tahajud

these are some of the things that I managed to write and hopefully practised. A lot more need to be learned. the evening went by so fast and her talk ended after more than an hour, which later was followed by the high tea and a muslimah fashion show with beautiful models wearing beautiful jubahs, kebayas and kurungs with matching and beautiful tudungs.

All good things must come to an end. the programme ended around six in the evening. Thank you hubby for babysitting the kids while mummy went out for a couple of hours with mummy's friends to attend this programme.Thanx Yus and Nani for the company , thanx Dr Mas for inviting me.I should thank the organisers too for organising this wonderful programme.Last but not least, thank you to the wonderful Dr Fatma for accepting their invitation and make it a memorable evening .

my kids' fav dishes

2009-07-25T08:22:00.000-07:00

Despite the tiring and frustrating evening yesterday, I still , as I always do wake up early in the morning, be it weekdays or weekends. All the days are the same to me, I'd still do the same thing, the only difference is that I do not have to send my daughters to school on Friday and Saturday.

Why tiring and frustrating? Because we had to spend close to four hours at the hospital.

So I decided, this morning, that is yesterday, July 24th 2009,to make " serabai barat" or pancake fo my kids. It's been a while since I last made this pancake which i prefer to call it serabai barat instead because that was the name taught to me when I learned how to make it. It was a recipe taught during my secondary school during the "Sains Rumah Tangga" class. One of the few recipes which I still use every now and then.

It was very easy to prepare and somehow the easier they are, the lazier I am to make it. My kids love this serabai barat, I like to eat it with strawberries or rasperries jam, my son likes to eat it with butter and yesterday he discovered that it tasted much better with peanut butter.

I didn't take any photos yesterday because the serabai barat didn't turn out as smooth or as beautiful as it normally would. Maybe it was because I was still upset about yesterday's incident with my youngest daughter. I mentioned a little bit about it in my entry " Love Boat and Smiley family " in my cake blog at cekmekzue-zue.

I said to my eldest daughter and my son, it is soo easy to make that the next time you want to eat it, you can even do it on your own.

First, sift the flour with cream of tartar. Add sugar.

Use the "gaul dan ramas" method when you add the butter into the flour mixture until it becomes crumbly like bread crumb texture.

Make a well in the middle and break an egg and pour 150 ml milk into it and beat gently. Don't over do it.

the batter is ready.

Heat the pan, if possible a flat one. Do not put too much oil, just enough so that the batter will not stick to the pan.

Pour about two tbsp of the batter and wait till bubbles start forming on one side before flipping it over. You will have smooth surface on one side and bubbly surface on the other. that's how it should look like. Plese cook this on very slow fire , if not you will burn it.

For lunch, I made " spaghetti goreng " ( fried spaghetti ), my husband's version, with a hint of curry flavour in it.

to top it off, I made chocolate mousse for dessert.I prefer to eat it with cream on top..

2009-07-23T18:50:00.000-07:00

"dunno know what i'd do without u"
"ditto..."

cucoq jagung

2009-07-11T06:54:00.000-07:00

It was raining heavily outside, the DVD is on, they were playing Transformers on when I brought up a plate of fresh from the kuali cucoq jagung, the smell, the crispiness, the taste of the sweet corn was heavenly. they also had a couple of packs of pop corn and a few packs of crispies to munch while watching the movie.

We watched Transformers 2, Revenge Of The Fallen last weekend and the Transformers mania is still in the air for everyone in thefamily so we decided to watch the 1st one again.

This cucoq jagung was very easy to make but sometimes the easiest one to make is the one that we seldom make. we finished two plates of cucoq jagung in less than a few minutes. didn't know that cucoq jgung could taste this good. Perhaps, it was at the right place at the right time. The Tv room, with good movie accompanied by the heavy rain outside, but i guess it's the fighting for it that made it so special. I was a bit surprised because even my son ate it. he wouldn't normally go for this kind of food.

My simple version of the cucoq udang:

Ingredients:

flour ( with bicarbonate soda)

egg

water

sweet corn

spring onion

salt and sugar to taste.

Make a well in the flour ( with a bit of bicarbonate soda and a pinch of salt ), pour some water, break an egg in it . Mix well. then add sweet corns from a tin, chopped spring onion and your cucoq jagung batter is ready to be fried. Heat some oil and take about a tablespoonful of the batter into the pan and fry till golden in colour.Done.

Enjoy the cucoq jagung with a cup of hot tea.!

cekmekmolek

2009-07-05T03:29:00.001-07:00

Cekmek molek, a traditional malay kuih, made from sweet potato ( keledek, or ubi stelo as they said it in Kelantan) originated from the state famous for its hand drawn batik, wau bulan, makyong , menora, gasing, beautiful beaches, keropok lekor, budu, etc..etc..yes, we are talking about Kelantan , which is also famous for its extremely sweet delicacies like the taik itik, jalamas, lopat tike (lompat tikam), netbat, puteri berendam, akok, just to name a few.

Said to my daughter who was watching me preparing this cekmekmolek this evening,
"you can just blog in to see how this is done when you are away from home furthering your studies in a university somewhere, UK maybe, US, or our very own universities here in the country, cos I am going to put in step by step on how to make this cekmekmolek.

I forgot to take a pic of the very first step. You need to boil the sweet potatoes in a pot filled with water, enough to cover the sweet potatoes. just add a pinch of salt will do. Boil till it becomes tender. Strain the water and peel off the skin and mash it like in the picture.

then, add some flour to the mashed sweet potatoes just about right.

mix till it sort of becomes dough like, but quite soft as compared to the dough for cookies.

take about a spoonful, make a small well to fill with sugar and wrap it up.

not too much sugar, just about right.

shape it to look like these.

fry them in hot oil but very slow fire.

be very cautious of the hot sugar inside. I like to eat it hot but have to be extremely careful ,if not it might burn your lips.

done! ready to serve for your afternoon tea with a pot of Ahmad strawberry tea to go with it.

Happy cekmekking!

Daging masak Dendeng

2009-07-03T20:48:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite recipes. why? simply because it tastes good and I can remember the recipe by heart...well...sometimes I do have to refer back to my good old recipe book for confirmation.

How did I learn to cook this dish? Daging Masak Dendeng is originated from Perak, if I am not mistaken, to me doesn't matter where they came from as long as they taste good, it's fine with me.

Back in the 90s, student days , I was staying with a friend, a friend who is kind enough to let me stay at her place because we went to the same college., a very sweet and humble girl and a good cook too! I learned this dish from her and I especially like her other dish called, "makaroni masak Lemak"

How to make this Daging Masak dendeng?

First, you need to boil the beef ( after cut into cube ) until the beef is almost tender ( please keep the "air rebusan/ beef stock "( water used to boil the meat ) for later.

Meanwhile you can prepare the ingredients for marinating the beef. You need the following: ( note you can easily remember them the way I did, I pair them according to type):

red chillies and dried chillies

shallots and onions,

jintan manis and jintan putih ( cumin and fennel seed)

ginger and galangal

salt and sugar

a bit of belacan ( shrimp paste)

grind or blend all those .

Before marinating the beef , pound them a little bit to make it tenderer, then only you marinate with the blended ingredients. Add a bit of black sweet soy sauce. Leave overnight in the fridge preferably.

Once that you feel it is marinated enough, bring it out, heat some cooking oil and fry the beef a little at a time. Put aside.

Heat enough oil in yet another pan, fry the balance of the marinated ingredients ( which you blended earlier) until it is fragrant. Add the beef stock and some black sweet soy sauce, salt and sugar to taste. Add the fried beef into the sauce and cook until everything is done. Ready for serving .

what

what is left of it. Thank you Aina for showing me how to make this daging masak dendeng. really delicious, spicy ( because of the cumin and fennel seed,) all the right ingredients in it.

Michael jackson dalam kenangan

2009-06-26T16:56:00.001-07:00

Went to Micahel Jackson's "BAD" tour concert in 1988 at the Wembley Stadium. All great songs in this album from BAD to Dirty Diana, Smooth Criminal, Remember the time, Black or White just to name a few.His songs, his music videos never fail to impress me, especially his moon walk, how did he do that? Not to mention his THRILLER album which sold million copies with songs like Billy Jean, Beat It, Thriller,etc...He's brilliant, superb, outstanding singer and performer.

we went there quite early, kononnya nak get good seat tapi once the pintu masuk was opened, everybody rushed inside and me, being a small and petite me ( barely 36 kg then ) was squeezed and pushed inside with my friends.Once inside, what a big stadium! nak duk depan and berdiri kat dalam stadium di tengah2 padang tu, rasa2 tak kot, sebab they were all big tall people and surely I couldn't see and tak mahu berhimpit and berpanas so we decided to take the seat which was rather far away from the stadium, but at least taklah berhimpit. It was Summer and you can just imagine lah, kalau musim panas tu macamana. To make matters worse Iwas having a bad headache that day ( of all the days, why chose hari Michael JAckson's concert to have my headache!)

I couldn't really enjoy the concert ( because of the headache )but it still felt good, having being able to see The King of Pop live on stadium even though could only see him on the big screen. He was so tiny on that big stage .( from my seat lah)

Got some memorabilia from the concert, bought meself the scarf ( just the scarf, other merchandise were a bit expensive, masa tu student, beli ticket pun gagah kumpul duit...). These were some of the memories that I had with MJ, well, shared with thousand other fans on that day.

My admiration for him didn't just stop there. i looked forward to seeing his music videos whenever they were shown on TV or MTV, I never get bored seeing his dance moves, especially the moonwalk. He invented the moonwalk, didn't he? I especially like the dance in Smooth Criminal video. In fact I like all his videos and songs from Beat it to Billy Jean from his THRILLER albums which sold millions of copies to his BAD album. I even bought his BAD album but in record and my turntable is broken!( er, hubby's turn table , which he bought masa kat UK dulu) sekarang orang tak dengar turntable dah, orang main MP3, ipod lah and that jazz....

Gonna miss his ohh and auwww and aahh in his songs, his trademark and his dance moves. I told my friend DDI, in her blog that while I was driving home this morning after sending my daughter to school ( replacement class), and the DJ played MJ's song, suddenly I felt sebak, tears welled in my eyes. I like him, yes but I didn't know that he touched me deeply! I thought I must write something about him, I could say that I am his fan, not fanatic though, just like I like Bryan Adam but i am just one of his million fans out there who felt his loss, because it was so sudden.

I was just about to start baking in the kitchen yesterday morning when my daughter said to me. "Mama, Michael Jackson dah mati". Where did you hear the news? "It was on TV", she just saw it while clearing the dishes in the kitchen sink.Ajal maut di tangan Tuhan. It didn't wait one minute or even one second if it is one's time. If he is a Muslim convert just like the news been telling us and I hope he IS a muslim, may he be blessed with the others.

Life goes on for the rest of us and hopefully it will be filled with goodness ,kindness and happiness and his memory will live with us through his brilliant and memorable songs.

have a break...have a kit kat...cuti-cuti

2009-06-13T20:56:00.000-07:00

MALACCA - 9th June 2009

HOLLANDS CAFE

Inside Holland's Cafe in M'cca. we had been walking for like forever and our legs were kiling us and there was no sight of a muslim restaurant or cafe around that area.( rasa macam kat oversea pulak susah nak cari restoran melayu, or maybe it's us who didn't know if there were any in that particular area ) we did find one but it was closed! We decided to get back to our car and drove to Mahkota Parade , wherever that was , we need to find our way there first ), when we suddenly came across this cafe.it's called Holland CAfe, so we decided to ask if they serve halal food cos we were truly starving at that time and thankfully they did. So had our lunch or maybe high tea because it was way past lunch time,made ourselves comfortable there since we were the only customers at that time and we had the service all to ourselves , so we ordered beef lasagna, meat kroket ( the dutch specialty as recommended by the lady ), black pepper chicken pizza and Holland coffee which contained 20% coffee and 80% milk.

While waiting for the food, mama sempat gak pi one of the shops nearby which sold Kebaya Nyonya. I thot I must have one of those since I am in Melaka and got myself one green nyonya kebaya to be worn with green batik sarung. All these happened on the second day of our trip.

how we ended up in Melaka?

it's the school holiday but mama's schedule is very tight for the first week with weddings and kenduris and so mama decided to block the second week of the holidays, not to take any cake orders and Abah was also available...well...made himself available for the kids..so, the question is, where shall we go? locally, that is. a few options: Penang, KL, Kelantan? No theme park; be it water or land , cos it's the school holidays , for cying out loud, and most probably, well, surely these places will be packed with holiday-goers. we have been to most places be it on our own or office trips,Genting, Cameron, Langkawi, Danga Bay, A Famosa , Lost World, Bukit Merah, the Carnivall , etc....so we were totally clueless as to where we were heading as we set off for our journey on that particular Monday afternoon .

So, we decided to settle mummy's things first which were to look for baking stuff and books. went to one shop in Puchong, seronoknye tengok all the gadgets. At first, I just surveyed the items first, second round, baru start ambik things needed and suddenly heard the shutter being pulled down. It's only 6 pm! It seemed that the shop closed at 6pm. I rushed with my things and being the last customer to go out but I did managed to get a few things which I couldn't get back home. Okay, that's done. Went over to the nearby cafe where my hubby and kids were waiting for me and had kuayteow goreng there.

Where to next? It's still early, so off we went to KLCC, where the books were. I was looking for cake decorating books. Got myself a few books . , one of the books was by Martha Stewart, "Wedding Cakes", a gift from hubby for me. very expensive too, but I think it was worth it. this woman is so talented, with baking, cake deco, organising, house-keeping, crafting, you name it, she can do almost anything. Belum apa2 lagi, dah bertambah barang kat bonet kereta tu. itu baru first day, belum pun check in lagi.

Our eldest did mention that she wanted to go to the museum in Malacca and so on the second day, we decided to go there. The last time we went to Malacca was when Batrisyia was barely two months old. I had just finished my confinement period and had a few days left before I had to start working ( after the sixty day maternity leave ), so we decided to go for holiday , that was in the year 2004.

After a hearty breakfast at the hotel, we didn't go straight to M'cca but made a stop at the L*w Y*t Plaza to download some games , or something ( i dunno much about their games )to our kids DS and PSP. By noon, we made our journey to the land of HAng Tuah and Hang Li Poh and all the other "Hangs'"

We finally went to the museum, about half an hour before closing time!

before entering the museum.

had an ice-cream first...

whoa.a... sampai dua ice-cream.....perhaps the other one belongs to Kakak....

macam duk Holland lah pulak, with the windmill at the background...

love the view behind us, a narrow alley with trees crawling up the wall....

inside the museum

my hero with the patung hero....

peek ..a..boo...

My three Angels, not Charlie's Angels ya... ( my other angel is behind the camera)

After the museum tour in less than 45 minutes, we decided to leave Bandaraya Melaka Bandaraya Bersejarah and headed back to KL. After less than two hours, we reached Bukit Bintang area where we had our dinner of nasi ayam steam and kari kepala ikan. Feeling knackered and full , what more do we want but to put our heads on the pillows and to doze off into the dreamworld!

the next day, we decided to head home or should we go back to see Tok Abah and TokUmi. but before there one final shopping spree at the C*rve and IK*A.By evening, we finally left KL after stopping for satay kajang at the R&R, bought some for Tok Abah and Tok Umi cos we finally decided to go back to my hometown for a while, even it was just for one night cos I had to leave back to Alor Star on Thursday .

Arrived at Abah and Umi's place around midnite. Everybody at home, abah, my sister and her family except Umi were asleep. Umi waited for us. Everybody is tired..esp the driver, my other half...i only bawak sekejap sangat, from the R&R to a place (forgot the name of the place ) before we made the exit at Kuala Kangsar thru to Grik ( timur) to the East West highway.

Blur image of this elephant ( taken while driving ), spotted on the side of the road along the timur barat highway on our way back. We think this was the same elephant that we saw last night.perhaps he or she couldn't find her way back and was still lingering there trying to sort out where he or she could or should go. Poor thing, his habitat has been invaded, so where else could it go?

It's been quite some time since I last went back. the last time was for my youngest brother's wedding ceremony in January. So good to see them again. Umi bought macam2 for breakfast, from nasi berlauk to nasi dagang, to pulut pagi and roti goreng. All my favourite food. then went over to my sister's place off Jalan Telipot where we left our kids to play with her kids, their cousins while we went to another shop to get the stuff for my "keras tangan" project.

Nama je cuti tapi semua tempat pergi berkaitan dengan Zue's Oven. What to do, it has become part of my life now, but hey, I 'm not complaining cos am enjoying every minute of it despite the number of sleepless nights, the back aches, etc...it was worth it. Never before have I felt this good about something. It's a very satisfying new experience.

had "Nasi kak Wok" for lunch at my sister's place before we headed back to Abah and Umi's place before leaving for Alor Star.Umi was busy preparing dinner for us. She made us kari kepala ikan, ikan merah and goreng ikan kerisi ( my favourite when I as young ) and insisted that we brought them back untuk makan on the way or back home. That's Umi, she would cook our favourite dish everytime we come back, for me, she would either make sup ekor or sotong rebus or that ikan goreng tu, for my hubby, asam pedas ikan keli, same with my adik-beradik yang lain, She would go all out to make their favourie dishes.Abah, would normally go to his kebun and get the pisang rasa for me but not this trip because he wasn't feeling too good, baru lega from demam the last few days. Love Abah and Umi soooo much. unfortunately we can only stay a while, balik jus nak bersua muka, nak lepaskan rindu yang tak pandai nak diucapkan melalui kata2. We left just before 6 pm and arrived Home Sweet Home around 10 pm.

Subhanallah..teramatlah cantik, magnifique...breathtakingly beautiful sight to behold. If only i can capture this sight on canvas.this view was taken just after we passed the Puncak titiwangsa. We have always loved the trip to and from Kelantan because of the view.

we missed the actual sunset but this is still as beautiful .

It was quite a tiring trip but it was rather fun and worthwhile trip. Now that I am back, berasap baliklah oven at Zue's Oven for the black and white theme engagement cakes and cupcakes were waiting for me.

Back to reality, school holidays is over. Kids back to their routine, me and my baking , hubby and his work. Dunno when the next trip will be or where we are going. I just want to be thankful and grateful for what is bestowed upon us, syukur alhamdulillah.

Daging masak cili kicap jem dan raisins

2009-06-06T05:23:00.000-07:00

you heard or rather read that right. there are raisins and some jam in this dish.These are new to me but maybe not to some people.

I couldn't believe it myself until I saw it with my own eyes, my friend throwing some raisins and scooped in a blob of jam ( could be strawberry jam), into the dish. That was in the 80s or 90s , (student days, far away from home days, those days when I learned how to cook to survive...yelah, Umi duk jauh, camana nak masak for me, kan, so kena belajar masak maaa.... )

did this the other day,on Wednesday. took out a piece of meat,( normally I would cook this dish using chicken ) cut into not so thin slices, clean it, of course and boil with some water ( later to be used ), sliced onions, garlic and some ginger. Boil till the meat is tender.

meanwhile, heat some oil, fry chili paste ( or blended dried chillies), shallot and garlic ( crushed), a bit of blacan and also rempah sup, serbuk ketumbar, , dark soy sauce, kayu manis, bunga cengkih, and not forgetting the raisins, jem and a bit of sugar and salt to taste. Mix thoroughly last but not not least, add in say, two tomatoes ( sliced ) and cook till everything is ready .

Sedap, tak caya, cuba sendiri....

thanx Rina sarawak for showing me how this dish is done cos my kids love this recipe and i have been cooking this every now and then.

Words that warm me up...feel good conversations

2009-06-01T02:32:00.001-07:00

B:Batisya nak pegam, boleh tak Mama?
mama:Tak boleh, nanti putus tussle tu.
B:Batisya pegam pelan2.

Mama:Tak b oleh..
B:mama marah Batisya?
Mama:yes
B:tak mau kawanlah,
Mama:tak mau kawan sudah,
B:nak kawan, nak kawan.....

okay, kita kawan, Batisya kan kawan mama, Batisya selalu teman Mama buat kek.
that conversation took place when I was busy making some figurines and things for a cupcake order with the theme medic and baby shower this afternoon. I made the teddy bear wearing the graduation hat with a tussle. since I am sill not an expert with this fondant thingy, I was a bit "not so much of angry" when she wanted to play with the tussle, more of I can't afford to do it all over again, cos the lady who ordered this is picking it anytime today.

Mama cakaplah.
Cakap apa
Mama sayang Batisya.
Mama sayang Batrisyia
Batisya sayang Mama jugak.
Kiss, kiss
muahh.....

after a while,

Batisya sayaaaaang Mama,
Mama pun sayaaaang Batrisyia jugak.
mama sayang abam, Mama sayang kakak.

these sentences were repeated almost over and over again when I was preparing the 140 pieces of brownies and carrot cupcakes last night. It was way past midnite but she was still awake because she wanted to accompany Mama.sampai finally she terlentok on the chair besides me in the kitchen.

Cantiknya!!!!!!
Mama pandai buat kek and cupcakes
cantik kek Mama, mama pandai , mama cantik......( mama cantik ke, kek mama yang cantik? hihi...)
siapa tak cair listening to those melodious statement , of course they are a bit bias, coming from your own daughter, but still, it just warms you up ....

A sweet experience....

2009-05-28T04:37:00.000-07:00

.....unlike yesterday, today's event is totally the opposite of what had happened to me the day before. Maybe to some people what happened to me today is nothing extraordinary but I just feel that today is so sweet, the reason being, it is the first time I did what I did this morning.

what's on your mind? What do you think I did?

As I continue writing this, "today" has become the day before yesterday cos I was unable to complete the entry due to the orders for wedding cakes and cupcakes and brownies and BEN 10 birthday cake

So back to that story, well, it was nothing much really. I just went to the market....okay, picture this, the day was , Wednesday, the time was almost 8 am, the place was, the morning wet market. So? what's so sweet and special about the day, the time and the place?

Firstly, it's working day, and it's rush hour and it's not an office! Yup. I got to get used to this new experience. For the past countless number of years, the only day that I could do this is over the weekend, either Friday or Saturday or on my annual leave day, but not anymore, I can go there or anywhere anytime I want.To make the experience sweeter, I bumped into a friend who also did her morning shopping there and she asked me to join her for breakfast at one of the gerai at the market. Me...sitting and having my nasi lemak bungkus with milo tarik there... with a very good friend, .never before, so I just sat back and enjoy the moment. Furthermore it's not everyday that you go to the market and bumped into your good friend for a good breakfast and catching up on things.....even so, I couldn't stay too long, chores waiting at home, cakes to be baked and decorated, anyway I just enjoyed it while it last....

A frightening experience.......

2009-05-26T17:14:00.000-07:00

....... not frightening or scary as in watching horror movie , Friday the 13th or Jaws but another kind of frightening.

It was 7.06 am. I was doing my daily chores of sending my daughters to school every morning and this morning was no exception. First destination was my eldest daughter. DONE. The next one was to send my youngest daughter ( my second child cycles to school everyday) to her kindergarten very near our place so I was about to drop her off on the way back.It was 7.30 am.

Out of the blue, the signal " battery" came on the warning panel. I was a bit stunned. Err...what does it mean? Does it mean, the car battery is weak? or what? Frankly, I don't know anything about cars except to drive it. I don't know if anyone out there is like me, but that's just me...so ignorant about cars. I always leave all these things about cars to my other half.

To make matters worst , the steering wheel suddenly felt heavy. I couln' t move it either to the right or to the left. it could just go straight! I was panicky! OMG! What was I supposed to do? Do I stop at the road side and do what? I couldn't call my other half because he is outstation and I wouldn't want to disturb him at least not before 12.30 noon.

I kept on driving and "bersalawat" and didn't stop "berdoa" so that the car wouldn't give up on me right in the middle of the busy road. I was only less than a kilometre away from my house and from my daughter's tadika.

There's a round about ahead and my heartbeat pounded faster and faster. I was at Jalan Teluk Wanjah. What if I can't steer the car to the right, into Jalan Stadium? I tried ( nak pulas kuat2 takut patah pulak tengkuk steering tu ) and I did manage to go into Jalan Stadium and I kept on driving and drove past my daughter's tadika ( I had to turn left if I were to send her and I didn't want to take the risk of the car refusing to turn left ).

Oh no! Another turn and this time I had to make a U turn at the traffic light and again, I made a decision to de-tour by going slightly to the right about 45 degree angle and not U turn and drove into the road going to Komplek Pendidikan but I still had to make a right turn at the junction. A car stopped to give way for me ( bless this good soul ) and I nearly drove into his car because my car refused to make that turn, with great difficulty I managed to get into that smaller road leading to my house. Two more corners to make and I finally saw the yellow bambo tree in front of my house and never before have I felt so relieved and glad to see the sight of my house. I decided not to park the car inside because then I would have to make that ninety degree left turn which is a bit difficult with that subborn steering wheel so I just parked it outside under the yellow bamboo tree.

Phew! I managed to drive us both safely home and I still didn't know what was wrong with this car.Ya Allah ya tuhanku , thank you so much for answering my prayer. I'll call my other half later. In the mean time, I still have to send my daughter to her tadika , if not for her "exam" ( lima tahun pun ada exam now ni ). I would just let her stay with me at home , and fortunately we have this other car, this old VW model (seventies I think) .

it's ironic actually, only this morning when I was about to start my car ( the black one , the one with the stubborn steering wheel ) I said to myself, I'd drive the VW later because I haven't driven it for a number of days ( takut tak hidup pulak sebab lama tak start engine ).

I turned the ignition and it gave a coughing sound. Oh nO! Not you too!Tried several times but still it refused to start. Turned the air-cond knob to "off" position and thankfully the VW came to life. Alhamdulillah. So off I went to send my daughter in this VW, she was still unaware of the drama that her mama went through earlier for she was fast asleep at the back seat.

Slowly I drove this good old VW Beetle back home and please please please , I hope that she will be good to me this coming days because it won't be a few more days before my other half comes back.( wish you all the best dear , i know that there are soo many butterflies in your stomach as I am writing this but InsyaAllah, God willing, our prayers will be answered, ditto )

Ayam Masak Minangkabau

2009-05-22T22:21:00.000-07:00

Ayam Masak Minangkabau, ready , to be served hot with hot white rice..

The name , masak minangkabau sounded so grand to a mere mortal who didn't know how to cook, like me, with all the cumin, fennel seeds, coriander, galangal, turmeric. Noticed the past tenses used in this sentence because it is to describe a thing of the past. However, it doesn't sound grand or alien to me anymore cos I think I have mastered the making of this wonderfully spicy cuminy coriandery ( are there such word?....whatever....)dishy..

this is the part when you put in the chicken after all the ingredients are all cooked and smell so fragrantly with the combination of the following:

Ingredients:
shallot and garlic
lengkuas and kunyit
jintan manis, jintan putih, ketumbar
cili kering, belacan.
blend everything and tumis with cooking oil until fragrant.

People say or rather I said because that was what I thought at that time( back in the student days), that making chicken curry was the easiest of all the dishes for curry, but not to moi. I could make dishes much more complicated than chicken curry, like this ayam masak minangkabau, masak lemak cili api, ayam masak portugis but I didn't know how to make that simple curry! ( with its readymade curry powder, Ad*b*, b*b*s,Al*g*p*a, etc, etc, )

After the chicken is almost cooked, add some water, just about covering the chicken, cover the pot, simmer it and leave it to become tender.

After a while, add a few blobs of tomato sauce and a couple of tablespoons of fresh milk, salt and sugar to taste.

When it boils, add some coconut milk and stir occasionally , cook on slow fire until the gravy becomes thick.

Done!

" zue guna rempah apa ni? , abah asked me in our house in Kedai Batu 8 ( meaning which brand did I use to make this dish?

"Zue tumbuk sendiri", I answered proudly, though wasn't so sure what the comment was gonna be.
"Sedap...macam yang dijual di kedai2".

That was one of the proudest moments in my life.( for someone who didn't really know how to cook, that was quite an achievement! )

I was on holiday during the Summer break and decided to cook for my family, which was a rare moment because normally My Umi or my sister would do all the cooking because this girl ( girl lagi ke, dah mak budak...masa tu girl lah....)wasn't much of a cook. I was away from home most of the time, if at the boarding school, food was served on the table, nasi kawah and the lauk2 all done and prepared by the Makcik2 ( Bless all of them for preparing such wonderful lauk2, though ada jugak masa2 yang I don't like, me being a picky eater, but most of the time, simply delicious ), and thereafter, nasi bungkus or nasi mangkuk tingkat or nasi polysterine ( this was when I was doing my A Level in Kelana Jaya in the 80s )

The highlight of the cooking era was during my student days where I was staying thousands of miles away from my home-cooked meal by my Umi and stayed in a 3 bedroom rented house somewhere in Ilford with three other Malaysian ladies. We have to eat and so we have to cook ourselves because mummy is not here to cook for us, eating out is a bit expensive for students like us and we are also not 100% sure of the halal status, furthermore, it's not easy to get Malaysian dish from where we are staying, halal chicken is readily available but the dish itself, we have to cook them ourselves. Thankfully, we have a few good cooks in the house and it is from them and also from the recipe books that I learn how to cook some of the dishes.

But this particular ayam masak minangkabau, I learned when I was in my secondary school. Let's not dwell into that era, it will require more space in this entry if I were to talk about my school days. maybe, in the next entries

Fancy some scones, anyone..

2009-05-20T05:21:00.000-07:00

just take a look at that...freshly baked scones, straight from my oven, for breakfast this morning, spread with some strawberry jam and I was transported back to the year 1990, somewhere in a B&B in a small village in Glasgow, or was it Edinburgh or was it Inverness? I am reminiscing, going back down the memory lane for those were the days when you have not so much worries as you do now. the only thing that you need to worry is to pass your exam, to make sure that you come back with a scroll in your hand.

That B&B place served the BEST scones I have ever tasted. If given a chance I would love to go back there and have that scone again, In the mean time I have to make do with my home bake scones which is no where near to that perfection but tasty and crumbly enough to be called a scone. For those who do not like their scone too sweet , then this one is definitely for you. even with generous portion of strawberry jam, it is still not sweet and since I have made it, I have to eat it but I do admit that I quite like it. quite big for a portion, I think more than 8cm in circumference and I had two this morning and had a glass of milk to complement it. Felt like having afternoon tea ( tho' I was having it for breakfast)in an english garden at somebody's backyard somewhere in the faraway land ....

I have been meaning to make scones since....like forever...keep postponing it and finally I said to myself, I must do it,so i took out the recipe book " Exceptional Cakes" which my hubby bought for me and there it was:

I think, 450g of self-raising flour with two tsp of baking powder and a pinch of salt , sift together, add 25g caster sugar. Rub in 85g unsalted butter , i think 85g( I'll check back the correct recipe later cost the book is downstairs and I'm in my room upstairs, ( checked, yup, it's 85g alright! )with the flour till you get he crumbly texture. Beat 2 eggs and 25gsugar .Add 200ml of cold milk and pour the mixture into the flour mixture. Make it into a dough, roll them and cut into about 16, I got more than 10 scones measuring about 8cm each.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 175 C for about 20 minutes or until it is cooked. you know when it is done, the usual, brownish, skewer doesn't stick when you poke it into the scone. I almost forgot, glaze the scone with egg and milk mixture ( 1 tbsp of milk with 1 egg yolk) and sprinkle some caster sugar before you bake 'em.

There you go, all done and baked, ready to be enjoyed and savoured.

Note: the secret of a good moist, light scone is the correct proportion of raising agent to flour. Use too much leavening and your scone will stand tal, but taste horribly of baking powder. You also need to keep handling to a minimum, otherwise the gluten in the flour is overworked, making the dought elastic and the scone hard."( Exceptional Cakes book )

Chocolate Mud Cupcakes

2009-05-16T19:14:00.001-07:00

Haaa... what r u doing....Batrisyia....
"Batisya suka cokelet", was her reply

fom this oven out came the following:

Cheesy brownies for my daughter's Teachers DAy celebration today,

Bluebrry cheesecake for Batisyia's kindie

chocolate mud cupcakes for Batrisya's friends at the kindie.

when it came out fresh from the oven last night, I asked my son Ameer to try it and he kept coming back for more. He normally wouldn't like to eat my cakes, only selected few, very fussy and picky eater this one...hmmm I wonder where he got that from.......no worries about my daughter ,Tsara'...

colourful deco

Ready to be delivered and in fact, already delivered by the time I'm writing this down. ( more photos of these collections can be found at http://www.cekmekzue-zue.blogspot.com/ )

What's that sound? Birds chirping outside! Isn't that great! Now that I am at home I can hear all these wonderful nature's sound right at my door step so to speak. Apart from that, I am all alone, total silence at the house except for the sound of these keyboards clicking and the sound of the fan above my head,well, not exactly above...my head.

I am in my bedroom, while downloading the photos I was multi-tasking, yes I was doing my ironing as well! Gotta prepare lunch afterwards, so in the mean time, decided to enjoy my sweet moments alone with my laptop, checking my emails, bloghop, letting my mind wander, creating sentences as I go along, going back down the memory lanes, while at the same time trying to get ideas for my next decoproject.

Today is the first day I have the whole house to myself after my newfound freedom which started on 1st May. So many things to do and yet I still find that there's only so little time left to do all the things that I wanted to do despite being 24/7 at home. It's a different kind of challenge, no doubt you are no longer dictated by the punch card or deadlines, but you must set your own dead line, the only difference is you can take your own sweet time to complete the task with no pressure from anybody else. You only have yourself to answer to., ain't that nice.....

Well..Cinderella has to stop dreaming for the clock is ticking and it's ticking very fast! The kitchen is calling, so is the laundry. What shall we have for lunch today? I have squid, prawns, some crabs, meat and chicken, not to mention fish, all kinds of fish, ikan merah, ikan bawal emas, ikat gutgut, ikan termenung, ikan siakap in my freezer. I have a few minutes to spare so perhaps, I'll go to my friends blogs or fotopages and see what's cooking there..

Ciao!

I finally did it.....

2009-05-13T09:40:00.000-07:00

This called for a celebration! What are we celebrating? Me , making my own laksa gravy...yippee....with a little help from a good friend.Hubby's favourite food, one of them is laksa but mummy dearest doesn't know how to make 'em. but she does know how to make cheesecake, cupcakes, brownies, chocolate mousse, cookies, kek gula hangus ( happens to be hubby's fav cake ), biskut batik, anything that you can find at Zue's Oven @ cekmekzue blogspot.

Now that mummy dearest has all the time in the world , ( she's entered into a new chapter in her life) ,she would try to cook or make all the dishes using all the recipes that she's been keeping all these years. Mummy dearest would cut any recipes ( be it from newspaper or magazines ) that she finds interesting, she would copy and paste the recipes from blogs , she would write down recipes on small pieces of paper, write down at the back of her diaries, texted them in her handphone and the list goes on. There was once, when she was on a plane and was reading the "GOING PLACES" magazine, she found an interesting sambal udang with cashewnut recipe, she copied it on a piece of paper. Till today, she never make that dish. She never finds the time to make 'em and the recipes remain where they are, on those pieces of papers in a folder, or in between the old recipe book, at the back of her diaries. Not anymore, she would dig out all those and would try them out one by one.

What's the story about this "kuah laksa"? They went to the morning market the other day to get their stock of "lauk-pauk", fish, prawns, squids, veggies, eggs, etc and they passed by this "ikan selayang". Hubby looked at it longingly but didn't say anything. Mummy dearest took the hint. Mummy dearest knew that hubby likes laksa but she had never made him that particular dish simply because she didn't know how!

So she said, "D, let's buy that fish"
'I 'd like to make laksa for you"
" ARE YOU SURE?"
"YUP"

So they bought not one but two kilos of ikan selayang. Somebody is ambitious here! Actually she didn't know how much is needed , in fact she didn't know at all what she's going to do with the fish but she is determined. Determined to make that kuah laksa for her hubby, by hook or by crook.You know what they say, " a way to a man's heart is through his stomach" Is that true?

To cut the story short, Tuesday, she called up her good friend who is an expert in making this kuah laksa and seek her advise. She ended up not just getting an advise but this good friend came over and showed her step by step how to prepare it! That's what friends are for! To save the day!

Here's how it is done:
Firstly, you need to boil the fish with a few pieces of asam keping or asam gelugor. Leave it to cool, then you de-bone the fish. Blend them. You can use the excess water for later.

Dried chili- boil them and blend with shallots (lots of them), preferably big red onions , some prawn paste ( belacan).
Take note: no garlics are used in this recipe.
Heat a big pot, pour just tiny weeny blob of cooking oil, say about a tablespoon.
Pour the blended chili mixture, after say , fifteen minutes ( don't have to wait for it to "pecah minyak"), add the excess water, lots of it, let it boil, then add the following four main items:
1.serai- pound it
2.bunga kantan-
3.daun chenohom
4.asam keping

leave it to boil for another ten minutes, add, salt and sugar to taste. Voila!

to serve:
soak laksa ( laksa ronggeng, the small noodle type)for about twenty minutes.
Boil some water, when it boils, pour the laksa in, if it is soft , then it is ready, toss the water.

Ulam2an:
big red onion,cucumer, chli padi, limau nipis, daun ketereh, daun putat, daun ulam raja, etc, all sorts of daun and ulam that you fancy to go with your laksa.Some people like to eat their laksa with hard boiled eggs.

Bon appetit!

testimonials:
Hubby likes it but next time, mummy dearest must use the bigger version of laksa because hubby dearest doesn't like the small type.Mummy was so pleased with the result. Thank you Na for helping me out.You are a good friend indeed. True what they said , " A friend in need is a friend indeed.

moonstruck

2009-05-05T00:59:00.001-07:00

Had "Moonstruck" for breakfast. My daughter Tsara' made this for me ( how sweet...) and I asked her to make for her Abah and brother too.

going.....

going....

gone.....

Burppp.....alhamdulillah, my moostruck and orange juice is in my tummy already.

How it got its name? From a movie of the same name, "Moonstruck" with Cher and Nicholas Cage as the heroin and hero in in that movie. We saw this movie way, way back during our student days in the 80s, during the Michael Jackson era, the Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet, not Take That or New Kids on the Block days. Saw Cher making a hole in her bread and break the egg into it and so we did the same and named the bread and egg toast , moonstruck.

every once in a while we would buy the sandwich loaf ( the unsliced version ) and made this moonstruck. I like to eat mine with sugar whilst others prefer theirs with tomato or chilli sauce.

Bon appetit!

Music to my ear

2009-05-01T08:51:00.000-07:00

"Mee goreng Mama buat lagi sedap dari kedai punya"

That statement sounds like music to my ear, uttered by my son sometime this morning when I was busy arranging white and fuschia roses on an engagement cuppies.What makes him say that? I don't know but for whatever reason, I don't care cos it made my day. It made a beautiful start to my new chapter, just like those white roses did.

The previous night too, my husband made a positive remark about my spaghetti sauce. That nite, last Wednesday, i was busy with my brownies marathon, baking brownies with walnut, marble cheese brownies and carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and still managed to make us all spaghetti bolognese for dinner.

Simple dinner; boil the water, add spaghetti when it started boiling. After awhile, break a small piece, toss it against your kitchen wall, if it sticks, your spaghetti is done. That's how I tested to see if my spaghetti is cooked. Meanwhile, pour some olive oil in your pot, saute onion and garlic till fagrant, add minced meat.Add some black pepper and the spaghetti sauce ( short cut version ), oregano, parsley, bolognese spice, beef stock, salt and sugar. It didn't taste quite right, something was missing. I think it lacked something soury because I only used half of the sauce ( i had used the other half for the other night), so I opened up a can of peeled tomatoes and poured some into my spaghetti sauce. Voila, it got a compliment from my hubby. Served the spaghetti with the sauce plus boiled eggs. That was our dinner for that night while waiting for the brownies and the carrot cakes to cool off.

Once upon a time...

2009-04-13T06:14:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, there was this little girl in a small village somewhere in the Cik Siti Wan Kembang state.She lived with her abah, umi, one big brother, one big sister, two younger sisters and three younger brothers. However, this story began a little bit before her five younger siblings were born. There were only three of them, five of course with abah and umi.

Her Umi likes to bake cakes, cookies , kuih sepit ( it is also called love letter), steamed pau, all sorts of jeruk, etc..etc.. Almost every Raya festival , she would ask her two daughters ( since their son was away at a boarding school ) to help her with the whisking and beating and anything related to baking and her daughters willingly or maybe sometimes,unwillingly ( kids being kids )helped her.

What makes the experience unique was how these cookies were baked. You see, those days, they had no oven, not even the black boxy Butterfly brand oven which we put on top of the gas cooker.So how did they bake 'em? There was one "roti" man in the village called Encik Razak ( they called him Cik Rojak ) , an Indian Muslim man who had this big ,enormous, gigantic oven/stove for baking his bread. What they did was to borrow his bread trays ( a few of them, enough to put their cookies ) and they arranged the cookies and went over to his place which is only a walking distance away. When the cookies were ready, they gave some to this good old man as a token of gratitude and appreciation for letting them use his oven since he refused to accept any payment for the services rendered.

There were no cake decorating then. The cakes were eaten as they were. As the little girl grew older, she went off to a boarding school far away from her hometown to a place where she knew no one but eventually that place became her home, her "home away from home", where she met and made new friends . That was the place where they taught Sains Rumah Tangga as one of the subjects . Over there, she learned more about baking and cooking but still no cake decorating. She picked up valuable lessons like, proper whisking, beating, folding, creaming, " gaul dan ramas" method and so many other terms used in baking. But this little girl also remembered what her Umi taught her, "when you beat the butter and sugar, always beat it with the same motion and direction". There were no Kenwood mixer or even the Philips hand mixer, so there were only the wooden spoon and your hand to mix the ingredients. She even used the hand whisk to beat the eggs. When you put the flour in, as in folding, do it slowly so as not to let the air escape or else your cake will not rise to the occasion.

At school, she also learned that you are not supposed to open the oven door during the baking process, if not, the cake will sink because of the sudden gush of air coming in. Actually there are so many "do"s and "don't"s in baking and this little girl, now that she is little no more, picks up more tips here and there as she ventures more into the baking world.

From school, off she went away again, leaving her family behind to further her studies in the land with four seasons: winter, spring, summer and fall, land of musical theatres: Phantom of The Opera, Miss Saigon, Cats ,land famous for its fish and chips, just to name one example, land with famous places to visit, : its Covent Garden, Kew Garden, Harrods, Wembley Stadium, the famous Oxford Street and last but not least, its late Princess Diana.

During her university days, she continued baking , trying new recipes, believe it or not, she had her first bite of cheesecake there ( she probably has had it before but not knowing it ) and having tasted the scrumptiousness of the cheesecake, she decided to learn how to bake it herself.

to be continued......