Saturday, July 25, 2009

my kids' fav dishes


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..

Thursday, July 23, 2009

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

Saturday, July 11, 2009

cucoq jagung


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.!

Sunday, July 5, 2009

cekmekmolek

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!







Friday, July 3, 2009

Daging masak Dendeng

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.