Salam Aidilfitri 2012

Sambal udang pedas

Ingredients:

0.5 kg big prawns (udang saiz besar)

3 medium shallots and 2 small shallots (3 bawang merah sederhana dan 2 bawang merah kecil)

4 cloves garlic (4 ulas bawang putih)

1 bowl dried red mixed chillies, hot & not fiery hot (1 mangkuk cili merah campur yang pedas & tak pedas)

1 tumeric leaf (1 daun kunyit)

1 stalk lemon grass (1 batang serai)

2 leaves limau purut (2 daun limau purut)

~1 tabblespoonful salt to taste (~1 sudu makan garam ikut rasa)

3 tablespoonful cooking oil (3 sudu minyak masak)

1 electric kettle of hot boiling water (1 jag air panas)

2 medium red tomatoes (2 tomato saiz sederhana)

a small piece of palm sugar (1 bahagian kecil gula Melaka/gula keret)

Utensils:

Kuali

Wooden ladle (senduk kayu)

Electric kettle (jag letrik)

Electric blender (blender)

To prepare ingredients:

1. Cut dried chillies and place in a plastic bowl. Add hot boiling water and soak chillies till soft (10 min).
2. Drain dirty chilli water and all seeds. Rinse and repeat procedure to remove all seeds and clean chillies.
3. Blend chillies till fine (use electric blender).
4. Cut tumeric leaf into 3 pieces.
5. Clean and pound lemon grass.
6. Slice onions and garlic.
7. Cut each tomato into 4 pieces.
8. Wash and clean prawns. Cut the sharp horns and feelers from the prawns with a pair of scissors. Trim the tail and feet if desired. Leave the shell, legs, tail, eyes intact. Do not remove the shell as big prawns do not have shit (tahi).

DRIED CHILLIES

ONIONS and GARLIC

TOMATOES

PALM SUGAR/ GULA MELAKA/ GULA KERET

PRAWNS

Cooking instructions:

1. Heat oil in kuali and fry onions, garlic and lemon grass. Fry till onions and garlic are light brown.
2. Add blended chilli and stir to avoid sticking and burning (hangit). Dry the mixture if a lot of water was used to wash down the chilli from the blender jar. Mixture should be thick or it will not stick to the prawns.
3. Add tumeric leaf, daun limau purut and salt, and stir.
4. Add tomatoes and stir.
5. Add a small piece of gula Melaka and adjust taste.
6. Add prawns last and let cook 10 minutes to retain juiciness. Do not overcook prawns or they become rubbery, dry, stiff and difficult to chew.
7. Adjust taste with salt and palm sugar. Do not add water.
8. Serve warm with rice.

Kuih Jala Mas

Ingredients

25 hen's eggs; separate yolks and whites

2 kg granulated sugar

approx. 1 litre of water

2 pieces daun pandan

cloves
yellow food colouring (omit otherwise)

Utensils

kuali
pot
skewer

Method

(a) To prepare the jala mas:

Mix egg yolk and water. Stir slowly to mix.

(Prepare the sugary water next.)

Pour egg mixture into a cone (as for roti jala) and go round to form a net in a kuali.

Lift the net and use a lidi (any wooden skewer) to fold it while still hot.
Dip in sugary water and remove.

Drain excess sugary water.
Serve.

(b) To prepare sugary water:

Cook water, granulated sugar, daun pandan, and cloves in a pot.

Cook till the sugary water boils.

Continue to cook over a large flame till the mixture bubbles and fills the pot.

Reduce the flame to medium.
(Continue to prepare jala mas.)

Photo of jala mas (Flikcr)

Spice Trade

This is a good write-up about the ancient Spice Trade, the very activity that resulted in the Europeans appearing in Southeast Asia, where our ancestors lived. Then what happened? We became poor while the people who took possessions of the spices became fat and rich, they ate the loveliest leg of lamb!

Nasi briyani 

http://www.celtnet.org.uk/recipes/spice_trade.php

Pinang Kadok

This is a recipe for Pinang Kaduk by Abidin Hussin from Facebook:

Abidin Hussin
Ishak MatSom, ini resepi Pinang Kadok. Gula Merah, Serai 1 btg dan Bawang Puteh 2 ulas. (Buat Manisannya: Masak gula merah, campur serai dan bawang putih diketuk pecah. Masak gula merah, campur serai dan bawang puteh, kacau hingga pekat dan buang serai dan bawang puteh). Bahan2 lain, Daun Kadok, Kacang tanah goreng, Halia potong kecil, Bawang merah mayang kecil2, Limau nipis potong kecil2 bersama kulit, Niyur (kelapa) di mayang kecil dan goreng, udang kering, cabai melaka potong halus. Mahu makan, Daun kaduk di buat kelonsong dan dimasukkan semua ramuan2 serba sikit untuk memenuhi kelongsong kadok tadi, masukkan gula merah yang pekat dan bungkus macam makan sirih. Selamat menikmatinya.

Pinang Kadok

29th Wedding Anniversary

This is a lovely and tasty cheesecake with banana filling, available from Secret Recipe for RM86.

Coffee

Some beautiful pictures of coffee

Any strong, sweet, and hot plain black coffee is good for overcoming headaches and migraines due to eating foods containing MSG. TESCO 3-in-1 light or Expresso is fine. If you are the type that gets headaches that advance to migraines, and that is frequent, then take black coffee as I have described above. That way you have a better life, at least it works for me. 

I told my class of first-year medical students that they can safely take 2 cups of coffee and I take 5 cups of coffee per day.