Devil's Curry or Kari Debal

It all started when I walked into the studio and my DJs were talking about 23 World's Best Curries... They didn't include our mamak kari, Thai's red, yellow and green curries and our Peranakan Devil's Curry (Kari Debal). Depa iktiraf sampai Singapore ja... X aci! Hehehe... Tiba2 ja teringin Kari Debal... Anyways let's make Kari Debal.

Ingredients Daging (besaq 2 tapak tangan, hiris nipis, lumur garam) Minyak untuk goreng daging (omputih cakap browning the meat) Devil's Curry Paste : 12 dried chilies (soaked/boiled until soft) 1/2 " halia/ginger 1/2 " lengkuas /galangal 4 biji buah keras/candlenut 3 serai/lemongrass 6 cili padi/birds eye chili 6 bawang merah/shallots 5 bawang putih /garlic 5 sudu besar minyak masak * asam jawa/tamarind juice Gula merah, garam, cuka makan sejuk rasa. Method : Blend paste ingredients until fine. Panas minyak, tumis biji sawi & goreng daging bagi ada kerak sikit. Brown meat. Tumis pes rempah dengan minyak sehingga pecah minyak. Masukkan  daging. Masak sehingga pekat. Masukkan air asam jawa. Masak sehingga pekat. Masuk garam, gula merah & cuka makan secukup rasa. Done. Makan dengan nasik putih panas2, dengan kerabu kerisik pucuk paku ngan nangka... Aduh!

Lisham's Chicken Loh Bak

Let's get cookin'.

Ingredients :

A
2 cups boneless chicken breasts/thighs
1 cup shelled shrimp
1/4 cup Chinese water chestnut*
2 garlic*
2 onion*
2 tbsp green onion*

*Optional

B seasoning
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1/2 tbsp tapioca flour
1/4 tspn 5 spice powder

Salt & pepper to taste

C
Soya sheets

Method:

Chop chicken and shrimp together. Add finely chopped chestnut.

Mix in seasoning. Mix well.

Kitchen tips: When dealing with seasoned raw chicken, to taste the seasoning is to cook a teaspoonful of filling and do the taste test. Adjust accordingly.

Add 2 tbsp filling onto soya sheet and tightly wrap.

Use the filling liquid to seal the end.

Fry in hot oil for 7-8 minutes  until cooked through and golden brown.

Drip dry the excess oil before cutting into 4 parts.

Serve with special chili sauce ( mix normal chili sauce with abc sauce)

Done.

Weird and Wonderful Animals

Special animals I've seen these past years... 

A 5 legged cat, pink buffalo and a two beaks- half-beak fish!

This cute Miaow has an extra limb complete with small paws... 

This one's in Sabah's Monsopiad Cultural Village.

Pink baby buffalo in Langkawi. They're quite common. Easily spotted during the rainy season.

Halfbeak with two "halves" of the beak. The reason it is called a Halfbeak is because of the elongated lower jaw, hence, a "half"beak, so a fish with two elongated lower jaw is a double halfbeak.  Do you call it a Singlebeak then?

Chee Cheung Fun

Been craving for this for so long... I remember having this as breakfast back in my home town... Entah ada lagi ke tak kedai tu... Lama x balik Sungai Petani... Hehehe...

It's the wonderful mix if nicely steamed rice roll with dark soya sauce, sweet sauce, shrimp paste sauce, hot chili sauce sprinkled with fried shallot, sesame seed and sesame oil.... Omg!

Ingredients:

Rice Roll

1/2 cup rice flour
1 1/2 tbsp glutinous rice flour
1/2 tspn salt
1 1/2 cup water
1 tbsp oil

Optional:

1 tbsp light fried dried shrimp / chopped shrimp meat
1 tbsp chopped green onion

Method:

Mix flour with water, salt and oil, leave for an hour to rest. Mix well.

Add a lille bit of shrimp and green onion to the pan before pouring in the batter if using shrimp and green onion.

Steam for 2 to 3 minutes. Roll with spatula.

Sauce:

1 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tbsp black soya sauce
1 tbsp shrimp paste sauce
1 tbsp chili sauce (I use abc chili sauce)
1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp fried shallot
1 tspn toasted sesame

Putting everything together:

Cut rice rolls. Serve with sauce and sprinkle fried shallot and toasted sesame seed. Drizzle sesame oil. Done.

Sambal Tumis Telur Pecah

Simple things are the best.

Lets make Sambal Tumis Telur Pecah Dalam.

Ingredients

3 eggs

Sambal paste:
10 dried chili
5 birds eye chili
1/2 onion
1 tbsp belacan
1 tbsp sugar
1 tspn salt
1 tspn black pepper corn
1cm fresh turmeric
1cm fresh ginger

1tbsp white vinegar

2 tbsp cooling oil

Method:
Boil dried chili until soft. Blend everything together except for vinegar.

Eat oil and fry paste until fragrant and oil separates. Salt and pepper to taste. Add a little soya sauce if you prefer darker sambal. Add vinegar.

Break egg and cover.

Mad about desserts - Coconut Pudding

Tried and tested brand... The taste is super sedap... Very fragrant... As usual... I added 50-100ml water to the recipe as I like my jelly to wiggle... It will be sweet enough... Hehehe...

Mad about desserts- Almond jelly

Almond flavored stuff is like liquorice... You either love them or you hate them...
I love them!

Due to a friend's predicament of not remembering what brand of dessert is good... I have tried this brand of almond jelly and I liked it so very much...

I would add an additional 50ml-100ml of water as I like my jelly to be on the wiggly side...

Served ice cold with canned longan... Aduh...

Dusty Fried Chicken

Who doesn't like fried chicken??? I prefer my KFC to be original and my ideal fried chicken should be lightly coated with batter/seasoned flour or just sprinkled with turmeric powder and salt...

Since today is Hari Raya... We might as well make something special so I decided to try and make a recipe I stumbled upon while browsing YouTube... It's called Dusty Chicken from a channel Hot Thai Kitchen... Check the video here

So let's make the dusty chicken. It's so easy...

Ingredients:

Magic Dust

1/4 cup glutinous rice / cawan pulut
2 kafir lime leaves/ daun limau purut
1/2 inch galangal / lengkuas
1 lemongrass/ serai

1 pc Chicken  chop
1 tbsp fish sauce / sos ikan
Salt & pepper
1 tbsp flour

Method:
Toast magic dust ingredients until glutinous rice is golden brown and all other ringredients are dry. Let cool and blend.

Season chicken with fish sauce, salt and pepper. Add flour and fry.

While still hot, add magic dust. Coat evenly.

Done.

And oh... Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri. Maaf zahir dan batin. 

Tangerine Koniyaku Jelly

The normal kedai where i used to shop at katup so now I have to walk all the way to Gateway Mall to get my groceries.

I am a big sucker for jellies. The usual brand that I use is "Jele" brand. It comes in different flavour and had citric acid and sugar added.

Since the nearest mart closed, I've been having a hard time trying to find a good koniyaku jelly powder brand.

Then I tried 1 brand... It clumped up like mad upon hitting the water... Not a good brand...

Like everything in life... You don't give up... U try and try again until you succeed...

So I came across this other brand as well as Hosen Tangerine in syrup... I came across this brand when I was in Langkawi. They had strawberries in syrup for rm2 per can that I like to use in my Caramel custard. 

Enough ranting... Let's make Tangerine Koniyaku Jelly.

Ingredients :

1 packet of the said Koniyaku Jelly powder

500ml water+90ml of the tangerine syrup (we try not to waste something so flavourful, this amount of liquid will give you nice jelly like consistency, not suitable for cut jelly)

1 can of Hosen Tangerine in Syrup

Method

Bring water to boil. Add koniyaku jelly powder. Stir until dissolved. Co tune stirring for about a week minutes.

Put tangerine in container, add syrup and pour jelly in tangerine container. Let set for 30 minutes and let jelly chill in fridge.  Done.

Pedai Ayam or Chicken Gizzard kata Omputih

Makanan orang "tak degil"... Because when I was young, I was told that you you are not circumcised... You cannot eat 'pedai ayam' for the fear that it will make your foreskin tough and hard to cut... Just like the pedai Ayam (Chicken gizzard) Yeah...

So here's how you make them soft and nice... Hehehe...

Preparing the chicken gizzard- BUY THEM PRE-CLEANED! Pakcik x lalu makan Kalo kena cuci sendiri... Hehehe...

After washing... Put them chicken gizzard in a pot, cover with milk (Rumah Pakcik xde susu, pakcik pakai coffeemate creamer powder ja), salt, pepper and boil for 8-10 minutes kalo nak makan terus atau 6-8 minutes kalo ada plan lain...

Cover pot and leave them to cool. Lepas tu ikut La korang nak buat apa ngan pedai ayam tu...

Kali ni pakcik buang air rebusan dia, tabur kunyit, garam, serbuk paprika sikit (sebab lada itam abes) dan goreng minyak sikit... Hasil dia macam dalam gambaq... Done. 

Pakcik suka sapu mayonnaise atas tortilla wrap, boh segenggam mixed salad... Makan... Aduh! Syahdu.... Better than "kipci"  twister... 

Nanti kita buat ala2 ayam goreng kipci (KFC lah) pulak... Tapi minyak masak abes... Nanti kena pi beli...

Until next time... Hehehe... Kalo degil tu... Mesti suka makan pedai ayam... Ngeeee...

Chicken Charsiew

Just a lazy weekend at home...

Been craving for something yang Dah lama x makan... Chicken Charsiew. Dulu2 rajin beli kat ayamas waktu pakcik kecik... Mak selalu bawak pi beli kat Ayamas Taman Ria... So jom masuk dapur and make- Chicken Charsiew

Ingredients :

2 x Chicken- Boneless Chicken Thigh (Pound flat) salted.

Char Siew Sauce

2 tbsp Black Soya Sauce
2 tbsp Hoisin Sauce
2 tbsp Honey
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp Tow Cheo
1 tbsp Red Tofu 
1 tbsp rice wine/white vinegar
1 tspn five spice powder
1 tspn red food coloring (optional)

Method:

Mix sauce ingredients together and cook for 2-3 minutes, it should be sweet and salty.

Marinate pounced chicken in a zip lock bag for 2 days in fridge.

To prepare- heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok/pan, fry chicken until cooked and nicely caramelized... Serve warm/ at room temperature with rice... Boleh makan ngan Mee kicap, bleh makan ngan Mee sup, ngan nasik...  

I like to let it cool and then thinly cut into bite sized pieces (purposely messing up my cut so ada bits and pieces untuk diratah) and sumbat dalam roti kukus! Hou Leng aaaaaaaaa!

Share Chicken Charsiew with that special someone who will be the victim to scrub the wok/pan...

Nota kaki (footnote ler) : Pastikan minyak betul2 panas dan pastikan anda benar2 sanggup /ada orang lain yang sanggup untuk menyental kuali sebab Serious Caramel dari kicap/honey/brown sugar dalam sos perap ni sangat2 degil dan liat...

Nota kaki 2: Rasanya kalau kita slowly braise the chicken sampai masak, then blowtorch to caramelize pun ok gak... Nanti kita pi cari kitchen blowtorch... 

Simply Fried Chicken

Been very busy lately. Had an event yesterday and did my laundry today. Esok kena kerja while the rest of the office Cuti... Xpa la...

So while I was waiting for my chicken to marinate... The phone vibrated and as expected... Something happened, somebody didn't turn up and I had to fill in at the office... Err... How bout "NO"?

Anyway, back to the Fried chicken recipe.

Fried Chicken Bodo-Bodo

6 pcs chicken (I suka wings/drumstick)

Chicken seasoning:
2 tablespoon buttermilk/yogurt (pakai buttermilk- ayam very light flavour, Pakai yogurt- rasa kuat sikit... Try dua-dua)
Black pepper powder
Sweet Paprika powder
Garlic powder
Salt

5 table spoon Flour (flavoured with the same powder listed above)

Method:

Marinate chicken with butter milk and seasoning powder. In a bowl, coat chicken in flavoured flour and fry for 20 minutes/until done.

Makan!

Lazy Rainy Weekend

Nothing much is happening at the moment... Taking time off the daily grind... So this is a typical weekend for me! Laundry... Lazing about the nest...

What's new?

My electric eels are eating like pigs!

Here's a video of Adik Bongsu which the the largest one I own at almost 7"

Here's Abang Long... At 5"+

Abang Ngah is still at 4"... No video yet because it is still in his floating partition...

My drosera capillaris is blooming...

And so is my Hoya praetorii...

I made a killer teriyaki Roasted garlic beef... And Chawan Mushi! It's weird because it turned out nicely! Hahaha...

A break from the recipe sharing... Here's my new obsession: baby electric eel

Let me introduce you to one of my three baby electric eels... He's a wee little zapper at 6". His other companions are about 5" and 4" long. Like all of my other pet fish... I call them "Buntet".

After almost a week of not eating, they're now eating well and I feed them chopped up sharp-belly minnow... I am lucky as we have Bangladeshi shops around my area... They sell them frozen sharp-belly minnows and my baby electric eels love these chopped up fish. It's funny to see them with full bellies and they look like fat tadpoles with long tail! 

Baby electric eels can grow to be about 24" in their first year of life. At the moment they must be kept separately as baby eels are not tolerant of other baby eels. They are veracious feeders and it's funny to see them swimming with their bellies full. 

Now you can say that:

a. You have seen an electric eel

b. You have seen an electric eel pooping

c. You have seen an electric eels' poo

d. You now know the position of an electric eels' anus which is just below the gills

I can't wait for my eels to grow big so I can have them in one big tank. 

😭😭😭😭😭😭😭This was my most expensive fish as it swam up the sump and died  after 1 hour 😭I bought this one 2 years back. After a month of planning and escape-proofing the tank, this one didn't escape, but swam into the sump... This is the only video I have of him 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Mushroom Soup (the easy version)

When you feel like having cream soup but you don't feel like standing for too long, nursing a pot of roux to brown nicely in the stove... You cheat! :D

Here's a quick cheat version  of the Mushroom and Roasted Garlic Cream Soup, using white bread instead of having to make a roux, which involves melting butter, adding flour to it and slowly cooking it to brown (not burnt) and slowly adding milk/stock to the roux, trying to avoid lumps from forming... That's just too much work!

Ingredients :

3 pcs of white bread
4 cloves Roasted garlic
4 tablespoon creamer powder
1 cube chicken stock
1 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg powder
5 cups warm water
5 canned button mushroom (whole)

5 canned button mushroom (finely chopped)

Method:

Put everything in a blender (except for  finely chopped mushroom), blend until smooth. Pour into a heavy pot, add finely chopped mushroom and slow cook until thick.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Done.

Steamed Garlic Ginger Chicken Rice

If you're living alone like me, then you should know the hassle of cooking for one... I used to have and use a small cooking rice at home but I don't like cooking 1 small cup of rice in a rice cooker.

Usually I had to cook more than I need and most if the time I cannot finish everything.

Then I bought a steamer and now I cook a personal serving of rice straight in a bowl... Problem solved.

Anyway, here's my take on a really simple rice dish that you can easily  prepare at home in a lazy Saturday afternoon.

Steamed Ginger Garlic Chicken Rice with Garlic Ginger Sauce (single serving)

Ingredients :

Wash and soak-
3/4 small cup of rice
1/4 small cup of sticky rice

Blend together-
2 inch ginger
4 cloves garlic

1/2 chicken breast/chicken thigh (bone in, skin on)

Dried shitake mushroom slices (soaked)
Dried soya chunks

1/2 Chicken cube (mix with 1/2 cup water) 
Salt & pepper
Sugar
Lime juice

Garnishing-
Sesame oil
Birds eye chili 

*garlic ginger sauce (recipe below) 

Method:

Drain rice, add to a bowl.

Mix chicken cube to warm water and add just enough to cover rice.

Add 1 tablespoon of ginger-garlic paste and stir.

Arrange chicken, mushroom slices and soya chunks on rice. Sprinkle Pepper powder.

Steam until fluffy (about 20 mins).

Garlic Ginger Sauce
Add 1 tbsp lime juice, 1/2 teaspoon Salt and half tablespoon sugar to the rest of the garlic ginger paste.

To serve:
Drizzle sesame oil on chicken and serve with finely cut birds eye chili and that garlic ginger sauce!

Pulut Udang

I've been craving this for years...  

Well actually bila balik kampung,  this is one of the must-makan dish... Joining the likes of solok lada,  dadih semeling, bihun sup &  popia basah Salman, ayam goreng mcdota,  Mee and nasik beriyani alauddin, nasik kandaq shariff,  lauk Barkat,  moi sop tepi jambatan sungai sp, tapai long shaari, Thai food kat d' sabai... *sigh...

Anyway,   I still remember waktu I kecik,  ada satu kakak menjual pulut udang ni...  Kat simpang jalan nak masuk Taman Intan,  Bakar Arang...  Selalu pakai kebaya...  Sebelah stall dia ada air tebu,  ada lori yuyu ice (ala2 slurpee)... 

That was way,  way back and I am pretty sure there used to be another Kedai Pulut Udang kat Simpang Keling,  Tasek Gelugor ,  depan kedai azmi,  padang serai and another one dekat tepi sungai tepi titi Kampung Naga lilit... All this kedai mesti singgah,  beli, makan atas kereta

Bahan2

Pulut

1 cawan pulut

2 sudu makan santan pekat + air panas

Garam secukup rasa

Inti

1 cawan kelapa parut putih 

1/2 inci belacan

5 biji cili kering

2 biji cili padi

1 batang serai

5 ulas bawang merah 

1 cm halia

3 sudu udang geragau 

2 sudu udang kering (rendam air panas) 

Gula &  garam

Cara:

Pulut :

Basuh dan rendam pulut semalaman.  Kukus sampai jernih,  masuk santan+air panas+garam. 

Inti: Kisar semua bahan sekali,  kecuali udang kering,  sangat sampai kering dan wangi tapi jangan sampai pecah minyak... 

Letak 2 sudu pulut atas daun pisang yang dah disalai sikit,  letak 1 sudu inti kata atas.... Saya suka balut cincai-cincai sebab saya rasa lagi selera nampak inti terkuat sikit....  Kalo ada usang kertas dalam inti tu lagi syahdu!  Hehehe... 

Balut dengan daun pisang kejap-kejap dan bakar dalam belanga sehingga terbit minyak... Kalo ada arang,  bakar pakai arang,  kalau xde...  Pakai je tudung periuk.... 

 Saya suka Kalo daun pisang sedikit hangit...  Ada bau lekat kat pulut! Bila dah naik bau,  pulut udang tu akan keluar minyak...  Saya suka kalau pulut garing sikit...  Sebab pulut udang saya tebal2....  :D banyak sangat kesukaan...  Tu yang susah nak dapat pulut udang yang memenuhi piawaian...  Hehehe.... 

Versi bahasa Inggeris bakal menyusul...  Tengok la kalau rajin! 

Makan!