Sauteed zuchini

Zuchini is a vegetable that only recently I came to love. It was alien to me before. We could not grow these vegetable at our backyards (or could we?). They look like cucumber only softer and they have great colors. The ones that I always see at the supermarket is bright yellow and dark green.

After searching for zuchini recipes on the net, I found that the simplest for me to try is just to sautee these vegetable. Heat the pan on medium high, then put in some olive oil. Then put in some sliced onion, sautee it until they become transparent. Then put in the zuchini that has been sliced. I like mine thinly sliced so that they cook faster. Then add salt and pepper. Cook for another 3-4 minutes, flipping the zuchini often. It's done!

Sauteed zuchini - it tastes good, looks good and very light, great for everybody even for dieters (not that I am dieting, which I think I should..) and the aroma, aahh.. so nice.

Lovely chicken and mushroom sandwich

My youngest daughter is a light eater. When she really eats, I am happy. When she is full, she is less cranky. She basically likes vegetable. Yes, she's quite different than other kids. I made pecal today and she only ate the kangkung!

I bought some wholemeal buns at Tesco yesterday and with some leftover roast chicken from yesterday, I thought it would make a great sandwich. What else do I add to make it an even better sandwich? In the fridge, I have 3 varieties of lettuce, and a pack of button mushroom from last week. I love mushroom as you can tell :P So I sauteed the mushroom in olive oil with some sliced onions, add some salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, cut the bun in half. Spread some mayo onto the cut sides of the bun. Put some cleaned lettuce onto the bottom half. Layer with shredded chicken, then top it with the sauteed mushroom and onion. I didn't put any sauce if you notice, but it's totally optional. Sandwiches are so versatile. Then top it with the other half of the bun and enjoy.

Anyway, my youngest daughter happens to looove this sandwich. And she ate about 3 of these today. So I am not worried that she only ate kangkung at lunch.

Orange Cake

Laila my daughter wanted to have a cake, and she kept on pestering me for it since yesterday. And when she mentioned it again this morning, I know I have to make it for her. After lunch, I took the butter out of the fridge. While resting, I suddenly have the urge to make that macaroons that I failed doing about a month ago. So I asked my youngest daughter to ask her sister whether she would consider making macaroons instead of a cake. She's always in her room upstairs you see, like any other teenage girls. The response was - no, it has to be a cake, and it has to be an orange cake!

So at about 3.30pm, I called her down to the kitchen, and made her help me with the preparation for the cake which include making the orange zest, orange juice, reading the recipe which I got from http://www.exclusivelyfood.com.au (called lemon and orange cake), and help me wash the utensils :D I just bought a pack 0f oranges at Tesco yesterday, and today it went down to only 1 orange! The zest was enough but not the juice. So I topped it up with a bit of orange flavoring (about 1/2 teaspoon).

After about 50 minutes, the cake was done. Everybody was eagerly waiting to taste the cake and fortunately the cake came out great. It could've been better if I have more oranges or lemon so I could make the lemon orange glaze or citrus icing as the recipe mentioned and pour it onto the warm cake. But hey, Laila loved it, and so did my husband. I am happy.

Mushroom!

As usual, I went to the market today to buy food for the next 7 days. While browsing at a vegetable stall, I saw a basket of wild mushrooms! And these are not the oyster mushrooms that are cultivated in farms. These are the ones that you only find on anthills after rain, only if you are lucky. I heard a pakcik mentioned - these are grown by God. Hmm... interesting..

So I got myself about 400grams of these mushrooms and I was happy. How do I cook these mushrooms you asked? My favourite, a simple mushroom soup. Not the creamy type, just water, sliced garlic and a bit of sliced onion, lemon grass, some anchovies (not the ones you put in the ceasar salad) and salt. Just bring all these ingredients to a boil, the put in the mushrooms. Cook for about 3-4 minutes. Done! At lunch, I have white rice with the mushroom soup, with sambal belacan and fried catfish. Heaven!

Mee Hailam

The kids woke up late today. They had late breakfast. When lunch came, they didn't eat that much. And at about 4pm, they were hungry again. My son requested for mee hailam. It's noodle with soy sauce based. The most important thing is that it's simple to make.

Smash 2 cloves of garlic, fry in a tablespoon of oil, then add 1 cup of sliced chicken. Add 3-4 cups of water. Put in 2 tablespoons of pepper. Let it simmer for 10-15 minutes. Then add soy sauce. I used 2 types of soy sauce - 1/2 cups of sweet soy sauce and 1/4 cups of the salty type. I know, it sounded like too much soy sauce. Use half of the portions first and have a taste then go from there. After it boils, put in the other ingredients. I used squid, shrimps and some vegetables. And then put in the noodle. Put in the leafy vegetable after this. Wait for about 2-3 minutes, until you see the shrimp curls. When the shrimp is cooked, it's done.

Then call your kids!

Pina Colada

All my children are at home today, and to make lunch a little more special, I decided to try make my version of pina colada. I put 2 cups of diced pineapple in a blender, add 1 cup of sprite, 2 cups of coconut milk and of course sugar which is up to your preference. Start with 2 tablespoons and add if you need more. Then blend it away. Then add ice. Done! Sooo... simple.

Owh by the way, the pina colada is the one with pineapple slice at the side of the glass. Next to it is my hubby's fresh orange juice which err.. was a favorite at lunch just now. Not to say that the pina colada wasn't good ya.. it's just that the kids are not accustomed to it yet. Yeah! That was the reason :)

Muffins you won't go bananas over

Last evening I came home a little bit early. I had a meeting in an office which is close to my hubby's office, that's why. When I got home, I saw that there were still a lot of bananas in the kitchen and I thought it'd be good to try make banana muffins using the recipe that I got from the internet. So I did.

My kitchen smelled so nice when the muffins were in the oven and I thought, great, this recipe will be a keeper. After about 18 minutes, the muffins looked done. I waited for 5 minutes and tried one of them. What a disappointment! It looked and tasted quite good but it was not the muffin that I had hoped for. The texture was far from fluffy. Everything was not as what I had imagined!

Long story short, I have to search for another banana muffin recipe,which is not that hard. The hard part is to have patience trying one recipe after another, and finding somebody to eat them!

Omelette

Omelette. Simple but nice. Whenever I stay in a hotel I would go for omelette for breakfast. Like I said, it's nice. But now I always make it at home. Simply because my family loves it.

This morning omelette was requested by my son. Breakfast like a king, he said. Alright. No big deal, omelette I make. Beat 2 eggs, heat the pan on medium high and put in 1 teaspoon of olive oil. You can use butter, margarine, up to you. When the pan is hot, add the egg. When it is about half cooked, add the other 'accessories' - up to your preference. This morning I used diced mushroom, tomatoes and zuchini. And then add the most important ingredient of all, the mozarella cheese. In my house, if the omelette is not with mozarella cheese, it's not fun to eat. I didn't add salt to my omelette. Again it is up to you. You can also put in some pepper if you like. I forgot to put mine this morning, haha.. My son didn't complaint, so I'm not worried.

My omelette looks too oily this morning. Maybe I put in 2 teaspoons of olive oil instead of 1, but hey, I won't lose sleep over it. Maybe I'll do it again tomorrow morning. And maybe, this time it will be perfect!

Fish curry

This morning was havoc at my house. Today we're taking the car to the office. Meaning I had to leave early than usual. Meaning I had to finish all my cooking (breakfast & lunch), hang the laundry, sweep the floor, etcetera, etcetera, before 7am. And of all days, my daughter decided to cry out loud today for some silly reasons!

However, amidst the havoc, I managed to cook this lovely fish curry. Perasan! Just fry pounded garlic + onion + a little ginger with 3 tablespoon of cooking oil until aromatic, then put in a packet of fish curry powder that has been mixed with 4 tablespoon of water. Cook for about 3-4 minutes, stirring often. Meanwhile, mix 1 teaspoon of tamarind paste into 1 cup of water. Then add into the curry mixture in your pot/wok. Add 1 cup of coconut milk. Let it simmer for 5-6 minutes. Stir once in a while. When the mixture boils, add 4 slices of fish (I use mackerel), some ladies fingers that had been cleaned, and 1 tomato, quartered. If you like more gravy to your curry, add more water. Add salt to taste. Let it cook for another 5 minutes. Then serve.

Well, in my case, I just leave it in the pot until I come home from the office in the evening.. sigh..

My tomato and mushroom toasties

Bread - checked. Pasta sauce - checked. Tomatoes - checked. Mushroom - checked. Mozarella cheese - checked. I am all set for my version of the tomato and mushroom toasties. Preheat the oven at 180 degree Celcius. Top sliced bread with pasta sauce. Layer with fresh tomatoes, mushroom and cheese. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Pancake

My son loves pancakes for breakfast. When he saw me getting maple syrup from a baking shop yesterday, I could guess what his request was for this morning's breakfast. Ok, no problem. Pancake is easy to make and err.. I think quite nutritious. I usually use pancake recipe from allrecipes.com. You can find all sorts of pancake recipes there. Plain pancake, blueberry pancake, etc. Besides, I am sooo very lazy to write the recipe here :)

Just have a try, it's simple!

Bubur pulut hitam

It's been a while since I made bubur pulut hitam (black sticky rice sweet porridge). Bought 300 grams of the grains at the wet market this morning, and I cooked all of it. As a result, I have half of the 5 liter pot full! Way too much! After consuming 2 bowls of the porridge just now, I've decided that I have to share it with a neighbor, and I did. Hope they like it as much as I do.

Making this porridge takes patients. We need to soak the sticky rice for at least 3-4 hours, overnight is better. Then boil it for another 2 hours till the rice softens and in the process you have to stir it often so that it doesn't stick to your pot (hence the name 'sticky rice'). Add more water if the rice feels too 'heavy' to stir. Then put in daun pandan, sugar and lastly coconut milk.

Aaahh.. nice!

Lempeng

My sister's kids are at home. I have to babysit them for one night since she & the husband are out of town. So what would I make for breakfast? Something that is enjoyed by my family - lempeng! It's a Malay version of pancake, minus the baking powder & soda. We enjoy having lempeng with sambal sardin, the hotter the better.

Lempeng is very easy to make. Just mix a few cups of flour with water, 1 egg and add a little salt to taste until the batter resembles... hmmm.. a pancake batter. Haha.. not that helpful right? You mix the ingredients until it is not too thick or too thin (up to your imagination lah).

To cook, put a teaspoon of oil in the kuali, make sure the sides of the kuali is covered with oil, and put in 1/2 cups of batter and thin it out to the sides of the kuali. Objective is to make the lempeng nice and thin. After a minute or two, turn the lempeng upside down and cook for another minutes. Then serve.

Wasn't it easy?

Long Beans with Shrimp

Today is Saturday, but my kids have sekolah ganti. My parents will have their kenduri for Umrah tonite. So I have to cook lunch for the kids and my husband, and I will be going to my parents house to help with whatever necessary. As you know me, I love simple dishes but tasty, at least for my kids' taste buds. And today I chose to cook long beans with shrimp. But looking at the picture, it's more like shrimp with long beans, haha..

Clean some shrimp, slice a couple cloves of garlic, cut some onions, slice some red chili and bird's eye chili (this is optional, only if you want the dish hotter). And with about 2 tablespoons of cooking oil, put all your ingredients in the kuali. Add some tumeric powder (for the color) and salt to taste. It's done!

You can also replace the shrimp with sliced chicken, beef, squid, whatever. It will taste good. Trust me.

Gulai Daging Stail Omak Den

Gulai orang nogori sembilan tak ado buboh bawang doh.. that's what my mother used to tell me. And I welcomed it, a lot. I mean, we just have to use bird's eye chilli, some fresh tumeric and lemon grass. Pound them together, put the paste in a pot, throw in the meat which had been cut into cubes (size is up to your preference), some cubed potatoes, and coconut milk. Add salt to taste. That is all to it. Simple. Again, what's not to like right? So go ahead, try it!

Owh, by the way, the actual thing is so much better looking than the picture above. I seriously need a good camera.. Any sponsors out there? Hehehe..