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..