Happy 55th Birthday Mom!

It was a memorable weekend & I'd the priviledge to cook dinner for my mom's 55th birthday. Nothing fancy - just good ol' family dinner together. Nothing beats cooking for the special person in your life. I knocked off early from work last Friday & not really knowing what to cook till I reached the market place.

Menu for mom's birthday:
Herbal Chicken
Buttered Prawn
Pak Choy with Dried Scallops
Fried Trevally (ikan putih) with Dark Soy Sauce

Mum asked me how much did it all that cost. I replied her, "RM1 for every year of your birthday." Not much of a cost but then again, it's priceless moments that I'll always cherish.

Chicken Rendang

Rendang is my favourite Malay dish & also it's fun to cook. I used chicken for domestic reason but beef would be more to my liking. It does look or feel like a complicated dish to cook but in actual fact it's rather simple with many little preparations, similar to performing an experiment in a science lab with its set of instructions. Sometimes it works, sometimes it sucks. Either way it'll only make you a better cook.

Into the blender :
3 cm of Galangal (lengkuas)
2 cm of Ginger
5 Cloves of Garlic
8 Shallots
4 Lemon Grass
2 Big Chilis
1 Packet of Chili Boh (chili paste with salt & vinegar)

Other ingredients:
1.5 kg of Chicken Thighs
Coconut Milk - 1 liter
Rule of Thumb: 1 Coconut will give ½ liter of Thick Milk
1 Cup Grated Coconut - Dry fry to become Kerisik
Fennel, Cumin & Turmeric Powder - 1 Teaspoon each
Brown sugar
Salt
Lime Leaves - Daun Limau Purut

Heat up your pot & add 2 chinese spoon of oil. Fry the grated coconut till brown before adding the blended ingredients (fennel, cumin, turmeric powder & chili boh). Stir till the aroma surrounds your kitchen then add your chicken. Next, add coconut milk & simmer under low/medium heat till gravy turns thick. Add brown sugar & salt to taste. Finally, the lime leave to garnish which adds the extra punch to it!

Yum!

Strips of Pork Chop & Cha Sau (Roasted BBQ Pork)

Dish 1: Pork Chop

I made this dish specially for my two boys. I even nicknamed one of them pork chop for his love of pork. Make sure to tell the butcher you want lean meat for making pork chops or doing BBQ pork - "Cha Sau". I think I got a good deal for 1.7 kg of pork for only RM22 which I bought from Foh Sang.

500 g of pork meat
( sliced & marinated with light soy sauce, sesame oil, salt & pepper)
Constarch
Egg lightly beat

As for the sauce:
Brown sugar (2 teaspoons)
Tomato sauce
Constarch
Lemon
Ginger
Salt

Dip sliced pork meat in egg & batter it with constarch. Deep fry it in a non stick pan. Repeat for all the slices. When meat is cooked, keep it aside on a kitchen tissue to absorb the oil.

For the sauce, add some oil & ginger, plus the rest of the ingredients. Add a little water & heat up till gravy thickens. Pour the sauce onto the pork & serve.

Dish 2: Cha Sau

From the remaining of the 1.7 kg pork, I took about 1 kg of it to make my own version of cha sau or cha siew or sasau - depends who's talking :o)

Marinate overnight with:
2 Cubes of Salted Bean Sauce (Tauhu Masin)
Osyter Sauce
Salt/Pepper
Chinese 5 Spice
Cha Siew Sauce
(Lee Kum Kee Brand recommended)

Roasting:
Convection oven
conventional oven,
open fire-BBQ
or your choice really
at 180°C for 20 minutes &
150°C for another 25 minutes.

Not made to order.

Sweet & Sour Fish

Well, the picture don't do justice to this dish. I might need to buy a DSLR Camera - Nikon D40x or something equivalent or perhaps it's the photographer's fault. Glad I'm just the cook. The fish I used is "Bawal Hitam" or Dark Pomfret. Bought at surprise! surprise! Giant City Mall for RM12. A bit pricey but fresh & convenient.

Dark Pomfret 800g - Plate size
Tomatoes
Capsicum
Chili

Sauce:
Tomato Sauce
Sugar - 1 Teaspoon
Vinegar - 2 Chinese Spoon
Brown Sugar
Constarch

Make 3 cuts on each side of the fish & add salt all over. Deep fry in a hot wok till it looks crisp.

Don't worry about the hot oil in the wok. The oil won't kill you :o) I get a little burn here & there. We'll get used to it after a while. Hold the tail of the fish & slowly dip it into the hot wok. Turn the fish 2 to 3 times to make sure it is thoroughly cooked. Put aside on a paper towel to absorb oil.

To make the sauce, add a little oil & saute the veggies, then add all the sauces. Pour a little water & allow sauce to thicken. Later, pour sauce on the fish & serve.

Well, enough of sweet & sour dishes for now :o)

Salad Chicken - Chicken Mayo

Some call it chicken chop or salad chicken. Easy dish & what we'd normally order when eating out. Use chicken breast for the soft & succulent meat :o)

500 g of Chicken Breast
Worcester Sauce
Salt/Pepper
Constarch

Marinate the chicken with Worcester sauce (Lea & Perrins), then mould them with constarch & shallow fry. When cooked, put aside on paper towel. Slice chicken evenly, add mayonnaise & serve. Easy. Kids should like 'em!

Chicken Kurma (Kormah) With Roti Canai

Chicken Kurma is a very authentic Indian cuisine & boy do I love it. In a nutshell, Indian food can be divided into 3 colours; Red (paprika), Yellow (saffron) & Green (coriander). Therefore Chicken Kurma is the green side of Indian food. Well that's how I look at it.

1 kg Chicken - Thighs Section
Chopped Onions
5 Garlic Cloves
6 Cardamom
Coriander Powder - 3 Tablespoon
Chopped Ginger
1 Star Anise
3cm Cinnamon Stick
Salt to Taste
Chili Powder - 1 Teaspoon
Coconut Milk/Yogurt

Heat up oil (or ghee) & add onions, garlic, star anise, cinnamon stick, cardamom, chili & coriander powder till a paste is formed. Add chicken & ½ cup water. Simmer till chicken is half cooked. Add ½ cup coconut milk & yogurt if you like (I didn't) & cooked for another 1 - ½ hours on low heat before serve. Don't forget salt to taste. It's really that easy. Preparation time is about half hour and cooking time 1-2 hours.

What better way to have your chicken kurma with roti canai. I don't think my roti canai can rival any of those roti canai in the mamak corner's but I'm satisfied. Not as thin & crispy but taste just as good. Interesting weekend of culinary adventure :o)

400 g Flour
½ Cup Milk
½ Cup Water
1 Teaspoon Salt
20 g Margarine
1 Egg - Lightly Beat
40 g - Sugar
Ghee/Oil 3 Tablespoon

Add all in a mixing bowl & you get a big dough. Kneading is required. Divide into 10 smaller portion. I used the back of a rounded bowl to shape the roti cos I don't know how to fly the roti canai. I cooked it on a hot plate with minimal oil. Repeat & serve.

The next time I'm given a corner, I'll open a stall instead of inswinger to top corner for Torres to score :o)

Prawn with Spring Onions & Cucumber Sticks

I've seen this served in restaurants
& I thought I'd give it a try.

Prawn ½ kg
Spring Onions Chopped in 2" Section
Cucumber Chopped in 2" Section
Ginger
Chopped Spring Onions into Pieces

Cut a section in the middle of prawn (shell off & cleaned), then insert the spring onion & cucumber in the mid-section & repeat for all the prawns. Yes, it takes a bit of time but should be quicker once you get the hang of it. Soak stuffed prawns inside hot boiling prawn stock*.

*Add all prawn heads in a pot
plus old ginger, pepper & salt, then bring to boil.
It makes very rich prawn stock.
So next time don't throw the
very useful prawn heads!

A quick 10 minutes dip before taking all the prawns out & put aside. Heat up wok & add chopped spring onions, garlic plus some prawn stock. As the sauce thickens, add the prawns back into the wok & stir fry for another 5 minutes.

Serve 4

Ultimately, I served my Prawn Dinner with

1. Sweet & Sour Prawn
2. Prawn with Spring Onions & Cucumber Sticks
3. Prawn Head Soup
4. Cucumber Pickles

Sweet & Sour Prawn

Prawns from Kota Marudu continues...

After a week, I remembered that I still have another 1kg of prawns from Marudu. Well, I decided not to do a rush job for this one & made it into a classic chinese style cooking.

Prawns ½ kg
2 Chopped Tomatoes
1 Chopped Green capsicum
Salt & pepper

Sauce:
Tomato Sauce
Sugar - 1 Teaspoon
Vinegar - 2 Chinese Spoon
Cornstarch

First, add constarch & salt to prawns plus a little water for the prawn batter. Deep/shallow fry the prawns for 7 minutes & put aside on a paper towel to absorb all oil.

As for the sauce, add garlic on a hot cooking pan with minimal oil. Add tomatoes/capsicum & stir. Then, add tomato sauce/sugar/vinegar/constarch (diluted) & allow the sauce to thicken.
Add some water if needed. When the sauce is ready, put all the prawns in for just a quick toss and turn before serve.

Serve 4

Crabs & Prawns (Shellfish)

Sabah is blest with an abundance of seafood. It's a waste if you're from this region & you don't like eating seafood. With Kota Kinabalu booming with tourism, it's only natural that the cost of eating seafood or eating out for that matter increases.

But one don't have to pay a premium if you buy your own seafood & cook 'em yourself :o)

Recently, I went to Kota Marudu & bought 2 kg of mud crabs (ketam bakau) & 2 kg of fresh prawns (udang kapas). You can buy them from the stalls along Marudu, Pitas highway. It was a real bargain! RM6 per kg for the crabs & RM18 per kg for the big prawns. Fresh & much cheaper compared to the ones around Kota Kinabalu. What a seafood galore I'd in the kitchen!

Mud Crabs

Best way to do this is to steam 'em
but clean thoroughly first.
The easiest way to kill crabs
without a hassle
is to soak them in ice water.
5 minutes would do the trick.

Another tip:
Never buy any crab that was
caught on a full moon!

Steamed Prawns with Soy Sauce & Ginger

As soon as I reached home,
I did a 20 minute steaming session
with the crabs and prawns in
a single steamer at the same time.
Yummy! All for the cost of RM30.

Merdeka Month - August

Finally, I managed to get something uploaded & it has been awhile. Well, you can say that August is a blog free month since I haven't added anything which doesn't mean I haven't been cooking. Perhaps too much cooking that I couldn't be bothered to add anyhing new & cooking the same recipe every other week due to popular domestic demand:

1. Curry Chicken with lady's finger
2. Curry Chicken with brinjal/eggplant/aubergine
3. Curry Chicken with long beans

Did plenty of pasta, kampua (Sibu), veggies, the usual stuff and it's getting very dry for my own liking.

But I've to say that "practice makes perfect". I learnt how to mix my own curry powder for my curry meals. Coriander (ketumbar), curry powder, chili powder, fennel (jintan manis), cumin (jintan putih) as part of my curry mixtures.

Another aspect of cooking that really caught my attention is the world of spices . I even bought a few packet of seeds (herbs/spices) to plant but that's as far as it gets. Guess I'll stick to cooking for now.

My reference for spices is by an Austrian guy, Gernot Katzer. He did an extensive researh on spices.

For the month of September, they should be lots of cooking.