sambal tumis udang dan petai

or, chilli prawns with petai, or bitter beans or stink beans.

waaahhh...kemain lama lagi mak temah tak hapdate blog ye... (read: i've been a bit lazy. :-p) well, a lot has been going on lately, with the baking AND stamping of 50 million shortbreads, 50 million red velvet cupcakes AND one chocolate cake for kamiyya's birthday party and all, i thought after all that is over and done with, i could have a little quiet me time, right? W.R.O.N.G! because now, i need to continue baking for our Ramadhan project and also after that straight to the orders of cookies for hari raya (that are already coming in, alhamdulillah, thank you guys!!). as with the past years, the oven and the giant, will be given a ONE month break immediately after Ramadhan. hehehe...

but, baking tu baking ler jugak, the dapur still have to cook for lunch and *ehem, sometimes* dinner, right? so, my lovelies, today, i present to you what i made for lunch...(lohhhh...tengokler gambor kat atas tu...)

you want in on the recipe? i let you in on the recipe, okay? by the way, i took the recipe from the Melaka book. :-)

here we go!

ingredients:

(a)

10 prawns. TEN prawns? biar betik chef...only TEN? well, i added a lot more

petai or stink beans

1 tbsp of tamarind juice

some dried chilli paste (blended dried chillies)

1 big onion, cut into circles

salt and sugar, to taste

(b) please blend these
4 shallots
2 cloves garlic
1" belacan or shrimp paste

the how to:
1)  heat oil in wok and saute (b)

2)  then add in the dried chilli paste, and tamarind juice. let it simmer for a while or two. :-p

3)  next, in goes the prawns, petai, salt and sugar. stir and incorporate everything. (read: let them friend-friend)

4)  lastly, add in the big onion, stir and heat off.

5)  ready to eat! like i'm about to do now. join me? :-)


recipe source: citarasa Malaysia - Melaka by Chef Salbiah
information on petai and belacan taken from: en.wikipedia, thanz horrr...

belado campur

err...mixed everything? yes? *aiyer* i don't know how to translate thislahhhh... *tulah, cari lagi resipi susah nak translate*

this to me is a vanderful dish not only because it's easy to prepare, but also the taste is vanderful. i especially love the crunchy ikan bilis and fried tempe. they really work well together. FYI, for those not in the know, tempe is made from fermented soy beans. it looks like this. some people like to coat them with a bit of turmeric powder and salt before frying, i like it with just a little bit of salt, minus the turmeric powder.

okaylah, enough of yakking...some people have tempe to fry, yes?

i'll cut to the chase and give you guys the recipe.

ingredients:

4 pieces of tempe, sliced thinly

½ cup of dried anchovies or ikan bilis
½ cup of peanuts
vegetable oil, for frying
juice from 2 limes
a wittle bit of sugar

these things below need to be pulverised by your blender:
20 dried chillies
2 big onions
6 cloves garlic

the how to:
1)  heat oil and fry tempe till golden brown. set aside.

2)  fry the ikan bilis, till just done. set aside.

3)  fry the peanuts. set aside... *sigh*

4)  next, you saute the pulverised items till they are fragrant.

5)  add the lime juice and a little bit of sugar. add salt if you want, but i didn't.

6)  then you mix 'em all together. done!

easy peasy...except for numbers 1 till 3... *malasnya aku*

okay, i'm going to start on my weekend now. tata!

recipe source:  citarasa Malaysia - Johor by Chef Hafiza
picture of tempe taken from:  www.tempevstapaiubi.blogspot.com thank you!

ayam masak kicap

or, chicken in soy sauce? yes?

i made this for lunch today. i like the little bit of spicy taste it has (thanks to the blended dried chilli that this recipe calls for.) normally, when we talk about ayam masak kicap, we'd already be imagining, something slighty salty but not spicy. this little addition of the chilli is a welcoming one. i like! and congrats to Kedah for coming up with this recipe in their book. hehehe...hamboi! kemain bias lagi naaaahhh....

okay, without further ado, lemme share with you the recipe so that you can get the chicken out of the freezer and prepare this dish already!

ingredients:
½ of a chicken, i like to cut mine in small and cute sizes
4 tbs thick/dark soy sauce
1 clove garlic, sliced thinly
1 shallot, sliced thinly
1" ginger, sliced
1 big onion, cut into circles, or rounds...or...can somebody help me with the correct term pleaaaasseeeeee....
2 tbs blended dried chillies
salt and sugar, to taste
water
vegetable oil

the how to:
1)  fry the chicken till it's half cooked, set aside.

2)  saute all the sliced items, then add in the ginger and chilli blend.

3)  next, in goes the thick soy sauce and water. let it simmer till it starts to boil. now it the time for you to add in the salt and sugar.

4)  after that, in goes the chicken and last but not least, the big onions. stir till well mixed. and...eat with rice. YEAY!

recipe source: citarasa Malaysia - Kedah by Chef Habibi.

sotong masak titik pelepah

o-kaaaay...i am not even going to attempt to translate this...basically it's squid in clear soup. hehehe...taken from the book below.

i had squid, and wanted to try something new...guess i shouldn't have. well, i don't think squid in clear something will taste nice, remember i made the singgang sotong last time and said that the taste of the squid was bland? well, it is the same for this one as well. the soup (broth?) has a bit of a soury thing going on, because of the tamarind peel, kinda okay on its own, but if you try having it along with the squid...the taste is kinda off...you know? maybe i am not used to having squid this way. maybe you wanna give it a go and lemme know? 

here's the recipe for you.

ingredients:

½kg squid
2 red chillis, sliced
2 green chillis, sliced
2 lemongrass, bruised (ouch! :-p)
1 turmeric leaf
1 big onion, sliced thinly
2 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
1 tamarind peel
5 cups water
3 tbs oil
salt to taste

the how to:
1)  heat oil in wok. add in all the sliced items and saute till they are fragrant.

2)  add in water, tamarind peel, lemongrass and a bit of salt.

3)  when the broth starts to boil, add in the turmeric leaf and squid.

4)  stir for just a few minutes and take it off the heat.

5)  ready to serve.

*be sure to not cook the squid too long because it'll be tough and rubbery.

that's it for today folks. *frust sebab sotong ni kureng*

recipe source: citarasa Malaysia, Johor by Chef Hafiza

kangkung goreng belacan

or water spinach stir fried with shrimp and chilli paste

amboi! kemain lagi mak temah, kangkung goreng belacan pun nak letak kat blog ni kaaaan?

well, in the spirit of sharing and also because i have this 'condition' to still want to follow the recipe book, even if i already know how to prepare this dish...i present to you, kangkung goreng belacan, malacca style. how is it that i know it is malacca style? becauseeeee...i took the recipe from the malacca book...behold, exhibit A:

Exhibit A

so? since everyone know how to prepare this dish, you still want the recipe or not? haaaa...this is the malacca version...it could be different... *how different could, kangkung stir fried with belacan be...* haha!

okaaaylaaahhhh...since you insist, here's the recipe:

ingredients:

(a)

300g kangkung

oil for stir frying

salt to taste

(b)things into your blender

5 shallots

2 cloves garlic

4 red chillies

1" shrimp paste

1 tbsp dried shrimp

the how to:

1)  really? seriously? okaaay...... heat oil in wok, saute (b) till fragrant

2)  add in the kangkung and stir fry till they blend together. add salt if you want.

3)  heat off, eat with rice. yummay!!

there you have it. the very difficult to prepare but really tasty dish. hope you guys will give it a try.

information on kangkung taken from mr. wikipeadia
recipe from: citarasa malaysia - melaka, by chef salbiah.

i hope i win!!!

dear rima,

i've been eyeing this particular item from your blog for the longest time...and usually it will be sold out the minute you put it at you online store...so, naturally when i was there today reading your blog (read: faithful blog stalker) and saw that you were having a giveaway...and the prize is my dream come true of a prize...i immediately decided to write this entry.

well, dearest rima, i did attempt to make macarons...just that one time...and i am now, currently, gathering more courage to attempt it for the second, or third time...and hopefully *ehem* with the help of the giveaway prize, i will be motivated to make more of them...haha...

here's what happened a bunch of us got together one weekend and attempted macaron baking. i chose to color mine blue, because when i was in school i was in the blue house, also known as McNeil. hehehhee...

i got the recipe from Gee who got the recipe from a class she attended. my macs ended up having a teeny weeny bit of a feet but then because it was the first tray to go into the oven, it was also the first tray to be taken out prematurely and after a lot of poking and prodding from all of us...we found out that it was undercooked. but hey, at least i attempted to make macarons.

so, rima? how? this entry can ah?

your ever faithful blog stalker, dotty. muah!

stamped shortbread

raya cookies project
recipe#4

first off, lemme just tell you that i am NOT the most immaculate person in the world. i get a headache if i need to do intricate things. i am clumsy and i like to keep things VERY VERY simple. but, after reading this post from pook's blog, i somehow managed to convince myself that i could do it. now, to most of you, something like this would not be that challenging...but to me, it takes days of prepping and convincing the mind that i can actually do it. that it's not THAT hard...it's not rocket science, it's not like i have to perform a root canal or something like that. it's not, right? WRONG!!

lemme just say that i salute all you people out there who have the patience to do beautiful things. my idea of a cookie would be to just scoop the dough with an ice cream scoop and transfer it onto a baking sheet.

why do it? well, because i sometimes like to deliberately give myself a migraine and also because i LOVE shortbreads and pretty little shortbread things...like this. haha!

okay, this very talented lady pook made the effort to give you a step-by-step on how to make this. see? other *normal* people will not think twice to do something like this. me? aiyer...no need to cakaplah. you can view the step-by-step pictorial here at her blog. thank you soooo much pook!

you want recipe? yes? okay.

ingredients:
100g unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
1/8 tsp salt, i thought i saw 1/2 so i added 1/2tsp...no wonderlahhh a bit salty
40g icing sugar
120g cake flour
45g rice flour

the how to:
1)  place the butter into a mixing bowl and sift both the flour, icing sugar and salt into the bowl.

2)  cut the butter and flour mixture into small pieces. until it turns into breadcrumb like texture.

3)  pour out and work the dough onto a flat surface. i just kneaded the dough in my mixing bowl...perhaps this is where i went wrong? *

4)  knead until they all stick together and smooth. (i think i did it till they were all sticking together and, not to mention, smooth...so what went wrong, eh?)

5)  wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for 1-2 hours. (i didn't wrap, i just plonked the whole thing into a covered container. my my, arent we having a blast with not following instructions, huh?)

6)  after that, pre-heat your oven to 160°C.

7)  line a baking sheet with baking paper or silicone mat.

8)  roll the dough until 5mm thick.

9)  cut into desired shape, place them all onto the prepared baking sheet and stamp the cookies.

10) bake for 15-20 minutes or until slightly golden.

* as you can see from my photos, my shortbread is not pretty as pook's, prolly because i didn't follow instructions. ;-)

the taste? what can i say, these babies taste vanderful. perfect with a cup of tea.

come back soon, aight?

i would like to thank pook and her wonderful blog: dailydelicious.blogspot.com for the recipe and also for tip on where to get the cookie stamps. thanks pook!!
aaaand also for my friend Jude for allowing me to use her address for the stamps to go to. hehehe...thanks Jude!! muah!

polenta crescents

raya cookies project
recipe #3

okay, if you like lemons and crunchy cookies, then this is the one for you. i particularly like the lemony taste the cookies have, it's somewhat refreshing, because i usually associate cookies with something chocolatey and sweet...but this one, has a very mild sugar taste nothing too overpowering.

will i make it again? good question, hmmm...i don't think so. why? mainly because the dough is a little bit of a challenge to handle. as you know polenta is really, really gooey, like mush and even after refrigerating the dough for 24 hours, you are still left with sticky fingers. in the end, i had to fill the dough into a piping bag, pipe it into a straight line before making the shape. lots of work = me no like. heheheh...

but i might do it again for the taste...and let the robot handle all the difficult bits. hehehe...or i'll try to figure out on how to make it easier. well, you guys try it and lemme know kay?

here's the recipe.
ingredients:
115g (4 oz) unsalted butter
100g (3½ oz) icing sugar
2 egg yolks
grated zest of 1 lemon (2 to 3 tsp)
2 tsp vanilla essence
150g (5 oz) plain flour
pinch of baking powder
50g (2 oz) finely ground polenta/cornmeal

the how to:
1)  pre-heat oven to 160°C (325°F/Gas Mark 3).

2)  grease two baking sheets.

3)  beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

4)  add egg yolks, lemon zest and vanilla essence.

5)  in a separate bowl, sift flour and baking powder together and mix in the polenta, add to the butter mixture and mix to a smooth dough.

6)  roll the dough into 1cm (½in) thick lengths and cut into 10cm (4in) pieces. *alaaaaa...ni yang tak syok ni!!!* shape them into crescents and space them 5cm (2in) apart on the baking sheets.**

7)  bake for 15 minutes until pale in color.

8)  cool on wire racks.

**because it was too gooey, i decided to refrigerate the dough for 24 hours. tu pun tak boleh gak... :-s

recipe source: 500 cookies by philippa vanstone