Nyonya Acar

This was a dish that I had wanted to do for a long time but never had the patience to chop up all the vegetables. Such a tedious chore.

However, after my near death experience this morning, walking to a local school to cast my vote for Election day, well, I decided that I just have to make this dish when I got home.

Bloody Hoons with their doof doof speakers out loud...they tried to run me over!!!

Huh! See, I am still alive and home. So I took my time cutting up all the veges, aren't they pretty? So relaxing and such beautiful colours too!

Nyonya Acar


Ingredients:

• 300 g cauliflower, cut into flowerets
• 300 g cabbage, cut into small square pieces
• 250 g roasted peanuts, coarsely ground
• 4 tbsp sesame seeds

Cut into 3 cm lengths: Add as many veges as you like

• 2 medium sized cucumbers, discard the soft centres
• 2 medium sized carrots
• 200 g long beans

A: mixed together

• 500 ml vinegar
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 300 ml water

B: ground or blend to a paste with 4 tbsp oil

• 100 g dried shallots
• 500 g shallots
• 5 tbsp sugar
• 120 g dried prawns
• 1 tbsp turmeric powder
• 3 tbsp vinegar

C: fried and allowed to cool

• 4 tbsp chili paste or ground chili
• 6 tbsp oil

Directions:

1. Sprinkle 1 tbsp salt over cucumber and carrot strips and leave to stand for 1 hour. Rinse and drain.
2. In a Dutch Oven, bring the ingredients A to the boil. Add in the vegetables, one type at a time and boil for 1 to 2 mins. Scoop out with a sieve, drain and spread on a large tray to cool. Repeat for each type of vegetable.
3. Heat ½ cup oil, fry ingredients B till fragrant and dish out.
4. With a clean wok, fry ingredients C, until the oil turns red. Remove and set aside.
5. Combine everything together in a large bowl. Stir well. Lastly, add the ground peanuts and sesame seeds. Leave it to cool overnight before storing in bottles or serving.

Mama Bear Porridge

So this is what it means when one has an annual check up. After I had been poked, prodded and had my tits fondled, I get to jumped on a scale to let the doctor know how heavy I am. Then I get to fast overnight and give blood the next morning. What a big fat mistake that was!!! Bah hum bug!!!

Yesterday, I went back to get my full bloodwork results and everything is fine except for my glucose reading and and cholesterol. I am not a diabetic..yet! My bad cholesterol is at war with my good cholesterol so I have to start exercising and eat fiber stuff. My glucose is at top end of low reading and she wants that reduced to lower.

The Doc looked at me and asked "Are you alright? You don't look happy! You have to eat cereal for Fiber and do a little exercise"
Me thinking out loud: " No way!! Cereal???? Have you seen those stuff? It looks like a vomit!!! Plus lugging computers all day is plenty exercise to me!"

NOT HAPPY JAN!!!!!! Doctors!!! What do they know??

This morning, I reluctantly cooked Uncle Toby's porridge like a bif fat grumpy MAMA BEAR!!! I rather be eating curry mee or roti or whatever that does not looks like VOMIT for breaky!!!

So I cooked the damn horrid thing and ate it, I added honey for taste and sprinkled cinnamon sugar for smell.
Still hate it but it's edible....gaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!! Bluek!!! Why is this even in Yummy Blog? Everybody else says porridge is yummy but I am not convinced....

Not a Chicken & Noodles Soup

This is my lazy post as I have not been very motivated lately. I know everybody else are baking up to their eyeballs in chocs and hot cross buns for Easter... and what do I do? 

Chicken! That's right! Coz that's how I roll...Chicken before the Egg??? What comes first??...bahahhahahah!

Nope, no recipes today either.. I just marinated a whole pack of chicken pieces in honey, soy, chilli flakes and peri peri sauce I think.. Bake them in the oven and voila...spicy honey soy chicken ;)

Lucky, I had some leftover noodles to go with it... would have eaten the whole chicken on the account that I was starving! Hmmm... maybe I do need chocolates....that might inspire me ;) 

Madam Tan's Nasi Lemak

Jackie from Yummy Stuff Goes Here was asking for a guest blog so I shamelessly offered to write about Madam Tan’s Nasi Lemak. 


The Madam Tan's method entails a lot of work but it is well worth it because you get to have the fluffy yummy nasi lemak rice to go with your curry chicken, egg and chilli. I developed this Nasi Lemak recipe after loads of research and served many a satisfied customer a delicious rich fluffy plate of Nasi Lemak.

You will need the following:

Equipment

Old fashioned steamer

Muslin cloth

Large Bowl

Ingredients

7 cups of rice

500 g of coconut milk

4 cups of water

2 tsp of salt

1 large Spanish onion (finely sliced)

2 slices of ginger

Pandan leaves tied into a knot

Fill the bottom of the steamer with water and tie the muslin cloth across the steamer basket so that the rice doesn’t fall through the large holes. If you have a steamer which has small holes, then there is no need for the muslin cloth.

Steamer 

Muslin cloth with pandan leaves

Soak the 7 cups of rice for at least 2 hours and then place rice into the steamer with the sliced onion, pandan leaves and ginger. Steam the rice at high heat for 30 mins or until rice turns opaque, making sure to stir the rice from time to time. Prepare the coconut mixture by mixing the coconut milk with the water and salt. When rice is cooked, place into the coconut milk mixture and let soak for 30 mins.

Steaming the rice

Place the rice into the steamer once again and steam for another 40 mins. From time to time, stir the rice to ensure even cooking.

And there you have it......Madam Tan’s Nasi Lemak. Enjoy!

Lemon Barley Water

The Brodin household has been sick lately, started off with me, now passed on to son. Poor thing! At least I am not trying to excavate his nostrils, bahahahhah.....the poor boy is congested! So I made him take his meds and vitamin c tabs and I am now boiling pearl barley for him to drink. I will add some lemon for him so that it will taste like lemon barley.

Method:

1. Rinse barley as you would washing rice before cooking. Some people leave the barley soaking overnite but I don't have time for that right now.
   
2. Put in large pot, add water and turn on stove. Keep boiling till water turns cloudy from the barley
3. If you have pandan leaves, add that in. To make it smell nice and taste nice. But no pandan leaves in Wagga....... so screw it, just boil the damn thing.... LOL
4. Strain, let sick boy drink the juice.
5. Add a drop of lemon juice or lemon slice. Drink it warm. The barley can also be eaten ;) don't waste it!

Will post photo of drink when ready. It is not very attractive, just murky cloudy water ;)

Photos as below;

Choc Chewy Coconut Slice

So what does one do with all that extra coconut fillings from kuih dadar? Well, we could stare at it all day or make coconut slices....yay!! So I surfed the net and found this recipe from Cadbury website. 

I modified the recipe a bit...oh oh.. you're gonna say...geez this cowboy will never learn, baking is about precision, accurate measurement but I am doomed to fail in baking and so why not a slight detour? Hehehe. So I added a little ...wait for it... hazelnut meal instead of just plain old all flour... get it? So, that it's extra nutty!!

Oh and guess what, we are NOT going to ice it with buttercream icing, we are gonna melt some real Cadbury cooking chocolate to layer the top. Am I awesome or what?

Moist Chewy Coconut Slice

Serves 24

Ingredients
1 cup plain flour
2 tablespoons Cadbury® Bournville® Cocoa
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup coconut
185 g butter, melted
1 egg, lightly beaten
extra coconut

CHOCOLATE ICING
1 ½ cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons Cadbury Bournville Cocoa
2 tablespoons butter, melted
hot water

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C. Sift the flour and cocoa into a bowl. Add the sugar and coconut and stir well.
2. Add the butter and egg and mix thoroughly.
3. Press the mixture evenly into a lined 28 x 18 cm slab pan.
4. Bake for 20 minutes. Leave in the pan to cool.
5. When cold, make the icing. Sift the icing sugar and cocoa into a bowl. Add the butter and enough hot water to make a thick but smooth consistency. After icing, sprinkle with the extra coconut. Cut into pieces and store in an airtight container.

Kuih Dadar

My very sad kuih dadar ;) bahahhahahaahha.

Heheh.. told ya! I should have stuck to cooking. Anyway, this was a semi fail. It still tasted delicious. So funny, you should follow Bee's recipe and not be a hero like me, estimate this and that and as it turned out, a semi fail. First it was too thick, then it was too thin coz I added too much water... Next payday, I am buying a measuring jug. 

This recipe is from Bee Yin's Nyonya website Nyonya Food


Kuih Dadar/Kuih Tayap Recipe
Pandan Crepe with Coconut Filling

Ingredients:

Pandan Juice
5 pandan leaves, chopped
3-4 tablespoons water

Or you could use pandan essence like me.. the cheating way.. aiyo where to find pandan leaves in Wagga?

Crepe Batter
120g flour
1 egg
300ml coconut milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoon pandan juice

Filling
90g Gula Melaka (Malaysian palm sugar)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 pandan leaf, knotted
50 ml water
1/2 grated coconut (white part only)
1 tsp corn starch

Method:

   1. Combine the pandan leaf and water in an electronic blender and blend for a minute. Wrap the pandan in a cheese cloth or muslin cloth and squeeze to extract the juice or strain through a fine sieve. Set aside.
   2. Sieve the flour into a mixing bowl. Make a well in the center and crack in the egg. Slowly stir in the salted coconut milk and 3 tablespoons pandan juice. Set aside.
   3. Break up the palm sugar and combine with the sugar, pandan leaf and water in a pot. Cover over a medium flame until sugar dissolves. Strain the syrup and return it to the pot. Add in the grated coconut and corn starch and continue to cook for a few minutes. Dish out into a bowl.
   4. Heat up a shallow frying pan over a low flame and grease lightly with oil. Pour 2 tablespoons of the batter in the center and swirl the pan to coat it form a thin crepe of about 13 cm in diameter.
   5. When the crepe is cooked, transfer it onto a chopping board.
   6. Place 2 heaped teaspoons of filing on the crepe and roll it up like a spring roll.
   7. Serve immediately.