Silly Sustenance

Cincai Thai lauk

nanisalleh — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:33:34 +0000

One day, my mother decided that she wanted to buy only chicken breasts, conveniently forgetting we don’t like chicken breasts due to its bland taste. When we arrived home, she belatedly remembered it and freaked out; how will we eat them? Then I remembered a friend of mine cooking this dish, which I didn’t see how she cooked, so we just gambled how it would be. Turned out fine even though we used chives instead of spring onion and kafir lime leaves instead of coriander. Those were available in our garden. Though please don’t eat the kafir lime leaves; it taste horrible when you bite into it. Just leave it aside; it’s just for flavoring. Amni, for your taste, maybe you just use normal chili instead; sliced instead of pounded.

Ingredients:

Boneless chicken, sliced thinly
Fish sauce
Garlic, chopped
Bird’s Eye Chili (Thai Pepper; tiny very hot chili), pounded
Coriander, sliced thinly
Spring Onions, in 1 inch slices

Method:

Fry chopped garlic till golden. Setting fire to highest heat, stir fry the sliced chicken (the high heat would ensure the chicken is fried, not boiled and the juices stay in the chicken slices). Make sure you stir constantly. When the chicken is cooked, bring down the temperature. Put in the chili and spring onions. Put in fish sauce to taste. Stir well. Add in the coriander after you’ve killed the fire and stir. Serve.

You could put in the chili before you cook the chicken; I prefer putting it after. No explaination to it though. Just, for fun.

Tiramisu 2

nanisalleh — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:08:34 +0000

The cream is thicker in the recipe than the one before. A bit of a variety  

250g cream cheese
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup icing sugar (sifted)
Sponge fingers
Cold prepared coffee (without sugar) - can also substitute with chocolate drink without sugar
Cocoa powder to sprinkle

1. Beat cream cheese with icing sugar until well mixed and cream cheese is soft
2. In a cold mixer bowl (put it in the freezer for a while before using), whip the cream until thick
3. Combine the cream cheese + sugar mixture with the whipped cream, beat until smooth
4. Roll the sponge finger one by one in the coffee, arrange in a bowl. Do not roll too much - the sponge fingers will be soggy
5. Put one layer of the cheese+cream mixture
6. Roll and put another layer of sponge fingers on top.
7. Put another layer of cheese+cream mixture and smooth out
8. Put in fridge for a few hours until set.
9. Before serving, sprinkle the cocoa powder on top.

Roast potatoes

nanisalleh — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 09:48:18 +0000

Potatoes
Oil
Salt
Water

Method:

Heat oven to 180 degrees; that’s what I usually use to roast stuff. Skin potato and cut into pieces. Boil potato for 10-15 minutes, depending on how much you have. You just want it slightly cooked; you want the roasting to do most of the cooking but you want it somewhat moist. While boiling the potatoes, put about 3 tablespoons of oil in baking pan. You want the oil to coat the potatoes, so put enough for it. Put the pan in the oven. Usually people recommend cooling down the potatoes after boiling, but I’m too lazy. After tossing the potatoes, sprinkle salt on it. Take the pan with the oil out and dump potatoes into it. Try coating as much surface of the potatoes with oil.

Roast for at least 45 minutes, usually an hour.

So judge for yourself, whether you put in the meat or potato first. Meat still on the bone cooks slower than boneless meat, and chicken meat cook faster than red meat.

No idea about pork since I don’t eat them. Religious reasons, of course.

Garlic and mushroom rice

nanisalleh — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 09:36:35 +0000

I love having this rice with something “Western”, or just having it on its own. The more garlic, the better, I think

2 of cloves garlic, chopped
1 can of canned mushroom or 250g of fresh white mushroom (I so miss being in the UK), sliced
2 cups of rice (cook just one cup; should be enough, I think)
2-3 tablespoons of butter
Pepper and chicken stock for taste (or salt or vegetable stock if you’re vegetarian)

Method:

Heat pan, but not too hot as butter melts and burn very easily. Put in butter, 2 table spoon first, then immediately garlic if to brown it, just a bit. Put in mushroom and fry till mushroom’s cooked. When using fresh mushroom, if the juice comes out (happens when low heat is used), dry the water a bit. When mushroom is cooked, put in the rice and fry a bit. Add more butter if needed. Add salt and chicken stock to taste.

Semprit

nanisalleh — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:52:24 +0000

My mother was telling me that semprit is a traditional Malay cookie. I am rather surprised as it is not really your typical Malay kuih. It was conceived about during the colonial times, so maybe that explains it. It is uber good And it must be baked with butter, though I went and made with some “luxury spread”, which is not pure butter. I’m just a bit sick of butter currently, so I’ve lowered my standards and found that I prefer them better. Not too milky.

Not to boast, but, in my opinion, this is the best recipe of semprit I could find. I’ve tried several, and this turns out to be the best. Why don’t you give it a try?

8oz butter (for the 250g bar of butter, take out one tablespoon of it. It’s equivalent to 1 cup of butter/ 227g)
2 cups plain flour
1 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup custard
1 1/2 cup castor sugar (I usually replace it with icing sugar though; turns out smoother)
1 large egg, beaten lightly
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking powder

Method:

Beat butter and sugar. Do not use an electric mixer though, we don’t want it too well or till it rise. Add egg and vanilla. Sift in all the flour and baking powder and mix to the mixture. Press and bake at 175 degrees.

I got the pictures for the ones I bake. My mother likes this flower pattern, so we always use that for Eid. However, when I just feel like baking, I use all sorts of other patterns. There would be a hole in the middle of the flower pattern, which I would usually put cut cherries or chocolate chip. Yum However, my laptop refuse to let me load up pictures on to my blog. Very sorry…

Glad that you like them, Beda.

Translator

nanisalleh — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:07:43 +0000

I am translating my mom’s many recipes. They look super old and could hardly be read!!! Still, am going to squint till my eyes want to pop out!! I am determined!!

Wahaha.

ULTRAMAN.

You really need to have chatted with me to know what ULTRAMAN stands for…

Ironically the picture is actually of OnionMan. Ah well…

Wine

nanisalleh — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:35:12 +0000

Googled up non-alcoholic substitutes for whiskey… Had to read an article of an Irish-American who is super proud of his roots, only to find out that he was criticizing people who want the taste of whiskey but want an alcoholic substitute. And even more angry when people pick non-Irish whiskey.

Seriously.

Too bad that not everyone have Irish routes or are proud about it!!

Imagine if everyone in the world has some Irish blood. Freckly carrot heads would dominate the world.

Okay, I’m being mean. However, that article really pissed me off. For all you know, he might be just a plastic Paddy.

I don’t want the taste of whiskey. I just don’t want to screw up my recipe. However, since I couldn’t find a substitute, I’ll try the recipe minus the whiskey. Just to see if it works.

However, for wine, I found substitutes… Use vegetable or chicken stock for white wine; beef stock for red wine.

Makes sense eh… since beef is red in color and chicken meat is white…

I know, I’m so lame.

And so lazy in updating this blog…

Gelatine

nanisalleh — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:29:02 +0000

A vegetarian substitute for gelatine is agar-agar. Made from seaweed and looks like strings. My friend almost opened a packet of mine when we were in England when I asked her for a piece of string. Tickled me so.

Just a note for myself really…

1-2-3-4 Cake

nanisalleh — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 17:06:57 +0000

My mom’s friend created this recipe. She was rather uncreative with the name, I suppose. Still, it is a superbly amazing cake. Soft and just nice. Oh, a bundt pan is a must; if you use a normal cake tin, the middle wouldn’t cook. Never ever open the oven while the cake is baking; it will ruin the pressure in the oven and the cake will sink (is that the word? For those of you who speak Malay, the cake will terbantut. I don’t know the English word for it). Only open once the time for the cake to properly bake run out (ok this sentence sounds awkward. I’m sleepy…) Then you check whether it is cooked by poking into it; if there are still stuff sticking onto your stick/fork/knife, it is not fully baked.

Oh, a bundt pan is those pans that have a hole in the middle. It is very pretty. I like the shape.

A
8oz/ 226g (take out one table spoon of butter from the 250g bar) at room temperature
2 cups caster sugar

B
2 ½ cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt

4 eggs, separated
1 cup of milk
1 ½ vanilla

Method:
Beat A until almost white. Add in the 4 egg yolks and mix well. Add in vanilla.

Sift B. Beat separately the 4 egg whites until stiff.

Fold in alternatively into the butter mixture the egg white, milk and flour mixture.

Pour mixture into greased and floured bundt pan.

Bake at 350°F/ 180°C for 50 minutes.

Mashed potato

nanisalleh — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 16:48:58 +0000

Bleh. See, I don’t trust Amni to be able to make mash potato even!! And considering my dentist/ friend doesn’t know how to make it (“eh, tak ke just potato and milk?” grrr), you’re not so bad, Amni. Heck, even Faliq doesn’t know how to make mashed potato!!!!

Potato, cut into 6, if you’re using those white potatoes. If you use baked potatoes cut into more pieces. Please make sure you get rid of the skin as well.

Boil the water with a bit of salt. I usually use a lot of water so as to make the potato boil faster. Once boiling, dump in the potatoes. Boil for about… I don’t know… 20 minutes perhaps? You be the judge. If you like your mash potato to be like those they serve in KFC which is actually made from potato flour (I can tell!!!), boil it longer. Faliq, you need to boil it for 30 minutes, I would think.

Drain the water and put the boiled potatoes into a bowl; mash it with a masher. If you don’t own a masher, a fork would do. You just need to do a little bit more work. Just a little.

Add about 10g of butter/margerine (I prefer the former. Cis, no Kerrygold in Malaysia weii!!! All not pure butter for spreadable butter. Cis!!) and about 50ml of milk. Yes, I measured this time for your sake. Add more milk if it is not soft enough. Eh, don’t just simply dump, k. You might want it to be less liquidy. I don’t know your preference. Oh, and use fresh milk. Or at least, UHT milk. Not powdered milk or condensed milk. The latter is a big NO NO.

Add whatever you want to enhance the flavor. I usually put cheese in; grate it first. Or put in cream cheese… Or pepper. My mom puts in chopped onion; I hate onion.

Don’t ask me how to make gravy. I like my mashed potato with cheese and chili sauce. Hahaha