Simple Baked Spaghetti

My son loves all form of spaghetti, and like all kids, a fussy eater. Dinner time is always a challenge for me especially, when the inventory in the fridge runs low. So this is the baked spaghetti that I made for him for dinner one day.

Start off by boiling some spaghetti and cutting two pre-boiled sausage.

 

Then add in the cheese and stir through .

 Top up with more cheese....

Opps, before that, add in some cream... and then put it into the microwave for about 5-10 mins. And it is ready to be eaten...

Plain White Fried Beehoon Served with Chicken Sambal..what a combination

Sometimes eating fried beehoon on its own can get boring. How many version of fried beehoon -beehoon goreng can one conjure. So for a change I thought I would cook my bee hoon plain, and make the sambal chicken the star of the day. Well, the beehoon turned out good, though it looked plain but was rather rich in flavour and not oily too. Simple ingredients of dried shrimps, egg & cabbage, with a good stock base that make up this White Bee Hoon.

 This bee hoon goes very well with any sort of sambal, chicken, prawns, squid, ikan bilis - anchovies and even egg.  Or you can also serve it with curry chicken. A light and simple meal indeed.

We had ours with a scrumptious chicken sambal that day..maybe next time with thick chicken curry gravy.

My Spicy "Sambal Ayam"(Red Chili Chicken)

So I have this order from a friend, for Spicy, in fact extra spicy chicken sambal. Who does not like chicken sambal (I mean Malaysian of course). So I had to cook, of course, first for the house so my "guinea pigs" can try them first... and then for the order itself. So here it goes,

For the home- 1 st try

The dish that I cooked for home, was less spicy, because I had to consider my son's taste bud. But for the order. My Friend did specify that they wanted extra spicy, so I did that for them. It turned out exceptionally good. The gravy was thick and full of flavour, and when eaten with steaming hot rice, it was just enough. You don't need anything else...Yum-Yum

How to make this dish.

Heat up oil , and fry the garlic-ginger paste. Throw in lots of onions, and fry them until fragrant. Then add in the chilli paste. My chilli paste is precooked with shrimp paste - belacan, and lemongrass. I then add in one or two bird-eye chilli ( cili padi), kaffir lime leaves, just for the aroma. Mind you, these kaffir lime leaves can go magic to your dishes...seriously. It will simply be full of fragrance....

Once you are happy with the consistency of your sambal gravy, put in your pre-fried chicken, and let it cook through. I wanted the flavour to seep into my chicken so I took the mortar and my chicken pieces a friendly beating..hehehe...

Yeah, I finally attempted Nasi Ayam Penyet

I have tried the Nasi Ayam Penyet at various outlets, but the best is still in Banafee Village in JB. My mom, my sis, my aunts and I discussed about to recreate this dish. How ignorant of us! we could have just checked the internet, hahaha. It took me more that a year to even think of attempting this task. I did anyway, and now I think Banafee Village has just lost its spot because mine is better!!

Good, by my son's standards-which is very hard to achieve

It is actually very easy to prepare.
 MARINATE :
First marinate your chicken pieces in garlic-ginger-candlenut(buah keras)- lengkuas paste, grounded  toasted  coriander and cumin, one lemongrass, salt coconut milk (but I use evaporated milk instead) and tamarind juice. The secret is " the longer you marinate, the better it taste". After enough marination, boil the chicken pieces until super soft.
FRY:
Prepare a little corn flour/or any normal flour. I added a little chili powder and the cumin-coriander powder and salt into the flour, for taste. You know me, I just can't stick to the rules. Pat the chicken dry and slightly coat it with the seasoned flour. Immediately fry the chicken in the hot oil. Once you get the desired colour, take them off. You don' t have to worry because we have already cooked the chicken.

PREPARATION OR RAW INGREDIENTS:
Cut some long beans, cucumber, four angle beans, tomatoes, cabbage or any sort of ulam. I only had what is shown in the photo. Fry some tauhu and tempe- fermented bean cakes, which is a must have. Sambal belacan was made by my maid, which is just wonderful. She is the best in making sambal belacan.

I used normal rice, but some people cook the rice with the balance water from the boiled chicken. I shall try that some time.

Take the sinfully fried chicken, and dip into the ever so spicy sambal and add onto the steaming hot, fluffy rice, heaven.......heaven on earth. The best part, no need to be stingy, we have more than two pieces of tauhu and tempe, and enormous helpings of chicken to share...

Chinese Fried Rice

Since I started catering, I had to come with various version of fried rice, especially for my non-spicy capable customers. So, it is Chinese Fried Rice, this time...

The best comfort food.  Think of it - a bowl of steaming white rice cooked to just the right consistency, filled with bits of meat and vegetable. No wonder fried rice is one of the world's most popular rice dishes!

For the home cook, the beauty of fried rice is that it is very adaptable. just dump anything in, and stir, stir, stir..voila...

 

It is always best to use overnight leftover rice. what I do, is marinate the rice with a little salt and white pepper. This is to make sure that each grain of rice is flavoured. Stir fry minced garlic, throw in prawns and squid ( I don't like to use chicken here, to preserve the authenticity of the "seafoodness"- if it makes sense at all). But it is your choice actually.

Put in a couple of spoons of oyster sauce, fish sauce and the seasoning. Throw in the rice, and stir throw. Then add in you veges, where I would use carrots and green beans- for the colour. Then break and egg, and that is it!! Simple and just yummy, if eaten with chili pad in soya sauce.

My Version of Hot and Spicy Mushroom Chicken(Chines-Indian-Malay Fusion)

Here is yet another easy and yummy dish. I had leftover of 2 cans of mushrooms, a mixture of button and straw mushroom, and packet of beautiful, fresh oyster mushroom. There and then, I decided to make mushrooms the star of my dish.

You see, for our Indian taste buds, this is dish is rather bland, so I try to make it more interesting or Indian-friendly by adding a "kick" of chili. Feel free to omit them if you wish to.


Mushroom Chicken Recipe Ingredients:
Chicken
Various types of mushrooms
Potatoes
Birds-eye chili
Red Chili
Corn Flour
Marinate the chicken in :
Oyster Sauce
Black Pepper
Thick Soya Sauce
Ginger-Garlic Paste
Some salt


Method:
Marinate the chicken with wine and corn starch. Set aside for 15 minutes. Mix the sauce ingredients and set aside.
Heat up a wok and and put in the marinated chicken pieces. When you marinate the chicken, make sure you have enough liquid for the chicken to cook in. Add in your potatoes too. Simmer the chicken pieces until half cooked and add on your mushroom. Keep it cooking until potatoes are cooked.

Once cooked, add in bird-eye chillies, red chillies and a little corn flour to thicken the gravy. Once you get the consistency that you require, take it off the fire.
 Dish out and serve immediately.

Pineapple Fried Rice

If you're a fried rice fan, you'll absolutely love this scrumptious Thai version of pineapple fried rice. The best part about this dish is that every bite-ful is a burst of flavours and texture,  sometimes you get a sweet-savory combination of pineapple and prawns, at other times you taste the spicy flavor of the rice together the birds eye chili, or the contrasting texture of dried shrimps.

 There's a little prep work involved, but the actually cooking time is fast and easy. Makes a great dish for everyday eating as well as parties. ENJOY!

Pineapple Fried Rice Recipe Ingredients:
Leftover and overnight rice
Garlic (finely chopped)
Fresh or canned pineapple (cut into small pieces)
Prawns
Dried shrimp
Shrimp paste
Fish sauce
Oyster sauce
Pineapple juice
Birds eye chili (seeded and cut into small pieces)
Cilantro leaves for garnishing

Method:
Heat up a wok and add cooking oil. Stir-fry garlic, red chili, and dried shrimp paste until aromatic. Add prawns and stir-fry until half-cooked. Add rice, pineapple pieces, pineapple juice, and do a few quick stirs. Add the rest of the seasoning to blend well with rice. Stir-fry for another minute or so, dish out and serve immediately with fried anchovies and an egg.
 Heaven......

Hey..I started Catering....Following My Passion!!

Well, I don't know if this post is actually about food, but , I will write anyway... It is about my passion. Years in the corporate world, I never felt happy, until I found my passion-COOKING. First, my interest surfaced when I came across reading food blogs. Last year, I embarked into writing them, which encouraged me to cook too.

Then the next step, which seems to be right would be.... Cooking commercially. I thought,  why not, do something that you are passionate about, and success will just roll in (of course, if a lot of hard work).

With the help of my ever-loving hubby, I have just started a small catering service, supplying food to office workers. Well, you see I love to cook, and I love people to savour my food. I still remember when there were days when I cooked somet dish that I was proud of, and literally forced my husband to invite his friedns to come and join us for dinner.

 So why not earn a little while I do it! I will not serve anyone food, that I would not personally eat.

Now, I have started cooking for 20-25 per day, and working on my costing, R&D on new menu and training myself to cook in a consistent standard. well, we have to start somewhere, don't we...So with God's grace, I starting, pursuing my passion..and see where it goes. Wish me the best!!

Some dishes that I have started on ....

Chinese Fried Rice

Nasi Goreng Ayam- Indian Style

Fish Fillet with Onions in Oyster Sauce

Meatball Spaghetti

Mummy's Simpliest Fried Rice

Believe it or not, this is my FAVOURITE version of fried rice, and I still can't master it. My mom makes it the best, so I call it Mummy Fried Rice.

It is made of fragrant rice, minced garlic, an egg and anchovies. For seasoning, only used oyster sauce and soya sauce.

How do I describe it, it is simply refreshing, light and just yummy. And best of all, so easy to make....but sadly I just can't master it yet!

Ayam Penyet Banafee

Ayam Penyet seems to be getting popular nowadays. Considering the fact that few years back, no one in Malaysia would have heard of it, it is quite a feat when we think about how it is flooding our market at the moment. This Indonesian dish I believe will still be around for quite some time.

Penyet is seriously the right name to describe this dish. For those who don’t know, Penyet means ‘Flatted’. This dish is served with some "ulam" (raw veges such as cucumber, tomato, long beans, cabbage), fried tauhu and "tempe"(fermented soya bean cake), which was simply authentic.

Restoran Banafee, Jalan Dato Abdullah Tahir Johor Bahru, Johor 80300, serves by far, the best Nasi Ayam Penyet. The chicken is so flavourful, marinated very nicely into the meat. The "sambal" is just superb (in our language- kau-kau) and is the king of this dish.


We also had chicken otak-otak, which was something very different. The otak-otak was not dry, but moist inside.

The porridge was also quite up to its standard, full of flavour, and served with kangkung belacan, anchovies and nut, and salted egg.

In sum, the Ayam Penyet is excellent! Next time, you are down in JB, do try it! Cheers!

Home-made Mutton Briyani

My recent trip to Mumbai inspired this Sunday lunch. The Briyani I had in Mumbai was simply exotic, and I hoped to replicate it with my so-called culinary expertise.

Briyani at the Vits, Mumbai

I started off by marinating my lamb with yogurt, garli-ginger paste, green chillies, lots of coriander leaves and mint leaves, and of course briyani mix. I let the meat rest for about 1 hour, and put it into the cooker to cook. Sorry, no pressure cooker, yet.

As for the rice, I bought the high quality Basmati rice from an Indian grocer in Brickfields. Heat up some ghee, and fry in the garlic-ginger paste, sliced onions, cinnamon stick and cloves. Then fry in the rice until fragant. Then I put the rice into the cooker, and added lemongrass and screwpine leaves (daun pandan) and cooked it as how i normally do.

When the mutton is 75% cooked, remove it from the cooker. Then heat up your wok, fry in some onions + curry leaves, and put the the mix of semi cooked mutton with its gravy and simmer. You can gradually add in evaporated milk to taste and of course the seasoning such as salt. If you need it more spicy, just throw in some birds-eye chillies (cili padi). Cook accordingly.

Once your gravy is cooked, you can assemle in the rice, and the mutton gravy, in layers. I added the yellow colour, by mixing tumeric with water and soem rose essence. I also assemble hard boiled egg into the Briyani, to make it a more Malaysian version.

I will be 100% honest with you...it was nowhere near Mumbai's version of the Briyani, but definitely a delicious home-made Briyani!!

Sinfully Delightful Treats

A couple of sinfully delightful treat to perk up your day... My favorite from Dominos is their Chocolate Lava Cake. 

The cake is sinfully rich, and right in the middle of the chocolaty richness, is the luxurious fudge.It is not until your spoon breaks through the cake's outer crust, that you find its pudding-like center. This dessert can be described as souffle-like, cake-like, brownie-like, mousse-like, and pudding-like, and that is because it has all of these characteristics.  Chocolate Lava Cakes, have a rich and chocolaty flavor, and a texture that is dense and moist.

As you eat into the centre, you slowly approach heaven...yum, yum...the velvety chocolate centre..is so sinfully rich.

And just imagine, my son and I whacking one at 10.30 at night. The next day, 1 hour on the thread-mill, for me !! :

Another "sin-food" is a mug of caramel latte topped up with whipped cream. Just look at the luscious whipped cream, on top of the creamy-milk coffee. 

Finally, Gulab Jamun, an Indian dessert made of, milk balls immersed in rose flavoured sweet syrup. Sinfully sweet, it can be enjoyed either hot or cold.