Daging Masak Hitam

Daging Masak Hitam is a common dish among Malaysians especially during Raya. Still in a mode of Raya ehh..why not you try this for your Raya open house. This particular recipe is rather easy. For one, you don't have to go through all the trouble of having to marinate the beef with various spices and what not. I assure you that the end result is delicious nevertheless. All you need to do is to follow and exercise the correct technique.

I learned this recipe from my sister's MIL many many years ago when I was still single. In fact, my hubby loves this dish very much. I believed that I cooked this dish when we first got married and he keeps on asking me to cook it over and over again.



Ingredient A:

1kg of beef
500 gram chilli paste(cili boh)
1/2 bottle ofsoy sauce(kicap)
2 tbsp of thick soy sauce( kicap pekat)
5-6 cloves of red onions(bawang besar)-sliced
2tbsp of fried onion-blend
1 cup of tamarind juice
4-5 tbsp sugar
Salt to taste
1 cup of oil

lngredient B:

4 cloves of shallots-sliced
3 cloves of garlic-sliced
2 cinnamon
2 star anise



Method:
Cook beef chunk in water until it tender and cut into slices.
Heat oil in a wok and fry the red onion until the onion turn brown-set aside.
Reheat wok and fry ingredient B until fragrant.
Add the chilli paste and cooked it until the colour change.
Add sugar and stir for another 5 minutes.
Pour in both soy sauce and tamarind juice.
Stri occasionally so that the mixture does not stick to the wok.
Put in the beef and cooked it until the red oily layer comes out.
Add in the fried onion and continue stir.
Put in salt to taste and cook it until beef in tender and the gravy is thick.
Finally put in the blended fried onion.
Done.



Tips and trick:
# Only use chilli paste( chilly boh) that you buy directly from the shop. Refrain from using homemade blended dried chilli bacause as it will affect the taste and the look.
#Be generous with the oil as it will make the red oily layer come out nicely.
#Make sure that you fried the onion thoroughly as it will bring out the aroma of the dish.
#For the blended fried onion that you add in towards the end of the cooking, use the one that you can buy from the shop. The more you add in , more thicker the gravy will be. You can use this technique whenever you cook any other dishes.
#You may sprinkle the raisin on top of the dish.

Curry Mee

This particular recipe of curry-mee was given by my eldest sister when we went to her house for raya recently. It is quite similar with any other curry-mee recipe except that it can be done without having to add in the usual rencah (like chicken, shrimp, beef etc). You can just make do with dried anchovies and a cube chicken stock. It is very simple and yet the taste stays marvellous. It was so easy that i whipped up this recipe when we had a sudden exodus of guests last week.

This recipe is meant for 50-60 people. So, measure accordingly lah...

Ingredient:
For the curry

1 packet of beef curry powder(medium size)+ 1 cup of water
2 kg of thick coconut milk
1 cm fresh ginger-sliced
3 stalks of lemon grass
4 cloves garlic-sliced
6 cloves of shallots
250g(segenggam) dried anchovies-pounded
5-6 cubes of maggi chicken stock
curry leaves
2 stick of cinnamon
2 star anise(bunga lawang)
3 packet of fish cake or fish ball
Oil
Salt

For the garnishing

Yellow noodles(mee), red chillies, limes, fried shallots, bean sprout, corriander, spring onion, hard boiled egg, sawi and a long bean.

Method :

Heat the oil in a pot.
Fry the ginger, garlic, shallots, cinnamon, star anise and a curry leaves until fragrant.
Add in curry powder.
Fry for 10 minutes.
Add chicken stock and dried anchovies bring to boil.
Add coconut milk, lemon grass and salt.
Simmer the curry over low heat.
Add fish cake and fish ball
Keep warm

To serve
Put some bean sprouts, sawi and long bean and noodles and ladle the hot gravy in.
Garnish with sliced chilies, dried shallots, coriander and spring onion and a piece of lime.

Tips and Tricks:

# Only use hot water whenever you made the curry. So, after add in the curry powder, pour in hot boiling water. It will not only make your curry tastier but also delicious looking. And if you must add more water later on, yes you got it right - only use hot water.
#At my sister's place, she served the curry mee with a pudina leaves. I found it is a good combination, so try it haa..

Makan-makan Hari Raya

Lamanya tak jumpa... buzy with Hari Raya..what else! and I've not been feeling good too..as i was down with a gastric problem. That sort of dampen my raya a bit. However, to know more how I enjoy my raya , you can go to my husband's blog.

I have been meaning to write about the food during raya, but was too busy enjoying it and totally forgotten to take any photos of the food. Here are a few photos that my husband managed to salvage.

This year, my family and I celebrated raya at my sister's place in Kampar, Perak. All my siblings and their families came down too. I enjoyed it sangat-sangat. Everybody were there except for Azham(my niece Faizah's husband who is currently doing his Phd. in Japan), Zaki(Faizah's brother who for some strange reason shy away from joining gathering macam ni - very the anti social), Naim( my nephew who has gone back to U.K last Ramadan to study) and newly weds Farhana and hubby Hasri (they balik kampung Hasri for the first two days of Raya).

My sister (kak) really cooked up a storm this raya, literally..Me? I tolong sikit-sikit jer..almaklumler rumah orang kan. On the first day she cooked Nasi Jagung, Daging Kerutup, Dalca, Rendang Pedas Ayam(ayam pencen pulak tu..), and Nasi impit. She ordered a kuah kacang yang out of this world punya sedap. Kak Zai (my SIL) brought Nasi impit, Lontong, Kuah Kacang and Ayam Goreng while Yong brought Ketupat Palas with rendang (tahun ni Yong tak buat Rendang Tok la..).

Over the next three days , Kak also cooked Mee Goreng, Meehoon Goreng, Nasi Goreng, Mee-Sup and Nasi Putih with lauk-pauk segala ...memang a lot of food...berpadanan ler dengan ramai nya tetamu yang datang.

On the third day of raya, we were all so tired with all the rendangs and lemangs, so we decided to grill burgers and sausages. Here's Hasri and Ana..rajin nampak....

This is Kelamai. A traditional kueh said to only be available in Gopeng, Perak. I bought it for Rm20. It tasted like a cross between dodol and bingka ubi. It was cooked in a bamboo just like lemang but the bamboo is white in colour. Don't ask me how is that so..

Sedapnya...

The men in my family. My hubby is standing second from right with all the other nephews (he thinks he look young here.....yeah.right)

The Ladies pulak...unfortunately I look the biggest.Oh tidak!

Nurul, Alia and Asma - our three beautiful princess

My mom with her grandaughters at my Arwah Bapak's grave.

Fried Shrimp with Kerisik

I came up with this recipe for our breaking fast yesterday. I used things normally found in my kitchen. The result is simply amazing and delicious. It is easy to do and the cooking time does not take so long and you can still be very impress by the result.

Ingredient:
1 kg of shrimp (medium size)
4 pcs of tofu (tauhu)
2 medium onion-chopped
2 garlic
2 cm Ginger
1 pckt Curry leaves
2 table spoon Chilli powder
2 red chilli
2 green chilli
Coconut oil for frying
2 tbsp grated coconut
2tbsp soy-sauce
A pinch of salt

Method
Leave the shrimp heads and shell on but chop off the eyes part. Marinated it with chilli powder and a pinch of salt. Leave aside for 2-5 minutes. Then fried them until the shrimp turns lightly brown. Then you heat oil in a pan. Cook onion, garlic and ginger. Add curry leaves, marinated shrimp, soy-sauce, tofu and kerisik. Put in red and green chilli. Salt to taste. Cook until shrimp are pink and firm about 2 minutes on each side. Served it hot with rice or bread.

All about Shrimp

Shrimp comes from Italian word for Dublin Bay Prawns
The word prawn used to describe large shrimp and different varieties of shellfish
Shrimp come in a different colours such as gray, pink and white. Its benefits include:
1. Good source of protein
2. Low in saturated fat
3. Excellent source of iron,selenium and vitamins B12, D, andB3
4. Quick and easy to prepare

Yummy!

EGG PUDDING

I am rather passionate about this particular egg pudding. If you want a fast and delicious dessert, I suggest you should try this recipe. I’ve had various egg pudding or pudding caramel recipes but this recipe is so much simple. And did I say delicious too?
Apparently, this particular egg pudding has been the staple dessert in my hubby’s family. I’ve first tasted it when we went over to his aunt’s place in Ipoh. The delightful Wan Chu (or simply Chu as we affectionately call her) made this one day (loooong time ago when we first got married) and I just love it. Of course I asked for the recipe. And I have been using this recipe ever since.
But a word of caution, you’ve got to be very careful and follow the instructions to the T when making this pudding or otherwise the result would not be as tasty.

Ingredient:
For the Custard
10 eggs
A tin ( a small ones) of condensed milk
2 ½ tin (using the same condensed milk tin) of cool water (refrigerated water)

For the caramel
350g palm sugar
1 cup of water
1 strand of pandan leaf

Methods:
To make the custard, whisk the egg for 2 minutes. Add all the milk and the cool water. Whisk further. Then strain the mixture into a bowl. Leave it aside.
To make the caramel, place the palm sugar, water and pandan leaf in a pan and stir gently over low heat until sugar dissolve. Then strain the sugar mixture. Leave it aside.Then you ready the steamer over low heat fire and arrange the small bowls in it. Pour the caramel into these cups – about 1/3 of the cup - gently. Then pour in the custard on top, also very slowly. (Don’t worry if the two mixtures seem to be mixed as it will separate itself later). Steam over for 8 to 10 minutes until you can see small holes on the custards.

Then you makan.
You can serve the pudding this way...

... or like this.