Twilight Chicken Rendang

In anticipation of a movie called Twilight that seems to be taking over my daughters' waking hours (heard it will be coming out soon and it's a movie based on a novel by Stephanie Meyers), I decided to name his newly inspired chicken rendang - Twilight. That's how uncreative I can be!!!
Anyway, I was experimenting with my usual chicken rendang the other day when something overcame me and I decided to tambah-tambah (add in) other ingredients not normally used in my rendang. Hence the Twilight Chicken Rendang. And my daughters simply love it!!!!
Definitely one of the menu for the upcoming Hari Raya Aidil Adha in early December (so that I can show off to my sister again).

Ingredient:
a. 1 whole chicken (clean and cut to 16 or 18 pieces)
b. 1/2 kg of coconut milk
c. 4 tbps chili paste
d. 3 tbps chicken curry powder
e. 3 cloves of red onion
f. 3cm of ginger
g. 3 stocks of lemon grass
h. 2 packets of kerisik
i. 1 tumeric leaf
j. 5 daun limau purut
k. Oyster sauce
l. salt and sugar to taste

Methods
1. Blend items e,f and g together.
2. Heat oil in wok and put in the blended stuff.
3. Add in chili paste, and curry powder and stir until fragrant.
4. Pour in the coconut milk and chicken to follow
5. Add the rest of the ingredients (make sure you slice the leaves).
6. Cook until dry and serve.

Happy Birthday Arissa

My youngest daughter turned 12 yesterday. Naturally, Arissa was very excited about her 12th birthday do. She kept asking me about the food, the cake and presents for the past few days. I decided to bake a chocolate mud cake with fresh blueberry for her pre-birthday celebration that we did two days earlier at the Cyberview Lodge, Cyberjaya. The main menu of the evening was satay kajang....her favourite. Arissa being Arissa, she was rather clueless that evening as she was adamant that birthdays must be celebrated on the day itself. No kompromi la...
So she was a bit 'off' that evening and she didn't eat as much as she should be. But the rest of us, makan dengan riang rianya.
Upon reaching home, Arissa being Arissa was counting the minutes to her birthday....the real exact date. She refused to acknowledge that we have had already throw her a birthday party. Dia buat derk aje......susah betul anak bongsu sorang ni...To make it worse, on her birthday I won't be around for the whole day as I was attending a seminar in KL (hence the early birthday celebration).
However, since she still clearly expect a birthday do on that day itself, we decided to have another round of makan-makan after I come back from the seminar.
It means that my husband has to take over the task of organising the makan-makan. Although we agreed(and with Arissa's request) to simply serve Domino's pizza, my husband surprised Arissa and the rest of the household when he made a marvellous butter cream cake and a yummy spaghetti bolognese. Arissa was simply speechless.

To my darling Arissa, 'Happy Birthday' and here's hoping you have a very happy future
and feel the heartloads of love so many, many people have for you!

Chocolate Mud cake with a chocolate butter cream and a fresh blueberry.

Another angle of the cake.

Birthday cake number 1

Our pre-birthday celebration

The food......mouth-watering

Arissa with her birthday cake number 2 baked by 'bapak'.....boleh bagi A+

Dunia Dapur

Salam Semua,

I have been working on this e-book project (with the intention of making money, obviously) for the past 2 years. I figure since I am surfing the Net, might as well leverage on its opportunities available. So finally, after endless days and weeks trying to come up with this e-book (based on my experience), we finally are able to launch it a couple of days back. I'm no writer and definitely not good with technical stuff.
But with the support from my husband, I managed to come up with www.duniadapur.com that sells my very own e-book on how to make money from your kitchen. It's in Bahasa Malaysia as the tips and pointers are meant for local business set up.
It's only a beginning for me. InsyaAllah.
Want to take a peek at my website, click here. And I have also set up a business blog here.
Tolong doakan ya.

(P.S: The e-book cover above was designed by my daughter Arissa)

Ice Cream Cake

Last weekend, our daughters invited their friends over for some Raya makan-makan. As usual I wanted to surprise them with something new. And the result was this Ice Cream Cake.
I've gotten this recipe from Chef Anuar's cookbook (the chef is one of my sifus - a very sincere and charming person, I must say). If you had a chance, do attend his cooking classes, or at least buy his book... usually published by Berita Publishing (kes promote company husband ler pulak ni). Once he went out of his way to help me with my business. Thank You!!!

The recipe for this can particular cake be found in his book - Langkah Demi Langkah Bersama Chef Anuar. And I am happy that the cake became a huge hit (along with chocolate brownies) among the girls and my anak-anak buah who came over... so much so both my husband and I did not get to taste it. Must bake it again la.

Biskut Samprit

Pix by Asma

This is Samprit. It has been one of the many staple cookies during Hari Raya in many households since as far as I can remember. It is still popular but not many people knows how to make it as it can rather tedious. But in actual fact, samprit is one of the easiest cookies to make and the ingredients are easy to find.

In fact my husband has been bragging that he too know how to make a good and tasty samprit (which he claimed he did before we got married). Unfortunately, until this very day, we have yet to taste his famous samprit. Ye la tu!!!!! He doesn't even help me when I'm making samprit nowadays. Haaah!

I've been making samprit for quite a number of years. Not too long ago, I even sell samprit during Raya. Not this year though but I still have to make quite "banyak" for my mother, MIL, sisters and aunts... jadik buah tangan Raya. For those who wants to make a samprit for Open House.. here's the recipe:

Ingredient:
25og butter
1 cup icing sugar
1 egg yolk
1 cup flour
1 cup corn flour

Method:
Beat the butter and icing sugar until fluffy
Add egg yolk and the flours
Use the samprit mold and press slowly onto the baking pan
Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 100-150C

Pix by Asma

Tips:
Use butter instead of margarine
Don't over mix the "adunan" as it may make your samprit out of shape
Be patient... it takes quite a while to get the hang of mooulding sampriit into the desired shape
Add more flour if the texture is too soft

Salam AidilFitri.... 2008

Hari Raya is yet again here.... it has been a rather uneventful Ramadan (which is good I suppose) for us here. It is pretty much a quiet Ramadan too as I decided not to sell cookies this year (barang mahal la) and just made cookies for our own and of course for my mother as well as my mother in law.
InsyaAllah, we are driving back later today (alhamdulillah! the man of the house was given one week's Raya leave - something he did not get in last three years at his previous employment). I've just packed a few biskut raya to bring home ... (pix above).

But we did the unthinkable yesterday (Sunday 28.9.2008) - as we went to Jalan TAR to shop for some tudung Raya and other stuff. HUGE MISTAKE!!! It took us almost 2 hours (yeay that's right!) to find a parking spot. We circled the Jalan TAR for god how many times! Finally, my husband swung into Pertama Complex parking space. Then we walked over to Jalan TAR, which was not really that far, actually but the crowd was crazy. Jalan TAR was sooo jam packed with people that we find it difficult to move. Yeah, it's that bad!!! My husband was muttering "what economic slowdown? semua orang banyak duit ni ha!!!". Yes, and we were there too!!!
But the drama began when we were at one of the road side stall selling tudungs and suddenly the skies open up. Naturally, we ran up to the front of Jalan TAR (near Globe) to take shelter. Suddenly Alia turned white and was close to fainting. It was real drama!@!@, I tell you. I was panicking real quick and blaming myself for coming down there in the first place. We sat her down by the shop's pillar and husband rushed off to buy drinks (Alia mmg tak leh puasa pun.. hahahah). Luckily, the fainting spell was not that bad and soon after she's feeling better. And the five of us quickly walked back to the car. Nak balik! Never again. Ever.

Anyway, di hari baik bulan baik ini, kami sekeluarga mengucapkan:

Andai langkah membekas lara
Andai kata merangkai dusta
Andai tingkah menoreh luka
Izinkan saya bersimpuh sila
Menghulurkan tangan di bulan mulia
Memohon ampun meminta maaf
Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri

Salam Ramadhan and Kuih Keria

To all,

Selamat Menyambut Ramadan Mubaak. Semoga amalan kita diterima Allah.

Salam,
Azian

Di bulan puasa sebegini teringat pulak masa kecil-kecil duhulu.... kalau berbuka mesti ada kuih-muih memenuhi meja... paling diingati ialah Kuih Keria seperti di atas dan bawah ini... kami panggil kuih gelang... (yang ini pula dimasak beberapa minggu yang lalu.)