Bubur Nasi Hitam

I was an angry, sulky, rebellious teenager. I wasn't very comfortable in my own skin and I hated everything and everyone. In short, I was one big pain in the backside. I sure gave my parents hell (in return, my kids will probably provide me the same services because what goes around, comes around). I was a sad, pudgy kid who was confused about life and frankly speaking, a little lonely too.

There are some of the reasons why I don't like keeping in touch with the past and when the past comes back to visit, I make attempts to avoid it like a bowl of bitter melon juice.

However, a good book once read that you cannot bury the past. It only claws its way back to you. And true to its words, even though I've moved 6360 kilometers away from home, many of my former schoolmates have made, miraculously, the same decision. The result? Reunions.

I've since resigned to the fact that the world is far too small to run away. And to make amends with the past, I bought her breakfast last weekend. If I had the chance to speak to my young self, I would say this: 1)Don't be too hard on your self. 2)Don't take life so seriously because it doesn't even take itself seriously. 3)People actually don't bite when you make the effort to know them.

Bubur Nasi Hitam translates as Black Rice Pudding. Deliciously drizzled with santan, or coconut milk, it's an authentic Malaysian dessert served after dinner. Mom cooks it in a slow cooker the night before and that's why we have them for breakie in the mornings. I don't know why but I guess it's the same difference with cereal. It has the same consistency as Red Bean Soup but slightly thicker and richer (due to the coconut milk). It's best to add some dried longans for an additional fruity sweetness but if you can't find any, it's fine as it is.

Bubur Nasi Hitam (serves 4)
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• 1¾ cup black glutinous rice
• 2 pandan leaves or 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 5 cups of water
• ½ cup palm sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1½ cups fresh squeezed thick coconut milk

Method:

1. Rinse rice thoroughly for 2 minutes under running water. Drain well.
2. Put water, rice and pandan leaves into a heavy-based pot.
3. Simmer over medium heat for approximately 40 minutes.
4. Add palm sugar syrup and continue to cook until most of the liquid has evaporated.
5. Season with a pinch of salt. Remove from heat, allow to cool.
6. Serve at room temperature, topped with a swirl of fresh squeezed creamy coconut milk.

Otak-Otak (Spicy Fish Mousse)

For once, I decided to start blogging with Twenty Something & Cooking instead of Happee Monkee. I feel bad having to use the same material twice. So today, I decided to dance to a different tune.

Lately, I've been invited to a few gourmet events. One was Taste of Melbourne last Friday and just yesterday I met Peter Doyle of Est. at a Kiehl's launch. To tell you the truth, I hadn't heard of him before and apparently, he's quite a big shot in the culinary world. The man in flesh is really down-to-earth and friendly, a little shy and very unassuming. It's nice to know that fame and glamour doesn't always impact someone negatively.

Anyway, after all the gourmet eating, I think it might have gotten to my head as much as my stomach. Otak-Otak is a very conventional home dish. I love how the spice, herbs and fish works so well into a moussy smoothness. I don't know why it's called Otak-Otak because it translates as 'brain' in Malay. Perhaps there is truth in the belief that eating lots of fish makes you brainier. I'm not sure. But what I'm sure is that it's absolutely yummy.

Otak-Otak (Spicy Fish Mousse)
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• 400g white fish fillets
• 1/2 cup (8 tbsp) of red curry paste
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• mint leaves
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons of lime juice
• 1 cup of coconut milk
• 1 teaspoon of fish sauce
• 1/2 tsp white pepper

Method:

1. Chop fish into small pieces or to make into a paste, work it in a food processor.
2. Mix all the ingredients together.
3. Marinate for 20 - 30 minutes.
4. Steam it on medium-high heat for 15 minutes until cooked and set.

Variation:

1. Make an aluminum foil envelope or a loaf tin and bake for 20 minutes in a preheated oven at 170C till skewer comes out clean.
2. Bake in a bain marie (loaf tin) in a pre-heated oven at 150-175 degree Celcius (300-350 degree F) for 20-25 minutes till skewer comes out clean when it is put into the centre of the fish cake.

Carrots and Baby Corn Porridge

What a tiring and stressful week. Both my youngest sister and my hubby are sick. Both have been sick since Tuesday. My sister was down and still is with cough and flu. And my hubby is down with viral fever, so his body temperature is going up and down like a yoyo from Tuesday till today. It freaks me out as this is the dengue season. Dengue fever dangerous it could be fatal as it reduces victim white blood cells. Fortunately, 2 doctors said my hubby does not have dengue symptom. *Phew.

My sister requested for carrot porridge. I thought that it is boring with just carrot in the porridge. So, I tested out this recipe. I add in baby corns and chinese cabbage. My hubby said it feels weird with the crunchy baby corn, as porridge should be soggy and soft. But they finished the whole pot. :)

Ingredients: (serves 5)
1 medium size carrot (peel off skin and cut into thin strips)
3 fresh baby corns (peel of the husks and cut into cubes)
3 leaves of chinese cabbage
1-2 slices of ginger (optional)
50g of thinly sliced pork or chicken meat
10 tablespoonful of cooked rice
1.5 liter of water
salt to taste

Method:

1. Add water and rice into a pot. Boil them at high heat for 10mins.
2. Add in the pork or chicken meat. Leave it to boil for 5mins.
3. Add in the carrot, baby corns, chinese cabbage and ginger. Leave it to boil for 5mins.
4. Then reduce the heat to medium - low. Continue boiling for another 30mins.
5. Constantly stir the ingredients to ensure that the rice (rice will be porridge at this point) does not stick at the bottom of the pot.
6. Depends on how thick you want the porridge to be, you can turn off the heat at your likings. Add salt to taste.
7. You can serve porridge with salted duck eggs.

Ba Chang

When I called home last weekend and spoke to dad, I told him about this experiment. He excitedly told mum and I could hear mum in the background reprimanding dad for lying. I can understand her skepticism really because you see, a long time ago, I, the little one who's always up to some mischief; the grudging, grumpy house elf - swore that I would never cook.

So to attempt this, personally, is no small feat. And I'm also going to show you that if this monkee can do it, so can you.

Ba Chang or Zong zi is a triangular-shaped glutinous rice dumplings wrapped with bamboo leaves and stuffed with varied ingredients. It's also a good thing that this is only made once a year because I can imagine it is quite a pain to do it daily. (I realized, amidst my curses over my messy wrapping, how much I miss my mum.)

Ba Chang - which is translated from the Hokkien dialect as 'meat dumpling' - is a festive food usually serve in mid-June to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival. If you can't be bothered to make this and still love to try some, you can usually find them in good old China town.

I should note here that I was not alone in making this. I had two extra pair of hands and I must thank them for being such good kitchen helpers. Because I was tied to stove most of the time, I couldn't be bothered with the photos. Mr. G and cheeky were brilliant. Patiently, chopping up the ingredients and documenting the making of ba changs. If I'm not mistaken, the video Mr. G is working on will soon be done. So thanks guys, for all your hard work. :)

Now, for the recipe:




Ba Chang (makes about 20 - 22)
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1kg glutinous rice
Bamboo leaves and hem/ raffia string for wrapping

Filling:

• 400g belly pork or de-boned chicken meat
• 150g dried mushrooms,
• 200g dried chestnuts
• 10 salted egg yolks
• 100g dried prawns - soak in warm water, remove the impurities then chop into small pieces.
• 100g split green peas

Method:

{Overnight}

1. Heat a large pot of water. When water starts to boil, place bamboo leaves and hemp strings in. Make sure bamboo leaves and strings are fully immersed in water. Continue boiling for 10 minutes. Turn fire off and let bamboo leaves and strings in water overnight. Remove leaves and strings from water before you need to use them.
2. Soak glutinous rice, beans and dried chestnuts overnight.
3. Marinate pork overnight with 2 tsp of five spice powder, 2 tbsp of vegetable oil, 1 tbsp of light soy sauce, 1 tsp of salt, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tbsp rice wine, pepper
   

{In the morning}

1. Dried shrimps and chinese mushrooms can be soaked the next day as they turn soft relatively fast.

{The day itself}

Pork:

1. Heat oil, saute shallots and garlic until fragrant
2. Add pork. Cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add dried shrimps, chestnuts, mushrooms. Stir well and set aside.
   

Rice:

1. Heat oil, saute shallots and garlic until fragrant.
2. Add rice, stir fry for 5 to 7 minutes.
3. Add 1 tbsp five spice powder, 1 tbsp dark soya sauce, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper. (If you feel that it needs more seasoning, go with your gut instincts)
   
4. Stir thoroughly till heated through. Set aside.
   

{To Wrap}

1. Take two bamboo leaves, make them overlap slightly and fold into a cone.
2. Put 1 tbsp rice into the funnel base.
3. Add 1 tbsp filling and a piece of salted egg yolk.
4. Add beans in.
   
5. Cover with some more rice.
6. Fold leaves over rice to form a triangular prism.
7. Tie with hem/raffia string.

{Cooking}

1. Boil a large pot of water and add 2-3 tsp sea salt.
2. Drop the bundles of dumplings in and boil for 1 1/2 - 2 hours over medium-slow fire.
3. Top constantly with boiling water to maintain level of water at all times.
4. When cooked, remove the dumplings and hang to dry.

Note:
Dumplings can be stored in freezer for at least 1 month. Steam or microwave dumplings before serving.

Corn Soup with Pork Ribs

This is a pretty simple soup to make. You just need to get 2 sticks of fresh sweet corn, 300g of fresh pork ribs (nearer to the spine), 2 liters of water and 2 teaspoon of salt. I manage to get the bicolor (yellow and white) sweet corn. It is taste sweeter but it is more expensive than the yellow sweet corn.





Here is the making process:

1. Remove corn husks and clean corn with water. Cut corn into halves.
2. Rinse and clean pork ribs with water.
3. To remove pork smell and excess fat, boil a pot of water just enough to cover the pork ribs.
4. Once the water boil, place pork ribs into boiling water for 1min. Drain ribs and put aside.
5. At medium to high heat, boil 2 liters of water. Put in the pork ribs.
6. Once the water with ribs boils, put in the corns.
7. Wait for about 5 mins or once the water boils, reduce heat to low to medium. Leave soup to boil for 40mins.
8. Add salt last and turn off the heat.

That's it. It is that simple !

Rice Noodle Soup with Spinach

We have hot weather here in Penang, Malaysia for the past few days. My husband is feeling a bit sick. So, I have decided to cook rice noodle soup. This is a simple meal and easy to cook. It takes about 1hr to prepare the ingredients and finish cooking.

Ingredients:

400ml water for soup

2pcs of chicken drumsticks (or if you prefer 200g chicken fillet)

75g of 1/4in chunk carrots

60g of spinach

50g of diced grey oyster mushroom

3pcs of fish cake cut into halves

150g rice noodle/rice vermicelli/rice sticks

Method:

1. Boil 200ml water in medium high heat. Add in the rice noodle when water is boiling. When water reboil, turn off the heat. Drain off the water and let some cold water run over the noodle. Set aside.
2. Use another medium sized pot to boil 400ml of water in medium high heat. This is to make the soup.
3. Add in the chicken drumsticks or chicken fillet and the chunk carrots.
4. Once the soup boil, add in the spinach and diced grey oyster mushroom. Leave it for a few minute till water reboil.
5. Lastly, add in the fish cakes and leave it till water reboil.
6. Add salt to taste. Turn off heat.
7. Put rice noodle into bowl. Dish out the soup ingredients and soup into bowl.
   

Curry Makes My Day

Being a Malaysian, one cannot live without curry! Or maybe it's just me. ;) I've been having a meal of pipping hot curry every other week, be it curry chicken, curry laksa, katsu curry or anything curry. It always feel good to have a warm plate/bowl of curry meal, especially on a cold weather day here in Melbourne.

I still remember the first time I attempted to cook curry chicken. It was a disaster. First of all, I bought the wrong curry powder. I didn't know there's so many different types of them! Next, I used a little too much of it. *blush* No prize for guessing what happened to the dish. *bluekz* Amazingly, it was still edible in the end! hahaha. But my tummy didn't feel like having curry for the next few weeks. Lesson learned.

Recently, I went shopping at the local asian grocery and came across a packet of ready made chicken curry paste. The brand was Tean's Gourmet and it was made in Malaysia. ;) So it has to be good! Craving for curry, I had decided to buy it and test power in my kitchen. Again, I didn't have a recipe for the dish, but this is what I did:

Curry Chicken
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Ingredients (for 2 persons)
- 1 Chicken breast fillet (cut into bite size pieces)
- 4 medium sized Potatoes - medium size (cut into cubes)
- 10 Tofu puffs (cut into halves)
- 1 packet of Tean's Gourmet Chicken Curry paste (bought from the asian grocery)
- 1 can of Ayam brand Coconut milk
- Garlic
- Soy sauce or salt

Method
1. Marinate chicken pieces with soy sauce or salt
2. Finely chop garlic
3. Fry garlic till fragrant
4. Add chicken and stir through together
5. Add curry paste and let it simmer for awhile
6. Add potatoes and tofu puffs
7. Add a little bit of water and let it simmer till the potatoes are soft and chicken pieces are well cooked
8. Finally, add coconut milk and stir through gently
9. Turn off heat and let sit for a few minutes
10. When it's done, serve with rice or bread!

Anyway, this was the result of my experiment:

What do you think? ;) Thank goodness for the invention of ready made curry paste! Now I can enjoy curry whenever I feel like it! I highly recommend Tean's Gourmet Chicken Curry paste. It's yummy! Try it yourself today! :)

Quote of the day ~ Worry is a waste of imagination ~

Nasi Lemak

For my first food post, it shall be on my first attempt at cooking nasi lemak!

Nasi lemak has always been one of my favourite dishes. Back at home, dad would always buy nasi lemak for breakfast on weekends. It is a routine on weekends, where dad would wake up very early in the morning to go for a jog in the park. Sometimes, I would join him (when I'm not too lazy to wake up early). On his way home, he would stop by a little stall by the roadside to get our weekly fix of nasi lemak. Since he is a regular customer, the makcik who operated the stall would give us extra portion of goodies e.g. ikan bilis, sambal, etc. My nasi lemak was always drenched in lots of sambal! Yumsss! Oh, how I miss the nasi lemak back home! (I miss the morning jogs with dad too)

Just a few weeks back, I had a craving for nasi lemak. With much determination, I have conducted an experiment in my kitchen. I don't have a proper recipe for it, but this is what I did:

Nasi Lemak
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Ingredients (for 2 persons)
- 1 cup of Rice
- 1 can of Santan(Coconut milk)
- 1 can of Sambal ikan bilis(dried anchovies in hot spicy sauce)(bought from the asian grocery) - I know it's cheating, but.. :P
- 4-6 Chicken drumlets
- 2 Eggs
- 1/2 Cucumber
- Peanuts/groundnuts
- Kentucky fried chicken powder

Method
1. Cook rice with coconut milk in a rice cooker
2. Boil eggs and cut into halves when done
3. Coat chicken drumlets with Kentucky fried chicken powder and fry them till golden brown
4. Roast peanuts/groundnuts till brown in pan
5. Cut cucumber into thin slices
6. Heat the sambal ikan bilis in a pan
7. When all is done, serve the santan rice in a plate with all the side dishes

This is a simple way to cook it. It was more of an experiment for me. There are many other side dishes that can be served with nasi lemak. I'm a simple person. A lazy one. So, at the moment this is enough to feed my craving! The result of my experiment:


What do you think? Well, canned food can't go wrong. *lol* Personally, I think it was a success. Even my guinea pig liked it. Mom, I did it! Now, I don't have to go out to eat nasi lemak anymore! And cooking is kinda fun! :D

Psst: Note that I didn't provide any proper measurements for the recipe. I usually use the ingredients and adjust the taste according to feeling because I have this bad habit of not tasting my food when I'm cooking :P

Quote of the day ~ Love the life you live and live the life you love~