What's your order for today sir?

As part of my plan on not to overspend on raw ingredients for cooking or  buying food for Iftar, I decided to try this simple recipe derived from my trusted site, MyResipi.com. I have always believed in preparing simple dishes for my family. My choices are always easy to cook, using easily available ingredients and should be able to cater for my two kiddos who are well-known to have the pickiest tastebud! As usual, Mr Khz (and sometimes, the kids) decide. If he likes it, I would categorise the dish as good. If he said NO, then, the recipe will remain untouched. My views could be biased for Mr KHz is easy to feed but still, any opinion deserves to be taken into consideration.

Today, I've prepared a simple dish using prawns. On weekdays, I cook using whatever is available in the fridge but on the weekends, I usually give Mr KHz the honour to choose what he feels like eating. Since he had mentioned prawns, I decided to try a recipe by dayang jack from the site that I had mentioned earlier. Give it a try, will you?

HONEY PRAWNS

Ingredients:

400g fresh medium-size prawns (marinade with 1/2 tsp turmeric powder, 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/2 tbsp of cornflour for 10 minutes and deep fried till crispy and keep aside).

1 onion

1 red chilli

3 cloves of garlic

1 and 1/2 tbsp honey (mixed with 60ml of water)

2-3 bird's eye chillies (bruised)

1/2 tbsp chilli sauce

1/2 tbsp of dark soy sauce

1/2 tbsp lemon juice

2 stalks of coriander leaves (chopped coarsely)

Method :

• Grind onion, chilli and garlic till fine.
• Pour in about 3 tbsp of cooking oil ( I used the oil used for frying the prawns) in a wok and stir fry ground ingredients till fragrant.
• Put in the honey mixture, soy sauce and chilli sauce and stir. Then, put in the bird's eye chillies and stir till the sauce thickens.
• Next, put in the prawns, lemon juice and coriander leaves. Mix well.
• Serve hot.

Salam Ramadhan

Salam Ramadhan untuk semua. Alhamdulillah, dengan limpah rahmat dan keizinanNya, sekali lagi kita telah diberi peluang untuk bersama-sama mendapatkan keberkatan bulan yang indah ini. Semoga ibadah puasa tahun ini lebih bermutu dan diredhai.

Ramadhan memang sentiasa dikaitkan dengan rezeki yang melimpah-ruah sepanjang ianya berlangsung. Pelbagai makanan ada dijual di mana-mana. Ibu-ibu juga sedia memasak juadah berbuka pilihan ahli keluarga, yang selalunya menjadi cara menghargai dan memberi semangat dan dorongan buat anak-anak yang pertama kali berpuasa. Sekadar peringatan untuk pembaca dan juga diri saya sendiri, di bulan yang mulia ini, marilah kita bersama-sama mengelakkan pembaziran. Mungkin juga boleh dijadikan permulaan menanam sikap berjimat di kalangan ahli keluarga.

Memandangkan blog ini berkaitan masakan dan penyediaan makanan, sukalah saya berkongsi satu lagi resepi tukang masak tersohor, Puan Rubiah Suparman. Kepada yang memang menyukai masakan kampung, saya yakin resepi di bawah ini tidak akan mengecewakan.

'Sambal Tempoyak Daun'

Bahan-bahan
1 ikat pucuk ubi ( saya gandakan kerana tiada pucuk labu dan daun kaduk)
1 ikat pucuk labu       }
10 helai daun kaduk  } (saya abaikan kerana tidak dapat dicari di pasar)
1 helai daun kunyit (saya gunakan 2 helai)
2 batang serai
10 biji cili api
1 labu bawang besar
1 ulas bawang putih
1 sudu kecil serbuk kunyit
2-3 cawan santan pekat (saya gunakan santan kotak Ayam Brand dan dicampur air mencukupkan 3 cawan)
1 papan petai (diambil bijinya) (saya hiris tipis)
3 sudu besar ikan bilis (saya tumbuk kasar-kasar)
3 sudu besar tempoyak
garam secukup rasa
1 sudu teh gula pasir (ini tiada dalam resepi asal)


Cara memasak:

1. Hiris halus pucuk ubi, daun kunyit dan serai. Rendam dalam air garam.
2. Sementara itu, cili api, bawang besar dan bawang putih dkisar halus. kemudian, toskan bahan-bahan yang telah direndam tadi dan keringkan airnya.
3. Masukkan ke dalam periuk dan letakkan bahan-bahan kisar tadi bersama ikan bilis, petai santan dan tempoyak. Masak hingga mendidih dan pekat.

What Mr KHz Brought Back From Masjid Bulat

Section 14, PJ, is well-known for many reasons. Despite the fact that it's near to impossible to get a parking space at this place, it never ceases to attract people from near and far. Gadget die-hard fans cherish this place for its Digital Mall but those who frequent this place would simply but surely state their reasons why this place remain their top spot. I'm pretty sure that these reasons, would include the RM1 per packet nasi lemak (as well as the fried rice vermicelli) sold by the young mechanic side by side the newspaper uncle or the yummy lontong sold at one of the stalls above the wet market. Personally, I am also 'guilty' of  frequenting this place. The wet market is a lot smaller, (compared to the one in Taman Tun), causing me to feel at ease because I am familiar with almost all the vendors at this place. I know that the makcik ( I call her 'kakak' and since I know she's from my hometown, I never have a second thought whenever I purchase the shrimp paste ('belacan') from her stall) selling vegetables recognises me, as well as the fishwife and not to forget the bubbly chap who would willingly chop my chicken into any size I want.

Mr KHz, on the other hand, is also a regular at Section 14. Nope, he rarely goes to the market and he does not really fancy the Digital Mall so, where does he go to that I label him a regular? If you may ask, he goes for his evening prayers at a mosque here, named Masjid Tun Abdul Aziz, or commonly known as Masjid Bulat - due to the shape of its dome. This entry is a product  from a visit to this mosque. Talking about this mosque, the committee members had an open day on the 31st of  July to find funding for the activities planned, and of course, for charity. They set up stalls, selling mainly cooked food and I joined the fun by sending my chicken puff and cinnamon rolls as part of the sale. Besides food stalls, there were also stalls selling materials for baju kurung, homemade crafts and religious books. The committee also organised quite a number of competitions, where 'ketupat weaving' was one that I could remember.

Among all the stalls, one particular stall did attract Mr KHz's attention. He had taken the trouble to drag me to the stall (the place was small and it was a bit crowded so it's kind of difficult to walk around) selling 'ikan keli!' Mr KHz and his food addiction. He pointed at the fish and he smiled at me - his witty smile. I agreed to fulfill his wish because the fish was already gutted and cleaned. To cut a long story short, the purchase led to the dish in the photo below.

DEEP FRIED CATFISH IN SPICY SAUCE

(IKAN KELI GORENG BERLADA)

The recipe is taken (again) from Rubiah Suparman's Lauk Pauk : Malaysia, Singapura dan Indonesia book and he said that he enjoyed it. Here's the recipe if you wish to try but the amount was halved from the original recipe.

Ingredients:

1/2 kg catfish 

5 red chillies

3 bird's eye chillies

1/2 onion

2 pips of garlic

a small piece of 'asam keping'

1/2 tsp of sugar

1 tsp of turmeric powder

salt to taste

Method:

1. Clean and gut the fish and soak for 10 minutes in a mixture of salt and tamarind juice. Wash thoroughly and drained well.
2. Coat the fish with salt and turmeric powder and deep fry till crispy. Keep aside.
3. Pound the other ingredients coarsely. Heat up a wok and stir fry until the oil separates from the gravy. Put in the 'asam keping', salt and sugar.
4. Arrange your fish on a serving platter and pour the sauce all over the fish.
5. Serve hot.

By the way, just to let you know that I didn't get a single cent at all from my puffs and rolls. Why? I was just doing my minute share as a member of the society and the best part was, I had fun.