demam nak pandai..

Ahad malam Isnin, Cik Mat ni menyelinap masuk bilik kami, join sekaki tido. Bukan sekaki je, setangan, sebadan, sekepala.. sampai Abahnya give up tido kat tilam kecik tepi katil. Rupanya Cik Mat ni demam. Tapi tido tetap membuas. Bangun pagi ceria.. all chirpy and cheeky. Mak nya tengah siap sedia nak mandi pun dia suruh keluar sebab dia ada urusan kat toilet that could not wait.

Fine. Kasi chan la kan.

Tak sampai tengahari, sms diterima dari taska. Badan Cik Mat ni panas.. tak kebah-kebah walau dah bagi ubat. Maka tengahari tu baliklah kami ambik dia bawak pegi klinik. Sepanjang kat klinik gitulah muka dia. Tanya soalan satupun tak nak jawab. Offer apa-apa pun semua takde respon. Ofkos la tak offer dia Lego Starwars idaman dia yang berharga RM300++ tu kan.

Balik rumah dia nak tengok muvi Turbo. Habis muvi nak makan nasi dengan sup. Syukur ada periuk Noxxa ni. Pressure cooker yang sangat membantu time sesak-sesak macam ni. Saya tak jual.. sila cari agen Amway ya. Cik Mat ni memang suka tolong Ummi masak. Masa tu macam dah kebah sikit. Dialah yang paling sebok menumis bagai. Halfway through masak, demam balik.. terus tertido. Bangun makan, cuma 5-6 sudu je. Yang tak demam berpinggan-pinggan makan nasi.

Esoknya nampak segar. Cakap pun dah banyak sampai tak terlayan cerita ceriti dia. Dan pentingnya - dia tunjuk skill membaca :D Adoi nakk.. sukanya Ummi. Selalunya kalau Ummi ajak dia baca buku (saja nak test skill dia), dia cakap dia tak tau. Tak reti.

My fren cakap, macam baby.. nak pandai buat something, demam dulu.

Alhamdulillah Allah permudahkan. A very different story dengan Iman. Alhamdulillah Allah bagi peluang kami merasa kedua-dua keadaan. Dengan Iman, walaupun lebih mencabar, terlalu banyak life lesson yang kami belajar, yang tak tertulis di kertas.

recipe: cream cheese buns (plus some horrifying looking sausage rolls!)

Me, the oven and the kitchen mixer... we're so involved..

Who would've thought those appliances can give so much excitement?

The kitchen-mixer Tebby got me, it is ultra sturdy. It is heavy. And it is handsome too. And it kneads as well as beats and mixes. Owh yeahhh! 

Maka timbul lah semangat me-roti. Tanpa perlu mengeluarkan muscle umpama Popeye selama 10-15 minit. My first two attempts were based on recipe Khaliah Nahal Soft and Sweet Buns from Sadaf Culinary Adventure.  

First trial - The taste was right but the texture was so-so. There was nothing wrong with the recipe me think... it's just that I should've left the dough to proof for longer time. Tak sabor punya pasal...

Second trial - alhamdulillah, the taste and texture was just right (at least to me). I left the dough to proof longer time and I did that twice.

But simple me always try to find simplest recipe :D Hence, my third attempt was based on recipe Roti Manis written here. She shares nice simple recipes and she has beautiful photos too :-)

16 buns in 9x9 baking pan. Each is made from approximately 60gm dough. Iya, saya timbang setiap sebiji. Sebaik saja siap bakar, terus glaze with melted margarine (or butter, ikut kesukaan masing-masing).

The inside. Actually ada inti cream cheese.. tapi cubitan si Iman tak sampai ke inti nya lagi.. Gebu kan.. ai loike..

I also made sausage-rolls, Adam's favorite. A little burnt here.. but that's nothing new la by my standard he he.

400gm tepung roti

1 sudu teh bread-improver

1 sudu teh bread-softener

3 sudu besar susu tepung

2 sudu teh yis segera

3-4 sudu besar gula

1 sudu teh garam

2-3 sudu besar marjerin (boleh guna butter juga)

180 ml susu suam (mine is susu segar from fridge, microwaved for 1 minutes)

1 egg (takde dalam gambar)

Put all ingredients in mixer then knead for 10-15 minutes. Dough should not stick to the bowl. If it does, letak tepung sikit demi sikit. Letak doh in a lightly oil-ed bowl, covered and letak kat tempat yang panas. Not hot.. tapi warm. Some suggest letak dalam oven (mode-off).I put mine on my water dispenser. That machine dispenses air at room-temp as well as 90d hot so memang body nya agak hangat. After about 45-60 minutes, saiznya more than double already.

*tangan Adam* Tumbuk-tumbuk doh untuk keluarkan angin then bulat-bulatkan into small balls of 60gm each. I have tried doing it 40gm each, memang hasilnya comel tapi renyah nak masukkan inti.

Intinya..

120gm cream cheese (I used Tatura)

2 sudu teh gula pasir

Gaulkan keduanya sampai sebati. It is best to soften the cream cheese first, baru senang nak gaulkan. Nak masukkan inti tu,.. sama macam nak buat kuih pau. Leperkan dough then bubuh inti. Pastu tutup. Golek-golekkan supaya jadi bulat.

Proof for another 45 minutes at least or until saiz dah double. Glaze with melted margarine. Bake in 160d oven, api atas bawah, fan assisted for 10-15 minutes.

For that amount of tepung, I got 16 buns and some horrifying looking sausage rolls as below :P Dough dah tak cukup tapi gigih nak buat banyak-banyak. I stretched them wayyy too long sampai pecah-pecah once they are proofed enough hu hu. I think for that 400gms flour dough, ample for 16 buns and 5 sausage rolls (good looking ones, not pecah terbarai like I did kat bawah ni) Each 60gm.

I made berry-rolls using the same dough a week after and they turned out, alhamdulillah well. I guess I'll just stick to this recipe for now.

easy peasy roast chicken legs

Confession - before I finally get to this, I have gone through burnt, dry, tasteless series of roast chicken. Lucky thing that we have a bunch of anak-anak bulu living semi-permanently with us, taking shelter under our porch, and another bunch of roaming around in the back alley :D

My advise, worry not too much of limited cooking skills. It can be learned and the best way is through trying and trying. To me, that's the best way of knowing how much is too much, how little is too little and how enough is enough.

Seen here on a bed of lettuce, roasted with potatoes, carrots and tomatoes. Big plate bought at KK Home Deco.

I normally use chicken legs, trim away the fat but keep the skin on. You can use any other parts of your liking.

Here's the marinade.
1. Oyster sauce
2. Dark soy sauce
3. Honey.
4. Garlic powder
5. Black pepper - coarse grind
6. Salt
7. Olive oil

How much of everything, is up to you. When you're done mixing, have a lick he he.

Lightly oil roasting pan. Arrange chicken nicely and brush some marinade. Seen here with potatoes, tomatoes and carrots. Broccoli and mushroom can also be used. I am allergic to broccoli and I didn't have mushroom, I just made do with whatever-there-is in the fridge :D

Roast at 160d, middle shelf, fan assisted for 30-45 minutes. But always remember different oven behaves differently. Yours may need different setting but mine works fine at 160d fan assisted and 180d with no fan. Halfway through, take it out, flip over and pour a little marinade. Then continue roasting.

You can marinate ahead. I normally marinate mine on Sunday so we can have roast chicken during weekdays but almost every time I ended up roasting on Monday night, much earlier than planned. 

Note of caution - always freeze these babies if you don't intend to bake within 12 hours.

I don't mean to brag but here's what Adam thinks of my roast chicken..

jemari hijau - first edition

Semangat Jemari Hijau dah menjelma semula :-) 

Kalau dulu laman sekangkang kera, now we have no laman anymore. Porch is fully tiled. Luckily, opposite rumah ada pavement, raised and tarred, about 1.5m wide. So that's my kebun now - approximately 1.5m wide x 6.7m long. Actually, my kebun tumpang. Since that area is tarred, my best option is to plant in pasu. Well, at least there is an option kan. 

Bought a lime tree 16 September 2013. Nak kata pokok besar, bukan. Nak kata anak pokok, pun bukan, it was about a little more than 1 m (I think) tall already. Beli pasu besar for RM25 and 6 packs of soil for RM1.50 each. Armed with my gardening tools and a little helper, Adam, we moved the tree from poly-bag into the pasu.

Photo taken on 23rd September. After a week.

4th October 2013 - berbunga!

About a week later... dah nampak putik. Excited!

16th October 2013. Dah nampak rupa bentuk bebuahan limau nipis.

Ada 3 bunches of bebuahan. Hope these will survive until harvest.

This one, solo.

And last weekend, me and my little helper (he's like a tail to me, di mana ada Ummi, di situ ada Adam), tried our hands at planting potatoes. I did this once long ago, all I got was the batang and daun only. Bila cabut, ada akar je.. takde ubi.

Since I have few potatoes kat dapur yang start turning to look like aliens with anak-anak ubi started growing from the induk, why not try again kan.

The big one is a russet if I am not mistaken. A very wrinkled one that is! Good for making mashed-potato but my mashed-potato project did not take off at all. For roasting and soup, I prefer the small ones like the one on the right. It has a more yellowish flesh inside. Russet is paler.

Buried these babies at approximately  4-6 inches deep. Hope to see the sprouts in a week or two. And I hope those budak-budak bulu tak memerut dalam ni. Like they did in my pasu pegaga. 

light-n-easy Nasi Daging

Nasi Daging went well. Made it for dinner last night. Even the strictest QA officer (mok) makan bertambah :D

Resepi asal disalin dari mamafami's fotopages. Yup, those were the days! Entry resepi tu dated way back in 2006! 

We've (me and Tebby) been doing it for years now and only recently we got the right consistency, taste and whatnots that suit our taste buds. The original recipe resulted in very rich taste. We omit ghee, tomato puree and raisins altogether. We lessen the evaporated milk and kurma powder paste. And instead of just beef, we use beef ribs (in addition to beef, btw) and we added garlic to broth. And we added salsa as accompaniment for that extra zest!

There's 3 items in the menu, involving 4 major steps: -
1. The broth
2. The salsa
3. The rice
4. The soup

1. The Broth
Since the rice will be cooked using beef broth, this is the first thing we need to prepare.
Ingredients: -
- 2 ribs - cut into small pieces, request your butcher or the pasar-man to do it unless you have a chainsaw at home :-)
- 1/2 kg lean beef - cut into big dices.
- 3-4 inches ginger - slice. I did mine with skin on.
- 1 bulb garlic - cut the top exposing flesh, skin on.


1. Boil until tender. I use a pressure cooker for 50 minutes.
2. Separate liquid from beef and ribs.We will not be needing the ginger and garlic btw.


2. The Salsa

Ingredients: -
- 4-5 tomatoes - cut into 8, deseed
- 1-2 cucumber - cut into pieces, deseed
- 1/2 onion
- 6 red chillies - to keep or to get rid of the seed it is up to your level of tolerance of pedas
- a bunch of coriander leaves (some may not like it - be warned)
- juice from a lemon
- salt and sugar to taste

Blend everything and keep in your fridge until your meal time :D

3. The Rice
Ingredients
- Rempah 4 sekawan i.e. cinnamon stick, cardamom, star anise, clove. I use just a little bit of everything coz my little nucleus family doesn't like anything with that strong spice-y taste.
- 4 garlic - slice thinly
- 5-6 shallots - slice thinly
- 1 inch ginger - cut into matchsticks
- 2 tbsp kurma - add with some water to form paste
- 1/4 cup evaporated milk
- 6 cups of basmathi rice (wash and soak for about 20 minutes)
- beef broth - quantity depends of the type of rice, even the brand that goes with it!
- a bunch of coriander leaves - cut off the root, keep the rest intact.
- 2-3 tbsp cooking oil
- salt to taste

1. Heat oil in rice cooker. I use a multifunctional pressure cooker - stir-fry setting.
2. Fry rempah 4 sekawan until aromatic.
3. Add ginger, garlic and shallot. Continue frying until garlic and shallot a little burnt.
4. Add a bit of beef broth.
5. Add kurma paste. Careful not to overdo it. Kalau hangit, memang tak sedap nasi nanti.
6. Add beef broth.
7. Add salt. Let is boil for while.
8. Add 1/2 portion of beef and ribs.
9. Add rice.
10. Add the rest of beef and ribs.
11. Put coriander leaves on top.
12. Cook until broth dries up and rice tender.

I use high-pressure setting for 15 minutes. It's a little tricky when I used the normal cooking pot coz it snapped to keep warm setting far too soon.

4. The Soup
- bring broth to a boil
- add fried shallot
- garnish with celery and spring onion

Let's!

have a blessed and joyful Eidul Adha

Eldest brother sms-ed me this morning. Tanya balik raya haji bila. Sabtu, tapi petang, I sms-ed back. 

Eldest brother sms-ed again (despite me reminding him to install whatsapp.. haihh). Mok tak daya nok masok, sakit badan. Awok masok, pikirlah nok masok mender.

What?

Cooking and me, we have just started getting to know each other better. I struggled in the kitchen department, I still do.

I'd better dish out something I am very familiar with. Nasi Daging will do. I've been doing it for years and only recently that I managed to get the right consistency and flavor that pleases taste buds. At least ours.

 

Have a blessed and joyful Eidul Adha next week :D
I will update on the Nasi Daging success (or failure!)

sausage rolls - revisited

Come meet my new love - a tough, good looking Artisan Kitchen Aid Mixer. We're still in the midst of getting to know each other but lets just say I can already feel the chemistry between us and this is going to be a long lasting relationship.

Tebby got me this for my 39th Birthday. I told him I wanted this and he agreed (almost) right there and then. He picked this flaming, sexy empire red color and made the order. We went through the hassle at the customs together and finally this week, I managed to get hand in hand with this baby - kneading dough for bread! ... baru beli power transformer sebenarnya :D

I was thinking to wait until the weekend coz it is time consuming to do bread with the double proofing and all. The anticipation was too much that I gave in last night he he. I revisited my Sausage Roll (my hangit, keras kejung Sausage Roll experiment, read here)

The original recipe here. I opted for this one coz it involves only one proofing (dah la tak reti buat roti tapi nak mendiva tak nak buat proofing two times like suggested by most recipes huh)

In a bowl, mix..
2 cups flour 

(I used multipurpose flour)
11 gms dried yeast which is equivalent to .38 ounces 

(original recipe says .25 ounce which is 7 gms - mendiva lagi sekali tak ikut arahan.. sepeket mauripan tu 11 gms so tuang aje semua)
2 tbsp sugar

1.5 tsp salt

In a pan, mix and heat up..

60 gms butter

1 cup milk

1/2 cup water

You may want to do this first coz it needs to cool down a bit but keep it warm. Kang mati pulak yeast kalau panas-panas sangat, tak naik roti. Kalau sejuk sangat lambat nak naik coz aktiviti yeast is better when it is warm. Ni soalan pass-years UPSR selalu keluar pasal yeast ni

Add butter mixture to flour mixture and give it some kneading.
Add an egg.

And add bit by bit 2 - 2 1/2 cups of flour.
(so in total we use 4 - 4 1/2 cup flour, get it?)
I let it kneaded for 5 minutes only. Should extend to 8-10 minutes for softer bread. It will 'collect' the flour and slowly turns into a beautiful dough until it doesn't stick to the bowl.

Then work your dough on a slightly floured surface. I divided mine into several mini balls. Rolled each ball into thin strip and wrapped sausage with it. I have extra mini balls (not enough sausage) that we made into mini raisin buns. I used we coz the boys came to help and I had so much fun that I had totally forgotten to snap any pictures -__-

Proof for 30 minutes (recipe says wait until 30 minutes or until it doubles in size). Just before baking, I brushed these babies with fresh milk. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 160d, fan assisted, top and bottom heat. 

A tad bit too dull looking huh. My friends cakap brush with melted butter for that shiny sexy finishing. Some said before baking, some said right after baking. Perhaps I should do both next time he he for that extra shiny, extra sexy finishing...

The output... tadaaaa! Alhamdulillah, soft and most importantly, very,.. very,.. very edible.Wayyy better than my first trial and still lots to improve.

a sofa.. finally!

Months after moving into our renovated house and months of contemplating, (and after visits to few kedai perabot), we finally bought a sofa for our living area.


I think everything about it is just right for that area. Simple lines, clean cut frame with dull grey (my kind of palette) cushions. A 3-seater from Rattan Deco. Like most other furniture shops, you can choose the frame and color to go with it and you can also pick the kind of fabric and color. Placed our order at its Plaza Ampang City's showroom and 2 weeks later it was sent to our home (and received with much love!)

Bought some throw cushions from Jusco. 5 to be exact! Excuse the wall behind. We were in the midst of fixing the cracks at that time. In photo above, that was actually just a tiny-miny-minor portion of it.

Have a look below...

*faint*

That was exactly how our living area looked like when groups of family members came for Eid!