Prawns in Coconut Milk

This is one of my MIL's recipes. She learnt cooking from her MIL who hailed from one of the Batak tribes in Sumatra. Hence my FIL is a descendant of the Bataks. Hmmm.... interesting!

I used to cook this quite frequently before. I had actually forgotten about it until my hubby's friend gave us some freshwater blue prawns. Some of them were really huge and had very long 'pincers'.

Since freshwater prawns are not as 'sweet-tasting' as saltwater ones, I thought that it would be better cooked in spices. So what better way to cook them was in "Udang masak Lemak" as my MIL would term it!

They sure have long nasty-looking pincers!

Ingredients:

Large prawns, about 10 or more

To be ground together:

14 candlenuts (buah keras)

2 medium-sized onions

5 or more fresh red chilli

4 chilli padi

1 thumb-sized turmeric (kunyit)

1 pce 6cm-lemon grass (serai), sliced

30g belachan

3 medium potatoes, cubed to preferred size

1 litre water

1 fresh coconut milk (obtain 250ml 'first' milk & 1 litre 'second' milk

Oil

2 pces 10-cm lemon grass, bruised

Kaffir lime leaves (optional)

Salt to taste

1. Heat enough oil and saute ground spices bruise lemon grass till fragrant.

2. Add 'second' coconut milk and potatoes. Add salt and cook till potatoes are soft. Remove from pot.

3. Add prawns and 'first' coconut milk and bring to boil until prawns have just curled up nicely.

Turn off heat and serve with rice.

Not so nasty but tasty!

Check out the bulbous head!

Mee Siam

My younger girl has not been coming home for her meals lately. She is a volunteer, helping out in the Youth Olympics. That's why lately, I've been resorting to cooking simple fare for myself and my husband.

Today, I felt like eating mee siam.

I love mee siam, in fact anything that's bee hoon! The danger of my cooking bee hoon is that I don't have limits eating it. Today is one such day! BURP!!

Forty-two years ago, I met a charming Indonesian lady in her late thirties . She was one of my guy friends' aunt. I learned a lot of baking and cooking from her. She was very knowledgeable in the art of cooking and baking including cake decorating with buttercream, royal icing and even gum paste. You could say she was my 'Guru' or 'Sifu' then.

I learnt to cook many Indonesian dishes. The mee siam is one of them. Hers is a wet version with gravy but I did a dry one instead and tweaked it a little.

What I Used:

A

500g bee hoon (vermicelli)(I used the thick ones meant for laksa)

1/2 cup shelled prawns (I omitted this and used sliced fish cake)

B (to be ground)

2 teaspoons belachan

3 cloves garlic

10 dried chillies, soaked to soften

12 small onions

C

50g dried prawns/hae bee/udang kering, soaked and ground

1 and 1/2 tablespoons preserved soya bean paste/tau cheo

2 big onions, sliced

2 handfuls of bean sprouts/tau gay

1 tomato, sliced

Oil

1 tablespoon assam, soaked in 300g water and strained

sugar to taste (I used 2 tablespoon gula melaka syrup)

D (save some for garnishing)

3 pieces tau kwa, fried and cubed

2 eggs, beaten and made into omelette, cut into strips

a bunch of chives, cut into 3-cm lengths

limes

fried shallots

What I Did:

1. Heat oil and fry ground ingredients.

2. Add sliced onions, dried prawns and bean paste and fry for a while.

3. Add fish cake and bee hoon and stir well to mix and then add assam water and simmer to cook.

4. Add bean sprouts, tomato, 1/2 tau kwa, omelette and chives and gula melaka. Stir well and fry for a couple of minutes. Do not overcook bean sprouts or it will be soft and limp. No salt is required as the dried prawns and bean paste are salty enough.

5. Serve, garnish with remaining tau kwa, omelette, chives and fried shallots. Squeeze juice of one lime over mee siam. Yum!

I forgot to buy limes when I went to the market this morning. I had to make do with lemons which I happened to have in the fridge.

Beef Rendang

I learnt to cook this dish from a friend's aunt who was an Indonesian Chinese. In fact I learnt a lot of cooking and baking from her way back in the late 1960s. I shall be reviving her recipes on this blog. Keep a look out for it!

Ingredients:

500g beef, cut into cubes (size is up to you)

A
8 to 10 slices galangal ( 1cm thick ) ( lengkuas)
8 dried chilli or more, soaked to soften
1/2 tablespoon coriander powder (ketumbar)
1/4 teaspoon cumin powder ( jintan putih )
2 stalks lemon grass ( serai ), sliced
2 tablespoons thick tamarind juice ( assam )

Grind all the ingredients together until fine.
Marinate the meat overnight and store in the fridge.

B ( to be ground)
5 slices ginger (1cm thick )
10 small onions
3 cloves garlic

C
1 lemon grass, bruised
1 turmeric leaf ( daun kunyit)
5 Indonesian bay leaves ( daun salam )
2 tamarind skins

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Thick coconut milk from 1 and half coconut ( add 100ml water to squeeze )
Thin coconut milk ( add 500ml water or more )
salt and sugar to taste

1/4 portion of a white coconut ( skin removed and grated )
Stir fry in wok till brown and dry. Grind till fine and put aside.

Method:

1. Put marinated meat, B, C and thin coconut milk in a pot and bring it to boil.
2. Lower heat and simmer for an hour or more, stirring occasionally and checking for water level.
3. Then add half of the thick coconut milk and salt. (Do not add sugar yet)
4. When meat is about done add the remaining coconut milk and cook at medium heat till done.
5. Add sugar to taste and add ground coconut. This helps to thicken the gravy and makes it fragrant.