Fish and Veggie

Easy to prepare and just use what you have at home - that's how sometimes I come up with dishes for lunch. Makes me sound pretty laid back. But hey! Cooking has its flexibilities and allows creativity. Long ago, mothers simply 'agak'( estimated)the ingredients when it came to cooking. I believe that there are still many mums doing that. I find it quite cumbersome having to weigh everything just to cook a dish. Of course when it comes to baking, it's totally different. The result of your cakes depends on the exact weight of the ingredients required.

I decided to do a fish, a veggie and of course beef rendang which I froze some when I cooked for CNY(a habit to cook extra and stash some away in the freezer for later use).

Ingredients for the fish dish:

A white pomfret, medium-sized, cut into 3 (can be whole fish)
1 large onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped or minced
1 red and 1 green chilli, sliced
A few slices of lemon (happened to find it in the fridge)
Lemon juice from 1 lemon
3 tablespoons Buah keluak paste*
About 100ml coconut milk (packet)
Salt and sugar to taste
Oil

Method:

1. Marinate fish with some salt and pepper, put aside for half and hour.
2. Pat dry fish and deep fry till crispy. (You can eat the bones of white pomfret when fried to a
crisp)
3. Heat enough oil in a pan and stir fry onion, garlic and buah keluak paste for a minute or so.
4. Add in lemon juice, coconut milk, salt and sugar. If the gravy is too thick, add a little water.
5. Add in the sliced chilli and lemon slices and bring to boil for a few seconds.
6. Pour gravy over the fish and serve immediately if you want the crispiness of the fish.
Otherwise, you can put in the fish at step 5.



Ingredients for Veggie Omelette:

I small bowl of shredded cabbage
Half a carrot, shredded
1 large onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, sliced thinly
Some sliced red chilli
2 eggs, beaten with some salt
Salt to taste
Oil
Water

Method:

1. Stir fry onion and garlic for a while.
2. Add carrot and cabbage and some salt and fry for a minute.
3. Add a little water to fry the veggies.
4. Add the chilli and then the egg.
5. Turn over the omelette once to cook the other side.
6. Serve hot.

You can substitute cabbage with bayam (spinach) or chinese leek.
There you have it, 2 simple dishes for a meal.

As for the buah keluak paste*, I stock up on this whenever I cook Buah keluak for CNY. This dish is a favourite with my daughters and nephew. I only cook it for CNY dinner. That's why I always prepare extra because I can use the paste to cook different types of dishes as in the case of the fish dish. Even though the same paste is used, the taste and flavour can be different.
eg. I can use tamarind water and laksa leaves with some chilli padi to cook a another fish dish or use coconut milk and limau purut leaves (lime leaves) to cook chicken. The options are plenty. Just dare to try and be creative!

This is my version of Buah Keluak paste which I tweaked a little from my Mum-in-law's.

Ingredients: (does not include other ingredients that are not to be ground with)
This amount is good for about one and a half kg of meat.

Spices to be ground:

450g peeled onions
4 cloves garlic
70g sliced galangal (lengkwas)
50g sliced turmeric (kunyit)
2 pieces 6cm long lemon grass (serai), sliced
40g candlenuts (buah keras)
1 piece belachan (4x4x1cm)

I did not grind the chilli together because I can use the paste to cook non-spicy dishes.

Save Time Save Hassle

I mentioned in my previous posting that I usually stock up on spices in the freezer.
Here's how it's done. Be sure to label them.
These red plastic containers have been with me for almost 20 years. They cost only 40 cents each. Each container of spice is enough to cook a dish for about 6 to 8 persons.

Birthdays

My second grandson celebrated his birthday not too long ago. I baked him two cakes - his favourite theme, Sponge Bob and Transformer. The latter was for his kindergarten mates. It was my second attempt at using marshmallow fondant on the cakes. The first was for my third grandson who turned one last November - Mr Men
I came across this recipe and decided to take up the challenge of decorating the cake. I had never done fondant before and I had stopped icing cakes eons ago. So it was like starting all over again, but this time it was something different. Previously my cakes were done with buttercream or fresh cream.
I didn't want to use the ready-to-use fondant as I have read reviews that it tasted terrible. Anyway, the MM fondant is made of marshmallow and icing sugar which makes it more palatable.
I have a few more birthday cakes to think of. Hmmm.......

Green Bean Soup

Ingredients: (Serves 4 persons)

90g green beans, washed and drained
30g barley, washed and drained
about 6 pandan leaves, washed and tied
sugar to taste
a pinch of salt
1.5 litres water

Method:

1. Place beans, barley, pandan leaves, salt and water in a pot.
2. Bring it to a boil for 10 minutes. Do not cover the pot or it will boil over.
3. Then simmer till the beans and barley are soft.
4. Remove the pandan leaves and add sugar to taste. ( Do not add sugar before the beans are soft)
5. If the water level in the pot has deceased and if you prefer more soup, than add some hot
water and bring it to a boil.
6. You can serve it hot or cold.

Hot, hot, hot!

The weather these days has been unbearably and excruciatingly hot! We, all around the world, are to be blamed. Global warming did not just happen naturally. We have a beautiful planet which is now converging on the brink of destruction. It's difficult to pinpoint the culprits who are putting us in this dilemma. Whether it's the MNC worldwide or the man in the street , we are all responsible for this predicament. Don't waste paper! Don't waste food! Don't waste energy! Don't waste water! Don't smoke! Don't burn down forest! Don't emit so much smoke! Don't use air-conditional often! Don't..................I could go on. The list is long. It's a little too late for the governments from various countries to meet and try to come up with solutions. Every country wants to prosper. Production of all sorts increases. Hence the planet suffers. We suffer too! Enough said! Guess the heat got to me!

While we have to put up with this unrelenting hot weather, perhaps we still have time to enjoy a cool drink or a 'cooling' dessert like green bean soup.

Wholesome Fried Rice

Ingredients:

2 bowls of leftover cooked rice
Half a carrot, shredded
2 string beans, sliced thinly
2 pieces of 'bak kwa' cut into strips
1 large white onion or any type of onion, chopped
1 clove garlic chopped or minced
Omelette from 2 eggs, shredded
Oil
Salt, pepper to talste
Sliced red and green chilli (optional)
Fried shallots and parsley for garnishing

Method:

1. Heat oil and stir-fry onion and garlic for a minute.
2. Add in the carrot and string bean and season with some salt and cook for a few minutes.
3. Next, add in the 'bak kwa' and sliced chilli and the rice.
4. Fry for about 5 minutes and then add in the omelette.
5. Fry until all the ingredients are well-mixed, add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Serve garnished with fried shallots and parsley.

One-Dish Meal in a Jiffy

Have you ever gotten up one morning and had this feeling of 'Awww, what to cook today?' Well today I felt that way and so I looked into the fridge and ah hah!....... Fried rice! Digging into the storage compartment, I came up with a carrot, a couple of string beans , 'bak kwa' and a packet of leftover rice from Friday.

I have this habit of preparing a little extra of certain food. eg fried ikan bilis, white bait, dried prawn sambal, nasi lemak sambal and even spices for cooking green curry and other dishes. I store them in air-tight containers in the freezer for the wet spices and others in the fridge. They last for 6 months or more and flavour-wise, they still taste good. They come in handy whenever I have to cook certain dishes and I don't have to peel, slice and grind just to cook for three persons.
My freezer is full of plastic containers of assorted ground spices for green curry, rendang, buah keluak, ayam kunyet and kuah lada.

How do I do it? Pick a 'Mum's not cooking day' a week. Go marketing for all the spices required, enough to get at least three portions and process them and store. Do the same for other recipes and before you know it, you would have three to four types of spices. You can cook the same dish every three weeeks. All you have to do is to buy the meat and veggies.