Mee Siam Berkuah (Bee Hoon with Sauce)

POINT TO PONDER

I made a mistake yesterday. I was angry with someone but then my remark which I upload in one of the social network might have hurt others. However, I consider myself lucky as another friend messaged me with an advice. Reading her message, I quickly posted an apology. After that, I just hid my so-called offensive message.

Thinking back, I should not let others ruin my happiness. If people overacting according to my view, I should simply ignore. Can I actually do this? After much practicing, I suppose I can. It would surely take time before I can get the hold of things.

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 cups of chilli boh
oil
Toufu (cut it into small pieces. Then, deep fry them. The colour should be light brown.)
1 packet of Bee Hoon (You need to soak it in hot water for a few minutes. It will soften but do not let
                                      it be to soft. It should be less then 5 minutes.)
2 1/2 cups of peeled prawns (can replace this with beef as well. You need to boil it first for at least 1
                                            hour. It need to be tender. In fact, you can use the broth to cook as well.
                                            The meat should be cut into small pieces.)
2 cereal bowls of Beansprouts (peel off the ends)
1/2 cup of soya sauce
1/2 cup of oil

1. Heat up the wok.
2. Pour in the oil.
3. Put in the chilli. Fry it until it curdles. You might want to use the broth to keep on frying the chilli
    boh.
4. Put in the prawn or beef.
5. Then, put in the bee hoon, beansprouts, soya sauce and toufu.
6. Mix them well by fanning them (You need to use two ladles in order to do this)

(Sauce)
1 cup of teochu (make sure it is the fine one. If not, you need to pound it.)
3 cloves of fat garlic (slice it thinly)
2 1/2 bowls of water
1 teaspoon of sugar
2 tablespoons of oil

1. Heat up the pot.
2. Put in the garlic. It should become yellowish or until you can smell it.
3. Pour in the teochu.
4. Pour in the water and add in the sugar.
5. Let it boil.

MY THOUGHTS

My eldest son loves it. However, according to my nephew, it is rather too spicy for him.

Vegetable: Pokaras

POINT TO PONDER

A teenager was reported to be taken by spirits while wondering in an abundant villa. Then, a day after, he was said to have accidentally overslept at a friend's house.

I notice that parents nowadays are too understanding until they let their children go wherever and whenever they please. It is no longer like my younger days where parents often controlled the children whereabouts. Some people believe that it is good to give freedom to the children. Only a handful do not share the same view.

A few weeks ago, a teenager was reported to steal two cars. I cannot remember the whole story though. The first car he took was with passengers including a baby. He crashed that car in which the baby is now in coma while the other passengers are injured.

This incident surely proves that too much freedom is not good for children. They just simply do not know their boundaries - what is right and what is wrong. It is the parents vital role to show or guide the children as in how to behave in the society. I know that it is not an easy task as parents too are busy working so as to provide the children with comfortable living. That is why, at times or rather most of the time, we need the community to help us as the community could be the parents' eyes and ears whenever they are not at home. (At the same time, can we really trust the community?)

Children should not be let lose like the cows. It is not necessary for the children to be let lose in the field to graze the grass. If they have to graze the grass, then the parents should monitor or at least set the time when they can go to the field to graze the grass. There should be curfew time in which by ten at night, they should already be in their respective barns. By doing this, parents are teaching time management. Time management is vitally important once the children have grown into adults. Fail to understand the concept, they might not be able to succeed in life.

Personally I believe that it is the parents' responsibility to mould the children to become good citizens. How busy we are, we as parents should make time to have, at least, dinner with them. Family quality time helps with not only one's confident and self-esteem but also understanding of the norm which is culturally accepted and definitely not against the religion .

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup of chick-pea flour
1/4 cup of raising flour
1 teaspoon of garam masala
1/2 teaspoon of chilli powder
a pinch of salt
water (just enough to make a thick batter)
cauliflower (cut it into bite size)
Oil (a lot as you need to deep fry) 

1. Pour in the chick-pea flour, raising flour, garam masala, chilli powder and salt into a bowl.
2. Add in water to make a thick batter. Pour in a little at a time.
3. Put in the cauliflower, Mix in well
4. Deep fry it.

POINT TO PONDER

 It tastes a little bit like seaweed. I like it. My parents seem to enjoy it. I serve it as a side dish to fried noodles.

Beef: Daging Masak Kicap with Curry

POINT TO PONDER

Lately, I have been very lazy. I do not wish to do anything except lying in bed and watch television. I know it is not good but I keep on doing it.

If I listen to myself talking, I would be very embarassed to admit that I will never achieve whatever I have declared to do. The spirit of hardworking seems to have evaporated. I do not seem to have the drive to do anything except laying in bed and watch television. Books do not interest me anymore.

I have been thinking of doing my PhD at the end of 2014. I have this dream of coaching my three sons - making sure their results for 2014 are good enough for boarding schools. Then, with God's will, my husband will try to get them a place. Having the boys in the boarding school and my girls in the universities, I could definitely concentrate on my studies.

That is a wonderful dream, one would say but can it be materialised as the lazy part of me seems to overpowering my goal, my dream. What am I to do? No one could tell me what to do unless I really push myself to do it.

Dear God, please give the Will to study, the Will to help my sons to excel, the Will to make sure my life...every single one of my children succeed in their lives.

INGREDIENTS

1 kg of beef (cut into bite size)
1 teaspoon of tomato paste
3 tablespoon of curry powder
1 teaspoon of pepper
1/2 cup of soya sauce
2 teaspoons of tamarind.
2 carrots
1 large onion (sliced it thinly)
2 cloves of garlic (sliced it thinly)
1 thumb-sized of ginger (pound it)
2 cups of water
1 teaspoon of vinegar
3 tablespoons of oil

1.Mix the beef with tomato paste,  tamarind juice and pepper. Leave it for 30 minutes.
2. Heat the pot and then pour the oil into the pot.
3. Put in onion and garlic. When you can actually smell the garlic, ....
4. Add in the beef.
5. Pour in the water. Leave it until the beef is tender.
6. Then add in the carrot and vinegar.

MY THOUGHTS

This dish is better eaten with salted fish and hot rice. The gravy should be quite thick. Only then, it will taste good.

Chicken Vindaloo

POINT TO PONDER

In his A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE, Tun talks about a particular person who he seemed to admire at first. In fact, he even thought that the person could be the country's effective leader in the future. Due to this, he tend to brush away any negative thoughts or even negative things that people say about this person until the day when he had to study the evidences himself.

I bet Tun was disheartened with the things that he found out. When I first became a head of a particular department, I too experienced the same thing. There was this person who I thought could go very far and, perhaps, one day took over my position. I did my very best to mould this person but the person, one the other hand had her own agenda.

Behind my back, she wanted to start a coup d'état. Cunningly, she made a great effort to influence a few of my staff against me. It was a non-stop movement. During that time, I felt as if someone had put a plastic bag over my head. I could not breathe and, at times, I felt that I would not be able to survive.

Did I feel like giving up? Many times for sure. However, a word of advice, if you are not doing anything wrong and you are always doing things with good intention, you should hang in there. Perseverance is the word. God will definitely help.

She, on the other hand, has long moved away from the state and, the last time I heard, she is having problem with her second husband. God has His own way of teaching his servants. Like a friend of mine used to say, when something bad happen, you should not take action straight away. At times, we need to let it takes place in its own course.

INGREDIENTS

 1 teaspoon of mustard seeds
1 large onion (slice not so thinly)
1 teaspoon of cummin (blend or pound it)
A thumb-sized of ginger (pound it) 
1 cup of chilli boh
1/2 chicken (cut into medium size)
2 tablespoon of vinegar (use the vegetable type)
2 sprigs of curry leaves
1.5 cup of water
1 teaspoon of sugar and salt
5 tablespoon of oil

1. Heat the pot. Then pour in the oil.
2. Put in the mustard seeds. They will crackle.
3. Add in the chilli boh, ginger and cummin. Stir until the mixture starts to curdle.
4. Put in the chicken and onion. 
5. Pour in the water.
6. Add in the sugar and salt
7. Throw in the curry leaves.
8. It takes about 15 to 20 minutes for the chicken to cook.

MY THOUGHTS

I personally love this dish. It is nice to eat with hot rice. You can have it together with Fried Mixed Vegetables.

Cake: Banana

POINT TO PONDER

It makes you proud if your children turn out to be good or even better than yourself. My expectations are of course rather high. I want my children to be not only intelligent but also morally good, well-liked, always remember God and a few other good stuff. (Definitely it is not easy being my children.)

As we were walking at a shopping mall, my second daughter said to me if you had not taught me to throw rubbish properly, life would be easier. In her hand, she was holding crumpled plastic and there was no rubbish bin in sight.

INGREDIENTS

240 gram of Ordinary Flour
90 gram of Butter
90 gram of castor sugar
1 cup of mashed banana
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of soda bicarbonate
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of orange juice
2 tablespoons of milk

1. Using the mixer, mix the sugar and butter until the mixture is really light. ( To test, scoop the mixture. When scooping, if it feels light that means the mixture is ready. The other one is its colour. It should be almost white.)
2. Then add in the eggs. One at a time. (You should break the eggs into a cup first to make sure that the eggs are ok to use.)
3. Sieve in a little bit of the flour.
4. Switch off the mixer. Use just steel spoon.
5. Add in the banana. Scoop it into the mixture or make the number eight. (This way you can make sure that the cake will turn out nice.)
6. Sieve in the flour, baking powder and soda bicarbonate. (Same style of doing it. Scoop or make the number eight.)
7. Pour in the orange juice and milk. Mix it well. (Same style.)
8. Pour the mixture into a container 8 inch x 8 inch which has been coated with margarine or butter.
9. Put the container into the oven which has been preheated at 180 for about 20 to 30 minutes.

MY THOUGHTS

My children love the cake especially when it is hot.

I coated my cake with chocolate and sprinkled some sweets on top.

Sardine with Chilli

POINT TO PONDER

It is our culture that we should shake people's hands when we meet. It is not expected, though, people of different gender to do it to one another.

Recently, people have gone a little bit Arabic. They would put their chicks next to one another - left and right sides - while one hand is holding the other person's hand and the other on the person's arm or back. (It all depends on how close you are.) This is usually practised by the women. Men rarely do this.

Is this an important thing to do? It is more of being polite. Apart from that, you will be seen as a cultured person...the old folks will classify this as good manners.

Children should be reminded to do this. We want people to like our children. If people like our children, they will not hesitate to help our children.

INGREDIENTS

1 tin of sardine
1/2 large onion (slice it thinly)
1 red chilli (slice it thinly)
1 teaspoon of soya sauce
2 teaspoons of tomato sauce
1 teaspoon of lime juice
oil

1. Heat up the pot
2. Pour in the oil. Not too much.
3. Put in the sliced onion and chilli. Fry until they are limb.
4. Pour in the sardine. Leave it for two minutes.
5. Add in the soya sauce, lime juice and tomato sauce.

MY THOUGHTS

While I was cooking it, I did not think that it would turn out to be good. However, eating it with hot boiled rice, I found it really nice.

We had the dish with Rasam.

Chicken Stew

POINT TO PONDER

Everyone wants to be rich, or should I say that everyone wants to be seen as rich. Who would admit that they do not have money? My neighbour? House number less than 20. This family is a different story. The husband and wife are more of parasite. They love to live off other people's effort. I believe they should live in the jungle as they do not know how to consider other people's feelings.

When they first moved in, they seemed to be nice. We often talked and exchanged information but then when the husband opened a workshop with the aid of ALONG, they started to change. (Perhaps due to the pressure of life or perhaps they became a bit smug - thinking that they were already rich.)

Then, the whole family disappeared. The house was left empty for months. Every now and then, someone would come and stay in the house. Then, all of a sudden, the house was totally empty again. It was at that time when my maid told me about people coming over asking about them. At times, one or two would wait outside for their return. It frightened the wits of my maid. That was when we were told that ALONG was chasing after them. (I do not really understand how ALONG works. Are they the same as bank? But many people say that their rulings are worst than the bank system.)

Just like the way she disappeared with her family, she turned up again all of a sudden. Initially, it was just her and her friends. Praying by burning papers in front of the house - huge pile of papers being burnt. (It pissed me off as the burnt papers filled up my porch and, if we are unlucky, they would land on wet surface thus we had to wash the whole porch as there were black patches every where.)

One night, she came to my house explaining her situation. (Somehow or other she seemed to know that everyone knew her situation.) And she also announced that she had divorced the husband. She claimed that she did not want the husband to even see the children. She believed that ALONG did not know how they look like.

The biggest mistake that people make when they are in a big shit was to lie. It was not even two months when the neighbourhood realized that she was telling fibs. The great liar was pregnant and her tummy was really showing. She could even tell my other neighbour's maid that she wished that she would give birth to a girl. After a while, we saw the husband coming and going from the house.

Now, why do I call her parasite? The whole neighbourhood had to contribute RM400 so as to turn our area into a gated area. Our area used to be infested with all sorts of crime. She refused. When the committee approached her, she shouted at the top of her lung that she did not have the money. No money my head....some of my friends would say.

I remembered when my father was admitted in a private hospital and the bill had come up to RM 15 000. Both my sister and brother were not around and so the clerk had to approach me - me who really do not have much money to spare. I suppose just by looking at my face, the clerk could tell my financial situation. She told me of another person's situation and then asked me whether I could pay. With a pathetic look (I guess), I said we would find it difficult. So she suggested that we paid in installment. (What a relief!) After all the haggling made by me, my siblings paid the bill in cash. Ah! Rich people.

The moral of the story is that one does not have to shout and scream. One can always discuss if one finds oneself in a fixed financial situation. There is always a way out.

INGREDIENTS
A cereal bowl of chicken (bite-sized) - marinate it with the corn flour and pepper.
1 teaspoon of corn flour
1 carrot (cut it into small logs)
1 celery ( cut it about 5mm)
1 tin of button mushroom (cut them into four)
1 large onion (cut it into cubes)
butter (about four tablespoons)
pepper
salt
3 litre water
spring onion

1. Heat up the pot.
2. Put in the butter. Once melted, fry the chicken. When the chicken is slightly brown on both sides, take them out.
3. Put in the onions. Fry them until limb.
4. Add in the chicken, carrot, celery and mushroom.
5. Pour in the water.
6. Add in salt and pepper. If you want a thicker soup, you may want to add another teaspoon of cornflour.
7. Before serving, sprinkle some cut spring onions.

MY THOUGHTS

I have made this before but it tasted much better than yesterday. Anyway, I prefer this dish to be creamier. To get this taste, you need to use a little bit more butter but not too much or else it will become too oily.