Burung Puyuh: Fried

Fish Cencaru Sumbat

POINT TO PONDER

I went to a local supermarket the other day. I don't usually make the habit of buying things from local supermarket as I don't quite like the way they present the products. However, on that unforgettable day, I stopped at this particular supermarket as I wanted to buy drinks for my students of 18.

        The supermarket is not big at all. It is only three shop lots being turned into a supermarket. Still, the first few minutes, I went bonkers looking for the thing that I wanted especially as I was not used to the layout.

         When I finally found it, I scanned for the price. The drinks were arranged on the shelves. All three tiers were filled with different types of drink. Initially, I wanted to buy Drinho but, then when I saw the price, I decided to change to Milo. There was only one price label displayed. The price was typed in a huge number. The next big sized thing on the label was the name of the supermarket. As that was the only available label, I thought that all the drinks were at the same price - and that somewhat encouraged me to take Milo.

            But, when I went to the counter, they charged me more than I expected. Should I just pay, I thought to myself. Why must I? So I asked. The lady said that, the price that I quoted was meant for Drinho only and not for Milo. Again I asked, how could that be as the label did not indicate that. I called her to the shelf. She pointed out the small printing. True enough the word Drinho was there...but then again where was the label for Milo? Of course, typical cashier lady, she mocked me.

             One thing about this small supermarket, they love to trap their customers. So, be warned everyone of their traps. (Ever since Tanda Putra, I started to view people differently.)

INGREDIENT

6 medium-sized cencaru (Some local call them as 'Ikan Jaket' due to the thickness of their scale.
                                         Clean the fish and slit the upper part so that you can put in the sambal.)
2 cups of chilli
1 thumb-sized belacan
1 teaspoon of coriander
1 teaspoon of jintan manis
1 thumb-sized of galangal (grind coriander, jintan manis and galangal.)
2 lemon grass (pound them)
1 thumb-sized ginger (pound it)
2 1/2 thumb-sized tamarind pulp (you are to extract the juice using plain water.)
1/2 cup of plain water
salt
sugar
oil

1. Heat the wok.
2. Pour in the oil and, once it is hot, pour in the chilli and belacan. The belacan should be sprinkled.
    Let it fry until the chilli curdles.
3. Add in the coriander, jintan manis, galangal, ginger and lemon grass.
4. Leave it for five minutes and then pour in the tamarind juice.
5. Add in sugar and salt. Let it simmer for a while. Turn off the bunner when the sauce appears paste
    like.
6. Spoon the paste into each fish. Then wrap up the fish using aluminium foil. Grill the fish.
7. Leave for 15 to 20 minutes.

MY THOUGHTS

The fish can be eaten with boiled rice. It is best served with sayur berair as the fish is rather dry.

Fried Kway Teow

POINT TO PONDER

On my table, there is a photo of all my children. They have all grown up. My girls are at the tertiary level. My twins are in the secondary school while the youngest is in standard five. But I still put their baby picture on my table.

            Personally, I did not feel that I was a good mother when they were young. I was very strict, got to admit that. Things must be done accordingly and I would go berserk if it went otherwise. (but that does not mean I love them less.) My voice...even thunderstorm cannot beat my ability to increase the volume. I remembered my neighbour's mocking me when I came over one day. (The mother was of course embarrassed. Still, I bet the mother did the same thing behind my back.)

           My first ten years of marriage was not an easy one. Not easy because of my expectation in life. I wanted to give my children a lot of things and, to be able to do that, I had to take a lot of part-time job. My priority was, of course, my full-time job but still I would give my whole body and soul for all my jobs - may it be part-time or full-time. Thus, time was rather limited. There was at one time, apart from my full-time job, I had three different part-time jobs.

           When I say 'time was limited', it was really limited. The first eight years, I was without a maid. I would send my children over to a neighbour's house. So, you could just imagine how busy I was once at home. I had to cook, clean the house, wash the clothes, fold the clothes etc etc etc. The house chores did not seize - even weekends. (My husband did give me a helping hand. He too was as busy as I was.)

           To make the matter worse, all my jobs required me to teach. Teaching means that you need to have lesson plans, prepare teaching materials, set test questions and marking assessment as well as exercises. (Looking back, I don't understand why I put myself in such a stressful life as life is short.)

          It is true that money was not a problem for me then. I could buy expensive clothes for my children and we could even go for holidays. The only thing that I could not buy was quality time spent with my children.

          Now, I only have one part-time job. Sometime, other places would call me but, if my children need me, I have no choice but to turn down the offer. Only now I realize that being with my children and husband is very important. I rarely spend long hours in the office even. Instead, I would plan my work so that I would not become so stressful. (Beside the fact that I have a maid to help me with the housework.)

          My maid will be leaving us next year. How will I cope after that?

INGREDIENT

1kg Kway Teow (soak in hot water for a few minutes)
4 medium-sized cuttlefish (cut them to bite-sized)
2 cups of prawn (peel off the outer layer leaving the tail)
1 fish cake (slice it not so thinly.)
3 cups of chicken (just the flesh)
6 cups of beansprouts (peel off the so-called tail. If you have a lot of beansprouts, it will taste better.)
3 toufu (cut them into small cubes and fry them.)
spring onion (for garnishing)
salt
1 cup of chilli
2 cloves of garlic (pound them)
white peper
soya sauce
oil

1. Heat the wok.
2. Pour the oil. The amount should not exceed the amount of the chilli.
3. Add in the chilli and garlic. Fry until the chilli curdles.
4. Add in the chicken. Let it cook a bit before putting in the prawn and fish cake. Lastly, put in the cuttlefish.
5. Add in the Kway Teow, beansprouts, fried toufu,  white pepper and soya sauce. (Make sure that it is not too black. So do not put a lot the first time. Add more if you need the colour. You have to JUST get rid of the red colour. That should mean you have enough of soya sauce.) Mix them well. The burner should be on low.
6. garnish with spring onion and omelette.

MY THOUGHTS

I love to have the Fried Kway Teow with pickled green chilli. It just tastes great.

Fried Kway Teow is my second son's favourite.

FISH LEMON BAKED

POINT TO PONDER

Yesterday, I received a whatsapp from a former student. I am not sure whether the term suits him as he is actually postponing his studies due to his condition. He met with an accident last year and thus he becomes an invalid. The family seems to believe that he will go back to normal. (I suppose any parents would have the same thoughts.)

          In his whatsapp, he told me about the insurance money. He wanted me to advice him. Unfortunately, my knowledge on that matter is pretty slim. So, I asked him to contact two other personnel as they would be able to explain to him better.

          Before we ended our conversation, he apologized for disturbing me. (He is a very polite person.) Of course, I told him that he was not disturbing me at all. It was a pleasure helping him (in any way I can). Personally, I believe in the Malay proverb that goes like below:

                       "Segan bertanya, sesat jalan"

Basically, it means that if we do not know something, we should ask. If we do not ask, we will never know.

         Recently, my eldest daughter received a letter saying that she was to study at a place which I vowed not to send my children. To make the matter worse, the course given to her did not sound good at all. From the day we received the letter, both of us just could not sleep. Not knowing what else to do, we prayed to God - seeking for his guidance.

         It was two weeks before Eid that I felt the urge to make a few phone calls. The first call I made was to the godforsaken place. I did not know who to call so I browsed its website and found a name that I believed would treat me nicely. (Thank God, the person did  treat me nicely.) I  talked to the person and seeked her advice. Unfortunately, she was not of the field that I was referring to. So, she gave me another number to call and I did. I tried a few times but there was no answer. Nonetheless, while walking towards my class, he returned my call. (How nice!)

          From the man, I found out that the course definitely did not suit my daughter and he advised me to go private. He said that sometime we need to pay a little bit for us to get what we want. However, money seems to be a real problem for me.

          So, after the phone call, I became more upset. Then, I called one good friend of mine - seeking her advice. She scolded me instead for not allowing my daughter to have a lot of options earlier. Feeling really sad, I told her that I did not have the motherhood manual. Thus, mistakes were bound to be with me. I suppose after that she pitied me. She advised me to meet some people. "Do not just call. Go and meet them. Let them see your daughter."

        That exactly what we did. It was surely embarrassing because we appeared to be like beggars. I called the HEAD and requested for an appointment. She replied almost immediately and invited us over. Both my husband and my daughter went up to talk to her. She told my daughter precisely what to do - in which they forgot to give me the detail.

        It was the week that students started to register that I received a call from my good friend. She urged me to appeal and talk to the HEAD again. Our plan to go for the March intake was not a good idea, she said. So, I quickly drafted the letter and emailed it to the HEAD. The faculty approved our appeal but the STUDENTS DEPARTMENT did not. My daughter called and pleaded her case. They looked into it again and, in a matter of hours, my daughter was asked to register.

        The moral of the story is that NEVER EVER feel shy to ask. Some people without doubt are like lioness but what could be the worst thing they could do to us? They would shout or scold us but we will still be alive. The shouting and scolding are nothing. Perhaps, they just do not know how to say things nicely. So, we should pity them instead.

        Most important of all, we should PRAY TO GOD. Only God can really help us. I believe it was God wonderful work that make those people wanting to help me and my daughter. God is great.

INGREDIENT

2 Whitting fish / Senangin (clean the fish with tamarind juice. Then coat it with salt. Not too much though)
1 yellow capsicum
1 red capsicum
1 onion
2 stalked of celery
2 thumb-sized ginger
(slice them not so thinly)
2 cloves of garlic (slice it thinly)
8 Small chilli (just crushed them)
coriander leaves (for garnishing)

1. You need a baking dish. Arrange the vegetables first.
2. Place the fish.
3. Cover the dish with aluminium foil.
4. Put it in the over. If you are using the kind of oven I have, it would be (a) traditional baking (b)200.
5. Leave it for 35 minutes.
6. Eat it while it is hot.
7. You can serve it with white rice or bread with butter.

MY THOUGHTS

My husband does not quite like it as it is not that spicy. He loves everything to be chilli hot. The hotter the better but if the temperature is hot, he will complain.

My sons do not seem to mine. I suppose as long as I do not serve rice, they are alright. Nowadays, we hardly have boiled rice for dinner. So far, we feel lighter even though we still look chubby.

PRAWN WITH BROCCOLI

POINT TO PONDER

People usually say that when you die, you die alone. (Unless there is a massacre, you will definitely die with a few other people.) So, we should not feel sad if there is no one for you that can be considered as a good friend.

        However, the sadness is still felt when during lunch time, for example, no one would go up to you and ask you out. (I am referring to the situation at the office. If it is at home, we would usually cook on our own or call for food to be sent over.) It hurts to know that you do not exist in anyone's mind. You feel as if a knife has just been pierced into your heart.

        Now the question is, it is necessary for us to lament over it. If people do not like us, there is no way we could force them to like us. We could, on the other hand, do something to win their hearts - if we really want to. Then again, we need to really think about our action. Will it be worth it? Or will we still be at the losing end? There are, of course, a few questions need to be answered.

        There is nothing wrong eating alone. There is absolutely nothing wrong. We will not appear stupid. We will still look good. In fact, we will have our own time in which we can use it to think about LIFE. The time can be used to relax our minds - keeping us calm and contented.


        But then, there are the other people who are looking at us - thinking that we are the anti-social kind or the ones that are despised by others. The look that people gave or even the remarks given make us cringe or feel embarrassed. NOBODY WANTS YOU!!!!!

         Should that really bother us? It will but learn to ignore it. We need to remember this...not everyone will be running to help us when we are really in need of help. Not everyone will cry their heart out if anything bad has be fallen upon us. Not everyone will mop if we die. So the moral of the story is, we should learn to enjoy doing things alone. It does not matter as God will always be with. (That is why it is vitally important to believe in God.)

          We should also remember ONE more thing. There are always some people who like, love us and they are none other than our own families - our parents, our siblings, our husbands, our wives and our children. We need to take good care of these people's feelings. We should treasure them and never ever take them for granted.

INGREDIENTS

3 cups of prawns (peel off the skin, leaving the tail)
1 medium-sized broccoli (cut it into bite-sized)
2 cloves of garlic (slice thinly)
2 teaspoons of chilli boh
1 cup of tomato sauce
a handful of basil / daun selasih (cut it finely)
salt
4 tablespoons of olive oil

1. Once the pan has been heated up, pour in the olive oil.
2. Add in the garlic and chilli boh. Fry them a bit until you get the fragrant.
3. Add in the prawns and a little bit of salt. Once the prawns turn pink, place them onto a plate.
4. Add a little bit more olive oil. Once it is heated, pour in the broccoli and the tomato sauce. Cover the pan and wait for the broccoli to cook. (It does not take long. It is only just about three minutes.)
5. Pour in the cooked prawns and mix them well.
6. Serve them on a dish and garnish with basil.

MY THOUGHTS

I left the broccoli a bit too long as I was busy preparing for another dish and because of that, it looked really bad.

My sons love this dish and so do my hubby and I. I got the recipe from a book on diabetic.

LAKSA JOHOR

POINT TO PONDER

Being a mother is not an easy thing. If possible, you would like to give the best to the children. THE BEST!!! But sometimes, due to money, due to lack of connection, due to not having so much power in this world....there is nothing much you could do except pray to God.

I confided in a friend about my decision. She retorted by saying why I did not do this and that....If only there was a manual for mothers in which I could follow step by step, everything would be very easy. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a manual but there is instinct.

At times, your mother's instinct tells you something is not right. Then, you should investigate or do something about it. You should never push it aside.The instinct is God's way of telling you to take action and make sure things will turn alright.

Still, dear mothers, the way you investigate or the action you take should be based on 'research'. You should ask around. You should seek other people's opinions - people with knowledge. People who a lot of other people would consider wise.

Alas! Being a good mother is not easy but at least we can be sure that our children, our families are okey, safe, happy.

INGREDIENTS

One Herring (Ikan Parang) - about half a metre long
1 kg of fresh prawn
1/2kg of dried prawn
Boil the above in a big pot. The broth is needed to make the LAKSA gravy. Once they are cooked, you are to do the following:
- the Herring, you are to separate the flesh from the bones.
- the fresh prawn, peel off the outer part of the fresh prawn.
- blend the fish flesh, fresh and dried prawn.
- blend the prawn peels and then squeeze out the juice. You may want to use the sieve to do this.

One big packet of special LAKSA JOHOR spice

Itemsto be blend:
A palm-sized Galangal  
A palm-sized Ginger
Two big onions
5 cloves of garlic
Five lemon grass

4 cups of Kerisik (Roasted grated-coconut)
5 cups of thick cream coconut
10 tamarind peels (asam keping)
3 tablespoons of salt
1/4 belacan (shrimp paste)
2 cups of chilli boh
4 cups of cooking oil

Spaghetti (fettucini is the best.) 

for garnishing
Cucumber (there is a special Johorean way of cutting it.)
Onion (slice it thinly)
Chepo
beansprout (peel off the 'root')
Daun Selasih (need to slice them)
Daun Ketumbar (need to slice them)
Calamansi  (Limau Kasturi - slice each one into half)
Sambal belacan (this is made out of belacan and chilli)
1. Heat up the pot. The pot must be big. It should be able to contain 10 litres of water.
2. Then, pour in the cooking oil.
3. When the cooking oil has heated up, pour in the spice which has been made into a paste together with the blended items, chilli boh and belacan. Stir it well.
4. When you see oil surfacing, add in the fish-prawn broth.
5. Then add in the kerisik, cream coconut, blended herring and prawn, salt and assam keping.
6. Leave the mixture for at least one hour. Stir it once in a while.

MY THOUGHTS

Apparently, there are many ways of garnishing LAKSA JOHOR. However, as expected, I love my family way. I seem to believe that some people have got it wrong.

Some people I notice, even Chef Wan, use long beans in their garnishing in which they slice them not so thinly. LAKSA TERENGGANU uses long beans. Long beans, to me personally, spoil the taste of the gravy. It does not compliment.

There are also a few who serve bunga kantan with their LAKSA JOHOR. Bunga Kantan, to me, is meant for LAKSA PENANG.

At the end of the day, people eat what they like. Why should we argue as long as they are happy and do not disturb our lives?

Mee Siam Singapore

POINT TO PONDER

After sahur, I went to sleep. It was then that I had this weird dream. I dreamt that I was getting married for the second time. In my dream, my current hubby and I were supposedly to be divorced.

My second hubby was a tall, rich guy with quite fairer skin. During the ceremony, I appeared to be confused - thinking about my current hubby, his whereabouts and why did we end up divorce. Pretty sad actually eventhough the second person appeared to be a loving and caring person.

I hope that it will never come true. I am happy the way I am now. We may not be rich but we do get by. That is enough.

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2  cups of chilli boh (dried chilli, onions, garlic and tumeric)
1 cup of dried shrimp
2 tablespoons of shrimp paste ( this is otak udang)
A thumbsized of belacan
2 1/2 scoop of sugar
a pinch of salt


1. Heat the wok and then pour 1/2 cup of oil.
2. Fry the chilli boh, together with the belacan. Once the chilli starts to curdle, then...
3. Add in the shrimp paste.
4. Add in the sugar and salt.
5. Let it boil a bit and then switches off the stove.
6. Put in a few scoops of the mixture into a different bowl. This could be the additional sauce.

1 onion - sliced
4 tablespoons of tauchu
1 litre of tamarind juice
1/2 bowl of prawns
1 scoop of sugar
100ml coconut milk

1. Heat the pot and then pour 1/2 cup of oil.
2. Fry the sliced onion.
3. Once the onion is soften, add in the tauchu. Leave it for 3 minutes.
4. Pour in the tamarind juice.
5. Add in the prawns, coconut milk, the earlier cooked chilli and  sugar.
6. Leave it to boil for a few minutes.

**Serve the gravy together with the following:
Boiled Beehoon
Fried tauhu - in small cubes
Soaked beansprouts - use hot water.
Sliced red chilli

MY THOUGHTS
My hubby does not quite like it. He prefers Mee Siam Berkuah. However, my second son seems to enjoy it.

Well, I cannot definitely make everyone happy.