Beef: Stir Fried Pineapple

Another lovely dish. Everyone should try this but need to buy really tender beef.  Got the recipe from Chef Wan's Simply Sedap.
The ingredients:
3 tablespoons peanut oil
3 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
thumb-sized ginger (peeled and sliced)
2 tablespoons hot bean paste
1 red capsicum (diced)
beef stock granules
500 grams beef rump steak (finely diced)
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1/2 cup plum sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
salt
freshly cracked black pepper
280 grams diced pineapple
coriander leaves (chopped - for garnishing)

How? Fry garlic, ginger and hot bean paste
Then, add in the capsicum and beef stock granules.
Pour in the beef and the rest.

Petai ala Utara

I was attending a course in PD. We were having our lunch when someone mentioned this recipe and a few others appeared to know it and loved it. So, when the recipe was spelt out, I memorized and as soon as I was home, I tried it out.
How does it turn out to be? Wonderful. Even my maid enjoys it.
The ingredients:
Petai (slice it up together with the skin. Then deep fry)
Anchovies (Deep fry)
Onion (Slice it thinly)
Red Chilli (slice)
Mix everything in a hot wok

Greek Salad

The first time I tasted this was when my husband took me to an Arabic Restaurant. We had an Arabic Rice. The sauce was really nice while the Greek Salad was a beautiful complement.

The ingredients:
Red, Yellow and Green Capsicum (cut them into big dices)
Cucumber (Dice it up too but make sure you get rid of the centre)
Salad
Black Olive
tomatoes
red onion (slice thinly)
Greek feta (sheep cheese)
extra-virgin olive oil (not a lot)
vinegar (a lot of this. 3 tablespoons into the olive oil.)
Parsley
Oregano (the parsley and oregano put them into the olive oil. Mix them well)
salt and black pepper

Chicken: Barbecued

This is very easy to make. The hard part is to barbecue them as if not done well, they might not be cooked.

Chicken (cut up. Poke them using a fork. Then marinate them with...)
Chilli Boh (blended dried chilli, onions, garlics and turmeric)
Heinz Barbecued Sauce
Salt (marinate everything for an hour at least.)

Jacket Potatoes

I have not updated the blog for quite sometime now. Have been away. Three lovely weeks and to get back to work was not easy.
Anyway, one day before my girls went back to their respective hostels, my youngest son requested a barbecue. It sounded like a good idea so I agreed. We had Jacket Potatoes, Barbecued Chicken and Greek Salad.

The following ingredients were based on my family consumption. So, if you have 7 + 1 in your family, just follow my recipe or else you need to modify a bit. (the plus one is my maid.)

The ingredients:
7 potatoes (washed it clean. Then, using a fork, poke them. Make a few poking for each potato. Then, make a cup out of aluminium foil for each potato. Once they are done, place them in the oven for an hour. Set it for 200C. An hour later, take them out. Using a big spoon, scoop out the cooked flesh. Put in in a bowl and mash it up)
50 gramme (mix it with the mashed potatoes.)
An egg ( separate the yolk from the white. Pour the yolk into the mixture. Beat the white and add it towards the end)
Cheddar cheese (about half the box. Grate it and then pour it into the mixture. Leave a little bit. The extra cheese is to be sprinkled over the filled potatoes)
salt and pepper (to taste)
Fill up the potato cups and sprinkle some cheese on top. Place them in the oven again. This time for 15 to 20 minutes.
Eat them while they are hot.

Assam Pedas: Head Fish

We had this with Mutton Soup. I used to cook this with the whole head being dump into the gravy. However, based on my observation, we could actually cut the head accordingly and still we do not lose the accent of it.
The Ingredients:

• chilli, onion, garlic, tumeric (pound them but the garlic and tumeric should not be too much.)
• oil (heat the pot first before pouring the oil. Then put in the pounded ingredients. Fry until you see the curdle)
• belacan (depending on the amount of your chilli.)
• Assam Jawa and water (not sure what this is in English. Squeeze out the juice. The amount of water depending on how much you want the gravy to be. However, too much water would make the gravy watery. My hubby likes his thick. To get this, you must know how to balance the chilli and the assam.)
• Head fish (the main ingredient)
• torch ginger bud (slice it finely)
• kesum
• sugar and salt

WARNING: Cooking this dish is rather messy especially at the beginning stage where you fry the chilli and belacan. As you need to really fry the chilli, the chilli would spurt everywhere. A friend of mine nagged me as I forgot to tell her about this.
Frying the chilli is the crucial part. Pouring the assam too early, the chilli might not be fully cooked. Too late, they just merely burn.
Once everything has been dumped in, let it simmer for at least 15 to 20 minutes. This is to make sure the gravy gets to the fish.
The beauty of this dish is that you can have different main ingredient. You might want to have chicken instead of fish or even hard boiled eggs. However, for hard boiled eggs, the gravy should be very thick. And the best type of egg is Telur Pindang.

Soup: Mutton

My hubby wanted soup and he missed the mutton soup. I was expected down town at 6 pm (Of all the time, they had to choose 6 pm. Very close to Maghrib.) Just before I left for the meeting, I went to Tesco to get the soup ingredient. Luckily, they had all that I wanted. (Instructed my maid to boil the meet. Making sure they would be really tender.)
I do apologize as I am unable to show you how the dish looks like as I was so hungry totally forgot to snap it. (Came back from the so-called meeting and I rushed to the kitchen. Luckily, I was given leave by God. So I took the opportunity to cook.)
The Ingredients:

• A small tray of cut up mutton (I bought the frozen one. It was not that expensive. I paid it for RM7 to RM8)
• A small tray of tender cut up beef (It was the same - frozen. Again, it was somewhere between RM7 and RM8.)
• Water (Put all the above in a pot that could take about 4 litre of water. Let it boil for at least 40 minutes)
• black pepper, Onion, a thumb-sized ginger (pound them.)
• star anise, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom (just enough. Be extra careful with cloves though. Too much will spoil the broth. I love more of star anise.)
• carrot, potato, celery, onion (cut them up)
• tomatoes
• lemon (half of it would be enough)
• salt
• sup punjut / paste for sup ekor