Puli Sadam aka Tamarind Rice Recipe

During my childhood in JB, our Friday evenings used to be our temple visitation at Sri Muniswarar Temple, Tampoi. Mom mostly went for prayers, I went for the yummy banana leaf dinner and other sweet and savoury offerings. Their banana leaf meal, despite being simple, is unparalleled even by the most famous banana leaf restaurants.

Sri Muniswarar Temple Tampoi is very famous and rich in history, which you can watch here. To this day, their Thaipusam celebration is the most grand in the southern part of our country.

One of my favourite and most fond memory of their offerings is what we used to call 'sour rice', which is actually called puli sadam in Tamil, loosely translated to tamarind rice. Some fun facts here, 'puli' also means tiger in Tamil, it is rather amusing to call it tiger rice, furthermore, it even boosts the colours of a tiger!

And coincidentally, this is also what most Indians would specially prepare for someone who is expecting, among other things of course, but this is extra special as it is sour in taste. Which means I have had good memories of stuffing myself with the sour goodness when I was carrying both the babies.

As the name suggests, it is basically plain rice flavoured with tamarind, and as anything Indian, accompanied by a cocktail of spices. I have not got the exact amount of spices here, but typically it is very small amount about 1 tsp. Usually you don't need a big amount of whole spices to get the taste, so yes, the small amount is sufficient. Here is:

You Need:
2 cups of cooked rice
2 tsp tamarind paste
some roasted peanuts
some curry leaves
some dry chilli
salt
jaggery (I used gula Melaka)
some mustard seeds
some fenugreek seeds
some urad dhal
some oil
some asafoetida
some channal dhal
some turmeric powder
3/4 cup water 

Method:
1) Heat some oil in a pan. Add fenugreek and mustard seeds. Let it splutter.
2) Add the dry chilli,  curry leaves, asafoetida, turmeric powder, urad dhal and channa dhal.
3) Keep stirring till the channa dhal starts to brown.
4) Add the tamarind paste, and add about 3/4 cup of water. If you are using regular tamarind which needs to be soaked first, you don't have to add extra water here.
5) Give it a stir and let it simmer.
6) Add jaggery or as I did, gula Melaka. Check for the taste, and add salt as needed.
7) Simmer till the mixture reduces by half. Now you can add the rice and give a nice stir, halfway turning off the fire, add the roasted peanuts. Keep stirring to get it evenly coated. 

Serve with papadam and yogurt, or just on its own, there are multiple bursts of flavour in your mouth as you savour it. The roasted peanuts, channa dhal and urad dhal really give different experiences of crunch and munch, if there is even such a thing! And then bursts of mustard and fenugreek seeds keeps you rooted to the Indian taste.

Happy trying!

Chicken Butter Masala Recipe

Here's me finally updating the Chicken butter masala recipe from 2 weeks ago. It goes awesome with homemade naan or just some plain basmati or regular rice.

Ingredients

• 500g chicken breast
• 100g yogurt
• 2 tsp garam masala
• 4 tsp ginger garlic paste
• 2 tsp chilli powder
• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp coriander
• 2 tsp turmeric
• 50g butter
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• one, diced onion
• 6 cardamom pods
• 1tsp ground cloves
• 1 cup milk
• handful chopped coriander
• to taste salt
• some cooking oil

Method

1. Cut the chicken breast in bite-sizes.
2. Add the 100g yogurt, 1 tsp garam masala, 2 tsp ginger and garlic paste, 2 tsp chilli powder, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp coriander, 1 tsp turmeric and some salt. Mix well and marinate for 30 minutes to an hour.
3. Add cooking oil into a skillet, and pan fry the marinated chicken breast pieces. Set aside.
4. In the same skillet, add the 50g butter. Add the diced onion and let it sautee. 
5. Add the 1 tbsp tomato puree, 2 tsp ginger and garlic paste, cardamom pods, 1 tsp ground cloves, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp coriander, and 1 tsp turmeric.
6. Add about 1 cup of water and let it simmer. Add salt to taste.
7. Add 1 cup of milk and simmer it till it thickens. You can add more water and/or milk to get tour desired consistency and amount of gravy.
8. Sprinkle chopped coriander leaves and serve.


I gotta warn you, the moment you are done pan frying the pieces of meat, you can try some, and after that you will not be able to stop yourself. In this case, it is really wise to prepare a little extra to ensure you have enough for the dish later.

Happy trying!

Cheese Garlic Naan Stovetop Recipe

I love to eat roti or pratha. Naan and even kulcha for that matter. And no, it is not the same as the regular roti canai you get locally in Malaysia. Even most of the capatis found locally is not the real deal, so you get what I mean.

It was a while since I cooked on a Sunday, and that butter chicken recipe I found online was calling out to me, so it was the perfect way to spend my Sunday morning with. Also I was craving for a real good naan. Most of the naan we get outside are either overpriced or too dry. I wondered what it took make naan at home.

I'd like to emphasize that this time I was wondering how to make naan at home, for real, and not from accidental dough that did not rise. In case you are wondering what am I talking about, 3 years ago, my yeast failed me, and the cinnamon roll dough did not rise, so I made 'em into naan, blog link here.

Thanks to that mishap I learnt that I should always always and always activate my yeast before kneading, blog link here. Secondly I also learnt that those dough can work so well as stove top flatbreads.

It was definitely something that can be done. I took a while searching recipes and methods online. Mostly used baking method with hot cast iron or baking tray for the 'tandoor' effect, however it did not seem very convenient with the steps, and I was also vary of burning my hands with the constant 'turning' over of the naan, and I have a good amount of previous scars from the oven already.

I decided to use my capati cast iron flat pan, or as we call it, the 'tawa'.

Here's the recipe I finally used, with awesome results! My recipe is for breadmaker kneading, as much as I hate manually kneading, I also don't fancy the detailed write-ups of manual kneading. Luckily for me the BM does it till it rises the first time.

You need:
For dough
4 cup of all purpose flour
1.5 cups of warm water
1.5 tsp yeast
some salt
1 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp plain yogurt
2 tbsp butter
For filling and topping
mozzarella cheese, shredded, or cut into small blocks
chopped coriander
chopped garlic
2 tbsp butter, melted
Method:
1) Activate your yeast by mixing it with warm water and 1 tbsp sugar. Let it sit for 10 minutes and if it foams, it is ready to go.
2) Add the activated yeast with the rest of the ingredients (except butter) into the breadmaker and start it on kneading mode.
3) Once its incorporated, add in the butter and let it continue kneading till the machine stops for first proof.
4) Let it proof for 1 hour.
5) In the mean time, melt the 2 tbsp butter. Mix chopped garlic and coriander into it and set aside.
6) Once the first proof is over, oil a flat dish to store individual dough.
7) With an oiled hand, start forming smaller dough about 3 inches wide each, fill the dough with mozzarella cheese and seal it into a nice round ball. Place the dough balls onto the oiled flat dish.
8) Start to heat up the cast iron pan. Oil the surface slightly to avoid the first dough from sticking.
9) On an oiled surface, place individual dough press down with your palm to form into flat circles. You may notice it tears up creating holes, it is fine to leave it so.
10) Place the flat circle gently on the hot pan, and let it toast for 1 mins plus.
11) You will notice bubbles forming, this is good sign.
12) Turn it over and brush the butter/garlic/coriander mixture on top of it.
13) This time cover the naan with a small cover right for it's size. Let it toast for 2-3 minutes.
14) Repeat steps 9-13 for every dough ball.

It is rather lengthy but it actually is very simple, just the few extra steps from making capati, one reason why I enjoyed making it so much and will do again next time!

We had the naans with butter chicken masala, mint coriander chutney and sliced raw onions. At the risk of sound immodest I have to say that these are the best naans I had, even better than chewy and dry ones you get at most restaurants. I am surprised with the soft outcome of this pan toasted naan. The earlier accidental dough that I made into naans were more fluffy thanks to the egg content.

I had kept aside some of the dough, and had some leftover butter chicken, which later in the evening I upscaled them into pizza naans! I had also included the butter herb mixture into the pizza base.

Happy trying!

Indian White Mee Hoon Recipe

During my childhood I had the opportunity to know this wonderful and kind neighbour who was almost like a grandmother to me and my siblings. She lived two doors away and would come rushing to the house if either one of us was sick. Being a former nurse, she knew lots of remedies. On top of that she was a wonderful cook, the type that creates memories of countless comfort foods.

Both our illness season and birthday memories were filled with 'Aunty' bringing lots of gifts, and food so good that even the lack of appetite would give in to.

One of the fondest memories of her cooking is her wajik. Since she knew I loved it so much, she would make big batches just for me. I would just chill it in the fridge, and eat as I please. I did try to make it at home, but really never got any close to how she made it.

Another memory of her speciality is her Indian white mee hoon. This is very different from the regular mee hoon that is seasoned with all kinds of sauces that makes it reddish brown. Over here you get the flavour from spices, curry leaves and dried chilli. When recently I was searching for the best recipe for this, I also discovered that dried anchovies and prawns also make among the sautee, that gives it the rich aroma and flavour.

Since then, I make it regularly, and with reasonable vegetables added, it is very much a balanced meal on its own. Usually for the white mee hoon we use vegetables that can cook with the sautee, and nothing that gives crunch like beansprouts or bak choy. I am not sure quite why but I just have a feeling soft cooked vegetables is the essence for this mee hoon.

You need:

dried anchovies and shrimp, soaked in warm water for 30 minutes.
1 large onion, sliced
4-6 cloves of garlic, chopped
some ginger

mee hoon
carrot, sliced thin
chinese cabbage, sliced thin
mustard seeds
dried chilli
curry leaves
coconut oil
salt to taste

Method:

1) Once the dried seafood is soaked well, drain the water and pound it together with ginger. Leave a aside.

2) Soak the mee hoon in tap water.

3) In a pan, heat up some coconut oil.

4) Once it is hot, you can add the mustard seeds, curry leaves and dried chilli. Also add the onion, let it sautee and spices pop a while.

5) You can add the pounded dried goods, and give it a nice sautee till brown and aromatic.

6) Add the carrot and cabbage and let it cook for 10 minutes.

7) Soon after you can add the drained mee hoon, and the chopped garlic. Season with little salt, as the dried seafood is already salty. Give it a nice stir and let it incorporate for about 10 minutes of stirring and cooking.

I had also fried some eggs separately and added into the mee hoon dish. I like this way that it does not coat the mee hoon strands. Do not be afraid to use more curry leaves, I was being gentle to my plant as it is picking up from a recent infection. Happy trying!

Dry Chilli Sambal Recipe

We all love pan mee at home. Specifically the chilli powder that comes along with the pan mee dish. It's always been a wonder for me how they make the dry chilli sambal that is crunchy and so flavourful. Little did I know that instead of just the glorified chilli in the name, dried shrimps play a huge role in making it.

Lately I also began to see online sellers marketing the dry sambal, advertising how it is perfect to be eaten with virtually anything, even plain rice. Now this is when I started making connections with the pan mee chilli, and yes, that is the one.  Without realising I have turned into this aunty who can make anything at home, and was determined to make this at home from scratch.

I asked Mr Google for some recipes, and I found out it is actually a Nyonya delicacy 'hae bee hiam'. I felt somewhat proud to be able to attempt this. After comparing a few recipes, I came to the conclusion that this is indeed the usual chilli paste that we make for sambal, with added dried shrimps to the kick. All it needs is some good seasoning and cooked from its liquid form till it dries into fine particles of its original ingredients. Sounds like a lot of hard work. Surprisingly, it is not. And on top of that, you get a very wonderful treat the end of it. I must warn you though, it is so delicious, you can eat it on its own, but the spoonfuls!

I decided to make this dry chilli sambal inspired from my own sambal paste, that is with turmeric and lemongrass.

Here's what you need:
A handful of dried chilli, soaked
3 fresh red chilli
6-8 shallots
3 cloves of garlic
a handful of dried shrimp, soaked
3cm fresh turmeric
1 stalk of lemongrass
some oil
salt
2 tbsp brown sugar

What you need to do:

1) The soaked ingredients works best with warm/hot water. 

2) Once you have soaked the dried shrimps and chilli for 15 minutes, you can strain the water, and move all ingredients (except salt/sugar/oil) into the blender, add some water and blend it fine. 

3) Pour the blended paste onto a hot pan and start cooking. Add the sugar and salt at this point.

4) Keep stirring as it cooks. I did take random breaks in between from stirring, especially if there is still some liquid form, it takes a while to evaporate. But once it has dried up, you can't take break from stirring, otherwise it might burn right there and then. Also frequent stirring ensure it is evenly cooked.

5) Halfway there, you can add the oil. I like to add this point because it helps in browning the paste into nice crunchy powder.

6) And yes, keep stirring, till you get this. And you are done!

Once it has coolest down, you can transfer it to your desired container, or just start eating right away!

I must confess, halfway as I was stirring it, I did think to myself 'ok, so this is not working out' because I did not see it drying up as quick as I thought it would, but patience really pays off handsomely. At the end of it you will tell yourself, it was so easy I'd do it again and again!

The very next day I got plan pan mee into work, and this is how we had our chilli sambal, with spinach noodles, minced meat, and homemade kimchi soup!

As I bit into the noodles with the minced meat, the crunchy bits of chilli sambal reminded me, yes I did it! Something tells me this is going to be a must-have condiment in the house! Happy trying!

Nasi Lemak Kunyit Recipe

Nasi Lemak, or coconut rice, is a Malaysian staple and favourite, or rather Malaysian staple favourite, and it won't be even wrong to say favourite staple. And of course, we at home, love nasi lemak. Even more the kids especially when in Klang we used to get this awesome fried chicken together with it at the Shanmuga restaurant. It is definitely a must-have, must-eat, must-savour.

For the whole of my life I have never made nasi lemak at home, simply because it is easily available everywhere, any time. However, recently as I have been at home, cooking almost daily, I decided I should try making nasi lemak at home, giving some variety to the home menu. The same time I can prepare different types of sambal and curry to go with it.

I must admit though, the first time I was really nervous about not getting it right. Rightly so, the first time I had used only thick coconut milk and the outcome was not that pleasant. As I went on, I learnt the tricks and ingredients that help give a more fragrant coconut rice.

Over the last weekend, I was watching this cooking show, and they made this coconut rice, but with a sautee of turmeric with onion and ginger. I was delighted to watch them cook, and couldn't wait to try it on my own.

Over the last few months I have grown this new obsession with fresh turmeric since hubby has been taking them in his morning smoothies. It's been an experience of a kind discovering how much more fragrant and vibrant natural colour you get with turmeric in the recipe. And now I do not leave home (cook) without it.

So how do you make turmeric coconut rice, or nasi lemak kunyit?

It is pretty much the standard nasi lemak recipe. Some people cook rice in coconut milk, pandan leaves and ginger slices. Some people prefer to sautee the spices before cooking the rice. I do the latter.

Firstly take like 3-4cm of turmeric, and 4-5cm of ginger, and give it a nice grind or crushing (I am totally lost for words here) on the mortar and pestle. You could use a food processor if you like. Grind it slightly less than fine. Sautee chopped onion with the grinded turmeric and ginger, it can take about 10-15 minutes to give a nice fragrance. In the meantime, measure and wash your rice. Once the sautee is ready, pour in washed rice (minus water) and give it a nice stir to coat the grains of rice with the oil, flavour and colour. In about 10 minutes time, you can turn off the heat and transfer everything into the rice cooker. Add coconut milk diluted with water. Also add some fenugreek seeds, season with salt and cook like normal.

I decided to do away with pandan leaves, because I want the turmeric to be the master of the rice, The result, extremely fragrant and appetizing nasi lemak, not to mention the vibrant natural colour. Some recipes I checked online used turmeric powder, in which case you would need to give it adequate time on the flame to get off the raw powder taste. I must say, fresh turmeric just works best.

For us mothers, sometimes we are concerned over dietary factors of every meal we put on the table. I must admit I was always a tad bit skeptical making nasi lemak due to the lack of fiber content. The boys would just gobble the coconut rice without complaining. Now with nasi lemak kunyit, together with loads of raw cucumber, I think it works just perfect for taste and diet wise. Next round I am gonna use more turmeric and see how it turns out, because I can do with more natural vibrant yellow!

Happy trying!

Calamansi Juice With A Twist

Recently together with all the home cooking and home baking I have found a new frontier, making my own drinks/juices! It's been fun brewing and mixing different concoctions for drinking pleasure with the meals, especially with our hot weather, there is nothing like downing some fresh minty drink.

However, I had noticed that in the last 2 weeks, I had finished a significant amount of brown sugar. The amount that usually stays untouched for a while, unless I am making cinnamon rolls, was gone in just two weeks. 

Then it hit me, in all the fun and juice bottoms-up we have been consuming a lot of sugar. So I got determined to try out other drinks that require minimal sugar, or at least just honey. For this, I also had to make sure I ordered 1kg of commercial honey. True story, grocery bills are so high when you make everything at home.

From my last week's Tesco order, I had a good amount of calamansi limes, and what better time to make some calamansi juice. And no, this is not the bottled calamansi juice.

I squeezed juice from 7-8 pieces of calamansi lime. Be sure to cut the top small section, cutting through the seed will give bitterness. Added some 2-3 tbsp of honey, some salt, and the twist here, some apple cider vinegar! Add some water and give it a taste, adjust the taste as per liking. I was pleasantly surprised with how it turned out, especially with the ACV twist. Not just healthy, its yummy too! And of course I top it up with some bruised mint leaves, and get this, ginger slices, just because!

And since it turned out so good, I am roaring to try other combinations next! Happy trying!

Tomato Sambal Recipe

Online shopping is a boon to most of us. We don't have to step out of the house, drag the kids, or even our own feet, and make our way to the store, to purchase those sweet things we want to buy. And now, with Tesco online grocery shopping, things have just gone sweeter!

Living in a condo now, it is rather a chore to do grocery shopping buying all those bulky items, and gather the whole family to transport things upstairs. In this case, online shopping is really useful that you can plan, pick and add your items to your cart. 

However as with anything online, it has several disadvantages. One being you can get carried away, over-buy, and in my case, accidentally buy things in larger amounts or sizes. A month ago I ordered RM1.80 worth of fresh turmeric, and I received turmeric so much that I am still using it up slowly. One of the things I made was this tropical juice. Ever since, I have also added fresh turmeric in most of my cooking.

Two weeks ago, I had another Tesco delivery fiasco, when I received 2.5kg of tomatoes, and some obscene amount of calamansi limes (I had ordered RM3 worth). I put my thinking cap on and got planning!

I took the big amount of tomatoes to my stride (and into the fridge). I decided to make some tomato sambal that would go with rice, and even for our idli weekends (oh yes, there is such a thing in our household).

To my embarrassment, I realise that I did not snap a pic of the tomato sambal. However, I can still share the recipe of my sambal here.

For the sambal, I take about 3 onions, 5-6 cloves of garlic, about 3-4 inches of ginger, 7-9 dried chilli (soaked in hot water), 2cm of raw turmeric. Give it a nice blend with some water. Set aside.

Heat the pan with some oil, add 2 chopped onion and lemongrass (chopped too), sautee till fragrant. Then you can add the blended mixture, and let it simmer for 20-30 minutes or longer if you need to. Halfway here you can add 5-6 chopped tomatoes. If you feel the sambal is drying up very fast, you can keep adding water to your desired consistency. Season with salt and brown sugar to your liking. In my case, I keep trying till I get it right. The level of heat of the dried chilli really differs every time.

Tomato sambal goes well with plain rice, nasi lemak (especially if you are going vegetarian) and even with mee hoon! 

Everything has a silver lining. I started using turmeric into my sambal paste since the over-buy of turmeric and I have discovered turmeric really enhances the taste and gives the sambal a vibrant red hue. After the tomato sambal I used the calamansi to make some refreshing juice which I will share soon. Happy trying!

Malawi Dhal And Potato Salad Recipe

Dhal is something grew up eating, like 5 days a week. It was our main protein provider, save for the Sunday feast. Through time I got so tired of eating the yellow lentil soup that I hated the very sight of it, till I moved away for my higher education, and then working far from home, when I realised how it formed the taste of home for me, till today.

Presently dhal is in our weekly menu, paired with stir fried vegetables and raita, or just yogurt. The thing about making a pot of dhal is that it can last for more than one meal. This way if I make it for lunch, we eat with rice. And for dinner on that day, I just make capatis to add some variety, and the dhal still remains a hit.

Dhal is not just main source of protein, but you can also load various vegetables into it. Usually I do cauliflower, brinjal, potatoes, tomatoes and radish, that is apart from the onion and garlic. Here's how we go about making a hearty pot of dhal:

As you can see in the picture below, I prepared the dhal stew in a pressure cooker. About 1 cup of malawi dhal and a handful of masoori dhal. Let it soak or just start cooking right away. Add some brinjal, potatoes, tomatoes, radish and cauliflower, and also chopped onion and garlic. You can reduce or increase the amount of vegetables as you like.

In fact, in this dhal stew, I had included 4 additional whole potatoes, which I will scoop out once the dhal is cooked, to be mashed with some ingredients for a nice potato salad, Indian style.

For this stew, I seasoned with some turmeric powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, fish curry powder, and then some salt. 

Let it cook in the pressure cooker for about 3 whistles, around 20 minutes. Once done, let it sit for 30 minutes before doing the tempering.

For the tempering, heat some ghee in a pan. Add asafoetida, dried chilli, mixed spices and cumin seeds. And of course, don't forget the curry leaves. Once the seeds pop and get aromatic, you can take it off the heat and throw everything into the cooked dhal.

 Add some tamarind paste, and give it a last boil. Once it  comes to a boil, add in chopped coriander leaves. Give a stir and leave it uncovered for a while, so that the coriander don't turn black.

Remember the whole potatoes I boiled together with the dhal? Here they are, with some finely chopped onion, garlic and coriander leaves. And some Indian pickle masala. Season with salt and olive oil. 

Works best mashed with bare and clean hands. I can't help tasting and tasting as I mash this.

In fact this potato salad is similar to the filling that we make for aloo parathas, or potato stuffed parathas. After we had the dhal and salad for lunch, I used the remaining potato salad as filling for capati, and voila, we had hearty aloo parathas for dinner! Nothing beats that, really!

Till then, here's hoping my kids never get tired of their dhal doses. Happy trying!

Dum Briyani In Pressure Cooker Recipe

Some two weeks ago the Mister had discovered the amazing world of youtube video recipes. And he was totally hooked on watching these two desi Indian guys making briyani in the pressure cooker in a very humble setup. Despite it all the briyani looked so good and even the cook exclaimed 'it smells so good I could dig into it now', and there it got us salivating.

A quick trip to the market later we got all the ingredients ready and roaring to go, or rather eat!!

So here's me trying to be as pictorial as possible (well, because I did not get pics for every step, but I hope this helps) to explain the steps and process as we get along.

It starts with 3 major preps, the fried onion, the chicken marination, and the parboiled basmati. At the end of it they just come together in a perfect harmony.

Firstly you need a mountainful of chopped onions, and an obscene amount of chopped coriander and mint leaves. Separate the chopped herbs into 2 equal parts.

Fry the onion in good amount of oil mixed with ghee.

For the marination, you need cumin, coriander and chilli powder. And some yogurt. You also need turmeric powder but here I used fresh turmeric pounded old-style. Add all these marination into the chicken. Also some lemon juice. 

Add 1 part of the chopped coriander and mint mixture into the chicken marination, and let it sit for 30 to 60 minutes.

In the meantime prepare a pot of water to parboil the basmati rice. Add some cardamom, cloves, cumin and cinnamon stick. Also add in the remaining chopped herbs, and then your desired amount of basmati rice. Let it boil to cook the basmati halfway.

In the meantime your onion would have browned nicely.

 You can turn off the heat for the onion, and drain them out.

Transfer the marination to the bottom of a pressure cooker. Add the fried onion (take only half, keep half for later) and give it a nice stir. You can also add in a few spoonfuls of the oil that we used to fry the onion.

By now the basmati rice would be half done. strain it all out, including the spices. Spread one layer of the basmati rice onto the chicken marination.

Top it with the fried onion, some ghee, saffron water (we didn't have this so just did some turmeric water) and milk. And then the remaining amount of the basmati, and the same ingredients yet again.

Tighten the lid, and let it cook for 15 minutes, and turn off the heat. I let it sit for additional 30 minutes before eating, and the chicken turned out so tender and full of flavour!

This pic of our final done briyani does not justify the amazing taste it had. I learnt one thing that the onion should be cooked slightly brown so that it continues cooking further in the pressure cooker later on. 

Served the briyani with some raita and boiled eggs, and we were so hungry we dug in, forgetting to take any final picture for this recipe. Well this goes to show how damn good it was! Happy trying!

Meals Below RM20

Being an all-in-one stay at home mother, I am pretty much handling everything in the house, the kids' matters, planning the menu, doing the market runs, and well, everything. The same time I have to keep aside time for my work, especially on days I have urgent matters to settle, it is not easy giving attention to prepping and cooking for meals on time.

The kids have their extra activities after school hours. It is usually like prepping a quick dinner, down it, and then get ready to rush for their activities. Put this on repeat, 3 times a week. And no, they are not attending tuition as yet. This itself is quite a busy schedule.

As we are eating at home mostly, I try to incorporate balanced meals as much as possible, also cater to the picky eater who almost just finds excuse every time not to eat. However, to give him the benefit of the doubt, he has improved tremendously in recent times. Yet, being the smart kid he is, he always finds some excuse, stories, or just random chatters to delay the process of eating.

Being pressed for time, and usually limited planned trips to the market, I have to get creative in using available ingredients to produce dishes that take up least amount of cooking dish time. If I were as smart as Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory, I could come up with direct correlation between recipes and their cooking time, or something to that effect.

Usually I plan the meals to have at least one protein, either dhal, chicken/fish or egg. With a side of stir fried vegetables and cucumber raita. This is one way of planning menu, while keeping within a budget. And if I look back, the average budget for my meals is RM20 per meal, that is for 2 adults and 2 kids.

One such mean is as below, I made egg curry, with some bean sprout stir fried with broccoli, and some butter corn with bacon. Simple, yet unique. And really, it hardly costs RM20 for this one.

I got the recipe for egg curry from Masala Hut youtube as below, in case you are wondering to try.

Next is oven steamed fish, with brinjal sambal and some gravy with chicken broth base. I also used the same chicken broth base to marinate the fish and steam it in. Having some gravy for every meal is necessary as the fussy eater needs some liquid for his rice dishes.

On some days when we go meatless, I just make some dhal loaded with generous amounts of vegetables. I have potatoes, brinjal, tomatoes, cauliflower and radish in this one, apart from garlic and onion of course. And yes, it works easier when made in the pressure cooker. I temper the spices and pour them all back into the pressure cooker again. 

Usually when I make dhal, it would last for more than 1 meal. Having some papadam crisps and spicy Indian acar really make the kids excited for their meals, no matter how simple. And since this dhal stretches way till dinner, I beef up the meal with some omelettes. 

To perk up the regular fried eggs, I try to do different types of omelettes. This one here is the Indian spiced omelette, which is hubby's current favourite that he tried in India recently. All you gotta do is sautee some onion, garlic, vegetables like celery and pepper, and then add in some coriander/cumin/curry powder, little water, and let it braise and cook a little before adding in the beaten eggs, and then lastly some cherry tomatoes that just need a slight sizzle, and voila!

This one is a one pot (or rather pan) dish. It is the typical sizzling claypot tofu style, and for the family I am using chicken broth as the gravy base, added some additional vegetables, and we are done for the meal. This one, probably costs less than RM15.

Here's my secret weapon for a hearty but simple meal. The oven steamed fish. I buy the biggest one available so that it can feed the 4 of us. You may wonder how does oven steaming work. Well I have a deep baking disk that fits the length of the fish. Clean and marinate the fish as per your desired recipe. Cover with aluminium foil, and bake at 200C for 20 to 30mins. Minimal effort with the best results!

Who says cooking and eating at home is expensive? If you plan, there are ways to stretch the value of your money further, plan meals that are simpler in prep and cooking time, so that you can optimise your time at home meeting your other KPIs, like coaching the kids' homeworks and completing this blog entry. Who said SAHM life is easy? But it sure is rewarding!

Meatballs And Cous Cous Recipe

On some days hubby gives me 30 minutes notice of early return, which also means I'd need to whip up something for dinner. Something not instant yet takes short instance to put together. For those days I need to keep my secret weapon ready.

I usually make large batches of meatballs and freeze them for impromptu meals. Emergencies like this calls for the meatballs to be defrosted and reheated. But then, sometimes the meatballs are not enough, and you feel that you want to add more to the plate.

On the days I have minimal items in the fridge, I just heat the meatballs up with some pasta sauce and cheese, it makes swell good baked meatball meal.

On the days I have more items, I go a little further. This one for instance, I had heated up the meatballs, served with some butter corn and cous cous.

The cous cous is something that tastes really mild, a little like small pasta. With added butter, it tastes really soft and buttery, and is easily enhanced with vegetables like capsicum, cherry tomatoes and cucumber. There are some recipes that would tell you to just add hot water or stock onto the cous cous and let it sit and fluff up for ten minutes.

However I prefer the sautee method below, a little extra work, but great difference taste-wise.

Firstly, heat some butter in a pan. Add chopped onion, stir and allow it to cook till soft. Next add in chopped garlic, and add cous cous. Season with salt and black pepper. Give it a nice stir. Next you can add chicken stock or just water. Bring it to boil, and turn off the heat. Cover it and let it sit for 5 minutes. Then, you can remove the cover, fluff it up, and add cucumber and coriander/parsley as you please. The cous cous is ready to be served!

The best thing about cous cous is that it makes a great side dish to your protein laden meals. You can add your favourite vegetables. During the point of sautee, you can add red capsicum, mushroom or cherry tomatoes. For such vegetables, give it some time to sautee before adding in the cous cous. You can also play around with the seasonings and flavours, hopefully I get to try it one of these days.

Till then, happy trying!!

Tropical Tonic Drink Recipe

Picture this: You have just had a busy time on your market day. Sure shopping is therapeutic, but don't forget that you have to first list out the items, go to the market, select and hand pick the items, pay for them, lug your things around, get into the car, lug them to the house (oh yes, this is the toughest bit now that we don't live in a landed property anymore. And once home, you gotta segregate, wash and dry, arrange, and in some cases, portion the meat and store properly. Even typing the routine out is already tiring. 

In the midst of market day chaos, it is so soothing to know that something is cooking, literally, that can help to not just uplift your mood and energy, but also spread the aroma of goodness all over the house. As soon as I got back from the market, I took out the ingredients for this delicious and potent tonic, and got it boiling, so that once I am done, I can just dive into it.

A friend of mine who is an advocate of everything natural, shared this recipe for the tonic, made from raw turmeric, ginger, pandan (screwpine, no, I am not swearing) leaves and lemongrass. All you gotta do is pound or bruise the turmeric, ginger and lemongrass roots. Knot the pandan leaves. Put into a stock pot full of water (well depending on how much you want), and boil away. Add brown sugar as per your taste. 

I boiled for almost 1.5 hours. I got my right amount of sweetness. And drank away. The aroma of the fragrant pandan leaves will get into every nook and corner of your home. Not to mention it pleasantly flavours your drink. The mixture of ginger and lemongrass gives a minty effect to the after taste, which feels so cooling on its own. I personally prefer to drink this chilled. 

It is awesome to have such uplifting drinks at home especially with the hot weather, and I usually like to chug down cups of iced water. This, in its chilled version, works awesome!

Try it, the ingredients are using our local products, and perhaps easily available in your fridge! How does it get simpler than this. Happy trying!

Buttermilk Pancake Recipe

When you are a parent, you greet Sundays by waking up at 7am. It is either the kids are eager to be up and playing, or perhaps it is by habit of 6am weekdays, that your body alarm wakes you somewhere there, and by the time you laze on your bed, and crawl out, its just 7am! Yes, JUST 7 freaking AM.

However waking super early on Sundays is really fruitful when you have exciting breakfast plans ahead. On Saturday night I prepared the pancake butter, and slept through the night only to spring up and excited to make and dig into 'em fluffy pancakes, and a little spring was caused by kids crowding the bed too.

This is one of the weekly food that I pack for Sanju, for he loves them with hazelnut spread. But really, it is not the same preparing and packing them to be eaten later. When you make those pancakes, and eat immediately, still hot from the pan, with sinful amount of butter and your favourite toppings, that is when it works well. On top of that, there's nothing like sharing happiness over food with the whole family. Sunday pancake breakfast is just perfect for this reason!

This buttermilk pancake recipe is the simplest, yet the most fluffy pancakes you will ever make or eat. You don't have to separate the whites and yolks, yes, I super hate doing the separation. Eggs are meant to be used together, they are like a family, please don't break them up.

Simple, as I said, because it just requires ones of everything.. it is like 1-1-1 recipe. You require 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of buttermilk and 1 egg. And then there's 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp vanilla essence, pinch of baking soda and some salt. That's it. 

Don't worry if you don't have buttermilk. Usually I just make my own by mixing 1 cup milk with 1 tbsp vinegar, giving it a good stir and sit for 10 minutes. It's that simple!

So you can start by mixing the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder/soda and salt) at one place and wet ingredients (buttermilk, egg and vanilla essence) at another. Then mix them together, gently whisk with a fork. Don't worry about having lumps. Let it sit overnight in the fridge, and make your yummy pancakes in the morning.

I use the curry ladle to scoop one ladle onto the pan. I am using Mr DIY premium marble pan, and loving it. You should get bubbles like below, and then you can turn.

See the even brown-ness, it is so hard to achieve with regular pan.

This recipe can make up to 9 medium sized pancakes. And just for the sake of this blog, here's me stacking 'em pancakes.

Check out the rise of every pancake. That is pure chemistry between the buttermilk and baking soda. 

Each and every bite compensates you waking early on a Sunday morning. In fact they are so addictive you will tempted to whip them up every morning, or rather night, as you will see, they make the best pancakes if the batter is left overnight.

We have it with crazy amount of butter, drippings of honey, squirts of chocolate sauce topped with homemade granolas. How does it get any better than this. Oh, yes, bananas, or any fruits available to you. Happy trying!

Instant Rava/Suji Idli Recipe

When we were expecting Sanju, like 8 years ago, we used to visit the Klinik Kesihatan at Tengku Kelana in Klang. Nearby there was this Indian restaurant that had these lovely idlis. They were orange in color. For a while I had no idea what idlis were those, but through time, I got to know those were rava idlis.

Fast forward to present day, I've recently got myself the idli steamer, and yes, I am like the girl with a new toy, eager to play with it. Initial plan was to make idlis, but since idlis require overnight fermentation, I was not able to get the plan in work. However, I remembered seeing the rava idli recipe, which is also touted as the instant idli recipe. Do not fall for the instant word, although it does not require overnight fermentation, it is not really instant per say.

For the first time ever I felt compelled to arrange the spices and other ingredients on a dish before cooking. Of course most Indian dishes require more than 3 spices, but this one was extra special with the uses of channa and urad dhal in the tempering. Also, from my past experience it was good to arrange them out to avoid risking forgetting one item. It makes me feel so bad when I leave one spice item out, makes the dish feel incomplete.

You will notice a lot of the spices are just estimation, can take this picture for reference of how much my 'some' is.

So here's listing out the ingredients.

We need:

1 cup rava/suji/semolina

1 cup yogurt

some water

some turmeric powder

some curry leaves

some asafoetida

some cumin seeds

some mustard seeds

some urad dhal

some channa dhal 

some ginger, grated

green chilli, chopped fine

1 carrot, grated

cooking oil

salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

Method:

1. Heat up some oil in a pan. Sautee cumin, mustard seeds and asafoetida till it pops. 

2. Add curry leaves, urad and channa dhal. Let it sautee for 3-4mins.

3. Add green chilli, grated ginger and carrot. Add in the turmeric powder and salt. Sautee for 3-4mins.

4. Add the rava and give a good stir while it roasts for about 5 minutes.

5. Turn off the heat and let it sit till it cools down.

6. Once its cooled, you can add the yogurt, and stir it well. Add some water to get the idli consistency.

7. Let it sit for 20mins.

8. Add the baking soda and stir it well. Immediately scoop the batter onto the idli moulds and steam for 10 minutes.

You can serve it will dhal, curry or the variety of chutneys. I made onion coconut chutney. This recipe yields about 20 regular sized idlis.

The idlis are so soft and fluffy, with grainy texture of suji. Just brings back thousands of memories of eating suji halwa. The best thing is it was even a hit with the picky eater Jeev. One thing for sure, it tasted good even on its own. I should have just added more water.

It is actually similar to this rava uttapams I made last year. Rava uttapams are pan toasted, while this rava idli is steamed. They both can have more vegetables and seasonings added.

The next mission is to make fluffy idlis with spanking fish curry, till then, stay tuned!

Getting The Thosai Experience

For a long time hubby was asking me to make thosai and why not, we all love thosai. Usually I like to make trips to Indian restaurants just to get their awesome thosai with the chutney that come in the side. Of course not all shops have the same taste, so you really got to choose the best to stay loyal to.

The only reason I was putting making thosai was the fact that it takes one day of prep before actually making it, unless you want to go instant, but really it will not have the same effect. You can say I was just procrastinating all this while and never made it, that is till now.

So I told myself, that's it. If I can make everything else, why not the thosai which I love so much? 

Firstly it was all about getting a good recipe, and my friend recommended me Yummy Tummy for thosai, chutney and everything Indian delicacies. Next I went to the Indian grocery store to get the ingredients, and cooking time it was!

On the day before I got soaking the urad dhal and idli rice. Soon after it was time to blend it and leave it for fermentation. Sounds simple enough right, sure it would have been, if my blender motor did not break down.

Yes, I repeat, my blender motor broke down, died on me, bluek. Ok mostly it is my fault for not realizing it needs to be given short pulses and not long minutes of blending. It have the tendency of killing most of my electrical appliances by overworking them this way. True story.

So, it gave up on me, stopped working, and I was stuck. At this point I wished I had the manual grinder. I looked for second option, I had my old Panasonic motor, but no jug. The jug broke long time ago but I did not get to buying the replacement because I was too engrossed in using the Magic Bullet all the while. Also it seemed hard to get replacement jug at the common hypermarkets.

Then I took out the Kenwood food processor that has been neglected, like forever. But I knew this was a long shot, for food processors only do dry processing, not wet one. And true enough, the batter remained coarse, it did not budge!!

Then I thought to myself, I should just drive out to the nearest electrical store and reward myself with a brand new blender set. In all this chaos, I did notice the familiar smell of urad dhal fermenting that engulfs the home whenever making thosai or idli. I quickly gathered the kids, and we set out. 

Once there, for some reason, I asked the salesperson if they had just the jug for Panasonic blenders. It was no surprise when he said no, but he continued telling me it is available at the Panasonic service center. The best part was it was barely 5 minutes away, and as it was still office hours, I'd still make it to get one!

We quickly dashed there, grabbed the jug, came home feeling accomplished, accompanied by the familiar sour smell of fermentation. And that's how I got my thosai batter fermentation right, kids! And lot's of clean up afterwards too.

Here's the recipe to the thosai batter:

Soak 2 cups of idli rice and 1/2 cup of urad dhal, with some fenugreek seed. Leave this for 4-6 hours. Strain the water away, and blend this till fine, adding cold water as needed. After this we just let it ferment on the table top overnight. Wait for the batter to expand as it ferments, make sure you place it in a container only half full. And voila!

Making the thosai on the pan is rather tricky, takes a while to get the shape right. The pan cannot be too oily or too dry, otherwise the shape might not turn out right.

At last, I managed to make some decent shaped thosai(s).

As for the chutneys, I made 2 versions, one green, another red:

1) Coriander Coconut chutney by blending grated coconut, coriander leaves, green chilli, salt and garlic, and giving it a nice tempering of mustard seeds, urad dhal and curry leaves

2) Channa dhal chutney by tempering some channa dhal, mustard seeds, urad dhal and dried chilli, and then add chopping red onions and tomatoes. Let them soften and cook a while, season with salt and pepper. Once cooked, cool down, and blend it.

The sous chef decided we needed some sardine curry, and here's the masterpiece, with lotsa onion, chilli and truckload of curry leaves.

I also had the kid lending his hands to meddle with the turner.

For the finale, it is essential to seek better photography skills, so I let the sous chef take over to get a nice shot of the breakfast meal. Obviously we ate with damn lot of chutney and more chutney!!