Wednesday, October 14, 2009

My style of cooking......

I had an interesting short chat with a blogger at gmail chat yesterday. After the normal salam and hi....the topic went to food...he said maggi mee is not good to eat. I agreed with him because i am not a fan of instant mee or any instant food. Even if i was craving of cokodok ikan bilis, i wont be making from Adabi instant mix....of course to all working mothers, these instant mix/spices are a God send after a tiring day in the office. I am not saying they are bad or anything of the sort....its just not authentic to my anak tekak....

anyway....the next topic was the use of Pak Ajinomoto in cooking. I never bought a packet of Ajinomoto before and i surely will never buy one in future. To me if all the spices and ingredients are enough in one recipe, it doesn't need the Pak Aji to make it taste better. Both my parents never approved of Pak Aji in the cooking at home and i continued that way when i have a family of my own. But really we have no choice if we ate out kan?? He suggested to replace Pak Aji with sugar...i am ok with that but i use sugar in certain dishes only, even that i use brown sugar. As for salt, i use fine salt only to fry fishes, tempeh and vegetables, but coarse salt in everything else. My fishes would only be fried crispy except for meaty fishes like tenggiri or bawal.

Here i am sharing recipes for my masak lemak coz someone in the Facebook asked me for the recipe and also my sambal belacan.

Crispy fried mackerel/kembung


Lemak cili api daging with potato.
The recipe;

500gm beef ( best use batang pinang) - cut bite size crossing the grains
200gm coconut milk
1 piece asam keping
one lemon grass - lightly bash the bulb
10-15 small bird eye chillies* ( more if you want it hotter)
an inch of tumeric*
*pounded or blend together
2 - 3 potatoes -quartered

Wash the beef, put it the deep pot, throw in the pounded chili and tumeric and the lemon grass. Let the water dry a bit, if the beef still not soft add a bit more water ...then put in the coconut milk, let it boil, put the potatoes and asam keping in and let it boil till the potatoes softened. Put some coarse salt to taste and do stir frequently to avoid the coconut milk become 'curdled' (separated?? any better word for this?).

Lemak chili api tenggiri with bittergout.

500 gm tenggiri
200gm coconut milk
1 piece asam keping
Half of big bittergout - sliced thickly(abt half cm ) and soak in salted water
10-15 small bird eye chillies* ( more if you want it hotter)
an inch of tumeric*
*pounded or blended together

Wash the fish, put it in a deep pot, throw in the pounded chili and tumeric. Let the water dry a bit, then put in the coconut milk, let it boil, put the sliced bittergout and asam keping in and let it boil again. Put some coarse salt to taste and do stir frequently.

My kangkung belacan

My mix vege
My lala in hot oyster sauce.

My fried bihun with secret ingredient..the minced touchu
Simple tumis french beans
Sambal belacan
2-3 red chillies
5 - 10 bird eyes chillies
1 inch roasted shrimp paste
salt to taste
juice from one lime
Pounded all coarsely except the juice. Add in the juice and serve.

All of the dishes were cooked without the Ajinomoto.

10 comments:

Mat Gebu said...

salam datin zai...ishh paling lah menggoda lemak cili padi daging n kentang tuuu....

wanshana said...

Thanks for the recipes, Zai :)

The ingredients are just like what my MIL would put in her Masak Lomak Chili Padi, but, normally she would put everything in, bring to boil, and then baru masuk the beef or the fish, and the veges, if any. She would sometimes salai the beef first.

Nanti I nak try your way pulak :)

* Non-Nogoghian (me included) always thought that pounded shallots are also included in the ingredients. But, I learnt from my MIL that Masak Lemak Chili Padi piyor tak pakai bawang langsung :)

Anonymous said...

fuh...sedap sgt mak teh..bl la dpt rasa nie..huhu..meleleh woooooo..

zaitgha said...

MG,

yer ker?, yg tuh jugak lah buat my brother di Selama termimpi2 ha ha ha....

Shana,

Yes our lomak cili padi is very simple yet the best(nih bias sebenornyer ha ha ha)... our only extra would be the rencah2 against the main meat like fish or beef or chicken....beef and chicken the rencah would be potatoes lah and serai...but ikan or other seafood are ngam with many things like belimbing buluh, mangga muda, pineapple, long bean etc etc....and ketam is best with pineapple and one piece of daun kunyit....beef salai best with bacang ...and definitely we dont use bawang at all....

Anon,
Nih anak buah den yg mana nih??kok meleleh tuh ekau tau den punyo umah...tak usah nak mengado2 nak berjompuit lak....but make sure ekau talipon den dulu, kok2 ekau baghi salam kek umah kosong he he...

Madam Tai Tai Again said...

YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!

IBU said...

Zai...

Terliuq laaaa... still wondering bila la agaknya we will get to enjoy these wonderful dishes from your kitchen?

Pak Zawi said...

Salam Zai,
I still can't forget the taste of your rendang daging chili padi. Everyone else in the family said it 'won't jadi' but I proved them wrong. The rendang tasted good though they don't look the usual dark color.
So instant mee and Pak Aji is a no no eh? :).
My friend asked me to invite you and your family for lunch this Sunday in Shah Alam after reading my response to you. What say you and your hubby? He will be picking me up at 12.30 PM. Hope you can make it.

zanaz said...

tol le k/zai, zana pun tak penah beli pak aji tu, tak eti nak guna pun. aiyooo..masak lemak cili api, kangkung goreng, bihun goreng, sambal belacan...seme nye menyelerakannnnnnnnn. baru perasan k/zai tak letak bawang merah yek dlm masak lemak cili api tu.

bella said...

Kak Zai,
Thanks for the recipes...ohhh rebus dulu ye...now baru tahu...nanti nak try...your gambar food are sgt tempting...bila tgk je terus teringin nak makan...hehehe...

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