0017 - Fried Rice Hana 2.0

I blended 1 Large Red Onion & 3 Garlic a few days before. Well, i like having all these pre-mixes done ahead and refrigerate them. It's easier like that. Dice 1 piece of Carrot and slice 1 piece of Green Chili thinly. The chili here is optional... it's like a garnish to my fried rice. Depending on your preference, i had about 3 pieces of Eggs as well. There were some chicken in the freezer which i thawed and cut tiny pieces off them. It was a good mix of chicken meat, skin & some other (edible) parts i think. I didn't rely on just the meat. So, again, it's entirely up to you which parts of the chicken you want yeah :) Boil the chicken first, and placed it aside.

On a sidenote, it would have looked like a dull piece of dish with just the Yellow and Orange hues of the Egg & Carrot. So i had to jazz it up with another colour, which was why i added the Green Chili. You can sub it with Red Chili if you want :) Fresh chili though!



I placed 3 tablespoons of blended mix of onion & garlic into the hot wok of oil. Make sure the fire is down to medium or maybe just somewhere in between Slow to Medium. You don't want to burn the spices early over here coz you'll end up with a burnt taste to that fried rice of yours. Again, it's entirely up to you how much oil you want to use. I think i had about 2 tablespoons. Let the onion mix gargle in the hot oil and stir them well. The smell will start to fill up your kitchen by then :)

When you think it's time - go by your instincts - add your rice in. STIR THEM WELL! Make sure every inch of a piece of rice absorbs the spices :) Once you got that covered, you can throw the chicken pieces in. Just give a good overall stir. Only then, you start pushing the rice to the sides of your wok, leaving just enough space in the center to break your 3 pieces of egg. You might even need just a little bit more oil to fry the egg yeah. Stir them good and when you think it's cooked enough, you should be able to mix them all again with the rice! It takes a bit of a skill to do this though... coz if not, your rice will be enveloped with eggs. If you don't mind that happening, by all means, go for it :)

Finally, throw all your carrots into the combi. Add 1 teaspoon of salt to give added taste of course. Alternatively, you could also add a little bit of Light Soya Sauce, but if you do that, please do not add anymore salt. Unless of course you don't mind a salty dish of fried rice. Heh. I did that before and it's not good... hahaha!

On slow fire, throw the green chili into the mix and give the rice a good overall stir - just to mix it well with that chili of course. Other than that, you're done in the kitchen! Let the guys wash the dishes ;)

0016 - Lemak Ayam Chili Padi 1.0

Serves 4

- To blend with the right amount of water
1.5 Large Red Onions
1 Fresh Red Chili
3 Fresh Green Chili
4 Garlic
1 tablespoon of Tumeric Powder
* Please blend all of the above with water. Ensure the outcome of the mix is not too watery nor too thick.

- To mix in the hot oil together with the blended mix above
1 Fresh Green Chili
250ml Santan Kara
5 Mushrooms cut into Halves *optional
1 Large Potato cut into Cubes *optional
8 Pieces of Chicken meat (quantity & type will depend entirely on you. over here I use drumsticks)
1 cup of water
Salt & Sugar to taste



Definitely with steamy... hot... fluffy... rice.................... :-)

It was a dish i have been craving for. So i called my mum early in the week asking her how to cook it. It took 2 days thinking whether or not i should give it a try. I had to think about it A LOT, coz i was afraid it was going to end up a failure, especially since it was going to be my first time making this. dUh.

Well, to cut the story short, i made it in less than an hour and there wasn't any leftover after feeding 5 mouths, my self included. It's not as perfect as the one mum makes but for a novice like me, it'll do. I was too darn happy for words with the results.

Whichever one of you who's going to attempt this, let me know if you need instructions :) Just for the record, the mushrooms & potatoes are my optional additions. You may sub it with anything else you like, or whatever that your tastebuds can handle!

0015 - Creamy (Coconut) Mushroom 1.0

Thinking about dinner can be quite a chore. Especially when you are left with limited resources in the kitchen ;-) But Matt did well in the kitchen on Monday night.

A can of Campbell's Creamy Mushroom
A can of Santan Kara
Good amount of Garlic, Red Onions, Green Chili, Salt & Sugar
Diced Beef

And... with a bowl of hot rice, he whipped up a pretty good "lauk". It was definitely what i would have called, "Lauk Campak-Campak". It is the kind of dish my mum would come up with when she's running out of ideas. LoL!

Justbe mindful of the amount of Coconut here ;-) I am not as adventurous as Matt when it comes to whipping up "Lauk Campak-Campak"... but he did good. At least he saved me from going hungry that night :)

PS: To all my Malay readers, could you help me translate the term "Lauk Campak-Campak" so that my non-Malay readers will be able to understand :) Thank you!

0014 - Chili

On this recent Monday, Matt went out to water his little garden... and came back into the house going,

"Ouh..Ouh... Ouh... Guess what?!"

As you might have already guessed from the photo above, we found a cute little chili growing well! How exciting is that :-D

0013 - Little Garden Growing Well

Matt's little garden is growing well.

Check out those healthy growth of Basil and the flowering Chili plant :)

0012 - Pickering Beef Bolognese

I dropped by Coles at the basement of David Jones after school yesterday. Looks like supermarket is my latest favorite places since i got here in Brisbane :) Go figure.

So anyway, i was just browsing for chips (Smiths Sour Cream & Onion) & candies (Wonka ) to keep me going while i do my work but i found mysef scanning the shelves of Pasta Sauces. I couldn't resist grabbing a bottle of Dolmio Chunky Pasta Sauce. LoL! Honestly, i have never really cared much for the HALAL print on food here but rather, arrowed straight for the ingredients, just to check. So i was pleasantly surprised when i actually saw a print of HALAL on this one :) And i just have to get it. So pleasantly surprised that i am, i kept the bottle after using it last night, just so i could take a photo and show it to you. HeHe.

We had Beef Bolognese for dinner last night. It's obviously an easy dish to make but i leave it to the expert. I only helped out wherever i can. Since we didn't have minced beef, we sub it with the diced beef we got last weekend by cutting it into even thinner pieces. Matt got his Basil, Coriander & Rosemary from his little garden to jazz up the sauce and i insisted on adding some blended chili. He just let them all simmer to perfection :) And of course, we grated some cheese and added them directly into the sauce, last.



Honestly, i thought a plate of Spaghetti last night was enough for two. But we each had 1 plate, so together, we ate the share of 4. LoL! I topped it off with the Raspberry Cordial (which i got from Coles last month), and i was telling Matt that i don't mind having this meal again for the subsequent dinner. He thought last night was really good but didn't think having it twice in a row was such a great idea. HaHa!

What i can confirm though... we're both getting fat.

0011 - Fried Rice Hana 1.0

If i keep up with spicy dishes, all hell will break lose in this house. At least the mouths that feeds on it :-p But it's not entirely my fault. There must be something in the dried chilli imported into Brisbane coz the mere taste of only 2 tablespoons of blended chilli was enough for everyone, including myself, to go ballistic. Last night, was worse. 6 tablespoons of chilli in Sambal Sotongball, and Matt turned red but it was good for Amin coz he said it finally allowed him to use the toilet, for obvious reasons :)



Don't be deceived by the looks of this Fried Rice. Although i've added an immeasurably good amount of Sweet Soy Sauce (Kicap), 1 tablespoon of sugar, the 2 tablesppons of blended dried chilli still rule the taste. Of course i placed some thawed Frozen Vegetables & a few pieces of Cuttlefish cut into fours just to give the whole dish more flavor. There was also 2 tablespoons of blended red onions and 1 teaspoon of garlic. Just 1 Chicken stock to enhance the flavour but you can change it to Anchovies stock if you can find it. But at the end of the day, the chilli still rules. Damn.

But having said all of that... I actually personally like my first rendition of Fried Rice. Yes i will do it again, but this time round, i'm swapping the dried chilli with fresh ones instead. Let's see if the chilli still wins next time. Heh.

Hey, don't forget to add salt while you're cooking ;) Depending on your threshold of saltiness, my Fried Rice enough for 3 had 1/2 teaspoon of salt.