0024 - Sambal Balado Hana 1.0

1 Tomato - 1 Onion - 5 Fresh Chili - 1/2 Lemon - 1tblsp Sugar - 1/2tsp Salt

Blend the tomato & chili very roughly with very little water. Make sure the blended mix is not too watery. Mix them in a saucepan of hot oil (3 tblsps maybe), together with the onion which you would have sliced thinly earlier. Let it all simmer in medium fire for about 15minutes or at least till the purplish/redish onion turns colourless :) Add 1/2 lemon juice with the sugar and salt.

Let them all simmer and gargle in the heat.

*

It was supposed to be a trial dish as i was hungry and really wanted to have something familiar from home, for lunch. But it turned out enough for 2 people. Matt tried two mouthfuls only because he just got back and already had lunch at work. The rest is for Fadli. Hope they both like the trial outcome, coz i do! HeHe.

I fried a few eggs to go with it and if you wanna try, you can have it with about almost anything & everything!

0023 - Chix Pasta Matt 1.0

I remembered him using a Leggos bottle of sauce but i can't remember exactly which was it. Not that it matters anyway. With Mr. Mann, with any sauce whatsoever, he will improvise.

We had 1 last piece of Chicken Breast left in the freezer which he cut into smaller pieces and fried them just slightly before adding them together with the sauce. He added some onions and green chili to give it some spice (of course). And finally, a little bit of his basil from his little garden outside.

Just grate some cheese and it was a fulfilling dinner yet again :)

0022 - Ayam Sambal Goreng Hana 1.0

It's been an endless supply of beef over the week... so as you'd prolly guess, we've exhausted all of it. Looks like it's chicken time now................... YaaaY!!!

(and it looks like both Fadli & Matt - my housemates - are keen on going meat shopping tomorrow. good.)



So what's the inspiration to this dish, this time round...? :)

Me: Here's my curry today! (*attached 2 images into the email)

Mum: Wah macam sedap but it looks like kuah lemak & I think it's the rempah curry. Syabas... (Wah, looks good but it looks like Lemak Ayam & i think it's the curry powder. Congrats...)

Me: Yah. I think coz it's Malaysian curry? Next time, i'll try buy Indian curry. Pat sini they don't differentiate Malabar curry or anything like that. They go by Malaysian curry, Tndian curry, Thai curry, etc.

Mum: Ya , you're right, why not try the Indian curry next time. Now why dun u try Ayam masak Sambal Goreng yang selalu mak masak tapi mak tak taroh vegetables. (Now why don't you try Ayam masak Sambal Goreng, the one that i always cook at home but without vegetables.)

Serves 4

Slice the following thinly & place them aside:
1 or 1/2 Onion
1 Red Chili
1 Green cili

1/2 cook Chicken pieces marinated in Tumeric & Salt

Blend the following really well:
A few pieces of dried chili with 4 Pieces of Fresh Chili
3 Onions
3 Garlic
2 Lemongrass

Simmer the blended mix in hot oil for about 15 minutes before adding in the 1/2 fried chicken and let in cook in medium heat for another 10-15 minutes. Once you think the chicken is well-cooked, add 1 teaspoon of salt , 2 tablespoons of sugar and squeeze 1 whole lemon.

Once the whole dish is gargling in heat and it doesn't seem too watery or too thick, add in the thinly sliced vegetables and mix them in well.

Serve with hot, steamy rice again!



This wasn't the original recipe from my mum. She had ingredients like Lengkuas & Belacan which i don't have over here. But because they're optional, i didn't bother :) About the dried chili... i used a mix of both dried and fresh, coz the dried ones over here in Australia is a real killer - seriously - and although mum suggested 5 or 6 whole Fresh Chilies, i still wanted to mix as i doooo want the spice. And like i said in my previous entry, Matt's threshold of chili is pretty good :) He seems to like his dishes with a little bit of spice. Plus... what's a dish without any sort of spice anyway!

I know Wani have tried the Soup Hana 1.0 or i think she mentioned the other Soup... but if anyone of you have tried anything here... do share!

:)

ps: I LOVE MY RENDITION OF ayam sambal goreng! and notice that i've actually added CARROTS... lol!

0021 - Beef Curry Hana 1.0

The past week have been "CURRY" week over here. It started with Matt's first attempt. I knew he've been wanting to eat curry coz he've tried to make it a few times. So i was telling my mum about his few attempts. Although i've been wanting to try make Asam Pedas, mum told me to go ahead try make curry for him to eat instead.

And so i did.



It didn't turn out as i expected but... that was prolly alright for a first attempt. So... yaaay!

Serves 3

2 Onions
6 Garlic
1 inch Ginger

* Blend all of the above with the right amount of water :) - maybe 120ml or 3/4 of the mix

Simmer the blended mix with 3 tbl spoons of Curry Powder and Curry Leaves for about 10-15mins. Please remember to boil your Diced Beef beforehand coz you're going to add them into this mix after simmering them in oil. Add potatoes - the quantity will be entirely up to you - and let them all simmer in medium heat till tender :)

Squeeze 1/2 Lemon juice into this hot mix and maybe 1/2 teaspoon of Salt. Just in case you want the dish to be a little bit more spicy, you can actually add either 1 piece of Fresh Red or Green chili. In my rendition, i actually added 1 of each chili. HaHa. I am afterall still experimenting with cooking, so i'll just do whatever works. Plus... you'l be amazed at Matt's threshold of chili intake. Way better than mine.

Serve hot with fluffy long grain rice! :)

0020 - Beef Nachos Matt 2.0

Previously, Matt made Beef Nachos with Salsa & Guacamole.

Today, he took both Chili from his little garden and mixed them into his Salsa. No guacamole this time round though. But it's still good for me. Oh, take note of the "V" drink. It's my favourite fix at the moment. I wonder why we don't have it in Singapore...

So anyway... notice the amount of Western food we've been indulging lately? Blame Matt.

0019 - Beef Bolognese Matt 2.0

He got a jar of Dolmio after work thinking he could make Spaghetti for dinner the other night. But we ran out off it, and sub it with... rice instead. LoL! It was obviously a first time for me, but hey... i'm not complaining. I love it!

It was Minced Beef with Capsicum, Snow Peas, Carrots & Onions. If i remember correctly, Matt added some Thai Sweet Chili into this mix as well. So, don't be fooled by the 'Chili Seeds' you see in the picture above. It's not burning hot & spicy or anything like that :)

We had a lot of leftover which we brought to work/school for lunch today... it was good. As you can see, i'm eating really, really well here.

0018 - Buttered Chicken w/ Tuna Matt 1.0

Matt got a jar of Buttered Chicken, a can of Tuna & Capsicums from the supermarket recently. Together with the leftover Eggplant from one of our recent BBQ, he mixed them all pretty well to come up with this Buttered Chicken w/ Tuna dish. He used some Fresh Chili he found in the fridge to jazz up his dish of course.

Certainly, with hot, steamy, fluffy rice :)

I finished my bowl of rice but he finished off the eggplants for me. Obviously, i am not a fan of eggplants. HeHe.

And yes, you did read correctly. TUNA in mix of buttered CHICKEN :)

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.