Monday, November 29, 2004

Steam Siakap with Lemon


Siakap stim Posted by Hello

Siakap, Senohong,
Gelama, Ikan Duri,
Bercakap bohong,
Lama-lama mencuri.

I remember this pantun (rhyme), as my mom always used it as one of her medium to educate me. This is an old Malay’s rhyme; using the 4 different names of fish which is Siakap, Senohong, Gelama & Ikan Duri makes this rhyme so beautiful. Okey, today I just wanna share a recipe one of the fish from this pantun; Steam Siakap with Lemon.

INGREDIENTS
A medium-size ikan siakap which you can get for only RM5 at pasar malam in Penang.
3 tbsps oyster sauce
2 tbsps chili sauce
2 tbsps tomato sauce
4cm ginger, sliced thinly
3 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
1 onion, sliced
1/2 capsicum, sliced
1 tbsp lemon juice
sugar & salt to taste

METHODS
1. Baste sugar & salt to the whole fish.
2. Put the fish in the plate, atau pun pelengat. Add the sliced ingredients (ginger, garlic, onion, capsicum)
3. Pour the oyster, chili & tomato sauces. Boil water.
4. Steam around 20 mins.
5. Sprinkled the lemon juice.

If you want a local (traditional) taste for the steam fish, use lime juice instead of lemon juice and add serai, daun limau purut, ketumbar & lengkuas.

Kailan Ikan Masin | Salted Fish Kailan


Kailan ikan masin  Posted by Hello

Kailan ikan masin is among the popular vege dish at Penang. The beauty of this dish lies behind the quality of its ikan masin. I use salted Spanish Mackerel Fish.

INGREDIENTS
250g kalian
1 onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped finely
2 shallots, chopped finely
5cm salted Spanish Mackerel Fish, chopped
2 tbsps oyster sauce
½ carrot, grated
2 tbsps oil
Sugar & salt to taste

METHODS
1. Heat oil in a medium-sized pan over a medium fire. When hot, stir-fry garlic & shallots up to 3 mins.
2. Add the salted fish. Stir-frying until fragrant.
3. Add kalian, oyster sauce, & onion.
4. Top with grated carrots.

Saturday, November 27, 2004

Marton Corner

Last week, my husband & I having dinner at Marton Corner. Actually this is an open restaurant at the back of my house, Batu Uban. Since it is quite 'near' to my house (we have to cross the 6-lanes road), my husband always insists me to walk to the Corner. Of course, I won't do that. I can't imagine walking back home with my stomach fulls of food ;)

Here, at Marton Corner which offers variety of local/siam food, famous with its ikan bakar special(). Anyway, I just like the vege soup, the taste; lovely! The soup are hot and condensed with chicken's stock. I think this is the best vege soup in Penang. Unfortunately, the service is slow esp. at the peak hour. You have to wait 45mins - 1hr to get your foods ready:( So if you want to try its delicious vege soup, do the ordering first. You won't regret

Friday, November 26, 2004

Sambal Udang | Spicy Prawn Recipe

My sis-in-law always bought a cheap big prawns at pasar malam Lengkok Mahsuri. Imagine with RM5 you can get around 20 fresh big prawns! Very cheap. So I wanna cook Sambal Udang today.


cheap prawns Posted by Hello
This is my mom recipe. What make it different from other sambal? well, she add a little bit of jintan manis (fennel seeds) which will produce a nice aroma of sambal and great taste. Try it!


jintan manis Posted by Hello


sambal udang Posted by Hello

INGREDIENTS
20 prawns
1 onion
10 shallots
5 dried chillies
1cm ginger
1/2 tsp jintan manis (fennel seeds)
3 tbsps tamarind juice
sugar & salt to taste

METHODS
1. Blends jintan manis, onion, shallots, ginger and dried chillies.
2. Heat oil in a medium-sized pan over a medium fire. When hot, stir-fry the blended ingredients for 3 minutes.
3. Add the prawns.
4. After 3 minutes, add sugar and salt. Then add tamarind juice.

My fav culinary web portals (Malaysian Foods)

Mesra.net is my fav recipe resources for local foods. I love the way they manage the food databases and for each recipe you can view in printed mode (& of course you're allowed to print it:)). There are thousands of recipes from cookies to cakes, from main course to dessert, & from mee to sambal belacan. I have try the mee udang recipe & the taste : ummph!
This is the link
http://resepi.mesra.net

Another source is from the tv programme on Astro & NTV7; Ala-ala Kampung hosted by cute chef; Chef Ismail. What I like most about him that his simplicity at cooking. He'll mix the onions, tamarind juice, dried chilies together & blend it. So ez. You can get the recipes from season 3 to season 4 from this link:

http://ala-alakampung.tripod.com

Thursday, November 25, 2004

The day I start to cook

The day I started to cook was a disaster. The kuali was burnt badly and my food was HANGIT. shame.shame.shame on me. I was 26 years, and for Malaysian I'll be categorized as anak dara tak laku (low potential to get a husband) since I don't know how to cook!

My mom never taught me how to cook. She's so fussy at her cooking utensils and she's 'one-man show' chef. I never wash my plate since she used a different sponge for plate, different sponge for cups, different sponge for her tupperware colection etc. It is illegal to enter her 'territory'(the kitchen) while she's cooking. Sigh!

Thank God, I have moved to Penang and lived with Kak Nani & Kak Lela. From here, I start to develop my passion of cooking until now...even my first meal was hangit. My university room-mate, Kak Winna told me that I have a talent to cook based on my fat finger :) is it true? Well after 2 years I managed to cook even not as perfect as my mom but my hubby and friends loves my cooking. Yes, I get married not bcoz I know how to cook but for other reason; I'm his soul-mate. Heck ;)