How much was the ginger?

Tadi I pergi kedai sayur and saje lah tinjau2 Asian veges. Terbeliak jugak lah biji mata I ni tengok harga some of the veges. Halia yang tua tu now teramatlah mahalnya, macam beli emas aje! It was $27/kg. Lagi tua lagi mahal you! :-D. Wahhh, kalau my Emak and Abah tengok lah harga tu, mau terpengsan diaorang kejap agaknya. Dah lah banyak food western and asian yang I masak guna ginger in the ingredients. We all ada tanam ginger but dah takde ginger yang tua2 in our stock, semua masih lagi muda belia so the taste and smell are not that strong. But I think I would rather use our young ginger than buy ginger yang mahal giler kat kedai tu! Tak pun, I’ll just buy the minced ginger in a jar kalau dah desperate sangat, hikhikhik…

Lepas terkejut tengok ginger, I tengok pulak sayur kacang panjang. Belum sempat jantung I abis terkejut, dah terkejut balik tengok harga kacang panjang at $14/kg, hehehehe. Baru aje bercadang nak buat nasi kerabu one of these days but I guess kena lah ganti kacang panjang dgn green beans mcm tu. Sayur Asian apa lagi ye yang I nampak tadi? Oh ye.. Kangkung was $7/kg, terung panjang was $8/kg, serai was 99 cents sebatang (nasib baik kat belakang rumah tu berlambak2 serai, hehehe), keledek was $5/kg. Lebih kurang macam orang2 kat M’sia nak beli sayur overseas lah kan, mahal gilers kadang2 :-). But I selalu beli sayur ikut musim lah sebab senang nak dapat and cheaper compared to the veges yang out of season and imported. I guess sayur yang tengah in season sekarang ni would be cucumbers, capsicum, beans, celery, the big eggplant, lettuce, sweetcorns, zucchini…

Kat rumah I ni, sayur yang memang sentiasa kena ada in the crisper will be carrots and cabbage kot sebab dua2 tu tahan lama and lambat layu :-D. And there’s always frozen peas and corns in the freezer. Kalau dah takde sayur sangat, we all just microwaved aje peas n corns tu so at least ada lah jugak benda bernama sayur on our plates, hehehehe.

But sayur we all malam ni was acar sebab I masak kari for The Other Half and I. The Other Half will be going to Sydney esok for 3 days so saje je lah masak kan kari untuk dia (isteri mithali kan ;-)). But I guna daging bahagian brisket which is a bit fatty and tough so kenalah masak lama kan. Pastu I malas pulaknya nak letak and masak atas stove top sebab I nak keluar gi ambik The Little Misses at school. What I did was, I just buat masak the onions and rempah ratus and rempah kari until wangi atas dapur. Then I masukkan the brisket pieces, santan, tomato paste, air, garam n gula and kacau hingga sebati. Pastu I transferred everything masuk dlm oven proof caserole dish and baked it in the oven at 160C for a few hours. I tak payah risau dia hangus atas dapur or air dia kering or api mati ditiup angin. I relaxed aje tadi whilst it was merrily cooking in the oven.

And it came out really tender and so moist, the potatoes yang I masukkan kemudian pun was cooked just right. All the flavours dah meresap masuk in the beef and the fatty part of the daging pun dah ‘melted’ jadikan kari tu lagi oomph! (Masa ni jangan fikir pasal lemak ni bertapak in our body after we’ve eaten it :-)). But the best part was how hassle-free cooking it was. I ni kan jenis yang memang suka everything to be as simple as can be, hehehe….