Finally, I have started….

Alhamdulillah, dah terbuka hati I…

Hikhikhikhik…..

Terbuka juga hati I nak start buat kuih raya finally

(Mbakyu Ijah kat Bangkok tu dah buat 3-4 jenis kukis, I baru nak terhegeh2, hehehe).

Jenuh I memasak jem nenas ni, dari malam tadi sebelum berbuka and then had to swtich off the gas bila nak masuk tidur and then terus sambung pagi ni masa bangun sahur! Berjam2 I masak atas api tu baru kering!

Tu lah, sape suruh pemalas guna canned pineapples, kan susah giler nak kering kan, hehehe.

So, start hari ni and esok2, kenalah I kurang kan lagi masa melepak depan PC sebab nak  buat kuih Raya in the hope of nak jadi tuan rumah mithali masa Raya nanti, muahahaha…..

And start hari jugak, kuih muih Iftar I akan start berkurangan jugaklah sebab sure nya tak sempat nak buat cookies lah, kuih gunting lah, 2-3 jenis kuih muih buka lagi lah, kemas rumah nak sambut Raya lagi lah, heeeee……

Gambar2 food kat blog ni pun maybe gak lah akan berkurangan.

Takpe takpe, pandai2 lah I tayang gambar lain nanti kan!

But I still sempat jugak buat roti untuk berbuka semalam (sebab masih belum start gear masak kukis kan).

I buat 2 jenis, red bean buns and kaya buns.

Everyone agreed yang the kaya buns lagi sedap dari the red bean buns, hehehe.

I used hainanese kaya with honey (kedai mari) yang sangat lemak berkrim so maybe sebab tu kot kaya bun lagi sedap .

Home-made tepung ‘mekap’

Pagi2 semalam bila pergi blogwalking, ternampak lah kuih tepung gomak yang sangat2 lah ‘mengecur air liur’ kan kat rumah Mbakyu Ana ni.

Biasalah lah anything yang revolves around pulut ni masa bulan puasa, memang sentiasa kena dengan tekak I.

Kat gerai ramadhan every Sunday kat sini ada jual tepung gomak but 4 biji kecik dah $3.50 rege dia. Punyalah tak kuasa I tengok harga semahal itu when I know tak susah mana buat tepung gomak ni. Tepung pulut 1 packet kat sini baru aje $1 .

So, tengah hari semalam I pun merajinkan diri buat tepung gomak ni. I buat macam Ana, guna inti kacang merah. But instead of bulat2 kan inti kacang merah tu, I terus leperkan dia, then only I balut dengan doh tepung pulut itu. For me, lagi senang buat macam ni dari buat bulat2 dulu and then balut and then leperkan.

But lepas dah buat semua tu, baru lah I terperasan yang I tak ada tepung kacang hijau untuk I golek golekkan the cooked dough.

Buruk sgt lah rupa dia nanti kalau tak mekap kan dgn tepung kacang hijau tu kan!

I pun kelam kabut rushed to the asian shops sebelum ambik The Little Misses. I went to 2 shops nak cari this elusive tepung kacang hijau.

Punyalah terkejut I tengok harga dia….

$3.50 for a very small 100g pack!

Terus I letak balik, tak jadi beli sebab memang dasar cheapskate kan, hahaha…

And you know what I did?

I still dapat mekap kan my tepung gomak even though tak beli the tepung kacang hijau.

I came home and sangai/dry fry kacang hijau (mung beans) until they are roasted. Then I ground them in the coffee grinder (which I bought for dry grinding my spices and what not) until they become flour-like.

Then I added a bit of sugar and salt to the ground roasted mung beans, then ground them some more.

See….up close and personal pun still nampak begitu lah cantik mekap dia kan, hikhikhik….

And it didn’t cost me $3.50 to make a 100g of it!

Luckily everyone ate it and even The Other Half loved my tepung gomak .

But I also made murtabak segera and keria balls just in case no one likes the tepung gomak except me.

(psst….maybe sebab ni kot I tak sempat2 nak buat kuih raya lagi. Sebab I’ve been spending too much time on making kuih muih for Iftar that I dont have enough time nak buat kuih raya? heeeee….)

And for dinner pulak, I made fettucine in pesto with prawns, mushroom and broccoli.

I used fresh fettucine and shop bought pesto so it didn’t take long to cook this simple dinner .

When can I start?

I found out semalam yang kat sini pun ada biskut raya tunjuk tunjuk jugak!

Tapi kena order baru dapat instead of in the true sense of just main tunjuk tunjuk aje.

Macam macam boleh order you! hehehehe…

What I heard semalam, the biskut on order were biskut makmur (which I really love but I tak order sebab inti dia guna kacang tanah ), kuih tart nenas (which I also tak order sebab besar hajat di hati nak buat sendiri, hehehe), kuih layang (I have no idea what this is), kuih suji, biskut cheese (which I also do not know what this is), biskut mama carey and a few others I can’t remember.

And harga dia was really reasonable lah. They were selling it for $30/100 pieces.

My friends kat masjid semalam dah tunjuk tunjuk aka order order…Bila pulak I nak start my engine buat kuih raya ni!!!!!!!

Uwaaaaaahhhhhhhh……

I just need a slight push to the right direction……

I rasa macam tak cukup tangan nak buat everything…..

Bila I tengok previous years posts on biskut raya yang I made and the open house I did, I really tak tau where I got all the energy and the time to do all those things. I rasa macam bukan I aje yang buat all those things, hehehehe.

For Iftar last night, I jst goreng keropok lekor (frozen from Msia, cant remember what brand though). I goreng banyak2 so everyone kenyang makan itu aje, hahaha.

Rasa dia not bad lah. Tak lah sesedap fresh keropok lekor from Ganu tu but compared to my home made keropok lekor, memang sedap seribu kali lah, heeee….

And I think lagi sedap dari some keropok lekor yang I pernah beli kat pasar malam kat Msia tu.

And for dessert, I made jam meringue tart. On Saturday night, I tengok Jamie masak this tart on his ‘30 minutes dinner’ program. So, I pun perasan lah yang I can make it in 30 minutes as well. But dia guna ready made tart shells, I pulak baru terhegeh2 nak keluarkan shortcrust pastry dari freezer and nak tunggu dia thaw and then nak cut it…..

But sempatlah jugak siap before berbuka, hahahaha…

I guna blackcurrant jam and fresh sliced apple.

It tasted really good actually .

Saturday at home

Ahhh….bestnya dapat duduk kat kerusi baru….

Sambil feeling feeling jadi mem besar sekejap . (now where has the maid gone to?).

The best place to read a book as well.

Hikhikhikhik….

There are only 2 recliners in the set and Mum and Dad supposed to get the first try at them but biasalah kan, Mum and Dad selalunya busy so diaorang lah yang merasmikan dulu .

(Atuk kalau ada kat sini, sure nya akan suka habis duduk+tidur+tengok tv on the recliner. Maulah kot malam2 pun tidur kat recliner jugak, hehehe.)

Mum busy kat dapur masak kuih serimuka for iftar. I buat 1 loyang tapi yang makan nya cuma I and The Other Half aje. Miss 7 cuma makan sekeping and Miss 12 memang tak pandang pun. Ye lah kan, why pandang serimuka when there’s a plate of pancakes with cream in front of them!

(edit: I forgot to letak the link for the serimuka. I guna recipe NanaSham kat Myresipi. Memang sedap!)

I also goreng karipap and spring rolls yang I found in the freezer tu so lagilah takde sape yang akan pandang the serimuka ni kan.

We’ll be having serimuka for the next few days lah nampak gayanya, hehehe.

And for dinner pulak, we had sausages, corn chips with salsa and cheese sauce and green salad.

I used this recipe for the cheese sauce. It had a different taste to the usual cheese sauce. Definitely richer and nicer than the usual cheese sauce .

And ini pulak the pengat campur2 I made a few days ago sebab I really wanted to eat pengat keladi.

I added gentelan tepung pulut to it as well. And as usual with pengat2 ni, I sorang aje yang makan and habiskan, hehehe.

The most expensive kuah kacang

So far, The Little Misses haven’t missed a day of fasting.

Even though last Wednesday after school, Miss 7 walked up to me and said, “I have a very strong urge to drink. My mouth is so dry.” .

Every Wednesday, she has 2 hours of sports at school which is 1 hour of Phys. Ed. and 1 hour of Sports Carnival practice. I told her not to exert herself too much masa Sports practice tu so tak lah dia rasa haus sangat.

But Rabu lepas, she said that they were practicing sprinting and racing and it looked like so much fun so she joined in. Of course lah bila lari pecut2 kat padang on a sunny day you akan rasa haus kan!

.

But it was already 3 o’clock at that time and iftar pulak at 5.46 so I pun pujuk dia to wait. Balik rumah tu I asked her to mandi so she cools down a bit and suruh dia lepak depan tv until buka puasa. But every half an hour asik tanya I aje berapa lama lagi nak buka sebab her mouth dah memang takde saliva langsung nak telan, hehehehe…..

Bila azan berkumandang aje, dia terus teguk air sampai 2 gelas, memang haus gilers lah tu, hahaha.

Semalam, I was really stumped on what to cook for dinner. Baru aje puasa 11 hari tapi dah tak tau nak masak apa for dinner.

At 1.30 baru lah I terfikir nak masak ‘sate’ ayam. So, kelam kabut I defrosted the chicken breast and sempatlah marinate ayam tu for a few hours.

And then I terfikir nak buat kuah kacang with a twist .

Since Miss 7 tak boleh makan peanuts, I pun kenalah buat kacang using other nuts. I found mixed nuts in the pantry. Ada cashew, almond, macadamia, brazil and walnuts in the mix. I just blitz them all in the food processor.

The Other Half kata, “I think this is the most expensive kuah kacang in the world!”

Mau nya tak expensive, siap guna macadamia lagi tu! Hahahahaha…..

But my kuah kacang looks so pathetic sebab:

1. I made it tak pedas langsung so The Little Misses can eat it so obviously colour dia tak merah cantik.

2. I buat kurang minyak so takdelah this layer of shining minyak on top.

3. I terlupa sekejap when it was on the stove top so ter burnt a bit, tu yang kaler dia tetiba tukar jadi greyish brown. hehehe..

4. I haven’t made kuah kacang for so long that I’ve forgotten how to make thus rasa dia amatlah tak macam kuah kacang.

Meh, close up sikit of the pathetic looking kuah kacang…

The Other Half kata, nasib baik ada sambal dalam jar so it really helps in making it more edible.

Hahahahaha……

But Miss 7 loves it! .

Finally, 1 tag is done

Hari ni, I can’t be bothered to tayang gambar our iftar and dinner food last night. I didn’t even take any photos of them, memang malas sangat2 nak ambik gambar.

So, dari takde entry, baiklah I jawab tag from Shidah ni. She’s given me 2 pieces of homework but since I bukannya a dedicated student so I buat satu dulu lah.

I have done a similiar tag before but since I ‘rajin’ pagi ni while waiting for the washing machine to finish its job (banyak lagi kerja rumah boleh dibuat tapi I nak buat pura2 tak nampak pagi ni, hahaha), I will state 7 other ‘facts’ about myself .

Before that, kena tayang the awards that came along with the tag.

The 7 facts (or is it fiction??? you have to decide yourself, hikhikhik):

1. I do not know how to tie/knot a tie. I’ve tried a few times but . Luckily my hubby knows how to tie it himself so everytime he needs to wear one (which is not often, thank goodness), he does it himself. I guess I tak pernah pergi finishing school kan yang ajar girls to be more feminine, do feminine stuff and also teach them how to tie their husbands’ ties, hehehe.

2. I do not know how to put make-ups on. I’ve tried tengok on youtube on how to do it properly but everytime I tengok the videos, I rasa macam dengar an alien language aje. I have no idea what they were talking about. Even masa kahwin pun takde letak make-up segantang, hahaha. Masa kahwin kat Adelaide, my friend volunteered her ‘expertise’ of doing up my face but since her ‘expertise’ was only slightly better than mine, memang kira bukan macam nak kahwin gah2 lah, heeee. And masa kenduri kahwin kat Msia, since takde bersanding, lagilah I cuma letak lipstick aje kot, hikhikhik… So not macam pengantin!

3. I am very wary of making friends. Sangatlah susah nya untuk I ‘rapat’ dengan anyone sebab I do not want this ‘friends’ to be busybodies nosy parkers. Sebab biasalahkan, once you start baik dengan people, they tend to want to know more about you, from your past to your present (what you did before, who you were before and so on) to everything about you which I find a bit uncomfortable. I think sebab I ni jenis yang wont ask about people’s past/life unless they want to tell me themselves so I expect people to do the same to me but susah nak stop some people doing that. Selalunya I pegang prinsip ‘only tell if they need to know’ basis. Kalau ada reason penting they need to know about me, then I will tell them. Kalau setakat nak tau for the sake of nak tau, malaslah I nak bagi tau, hahaha.

4.I love the colours blue and brown now (clothes-wise). Which I know menunjukkan betapa tuanya lah I ni kan, hahaha. Kalau you tengok my wardrobe, memang mostly you akan nampak either brown, blue or black. And adalah terselit sikit2 a splash of other brighter colours which I selalunya beli masa I tengah PMT, hikhikhik.

5.The highest heel I have is 3 inches (and only 1 pair sahaja). And the last time I pakai this heel was probably a few years ago kot, hehehe. I rasa kalau I pakai kasut macam Lady Gaga tingginya, mau lah I dapat altitude sickness kot . And I still haven’t got any wedges at all which is so not fashion conscious kan!

6. I memang dari kecik dah ‘suka’ masak albeit cuma goreng telur and masak sayur goreng sahaja. I enjoyed them time I spent in the kitchen main masak2 and trying not to burn the house down at the same time masa kecik2 dulu. And bila lepas SPM kena duduk dengan arwah Atuk I yang masa tu baru kematian isteri and my Mak kerja lagi masa tu, so I lah yang ditugaskan jadi tukang masak. You taulah kan, kalau duduk dengan orang tua yang had very good tastebuds ni, memang siksa at first. I selalu kena ‘nasihat’ kalau my food memang rasa dia tak boleh belah. But the good thing was, he would praise my food depan orang ramai kalau kena dengan tekak dia. It made me feel so chuffed! . So, I guess bila dah kahwin Mat Saleh with slightly different tastebuds and then ada family ni , my cooking skills develop even more gradually. But tak lah sampai tahap boleh jadi tukang masak terkenal ala Nigella tu.

7. I didn’t get any wang hantaran masa kahwin dulu, nil nada, zilch, not even 1 cent. Hikhikhikhik….Memang gelak lah kalau ingat sebab sekarang ni, koman2 wang hantaran pun dah RM5000 kan. Pastu, kalau makin tinggi pelajaran, makin tinggi wang hantaran . Masa tu we all students, mana ada duit unless rompak bank or menang lottery kan, hehehe. Kesian mak bapak I tak dapat wang hantaran dari pihak lelaki. Nasib baik lah masa kenduri kat Msia, duit received from guests enough to ganti balik modal buat kenduri, hahaha….

Ramblings di bulan puasa

Last year masa bulan puasa I was getting busy packing the house for the move. My mind masa tu was filled with boxes and boxes and boxes hari hari, hehehe.

It’s been nearly a year since we moved into our own house, sekejap aje masa berlalu kan!

I surely do not miss the 3-monthly house inspection though!

But sometimes, terasa jugak alangkah bestnya kalau we are still renting instead of owning the house ni especially when we receive so many bills from the councils.

Masa menyewa dulu, we dont have to worry about increasing rates rise, paying the council rates which is exorbitant, the sewerage fees, all the yearly services that need to be done on the aircond system, the hotwater system and maintenance and so on. All these bills were paid by the owner.

Bila ada benda rosak kat rumah sewa tu, we just need to call the agent and someone will come to the house to fix it and the owner will be charged for it. We all duk goyang kaki aje.

Sekarang ni bila dah jadi home owner, barulah terasa betapa syahdunya menengok all the bills kadang2, hahaha.

But The Little Misses are happier now because they can decorate their bedroom walls and ceilings as much as they want to without any repercussion. Dulu masa menyewa mana boleh sebarangan nak letak anything on the walls kan.

You should see their rooms now, penuh dengan entah hapa2, hehehe.

Hari ni for Iftar, I cuma buat jemput2 ikan bilis and kuih keria saje. The Little Misses tak suka jemput2 ikan bilis sebab they said it’s not as nice as jemput2 udang. Tu yang I buat sikit aje compared to keria yang I buat 1 pinggan!

And for dinner pulak, I made sushi with different fillings and toppings. We had smoked salmon, crabsticks, prawns, raw tuna and seared tuna.

Kalah bahan2 nak buat sushi party, hahaha.

Masa ni I dah malas nak gulung so I just kepal2 the rice and top it with different stuff.

Some of the tuna we all makan raw and some I seared on high heat so outside is cooked but raw inside. I bought the tuna that’s sold specially to be eaten raw in sashimi, first time beli this kind of tuna . It’s really good. Harga dia mahal sikit from the normal ones but you dont need much anyway.

This ones yang I terrajin nak menggulung with prawns, crabsticks, smoked salmon and raw tuna.