Saturday, April 26, 2014

029 - Easy Salad! (EAT YOUR VEGGIES!)

Welcome to the first of ‘EAT YOUR VEGGIES!’ series! 

That’s right, you’re not reading it wrong.

EAT. YOUR. VEGGIES.

Vegetable rocks. Seriously.

I used to hate vegetables so bad, that I’d rather get my heart broken by a girl than finishing my plate of vegetables (yes, this is a metaphor, both sucked bad). But as time goes by, I knew there was more to life than a plate of vegetables right after you got dumped by a girl.

If you were to describe taste of vegetables, how would you describe it? Often, ‘Bitter’ would come to mind first more than the rest. Don’t be shocked, apparently, as children, we’re biologically designed to dislike bitter taste, thus, dislike vegetables. But as we grow up, some of us develop a taste for it, and thankfully, I did too!

This dish I’m about to present to you is often served at my home, and my mother called it ‘SELADA PADANG’. With a quick search of google, I found out that (the supposedly) authentic version uses potato and eggs for the base of the dressing. But my version has no potato in it. So it’s only fair I give this dish a whole new name right? ;)

So, here it is, KEWKUMBAH SAHLAD.
……
(that doesn’t sound as cool as I’d expected)
Okay, let’s just call this an EASY SALAD.

You will need:


1 medium sized cucumber. Don’t use Japanese Cucumber for this recipe. Cause, you know, they’re not suitable.
1 Ripe tomato.
1 Medium sized Romaine Lettuce
1 hard boiled eggs

For the dressing:

1 tbsp of smooth peanut butter. Or chunky, if you like a bit of a bite.
1 tbsp of sugar
2.5 tbsp of white vinegar.
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

For the garnish:

Fried Shallots

Ready? Here We Go!

Step 1 – Peel the cucumber. Make it fancy by making a large space between each peel, making it look like a zebra mark. Nothing says fancy like…you know, stripes. After peeling, slice it in half, and use a spoon to discard the watery-seeds. Use a paper towel to wipe the insides of the cucumber dry. Set it aside.


Peel
Halved

De-seed
Chop

Step 2 – Slice your tomato into small cubes. This thing is a watery-mess. I never liked it. But it tasted awesome. If you never tasted a fully ripened tomato, you are truly missing some of the best part in life. Set it aside. Also sliced your Romaine lettuce to bite sized pieces


Cube
Slice into bite size chunk

Step 3 – Slice your hard boiled eggs in half. Pinch each half to release the yolk. Keep the yolks for the dressing later, and slice the whites thinly.

Half
Slice

Step 4 – Prepare your dressing. Now, my mother told me, the secret to the great dressing for this recipe lies on….care for a guess? Yep. EGG YOLK. An egg yolk taken from a boiled whole eggs are the key to the creaminess. Get a bowl and throw your egg yolk, peanut butter, vinegar, sugar, and salt in it. Mix it thoroughly. Mix it in and whip it hard until it becomes a smooth paste.

Egg Yolk
Peanut Butter
Vinegar
Salt
Pepper
Sugar
Mix

Step 5 – Combine everything. Use a spoon, and fold the dressing to the cucumber, lettuce, and tomatoes. Be gentle. Think like going on a first date with a girl. You’re not going on a limb here and talk about sex or marriage straight away, rather taking it slow with a chit chat about passion and music. See what I meant? Oh, and the egg whites goes last.


Step 6 – Garnish, and serve!



This simple salad is a staple in my household. Usually, it accompanies a deep fried Pomfret because the salty-creamy-almost-sourish taste complements the flavor perfectly.
A tip I never forget whenever I’m making a salad is always taste the dressing. You’ll never know how it tastes like unless you tried it yourself. Remember, not everyone is fond of sour taste.
Give this a go, go and make your parents proud. Stand tall, scream on top of your lungs.  
“I JUST ATE VEGETABLES!”


Peace


xx

Friday, April 18, 2014

028 - Rainbow Rice Crispies Treat!

As you can see from my last week recipe, I’m currently obsessed with easy desserts. I don’t know why. But to me, a treat that is sweet AND easy to make sounds like pure gold. And for this week, the recipe is DEAD EASY. All you will need are 3 basic ingredients, and a whole lot of imagination. If that isn’t easy, I don’t know what is.

Introducing, RICE CRISPIES TREAT.



You will need:

1 bag (300 grams) Marshmallows. Big sized or mini sized, both worked just fine. If you’re a conscious Moslem, there are Marshmallows that are made with Cow Gelatin instead of Pig in the market.
130 grams of plain Rice Krispies cereal. This is also called ‘Rice Puff’ in some places. Not trying to be sounding like I need an endorsement, but Kellogg’s are the way to go!
4 Tbsp of Butter. I’ve yet to find a recipe that substitute this with Margarine, but if you gave it a go, let me know how it turns out!

Equipment:

1 Large baking dish, for shaping the treats obviously. I’m using my brownie pan
Aluminium Foil.
Oil/Cooking spray

Reader, keep in mind, you can actually whip this up all together with no problem at all. But, I’m feeling a bit adventurous today, so I’m making this a RAINBOW RICE CRISPIES TREAT. With that being said, I’m adding 5 food coloring (Dark Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, and Blue) to the overall ingredient to recreate a rainbow.

If you decided to make it a Rainbow treat, just divide the overall recipe into 5 separate portion for each color. I will be giving the details in the steps.

Ready? Here We Go!

Step 1 – Line your pan with aluminium foil. Here’s a neat trick to make it easier: Flip your pan, adjust the foil to be put into the center of the squares and press down to the shape of the pan. Flip it, and just put it in, VOILA


Flip
Adjust the foil so it overlaps
Press!
Shape!
Insert!

All set up!


Step 2 – Heat the pan on medium-low heat (Gas mark 6 in an electric stovetop), put in your butter. If you’re going for regular treats, put ALL your butter in. If you’re going for Rainbow, put 1/5 of the butter in.



Step 3 – Once the butter has melted completely, time for the Marshmallows to be melted. Again, you can either put ALL of it for regular treats, or 1/5 (60 grams to be exact) of it for Rainbow treats. Use a spatula that has been wiped with oil or sprayed with cooking spray to mix. TRUST ME, you definitely NEED to lubricate the tools. Stir vigorously STILL on LOW heat to avoid scorching the Marshy. 

It goes in
It gets stirred
It MELTS!

Step 4 – For regular treats, put ALL of your Rice Krispies into the pan and stir to mix with an oiled-spatula (to avoid it sticking, obviously). If you’re doing the Rainbow, put in 5-6 drops of food coloring (start from the darkest color, going ascending to the lightest one, or vice versa), and stir vigorously before putting 1/5 of the cereal (Approx 26 grams) in and continue stirring

No, that's not period blood.
..but it did get swirled!
Puff goes in
Puff goes stir-stir
Gooey

Step 5 – Working quickly (because this mix hardens REAL fast), spread the cereal-marshy mix into the pan that is previously wiped with cooking oil/cooking spray. For regular treats, this is as far as you go. All that is left is to wait for it to harden in about 15 minutes. For Rainbow treats, repeat step 2-4, until you have made the rest of the 4 color mix.

Work fast, these things hardens in no time
First of the 5 color

Step 6 – SERVE!



Oh man, this is seriously the nicest looking treats I ever whip up so far. This tasted gooey, and crunchy both at the same time.

But keep in mind, this treat tasted the best at the day it is made. 

If you’re going to keep some of it, use a sealed jar, and it will keep for 2 days in room temperature before going rock hard. But I suggest keeping it inside a sealed bag in a freezer; it will keep for almost 2 months. To serve freezer-kept treats, let it thaw in room temperature for 15 minutes before eating it.

Please, please, please, give this a go. I know if you had children, they will absolutely love it. I’m not saying that Adult wouldn’t like it, but the taste is a bit too sweet for some adults. But not for ME. THIS IS HEAVEN



Peace

xx

Saturday, April 12, 2014

027 - SUGAR HEAVEN 99

Okay, for those having zero tolerance to sweet stuff, look away. This week recipe is bound to scare the shit out of you, you’ll be begging for mercy just from knowing what it is.

Ever watch a television show on travel channel that covers the food of a state fair in the US? Some of you might actually have a clue of what I’m talking about here. Fuck yes; it’s the deep fried food. And this time, let me take you and your taste palate to a journey of self-discovery. A trip of a lifetime in search of the meaning of life; flying right through the Cosmos.

Wait.

This ain’t NGC. Sorry Neil, I’m not stealing your thunder here ;P

Anyway, I’m calling this week recipe a theme rather than a specific name. 

Welcome to SUGAR HEAVEN 99.

Y’all won’t be ready for this, so let’s just get on with it!


You will need:


1 Pack of Oreo. I think this consisted of 12 piece of cookie. Go for your favorite flavor. As you can see here, I got me some Double Stuf
1 pack of Snickers.
Enough oil for frying

For the batter

1 ½ cup of All Purpose Flour
½ tsp of Salt
1 Egg
1 cup of plain Milk. COLD
1 tsp of Baking Powder
1 ½ tbsp of Sugar

So you think you can handle this? Are you sure? Well, if you said so

Ready? Here We Go!

Step 1 – Unwrap both the Oreos and the Snickers from the packaging, and let it freeze inside the freezer for at least 3-4 hours. Best if its left overnight. Without freezing, the cookie and the chocolate bar will melt uncontrollably. And we don’t want that. We wanna do this in a very strictly controlled condition! (that sounded WAAAY too militarized lol). Leave them inside the freezer until just before frying. Oh yes, no picture. Y'all know what 'Unwrap' means right?

Step 2 – Mix your egg and milk. On a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar. Stir to combine. Pour the egg/milk mixture to the flour mix, and stir vigorously to ensure there are no lumps. Legend has it that the better had to be cold to ensure it is crisp. But I’ve yet to find this kind of batter that turn out crisp after frying. This batter will turn out a little crisp, but mostly cakey.

Egg goes together with milk. (that almost sounded like a porno pun LOL)
Stir to combine
Flour
Baking Powder
Salt
Sugar
Stir, Stir, STIR!
Wet x Dry
Stir
Right consistency!
Step 3 – Heat your oil, highest heat you can afford. We’re utilizing flash frying method, in which the cooking time will be as little as a minute or so.



Step 4 – Dunk your Oreos and Snickers to the batter, and coat it evenly. Just before frying, let the excess batter drip down. We don’t want too much excess on the pan. Too much Excess => Burnt Excess => will probably ruin the remaining batch.

A lil' bit of skinny dipping

Step 5 – FRY THE BASTARDS!!! Do them in batches to avoid the temperature dropping. Just fry them long enough so the batter will turn golden brown. This will take about 30 seconds per side for both Oreo and Snickers. After it turns golden brown, pick ‘em up and let it drain over a paper towel. Remember, cooking time WILL vary. Trust your sight and instinct!

Initial drop
Joined by the comrades
Right after the flip
All done
And no, i did not forget about the Snickers x). This one took about 20 seconds on each side. Snickers are more prone to melting.

Step 6 – SERVE!



Um, mom, dad, i'm sorry for ever recreating this recipe in our kitchen, but this thing IS SO DAMN GOOD

I would describe it as a surprise of a texture more than the taste. The Oreo is especially gooey and creamy after frying. Snickers had its chocolate layer melted, while the caramel gets even more gooey and warm, creating this new eating experience.

Okay, i'm serious now, please eat this sparingly. This recipe is known to induce Diabetes and Heart Attack if you eat it recklessly. But if you're the daring one.

GO FOR IT


Okay, last one




Peace

xx