Day 72 ... Tom Yum Fried Lai Farn

TOM YUM FRIED LAI FARN

This evening, Bryan fried some noodles with the laksa noodles we had left from our cooking session on Saturday. Grace brought two packets of KNORR Mushroom stock-cubes (with no added preservatives) from Singapore - Yup, from Singapore, You can't find it here ... and I suggested that we try that.

So, here's how Bryan did his night time big-fry hawker cooking at home. :D

1. Beat 2 eggs, fry like an omellette 

and break it up.

2. Saute onions and  garlic in sesame seed oil.

Add 1/4 of mushroom cube and tom yum paste.

Add limau kasturi leaves (shred thinly).

Add noodles. Add water.

Add dark sauce, shoyu and pepper.

3. Toss the egg into the pan and stir fry to mix.

Garnish with strips of red chilly, 

a sprig of mint leaf and limau kasturi.

There's just something irresistable about lai farn, I think. Have always liked this laksa noodle, all slippery and goes with any kind of stir-fry or soup. Cathy had said that even the other kind of laksa noodle is nice. Think I'd try to get that the next time and maybe do a soup thingy with that.

Ohh, dinner was just heavenly. The noodles were extremely flavourful, though made up of simple ingredients only. The limau kasturi leaves sure gave a twangy taste to it. :D


Time of Posting : 12:57pm (Monday)

Day 71 ... Penang Assam Laksa

PENANG ASSAM LAKSA

This evening, we had the most wonderful time preparing assam laksa, Penang-style. 

Our dinner chef-guests were Cathy, Ming, Hayley, Grace, Amelia and Uni.
The above picture is Cathy's creation. :D

1. The Fish

 3 kinds of fish : Parang. Tenggiri and Mabong

Boil the fish in filtered water.

No need to marinate. No need salt.

Simple, right?

 2. The Soup

These are the ingredients for the soup base.

Lemon grass, shallots, bunga kantan, tumeric root, galangal,

belacan, assam jawa, assam keping, blended dried chilly paste and daun kesum.

Blend : shallots, belacan, tumeric root, lemon grass

Boil in a large pot with filtered water.

Simple, right?

3. The Garnishing

Pineapple, bunga kantan, cucumber, limau kasturi, large onions, 

mint leaves, green and red chillies and heko (prawn paste).

We do not have chinese green salad (the one you use for joo hoo char) 

so we're gonna romaine lettuce (cut into slim strips).

Simple, right?

Cathy, our Head Chef of Assam Laksa committee, 

begins the cooking ceremony by boiling the fish.

We are allowing Bryan to take this snapshot with the assam laksa ingredients for his blog even though strictly speaking, he isn't in the assam laksa committee. He's in the DRINKS sector.  :D  Our order of drinks for the evening include his famous teh tarik panas, and newly added into the list are hot milo, chilled biofruity and ah, sky juice. For coffee, we have to do it ourselves.

Grace and Amelia preparing the garnishing ingredients.

The shallots, belacan, tumeric root and lemon grass 

are blended before adding into the soup base.

Uni is preparing the pineapple strips.

While the soup is boiling, the girls are carefully stripping the fish to the bones.

The flesh is amazingly tasty and fresh.

No fishy smell at all. My first time tasting boiled fish on its own. 

It is really, really good. :D

The garnishing is all ready ...

They are so pretty to look at ...

A lot of labor of love has gone into this ...

The noodles are ready. 

2 options : laksa noodles and bee hoon 

(bee hoon - the three elephant brand).

The soup is about ready.  The aroma is simply tantalising.

Cathy removes some of the daun kesum and bunga kantan before adding the fish.

We sang the Birthday Song for Hayley and Uni, 

and said grace before we tucked into dinner.
See dessert entry below.

Bryan's bowl. How could anyone resist this!

We all had 2 bowls each. Everyone enjoyed the laksa very much and sounds of hmmms and oooohs and waaahhhs were echoing throughout dinner. You could appreciate e-v-e-r-y single bit of ingredient that was in it. The soup with the heko, brought by Grace all the way from Penang, was truly out of this world.

I don't normally take the fish when I have assam laksa at the shops, and would normally leave most of the ingredients in the bowl ... but THIS one is clearly head and shoulders above all the assam laksas I have ever tasted. And that is to put it mildly.

Cooking with a sprinkle of love and a pinch of joy sure makes all the difference.  :D

Woah, can't believe we actually did it!

Thanks to our Head Chef, Cathy for simplifying the steps:-

Penang Assam Laksa in 3 Simple Steps ...

After dinner, we rested for a bit before our Attitude Choc Cake with Ice Cream for dessert. See entry below.

We were all so thrilled with our accomplishment today that we have decided to attempt Birthday Noodles next with Curry Puffs for dessert.

Time of Posting : 11:03am (Sunday)

Day 71 ... Attitude Chocolate Cake With Frosting

The Ingredients ...

Hayley and Ming are in the Dessert Committee,

with Justine helping out with the instructions. 

This would probably be the first time Hayley has to bake her own birthday cake, 

and share it someone else (Uni) on top of that.

The Assam Laksa Girls are checking on the Dessert Girls ...

Straight from the oven ...

Amelia inspects the cake and helped Justine out with the flipping over and frosting ...

The Birthday Cake ...

Awwww ... how pretty ...

Happy Birthday to You 

Happy Birthday to You

Happy Birthday to Hayley and Uni

Happy Birthday to You :D

Time to cut the cake ...

We are having the choc cake with vanilla ice cream 

and a hot drink ...

Oh my, the dessert is super delicious! 

Cathy and Uni tapau-ed some back for their kids.

Ming too.

We had a really great time! 

Thanks everyone, looking forward to our next session : 

Birthday Mee :D

Day 71 ... Fish Head Bee Hoon

Amelia & Mom Grace

We had lunch at Win Soon Fish Bead Bee Hoon @ Kuchai Entrepreneur's Park. 

Grace was in town, from Penang, visiting her lovely daughter Amelia.

Hayley was with us. We ordered 3 bowls of noodles. Grace shared with Amelia as they had just come from a heavy dim sum breakfast, and I shared with Bryan. I too just had a packet of wan tan mee that morning for breakfast, after returning from the market with our assam laksa ingredients.

The bee hoon noodles with the fried fish ...

Very nice and tasty lunch, fish was fresh too ... :D

Day 70 ... Chicken Rendang

CHICKEN RENDANG

Today was the first day of Hari Raya.

We are privileged to have been invited to a friend's place in Serendah for Raya Open House.

Mr Nasuha and his family have just moved into a beautiful bungalow in that area.

KETUPAT & LEMANG

Upon entering their dining place, there was large spread of Raya delicacies awaiting on the dining table.

The above are trays of ketupats and lemangs.

I was not able to snap as many shots as I would have liked to because of the guests around me. I surely did not want people to think that I came from some kind of jungle and have not seen a feast such as this.

In fact, I HAVE NOT SEEN a feast such as that ... in a long time.

So, I was only able take some quick shots of food that was placed near where I was seated. Managed to take 5 pictures, but 2 turned out blur. Arghhh.

The chicken rendang, the photo right at the top, was my favourite.

OMG - it was indescribable!!! Super-fantastic-delicious!!!

You will see a hollow kinda space in the photo. That's because just right before I snapped the photo, the lady next to me removed a large piece of drumstick from that dish onto her plate.

I felt like asking her to put it back, you know like, "Would you mind please, it's for my blog?" but decided against that. What would she think? Mr Nazuha is such a nice man, I didn't want him to get any feedback from his guests, this one in particular, that one of his other guest was rather - weird.

And so I quietly enjoyed my food, while making light conversations with the guests on the table. Justine was on my other side, and Bryan opposite me.

I had the chicken rendang with their homemade nasi impit. Mr Nasuha's wife made the nasi impit, along with the chicken rendang and the rest of the goodies on the Raya table. Have not tasted such wonderful impit rice before this. Soft, moist yet firm in texture, very tasty on its own, the flavour is greatly enhanced further when taken with the rendang. Trust me on this, his wife's recipe on the chicken rendang is better than Chef Wan's. I happened to watched Chef Wan's demo on AFC the day after. Somehow, comparing the end result of both presentations, this one was so much more appetizing. Perhaps, it's because we could smell the aroma of the homecooked one, which we couldn't, the one on TV. :D

AYAM SOTO & KETUPAT

Ooohh, the ayam soto was simply delicious. 

See the black spot on the top? That's the homemade sambal. 

Chopped garlic, chopped cili padi, with dark black sauce, soya sauce and sugar.

Yeah, I asked.

We're definitely gonna do up that spicy-sambal.

Simple and a great condiment to our meals at home.

Such a wonderful meal. His wife has also prepared
jars and jars of cookies of all varieties in the living room.

I am so inspired to cook chicken rendang now.
Let me see how am I gonna get the recipe from his lovely wife.

We are grateful that we were able to share this Raya
celebration with Mr N and his family on this festive day.

:D

Time of Posting : 1:59 pm (Monday)

Day 69 ... Day Out With Hayley

This entry is in Bryan's Blog.

Forgot to sign out from his account when I was doing this entry. :D

bryanphua.blogspot.com

Day 68 ... Penne Carbonara with Fish

PENNE CARBONARA WITH GAROUPA FISH

1. Boil the pasta in salted water until half-done.

Drain and set aside.

Marinate fish (bite size) with seasalt and pepper 

and arrowroot powder.

2. Saute garlic and onions till fragrant.

Sear the fish. 

Add the vegetables,

cauliflower and carrots.

Add milk and grate some cheese over.

3. Add pasta into the pan and toss to mix.

Beat an egg into a separate mixing bowl.

Transfer contents of pan into the bowl

and toss well. :D

Sprinkle a pinch of black sesame seeds 

and serve immediately.

Bryan used this egg method for carbonara, 

instead of using cream.

A simple pasta dish which tasted quite like carbonara, 

minus the high-calories. :D

I had my one shake of The Green Drink this morning,

economy rice at the coffee-shop near our condo and pasta for dinner.

To Sum Up

1 shake & 2 meals

Juice. Fruit. Hemoberry. Water

Time of Posting : 8:49am (Thurs)

Day 67 ... Oriental Chicken Paella

ORIENTAL CHICKEN PAELLA

Tonight, I asked Bryan to do his famous paella dish. 

Had taken out some chicken thighs to thaw, they were nice and ready to be cooked. It was either curry chicken or shoyu chicken. I had a tummy upset after lunch time, for taking too much sambal with my pan mee, so curry was out. :(

Oriental it is then.  

In short, Claypot Chicken. Just that, he did it in the saucepan, the spanish way. We orientalized a spanish dish :D

1. Marinate the chicken pieces with seasalt, 

pepper, shoyu and dark sauce.

Saute garlic, onions and ginger in sesame seed oil.

Add in the chicken. Stir fry till meat is well done. 

Add carrots and oyster mushrooms.

2. Add in 2 cups of rice grains.

Toss to mix.

Add 2 cups of water mixed with 

homemade ice-cubed chicken stock.

Simmer. Close the lid.

Should be about ready in 20 minutes.

 

3. Just before removing from the stove, 

turn on flame HIGH for a few seconds,

to get a nice thin layer of crusty texture 

on the sides of the pan.

The best part. :D

Serve from the pan.

Run the scoop through to loossen the rice a bit. 

Garnish with some spring onions or coriander leaves.

Hmmm, dinner was absolutely delicious!

We finished the whole pan while watching TV, 

scrapping at the crusts and all. :D

I had my one shake of The Green Drink this morning,

pan mee in piquant szechuan soup and paella for dinner.

To Sum Up

1 shake & 2 meals

Juice. Fruit. Hemoberry. Water

Time of Posting : 9:06am (Wed)

Day 66 ... Penne Pasta with Cheese

will upload later. photo taken by hp. cable missing.

Day 65 ... Claypot Egg Noodles

CLAYPOT EGG NOODLES

Tonight, Justine and I had a "lazy dinner." 

Lazy to cook, lazy to go out, lazy to order-in.

So, in that sort of mood, we decided to have lazy noodles, everything taruh. 

Yup, throw everything in. Easy as can be.

1. Boil some water in a claypot. 

2. Add homemade ice-cube frozen chicken stocks.

When boiling, add whatever we had in the fridge, 

including garlic, onions, ginger, oyster mushrooms and cabbage. 

Add a portion of noodles. Break an egg in it. Simmer.

3. When ready, toss in tomatoes, carrots, 

chillies and spring onions.

Added shoyu and sesame seed oil. 

Chilly oil for some kick.

Yeah, that was our dinner on Sunday night. :D