Making Curries

I was back in my home state twice in 2 weeks. The first time was to visit my grandaunt who was hospitalised after a fall. She's 79 years old and her memories were failing fast. I called my aunt this morning and learnt that her recovery has been great as she has regained much of her health and her dementia has improved. Maybe, the fall put the files in her brain back in place!

Last weekend, I visited my sister and got a tip that our Mum had passed to her. Being the eldest, she took care of my Mum most of the time when she first started working and later when she got married.My Mum stayed longer with her than with her other children.
Making curries was the first dish we learnt as children, after cooking rice. Mind you, there were no rice cookers back then. My first curry was a bit to sourish, but everyone said it was delicious. I was only thirteen then.

I was cooking curry last weekend in my sister's kitchen. As usual I premix the curry powder with water before adding to the fried onions, garlic, curry leaves and pounded ginger amd mixed fenugreek.Sis told me that to make the curry red, you just throw in the curry powder into the fried ingredients without premixing them in water. True enough when I came home and did as she suggested, my curry turn red instead of yellowish. Previously, I had added chilli paste to make the curry red thinking that the curry powder did not have enough chillies.

Well, children, that's my Mum's tip I learn from my sister. I should visit her more to get more tips.

Belacan Dinner

Ikmal has been home for over a week now. Despite coming down with a cough and cold, he is ravishing all the food he had missed and some which he had not eaten before.

Yesterday it was Paddington pancakes and Vietnamese food at one of the popular shopping malls. Tomorrow he is going to another shopping mall with his friends and has been given tips by his sister on which restaurant to patronise.

Tonight's menu is one of Ikmal's favorites. It is a pity that fish is expensive at the place where he studies and he cannot find grated coconut. The dinner was cleaned up in minutes with no leftovers at all.

The meal consisted of rice with fish in sour gravy (Kuah Pindang), grilled chinchards (Cencaru) accompanied by sambal belacan (chillies grounded with heated shrimp paste) and angled beans kerabu.

To make the pindang is very easy. Pindang is suitable for people on a diet as it involves only boiling.

Things you need:

2 medium size ikan kembong or mabong (mackerel). You can also use ikan parang, ikan tamban (herring) or Spanish mackerel (tenggiri). Gut and clean fish. Rub salt and turmeric powder to fish and let stand for 5 minutes.

To be blended in an electric blender:

2 large onion or 6 shallots
4 fresh red chillies
1 (2.5 cm) cube dried shrimp paste(belacan)
2.5 cm ginger
2.5 cm galangal

1 lemon grass stalk, bruised

3 - 4 pieces dried tamarind skin (asam keping)

1/2 ikan bilis or anchovy stock cube
1 tsp salt
700 ml water

Optional:

2 sprigs polygonum leaves ( daun kesum)
1 torch ginger flower ( bunga kantan), sliced fine

or

sliced cucumbers

Cooking Method:

Place all the blended ingredients, lemon grass and dried tamarind skin in water in a pot. Cook to a boil. Add salt and stock cube and the optional ingredients. Lastly, add in the fish, stir by adding the liquid to the fish without disturbing the fish. Fish cooks very fast and cooking it for too long could break it to pieces.

To prepare the grilled fish:

Grill the cleaned, slightly salted chinchards, by placing them on a heated grill lightly greased with a little cooking oil tp prevent them from sticking to the grill or skillet. Grill should be on low heat. I prefer the fish to be slightly moist when cooked. No salt is required if the fish is fresh.

Sambal Belacan:

Sambal belacan is simply pounding about 3 red chillies with 6 bird chillies in a pestle and mortar and then adding about 2.5 cm cibe heated belacan and finally adding tamarind juice or lime juice.I do not add salt or sugar as I feel they are not necessary. The belacan is already salty and I do not fancy sweet sambal as sambal is supposed to be hot.

The angled beans kerabu will be posted at a later date.

Curry Mee (Yellow Noodles in Curry)

Eating a bowl of curry mee drove my sugar level up by 3 points. That episode confirmed my diabetic status.

I now limit to my intake of curry mee and try to abstain as much as possible.

However, those who are not diabetic or hypertensive can enjoy a delicious bowl of curry mee now and then.

A Penang version of curry mee combines seafood with chicken or beef. The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:

1.5 kg yellow noodles
500g beansprouts (Taugeh)
Mustard leaves (sawi) or water spinach (kangkung)
500g fresh shrimps, remove head and shell
1.5 kg cockles, boiled and shelled
200g chicken meat or beef, cut into 3cm squares
200g fish balls
half fried bean curd (sold in 100g to 300g packets)
100g beef curry powder
1 ladle scoop chilli paste
6 shallots, sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2.5 cm ginger, grounded
5 cm galangal, grounded
3 stalks lemon grass, hit with the handle of a knife
a sprig of curry leaves
1 ladle cooking oil
salt
sugar if preferred
beef stock cube, if preferred
tamarind juice
200g coconut milk equivalent to 1 coconut or as your preferred thickness

Garnishing:

4 hard boiled eggs, quartered
4 red chillies, sliced
2 stalks spring onions and 2 stalks Chinese celery, sliced
2 limes, sliced
some sliced deep fried shallots

Method:

Pour some boiling water over the yellow noodles in a bowl and strain. Set aside and let the noodles cool.

Next scald the sawi or kangkung and taugeh and set aside.

Heat the cooking oil and fry the shallots, garlic followed by the ginger, galangal, lemon grass and curry leaves.

Add the chilli powder and chilli paste. After the chilli and curry powder is cooked, add the chicken or beef. Add the coconut milk followed by the shrimps and cooked cockles. Add in some water if the coconut milk is too thick.

When the curry boils, put in the fish balls, half fried bean curd, salt, tamarind juice (and sugar if you like).
Cook until curry boils, stirring occasionally.

To serve:

Place some noodles in a small bowl. One bowl per person. Add the garnishing, taugeh and sawi or kangkung. Pour in the curry. Serve hot.

For an extra hot curry, you may add fried chilli paste or chilli pickles to your bowl of curry mee.

To make the fried chilli paste, heat some oil and fry some chilli boh in them on gentle heat.

Fresh green, red or bird chillies can be pickled in vinegar added with salt and sugar.

Eid Mubarak

Yesterday was the second day of Eidul Fitr. The day before, after morning Eid prayers and our annual photo session the family headed for the kampong. (See photos in Zaty's blog as I have not uploaded them to my computer yet). This year, my sister and her 2 sons from Melaka is spending the Eid holidays with us.

Normally, there is no traffic jam on the first day of Eid but this year it is otherwise. People jam the highways and Federal roads despite the high petrol prices!

After 9 houses and feasting on rendang, ketupat, lemang and countless other delicacies, Ikmal suffered a bout of food poisoning. Afif, Zayye and Zaty also complained of tummy upset.Maybe, their tummies got shocked by all the spices, chicken, meat and and cockles. The non-stop eating took a toll and they had to take the morning off. The house nearly became a hospital zone.

In the afternoon, Ikmal and Zayye helped prepare chicken soup and mixed with potatoes and vegetables. They got the thumbs up the delicious soup.

Tomorrow I think we will make a special dish called sotong kangkong. (cuttle fish with water spinach in peanut sauce). Today we had curry mee, beef floss (serunding) rendang, lemang and ketupat at 2 houses we visited.

In Kuala Lumpur where we live, Eid is celebrated for 1 month. So expect the feasting to continue....

Over the 2 days my sugar level and blood pressure has gone up. After all this is over, I am resuming my morning exercises before things get worse.


Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri

Maaf Zahir dan Batin