KERABU TAUGEH (BEAN SPROUTS SALAD)

Any kind of sprouts is good for you as sprouts supply the nutrients to the young plant. Try making your bean sprouts from mung beans (Kacang hijau). I am sure many of us learn how to do this in our Science class in primary school. The sprouts you get from the d-i-y lasts longer and tastes better. It is crunchier too unlike the ones you get from the market which turn soggy and sour after a day or two.

The beansprout salad is a nice change from the ordinary stir-fried vegetables.


Ingredients:

500g bean sprouts
1 cup oilfree toasted grated coconut, pounded for use as kerisek. You can use desicated coconut if you are not accesible to freshly grated coconut or you can buy ready made kerisek in the market.
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup cooked shrimps
toasted sesame seeds
2 fresh chillies,sliced
1 sprig cilantro, 1 sprig spring onion and 1 sprig celery (daun sup) chopped
a liitle sugar and salt for seasoning

Boil some water and pour over the beansprouts to scald them. You can also use the microwave oven to do these.
Mixed all ingredients except the bean sprouts in a large bowl till evenly mixed. Finally add the bean sprouts and serve.

ACAR CINA or CHINESE PICKLES

I wonder why it is called Chinese pickles in my recipe book. I have never seen it in Chinese cooking. At a wedding my family attended on Sunday, this vegetable dish was served. It is actually a Malay dish normally served at weddings. Perhaps the Malays adapted it from a Chinese recipe.

The ingredients are:
1 cucumber(remove the core), 5 strands of long beans (French beans if you cannot find long beans), 1 carrot, all cut into 5 cm strips.
2 fresh red chillies, 2 fresh green chillies, split halfway into 4
5 shallots, cut into 2, or 2 onions,cut into 4

To be grounded:
4 fresh red chillies,
5 cloves garlic
2.5 cm ginger
3 shallots

Other ingredients:
1 tsp mustard seed
a handful of oil-free toasted sesame seeds
4 tbsp vinegar
2 tbsp sugar
a liitle salt
3 tbsp oil

Heat oil and fry the grounded ingredients in a saucepan till fragrant. Add vinegar, sugar and salt. Add the vegetables and cook quickly but not for too long so that the vegetables remain crunchy. Remove from the heat and sprinkle the sesame seeds.

Cucumber Pickle (Acar Timun)

This acar timun is normally prepared during wedding feasts or can be eaten with normal plain rice,tomato rice or beriani.

3 cucumbers-remove the centre and cut into strips of 3 cm each.
1 carrot-shredded or cut into strips like the cucumber
1 big onion-sliced
2 red and 2 green chillies-halved
2 tbsp roasted sesame seed
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar, or to taste
1/2 cup vinegar
3/4 cup oil

Ingredients to be blended:

6 cloves garlic
3 cm ginger
2 cm fresh turmeric
10 dry chillies
10 candlenuts

Mix vegetables with 1 tsp salt, using a strainer, press out the juice.Heat oil in pan and fry blended ingredients.Fry until fragrant.Add sugar, salt and vinegar.Fry until sauce thickens and the oil seeps to the top. Leave to cool.When cooled, add the vegetables and sesame seeds.

Below is another easy to make salad that does not need any cooking.I observe this salad being prepared by the Nasi Beriani hawker near my house.

Easy Cucumber Salad:

2 cucumbers, remove centre and cut into strips as above.
1 carrot, cut as cucumbers,
1/2 pineapple,remove skin, core and cut into strips like the cucumber.(You can use canned pineapples and you need not add anymore sugar).
a little sprinkle of sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup vinegar

Salads and Kerabu

Having only a microwave oven often limits your choice of types of meals to prepare.However, preparing certain salads and kerabu ( the Malay equivalent of salads)does not need any cookers or ovens.

Here is a family favorite,the tangy mango kerabu.Kerabus are popular in the northern part of Malaysia.It must be from the Thai influence.

Ingredients for the Mango Kerabu:

2 unripe mangoes,cleaned and skin removed
100g shallots or onions,sliced
10 bird's eye chillies, sliced
75g dried anchovies
a handful of raw peanuts
1 tbsp dried shrimps, soaked and coarsely pounded

Salad dressing

3 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp Thai fish sauce
2 tbsp sugar or to taste

Fry anchovies until fragrant and crispy.Dish out and set aside.Heat wok until hot, then put in raw peanuts and salt.Lower the heat and stir-fry constantly for 10-15 minutes with a quick to-and-fro motion.Fry until the peanut skin begins to blister and turns brown.There must be no compromise for this, otherwise the peanuts will end up with a burnt skin outside and still raw inside. Before dishing up, test the peanut by tasting it.Make sure it is crunchy.Remove from the heat and allow to cool before removing the skin.You can do this frying at home where you have the normal cooker if you only have a microwave oven in your rented apartment.For those living away from home,other than in Malaysia, I am sure you will be provided with a hotplate at least.
Shred mango with a shredder.If you don't have a shredder, you can cut it into small strips manually with a sharp knife.Combine mango with sliced shallots or onions, bird's eye chillies and dried shrimps to the salad bowl.If bird's eye chillies are too hot for you, you can substitute with normal red or green chillies.
Mix dressing ingredients together and add into the mango mixture.Toss well to combine.Just before serving, stir in the peanuts and anchovies.

Variations to the recipe above:

You can exclude the fish sauce if you cannot find it in the market.I normally add shredded wild ginger flowers, (bunga Kantan) and the children would love it.

More on Microwave Cooking

Perhaps the most important thing to remember, never, never put anything metallic such as a spoon,knife, aluminium foil or steel mug or teapot into the microwave oven.The oven will catch fire and may be damaged.The other thing is not to reheat cakes, doughnuts or bread for too long. They come out tough and dried and as for hotdogs, they will be not only be shrivelled, but look and taste unpleasant. When reheating, without any instructions,try to experiment in spurts of 10 seconds or less so that your food is not overexposed to the microwaves.Reheating food in gravy is not too difficult as the liquid will act as a buffer.Stop heating when the liquid is heated not till the food is all dried up.

Referring back to making the sauces, you will note that I did not put any onions, garlic or ginger in them. I do not personally like the taste if you do not fry them thoroughly as in 'tumis'in the art of Malay cooking.If you are preparing the sauces the normal way using oil and a saucepan, you are recommended to use onions or shallots, garlic and ginger, all grounded.

I hope the tips I have written here suffice for ordinary everyday microwave cooking for novices and beginners.Anyone with queries are welcomed to ask.I do not pretend to be an expert because I am not, but I feel honoured to share my experience.

Well Nurul,Zaty, Ikmal may have questions. For sure Afif and Zayye will not have any cos' they are still at home, most of the time, enjoying food served to them without having to prepare them themselves.