Tomato Rice

Tomato Rice is normally eaten during Eid or any special occasions. it is popular in the Northern State of Kedah.

Ingredients:
1/2 tin evaporated milk
2 tins rice, washed and tossed
1 1/2 tins water
1cm ginger
3 onions
3 cloves garlic
3 cloves (cengkih)
3 star anise (bunga lawang)
3 cardamom seeds (pelaga)
1.5 cm cinnamon stick
1 sprig lemon grass ( serai)
2 screw-pine leaves (pandan)
1/2 tin tomato puree
3 tbsp ghee

Garnishing (Optional):
A handful of raisins
Some cashew nuts, toasted
Fresh cilantro (Chinese parsley or daun ketumbar), Chinese celery ( daun sop) and spring onions( daun bawang)- cut into 1 cm strips.


Heat the ghee in the saucepan or rice cooker. Fry the ginger, onions, garlic, pandan leaves and all the spices.
Add the water mixed with evaporated milk and let it come to the boil. Add the tomato puree and rice.
Stir occasionally until the water dries up. When the rice is nearly cooked, add in the raisins and leave with lid on till fully cooked. Serve the rice in a large plate. Sprinkle the garnishings, if preferred, before serving.

My Mum's Chicken Recipe

This recipe I inherited from my late Mum. It is ideal for beef and duck as well. Guests could not tell it was the duck that my Mum cooked. They thought it was chicken.

Ingredients:

0.7 kg chicken ( 1 small chicken) or beef

• 5 cm ginger
• 2 cloves garlic
• 6 shallots
• 5 cm cinnamon stick
• 1 nutmeg seed, crushed and remove the shell
• 3 cardamom seeds (pelaga)
• 1 tbsp coriander seeds(ketumbar)
• 10 cloves (cengkih)
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds (jintan putih)
• 1 tsp fennel seeds (jintan manis)

The above ingredients are pounded or finely blended.

juice from 1 lime ( limau nipis)
1/2 bottle tomato sauce
10 almonds grounded
1/2 tbsp black pepper powder
1/2 tin evaporated milk
100g ghee

Heat the ghee in a saucepan and pour in the grounded ingredients and black pepper. Fry until fragrant. Add in 1/2 cup water, the tomato sauce and evaporated milk and add the chicken which have been skinned and cut to small pieces as in stew or curries.

Add the almonds and cook until the sauce is nearly dry. Lastly, add the lime juice.

Delicious with tomato rice or beriani rice.

Cooking Vegetables-Chinese Style

I love vegetables and feel incomplete if vegetables are not included in main meals.Fortunately, my children all eat and love their vegetables as well.

I do not like too much spices in vegetables. The Chinese method of preparing the vegetables suits my taste.

This is how I cook the Chinese stir fried vegetables.

Ingredients:
4 pieces each of 3 types of any mushrooms;(button,, abalone or black mushrooms)
4 pieces abalone
4 young corn
100g broccoli
6 pea pods
100g carrot
2 pieces bean curd
100g cauliflower

You can also use other vegetables you fancy such as water chestnuts, asparagus or celery.
All vegetables except the bean curd, and abalone are washed and cut to bite sizes and scalded in boiling water for 3 minutes and set aside.
Mix 1/2 cup chicken stock with 1 tbsp corn flour in a small bowl. Add 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp black pepper powder and 2 tsp soya sauce and set aside.

Heat a little oil in a wok or large frying pan and fry 4 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped.Add abalone. Add vegetables and bean curd (quartered) and stir fry lightly for 2 minutes.Stir in the stock for 2 more minutes until gravy thickens.

Enjoy hot with plain white rice.

WASTE NOT,WANT NOT

Your grandmother, if she survived during the Japanese invasion of Malaya, will tell you how the people has to skimp on their meals then. Food was scarce and I remember my Mum telling how they had to eat tapioca as a staple diet.
Nowadays, we have so much food that it is more often wasted. In Britain, one third of food purchased ends up in the bins and lands in the landfill.

A number of British chefs has given tips to reduce remnants in the fridge:

• Write a shopping list before you go shopping. Buy only what is listed and don't buy on impulse.
  
• Freeze leftover bread wrapped in plastic and toast it frozen as it defrosts very quickly.
• Used bread can be reused as crumbs to dress chicken or turkey with a touch of mixed spice and herbs.
• Combine stale bread with milk, eggs, cheese, fresh herbs,salt and whatever else you can find in the kitchen and voila, you can make a delicious savoury bread pudding.
• Cold pasta can be fried like fried mee or baked in a macaroni cheese style sauce on the top.

I have added the following:

• Cold rice fried with leftover sambal or whatever gravy and added with leftover vegetables makes delicious fried rice.Leftover chicken, beef of fish can also be added. I also add sambal belacan to the fried rice if this is available.
• Leftover fried fish added to certain vegetables makes delicious kerabus.
• Leftover fried fish can be used in freshly prepared sambals or soya gravy, or added with mayonnaise and used as sandwich fillings.
• Leftover gravies can be frozen and reused when thawed and added with fish, seafood, chicken or beef.

If you do not want leftovers, cook only as required. In that way, you save your money and reduce the wastage. In a long run, you help save the environment as you have used less energy to cook food, and store them. If you don't throw into the bin, you have also reduce the amount of rubbish in the landfill.

Remember, some people believe that to waste means being friends with the devil. That certainly is not the way to go.

WORLD CLASS

The ongoing Beijing Olympics is a showcase of guts and determination.
Michael Phelps has got his target of 8 gold medals and Malaysia has lost the only hope when our Lee Chong Wei lost to Lin Dan of China in the badminton finals.
My tribute goes to Phelps and the American swimming team, the 3 Jamaican ladies who won the gold and 2 silvers for the glamorous 100 m race, and Nadal the soon to be number 1 in lawn tennis. These are world class athletes. While others aim to get the gold medals, these champions want to be legends.They must share something in common to be champions extraordinaire.Something that is still lacking in our Malaysian psyche. Perhaps the feeling of greatness is not inbuilt in us yet unlike the Americans who are ingrained in the mind from birth that they are the greatest and nothing is impossible.

We must also learn from the less fortunate Ethiopians and Iraqis who reach world class standards in sports without much help from their governments.

Our Malaysian athletes are given a lot of support and incentives.Except for Nicol David and the national squash players, and the national Bowling team, the rest are inconsistent in their performances. Physical and mental preparations must be equally important. The knowledge to build strength and stamina, physically and mentally, is something we need to acquire. We need to learn how the Americans, the Chinese and Koreans train thier sportsmen so that we can achieve world class standards like thay have.

The best place to start is in the schools especially the sports schools. As they say, shaping the bamboo must be from the shoot. The sports schools have been churning great sportsmen and women but still thay are not top world class yet.

As for you students out there, you too can excel in whatever you do. Students who are overseas on government sponsorships are already world class potentials. Prove to everyone that you are indeed world class. With globalization, the world is your oyster and you are not the village champion or the frog under the proverbial coconut shell. You can start by targeting your goals to meet world standards. Upon graduation, you should be far sighted and open-minded and ready to serve anywhere in the world.
Prove to the world that Malaysians can be respected and are indeed world class material too.