Time to Exercise

All sorts of goodies

Home cooked Nasi Lemak wrapped in banana leaves

Desserts





corn fritters with shrimps in the background and banana chips in front.



In Malaysia, like everywhere else, Muslims fast in the whole month of Ramadhan. When Ramadhan ends , Muslims rejoice when Syawal begins. In most parts of the world, Eidul Fitr is celebrated for only one day and at most 2 days of Syawal; but in Malaysia, especially in Kuala Lumpur, Eid goes on for another whole month. More often than not, Syawal means putting back the weight you lost in Ramadhan!Now that Syawal has left us, it is time to get back on track. By track I mean the jogging track..or the treadmill for some.

Ikmal trying to compensate for the food he has consumed

My greatgrandparents

My maternal great grandparents: Hj Mohd Zainuddin Mohd Senawi & Hjh Pok Rafeah binti Ishak

The pictures on the wall in my greatgrandparents' home I visited recently, make me want to dedicate my present blog post to them. I do not have pictures taken with them but certain memories of them linger in my mind.

My great grandfather was a very friendly man who loves to joke with his grandchildren and greatgrandchildren.He was soft spoken and I never heard him shout at anyone.He lived to a grand age of 106 when he passed away  of old age in 1984. He was the oldest retired government pensioner at the time of his death.

My greatgrandfather never rode a bicycle, nor a motor cycle nor take the bus. His two legs took him wherever he wanted to go; to the mosque  which was about 3km from his house and to our house which was about 6 km away. I remember every Friday he would be knocking on our door early in the morning after he has visited his father's and brother's graves which were behind our house.

Greatgrandfather liked to tease me when I wore trousers when I visited him. In those days, only boys wore trousers!

When I was a little girl, he must have been over 80 years old. I remember him sweeping the garden of fallen leaves and burning  them.Open burning wasn't an issue then.I didn't see him then as an old man because he was very active.

His daily diet consisted of mutton soup with bread. He did not take rice but loved the 'roti jala' (sort of meshed pancake) eaten with curry. I also remember him eating 'maa'jun' (made from spices) to maintain his health.

Greatgrandfather used to shave his head. That was long before the current trend when young men would shave their heads. I remember how he loved to lie on my lap knowing how ticklish I would be.

Hj Mohd Zainuddin had 13 children with his one wife, Pok Rafeah. My grandmother was the eldest. He married her off to his brother's son and they in turn had 11 children, of whom my mother was the eldest.

The day I left to further my studies in the UK he was there to pray for my safety during my journey overseas. He lived to see his great-great granddaughters (piut) -my two elder daughters- before he died.

My great grandmother was a very fair woman while her husband was very dark. Whenever I visited, I used to play with her 'gobek'. The 'gobek' was a tool used to blend the betel nut, tobacco and lime (kapur) before being folded in the betel leaf and chewed. It was normal for old ladies to chew betel leaves in those days. Since my grandmother did not carry on with this tradition, I enjoyed playing with the gobek everytime I visited my greatgrandparents. I only pounded and chewed the betel nut, though, as I did not like to get my teeth all red from chewing the whole concoction.

The day I started school, I went to school from my great grandparents' house and not from my grandmother's house where I lived. I remember my greatgrandma saying, 'you will study hard and be as clever as your granduncle', her youngest child; who went to England and graduated as a lawyer at the age of 21.

Greatgrandma was the one who called the shots when I wanted to get married in 1977. I was the first 'cicit' (greatgrandchild) to do so. The term used was 'melangkah bendul' as I was getting married before my elder sister.It created quite a fuss then. After the 'akad nikah' (solemnization of marriage vows) my great grandma said, ' I am relieved now that you have someone to look after you in the land far away from us all' I was relieved too that she had blessed my marriage.

Greatgrandma passed away in May 1979 before I finished my studies in the summer of 1979. She missed seeing her first great-greatgranddaughter by only a few months. 

My only regret was that I was too busy that I did not visit her on the last day before I returned to England to continue my studies after my wedding. When I returned 2 years later, she was gone. Nowadays, I make it a point to try to visit old folks especially  those whose health are failing and seek their forgiveness before it was too late.

 AlFatihah for my 'Tok Nek Wan and Tok Nek Pok'. May Allah place their souls among the righteous and among those whom He loves.

The GM Diet

The GM diet is nothing new but its effectiveness cannot be disputed. I have personally tried it without much problems. You can google it and find that what I am putting here is not an original creation.I have adapted the information from various sources.

 

 

The GM Diet was formulated for the employees of the US giant motor company, GM Motors Inc as a field test conducted by the Johns Hopkins Research Centre in 1985. The project was funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration.

 

This programme works because it does not involve expensive diet concoctions but just every day food you normally buy at the grocers.This program targets a weight loss of 4.5 to 7 kg per week. Its detoxifying effects also improve your attitudes and emotions.

 

The effectiveness of this seven day plan is that the food eaten burn more calories from the body than they give to the body in terms of caloric value.

 

This plan is safe and can be used as often as you like without any fear of complications.After seven days you will begin to feel lighter because you will be lighter by at least 4.5 kg. You will have a lot of energy and would feel more cheerful.

 

For those of you who prefer to read on instead of googling for more information, written below is the seven day program. Each and every day you will have to eat a specific type of food as prescribed. During these first seven days you must abstain from all alcohol. As plain clean water is a natural detox agent, you must drink 10 glasses of water each day.

 

Day One: You could eat any fruit except bananas. Your first day will consist of all the fruits you want. However melons should be the fruit of choice and lots of melons, especially watermelons, are recommended on the first day. If you consume melons only, your chances of losing 1.4 kg on first day are very good.

 

Reason: Your system is being prepared for the next course of the programme. Fresh fruits is the only source of food on this day. As fruits are nature's perfect food, they are able to sustain life by themselves.

 

Day Two: It is an all vegetable day. You are encouraged to eat all the raw or cooked vegetables of your choice. There is no limit on the amount or type. For complex carbohydrate, you should start day two with a large baked potato for breakfast, topped with a little butter.

 

Reason: Day Two starts with a fix of complex carbohydrates coupled with an oil dose to provide the morning with energy and balance. The rest of day two consists of vegetables, cooked or raw; which are virtually calorie free and provide the needed fibre and essential nutrients.

 

Day Three: You could take a mixture of fruits and vegetables of your choice. You can have any amount and any quantity. However, no bananas and potatoes are allowed for now.

 

Reason: Your source of carbohydrates are only from the fruits. Your system is now prepared to start burning excess pounds. You will still have cravings which should start to diminish by day four.

 

Day Four: In Day Four you can have bananas and milk. You can eat as many as eight bananas and drink three glasses of milk. This can be combined with a soup which may be eaten in limited quantities.

 

Reason: Even though bananas, milk and soup seem very incompatible and least desirable, you probably will not eat all the bananas allowed. But they are there for the potassium you have lost and the sodium you may have missed the past three days. You will notice a definite loss of desire for sweets. You will be surprised to see how easy this day will go.

 

Day Five: You can eat small pieces of chicken or fish and tomatoes as salad. On day five you must increase your water intake, drinking up to 12 glasses of water. This is to cleanse your system of the uric acid you will be producing. Vegetarians can have one cup of rice instead of chicken.

 

Reason: The Chicken/Fish is for iron and proteins, the tomatoes are for digestion and fibre. Lots and lots of water purifies your system. You should notice colorless urine on this day.

 

Day Six: You may eat an unlimited amount of chicken/fish and vegetables. Vegetarians can have one cup of rice along with all the vegetables they can eat.

 

Reason: It is similar to day five, you will get iron and proteins from Chicken/Fish, vitamins and fibre from vegetables. By now your system is in a total weight loss inclination. There should be a noticeable difference in the way you look today, compared to day one.

 

Day Seven: Your food intake will consist of brown rice, fruit juices and all the vegetables you can consume.

 

Reason: You have finished off the program like an icing on the cake, except much healthier. You have your system under control and your body will feel much lighter due to the detox process you went through.

 

G.M.'S Wonder Soup

 

The following soup is intended as a supplement to your diet. It can be eaten any time of the day in virtually unlimited quantities. You are encouraged to consume large quantities of this soup.

 

1 litre Water, 6 Large Onions, 2 Green Peppers, Whole Tomatoes (fresh or canned), 1 Head Cabbage, 1 Bunch Celery, Onion Soup Mix, Herbs and Flavouring as desired.

 

Additional Comments

 

Vegetables as may be taken in the form of a salad if desired. No dressing except malt, white or wine vinegar, squeezed lemon, garlic, herbs. No more than one tea spoon of oil.

 

WONDER SOUP  can be eaten in unlimited quantities. This soup is a supplement while you are on the program and you should enjoy it. You may omit vegetables you don't like and substitute vegetables according to your taste. You may add any vegetables you like: asparagus, peas, corn, turnips, green beans, cauliflower, etc.  .Not everyone likes cabbage, green peppers, celery etc. Try to stay away from beans (lima, pinto, kidney, etc.), however, because they tend to be high in calories even though they are very good for you.

 

Beverages you may consume while on the programme:

 

•  Water (flavoured with lemon/lime if desired).
•  Club Soda is OK without sugar.
•  Black Coffee. No cream or cream substitute. No sugar or sweetness.
•  Black Tea - Herb or Leaf.
•  Absolutely nothing else except the fruit juices which are part of day seven. No fruit juices before day seven

 

Advantages of GM diet:

 

• It is very beneficial for a short term.
• It has no side effects.
• It is very flexible.
• Most of the foods recommended in the diet are unprocessed and natural.
• This diet is not as time-consuming and expensive as some of the other popular diets.

Disadvantages of GM diet:

 

• Too many restrictions on food.
• Cannot be continued in the long run.
• The diet, by default, cuts out many valuable nutrients

 

The General Motors diet allows you to work things on your own; you can even stop for a while and continue again once you are ready to pass the walk of this diet. This GM diet is worth trying, who knows, this might actually work for you. This diet program is not harmful. In fact, it definitely gives you the path to a healthy lifestyle. You can do this any time, any place you want to.

 

There is no hard and fast rule that our body will lose 4.5 to 5.5 kg within a week. Sometimes our body may take time to adjust to the new pattern of a diet program especially in the initial stages. You need to be patient and have a positive attitude while going through this program. There is no need to worry. Even if this program did not help you in losing weight, at least it helped your body to detoxify the unwanted chemicals and toxins. Hence work according to the instructions given and wait for the results.

My experience with 'Nasi Impit'

Nasi Impit



Lontong

 Nasi impit and lontong are basically the same. They differ only in the manner they are made. I would presume the lontong was created by the Javanese using banana leaves to roll and compress the cooked rice instead of cooking in coconut leaves as done traditionally by the Malays. When it is cooked in packets of woven coconut leaves it is called ‘ketupat’. Traditional lontong comes wrapped in banana leaves in cylindrical shapes and are cut across in small pieces before they are eaten.


In this modern age, most of us do not know, (that includes me) how to weave the coconut leaves for making ketupat. It doesn’t help that we used another type of leaves known as the ‘daun palas’ to make our own version of ketupat using glutinous rice.

It did not surprise me when my sons found difficulty trying to make their own ‘nasi impit’ recently for ‘Eid’. You see Ikmal (in Bangalore, India) and Afif (in Sheffield, England) found that they had to prepare their own Eid meal as most of their friends had returned to Malaysia for the Eid celebrations. I remember my Mum has made the ‘nasi impit’ by cooking the rice in water, 3 to 4 times the volume of the rice. The cooked rice is then packed and wrapped while still hot in banana leaves, and then by the newspaper. The wrapped rice is compressed by placing it under the ‘batu giling’.

Batu Giling-Manual Spice Grinder

 (The latter was a sort of manual spice grinder consisting of a thick bed of oblong or rectangular carved river stone coupled with another stone used as a roller. It is the bigger stone that was placed on the wrapped rice).

During my early days as a student in England, being uncreative then, and trying to emulate my Mum’s method, I had used thick books to compress the cooked rice.

'Ready to Cook Mini Rice Cubes'

When the first ‘ready to make ketupat ‘were sold in the supermarkets, I bought a packet as a sample. I then tried to make my own version by placing the washed rice in a plastic bag and pricking small holes around it. After many trials and discouraging remarks from my husband I got the formula right and am now quite confident in making the plastic wrapped ‘ketupat’. In order to save on cooking gas, I soak the rice after placing in the pricked plastic bags for about 2 to 3 hours prior to cooking. Nowadays I add screw pine (pandan) leaves to give a little aroma to the 'ketupat'.

One has to be careful when using plastics in cooking as the plastics can leach and is said to be carcinogenic; though there are disputes on this. The type of plastic that is recommended is made from polyethylene. A thick version is used as the thinner ones will melt on heating. Other types of plastic which contains nitrates, carbonates, chlorates, styrene, etc are not recommended as they may produce poisonous substances when hot.

There is another way to prepare the ‘nasi impit’. This does not involve cooking in plastic bags. You only need to cook the washed rice in a rice cooker with a lot more water (3 to 4 times the volume of rice).Too little water makes it like normal rice and too much would make porridge out of it. Afif can attest to that!

After the rice is cooked, normally after about 2 hours, it is placed in a square dish and compressed using a spatula. The top is then covered with a thick plastic sheet and the rice is packed in using a clean tea- towel. You can place a heavy object on top and place the rice dish in the refrigerator. When overseas, it is better still if you can find a plastic bag which has an interlocking zipper. You can then place the cooked rice in it, prick the bag to make small holes and zip it; and voila, ‘nasi impit’ is so much easier to make.

You are reminded that it is important that you cool the rice first before you cut it into cubes with a sharp knife. Cutting it while still hot will spoil it and may break it to pieces.

Nasi Impit-Ready to Serve with a Variety of Gravies and Soups.



Nasi impit is served with soto soup, satay and satay sauce (or kuah kacang),kuah lodeh and rendang
See my earlier recipe for soto

See my earlier recipe for  nasi impit and kuah kacang (satay sauce)
See my earlier recipe for sayur lodeh
See my earlier recipe for rendang

Lemon Grass Tea

As usual I always try to plant lemon grass, turmeric and ginger before the fasting month so that by the time Eid arrives, the plants are ready to be plucked. Normally it is difficult to get the supply of these fresh ingredients during festive periods. And if you succeed in getting them, the price is a few times more than usual.


Recently I bought a bunch of lemon grass for RM1.50. There were about 30 stalks tied in 3 plants per bundle. That was cheap. I have planted 15 stalks and keep the rest for use in my cooking.

What was left after planting

Not wanting to waste by throwing the leaves to my compost heap directly, I cut the leaves into about 5cm pieces and boiled in water. The boiling was done for about half an hour, replacing the water as it dried. The resultant tea was obtained by straining the leaves. When cool, the leaves went into my compost.

Lemon grass is extensively used as a culinary ingredient in South East Asia, especially in Malaysia and Thailand. It makes an exquisite flavor to curries and gravies as it helps to remove the fishy smell of fish and meaty smell of meat.

I have tried lemon grass tea before but never tried to make my own.

Lemon grass has a place in Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine for its innumerable properties.

Lemon grass tea has gained immense popularity among Westerners for its medicinal properties.

The leaves were cut into strips before placing in a pot of water.

I am told that the tea is naturally caffeine free, has anti- bacterial and anti-fungal properties; calming effect, and provides a remedy for various maladies:

Induces sleep and cures insomnia.

Prevents acne and other skin problems.


Maintains normal cholesterol levels in the body.

Lemon grass promotes digestion of food and gives relief from gastroenteritis. It is also an ideal remedy for those who have flatulence. It allows the muscles in the abdominal region to relax and release gas. Relieves nausea and severe menstrual cramps.


Detoxifies liver, pancreas, kidneys, bladder and the digestive tract. Lemon grass herb contains citral that acts as a diuretic that detoxifies the body by increasing the quantity and frequency of urination. This helps to clean the kidney, liver, pancreas, digestive tract, bladder etc and removes unwanted toxic substances through the urine.


Removal of uric acid and toxic substances from the body and lemon grass helps to lose weight.


Being a detoxifier, lemon grass contains citral that removes excess cholesterol, uric acid, toxins and fats from the body. This stimulates blood circulation throughout the body. Drinking a glass of lemon grass herbal tea everyday helps to reduce blood pressure.




Stimulates blood circulation; enhances immune system against flu, coughs and colds. Relieves fever.


Rich in citral which inhibit the growth of cancer cells.

Eases arthritic pain.

Although I drink the lemon grass tea without sugar, as I do with all my teas; you may like to add sugar as in the following recipes:

How to Make Lemon Grass Tea

Ingredients

• Clumps of lemon grass

• Water, 1 cup

• Milk, if desired

• Sugar or honey, as per taste

• Strainer

Method

• Peel the outer layer of the leaves and discard them. The outer layers will give your tea a bitter taste.

• Boil the water and add the clumps of peeled leaves to it.

• Let the water boil on a slow heat for around twenty minutes. This extracts all the essence of the leaves.

• Add the sweetener and boil it for another 5 minutes. If you want, you can add some milk at this point.

• Remove from the stove, strain it in a cup and drink it hot.

You can also serve iced lemon grass tea. Go along with the suggested lemon grass tea recipe, let it cool and serve it with ice. If you are making it iced lemon grass tea, refrain from adding milk.

Lemongrass Tea Side Effects

You are not advised to drink lemon grass tea in excess continuously. Drink for a few days intermittently. If you have been drinking lemon grass tea for 5 days, skip 5 days before you start drinking again. Consult a health practitioner if you are suffering from any ailment, before you start consuming this herbal tea. In case, you feel any side effect after drinking this tea, stop consuming it IMMEDIATELY. 

Compare the above with Amy Beh's lemon grass tea:

Ingredients


• 10 stalks lemongrass, chopped

• 3 screwpine leaves, knotted

• 1,875ml (or 7½ cups) water

• 200g rock sugar

• 1 lemon, squeezed for juice

Method

Place lemongrass in a food processor. Add 100ml water and blend into a pulpy juice. Combine the blended lemongrass with water and pandan leaves in a pot. Simmer for 15-20 minutes. Strain and add rock sugar, reboil and simmer until sugar dissolves. Add lemon juice.

To serve: Pour lemongrass tea into individual glass, add a slice of lemon and serve either hot or add some ice cubes over.