So called chronicles of my life

Botok-botok ialah sejenis makanan di Johor. Tempat lain tak sure ada ke tidak, ada orang cakap di daerah lain botok-botok dipanggil pais ikan. I beg to differ lah, jauh macam matahari dengan bintang ok.  Pais biasanya bakar, boleh gak kukus tapi botok-botok mesti kukus. Tak boleh bakar, abis semua ulam-ulam yang ada dalam tu merentung kalau bakar, penat je prepare and rugi beli daun2 yang susah nak cari tu. Pais biasanya ikan dan rempah bungkus dalam daun pisang, botok2 pun sama, ada ikan, ada rempah tetapi… ditambah dengan pucuk-pucuk pokok ulam dengan meriah nya. Itu yang membeza kan botok-botok dengan pais hokay? Susah nak cari botok-botok yang sedap sekarang ni, hari tu tekak ni dah tak boleh tahan nak makan botok-botok. En. laki plak murah rezeki, dapat ikan tenggiri bagak… apa lagi.. aku pun mula kan lah operasi ~projek botok-botok. Sebenarnya, mak adik ipar aku terer gak buat botok-botok tapi pompuan tu, hampeh, tak reti buat pun… Tak pe lah nasib baik ada internet boleh surf resipi…

Projek dimulakan dengan pencarian daun-daun ulam tu. Pergi pasar Larkin, jumpa satu stall, aku recognise satu daun tu, so tanya kat makcik yang jual tu, ada jual daun botok2 tak? Nasib kitaorang memang baik lah, makcik tu punya lah ramah tak nak mampus, siap tolong carikan semua menatang daun yang diperlukan. Ada pucuk ubi, pucuk betik, daun bebuas, pucuk mengkudu, pucuk kaduk, daun selasih, daun kunyit, daun limau, and beberapa lagi daun yang aku tak kenal rupa and nama… Korang tau berapa habis beli daun saja? RM20 untuk tiga beg plastik besar…. mahal tak mahal lah kan, tekak punya pasal sanggup… Lepas tu cari kari ikan dan beli santan. Balik rumah terus tackle daun-daun tu, pilih and petik pucuk saje, part membasuh aku serah kat PA aku fiza, aku buat rempah dan masak ayam kicap untuk en. laki. Kerat jari lah mamat tu nak makan botok-botok, siap dia lalu sebelah tanya dengan  muka berkerut-kerut, masak apa ni? Eeeeeeeiii! Bertuah punya laki, so kena masak kan lauk kicap, kalau tak meltdown perut lapar tak boleh makan (ngengada tul..)

Bawah sekali lapis dengan pucuk betik, lepas tu letak lah segala daun yang ada… kitaorang main hentam keromo jek, janji letak daun-daun tu…

tangan yang gebus tu ialah tangan PA saya, saya nak ambik gambor so tak leh nak melapis…. hihi

Ni rupa sebelum kena bungkus dan kukus…bila dah kukus, macam ni ha…. tak kecur air liur kau Lijah..?

Waahhhh… sangat mengecur kan air liur, sedap tau! Aku dah pandai buat botok-botok ! Hoyei, hoyei! boleh meniaga dan jadi kaya…. Ini resipi rempah botok2, aku bagi pakai sistem agak je sebab aku pun masak macam tu…tapi ingredient penting semua listed lah ;

1. rempah kari ikan 1 peket (beli yang bancuh kat kedai india tu)
2. bawang besar/merah
3. bawang putih
4. lengkuas
5. halia
6. serai
7. kerisik dalam 100 gm (1 peket)
8. air asam jawa
9. santan
10. cili kisar beberapa sudu

Daun-daun plak :

1. pucuk daun betik
2. pucuk daun kaduk
3. pucuk daun ubi pulut
4. pucuk daun puding teh
5. pucuk daun puding
6. pucuk daun mengkudu
7. pucuk daun bebuas
8. daun kunyit
9. daun limau
10. daun selasih
11. daun kesum – tapi aku tak letak pun ~ lupa
12. daun pisang untuk membungkus

Hari ini aku nak buat tutorial masak kicap. JANGAN KETAWA… believe it or not ramai orang tak tau masak kicap eventhough it is the most simple thing to cook. Aku tau dah pernah orang lain blog pasal masak kicap tapi ….. ada aku kisah? Since this is en. laki’s favourite dish (favourite aku juga walau in denial..  :P ) aku nak jugak masuk dalam blog supaya … mana tau nanti kalau laki aku kahwin baru, binik dia tu tau macam mana nak masak kan, hokay?

Ok… bahan2 utama for ayam masak kicap is of course ~ ayam and kicap, or soy sauce kalau kau nak cakap omputeh. Kicap yang paling afdhol is kicap lemak manis cap lipas udang. Kicap lain pun boleh gak tapi kureeng kick dia. Apart from those two main stars, the supporting cast includes : a lot of birds eye chillies or cili padi, lots of julienne red onion, garlic and ginger.

Pastikan minyak untuk menumis bahan2 yang dah dihiris tu panas. One trick is, if you are using a wooden spoon, bila korang dip it in the oil it wil bubble… macam ni ha..

itu tanda minyak dah cukup panas, apa lagi campak kan bahan2 hiris kedalam minyak (jangan sampai terpercik, nanti melecur pulak tangan yang gebus tu… uweekk)

Tumis sampai bawang layu dan sedikit kuning, kemudian masukkan air asam jawa. JANGAN banyak! Sikit je…. pastu baru masukkan kicap banyak mana korang suka. Kacau sikit, bila nak mendidih, masukkan ayam yang telah digoreng tadi.. eh.. lupa plak nak khabar, ayam tadi tu lumur dengan serbuk kunyit and garam to taste, lepas tu goreng sampai masak dan kekuningan.  Angkat, tos and put aside.  Bila dah campur semua, macam ni lah rupa ayam masak kicap, lauk kegemaran laki kesayangan aku tu… (sila muntah dan cakap aku buat cerita..  :P )

I have long read the health benefits of quinoa and eventhough i’ve seen them on supermarkets here in JB, i’ve never been interested to try them out. Until last week. I was wasting time browsing the imported goods isle and spotted them and thought… why not? If you’re interested to know more about quinoa, you can google it yourself but i am extra nice today so here’s the link, GO.

The package came with instructions on how to cook them and so far from the endless research i did on the net it’s basically the same method

But i thought of my disastrous attempt at cooking couscous, and thought i would tweaked it a bit. So, instead of cooking it with plain water, i spiked it with ½ of a chicken soup bouillon. Whaddya ya know… tasted… not bad….

I was thinking of making a salad with it, being  health food and all…. so i started to chopped some spring onions, a tomato, a few pcs of dried apricot and one avocado.

I was afraid that my avocados would trun brown,so i spiked it with the juice of half a lemon, then i combine everything and season to taste (which i did not.. taste i mean..). I also sprinkle a bit of tabasco sauce, thinking it might made it taste better…..

Doesn’t it look nice? One of my best masterpiece, even if i say so myself (masuk bakul, angkat sendiri. Masalah nya ada ke bakul yang boleh memuatkan akuuuuuu) and you know……. I AM ALWAYS RIGHT!

Sigh….. looks good isn’t it? Just like a nice, hot, super spicy plate of nasi goreng. Here’s the truth (or the made-up truth, you just never know with me…), the quinoa, on it’s own, after being cooked in chicken broth, tasted not bad, i can even give *** stars. It doesn’t taste like rice, it’s crunchy or al-dente and it’s got a nutty taste. The ingredients i used for the salad however, made it taste like a sourish, icky grainy lemony thingy. Yup… i couldn’t finish the salad because of the wrong combination. I finish the quinoa, avocados and dried apricots but i find the spring onions taste too strong for my liking and next time i need to less the lemon juice and no need to waste my perfect tomato…. There’s a million of other things i could do with quinoa and since i still have a bagfull, i think i will experiment, doing the sweet stuffs…(alasan…memang dah tentu suka makan desserts.. heh heh..). I wish the camera is with me all the time so i can document my failure or TRIUMPH!

See ya!

There’s an aloe vera plant at my house, lidah buaya (crocodiles tongue) in malay. I wonder how these ancestors of mine came up with the name, did they know what a crocodile’s tongue look like? Anyway, this plant of ours was originally a gift from en. laki’s friend. When he gave us the plant,  it was this scrawny pity looking thing and now…. it’s big and fat and have actually sprouted offsprings… unlike the owner.  Aloe vera it seems is a plant with many health attributes, i’m not gonna type them here because i’m lazy but you can google it if you want too. I’ve actually had this idea for quite some time but seeing that i am not the most rajin person, it just gets pushed aside. SO… a few days ago, i took some of the aloe leaves and made some type of drink with it… The following pictures shows how i tackle these thorny ‘devils’…….

See those tiny, seemingly harmless thorns? They’re actually little devil’s horn disguising themselves as thorns, i tell ya! It looks small and vulnerable but pack quite a sting. So first thing, we gotta do is take the damn thorns off because …. it hurts ok..

Then we’ve got to take off the green outer layer, leaving only the clear, gel like stuff underneath all those green stuff. CAREFULL! It’s a slippery , slimy little sucka…

Once you’ve got your gel like thingy, soak them in water while you finish tackling the rest of the tiny devils….. This i read will help to get rid some of the slime. I also read somewhere comments from people who TRIED to consume these wonderful healthy devils thorns, that their throats get ithcy after trying to eat it. Not only that, the slimy juice that was on my hands when i cut them up, also made my skin itch. That was not enough to deter me though, i think the reason why those people got the itch is because they didn’t cleaned it properly. You have to get rid of every inch of the green outer covering.

Gel like thingy soaking in water before i got rough with them and clean those green bits off. After that boil some water in a pot and once it boils put these things inside and wait for it to boil again. Then take them out and place them in a bowl of ice water. Then you can cut to your desired shapes and sizes and put them in your favourite drinks. The recipe that i read puts them in a dried longan juice but i just threw away my batch of dried longan. So i made some lemonade and dumped my cubed aloe vera bits and  it tastes great!

If you have some these devils thorn growing in your garden, why not gave it a try?! It’s healthy, organic and won’t cost you a thing!

I love avacados but because they’re usually so expensive around here, i never bought them.  A few weeks ago, while i was browsing in the supermarket i happened to spy some avacados in the discount bin. Closer inspection revealed that they were still ok albeit a little soft and it was selling for RM2+ for 2 pcs compared to the usual price of RM5+, i grabbed them. I was dying to drink avocado juice, you know, the kind you get from the indonesian restaurants but cost a bomb?

I made these using low fat milk, a little ice and a few spoon fulls of evaporated milk and 2 avocados ~ blended. Then i melted some chocolate to ‘dress’ the glass. The taste was extremely satisfying.

I am so not happy with the way the pictures turn out, since the computer was murdered, all my pictures and file were destroyed. I took these using en. laki’s camera but it’s just not the same anymore because i can’t edit the pictures the way i want and i had to take it hurriedly and adjust to his timetable… it sucks when you have to borrow other people’s stuff!