So called chronicles of my life

Nyonya laksa is one of my favourite food but since this is a nyonya dish and the ones that are sold at hawker stalls usually is not halal, i don’t get to eat this dish often. I have always been on the lookout for a good recipe for this delectable dish. A few weeks ago i happen to be watching ‘Ways of the Matriarch’ a show about the peranakans and their dishes. I went to the website for the nangka masak lemak recipe and happen to find the recipe for this nyonya laksa too.

Nyonya Laksa or Laksa Lemak Nyonya

Gravy

• a small bowl of dried shrimp (soak in warm water and pounded until fine – set aside)
• 10 dried chillies *
• 3 fresh chillies *
• a small bowl of shallots *
• a sliver of gallangal *
• a knob of belacan *
• 3 candlenuts (buah keras) *
• 1 cm of tumeric root *
• Coconut milk from 1 coconut (about a litre)
• 2 stalks of lemongrass

Sambal

• 10 – 15 dried chillies *
• 1 small bowl of shallots *
• 3 candlenuts *
• a bit of belacan *

Garnishing

• 250 gm prawns
• a handful of greenbean sprouts (taugeh laa,  aku mana tau omputeh pangey apa)
• cucumber – julienne (potong nipih macam batang mancis tu..)
• cut birds eye chillies (don’t be a wuss and clean the seeds)
• Thai basil or daun kesum (cut finely with scisscors)

How to :

1. Pound the soaked dried shrimps untill fine and set aside.
2. Blitz everything marked * in the food processor and set aside. First for the gravy then for the sambal.
3. Bruised the lemongrass and put in the gravy rempah
4. Heat a pan of water and when it begins to boil put in the prawns, leave for 5 – 10 minutes, remove from hot water, reserved the water to put in gravy.
5. Heat oil and fry the gravy rempah together with the lemongrass untill pecah minyak (oil separates from the rempah)
6. Put in the pounded shrimps, stir.
7. Pour in the prawn stock and thin coconut milk in, and if you want, you can add in fishballs and other stuff like taupok in.
8. After 15 mins, pour in the thick coconut and cook for further 10 mins, be carefull not to over cook.
9. To make the sambal, heat oil in pan fry the rempah untill pecah minyak and seasoned to taste with salt and sugar.

Assemble everything together and apa lagi… ngap lah..

My verdict:

Ok lah not too bad, next time though if i choose to use this recipe, i would not shred the daun kesum and put in when i pour the thick coconut. I don’t like it when the shreded daun kesum stuck to my teeth. Buruk ghoper with the green bits on my teeth…

Semalam hari jadi Sultan Johor. So Johor state is on public holiday! Yay! Syok tak payah bangun pagi pergi kerja…. tapi kena bangun pagi gak sebab nak pergi jenjalan ke Telok Gorek!! Jeng! Jeng! I know lah that day i dah blacklist itu tempat tapi seperti kata anak bongsu, ‘nilah orang melayu, tak de pendirian…!’ Hah! peduli hapa aku…. Telok Gorek tu, setahu aku masih lagi tempat awam so suka hati mak mertua laki aku lah, aku nak pergi… hehe…. Anyway, semalam kami pergi berempat. Anak bongsu, wifey, mak aku dan aku. Laki aku tak ikut sebab dia ada trip dia sendiri so dia boleh belah…. hmmmm. Sampai Telok Gorek pukul 1pm, tengah panas terik, tapi air surut…. so tak cantik! Kami bentang tikar piknik kat sebelah kereta jek sebab anak bongsu dah kebulur giler…. tapi yang tak best nyer orang sebelah kami tu main kereta wireless dekat sangat dengan tempat kami, sampai batu-batu kecik tu terpelanting kena kami. Dia buat dunno jek, sungguh lah bengap manusia macam tu, nak aje aku ambik kereta wireless dia tu and timbus dalam pasir. Lepak kat Telok Gorek kejap jek sebab bila dah makan tak de reason untuk stay, dengan jiran sebelah yang tak reti nak respek privacy orang, dengan keadaan pantai yang tak cantik, angin pun tak de sepoi-sepoi bahasa memang tak best lah!

Pukul 1.30pm gerak pergi Tanjung Leman pulak. Sampai Tanjung Leman, pergi ke Jeti untuk solat. Nasib baik charge cuma RM1 sebab biasanya charge parking ialah RM4 untuk 1 hari. Lepas tu pergi lepak dekat beach dia. Kat sini ada satu resort – Tunjuk Laut Resort. Awal tahun ni ke, akhir tahun lepas aku pergi Tg. Leman ni, nampak resort ni kena tinggal, sekarang rupanya ada owner baru sudah beli lah… Bangunan tu bangunan lama tapi dah dicat baru lah… nampak menarik. Lepak kat bawah pokok, best wooo…. angin sepoi-sepoi bahasa tapi spoil sikit lah… tengah syok menikmati pemandangan laut tu tiba-tiba terdengar bunyi macam kain koyak…. prraakk! perlahan tapi jelas….. aku pandang anak bongsu, anak bongsu pandang aku, pandang wifey, wifey pandang aku, pandang mak, mak pandang aku lepas tu hambek… meledak lah ketawa…… rupa-rupa nya makcik kat tempat sebelah tu sudah kentut lah….. hehe..kelakar! Actually makcik tu agak jauh tempat dia dari kami tapi punya lah power bunyi kentut dia…sampai kami boleh dengar. Nasib baik bau kentut dia tak sepower bunyi nye. Kesian makcik tu, mesti dia bengang kan… bila kami pandang balik, dia sembunyi kan muka belakang badan cucu dia…. hehe…

My uncle got married last saturday. You know the one who lost his wife less than 6 months ago… I know jodoh pertemuan is fated and in god’s hand but i still think it’s too early for him to remarry. Sue me! The new aunty is 3 years my junior, and very pretty (compared to the arwah). The whirlwind romance started 4 months ago and today they have tied the knot. I hope my uncle didn’t make his decision based on lust and regret it later on because his new wife is 16 years his junior and have a young daughter to raise. Whereas he already has three grown up sons with the late arwah. Erk! Lantak dia lah….

We (mom and dad, anak bongsu and wife, hubby and me) went to Melaka on Friday and stayed at Hallmark Hotel. After the nightmare at Yellow Mansion, everyone was making noise telling me to choose a better and CHEAP hotel. Well, cheap because we will only stay there for a few hours and it seemed a big waste of money if we pay more than RM150 for a room. So my job was to find, CHEAP but NICE accomodation. Yeah..thanks, anak bongsu! After much research on the internet i narrowed it down to two, Mimosa Hotel and Hallmark Hotel. I chose the latter because it’s cheaper, and closer to Jonker Walk, simple as that. We took 2 Superior rooms, which has a double bed and a single bed and divided the couples into boys and girls. It was fun sleeping together with my mom and sis in law. The mid-nite chorus was really happening

When we reached the hotel, checking in was a breeze. It took us less than 10 minutes to get our stuff into the room. We got the rooms of 315 & 316. We were also given breakfast vouchers and asked what kind of paper do we prefer to be delivered to the rooms in the morning. My, such good service! Well for the price of RM128 per room it was good! The room was average. The bed was nice, so was the comforter. No musty smell, the room was quite warm at first and the air-cond took almost half an hour to cool everything down. Toilet was cleaned but nothing to shout about. Our room was smaller than the boys room but we got the bigger bathroom, so fitting, don’t you think? The only problem i have with the bathroom was the low seat of the toilet bowl and the clogged drain. It took ‘forever’ for the bath water to be drained. Yuck! Towel is provided and not the thin cheap ones at that. No toiletries were provided though, although i did see a 3 in 1 soap dispenser on the wall. I didn’t use it as i prefer to use my own toiletries. Water pressure on the shower was not that strong but i didn’t care because i used the shower head they put near the toilet (bidet lah kunon…) as it had better water pressure.

I didn’t have a restful sleep though, as there are three very different individuals in the room, there’s bound to be clashes. Mom prefers to sleep with a night light on, she says she felt suffocated if it’s totally dark while moi, have to sleep in total darkness. i can’t sleep if there’s light. Sis-in-law? She was asleep 10 minutes we got back to the room. How i envy her! I compromised by leaving the toilet light on but as my side was the nearest to the toilet, can you imagine how i were to sleep with  those lights blaring at me? I closed the toilet door at midnight, but mom opened the door in the wee hours and i woke up and was restless until morning. Our next door neighbour (not the boys) also made a loud ruckuss around 2 or 3AM, loud banshee like laughter and door slamming. Tu belum dalam bilik masing-masing  punya berdengkur lagi…hehe…..

Breakfast was a simple affair, fried rice, fried meehoon, toast, malay kuihs, coffee and tea. Can’t complain there (yang complain2 tu pergilah ko cari breakfast pagi-pagi buto tu..). We checked out at 9AM.I would defitinety stay here again as the price is cheap and the room is value for money. It’s not luxurious but it served its purpose. Wish they have better parking area though…..

• Hallmark Hotel
• Jalan Portugis off Jalan Kubu
• Near Jonker Walk

I have just discovered Etta James, biasalah melayu-jowo. Oh my, i love her songs. Lagu yang sangat sesuai untuk mereka yang sedang dilanda badai perasaan nya. Aku pun pernah ada experience sebijik macam lagu ni, nasib baik time tu belum kenal lagi dengan Mak Etta. Anyway, aku include sekali lirik lagu ni, sebab aku bila dengar lagu jiwang mesti nak baca lirik supaya lebih feeeel…..

Something told me it was over
When I saw you and her talkin’
Something deep down in my soul said, ‘Cry, girl’
When I saw you and that girl walkin’ around

Whoo, I would rather, I would rather go blind, boy
Then to see you walk away from me, child, no

Whoo, so you see, I love you so much
That I don’t wanna watch you leave me, baby
Most of all, I just don’t, I just don’t wanna be free, no

Whoo, whoo, I was just, I was just, I was just
Sittin here thinkin’, of your kiss and your warm embrace, yeah
When the reflection in the glass that I held to my lips now, baby
Revealed the tears that was on my face, yeah

Whoo and baby, baby, I’d rather, I’d rather be blind, boy
Then to see you walk away, see you walk away from me, yeah
Whoo, baby, baby, baby, I’d rather be blind…