So You Want To Cook ~ Pengat Labu dan Sagu (Pumpkin Dessert with Sago)

I always love cooking. I find cooking a therapy. And while the work I do, I may need to wait quite some time to see the results, cooking on the other hand, able to provide me instant results which can be satisfying, some of the time at least.

And today, I just have this urge to cook Pengat Labu and Sagu. Actually, Mira has been asking for this since we came back from umrah. Only today, I managed to make it for her. I also taught her how to make it. It's quite a simple dish and can be ready in less than 30 min.

The ingredients :
Labu (pumpkin) - Quarter of a medium size pumpkin, cut in big dices
Sago (my better half chose to buy the green one, nampak cantik katanya)
Sugar - the ratio is up to you, some may like it sweet. For quarter of a medium size pumpkin, I just put quarter cup of sugar
Santan (coconut milk)
Salt - about 1 teaspoon is sufficient

When I say it's easy, it really is.

First, you put the santan in the pot and add some water. Then pour the sugar and salt and stir it.

Once it starts to simmer, add in the pumpkin. Make sure you wait until the pumpkin is half cooked before you include the sago. Sago may also have thickening effect so do add water to make it thinner. Not too much though.

Volla!!

Told you it's simple.And now you can enjoy this with your family after a long day at work!

Weekend Wonders ~ How To Make Burger Patties

Maternity leave is a good time to catch up on many things. Catching up with cleaning, putting our home in order, all the TV series I may have missed, blogging and of course what I love doing the most, cooking!

For those who don't know what to cook this weekend, try to make your own burger patties. It was my first time trying to cook it. I referred to few recipes and decided to improvised to suit my own tastes, and the kids also....

I always prefer beef than chicken so for this one, I am sharing beef burger patties recipe. Beef is much simpler, chicken if not cooked well, it can get a bit dry and not so delicious. Please also note when I cook, I don't really use specific measurement, more like a secukup rasa kind of thing

Ingredients (To make 4 burgers)

500gm Beef, please choose the part when it combines the meat and the fat so the patties can be moist and juicy

3 Garlic

3 Shallots 

1 egg

Black Pepper

Paprika Powder

Coriander

Anise (Jintan Manis) 

Salt

Worcestershire sauce

Soya Sauce

Step 1 

Mince the beef. Please avoid using blender as it may get too watery. Use the food mincer instead. If you don't have that (cause we don't) use the part that usually is used to blend the nuts. Sorry, I don't know what that part is called. When you buy blender, it will come with 2 main blending container, I used the small one

Step 2

Blend the garlic and shallots. Then mix that with black pepper, paprika powder, coriander and anise 

Step 3

Mix ingredients all including the beef and items in step 2. Make sure you mix in well with your fingers so all the spices are well segregated

Step 4

Mould the beef to burger shape. 

Step 5

You can choose to cook it either using pan or oven. We were hungry so I decided to pan fry it.

Step 6

Garnish it with buns, onions, salad, cucumber and tomatoes. Add cheese if you want to

Tada! The burger is now ready to be served. Do give it a try and share with me the outcome ya! 

Have an awesome weekend everyone!

Liza Can Cook ~ Ayam Masak Merah

This entry is long overdue request from Gina, who have been asking for the recipe Ayam Masak Merah from me. Sorry dear for the long delay. Honestly, I am not that good with this recipe stuff. Usually when I cook I just campak2 jer. Let me try to give this a shot ya. By the way, of all the food I cook, this is Ilham's favourite. That is why I always cook this.

This ingredients are suitable for family of 5 servings (aka my family :) )

Half chicken, cut into medium sizes

3 shallots grinded 

3 garlics grinded

30 dried chillies, boiled and grinded

quater of small bowl of tamarind juice

2 lemon grass (smashed as the root)

1 big onion, sliced

2 tomatoes, cut into 4

Salt and sugar

Brown sugar

How to cook

1. Add tumeric powder and salt to the chicken. Fry the chicken, half cook

2. Once the chicken is done, tumis the shallots and garlic that has been grinded.

3. Add the chilli paste and continue frying

4. Add tamarind juice, together with salt and sugar. Also add brown sugar. Continue to cook until the mixed look red and shiny

5. Add the haf cooked chicken. Make sure it's fully cooked.

5. Add big onions,tomatoes and lemon grass

Yes, you are done. I can't seem to find Ayam Masak Merah photo, what I have is combination of this dish with other dishes I cooked that time.

So, Gina, hope this is ok. Please do let me know if you need more info from me. I'm not a good cook, just love to cook :)

Signing off,

liza365.blogspot.com

Liza Can Bake ~ Raya Cookies In The Making

My better half often tells me how at times I can be this super ambitious person who thinks I can do anything despite the constraint in time. At times I succeed but most of the time I failed. Yes, failure is never good but as cliche as it may sound, not trying is not good either. Like what Thomas Alva Edison said many many years ago, I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.

This Raya is no exception. It has been a tradition for me to make some Raya cookies with the kids. We don't make all the cookies, we just make some of them while the rest, we just order and buy from friends. But this year, I decided not to buy or order any but to make all. And to add more pressure to my life, since every year we also buy Raya cookies for my parents and inlaws, this year they will get to "enjoy" cookies made from our home.

So, yesterday, we managed to make 2 types of cookies ; Chocolate Cornflakes and Kuih Dahlia.

My sincere apology, in between battling with flour in the kitchen and also preparing dishes for iftar, I did not get to take photos while we were making the cookies. Thought of sharing the recipes since the making of this Raya cookies were not that hard.

Chocolate Cornflakes

Ingredients

1 box of Cornflakes, not too particular on the brand. I just bought the ones sold in bakery shop, it's 50% cheaper than Nestle or Kellog's

1 bar of cooking chocolate, 1 used the 1 kg ones

Rainbow sprinkles

Small paper cups

How to make it

1. Melt the cooking chocolate by putting it on a metal container over boiling water. Remember never to melt it using direct heat. You'll destroy the chocolate
2. Once the chocolate have been melted, mix all on the cornflakes
3. Put the portion in the small cup and sprinkle with rainbow sprinkles as finishing touch
4. Put all this in refrigerator for about 10 minutes

Volla! It's ready and can now be put in the plastic container

Biskut Dahlia

Ingredients

300 gram butter - my preference has always been Buttercup

160 gram icing sugar

2 egg yolk

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

240 wheat gram of flour

100 gram of corn flour

160 gram of custard flour
Red cherries for decorations

 

How to make it

1. Mix icing sugar with butter using mixer till it's fluffy. 
2. Then add the egg yolk and vanilla essence. Continue mixing this.
3. Add all the flours one by one, little by little in low speed.
4. Mix till the mixture is soft and ready to be shaped
5. Shape it using the Bunga Dahlia patterns and top it of with slices of cherries.
6. While you are doing the  shaping, make sure you have preheat your oven
7. Then bake the cookies in the oven on 175 degrees for 15 minutes
8. Remember to only put your cookies in containers once it's cool off

Simple isn't it. If an idiot who don't know much about baking can do it, I am sure everyone can.

Now the challenge, to keep the cookies away from the kids. As of last night, one container HABIS!

Signing off,

liza365.blogspot.com

 

Liza Can Cook - Dhal Curry Recipe

I am married to a man from Banjar clan. This is a clan originated from Indonesia. That is why, despite being a Johorean, the culture and norms that are practised day to day are some what different from the normal Johorean.

In MBH's kampung, I can safely say almost everyone is related to each other either by birth or by marriage. MBH is the only who got married to someone out of Johor hence I need to learn and try to adapt to his culture. One of the things which his family loves doing is kenduri i.e. to feast the kampung with delicious food.

Last weekend, another kenduri was held. And this time, the chosen dishes were one of Banjar speciality i.e Nasi Gaul. This is some sort like Nasi Minyak served with either boiled beef or chicken with salad and coconut milk with Dhal Curry as the gravy. And that was my assignment, to cook Dhal Curry for about 300 people. Not just normal people, but people in his kampung aka his relatives aka S.T.R.E.S.S!!!

Let's see how to cook it

Ingredients

*Shallots

*Onions

*Garlic

*Ginger

* to be blended

**Shallots

**Garlic

** cut into thin slices

Rempah tumis (spices)

Curry Powder

Potatoes (cut into 4)

Dhal (boiled until soft)

Coconut Milk

Chicken (cut into small parts)

Brinjal

Tomatoes

Red Chillies

• First, heat the pot and once it's hot add the cooking oil. Once the oil is hot enough, fry the items ** with the rempah tumis until this turn golden brown with awesome aroma.

• The add items * and fry until the aroma of the ginger comes out

• Next, add the curry powder which has been pre-mixed with water. Not to thin, not to thick. At this stage, you need to stir quite frequently to ensure it will not be "hangit" and stick to the pot. Fry until it is cooked. If the curry powder is not cooked properly, this may caused people to get stomach ache.

• Add potatoes and chicken. Add some water as well and wait until it boils.

• Once the potatoes are half cooked, add the dhal into the mixture. Again, don't forget to stir.

• Add the santan and some water so that it will not be too thick
• Once the potatoes and chicken are 3/4 cooked, add the brinjals
• Add salt and seasoning
• If you see the curry starts to boil then it's time to add the tomatoes and red chillies.

There you go, the curry is ready. I was so nervous when this was served. Gila kau, satu kampung nak makan! Harus dikata orang menantu Haji Hamzah tak pandai masak!

Alhamdulilah, it turned out well.

I enjoy cooking, perhaps this passion can be turned into something profitable one day, Insyallah.

Signing off,

liza365.blogspot.com

Liza can cook - Sup Tulang Recipe

I have always wanted to share recipes in my blog. However, I was reluctant to do so cause I don't want people to think I am trying to show off as if I am the only one can cook. Yes, that was the old me. Not anymore, the new me don't really gives a damn what people think. Yes, I can cook. I may not be good at it, but I can cook good meals for my family.

So, here goes.

Today, I made Sup Tulang. This is one of the favourite dish for my family. Though I said I cooked this today for lunch but the process started last night. It is important to cook it for hours until the meat got separated from the bones.

Ingredients

2kg of bones preferably from the ribs ( this portion is enough to feed us, the family of 5 the whole day)

To grind ( I use lesung batu, not blender, just my preference I guess)

5 shallots

5 garlics

5cm of ginger

Potatoes

Half of quarter cup Tamarind juice

2 packets Sup Tulang Bunjut Adabi

How to do cook this

• After washing the bones, boil it for about 15 minutes. Then throw the water and replace it with another pot of water. This time, boil it for at least 4 hours
• Using another pan, after you heat the oil, first fry the rempah tumis which is part for the Sup Tulang Bunjut Adabi pack for about 15 seconds and then add together tje grinded ingredients.
• Fry until the smell appear and the ingredients turn golden brown.
• Once that is done, transfer the whole fried ingredients to the pot. Add potatoes and the tamarind juice
• Boil for another 2 hours
• Add salt. I don't add salt at the early stage as it may cause the meat to be hard and not tender

And the soup is ready to be served. Best served with hot white rice or bread. And if you have extra time, do the sambal kicap. That will make the soup more awesome!!!

Blum try belum tahu!!!

Signing off,

liza365.blogspot.com