Every time Salad

Why I named it every time salad? Because every time bff asked me to make salad, I will make this salad. I didn't follow any recipe. Try it!

~ Kahoo (lettuce)

~ Hojeh (tomato)

~ Khiar (Cucumber)

Dressing:

~ 1 tsp mustard

~ 2 tbsp mayonnaise

~ 2 tbsp ketchup

~ juice of 1 lime

~ salt

~ 1 small onion, finely diced

Adas Polow Version 2

My another version of adas polow. Last recipe is here. This time I didn't use turmeric and cinnamon. And I garnished it with raisins.

I had adas polow with ton mahi (canned tuna), sibzamini sorkh karde (french fries) and salad. Salad recipe will come later!

Pishesh Nemishinam

Nice song (meaning and music). Do you agree with me??

Lets dance ...

Anyone want to give me the lyrics??

Happy New Year 2012

I think its not too late to wish Happy New Year. Another number increase, another year to treasure. Hope 2012 will bring lots of happiness to all of us. Peace to world. Talking about world, our modern world can I say lead by the U.S.A? Why so? Looking back of past years, what they have done to this world? Its like they rules this life. From Afghanistan to Iraq also their interfere in Egypt, Syria. What else? With their non-stop provocation to Iran and North Korea nuclear. Do they really want to start another war? Bff always share with me his sadness about what America has directly give impact to Iran's economy. Now USD price drastically  increase in Iran because of the sanctions. Do they want to start a cold war? Is it because of Iran's oil? Can't they live normally without propagandas which nobody understand for what? I just pray for the best to this world!

Enough rambling, so what you did on NY eve? Me with bff celebrated it after a long tiring week. Let see what we did..

2 hrs walking at Orchard Rd with zillions of people

Searching for nothing

Heading to Clarke Qy after 2hrs of sweating

Clarke Qy that night was packed like canned sardines! With noisy musics from each restaurants plus the stage. Like hell!

We decided to watch fireworks at Marina Bay so around 11.15 we walked to there but the road was blocked by police. They didn't let anymore people to enter Marina Bay area maybe it was already too crowded there. Bff said, maybe the marina Bay podium going to collapse! Haha. So, we end up watching fireworks seating on roadside. You can see on the photo people started rushing to watch fireworks. Thats why the photo blurr. Hehe..credits to the photographer! The fireworks lasted for 8 minutes. The climax of the day was drunk drinkers everywhere..Sigh...

We started 2012 with happiness, may we have it the whole year..

L.I.V.E.L.O.V.E.F.O.R.E.V.E.R

Shabe Yalda Mobarak

Was packed with end year lots of works. That's why I didn't update this blog. But then, I still keep memories of every events I had during these days and now I will share another Persian celebration. Its kinda interesting for me because we Malays do not have any special 1 night cultural celebration.

21st December is the last day of autumn. It is the longest night of year. Persian called it "Shabe Yalda".
They have tradition to celebrate this special night. Reading poems, singing, or playing games until midnight.
Foods that normally served are watermelon, pomegranate, nuts and dried fruits to accompany the occasions.

At the morning I bought watermelon and refrigerated it because bff doesn't eat not chilled fruits. What a fussy man bleahh!! Was thinking to make a shirni (sweets) specially for Shabe Yalda, but wasn't had enough time. Maybe next year.

And this was what we had for our Shabe-Yalda.

Didn't do the rituals of read poetry until late night because was busy with work loads. But at least, I tried to create a Shabe-Yalda moment for bff as he is far away from Iran. Hope, he likes it. Till then, bye!

Samosa

I make samosa this afternoon for tea time. Bought a 50 pcs spring rolls pastry and managed to make 30 samosas which half I freeze for later consume. 

For filling

Ingredients:
~ 2 medium potatoes, diced
~ 1 chicken breast, chopped
~ 1 medium onion*
~ 2 garlic cloves*
~ 1/2 tsp black pepper*
~ 1 tbsp curry powder
~ salt to taste
~ 1 cup water
~ oil

Methods:
1. Heat some oil in pan, grind all * and fry until fragrant.
2. Add potatoes, chicken, curry powder.
3. Add water, close lid, until all water absorbed and potatoes soften.

4. Taste with salt, leave to cool.
5. Then, scoop some fillings to spring rolls pastry and make it triangle shape. I used my imagination to do this as I was too lazy to refer to internet :). It looks strange right? Glue the ends with mixture of flour and water.

6. Deep fry in really hot oil. If not, your samosa will be too oily.

Lasagna

Ingredients:

For Red Sauce
~ 1 pack of ground beef, around 300 g
~ 1 medium onion, diced
~ 1 jar of pasta sauce
~ 3 tomatoes, boil to remove skin, chopped
~ 2 tbsp tomato puree
~ 1 tbsp black pepper
~ salt & sugar to taste
~ Olive oil

Methods
~ Heat olive oil, stir fry onion, put in meat, when the meat turns brown, add in chopped tomatoes, pasta sauce and tomato puree.
~ Sprinkle black pepper, salt & sugar
~ Taste for balance between sour, sweet & salty.


For Bechamel Sauce
~ 2 cups milk
~ 150 g butter
~ 1 slice of cheddar cheese
~ 1 tbsp flour

Methods
~ In a pot, all of ingredients. Stir until thick, withdraw from fire

Other Ingredients
~ Lasagna sheets. I pre-boiled the sheets for 2 minutes to make sure all cooked thoroughly.
~ Basil leaves
~ Mozarella

Methods for layering:
~ Prepare baking dish, first layer is the lasagna sheets, follow by red sauce, then bechamel sauce, then sprinkle mozarella cheese and basil leaves. Continue the layering process until the dish is full and sprinkle the top layer with lots of cheese.

~ Preheat oven 180C, bake for 15 minutes, when you see the top layer golden, reduce heat to 150C for another 15 minutes.

~ Serve hot for a melting effects ;-)

Instant Bubur Lambuk @ Bubur Asyura (Porridge) on 10 Muharram

Back at hometown, mum is cooking this special dish to take to mosque for asyura ceremony tonight. The porridge is specially cooked on 10 Muharram. I don't know the history of this dish but what I know is, I love bubur lambuk so much. I think we have different methods of cooking bubur lambuk. One time i ate Kedah style bubur lambuk which is brown color and texture like pudding. But the one I always eat is white..Whatever  it is, while my mouth drooling for this porridge, let me share the instant method to cook bubur lambuk, my way..This entry is special to my Indonesian friend, Nani who may try it at her lonely room at Aceh :-)

Ingredients:
~ Some meat, slice
~ A handful of rice
~ 1 cup coconut milk
~ 1 salted egg
~ 1 Cinnamon stick
~ 4 Shallots, slice
~ 4 garlic cloves, slice
~ 1/2 inch ginger, slice
~ Cilantro for garnish
~ Oil

Methods
~ Boil and simmer rice with meat until form a porridge texture and meat is tender
~ Add in some coconut milk
~ Crack in salted egg
~ In other pan, fry shallot, garlic, ginger and cinnamon stick and add to the porridge
~ Ready to be served with some fresh cilantro

Asam Pedas Ikan Kembung (Spicy & Sour Mackerel)

Asam pedas is a popular dish among Malays. We often eat this at least once in a week. You can use fish, chicken or beef. This time I used mackerel. So this is my way of cooking asam pedas..

Ingredients:
~ 1/2 kg mackerel
~ 10 dried chilles, remove seeds boil 5 minutes. This step is to make sure the chillies well cooked to prevent some type of  chillies' bad smell. Drained.*
~ 1 large onion*
~ 4 garlic cloves*
~ 1 inch ginger*
~ 1 cm turmeric*
~ 1 inch belacan (dried shrimp paste)*
~ 1/2 tsp black pepper*
~ 1 cup of tamarind juice
~ Salt & sugar to taste
~ A handful of laksa leaves

Methods
~ Grind all *. Heat pan with some oil. Fry the mixture until its cook. To know whether it's cooked already, make sure there is oil come out from the mixture. In this stage means all of the water has evaporated and the mixture is cooked.
~ Pour in tamarind juice, add some water to get concentration you want. Bring to boil.
~ Put in the fish, laksa leaves, salt & sugar to taste.
~ Turn off heat when the fish cooked, this may take about 3-4 minutes.

Other condiments you may add in:
~ Pineapple
~ Pickle sawi (i don't know what sawi in english)
~ Ginger bud

Side dish to be eaten with asam pedas (my suggestion)
~ Kangkong goreng belacan (stir fried water spinach with dried shrimp paste)
~ Telur dadar (omelet malay way)
~ Kicap (sweet soya sauce)

Oh..writing this makes my stomach singing~~~~~

Salad Olivieh: A fast food in fridge

There is a newly open middle eastern groceries shop nearby and I am so happy because I can restock my khiarshu (pickle cucumber) whenever I want. No need to wait for next trip to KL anymore :-) Yes, there are many of pickle cucumber at Jusco or Cold Storage but it is not same like Yek-O-Yek brand (Iranian brand with slightly spicy taste). So, every time I have khiarshu in my fridge I will make salad olivieh. This salad can be my fast food whenever I am hungry in between meals. Normally I will make for dinner and the leftover will be in fridge for 1-2 days depends on my consumption. Let see how I make it! Previous post about salad olivieh.

Ingredients:

~ 2 large potatoes, boil and mashed

~ 2 size A eggs, hard boil and mash

~ 6 fillet of chicken, boil with 1 chopped medium onion, salt & 1 bay leaf until soft. Then mash with fingers to form a small slices of meat.

~ A handful of khiarshu, coarsely grated

~ 5 tbsp of mayonnaise

~ 1 tsp of olive oil

~ Juice of 1 lime

~ Salt & pepper to taste

Method

~ Mix everything in a bowl, chill in fridge, serve with any type of breads you like.