Fettucine Carbonara

Since my blog is mainly about Malaysian food, I seldom put western cooking and share them with you. Upon request from a friend, I decided to put this recipe here as well. Definitely not Malaysian, but it is a delightful and tasty food to eat. Do try!

Ingredients
1 packet of fettucine, boil until soft (follow the instruction from the packet)
500 gm minced chicken or 2 large chicken breast (diced)
4 garlic, chopped
2 big onions, chopped
500 liter heavy cream or 2 cans of mushroom soup
green and red pepper/capsicum, diced
1 can of button mushroom, cut quarterly
2 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried basil
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
grated parmesan cheese, as desired

Methods
1. In a hot skillet, pour in some oil. When the oil is hot, fry the onion and garlic until they turn aromatic.

2. Add in the minced chicken or the diced chicken breast. Mix well.

3. When the chicken is tender, add in the heavy cream or the mushroom soup. Stir well.

4. After a few seconds, add in the fettucine. Let it cook for about a minute before adding in the pepper/capsicum and button mushroom. Stir for about another minute.

5. After that, sprinkle the dried oregano and basil. Also add salt and pepper to taste.

6. Lastly, put in the grated cheese and mix well before serving.

*You can substitute the chicken with other sea food as well.
*If the cream is not moist enough, you may add in extra milk

*serves 6-8 people

Stir Fry Prawns with Beans

During the old times, like the post-world war eras, the Malays had very little ingredients in their pantry, hence the vegetables would be cooked with only local ingredients that could be found easily like coconut milk or simply water. Thus, most of the Malays' way of cooking vegetables at that time would be with coconut milk or water. Even though this style of cooking is still practiced until now, as time progresses, we have incorporated into our kitchen other methods as well, like the stir fry which is very much influenced by the Chinese. So, today I would like to share with you this simple stir fry technique which is not complicated at all that most of us have in our homes now. Enjoy!

Ingredients

500 gm fresh prawns, cleaned and marinade with turmeric powder and salt

2 handful green beans, sliced thinly

3 garlic, finely chopped

1 big onion, sliced thinly

2 inches ginger, thinly sliced

2 fresh red chillies, cut as you wish

pepper

salt, to taste

oil, for frying 

Methods

1. In a frying pan, pour some oil. When the oil is hot, put in the big onion, ginger and garlic. Stir well.

2. When the mixture has caramelized, add in the fresh prawns. Stir for a minute before adding in the beans, salt and pepper up to taste.

3. Cook for about another minute before serving. 

*Do not overcook the prawns and beans.

*serves 4-6 people

Iced Lemon Tea with Mint and Honey

Heaven! This is the best way to describe this drink. If the weather gets too hot and sticky, taking a few gulps of iced lemon tea is simply refreshing. Top it up with some mint and honey, what you get is an excellent cocktail to quench your thirst. It just so happen that I got all the ingredients in my fridge and with no time I prepared this wonderful cold drinks in the evening. You can do this in no time. Easy and fast. The whole family will enjoy this one. Do try!

Ingredients
2- 3 lemon, cut into half and squeeze the juice
2 tea bags, cover with hot water in a jug or teapot
4 - 6 Table spoon honey
1 handful of fresh mint
lots of ice
sugar, as desired

Methods
1. Pour the tea into your favourite jug. Add in sugar, honey, fresh mint, ice and mix well.

2. Serve cold in a hot weather. Easy!

*serves 3-6 people

Tom Yam Soup

My family love all kind of soups and tom yam is one of them. Although the recipe originates from Thailand it is very well accepted here. The easiest way to eat tom yam is by going to any siamese restaurant which is mushrooming in this country. There are a few tom yam restaurants that I like which we frequent a lot in our hometown like Cherry Corner and Kamiria Restaurant which is just around the corner. Besides getting it at a restaurant, you can also make one yourself. It is very easy and the ingredients are also not difficult to find. Here it goes!



Ingredients
1 Chicken breast, cut into cubes
8 fresh prawns
3 squids, cut into small pieces
1 carrot, sliced
cauli flower
small corns
1 big onion, cut into rings
2 garlic, crushed
3 lemon grass, crushed
3 kaffir lime leaves
3 lime juice
6-8 cili padi, crushed
1 table spoon palm sugar
chilli paste, as desired
water, a needed for the soup
salt, to taste
some oil

Methods
1. In a bowl, pour in 2 table spoon of oil. When the oil is hot, fry the garlic and the chilli paste until aromatic.

2. Add enough water to cover the pot, or as you desire and let the water boil for a while.

3. When the soup is boiling, add the chicken, prawns and squids together with lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves.

4. After 30 seconds, add in the carrots, cauli flower, corns, big onions, palm sugar, cili padi and salt to taste.

5. Let the broth boil until all ingredients are tender and lastly add in the lime juice.

*serves 2-4 people 
 

Pumpkin in Sugar Syrup @ Sira Labu

The local call this Sira Labu. What I like about this dessert is that it is sweet and flavorful. Rich in fiber, pumpkin is good for bowel cleansing as well. We do not eat pumpkin that much, but if we do, the pumpkin would be turned into savoury gravy with coconut milk or sweet porridge to name a few.  For those who have not tried this simple recipe, do try as it takes very little time to do and requires the simplest ingredients as well. Enjoy!

Ingredients

4 pumpkins cut into wedges, remove the outer skin
4-6 Table spoon sugar, or as desired
1 cinnamon stick
3 cloves
1 1/2 cups of water, or until it covers the pumpkin

Methods

1. In a pot, put all ingredients and cook until the pumpkins become soft and the water thickens into syrup.

2. Put in the fridge for a few hours before eating in an individual plate.

*serves 2-4 people

Savoury Bread Pudding

There is nothing I like more than cooking a very simple, easy and fast dish yet so very tasty at the same time. And this is one of them. While we often make sweet bread pudding as a dessert, this time I tried another recipes that I got from my friend, that is savoury bread pudding. You can also try this as it will not take too much of your time. I used shrimps for this dish but you can put anything you like such as beef, chicken, pepperoni, sausages or crab stick to name a few. Enjoy!

Ingredients

To be beaten together
1 cup evaporated or fresh milk
5-6 eggs, beaten and add some salt and pepper to taste

Other Ingredients
8 white bread, cut into triangle shape
500 gm shrimps, cleaned and chopped finely
1 big onion, sliced thinly
3 garlic, sliced thinly
grated cheese
fried onions as garnishing
salt and pepper, to taste

Methods
1. Cook the shrimps with garlic and onions. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. Put aside.

2. In a baking dish, layer the bread and pour in the milk and eggs mixture.

3. Sprinkle the cooked shrimps and some grated cheese before baking or steaming it for about 45 minutes or until cook.

4. Lastly, sprinkle some fried onions on top as garnishing.

5. Cut into wedges before serving.

*serves 4-6 people

Puteri Beradu

This is the first dessert that we made on the first day of Ramadhan. As usual, we use a lot of coconut milk in our cooking especially in making desserts. Puteri Beradu is almost like a pengat but insted of cooking the bananas in a pot, we steamed the bananas until soft. Actuallly, this recipe is my mom's recipe and she told us of how her late mother would make this when she was small. To be honest, this is the first time I have done this steaming methods and the taste is not much different than a pengat though as I discovered it but as tasty as well nevertheless. Do try!

Ingredients

10 bananas

1 cup thick coconut milk

4 table spoon sugar

a pinch of salt

1 tablespoon flour

2 screwpine leaves

Methods

1. In a baking dish, layer the screwpine leaves at the bottom before arranging the bananas until full.

2. Pour in the coconut milk which has been mixed with sugar, flour and a pinch of salt.

3. Steam them until soft.

*serves 4-6 people

Laksa Utara

If people ask me what my all time favourite dish is, I would answer laksa utara. I don't know why I like this so much but I love the sour and mildly hot taste that it has and the mixture of all the herbs in the broth. And when you sip the broth, you can enjoy crispy sliced fresh cucumber and onions which is to my delight. It is not easy to find a good laksa maker. You must have the skill to make a perfect broth. The more you cook the broth, the better it will taste. That is why, I will cook my laksa broth a day ahead of time so that all ingredients will be mixed well and when you want to serve it the next day, you will not be disappointed at all. This is how I make my laksa and I hope you will enjoy this recipes as much as I do! Do try!

Ingredients

10- 12 mackerel or ikan kembong ( Clean the fish with tamarind juice and boil until cooked. When the fish is cooked, take the flesh out and blend the rest of the fish's heads to get the maximum results. Sift the blended items and keep the flesh and the broth)

1 packet of laksa 

Blended Items

2 big onions

2 inch belacan or shrimp paste

10 cili padi or bird's eye chillies

6 red fresh chillies

1 tablespoon dried chilli paste

Other Ingredients

6-8 asam gelugor

2 handful of daun kesum

2 stick of bunga kantan

salt, to taste

water, as desired ( about 2-3 liters)

Garnishing

Boiled eggs

Lime

Sliced cucumber

Sliced onions

Sliced fresh chillies

Methods

1. In a big pot, add in the blended items and the flesh of the fish. Pour in enough water as you desire depending on how much laksa broth you prefer to make.

2. Add in asam gelugor. You need to put this early as you need all the sourness to absorb into the broth.

3. Cook until boiling before adding in the rest of the ingredients such as daun kesum, bunga kantan and salt.

4. Let the broth simmer gently and cook for two or three hours or until you have achieved the desired taste. To get a better result, keep reheating it every few hours and best cooked a day ahead of time.

5. Serve with a bowl of laksa and garnishing as above.

*serves 6-8 people    

Blackcurrant and Milk Juice

During Ramadhan, one can get stomach upset or discomfort because of the delay in eating from dawn to dusk. The previous years, we often take hot tea for breaking fast but this year maybe because of the hot weather, we often sip glasses of cold or rather chilled beverages like fruit juice. But I do encourage my children to drink at least a glass of milk during breaking fast because it can be gentle on the stomach. I am lucky because my children love to drink milk and this recipes is one of the easiest you can do for breaking fast especially for those who do not like plain milk. 

Ingredients
1 glass of chilled milk, preferable full cream
3 table spoon black currant juice, or as desired
Some ice cubes, optional

Methods
1. Mix all ingredients in a glass and drink chilled.

*serves 1 person

Macaroni Fritatta

I cooked a big bowl of fried macaroni the other day when my brother and his family came for a visit. And we had some leftovers that have been sitting in the fridge for a few days. I did not like to waste food so I thought to recycle the food into something else. I have lots of eggs in the fridge and some cheese as well, hence this delicious fritatta that makes you ask for more. And we simply love it that I had to make another one the next day. Do try!

Ingredients
4 table spoon fried macaroni
5 eggs, beaten ( add in some salt and pepper into this)
grated cheese, as desired
1 tomato, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon dried oregano

Methods
1. In a 6 inch pie dish, pour in some oil. After the dish is semi hot, add in the beaten eggs.

2. Leave it to cook half way before adding in the fried macaroni.

3. Then, sprinkle some dried oregano before layering the cheese. Top it up with sliced tomatoes before putting in a oven for about ten minutes or until the cheese melts.

4. Cut in wedges before serving.

*serves 4-6 people