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

Bubur Cha Cha

We had a creamy and sweet bubur cha cha a few days ago for breaking fast. Bubur as it is locally known is often a sweet coconut gravy that you cook with palm or white sugar. Besides bubur cha cha, you can make bubur jagung (corn), bubur gandum (wheat), bubur kacang (green peas), bubur labu (pumpkin) to name a few. But my favourite would be bubur cha cha. Some people would add in yam or sago beads into their bubur cha cha, but I prefer it just by itself. And, do not ask me why they call this bubur cha cha as I do not have the answer. But if you find something that looks this (see pic) in any local restaurants, then you know it is bubur cha cha! Enjoy.

Ingredients

1 packet of dried cha cha ( boil with water until soft)

500 gm coconut milk

6- 8 table spoon sugar or as desired

2 inch palm sugar

2 screwpine leaves

a pinch of salt

water, if needed

Methods

1. In a pot, put coconut milk, sugar, palm sugar, salt and screwpine leaves and cook until bubbly. You may add in water if needed.

2. Then add in the cooked and soft cha cha and mix well.

4. Cook for about 15 minutes until the gravy turns slightly thick.

5. Serve in a small bowl hot or cold.

*serves 4-6 people

Cucumber with Coconut Milk@Masak Lemak Putih Timun

This is a very typical Malay food that you can get in any Malay house. One of the most basic ingredients in a Malay community is coconut milk. Often, vegetables are cooked this way but with time and the influence of other immigrants, we have incorporated the Chinese style of cooking vegetables like stir fry, for instance. But if you would like to make a traditional Malay style vegetable dish, this would be one of them. Besides cucumber, you can also substitute it with other vegetables like petola, broad beans, small corns, or any other green and leafy vegetables like spinach, to name a few. But for this one, I would like to share with you how to cook lemak putih timun or cucumber with coconut milk. Enjoy!

Ingredients
1 cucumber, sliced (about 1 inch thick)
100 gm anchovies
1 big onion, thinly slicrd
2 fresh red chillies, sliced
1-2 table spoon coarse black pepper
500 liter coconut milk (plus water if needed)
salt, to taste
2 eggs 

Methods
1. In a pot, put all ingredients except the eggs and stir the coconut milk and other ingredients continually and cook until the cucumber is tender.

2. When the cucumber is tender, break the eggs and put them into the pot and leave them to set for a while. Do not tamper with the eggs and let them cook.

3. When the eggs are cooked, you can transfer the dish into a serving bowl and eat with hot plain rice.

*serves 4-6 people

Fried Anchovies with Chilli and Tamarind Juice

When I was living in the UK, I often cooked this simple dish whenever time was constraint. And whenever I make this dish back home, I often reminiscent those times where the weather was cold and windy, and I would sample this dish with a hot piping rice. Simply heaven! And now, when I have no appetite to eat anything fancy, I would open the fridge, take out the anchovies (ikan bilis) and fry them with some chillies and onions in no time. Sometimes, you do not have to eat anything fancy to feel full, simple dish like this one can fill up one's stomach sometimes even hundred times more than anything else! Do try!

Ingredients
300 gm anchovies, fried until golden brown
2 garlic, chopped
1 big onion, chopped
a cup of tamarind juice
6-8 cili padi or thai bird's chilli
3 green fresh chillies, sliced thinly
salt and pepper to taste

Methods
1. Firstly, in a skillet, drizzle some oil and when the oil is heated, put in the onions and garlic and fry until golden brown.

2. Secondly, put in green fresh chillies, thai chillies and tamarind juice and cook for about a minute before adding in the fried anchovies, salt and pepper to taste.

3. Thirdly, stir all ingredients well and serve in a serving dish and eat with hot piping rice.

*serves 4-6 people   

Beef and Zuchinni in Tomato Sauce

I learned to cook this after marriage. It is an Egyptian dish that is simple yet tasty which they called Kosa. The Egyptian will eat this with bread, but you can also take this with rice that has been cooked with some oil and chicken stock until golden brown. It is not Asian, but it has been incorporated into my kitchen and the children love it too. Do try!

Ingredients
500 gm beef, cubed
1 zuchinni, cubed and spread with salt to take away the liquid
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 big onions, chopped
8 fresh red tomatoes, chopped
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
1 table spoon coriander powder
1 table spoon cumin powder

Methods
1. In a pot, drizzle some oil and when the oil is heated, add in the chopped onions and garlic until golden brown.

2. Then, add in the beef cubes and let them become tender, for about 15 minutes.

3. When the beef is tender, add in the tomatoes and cook for about 10 minutes or until the tomatoes have become a thick sauce.

4. After that, add in the zuchinni, coriander, cumin powder, salt and pepper to taste.

5. Cook for a few minutes until the zuchinni is tender and the sauce thickens.

6. Serves with bread, preferably Arab bread.

*serves 4-6 people

Milk and Fruit Cocktail

The hot weather has been tampering with the thirst quite a bit. While drinking plain water is a normal thing to do, we would love to quench out thirst with a delicious iced cocktail once in a while. While a few days before, I made a delicious sweet and sour punch cocktail, this time we sampled quite as tasty one but with a twist, that was iced fruit cocktail with evaporated milk. The result was a milky sweet fruit cocktail that was very much to ever one's liking! Enjoy!

Ingredients
1 can evaporated milk
1 large can fruit cocktail
lots of ice
sugar, only if needed

Methods
Mix all ingredients in a large bowl and serve in a cup for each person. Easy!