Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification

I think the last time I ate durian was few months back, at home in Kedah. During that time, my parents visited us, and my Bapak (he is my step-father) just so happen to buy some durian before visiting, and so they bought it over.

Me and my Mom made some pulut to be eaten with santan and durian, and also some kuah durian, eaten with lacy crepes (roti jala). I had never eaten crepes with kuah durian, but it was so yummy.

Did I mention that I had not eaten durian prior to last durian season? Yes. I had not eaten durian since I was pregnant with Pumpkin. That meant that I could not eat durian nor could I even smell it for I would start to puke. I am not kidding, and it was not funny. The drought passed, and now I am one happy durian-eating camper! *lol*

These photos were taken sometimes last year, not the durian that we ate tonight. Tonight we ate really fresh durian kampong, it was quite delicious and frangrant. I would usually would prefer durian from Balik Pulau, durian kunyit or they are also called durian ganja (for the very thin seed inside the pulpy flesh, akin to rambutan ganja.). Those durian kunyit are so delicious, creamy and slightly bitter, which I really like. Very fragrant, too, that you have to air your car afterwards for the aroma lingers.

I am not familiar with durian products, but I know that people made these durian into dodol. I don’t really favor dodol, durian flavored or not, so I am not sure how it would taste like. Dodol durian is this concoction, made from cooking durian and some other food items for a long while, until it turned stiff and quite chewy. It is quite sweet, too. But like I said, I don’t even eat the regular dodol, I doubt I would buy the durian dodol, you know? Nothing wrong with them, just a personal preference, you see.

Below are couple of items that are made from durian, durian chips and durian candies. I have encountered these couple of items when I shop at the oriental stores, but I was not curious enough to buy them. So I could not vouch whether they are good, of if the aroma would start to waft up when you opened up the package. The packaging is interesting, though, don’t you think?

Do any of you readers out there happen to have these two items? The first one on the left is something that I am familiar with, though I had never been inclined to get one. I am not sure why, but I never bother looking for it at the stores or online when I was in the UK or the US. Probably because I could get my ground beef/chicken whenever I felt like wanting some.

Not that I am saying that it would be hard finding ground beef here. But try finding ground beef over at the local butcher at the pasar malam, or at Chow Kit. We tried, and we could not find any. What would be available was the meatballs made for soup, which was heavily laced with flour that I don’t feel like feeding my daughter that.

The appeal of the manual meat grinder is that I don’t need to have it plugged into any electrical outlet. Easier to clean and use, from my point of view, too. I used to use this electrical meat grinder when I lived with Miss AL, cleaning it was not easy and it was very bulky because it was one of those ancient grinder that she had been using like forever.

Now that I want one of those, I am not sure where I could find it. Especially since I had never actually searched for it, anyway. To make it easier (on me), I figure I could put it up here, so if anyone knew, give me a holler, ya?

Though I am familiar with the first item, I had only found out about the second item on the right quite recently. Yes, I am quite the country bumpkin. I found out that the coconut scraper is used widely in India and Sri Lanka and the surrounding areas. I feel that I want to have it in my kitchen. *grins*

Again, I would appeal to any readers who would have a clue of its availability in Malaysia. Like the manual meat grinder, I have never actually searched for it in stores, ditto my not knowing whether they are widely sold in stores here.

Why would I need a meat grinder? Easy peasy. Pumpkin would not eat chicken in its natural state. If I were to ground it and make it into patties or round balls, and then throw it into any soup or curry, she would eat it. I have grown quite tired of having to chop the chicken breasts to make patties for her, really.  But I doubt that she would eat ground beet no matter what.

And, I just want to have the coconut scraper, since I feel that it is a novelty item. I doubt that I would start making more local kuihs just because I own this apparatus, you get what I am saying? But it would be nice to have one whenever I felt like making that onde-onde, you feel me?

So like I mentioned before, if anyone knew where to get these two items, please do give me a holler, ya?

What I needed to do, probably, is stitch up few photos together, and then put it there. I have to figure out how to do that since I sucks at Photoshop.

And yes. I know that I had left this journal unattended to for most of the times. Don’t I cook? Yes, I do. In fact, I have been trying out few new dishes for me and Pumpkin. But I did not document it, nor photographed it. I mean them. Those dishes, that is. Actually, I have not been taking photo for a long while now. More than a month had gone by since I last took any photos! That is so not me.

I just so don’t feel like it. I am trying to psych myself up to do more documenting for this journal, and for the other one that I am doing at the time being. So here’s to me. Hopefully I (manage) would get the ball rolling soon.

I so want this raspberry pavlova right now…

The place is packed during lunch time. We were there around 3pm, and still it was packed, Business must be good, since it is packed during night time, too.

I think mainly the attraction of this place is that the establishment manage to keep the price to be reasonable and quite low. The food presented were the usual fares that one would find for lunch at any regular kampung restaurant. It was quite delicious, actually.

I think I took some bitter gourd, chicken liver and sambal belacan with ulam-ulaman. The husband ate lots of this and that, his face was filled to the brim with stuffs. The Pumpkin ate soup and some rice. She was not feeling well, so she did not eat that much.

But anyway, here are some photos of the place that I took before deciding what to eat.

But anyway, I used this Shan Biryani Mix to cook the lamb. It makes everything easier, and since I had been using this spice mix since 1997, I don’t bother looking for other brands. It costs around USD$0.99 per pack back in the states, and around GBP£1.00 in the UK, and in Malaysia, around RM4.00.

I don’t usually cook lamb at home since lamb had this smell that lingers around the home, even after you are done cooking, and cleaned everything twice. I don’t like buying lamb at the supermarket because most of the times, it would be mutton that I find. But this lamb was so freshly slaughtered that we (me and my sister) had to cook this one.

Both of us, with Pumpkin, of course, went to the supermarket to scour for items to use for the biryani, and also for the mint sauce. I found one recipe online where the person added Granny Smith apples to the mint sauce. The sauce was so wonderful we finished it all up in one sitting and had to make more.

Since I followed the direction at the back of the pack almost to the T, I don’t think that I need to put up the recipe here.

Not to mention that I had already thrown out the pack before typing down the recipe.

Heh.

]]> http://mykitchendisasters.com/lamb-biryani.htm/feed http://mykitchendisasters.com/manhattan-fish-market.htm http://mykitchendisasters.com/manhattan-fish-market.htm#comments Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:32:53 +0000 she cooks http://mykitchendisasters.com/?p=222 All these photos were not taken recently. Actually, they were taken around March this year, and over at Sunway Carnival Mall, Seberang Jaya. Penang. We would usually go eat over at Manhattan Fish Market once in couple of months, not due to the price, but due to the things that we like to eat.

We like to eat only some items there, so to go there every month would be boring. So every couple of months or so we would go and eat our lobster there.

And since the Pumpkin loves eating fish and seafood, this is definitely the place for her. The starter, the fourth photo, is SIzzling Louisiana Prawn. And the platter is Fried Garoupa platter. Yes, for sharing, the platter. I chose the starter, and it was such a good choice. It was gorgeously yummy, creamy.

Apart from the other seafood restaurant, which I had forgotten the name, that is.

How much do we like Manhattan Fish Market?

Very, very much

But anyway, I decided to put this one up because I rarely, OK so I never, cooked water convulvus for a long time now. And I mean like a year now. Weird because when I go out and see that at a buffet counter, I would usually choose that one, especially if it is cooked this way.

This way meaning cooked with sambal belacan. Sambal belacan is a hot paste, usually eaten with raw vegetables together with rice and main dish like fish or seafood.

And, I fried these juicy chicken pieces, rubbed it with some curry powder, chilli powder, salt and tiny bit of tumeric, and then deep fry until just done. Let it sit for a moment, then sliced.

KANGKUNG/WATER CONVULVUS GORENG BELACAN
Ingredients

• One bg bunch of water convulvus, cleaned, cut into pieces
• 2 large onions
• 4 garlic pips
• 4 red chillies
• 5 cili padi
• 1″ piece of belacan/shrimp paste
• Salt and sugar to taste
• 4 TB oil
• Water as needed

Method

1. Pound the onion, red chillies, garlic, cili padi and belacan to a coarse mix. Then saute this with the oil until fragrant. Then add salt and sugar, not too much because belacan is already quite salty.
2. Don’t forget to add some water just to loosen the paste, let it boil a bit, then add the kangkung.
3. Use high heat to saute the kangkung, then adjust seasoning.
4. Take off heat, and ready to be served.

No, she did not know how to cook the dish, and that is why she asked me to look for it online.

So I searched online. At first, I used the word curry, and it resulted in few results for beef tripe curry. Somehow it doesn’t feel right. Then in one of those search results, kalio babat (aka beef tripe/perut lembu kalio) came up. And I knew that it was the one that I was looking for.

I browsed through few recipes, and most recipes were quite similar to each other. So I came up with this one, using ingredients at hand.

And how does it taste like? Almost like the one we used to eat when we were younger. So my Mom was quite chuffed, really.

And so was I.

KALIO BEEF TRIPE/PERUT LEMBU
Ingredients

Beef tripe 1/2 kg

5 lime leaves, julienned 2 lemongrass, bruised 2 tumeric leaves, julienned 150ml thick coconut milk 1 TB sugar Salt to taste Ground fine 10 shallots 4 garlic pips 6 red chillies 2 cm ginger 1 cm tumeric (or substitute with 1/2 tsp powder) 1 cm galangal 1/2 cup water

Method

1. Clean the beef tripe under cold running water. Put the tripe in a pan, adding enough water to cover it. Then turn heat on high and let the water come to a boil.
2. Lower he heat, and then boil the tripe for about an hour, adding more water as needed as you go.
   After the tripe is cooked, take it off heat, and let it cool. Sliced it, and set it aside for later use.
3. Using about 3 TB oil, saute the grounded ingredients until fragrant. Then add in the sliced tripe and 1/2 cup of water.
4. Let it come to a boil, then lower the heat and add coconut milk, lemongrass, and sugar. Let it come to a full boil again.
5. Then add both lime leaves and tumeric leaves. And salt and some sugar as needed.
6. Cook for further five minutes on low, then take off heat.

Ready to be served with plain white rice. I am sure that if there was more gravy, I could sop it up with some crusty bread.

AND, I would definitely add some cili padi to the grounded ingredients to make it a little bit spicier.

The first time that we ate there, I took some photos, but it did not turn out that well. So thankfully this time around it turned out OK, so I could post them up here.

Like I mentioned above, the western food served were not expensive. The above lamb chop costs us like 15.00++, not including drinks. Drinks were around RM1.50 for the usual iced lemon tea, to RM3.00 for juices. So not that expensive, yes?

And oh, the soggy fries were quite dear at RM4.00 per serving. It looked OK, those fries, but quite soggy for it to be enjoyable. Thankfully Pumpkin (whom the fries were for) thought that they were fine, and gobbled it up without too much prompting from her Mommy