Lamb Biryani

Due to his busy schedule, hubby seldom goes into our kitchen stadium these days. Busy with work and business school, he has now even lost touch with the arrangement in the kitchen! I mean, being the (self-confessed) organizing junkie I am, it is NOT possible for you to get lost in my kitchen...all the spice containers are labeled, items in the drawer arranged in appropriate drawer organizers etc...etc. Yeah, but then again, my hubby just likes calling out to me to ask for something that can be as close to him as right in front of his eyes! :)

Aaanyhoo, despite calling me a thousand time to the kitchen to find the utensils and ingredients he needed, hubby managed to create a wonderful dish using his favorite meat - lamb. So yeah, he may have forgotten where I keep the bay leaves and cinnamon sticks, but he has not lost his magic touch every time he indulges in some culinary therapy!

Lamb Biryani (Hyderabadi Style)....our Jr.'s favorite, too!

Panko-crusted Baked Salmon Steak

When I was back in Malaysia earlier this year, I bought a couple of fillets of wild Norwegian salmon at Jaya Jusco (Melaka) and was pleased with the quality of the fish. It was a little bit pricey but I liked the fact that it was wild and not farm raised.

I have the same aversion to farm-raised fish just like poultry treated with antibiotics. With a toddler at home, I am especially more concern about such things these days. Luckily for us, all poultry and the dairy products sold at the grocery stores where we shop here in CA are sans plumping and antibiotics free.

However, there are aplenty of farm-raised seafood still available at these places: tilapia, salmon and even shrimps. Recently I have been reading a lot about how the level of PCBs (a toxic substance) is high in farm-raised salmon and how it can adversely affect our health. So it’s worth paying a couple of bucks extra to get wild caught fish. I am certain that I pay extra not just for safety but also for taste. I bought this packaged salmon from the grocery store the yesterday.

Frozen but wild caught and all natural so it was a good catch :) Marinated the salmon steaks in some ginger+garlic infused soy, mushroom and pepper sauce and then coated them with panko breadcrumbs and baked them to perfection in the oven!I just love the fact that I didn’t have to use even a single drop of oil in making this dish; just the natural and valuable oil of the salmon in this healthful, tasty dish.

The panko, Japanese breadcrumbs, stays crunchy even after the baking process and that’s why I prefer using this to coat my salmon steaks. Served on a bed of simple nasi goreng and some salad greens, a scrumptious lunch for sure!

'The No Claypot' Claypot Chicken Rice

Thanks to technology advancement, I not only got to browse the web for the recipe to make my version of the famous claypot chicken rice dish, I also got tips and shortcuts to help me make this dish in my kitchen :) If I were living in Malaysia, I doubt I’d ever consider making this special Chinese dish at home, especially when it is easily available at my favorite hawker’s center!

As the name suggests, the claypot chicken rice is cooked and served in a claypot in restaurants. I still remember the wonderful whiff that hits your face and fogs your spectacles as you open the cover of the pot!

After searching for sometime, I decided to stick with this recipe I got from a fellow blogger. Although easier and faster than the original version, the reason why I liked this recipe is because the blogger kind of shares my kitchen viewpoint: even though I like quick and simple cooking, “I never sacrifice taste or authenticity when it comes to my cooking.”

No claypot, no problem…the rice cooker or the pressure cooker (that steam-cooks the rice in a jiff), like in my case, works just fine. With rice, mushrooms, chicken being the main ingredients, I happily gathered the rest of the sauces and spices needed for the dish and adjusted some details like no pork sausage and fried dried prawns instead of salted fish for garnish and voila, a contented cook, happy hubby and baby (yes, he loved it too!).

I also prepared a must-have condiment: chopped garlic and bird’s eye chilis soaked in light soy sauce for that added kick!

Yet another satisfying one-pot dish!

Diwali 2009 Feast - Melaka, Malaysia

My interest in reading magazines featuring gourmet recipes and watching Food Network shows presenting modern ideas and ingredients have made me adventurous and creative in the kitchen. I cherish traditional recipes and ingredients; I value the modern art of cooking :)

I proudly admit that much of my natural cooking prowess comes from my mom. She cooks without even stopping a moment to think how she creates wonderfully tantalizing dishes. I have learned and still am learning many useful cooking tips and ideas from her. She is also a wonderful baker although she tells me that I have exceeded her talent of baking cakes :) Still, no one can bake Nescafe cookies, coconut biscuits or peanut cookies like she does…which explains why many, many pieces do not actually get into the cookie jars during our regular Diwali cookie-baking sessions!

Including the Diwali that had just passed, I have missed four Diwalis being home in Malaysia with my parents. Thanks to a friend, I got to see the pictures of the various dishes my mom had prepared on Diwali day. It was so thoughtful of her to visit my parents on Diwali day and take pictures to send it to me so that I could drool over the Diwali food galore we had been missing! ;)

It’s my pleasure to publish these pictures of my mom’s cooking from her kitchen in Melaka, Malaysia here on my blogsite. Enjoy!

Nasi Biryani - Spiced Rice Pilaf

Ayam Masak Merah - Chicken in Chili Gravy

 

Mutton Perattal - Mutton Fry in Dry Gravy

Sambal Udang - Prawn Sambal (Dried Chili Gravy)

Chicken Kurma

Vegetable Achar (Pickle)

Mix-Veg Salad with Mayo Dressing

P/S: Thanks, Janet for the pics!

Seafood Fried Rice

Fried rice which translates to nasi goreng in the Malay language is indeed a famous hawker food in Malaysia – good for breakfast, lunch, dinner and even supper! For most, nasi goreng is a humble way to make use of the leftover rice from the previous meal. It is just too easy to make but still it can be made gourmet with the right ingredients.

I just cannot list the varieties of nasi goreng available in Malaysia because there are just too many! There’s this specialty named ‘nasi goreng kampung’ which contains dried anchovies (ikan bilis) and lots and lots of bird’s eye chilis (cili padi) and even ‘nasi goreng USA’ that comes with slices of sausages. Since it’s a simple and a complete-meal-on-a-plate, people mostly create their own varieties according to their taste and creativity :)

Featured here is my version of nasi goreng flavored with a selection of seafood: imitation crab meat (which is basically made of a mixture of crab meat and white fish meat), dried shrimp (pounded with garlic, ginger and chilis) and some fresh shrimp. I jazzed it up a little by serving the seafood fried rice with a sunny-side-up egg and a couple of sticks of fried imitation crab meat.

Tomato Rice + Chicken Kurma

Tomato rice is usually savored in my home during Diwali (of course, prepared by my mom, a wonderful chef). Started making them after coming here with my mom's guidance and now it's a regular in my kitchen especially since my little hero is a huge fan.

Chicken kurma -chicken cooked in kurma spice from Malaysia (Adabi - my favorite brand for kurma) potatoes and coconut milk.

Side dish - Raita (cucumber+yogurt relish)

Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani

Hubby is my recipe guide for this dish. He has been making me biryanis (vegetable, lamb, chicken) very so regularly since the time we got married. These days he has been busy with work and business school and so I have taken over (temporarily) the biryani making business in our home :) This is actually an authentic dish from hubby's homeland. The chicken is marinated in a special Hyderabadi biryani spice mix with creamy yogurt before it is cooked with the fragrant Basmati rice.

In the background: left - sherva (tomato masala gravy), a special gravy usually served alongside biryanis; right - raita (cucumber+yogurt relish).

Nasi Lemak Biasa (regular)

I guess it won't be an offense to say that Malaysians cannot live without this dish that is a complete meal on its own. A dish that is so easily available all day long, one can have it in the 'simple' form like the one pictured here or go crazy by choosing from a wide array of 'toppings': fried chicken, chicken/beef rendang, squid sambal, tempeh and so the list goes on.

In this picture, clockwise from bottom-left: sambal ikan bilis (anchovy in chili gravy), telur dadar (omelette), crunchy mixture (fried Japanese anchovies + peanuts), sliced cucumbers, coconut rice (rice cooked in coconut milk).