ACAR (PICKLED VEGETABLES)

This recipe has been pending in my draft for quite sometime. I told myself that no matter what I need to finish it today.( yeah yeah... I can do it!)  Well this dish is a duplicate of my late mom ' s recipe. Her recipe was special a bit because she used bamboo shoot in her acar. ( And we called this dish as achat in the northern part of Malaysia)I really miss her acar. She used to cook a big kuali of this and we ate this for days. Actually acar tastes better the next day when all the flavored have developed. Its sweet , sour and spicy taste goes well with rice. It is not difficult at all to prepare acar as all the ingredients are easily available and basic ingredients are used.

Acar (pickled vegetables)

Ingredients

3 cucumber

4 carrots

300 g long beans

300 g bamboo shoot( omit this if you can't get this)

200 ml vinegar & 400 ml water 

Blended ingredients

10 fresh chillies

15 dried chillies (soak in water to soften)

20 shallots

5 pips of garlic

1 tumb size turmeric ( can substitute with turmeric powder)

200 ml vinegar( reduce if you prefer less sour)

1 cup toasted peanuts, pounded or blended coarsely

5 tbsp oil

5 tbsp sugar

2 tsp salt

1. Wash all the vegetables. Pat dry.

2. Cut the cucumber lengthwise and remove the seeds. Then cut it into 3 cm strips.

    Sprinkle two tsp of salt onto the cucumber strips and leaves it for an hour. The purpose is to draw 

    Out water from the cucumber  to make it crunchy.

3. Cut long beans , carrots and bamboo shoot  3 cm trips too.

4. Boil 200 ml vinegar and water in a pot. Blanch carrot, long beans and bamboo shoot in the boiling

    solution for about a minute. Drain. Throw away the solution.

5. Blend chillies ,shallots, garlic  and turmeric until very fine. Set aside.

6. Lots of liquid should be  drawn out from the cucumber by now. Further squeeze out the water.

7. Heat up 3 tbsp of oil in a wok. Fry blended ingredients till oil surface. Put in sugar and salt and the 

    Vinegar and about 100 ml water.  If you don't want it to be too sour reduce the vinegar always cook 

    to suit  you and your family taste buds. Let it boil. Put in all the vegetables. Give it a few stirs. 

    Off the fire.

 8. Lastly put in the the ground peanut. It is done.

     Note: Apart from the vegetables mention above, you may use cabbage, brinjals or pineapples to     

                make this pickle.( I have tried with brinjals ,it did not taste nice. It was soggy) The choice is 

                yours. 

    

    Sprinkle two tsp of salt onto the cucumber strips and leaves it for an hour. The purpose is to draw 

    Out water from the cucumber  to make it crunchy.  

    The cucumber is ready.

    Bamboo shoot

   Long beans

  

   Carrot

   Toasted peanut....Do not blend too fine so that you can feel the crunchy bite of peanuts.

 The ready acar. 

   Sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds if you like.

    When it is fully cooled down  transfer pickle into glass jars and keep refrigerated.

     I love it cold from the fridge. 

  

   This sweet, sour and spicy pickles definitely goes well with rice. I love the bamboo shoot.

   

          I hope you like my post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

           Happy cooking!

   

 

   

Ondeh-ondeh or Buah Melaka

Ondeh-ondeh is a traditional nyonya kuih in Malaysia. The main ingredients are glutinous rice flour, Palm sugar and grated coconut. Normally screw pine juice is used to mix with glutinous flour to form a green dough. Today I have used purple and orange sweet potatoes to yield another two colors. The colors from purple and orange sweet potatoes are simply lovely. Love them.

** My late mom(a nyonya) used to make these for us....she cooked very nice nyonya food if not the best.....**

ONDEH-ONDEH (BUAH MELAKA)

Ingredients

Purple dough

100 g of steamed mash purple sweet potato

100 g of glutinous rice flour

1/2 tbsp sugar

Orange dough

100 g of steamed mash orange sweet potato

100 g of glutinous rice flour

1/2 tbsp sugar

Green dough

250 g of glutinous rice flour

200 ml pandanus juice

1tbsp sugar

 

Palm sugar(guka melaka) chopped into pieces

200 g of grated coconut mix with pinch of salt

1. Prepare the dough by mixing the ingredients stated. If the dough is hard add in a little water, if it is 

    too soft add in a little bit flour. Adjust accordingly to form a pliable dough.

2. Chop the Palm sugar into small cubes.

     

3. Pinch some dough, flatten it and place a piece of palm sugar on the dough.

 

4. Seal the edge to form a ball. Arrange the shaped rice balls on a tray.

 

 

 The tricolored ondeh ondeh before boiling.

 

5. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Transfer the ondeh ondeh into the boiling water.

    When the  rice balls float , they are ready.

  

6. Use a slotted ladle to scoop up the rice balls into a pot of cold water.

7. Coat rice balls with grated coconut.

   Look at those colorful ondeh-ondeh... They look yummilicious.

    

 

     Enjoy cooking and have a nice day!

ASSAM FISH (HOT AND SPICY FISH)

There are many ways to cook fish. One can steam it, fry it, make curry fish, grill it or bake it. As my the other half loves spicy food so I decided to made this Assam Fish.  It is hot , spicy and sour in taste. It goes very well with hot steamed rice.

ASSAM FISH (HOT AND SPICY FISH)

Ingredients

A

1medium size fish

B

6 dried chillies (soak in hot water to soften)

1cm cube belachan

5 shallots

2 cloves garlic

1 thumb of ginger

2 slices of galangal

1stalk lemon grass .. Sliced

C

3 tomatoes (quartered)

1 tbsp tamarind +400 ml water

Sugar and salt to taste

2 tbsp oil

3 kafir lime leaves(sliced thinly for garnishing)

Methods

1. Prepare the fish. Clean fish and season with salt.

2. Blend ingredients B until fine.

3. Heat up 2 tbsp oil in a pot. Sauté blended ingredients until oil surface.

4. Stir in tamarind juice and bring it to a boil.

5. Add in the fish and let it simmer for 10 minutes.

6. Add in tomatoes. Season with salt and sugar.

7. Serve in a deep dish and garnish with kafir lime leaves.

8. Serve with plate of hot steamed rice. Enjoy.

 I used this fish

     Blend these until fine.

   

      Enjoy and have a nice day!

PRAWN SAMBAL WITH PETAI

Do you love petai? Petai.. "stink beans"... is best when  cooked with chilies and prawn,which we called it 'Sambal Udang Petai'. Be sure to brush your teeth after eating this dish!! Don't ever take this dish if you are dating your girlfriend or boyfriend hahahaha.

PRAWN SAMBAL WITH PETAI

Ingredients

1 kg prawns

300 g petai

15 dried chilies
10 shallots
1 thumb size ginger
1 small cubes belachan
4 lemon grass
5 tbsp tamarind juice
salt and sugar to taste
4 tbsp oil

Method

1.Shell and wash prawn. Wash petai, check for worms.
2.Blend chilies, shallot, ginger,lemon grass and belachan into a paste.
3.Heat up oil in a wok.
4.Put in the blended spices.Saute until oil surface.
5.Put in petai and prawn.
6.Put in tamarind juice, add sugar and salt to taste.
7.Stir fry until prawn is cooked.
8.Dish up. Serve with hot white rice.

Note: If you don't have tamarind juice, substitute with tomatoes. I used 4 tomatoes for this. Remove the skin
         and blend.

ENJOY AND HAVE A NICE DAY

PENANG ASAM LAKSA (NOODLES IN SPICY - SOUR FISH BROTH)

Penang asam laksa was voted seven out of 50 most delicious food in the world.(by CNN back in 2011).
This dish is my family's all time favorite. Here is the way how I made this dish. Actually this dish is easy to make except that it is a bit time consuming to separate the  fish flesh from the bone.

PENANG ASAM LAKSA

Ingredients

1 1/2 kg of fish (mackerel)

2.5 L of water

1 bunch of polygonum leaves

10 pieces of tamarind peel

salt and sugar to taste

2 packets of Laksa noodles

Spices blended into paste

20 dries chilies, soak to soften

15 shallots

3 lemon grass

3 small cubes of  dried prawn paste (belacan)

Garnishing

2 cucumbers

2 big onions

3 stalks of salad vegetables

3 ginger flower

  bunch of mint

4 hard -boiled eggs

prawm paste 

Methods

1. Gut and  clean the fish thoroughly.

2. Boil 1.5 liters of water in a pot. Put in the fish. Boil for ten minutes

Let the fish sit in that hot bath for 10 minutes.

3. While waiting for the fish to be cooked, blend the spices.

4. When the fish is ready dish out,let cool and debone the fish.. Do not throw away the fish stock.

5. Put in polygonum and tamarind peels in to the fish stock let it simmer while deboning the fish.

6. Blend the fish bones with the remaining water. Strain.

7. Discard the polygonum leaves and the tamarind peels from the stock.

8. Put in the blended spices and water from No 6.

9. Boil the stock. season to taste.

10. Prepare the garnishing ingredients.

11. Cook the laksa noodles in boiling water. Drain.

12. Assemble the laksa.Swirl a handful of laksa noodles into a bowl. Ladle the fish broth over the noodles.

      Garnish with sliced onions, cucumber, ginger flowers and salad and of course the prawn paste which will 

      give the noodle that oomph! Enjoy!

Enjoy  eating 

 Enjoy your life!