Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts

Friday, February 26, 2010

Look Who's Cooking :-D



I have been busy lately.  Time flies quickly. I am already into the sixth week of Semester 2.  And it is Reading Week this week meaning there is no class, no lecture to attend and no lab session.  Reading Week is designed for us students to revise what we have covered so far. So, in order not to be left out and as an early preparation for the coming Exam after the Easter holidays, it is only wise to do the revision now.  Well, I did and still am revising - which means I have a lot more questions to ask the lecturers the coming week than before. And I have progressed in my Minitab exercises too - too bad my 30 day trial period will be over tomorrow. Anyway, life has to go on - Minitab or no Minitab.  Why do I bother so much about Minitab? Because the Minitab application will carry 60% of the overall 5QM assessment.

Well, enough for that.  One of my husband's colleagues at the Two Sisters Factory is Abbas - He came to Dundee about 7 years ago - right from the foot of K2 in Pakistan. His full time job? Hmm... he's a Chef with The Gulistan House.  My husband had on numerous occasions told me how good his briyani and pilao rice are. To which I made no comment - he is a Chef - of course he cook good food.  Hey! I never tasted his briyani or pilao rice before....

But yesterday, my husband managed to kidnap him from the comfort of his home to our little kitchen.  And, guess what? We (my husband rather) managed to get a first hand free cooking lesson from the kind Chef.  And the verdict? I have never tasted a pilao rice so soft and tasty - Abbas also taught my husband how to cook Chicken Curry (yeah.... the one without coconut milk which we were used to back home). The Curry? Fantastic.  Would you like a peek?

                                        
               Azmi and Abbas strike a pose while busy cooking



                                          Pilao Rice


                                          Chicken Curry

Well, due to our enthusiasm of trying Abbas' pilao and curry, none of us remember to take any snap of the food on our plate! Burrrppp!!!

(Source of Image : K2 Peak from news.bbc.co.uk)

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Tired,... Mom?

I have not been adding new entry for the past few days - I was soo... busy, well, 'tortured' to cook & bake - by my family members plus I wanted to finish reading 3 books which I borrowed from the Library last Saturday.

One of our (my husband & I) passions is food. I remember those days when I'm still working - we will be eating out most weekends satisfying our palatable desires. But, those were the days - And since I'm a full time Mom now, that passion instead of eating out becomes an eating in with me being the Chief Cook and of course, an Amah later (to clean out and makes things proper again).

Some time ago, my husband told me that he entertained his clients at Bangsar Village Seafood and he said he enjoyed the butter crab very much. So, a fortnight ago, on our way to visit my Mom, we dropped by and bought 2 kilos of the butter crabs. And, mmm... it's heavenly.

So, last Sunday, we tried cooking it at home & we managed to somehow created something similar though we still have to get our recipe perfected. Since it is based on trial & error, I couldn't come out with the right amount of ingredient yet. But, if you guys (and gals) want to try it - here goes the ingredients - crabs, butter (quite a lot), coconut milk (not so much), chinese cabbage, lots of curry leaves, a little tumeric powder and of course, salt. Method : Melt a little butter in the pot - put in the curry leaves and stir until fragrant. Then pour in the coconut milk & butter. Once it's nicely blended, put in a little tumeric powder. When it comes to a boil, put in the crab, later the chinese cabbage. Put salt to taste. Sorry - we're to eager to eat it so,... no photo.(The shot attached is just for 'decoration' purpose. Hehehe! To 'accompany' the butter crab, we prepared daging merah, some kerang rebus and spinach. For dinner that night we add egg salad.

On Monday, our lunch is quite easy - just sambal mackerel and fish head soup. Just as I thought I can continue my reading, I my children asked whether I can whip up a cake for them. Well, I wish I can say No but looking at their pleading eyes and that they always help with baking, I just can't. So, there I was, whipping a chocolate cake - I just followed the recipe written on the cooking chocolate cover - it's called Sacher Torte. And the good news is they finished it yesterday (Tuesday) and asked for another.

And since we have run out of cooking chocolate, I sacrificed my bananas to bake banana cake for them. I baked a big one in the hope that it will last longer.

I hope they will let me free today - coz whatever it is, I want to quietly enjoy watching CSI to night!!!And of course my books before I get to sleep!


Sources of images : "Cooking" from www.intimatemomentschefservice.com; Crab from www.shop.legalseafoods.com; Sacher Torte from www.custombasketsandbouquets.com)