Tip for fluffy and fragrant rice

Fluffy Fried Rice

Some rice is naturally fragrant but not necessarily fluffy. To get fluffy rice, you need to soak it for about 10 minutes then drain and leave it for another 10 minutes in a colander, then add adequate water and cook as usual using rice cooker.

To make it fragrant, just add one bay leaf in the rice cooker. When cooked remove the leaf before serving.

 

Fried Mixed Vegetables

Very easy/quick to make and very nutritious:

Ingredients (for 2-4 people)

• cabbage (a quarter of a medium sized one)
• carrot (two medium size)
• frozen peas ( 1cabbage,carrot,peas/2 cup)
• 5 shallots or half  medium sized bombay onion and 3 cloves garlics
• chillies (if desired), 1 would do
• soy sauce 1/2 tblsp
• oyster sauce 1/2 tblsp
• 2 eggs or some fried prawns or fried anchovy
• oil for frying
• salt to taste ( no need if use saltish soy sauce)

Method

• dice the cabbage and carrot ( can cut carrots into small cubes)
• dice onions and garlics
• saute onions and garlics in heated oil till fragrant
• add in diced cabbage/carrots and peas (make sure oil is sufficiently hot but not burning!)
• turn over the veges rapidly then add chili then push veges aside in the wok and put in the two eggs, careful not to break the yolk, in the middle of wok and wait a little while till the egg harden then break the yolk quickly and mix with the veges.
• Add soy sauce and oyster sauce and turn over the veges. If use salty soy sauce no need to add any more salt.
• do not overcook the veges as it will not be crispy.
• remove from wok and serve

Tip: add the sauces and vigorously mix with vege just before turning off the fire. If use dried prawns or anchovy, make sure you fry them with the sauteed onions and garlics.

 

Nasi Lemak Sempoi

The simplest of nasi lemak can be cooked just like plain rice. You would need the following:

• coconut milk, enough to cover rice in the cooker
• 4-5 shallots
• pandan leaf (if available)- wash and make into a knot
• salt to taste
• fenugreek (halba) 1/2 tsp (optional) or 4 buah pelaga (cardamons)

Method

• Wash rice and then soak it for 20 minutes then strain water and let it stand for 10 minutes (this is to ensure the rice grains do not stick together thus rice more fluffy.

• dice shallots
• add salt to coconut milk
• add light coconut milk to rice , making sure the level is about 2 cm above the rice
• add diced shallots and fenugreek or cardamon to rice
• cook in the rice cooker
• when the cooker light automatically is switched off, put in knotted pandan leaf and leave it for about 8-10 minutes.

There you have it your nasi lemak. Make sure  the coconut milk is neither thick or thin. When you use coconut milk in the package, you need to dilute it, otherwise your rice will be very sticky and the bottom of your cooker will have burnt scrapings!

The other method of cooking nasi lemak is by steaming. In fact this is the better way of cooking. Wash,soak and stand the rice then put in the steamer along with cardamon or fenugreek and diced shallots and it will cook for about 10 minutes.

Take out the rice then mix with coconut milk  (need to be slightly thicker here) with salt and put knotted pandan leaf in the rice and steam for another 7 to 8 minutes and viola ready to eat with your sambal tumis udang.

Nasi lemak is best served on a banana leaf to bring out that fragrant smell! And best eaten warm.

 

Sambal Tumis Udang

The secret to tasty sambal tumis udang is the cooking technique and the  right combination of onions, garlics and chillies and that tangy asam jawa or tamarind and the time taken to ensure the paste is properly fried. For the savvy Malay cook, the ingredients are just “agak-agak” (just guessing ) Ok the ingredients that I usually  need are:

Ingredients

• Chilli powder  2 tblsp (make into a paste)
• 10  shallots (or 2 medium big onion), 2 shallots or half of a big onion diced, the rest pound/blend or crush
• 5 cloves of garlics- sll pound/blend/crush finely
• tamarind water (2 tblsp)
• Udang (prawn) 600mg or 2 cups of dried prawns
• Oil 3 tblsp
• water 250 ml (about 1 Glass)
• Salt to taste (may be 1/2 tsp)
• Sugar  to taste (may be 1 tsp)

Method

• heat oil in pan (you can sprinkle small drops of water to see whether the oil is ready for frying, if there is crinkling noise when water hit the oil)
• fry the diced shallots/big onion till clear
• add in pounded onions and garlic and fry till fragrant
• add in chilli paste and keep turning the paste over so that it won’t get burnt, and wait till you see the oil coming out then you put in the tamarind and water and turn it over for 2-3 minutes under slow fire. When it starts to boil,…. this the  “SAMBAL”
• add in the udang (prawns), if the udang have been previously fried, you only blend with the sambal for about 2 minutes before you turn off the fire. Just before that add in salt and sugar  and kacau (turning over)

Sambal Tumis Udang

The prawns, if fresh, need to devein and remove heads and tails. Some people would leave the shell, to preserve its sweetness, while other would also remove the shells. It is better to fry them first to get that crispy taste, then just add to the sambal later.

When you cook the fresh prawns , you know that they are properly cooked when the oil become clear. Make sure the the fire is medium. For the dried prawns, you have to soak them for some hours to get rid of the salt/preservatives. Some people soak them overnight, maybe 3-4 hours would be enough in general. You also can fry them earlier and keep aside.

To make it more ” ooomph”, belacan or prawn paste is added at into the chilli paste and fry together.

So Zana, here you are, you can try this simple recipe, good for 2-4 people (depending on how tasty it is ) and you can eat with plane rice or nasi lemak.

The sambal is the core component, in fact you can use other items such as sotong (squid), kerang (cockles) or even eggs to go with it.

You can fry the eggs into “bull’s eyes” or sunny-side up, keep aside then just pour the sambal over them and turn over gently to ensure all eggs are coated with the sambal.

Sunny side -ups

I will post on how to cook nasi lemak later ok. Selamat mencuba! The more you try the more adapt you are at making a tasty “Sambal tumis udang/egg) and can make up your own combination.

I remember the lovely taste of sambal nasi lemak at Malaysia Hall canteen in 2005, gosh, how tasty that was, if we were late, the nasi lemak would have been finished. I really love the taste so sedap especially in winter!

I did ask the waiter to ask the cook the secret of the exclusive taste… I promise I will only cook for myself and my family and not to compete  with his business . Well the waiter said when the sambal was about to cook  add in small quantity of  santan (coconut milk)… I did try that yes, the taste was a bit different, more flavoursome. But for your purpose, stick to the simple recipe because there is a technique as to  how the coconut milk should be added. That Zana, you need  observe  your MA  doing it in person ok.

 

Learning to cook

It seems easy to cook but for beginners, it  can be tricky. You have  the selected recipes and all  the  required ingredients. Somehow the dish does not look and especially does not taste like the one you used to eat when your mother cooks it or at the restaurant you patronize. Most recipes do not tell you exactly step by step how the dish should be cooked. And sometimes through your own experience, you would come up with a better way of cooking it and better still according to your taste.

The ingredients quantities for one or more person of course vary. Most people are not good at measuring the right quantities for  more people so they need to rely on the given recipe.

When I was in high school, one of the subjects that I had to take was home science where cookery was one of the lessons. The boarding school where I studies had a well equipped cookery class. It was where I learned the basics of cooking. The various method of cooking such as frying, deep and shallow; boiling, simmering, steaming, baking, grilling et cetera.  So I have some ideas about cookery. I just have to observe people cooking and I can more or less, somehow, anyhow, anyway whip out the same thing. Thanks to my basic cooking skills.

As I am a full-time working woman, I find very little time to cook, so most of the time I would buy take-away from my favourite cafe or restaurants.  Quite often though I found these dishes not only more expensive than home-cooked meals, but they tend to contain more sugar, salt or monosodium glutamate and so may not be healthy if taken on a daily basis. At times I also yearn to eat dishes my late mother used to cook when I was small.

I remember when I was studying overseas, I really missed dishes I was familiar with, dishes that were  simple, nutritious and tasty. As we did not have internet facilities then, there was no looking out for recipes from my country like now. I used my minimal cooking skill to cook noodle dishes, it turned out not too bad. That was how my future husband kept contacting me… he loved my “fried noodle”!

I used to observe how my Chinese friend, Chong Siaw Wan cook such crispy mixed vegetable dishes. She used a wok and set it at high fire, saute the onions and garlic in the hot oil till fragrant , only for a few minutes , take it out, then place diced cabbage, fry it fast then take it out then she put in diced french beans, fry them fast in the hot oil, followed by diced carrots, diced chillies and lastly she broke an egg or two into the wok, let it fry a bit then whisk it fast so that you could see the white and yellow yolk, then she poured all the vegetables together and mixed them for a minute or two then sprinkle salt to taste and a few drops of  soy sauce. My! the dish was real crispy and tasty. We ate it with rice and steamed fish ( another simple tasty dish I learned from Siaw Wan).

Now my daughter Zana who is working as a certified accountant in London, never having taken a cookery lesson, would like to finally cook for herself and her friends… after all these years studying and working in the UK.

I will try to give her some simple dishes to help her along.