To Tease

Turmeric and i go a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong way. Lately, i've been using a wee bit of turmeric in some of the things that i cook. Turmeric is actually quite good for us. Its quite a common spice in Asian cooking.

My favourite is marinating chicken with turmeric and salt. After a while, just fry it and add a dash of light soya sauce. A simple dish which has a very aromatic smell to it. I love its simplicity and the aroma that turmeric adds to the chicken.

Mom used to make it too. Her chicken are cut in small pieces. Dainty dishes. My stuffs are cut never daintly.. hahahhahaha.. I am always in a rush for time. Sis will always complain about the size of the carrots and potatoes in my dishes *LOL* She will complain that i am trying to choke them all.

I remember my yoga master telling me that he bathes with turmeric. I didn't really have a chance to ask him properly on the benefits. Circumstances that surround the very life of mine... and i had to stop classes and go home. He's still the best yoga teacher i had. I haven't found one quite like him here. He has charisma.

Stormy gave me a recipe last week which i didn't follow properly as usual. Its quite hard for a cook to teach me as i don't follow instructions properly. *LOL* It was just another simple dish. But as usual, i did it my way.. and it tasted yucky.. hahahhahahaa.. It was also because i didn't have a certain dark sweet sauce.

Last weekend i got a big huge bottle of the dark sauce as i couldn't find the smaller bottle on the shelves. This time i was a little bit smarter and cook in smaller portions :)

And because of the dark sauce... it was a helluva of a success. Stormy was blinking proud of me and the master chef could only salivate over the pics *LOL*

nice or not? it was a bit sweet... but the sauce made it really nice. Now this sauce is kinda like my besty sauce.. hahhahahahhaa

Oh ya.. i marinated the chicken with turmeric too.. hehehhe.. and a tad of chili powder and salt. The end good results went to the "secret sauce".

Guess what is the secret sauce... :)

I kinda stumbled upon this 20 Health Benefits of Tumeric a while ago. Go check it out if you wanna find out more about turmeric.

An Adventure With Mr Tumeric

Last week, i had an encounter with a Tumeric and brought it home. It was a wicked, bright orangey yellow and i love it. I named it Mr. Tumeric and it went on many adventures with me.

If you all can remember my near disaster with last week's Fast Forward Rendang which turned into Yellow Curry... you'll be wondering why am i messing with tumeric again :D

Ahh... i am a person who never follow instructions in recipe books. I never read manuals of digital cameras... (and i have been labeled stupid once for not knowing the ins and the outs of the camera i am handling) and i am never much of a follower.

And so.. today.. we decided to drag Mr. Tumeric out again and try another dish. How wrong can i go right? How many deja vu would i encounter in a lifetime of near disaster cooking.

Today's curry... looks better with a tinge of red. Here it is.

It looks better than last week's one right? Still with a tinge of yellow hehhehee.. I hope it taste much better too. But the itchy hands of mine drop a blob of tomato paste in this curry. It kinda have a sweet tomato taste.. urmm.. i'll let the experts try first and i'll come back and tell you the outcome :)

Good luck to me and hope i don't try anymore tumeric dishes for a while or just stick to tumeric fried chicken for safer bets. *LOL*

Btw.. one of the other dishes... was a disaster. *LOL* I am too ashamed to show you the pictures here.. hehehehehehehe

This week i've been labeled Tumeric Queen. TQ very much ^.^

Fast Forward Rendang

Rendang is made from beef (or occasionally chicken, mutton, water buffalo, duck, or vegetables like jackfruit or cassava) slowly cooked in coconut milk and spices for several hours until almost all the liquid is gone, allowing the meat to absorb the spicy condiments. The cooking process changes from boiling to frying as the liquid evaporates. The slow cooking process allows the meat to absorb all the spices and to become tender. The spices may include ginger, galangal, turmeric leaf, lemon grass and chillies. Chicken or duck rendang also contains tamarind and is usually not cooked for as long as beef rendang. (excerpt from Wikipedia)

That's quite a good explanation of what rendang is from Wikipedia. Thank you wiki.

Yesterday we went to Tescos to do some groceries. Somehow we were going to run out of some stuffs and last weekend... we were lazy to go. Going to Tescos means i don't need to cook dinner.. hehehhehee.. well.. that was my diabolical plan too. We ate at the food court.. the foods not all that bad. Urmm.. i kinda like the Tomyam soup there.

Going to Tescos was also to get outta the house and enjoy some free aircon.. hahahhahaha.. Poor Dommy couldn't go. And also to let Boy practise his driving. We got quite a lot of stuffs to stock up. We were like squirrels stocking up for winter. Dad got a new toothbrush and Boy got some swanky "big man smell" shower foam. He don't wanna smell like a Johnson baby anymore. *lol* I think both were quite happy after that.

I bought some sliced beef too and decide to cook it today. This whole day while working.. i was thinking what to do with the beef. I don't really cook beef except corned beef. So i was kinda thinking what to do with it.

Then walla... i found this.

Supa Maggi

If you really can't cook very well like me, the above stuffs are life-savers. I got a wee bit ambitious and bought it a while ago.. but never did try it. So today was the day.

I snip open the package... (before reading the instructions) at 6pm. hehehhehee

Then i was reading the instructions and was going.. urmm.. i don't have coconut milk.. tumeric leaf.. nop.. i don't have that... kerisik (grated, toasted, grounded coconut paste).. urmm.. never bought that before... and some other leaf. But hey.. i have lemon grass.. and urmm.. i have tumeric.. and ginger.. and lots of shallots and garlic.. *LOL*

So i thought.. how wrong can this go rite?

First i filled up the pot with water and bring to boil.. drop the spices from the supa maggi pack in.. urmm.. smells good :) I didn't have coconut milk... so i mix 2 big spoons of milk powder with some water and added to the pot. Then i plonk all the beef in and.. and smashed some lemon grass in and bring it to boil. In the process.. i added shallots.. a big knob of ginger.. and garlic.. and my yellow tumeric friend. (wrong choice) *LOL*

Since i didn't have tumeric leaf... i took some parsley leaf and lemon leaf from the garden.. :)

They were all dancing very happily in the pot until.. i realise they have achieved a yellow tinge while dancing too close with the tumeric. Urmm... nevermind. Then i added a wee bit of salt.. and then tasted it.. hmmm.. then i remembered stormy mentioned last time about some sugar.. so i added some sugar... then it went a wee bit sweet.. so i added a wee bit more salt.. hehehhee..

I still have quite a bit of liquids in the pot and it was getting close to 7pm... and dad is getting hungry. Alamak. Matilaaa.. I tasted it again.. and it was berry spicy.. i imagine i have smoke coming outta my ears. So i figured a little bit more milk will sorta thicken the sauce and make it less spicy and be easy to the tummy. A little bit more milk went it.. and more dancing and more yellow tinge.. hahahhahahahaha

Here's the end product.

kinda look like yellow curry

its all this yellow culprit's fault

fast-forward steam fish paste with sesame oil & garlic + shallots
this is Boy and my favourite
(we had bits of kiwi on it the last time.. it was tangy and weird.. hahhahahaha)

uncooked greens..

Moral of the story is...
1) Read instructions first
2) Don't cook it if u don't have all the ingredients
3) Don't simply plonk yellow tumeric into pots of rendang
4) Tumeric leaf and tumeric is different
5) Cook earlier because rendang takes a while to cook and for all the liquids to dissapear

The good thing from this fast forward rendang was... dad really enjoyed it. He was grinning from ear to ear because i called it rendang even though it was yellow.. hahahahhaa.. And he had 2 servings of rice. I am lucky because my dad and Boy hardly complains about my cooking now. Even though sometimes i come up with craps. hehehehhehe

Tomorrow i will cook them a proper dinner with less adventures.

Now i really have to cook rendang the correct way with Stormy's recipe. And this time, i'll do it the original way. God help me. If i succeed.. i'll post the recipe here :)

My Favourite Mistake ~ Sheryl Crow

This song seems kinda apt now :) Goodnite folks ^.^