Ramadhan, or the Islamic fasting month, starts tomorrow. I was in the kitchen preparing lunch with my mil when she asked if I was prepared for it.
How does one prepare for fasting month? I think she means if I was mentally prepared for it, because I doubt there's anything physical I can do right now. And of course, we've got to pray that we'll be able to cope I guess.
I'm not too worried. Going to enjoy my last daytime meal in a month and not think too much. As long as one stays properly hydrated and watches food intake- not too much salty stuff or caffeine that can make you dehydrated.
Yikes. That means no red bull. I guess now's a good as any time to kick the addiction. Lol.
I'm more concerned about how I'm going to pass my time, and I half suspect I'll be spending quite a bit of time in the public library. After all, no food and drinks are allowed there.
Guppy's also asked if I was available to help temp for her, so I've got to check when my driving classes are and confirm whether we've got tickets to Kathmandu. We're on the waiting list so it's a rather nail-biting time, since the flight tickets from Kathmandu to Bhutan have already been paid for.
Oh well, I've got to find access to a computer. Blogging on the phone is all well and fine, but it's so limited, the things I can do. Need to check email and driving schedule, and I can't seem to load the BBDC website here.
Last day of August. How fast time flies!
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Woohoo!
Yay! Blogging from my phone works!
I'm so bored, my laptop is at the service center and I'll only be able to get my baby back at the end of the week. The computer at home is spoilt, so I'm stuck with no access to the internet. Thankfully I've got my phone. Hehe.
Went to Mustafa today and finally bought the mix for gulab jamun. Mmm don't know when to make it though. Tempted to do it now! Lol.
I also got me a natural toothbrush, which is actually a twig that you're supposed to chew on till it's soft. Maybe I'll try it out later.
All I've got now are books that I've already read a million times before. Need to pop by the bookstore tomorrow to see if there's anything interesting.
Bored.
I'm so bored, my laptop is at the service center and I'll only be able to get my baby back at the end of the week. The computer at home is spoilt, so I'm stuck with no access to the internet. Thankfully I've got my phone. Hehe.
Went to Mustafa today and finally bought the mix for gulab jamun. Mmm don't know when to make it though. Tempted to do it now! Lol.
I also got me a natural toothbrush, which is actually a twig that you're supposed to chew on till it's soft. Maybe I'll try it out later.
All I've got now are books that I've already read a million times before. Need to pop by the bookstore tomorrow to see if there's anything interesting.
Bored.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Moving Moving.. And I'm Here
I've decided to move on to a blogspot account because the money-minded people on Livejournal are throwing ads left, right and centre; and it's downright annoying. So here I am, on blogspot, barely a month after I insisted that Livejournal was the better deal when asked. Of course, my reason was that it was better because I was on it, so now that's a moot point.
And I'm not sure if it's my computer / web browser, but loading Livejournal takes forever. Forever! Unless I'm viewing a paid account. But I'm not going to pay for anything, so my poor (free) basic account continues to take forever to load. Argh!
Livejournal, I'm going to miss you and your communities, but you suck. It's like loving your colleagues at work and the job you do, but working for a crappy organisation that doesn't give two hoots about you and whose only mission is to suck every single ounce of time and energy from you.
Pfft.
Anyway, here's to a new start on blogspot. My third blog since *counts* 2003! Woah, 5 years of rambling on the net. Links to the old blogs are on the right.
And I'm not sure if it's my computer / web browser, but loading Livejournal takes forever. Forever! Unless I'm viewing a paid account. But I'm not going to pay for anything, so my poor (free) basic account continues to take forever to load. Argh!
Livejournal, I'm going to miss you and your communities, but you suck. It's like loving your colleagues at work and the job you do, but working for a crappy organisation that doesn't give two hoots about you and whose only mission is to suck every single ounce of time and energy from you.
Pfft.
Anyway, here's to a new start on blogspot. My third blog since *counts* 2003! Woah, 5 years of rambling on the net. Links to the old blogs are on the right.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
The Much Anticipated Beef Rendang Recipe
Woohoo! Finally. So here's the recipe for beef rendang, except it isn't really a recipe with exact measurements.
Beef Rendang
Ingredients:
1 kg beef, cut into cubes
1 kg coconut milk
Fresh red chillis (about 2 or 3 pieces), chilli padi (about 3, or more if you want it spicy), shallots (about 6 pieces, I used 2 red onions), garlic (about 4 pieces), langkwas/galangal (I estimate it was about an inch long), ginger (about 2 inches long), fresh tumeric (about 2 inches, or maybe a bit less) and one candlenut.
Dried red chillis (about 5 small pieces), soaked in hot water and "squeezed" to remove the seeds.
Tumeric leaf (one piece, remove the hard middle part of the leaf), lime leaves (about 4), one stalk of lemongrass, one cinammon stick, four cloves and a teaspoon of peppercorns.
Instructions:
Cook the coconut milk in a pot / wok over low heat and stir constantly for about until the oil starts to separate.
While the coconut milk cooks, blend all the spices except the tumeric leaf, lime leaves, lemongrass stalk, cinammon stick, cloves and langkwas/galangal. Make sure you remove the shell from the candlenut and pound the seed before blending.
You should get a nice, fragrant spice mixture like this.
Marinate the beef cubes with the spice mixture and leave it till the coconut milk is done.
The coconut milk should start to look grainy and you can see the oil. How long this takes depends on how much coconut milk you have, but for 1 kg of coconut milk, I reckon it takes between 30-45 minutes. Remember, slow heat and constant stirring!
Once the coconut milk is done, throw in the beef. Pound the lemongrass and langkwas/galangal and throw them in as well, together with the tumeric leaf, lime leaves, cinammon stick and cloves.
Stir well and cook over low-medium heat. Cover it once it starts bubbling so that the oil doesn't splash all over the place.
Cook for a couple of hours until it's dry and you're done. I think I could have cooked this for a little bit longer than when the picture was taken, but the house was filled with the aroma of the beef rendang and we just couldn't wait.
Anyway, we started off with 1kg of beef but I'd recommend making this in large batches (3kg of beef perhaps? Just multiply everything accordingly) because beef rendang is one of those dishes that just tastes better a couple of days later. And like most malay-style dishes, this is very unhealthy so just ignore the fact that you're consuming enough cholestrol, fats and calories for your month's intake and just concentrate on how yummy everything is.
Beef Rendang
Ingredients:
1 kg beef, cut into cubes
1 kg coconut milk
Fresh red chillis (about 2 or 3 pieces), chilli padi (about 3, or more if you want it spicy), shallots (about 6 pieces, I used 2 red onions), garlic (about 4 pieces), langkwas/galangal (I estimate it was about an inch long), ginger (about 2 inches long), fresh tumeric (about 2 inches, or maybe a bit less) and one candlenut.
Dried red chillis (about 5 small pieces), soaked in hot water and "squeezed" to remove the seeds.
Tumeric leaf (one piece, remove the hard middle part of the leaf), lime leaves (about 4), one stalk of lemongrass, one cinammon stick, four cloves and a teaspoon of peppercorns.
Instructions:
Cook the coconut milk in a pot / wok over low heat and stir constantly for about until the oil starts to separate.
While the coconut milk cooks, blend all the spices except the tumeric leaf, lime leaves, lemongrass stalk, cinammon stick, cloves and langkwas/galangal. Make sure you remove the shell from the candlenut and pound the seed before blending.
You should get a nice, fragrant spice mixture like this.
Marinate the beef cubes with the spice mixture and leave it till the coconut milk is done.
The coconut milk should start to look grainy and you can see the oil. How long this takes depends on how much coconut milk you have, but for 1 kg of coconut milk, I reckon it takes between 30-45 minutes. Remember, slow heat and constant stirring!
Once the coconut milk is done, throw in the beef. Pound the lemongrass and langkwas/galangal and throw them in as well, together with the tumeric leaf, lime leaves, cinammon stick and cloves.
Stir well and cook over low-medium heat. Cover it once it starts bubbling so that the oil doesn't splash all over the place.
Cook for a couple of hours until it's dry and you're done. I think I could have cooked this for a little bit longer than when the picture was taken, but the house was filled with the aroma of the beef rendang and we just couldn't wait.
Anyway, we started off with 1kg of beef but I'd recommend making this in large batches (3kg of beef perhaps? Just multiply everything accordingly) because beef rendang is one of those dishes that just tastes better a couple of days later. And like most malay-style dishes, this is very unhealthy so just ignore the fact that you're consuming enough cholestrol, fats and calories for your month's intake and just concentrate on how yummy everything is.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
The Weekend of Sin, aka The 10,000 Calories Weekend
Ah, finally. I've not posted pics in the longest time (took a while to remember my username and password for my photobucket account) and it's been yonks since I last posted a recipe. Anyway, stayed over at my parents' over the weekend and went mad making utterly sinful desserts. The last time I was over, my mom made apple crumble. This time, my sis and I decided to satisfy my curiosity and craving for the key lime pie.
Well, I'm not sure if the limes we used were key limes, but who cares. We used the calamansi limes (are they the same? No one knows) and spent a bloody long time squeezing the juice. And after that, we decided to make a frozen cheesecake since we had leftover crust material. (It's midnight, sentence construction isn't my strongest point at this time of the day.) Anyway, to make up for the many months that I've not posted anything, I've got two recipes!
Excuse the poor quality of the pics. Was taken with my camera phone while balancing a fork in my mouth.
Left: Frozen cheesecake. Right: Dunnowhatlime pie.
Hmm. Make it three. One more for the crust. Lol.
Crust Material
Ingredients:
1 pack of digestive biscuits
125g butter, melted.
Instructions:
Crush digestive biscuits. Add melted butter. Mix.
Final product should look like wet sand.
Simple Frozen Cheesecake
Ingredients:
Crust material (half of what was made in the above "recipe")
2 blocks of cream cheese, room temperature
1 can of condensed milk
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
Instructions:
Place the crust mixture in a 9 inch pie pan and press down firmly.
Beat cream cheese, condensed milk and lime juice together in a large bowl till nice and smooth and creamy. Pour over crust. Lick bowl.
Freeze in freezer till set. Approximately, 4 hours?
Dunnowhatlime Pie
Ingredients:
Crust material (half of what was made in the above "recipe")
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons of lime zest
4 egg yolks
1 can of condensed milk
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 175 degrees celcius.
Place the crust mixture in a 9 inch pie pan and press down firmly.
In a large bowl, beat egg yolks with lime zest. Mix in lime juice, and then condensed milk. Make sure everything is mixed together thoroughly. Pour on crust. Lick bowl only if you aren't worried about salmonella.
Bake in oven for about 20 min, till everything is set. Then let it cool before putting it in the refrigerator for about 4 hours or overnight.
..
Yummy yummy yummy. The cheesecake was nice and creamy, but depending on how you like your cheesecake, it wasn't very dense at all. And it tended to soften if you didn't finish it up fast enough.
The dunnowhatlime pie was tangy and delicious, but I don't think the recipe would suffer much if you didn't use all 1/2 cups of lime juice. This is not for people who do not like sour stuff though. Hehe.
Well, I'm not sure if the limes we used were key limes, but who cares. We used the calamansi limes (are they the same? No one knows) and spent a bloody long time squeezing the juice. And after that, we decided to make a frozen cheesecake since we had leftover crust material. (It's midnight, sentence construction isn't my strongest point at this time of the day.) Anyway, to make up for the many months that I've not posted anything, I've got two recipes!
Excuse the poor quality of the pics. Was taken with my camera phone while balancing a fork in my mouth.
Left: Frozen cheesecake. Right: Dunnowhatlime pie.
Hmm. Make it three. One more for the crust. Lol.
Crust Material
Ingredients:
1 pack of digestive biscuits
125g butter, melted.
Instructions:
Crush digestive biscuits. Add melted butter. Mix.
Final product should look like wet sand.
Simple Frozen Cheesecake
Ingredients:
Crust material (half of what was made in the above "recipe")
2 blocks of cream cheese, room temperature
1 can of condensed milk
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
Instructions:
Place the crust mixture in a 9 inch pie pan and press down firmly.
Beat cream cheese, condensed milk and lime juice together in a large bowl till nice and smooth and creamy. Pour over crust. Lick bowl.
Freeze in freezer till set. Approximately, 4 hours?
Dunnowhatlime Pie
Ingredients:
Crust material (half of what was made in the above "recipe")
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons of lime zest
4 egg yolks
1 can of condensed milk
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 175 degrees celcius.
Place the crust mixture in a 9 inch pie pan and press down firmly.
In a large bowl, beat egg yolks with lime zest. Mix in lime juice, and then condensed milk. Make sure everything is mixed together thoroughly. Pour on crust. Lick bowl only if you aren't worried about salmonella.
Bake in oven for about 20 min, till everything is set. Then let it cool before putting it in the refrigerator for about 4 hours or overnight.
..
Yummy yummy yummy. The cheesecake was nice and creamy, but depending on how you like your cheesecake, it wasn't very dense at all. And it tended to soften if you didn't finish it up fast enough.
The dunnowhatlime pie was tangy and delicious, but I don't think the recipe would suffer much if you didn't use all 1/2 cups of lime juice. This is not for people who do not like sour stuff though. Hehe.
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