Ramadhan Day 22: the 1st essay

Today is the 22nd day of Ramadhan. One more week before celebrating the Eid @ Hari Raya. At this stage, I still cultivating my raya mood, because I am still refining my chapters.  I have dateline this Tuesday, maybe after that I can switch to raya mood. But I have two things to look forward to this week. Tomorrow atang wants to have iftar at a nearby mosque. Everyday, there will be someone or a group of people donate some food for iftar at any mosque, musollah (surau) around Brisbane, as far as I am aware of. Before the Ramadhan, the mosque or musollah committee will make announcement about the donation, individual who wishes to donate can contact the committee directly to book a date. Besides the one organised by the Malaysian Student Association (PPMQ), I have never attended any iftar event held at any mosque or musollah. So I did suggested to atang, maybe we could have iftar at any mosque or musollah on weekends, I just want to experience what it's like, plus tasting different type of food prepared by people from different culture (escape masak pun ye gak, huhu). Bila lagi kan, the only opportunity that I may have. It is coincident that one of atang's mate is hosting iftar at a nearby mosque tomorrow and we are invited to come. Alhamdullillah, so InsyaAllah, tomorrow I am off from cooking, yippee.

Another thing that I am looking forward to is Nasi Kerabu, yes, you read it right. This Nasi Kerabu is so popular here, people have been talking about this Nasi Kerabu since we have Bazaar Ramadhan in 2008. It is so popular that you need to pre-order it, coz don't expect you can grab it at the bazaar, orang kata putih mata aje laaa. I recently talked to akak who prepared it, she said normally she would prepare around 80 packs per day, and from that amount only about 5 packs were unreserved, but within a split second that unreserved packs were gone. So I decided I must try this Nasi Kerabu this time, the only chance that I may have, and since this weekend is the last bazaar, I have pre-booked the Nasi Kerabu for this Saturday. Sempat kang I will take pictures, takut kang tak sabar nak makan, dah nak licin baru ingat, huhu. As a summary, I may not have to prepare main dishes for tomorrow and Saturday, prepare some kuih aje nanti, itupun kalau tak membeli kat bazaar. haha

Anyway, what I am going to write today is about an essay written by Yaya. It is one of her school assignment.
The title is,"My journey on a pirate ship". Don't ask me how on earth did she came up with the title, because Yaya herself don't have definite answer to that question. Ok without further ado, I present you Yaya's 1st essay.

My summary: Yaya and her family onboard a pirate ship to get to an island, so that she and her family can enjoy a delicious ice-cream and hot dog. Then we checked in into a hotel that have a spa, swimming pool and a beach. After a day at the beach, we had dinner at night. hahahahhaha.... I was smilling when I read this. I asked yaya, ice-cream and hot dog, bulan puasa nih, fikir makan aje laaa... hmmmm clearly she is like me, think about food all the time. Notice that atang was only mentioned at the end of the story, so bab makan-makan dulu only involved yaya, her sister and her mother. Adeh... another food lover in the family, tapi memang betul pun. Alhamdullillah, yaya is not fussy when it comes to food, but she is not that adventurous like her mama. She will only try something new after I have convince her many times.

Dah lame tak citer pasal our iftar food kan, well nothing to story actually, same old dishes everyday. I don't have time to experiment new thing, not anymore laaa. For yesterday's iftar I cooked maggi goreng. We had fried chickens from Country Chicken two days ago (ala-ala KFC camtu), and have 2 pieces left. So yesterday I cut them to small pieces and add them to the maggi goreng, with telur mata lembu. Fuhhhh...

Today, I think I will cooked chicken tom yam. Tonight I plan to visit my neighbour. She and her family is going back home for raya tomorrow morning. Ada benda nak kirim dari Malaysia nie, my ikan bilis, ikan masin is out of stock. So, that's it friends, till next time, selamat berbuka, biar sederhana.
yours truly,

Ramadhan Day 11: Spring has sprung?

Today is the 11th day of Ramadhan. Alhamdullillah, the weather is hot with mild wind today. I washed a load of clothes yesterday and today, opppsss not literally, the washing machine did that. And thankful for the sunny weather, the clothes dried up quickly. This morning atang and I had a bit of spring cleaning, eh dah spring ka? It is not until September for the spring to arrive, but it is getting warmer nowadays, I no longer have to wear jumper during the day, still need to wear pull-over at night, and still using quilts at night. Well, the kids kicked it away at night, I still pulled the quilts up to my head. I remember last year, somewhere in August, we thought that the winter was over, and it was time for spring cleaning. So I washed the quilt cover, jumper, changed the flannelette sheet, and stored them away. So confident that the winter has gone. And a few days later, it was cold again, end up I had to take out all the things that I had put away. So this year I will wait until spring to come, flowers blooming until I starts storing all the winter garmet. This time would be much easier, will put everything in the packing boxes, for give away and take home.

As I have mentioned in the previous entry, yesterday we went shopping instead of looking for used boxes. We went to DFO just to get new slip-on for my lil princesses. Each of them has a pair of slip-on for raya. For baju raya, hmmm not sure we will get them something new, because they still have several pairs of baju kurung from last year raya, some dresses and new t-shirts, so maybe we will buy when necessary. The shoes because yaya n adik don't have a nice pair of shoes to put on, and that was why we bought them each. Tak mo 'membrazir' (yaya slang of membazir). Although here the celebration boleh tahan juga, with open houses every weekend, tapi takkan sama like celebrating at home. So nak beli yang baru-baru pun macam kurang semangat sikit, plus I will definately busy after the eid, preparing for submission. I am more enthusiast with the submission than the eid preparation. Picture below shows yaya's n adik's raya shoes,

Raya shoes for lil princesses

Yesterday jugak was an election day for Australia. Tak tau pulak sape yang menang semalam. Sorry, malas nak ambil tau. Anyway, about iftar. A day before yesterday, that was Friday, mood malas nak masak tu datang. Actually I have no idea to cook, like I said in the Friday's entry. I was browsing through a few of my fav cyber chefs' blog until I saw encik Mat Gebu's sosej gulung rangup. I had a couple of instant pastry in the freezer, and I used them all, bagus2, habis kan semua, clear the fridge. Sausage puff for Friday's iftar.

Sausage wrap in instant pastry

Yesterday, since it was weekend, I spent my time in the kitchen and made mee kari. Our neighbour came and gave us mee goreng mamak.  

My neighbour's mee goreng mamak (she's penang mari)

For today's iftar, I going to cook nasi ayam, kuih, maybe kuih bakar kot. OK laaa...I need to fill up a form then packing some clothes that I am not going to wear anymore in the box. Till we meet again, selamat berbuka, biar sederhana. 

  

yours truly,

Yaya second day at school

Semalam pagi hantar yaya gi school, kena tukar kelas lagi.... aduhaiiii.... so what did the DP told me is true (nie mesti kerani sekolah pening-pening lalat prepare senarai tu). So, yaya is now back to the first class that we went to on the first day of school. Takpe laaa....biasa la kelam kelibut minggu pertama. Hopefully there is nothing missing during the moving/changing/swapping (in term of her stationaries and books). Did asked her class teacher about the clipboard (barang yang tercicir kelmarin), and the teacher told me that she has all of yaya's things.

Oh ya... FYI, all yaya's books; excercise, scrap and text, stay at school. Yaya bawak balik keje rumah, itupun kalau ada. Sometimes she will bring home newsletter or notes from school. Senang macam tu, tak la berat bag, tapi susah jugak nak keep track dengan her stationaries, and books. I need to remember when to bring back her homework, library books, folio and all, on certain days.

I hope her school matter settle by next week. Then I can just drop her off and go home. hehehehe (panas ooiii...muke adik pun dah macam udang kena bakar bila balik rumah).

Panas panas nie, rasa nak makan nasik kureng sikit. Tapi kena masak jugak kadang-kadang, sebab dalam rumah nie, ada 3 orang akan sengsara kalau tak jumpe nasi lebih dari sehari...hahahahhaha... excluding me laaa. Dalam seminggu, akan ada 2 atau 3 hari that I declare "no nasi" day. Apa nak bising-bising kan, I do all the cooking, and my beloved family would happily eat whatever I cook (uiissshhh bunyik cam diktator la pulak). Cuma lately nie yaya dah pandai complain kalau masak not to her taste bud....like recently I cooked sardines, one of my fav dish (ooohhh plz don't trust this statement that came from a food lover), and she just ate a little bit...eh since when yaya doesn't like sardine nie...hmmm... anyway, so one day without rice, I cooked Kungfu Kuay Teow.... this is one simple and delicious dish. Dah lama tak masak nie since the kids are away. So aritu masak, rasa macam nikmat nyee...alhamdullillah.....

pasar malam food made at home

When one craving for pasar malam food, what else you can do but to prepare it yourself, especially if the craving came from the cook herself...hahahahha.... Mano ado pasar malam kek sini yang serupo macam kek mesia tu... however, I am lucky, because the ingredients are easy to find here. Yup, so far I have no problem finding ingredients to cook our malaysian food, except for one thing, turmeric leaf. Dah la daun kunyit nie bahan penting dalam masakan nogori. Apo nak buekkan. I was told by a friend, the reason we couldn't find turmeric leaf is because Thai's and Vietnamese do not use it in their cooking. I don't know how true this is, but I took it as one logical reason.

OK...enough of that not-making-sense introduction (yup, still fail in this area). Been searching for Yong Tau Foo sauce recipe for ages, until I found this recipe Sos Yong Tau Foo from my resepi site. I tried preparing the sauce yesterday and ok laaa... not fully satisfied, but I guess because I used different type of sauce than the one used by the cook who posted the recipe. The taste almost similar to the pasar malam, but can be improved. Jom try....



Sos Yong Tau Foo (copy directly from the site)


Bahan-bahan ( 1 family )


SOS HITAM:
560ml air 1 kiub stok bilis
1 camb kicap pekat/hitam
2 camb sos kacang hitam ( OR taucu )
1 camb sos hoisin
2 camb gula pasir
1/8 camt serbuk rempah lima
garam secukupnya
3 camb air dicampur 1½ camb tepung jagung (atau ikut kepekatan tersendiri)


SOS CILI:
8 biji cili merah dibuang biji
2 camt bijan goreng/bakar
100ml cuka
2 camb sos plam
3 camb gula garam secukupnya




Cara-cara

SOS HITAM YONG TAU FOO:

Jerang air, stok bilis, kicap pekat, sos kacang hitam, sos hoisin, gula pasir dan serbuk rempah lima di atas api perlahan. Kacau hingga mendidih, masukkan campuran tepung masak. Kacau tanpa henti selama 2-3 minit lagi atau hingga pekat.


SOS CILI YONG TAU FU:

Kisar cili dan bijan hingga halus. Jerang cuka di atas api perlahan. Masukkan bahan kisar dan semua bahan lain, ketepikan dari api, biar sejuk


note : garam & gula - ikut selera
note: kalau nak buat 1 sos saja, Sos Hitam Pedas, tambahkan cili boh ke dalam (step 2) mengikut kepedasan masing2 dan sedikit cuka.



I just prepared the black sauce because I never like pedas in my Yong Tau Foo. For lunch today, I made a little adjustment for the sauce, so I added more Hoisin Sauce (about 2 tablespoons) and more sugar....haaaa.... ada improvement sikit. Can experiment again until I get the consistency/taste that I want.





(this one for our good neighbour :D)


And I also fried Char Kuay Teow, for I was the only one yang suke Yong Tau Foo,

OK laaa kan...ahahahahhaha....sodap ke tidak, pejam mato yo laaa....janji kenyang (yaya said my Yong Tau Foo sauce is OK but "...tak sama macam pasar malam la mak"...) the word OK pun dah cukup...hehehheheh..first attempt maaaaa

Still adjusting with the routine, but everything is OK. Yaya can look after herself well, while adik, can keep to herself very well too. Soon yaya will be in school. Adik will stay with me at home, alternating with atang when he is off duty.

Nie muke budak baru bangun tido terus capai spek kakaknye, "Mama...mama...spek kakaknye...." ahahhaahha... sebijik macam den maso kocik dulu, pakai spek my sistah or abah when nobody is around :D

yours truly,