Bol Kentang (Potato Ball in Tomato Soup)

Yesterday was the 3rd day of fasting and our menu for iftar (breaking fast)? It’s Bol Kentang which means potato ball. We pour tomato soup over the potato ball and garnish it with slices of cucumber. I cut down on a few ingredients today. For full dressing, actually the potato ball would be garnish with slices of salad, cucumber and green peas.

This dish is one of my favourite…. hmmm yumms!!

Bol Kentang (this photo is not mine, I actually forgot to take a photo yesterday hahaha…. but this is how our ball kentang looks like. Thanks to google image that I could find something similar)

Bol Kentang

Ingredients for potato ball
2 kg of potato – cut and fried and mashed

Filling for the potato:
100 g of minced meat
1 small garlic
1 slice of ginger

Blend the garlic and ginger together. Over a frying pan, fry the minced meat without using any oil, together with the blended ingredients. Season with a bit of salt and white pepper. Once the meat has cooked and there’s no longer any liquid in the pan, off the fire and leave it aside.

Take a handful of the mashed potato, clump them firmly and then make a whole in the middle to add 1/2 tbsp of the minced meat. Fold the potato over the meat firmly and nicely in a ball shape.

Once all the potato balls are done, dip them in beaten eggs and fry till golden brown.

These are the kentang balls before frying them with beaten eggs.

Ingredients for the soup:
200 g thinly sliced beef

Blended ingredients:
6 big onions
4 garlics
1 inch of ginger
1/2 tsp of white pepper corn
1/2 tsp of black pepper
(Blend all together)

1 big onion – sliced thinly
3-4 tbsp of tomato puree
1 fresh tomato – diced
1/4 cup of Chinese celery – chop
1 inch cinnamon stick
2 pcs of anise star
2-3 tbsp of sweet soy sauce (kicap manis)
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
2-3 liters of water
Salt and sugar to taste

Method for the soup
Heat oil in a big pot. saute the sliced onions together with the cinnamon stick and star anise. Once the onions has browned, add the blended ingredients and sliced beef. Fry for about 10 mins, stir occasionally.

Then add water to the pot. Add tomato puree, diced tomatoes and Chinese celery. Let the soup simmer till meat becomes tender.

After that, add the sweet soy sauce, salt and sugar to taste. Off the fire.

To serve:
Place a potato ball in a bowl, Pour the soup over it and garnish with sliced cucumber, salads, green peas and fried shallots.

Enjoy!

Kicap ayam tomato

This is my late mom’s recipe…. ‘Kicap ayam tomato’ = ‘Chicken in tomato and black soya sauce’.

Kicap Ayam Tomato

 

Today’s version I substitute the tomato puree with tomato sauce instead. I was too lazy to go down to the shop to buy the tomato puree. So the gravy did not thicken as it should be, nevertheless it tasted good and that’s what matters most 🙂

Also a few days ago, I was very happy to know that my 3rd nephew has learnt to cook this dish using this very recipe. It’s very heart warming to know that my late mother’s legacy in the area of cooking is alive and kicking in the younger generation. Obviously now we all can see that my 3rd nephew has quite a talent in the kitchen as well as housekeeping …. hahaha in fact I would say that he will surpass all of us soon or maybe has already done so 😉
I hope the nieces and perhaps one day my own girls will accomplish what he has done as well 🙂

this photo showed the dish cooked by my 3rd nephew 🙂

 

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken – cut into 12 parts, cut away the skin and fats, wash clean and put aside.
4 potatoes (or more) – cut into wedges
cinnamon – 2 cm
star anise – 2 pcs
1 small can of tomato puree or enough tomato sauce.
black soya sauce – 1 cup or slightly more
enough water to cover the chicken
salt to taste

1 green chili – sliced
1 red chili – sliced
2 onion – sliced roundly
1 fresh tomato – quartered or you can use 6-8 cherry tomatoes instead.

Blended ingredients :
3 tbsp. of chili paste
1 tsp of ginger paste

Method:
Fry the blended ingredients together with cinnamon and anise star till fragrant.

Add in the chicken parts and potatoes. Add enough water to cover the chickens. Add in the tomato puree, black soya sauce and let it simmer till chicken and potatoes are cooked.

Then add in the sliced ingredients and salt to taste.

Off the fire once everything are cooked and taste good 🙂

Note: Optional to add su’un (tanghoon) which I like to do so.

Spicy Fried Bee Hoon

I’ve decided to post this fried bee hoon (rice vermicelli) recipe here for the sake of my daughter. My eldest daughter do refer to this blog once in a while for recipes when she’s in the mood to cook and also reading the other more personal blog of mine. I’m glad my blogs do achieve its main purpose after all! 😊

I woke up 5 am just to do the cooking. Ever since  my eldest daughter requested for home-cooked food for her to bring to work, I have been cooking more often. It’s good in a way cos I am also able to pack for myself too. Tiring but worth it!

For today’s menu, even my husband wanted to pack some (he usually declined when I offered to pack for him.

Spicy Fried Bee Hoon

Spicy Fried Beehoon 

1 pkt of bee hoon – soak overnight
1/2 kg – fresh prawns
3 fishcakes – sliced thinly
1/2 cabbage – sliced thinly (can replace with chye sim also)
2 fresh tomatoes – sliced
1/2 green capsicum – sliced
1/2 yellow or red capsicum – sliced
3 tbsp of taucheo (fermented soya beans) – wash thoroughly to get rid of the saltiness. While washing, do mash them a bit using your fingers. Drained and put aside.
3/4 cup of water
1 cup of veg oil – or slightly more if you like
2 tbsp of sugar
Salt to taste

Blended ingredients:
1 small bowl of dried chilies – soak with hot water
3 big onions
4 garlics
1.5 tbsp of dried prawns

Note : Blend all the ingredients above.

Method:
– Using a big wok, heat 1 cup of oil.  Fry the blended ingredients together with the taucheo. Stir frequently till fragrant (about 15 to 20 mins).

– Then add 2 tbsp of sugar and salt to taste.

– After that, add the 3/4 cup of water. Stir a bit and add prawns and fishcakes. Mix well.

– After 3-5 mins, add cabbages and bee hoon. Mix well.

– When the bee hoon has soften a bit, add the capsicums. Stir and mix well till bee hoon totally soft. Lastly add the tomatoes.

– Off fire and it’s ready to be serve. Optional, can garnish with fried shallot, chives etc.

Hoon Kwe Jagung

Hoon Kwee Jagung … a type of dessert that used Hoon Kwe flour (mung bean flour) and corns. Traditionally in the Malay society we used to make using rice flour and we called it Nagasari … can either add banana or corn to it but now more people prefer to use the Hoon Kwe flour cos it tasted better and smoother in texture.

I made these few days ago since there was a balance of the Hoon Kwe flour in the house.

This dessert is easy and quick to cook.

Hoon Kwe Jagung

Ingredients A:
1 can of corn (whole kernel) – drained and rinse, put aside
250 ml coconut milk (I used Santan Kara and add a bit of water to make it to 250 ml)

Ingredients B:
450 ml water
175 gm of sugar
1 pandan leaf (screwpine leaf)
Boil these 3 ingredients and once sugar dissolved, off the fire and cool it.

Ingredients C:
200 ml water
120 g Hoon Kwe flour
Mix both together till flour dissolved.

Method:
In a pot, add the ingredient C. Then add ingredient B and the 250 ml coconut milk. Keep stirring and make sure to use a small fire. After 5 mins, add the corns.
Continue to stir till mixture has thickens. Off the fire and pour the mixture into either small bowls, jelly moulds, cut banana leaves or plastic. Cool and chill in the fridge before serving.

Note: if using banana leaves and plastic, cut into squares (dimension up to you) and pour the mixture before folding them nicely.

Nasi Harisa

Nasi Harisa aka Carrots rice. This easy to cook rice is one of our family favourite. The rice goes really well with Ayam Masak Merah (Spicy Red Chickens dish).

For this year’s Eid celebration, I cooked this rice together with Ayam Masak Merah Brunei (Brunei’s Spicy Red Chickens), Black Pepper Beef and Pineapple/Cucumber Salsa.

The recipe below is for 10 pax.

Ingredients:

1kg basmati rice – (measure water to the level of the rice and add in 100 ml more)
3 large onions – sliced thinly
500 g of shredded carrots (I used about 3 carrots)
1 stick of cinnamon
4 star anise
8 cardamoms
salt to taste
Enough oil for sauteing

Blended ingredients A:
1 tsp fennel seeds
3 cm ginger
10 garlics

Blended ingredients B:
2-3 sprigs coriander stems/roots, washed, cleaned and blended with 5 green chillies

For garnishing:
Fried shallots
Coriander leaves.

Method:-
– Wash the rice clean. Drained and then mix with the shredded carrots. Put aside.
– I use rice cooker to cook the rice, so on the electronic rice cooker and pour a little oil (enough to saute the sliced onions).
– Once oil is hot, add the sliced onions and saute for a few minutes till onions are soft.
– Add in cinnamon stick, star anise, cardamoms and blended ingredients A. Stir well.
– Next add in blended ingredients B. Fry all these till fragrant (tumis hingga garing atau terbit minyak)
– Then add in water and salt. Close the lid to leave it to boil. Check on it after 5 mins or more.
– Once it has started to boil, add in rice & carrots mixture, stir and close the lid again.
– Let the rice cooker do the rest of the cooking.
– When the rice cooker is done, open the lid and sprinkle the fried shallots and coriander leaves on top. It’s now ready to be serve.

Acar Timun

I love pickles especially cucumber pickles and for the Malays, we called our pickles “Acar”.

This recipe belongs to my late mother. Our family favourite. It’s spicy, crunchy and has sweet and sour taste to it.

ACAR TIMUN

Preparing the cucumbers
2-3 cucumbers
– wash and then cut into 3-4 pieces (each pieces about 2-3 inch lengthwise)
– Take each piece and cut the sides (we do not use the flesh of the cucumbers, only the crunchy part of it)
– Take each of the sides and slice the cucumbers lengthwise as shown in the picture below.
– Put the sliced cucumbers in a drainer.

Preparing the carrots
1 carrot
– skinned and washed
– cut into 3-4 pieces (each pieces about 2-3 inch lengthwise)
– then sliced thinly and each sliced cut further into matchsticks sizes.
– add to the cucumbers in the drainer.

Once done, sprinkle some salt over the cucumber and carrots. Mix well and leave it to drain the juices for about 1 hour or more and throw away the juice.

Ingredients for the sauce:
10 pieces of dried chillies – soak with hot water.
2 garlic
1 cm of ginger
2-3 big onions
(Blend all the ingredients above)

3-4 small onions – cut into 2
1 red chilli and 1 green chilli – deseed and cut through lengthwise (optional)
a little bit of tumeric powder
salt, sugar and vinegar to taste

Method:

– Fry the blended ingredients till fragrant.
– Then add in the small onions and red/green chillies
– Add a little bit of tumeric powder (roughly about 1/2 tsp)
– Stir for a while, then add sugar (about 4-5 tbsp cos the sauce must taste sweet and tangy from the vinegar)
– Add salt to taste
– Finally add the vinegar (I usually add about 3-4 tbsp first and then adjust accordingly to suit my taste)
– Mix well and once the taste is right, off the fire and let the sauce cool.
– Once the sauce has cool, then add the cucumbers and carrots. Mix well.

It’s now ready to serve with rice and other dishes.

Note: Any balance of the acar, you can keep it in the refrigerator. If you do not like the spiciness of this acar, you can still make it minus the dried chillies or reduce the chililes.

Ketam Berempah

There’s a certain satisfaction in being able to finish all my marketing and cooking by 10 am today 🙂 The power of waking up at dawn and not continuing with my sleep.  More time for me, yeayyy!! 🙂

Part of today’s menu is Ketam Berempah (Crabs cooked in spices).

The recipe is simple and frankly when it comes to crabs …. whatever way you choose to cook them, definitely delicious!

I usually avoid cooking crabs, not because I do not like them but rather for my eldest daughter’s sake.  She loves crab but unfortunately when she ate even a little of the flesh, there will be an allergy reaction.

So today, I told her that she could eat the crabs but unfortunately she has to stay indoor until the allergy reaction subsides. Her reaction to my comment was comical to say the least hahahahaa….

Ketam Berempah

4 crabs – clean and wash, cut into two (total 8 pieces)

Ingredients to be blended:
1 small bowl of dried chillies, (soaked till soften first)
5 onions
4 garlics
1 inch of ginger
1 inch of galangal
2 lemongrass
4 tbsp of coriander seeds

2 tbsp of tamarind juice
1 tsp of tumeric powder
salt and sugar to taste
oil for frying the blended paste

Method:
– Fry the blended ingredients till fragrant in a wok.
– Add the tumeric powder and tamarind juice. Stir a bit.
– Add salt and sugar to taste.
– Finally, add the crabs. Stir well and close the wok with a lid for about 5 min.
– Open the lid, and stir well again. Close the lid. Repeat till crabs are cooked.
– Once crabs are cooked, off fire. Ready to serve with rice and other dishes.

Opor Nangka

Today’s menu is Opor Nangka (Young Jackfruit in Coconut Gravy)

One of my favourite and which I used to enjoy eating cos my late mom used to cook it but after her death, I have not had a chance to eat it until now when I decided to try cooking it myself. I wish today’s menu was my mum’s though, I think her special talent in cooking can’t be replace. I missed her and her pampering me with all her wonderful dishes 😦

So this Opor Nangka is my first effort cooking it by myself. Alhamdulillah, it turns out ok … phew!!!!

I was kind of apprehensive cos I have this feeling it might not be good but as I said, Alhamdulillah, its taste good but not as good as my late mum’s of course.

So here is the recipe for Opor Nangka, another Malay dish. Today I used only the young jackfruit but you can add meat to the dish as well if you want. Frankly, when I do cooking sometimes I do not exactly follow the recipe, when it comes to dishes, I prefer just estimating the ingredients (main campak2 jer) so even though below is the recipe, its up to individual to add more of this or that to suit your taste 😉

Opor Nangka

Ingredients :
500 gm young jackfruit – cut into big cube (throw the spine of the fruit), wash clean and boil for awhile till soft. Drain and keep aside

1 small box of coconut milk (I used Santan kara)
1 tbsp kerisik (roasted coconut paste), can add more if you like
1/2 tbsp of ground assorted spices (see pic below)
2-3 pcs of kaffir lime leaves
1/4 cup of tamarind juice
water
salt and sugar to taste

Blended ingredients:
5 onions
4 garlics
1 inch of ginger
1 inch of galangal
2 lemongrass
1/2 inch fresh tumeric
5 pcs of dried chilli
2 candlenuts
1 tbsp of coriander seeds

Method:
– In a pot, add a bit of oil and fry the blended ingredients, fry till fragrant, add the kaffir lime leaves, the ground assorted spices and water (not too much just enough to cover the jackfruit, can always add more if needed later).

– Add in the jackfruits, and the kerisik. Stir well.

– Once the gravy has boiled, add the tamarind juice and coconut milk.

– Add sugar and salt to taste. Stir often and let it boil till gravy thickens a bit. Off the fire.

Serve with hot rice and other accompanying dishes of your choice 🙂

 

Bubur Lambuk Kampung Baru

Bubur Lambuk (which means mixed porridge in Malay)

This porridge is super nice and its our Malay traditional porridge that are usually cooked and served almost everyday during Ramadhan (fasting month) and special occasion. Today I cooked this porridge in conjunction with our Prophet’s s.a.w. birthday.

I actually had this recipe for more than 8 years ago yet only today I tried it out. The recipe was given to us by an elderly uncle who works at the orphanage in KL. We met and somehow as we chat, he offered to share with us this recipe.

Regarding the visit, a few of our halaqah sisters had planned the 3 days 2 nights to KL to visit the orphanage. This was many many years ago but the memory still lingers in me cos it was so memorable and an eye-opener. I still have a few pictures of our time together 😉

Anyway, back to the recipe, the original recipe given to us was for 10 kg of rice. Too much for a family, so what I did was to cut down the amount to suit my family. Simple to make yet very very tasty.

Since I like to have lentils and cashew nuts in my porridge, I added these though this two ingredients are not in the original recipe.

Bubur Lambuk Kampung Baru

3 cups of rice
1/2 kg of minced meat (I used chicken breast instead)
1 small packet of cashew nuts (this I add as an option)
2 tbsp of lentils (this I add as an option)
1 bowl of mixed vegetables
1 tbsp of dried prawns
1 tsp of ground black pepper
5 onions
6 garlics
2 inch ginger
1 tsp of fennel
1 tsp of cummin
2 tbsp of rempah soto (this is optional, I added this even though its not in the original recipe)
1 cinnamon stick
2 star anise
1 ladle full of coconut milk1 bowl of fried shallots
1 bowl of cut onion leaves plus chinese parsley – cut finely
Enough water for porridge
Oil
Salt to taste

Method: 

– Blend together the dried praws, onions, garlics, ginger, fennel, cummin and ground black pepper.

– In a big pot, pour half a cup of oil and fry the cinnamon stick and star anise for about 2 mins, then add the blended ingredients and the rempah soto (soto spice powder). Fry for about five minutes.

– Add water and let it boil first.

– Once it has boiled, add in the lentils and rice. Let it boil for about 15 minutes after which add the chicken/minced meat. Stir and leave it to continue to cook.

– Once the rice has swelled, add in the mixed vegetables and cashew nuts.

– Finally, when the porridge looks about ready, add in the onions leaves and chinese parsley, fried shallots and coconut milk.

– Add salt to taste. After another 10 minutes (keep stirring the porridge), off the fire and its ready to be served.

Note : Can garnish the porridge with sliced omelettes or any other garnish of your choice.

 

 

Botok-botok Tahu

A recipe shared by a friend. Yumss … I love the spices and taste of this Botok-botok Tahu.  This Javenese dish traditionally are made from fish, vegetables, grated coconut and wrapped in banana leaves. But this recipe is a new version using egg tofu and prawn or fish (up to your preference). This dish is best eaten with hot rice.

Botok-botok Tahu

Ingredients :
2 long egg tofu (mashed)
2 egg whites
1 cup of cleaned and chopped prawns (but I used tillapia fillet)
150 gm steamed grated coconut ( to be cooled down for about 15mins)
Tumeric leaves cut up into about 6cm square pieces. Remove the stalk.
Chopped kaffir lime leaves about 6 pieces

Blended ingredients:
3 shallots
1 cm fresh turmeric
2 cm galangal
1 stalk of lemongrass (not in the original recipe but I choose to add)
3 cloves garlic
5 green cili padi
1 red cili
Half cube Ikan bilis knorr cube (I used dried anchovies instead, about 1 tbsp)
Salt to taste

Note : Use a dry-blender if possible, or else drain the liquid before wrapping the paste.

Mix the blended ingredients with tofu, egg white, lime leaves and prawns.
Place few small pieces of turmeric leaves on a piece of banana leaf before putting the botok botok paste. Wrap to your preferred style. Steam for 30 minutes.

Thanks N.D. for sharing this wonderful recipe 🙂