Tetamu Malaya lagi....

At 8 pm, got a call from Papa who was at work, asking whether I received any call from his cousin Syed M. Papa said Syed M and family will be arriving at our house anytime tonight. So biasalah kan..supermum mana boleh tak hidang nasi kan, ni pulak sepupu nak datang anak beranak. So berjogetlah masak nasi briyani with Rogan Josh lamb curry, tandoori fried chicken and lettuce and tomato salad. At 10.30 pm after sosat 1/2 jam sampailah family Arab ni. Emm lupa lak nak amik gambo menu dinner kami dgn meke...


The next day brought them to Thinktank Millenium, Science Centre lah lebih kurang. Balik tu dropped them at Bullring for shopping. At 8 pm, visited by Juri and Kak Asmah. kak Asmah brought some kuey teow yg kow-kow.

After 2 nights in Birmingham, they continued their journey to West Midlands Safari Park then to Cardiff.

Madeehah and her second cousin Sh. Munirah.

Main ayo...
Madeehah nak jadi macam Mama ke cam Papa?

Kak Asmah and hubby, Juri temankan Made and Hanim makan kuey teow. Sharifah Mahani and Sharifah Maisarah, heheh..

All smiles.................

Tiramisu Birmingham

The ingredients.................

Oppss dah kena colek baru teringat nak ambik gambo............

Tiramisu Birmingham

1 can of ASDA ready made custard (ni promote ASDA ni)/ whipping cream

1 container of Mascarpone cheese (about 250g) or other types of cream cheese like Philadelphia

2 packets of Sponge fingers

1 tbs Cocoa powder(untuk sprinkle atas aje)

3 cawan air nescafe "o" pekat(or any instant coffee, tak payah buh gula cos sponge fingers tu dah manis)

Cara-cara:

1. Campur mascarpone cheese dengan ready made custard, pukul sehingga sebati dan tak berketul.

2. Celup sponge fingers dalam air nescafe dan susun dalam bekas/ mangkuk kaca.

3. Layer sponge fingers with custard and cheese mix.

4. Ulang langkah 2 dan 3 till finished.

5. Tapis cocoa powder on the top most layer.

6. Simpan semalaman dalam peti sejuk sebelum dihidangkan. Tak sampai semalaman pun sebab the kids asyik bukak fridge nak makan.

Emm sodapnya, kalori pun banyak woo.....Anyway an easy to prepare dessert.

Guests from UPM

Had been very busy these past 2 weeks, visited by 3 Malaysian families one after another, each family spent 2 nights at our place. Seronok sungguh...

The first couple was Dr. Z , my UPM Medic colleague with her sporting hubby. Since they love market place, Friday morning 24th April brought them to Bullring outdoor and indoor markets. Then Saturday to Birmingham Whole sale market. Bought a crate of Sea bass, half Salmon and a crate of prawns. Then shot off to Middleton Carboot. Nak bawak gi Stoke-on-Trent yang famous dgn pinggan mangkuk tu tak sempat. Saturday afternoon, brought Dr. Z to Majlis Ilmu Wanita Birmingham. Sampai2 Yasin dan tazkirah dah abis, hanya sempat tengok demo Tiramisu by Zatil. Lovely couple at Bullring shopping complex

Dr Z, Mama and Madeehah belakang Bullring.

Just to prove to you people that we were at Bullring. Can you see the angry bull????

Shopping for fruits and veges at outdoor market

Jangan tak caya Cik Kiah, buah sukon pun ada you...makanya petang tu our tea menu was fried sukon with sambal kicap and cili api..emm yummy...yang bosar tu ubi keladi ye cik kiah....ubi kayu pun ada..ubi badak pun ada.

Mama's first kek lapis

The idea of baking a 'kek lapis' had been toying in my mind for quite sometime. But the fact that it needs 25 eggs for a cake makes me shiver. Can't help but calculating the amount of cholesterol in it. Got this recipe from Kak Pah Sherry of Sheffield which uses only 7 eggs instead. So tried it yesterday and reduced the sugar. Alhamdulillah, my first attempt of baking a layered cake was fruitful. Brought some for my labmates, complimented by everybody including Paul, my lovely and ever supportive and understanding supervisor. Paul said after returning from his trip to Msia last 2 weeks. ' Mai, your country is so beautiful, nice people, nice food, Malaysian food is the best food ever. What are you doing here Mai?' Dalam hati jawab 'PhD, Paul'.

Kek Lapis Seroja

450 g low fat butter

150 g caster sugar

300 g superfine flour (I use MacDouglas sebab malas nak sieve)

7 eggs

1tsp baking powder

1 tsp sodium bicarbonate

1 tsp vanilla

4 tbs horlicks

1/2 can condensed milk

2 tbs cocoa powder

pandan flavour/ pandan juice

1 cup of mixed fruits (ikut suka)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C ( Top fire only). Beat butter and sugar till fluffy and add eggs one by one. Then add flour, horlicks, vanilla, condensed milk.

2. Divide the batter into 3- add cocoa powder in one, pandan flavour in another and one is plain.

3. Grease the cake tin. Start layering with 3 tbs of chocolate batter 1st. Bake for 3 minutes.

4. Layer with green batter, bake for 3 min, then layer with plain batter and sprinkle the mixed fruits and bake for 3 min (3 tbs each layer). Reduce the oven temp after 1 hr to avoid cake from becoming too dry.

5. Continue till all the batter is finished. Wrap the tin with an aluminium foil(optional) and bake for another 15 minutes (top and bottom fire). Done.

Lamb BBQ

Errgh..another 2 days of holidays left. Bercintanya nak masuk lab balik Monday ni. Keje bukan main banyak lagi menunggu. Got to present to the whole institute again in 6 months time and be assessed. Yikes! Thinking about it makes me feel so miserable. The agony of going into the viva again and get fired by the professors. Urgh.. Sapa soh buat PhD kan? Nasib la....


Tak pelah, in every dark cloud there must be a silver lining right? Anyhow masak tetap kena masak. Breakfast today nasi goreng daging. Weekend lunch or dinner is usually a family dinner awaited by everybody. Today Mama cooked lamb BBQ with black pepper sauce. Had forgotten to marinade the lamb last nite, so it turn out a bit tough but still tasty though.


After marinating the lamb, open up Mama's saloon. Cut Aiman's hair after googling up you tube on 'how to cut man's hair'. The video was very helpful.



Aiman, before the haircut.

The barber in action.

Jeng jeng jeng, after the haircut, cam tak de beza jer..

This the lamb BBQ recipe. First make the black pepper sauce.

Ingredients:

3 cloves of garlic

1 tsp fine black pepper

1 tsp coarse black pepper

1 tsp rosemary

1 tsp mustard

1 tsp plum sauce (optional)

1 tsp paprika (can add more for better colour and spicier flavour)

beef stock

3 tbs oyster sauce

1 tbs cornflour

Method:

1. Fry garlic till yellow and add beef stock. Add paprika, oyster sauce, black pepper, rosemary, mustard (add little by little and taste, as it is quite sour).

2. Add cornflour and boil for a few minutes. Done

Use half of this black pepper sauce to marinade the lamb. The remaining half is used as the sauce when serving.

Mama's lamb BBQ..emm yummy....last feast before starting on low carb diet with Aiman next week.

Everbody enjoying the lamb, Madeehah, missing in action.

The black pepper sauce on the stove still.

Nasi goreng daging for breakfast.

Laksa Penang

Day 3 of baby sitting, apa nak masak to feed 2 adults and 8 children (5 anak kandung, 3 anak angkat) today ye? Felt like eating laksa, so checked my dry cabinet and found a packet of rice vermicelli from Wing Yip Supermarket bought many months ago. Used three cans of tuna for the kuah.

Ni la laksa Mama.
Out of the packaging. Cantik je jam jerami padi style ikatan dia.
Terliur tak? Podas jang, berair idung nak perabis semangkuk ni tau.



Satu soalan cepu mas, biasanya orang kata buang yang keruh ambil yang jernih tapi apa dia kita buang yang jernih, ambil yang keruh? Haa..cepat2 siapa dapat jawab dapat hadiah....he..he....



So had breakfast with laksa penang la today, initially thought of making laksa kelate but thinking of triglyceride (TG) in the santan, cancel la plan A. Got to save the TG for lunch. Cooked chicken curry with fried chicken and sambal belacan berulamkan timun sebab sayur dah abis stok. Plus saki baki my frozen rendang daging prepared for Holland trip.

It was raining the whole morning till noon today, alhamdulillah by 3 pm, the rain finally stopped and out came the sunshine. So projek badminton and basketball lah, apalagi. Felt like duplicating myself into 4 as everybody wants Mama to play badminton with them, last2 as usual ada la yg merajuk tak puas hati. So what i did, 15 minutes each per person playing single with Mama. Just before Maisarah's turn to play, the shuttle decided to take a tour into Kate's garden, got to knock on her door to tell her to throw the shuttle back into our side.

Madeehah fell asleep on Amir's lap.

OOO som! To determine who's playing 1st with Mama and who's the last.

Had to carry Amir to take the shutle which landed on Kate's tree, unfortunately it dropped when Anas tickled his bum. Ha.ha...

Waiting for their turn to play badminton with Mama.
Madeehah feasting on her milk while waiting for Mama and Maisarah to finish the game.

After all the games, everybody felt hungry and started digging my freezer for whatever that's available. Anas found some roti canai and burger, fried 2 rotis and 1 burger for himself, one for Papa who just came back from work and Amir and Maisarah fried one each roti canai for themselves. After the roti canai, Anas was still hungry, had to dig out for the last few drops of kuah laksa for him. Kuatnya makan Mat Anas ni..jgn tembun cam Abang dah la..teruk Mama nak mendietkan dia.

Maisarah frying her roti canai/ paratha beli kat kedai Bangla.
Amir's turn pulak.

Weather forecast shows that it will be sunny tomorrow and Sunday, ada can la gi Carboot terbesar 30 lanes in Studley, wait ahhh....I tayang what I buy aaa...

Baby sitting lagi

Ari ni hari kedua baby sitting, yesterday evening, Shakir, Iffa's eldest boy fell down at my backyard and injured his knee quite badly. Got a rather deep laceration wound of about 3 cm in length and 0.8 cm in depth. Dalam tu..luckily I kept some bandage at home and managed to stop the bleeding by bandaging. Pakkal jer tak de jarum, local anasthesia and catgut, kalu tak Mama jahit je sendiri. Told Saiful to bring Shakir to Children's Hospital for suturing. Today he came at 11 am with a smile telling us that he received 6 sutures on his knee. Nasib baik bukan kat muka.

Menu ari ni breakfast mee goreng mamak jer...pas tu buat koleh kacang but without taik minyak sebab tak de santan kelapa ori, kalu tak ori tak jadi taik minyak dia, dah test dah.. Pas buat koleh kacang, sat with Aiman, drilling and grilling him for his SAT exam which is due on the 12th May 2009. By 12 noon, perut dah main muzik balik sebab ari nih hujan satu hari, so tersangatlah sejuknya.

Lunch, rice with labu air masak air with su hun, daging masak sambal with a tinge of kicap and telur goreng.

Dinner, made garlic Naan with lamb jalfrezi. As usual helped by Madeehah and Maisarah. Used Patak's Jalfrezi, sedap jugak. Actually rempah Jalfrezi ni boleh buat sendiri..saja jer try Patak punya as a bench mark, to make sure yg home made punya is of the same taste.

Madeehah sibuk mencanai Naan, kalau Tok Bak tengok ni he will say hey..tak makan la Tok Bak....Amir tengah santap burger yg dia goreng sendiri. My kids are all very independent I tell you...dah pandai goreng roti canai and burger sendiri Mr Amir kita ni...but supervised of course.

Maisarah applying some butter on the naan before putting them into the oven.

Naan, after 15-20 min of baking.

Garlic naan served with lamb Jalfrezi, lamb pun dah naik harga nak masuk summer ni..dulu 2.20 jer sekilo (kalau beli half sheep), now ni dah 3.50 sekilo. Half sheep beli last week cost me 40 pounds. Biasanya around 30 jer..hopefully tahan sebulan tu.

Mama's naan recipe

4 cups of flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup of warm milk

1 tbs of crushed garlic

chopped coriander

1 sachet of yeast

1 tbs of butter/ margarine

1 tsp of sugar

1 tsp of salt or secukup rasa

1 egg (optional)

Method.

1. Stir yeast in warm water, add sugar and salt and leave till it bubbles.

2. Palce the flour and baking powder in a bowl, make a well and add the yeast solution. Knead for 10-15 min. Add butter and 1 egg (optional).

3. Leave the dough in a warm place for 2 hours till it doubles its size.

4. Form 8 small balls and roll them into oval shaped naan. Pull them to make it oval.

5. Bake in the oven at 180 c for 15-20 min. Ready to serve with currys etc.

Dessert, moist choc cake on Amir's request, sejak dari semalam dok nak makan choc cake.

Easter Holidays

4-19 April 2009, Easter break for the kids and Mum, so off we went on Holland hols, nak tengok gambo boleh jalan2 kat Mr Dentease punya blog yer http://www.dentistandme.blogspot.com/
These tulips are for my blog readers yea...



Holland was beautiful, wish to go there again and tour Brussels and Germany as well. We were just unfortunate that our VW Sharan broke down in Holland, so tak sampailah ke Brussels, Ghent and Cologne, Germany. Well hope there will be next time, insyaAllah.

Somuffins, semalam kita masak nasi ayam, ari ni nasi kerabu pulak...ari ni i jadi baby sitter, Iffah Saiful belakang rumah tumpangkan anak2 sebab sekolah masih cuti minggu ni.

Nasi ayam Mama...

Menu ari ni..nasi kerabu with ayam goreng, sori nasinya lupa nak tayang..haha...


Dessert..puding jagung. Resepinya teramatlah sonang jang. Thank you Dr .Fuziah Coventry for the lovely and simple recipe.

Puding jagung

1 cawan tepung kastad
1 cawan jagung dlm tin
1 cawan air
1 cawan susu segar
1 1/2 cawan santan
4 sudu besar gula
secubit garam

Larutkan tepung kastad dgn air, then add milk,santan and jagung.Kacau atas api till pekat and meletup-letup. Tuang dalam mangkuk/ loyang and sejukkan.


Anas is the happiest person today as his basketball hoop ordered from the internet arrived safely in the early morning drizzle. So, taught them how to shoot and do some lay up today. Too bad the backyard isn't that big, well just have to make do with what we have, guys! It costs Mama and Papa quite a fortune though. Sigh....





Projek musin bunga..menyemai tulip bulbs bought at Keukenhof Garden, Holland. Letak kat dalam rumah dulu takut tiba2 frost pulak, habis tulipku...nauzubillah. Macam tanam bawang jer rupanya..


and semai pokok daun kesum supaya gulai asam pedas Mama ada umph... Thank you Jo Ayee Ireland for the petua nak jadikan kesum ni kesum gajah.. Nanti dah jadi kesum gajah kita tayang lagi.