After the time is done, vent the steam, open the lid and voila! Fall off the bone tender lamb shanks! All in 40 minutes! As for the sauce that’s still in the pot, thicken it with a flour slurry.
Plate with creamy butter homemade mashed potatoes. Divine!
Maggi is like a brand that is so bought over by a huge business entity. It is so synonymous with many products here -instant noodles, ketchup, chilli sauce…
And one popular dish that is favoured by late night supper goers is freshly fried from the wok fried instant noodles or Maggi goreng. Served with a sunny side up. It’s comforting supper food.
1. Take any random instant packet noodles and boil just the noodles 2. In a wok, fry minced garlic, ground dried chilli paste till the chilli paste is cooked. 3. Add oyster sauce and tomato ketchup. 4. If you used dried fried instant noodle, just rip out some of the seasoning and add them in too. 5. Add cubes chicken breasts 6. Add vegetables of choice. Here I used cabbage, Chye sim (Chinese greens) and carrots. 7. Add noodles and stir. 8. Add two tsp of chicken powder stock 9. Add kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce) Serve with fried egg and fried shallots. I added some more ketchup on my egg for added oomphness.
I think many many years ago I posted a recipe for strawberry shortcake which The Girl did when she was young.
Time flies and now she’s a full blown teen who is working so hard for her exams. OK, comparatively harder than her younger days. So as a reward, I decided to bake for her strawberry shortcake.
Except that since we’re on lockdown (Circuit Breaker) here, I didn’t have buttermilk. So I substituted with milk plus lemon juice and let the mixture sit. It worked! And I didn’t want to waste the only packet of whipping cream I have in the freezer (I intend to save that for tiramisu) so I served these scones (they are scones essentially ya) with clotted cream and Korean strawberries that had been macerated in 1tbsp of sugar.
I followed the proportions for the dry ingredients to the T. That’s 3 cups of plain flour, 2 tbsp of baking powder, 1/4 cup sugar, 1tsp salt.
Rub in 180g of cubes chilled butter till they resemble breadcrumbs Then add in the wet ingredients and pat pat pat the dough. I didn’t use all of the buttermilk mixture because I didn’t need to. I suspect the humidity level here is Super high so it really depends on where you’re at.Using a round pastry cutter, form circles. I got exactly ten for this batter! Perfect! Before putting in the oven, brush the tops with buttermilk and bake till golden. Cut in half and spread clotted cream and the macerated strawberries. For real strawberry shortcakes, use whipped cream. A Tea Time Treat!
When I first started this food blog ten years ago in 2010, it was to have a space to store all my recipes with pictures so my daughter and son could cook some of my favourite and eventually I’m hoping their favourite dishes too.
But work has always kept me from doing this up properly. Being a working mom is no joke. But the kids are now teens (or one of them is a tween) and I’m now officially under lockdown or over here it’s called a Circut Breaker (CB) (and for Westerners who can’t understand all the snickering and inside jokes whenever you see or hear CB uttered by us, go find out why 😂) I can finally cook more and record my recipes.
Today, I finally finally learned how to cook this classic Indonesian specialty that is much loved by Singapore Malays too. I don’t see this dish in Malaysia often. I wonder why. Maybe we Singaporeans are nearer to Indonesia? Anyway, I grew up eating this dish. And so did my husband’s family. Last weekend the mother in law cooked it and today, I saw my mom cook it.
Rawon is made using this poisonous black Nut called keluak. It is sold raw which the Peranakans cook whole in their dishes such as Ayam Buah Keluak (chicken in Keluak nut) it Babi Buah Keluak (pork in Keluak nut). The Malays/Javanese do not cook it whole.
Rawon is made from blending the processed safe to eat Keluak fruit with onions, ground dried chillies, garlic, and ginger. A thick paste is formed.
The Keluak nut in a blender with onions. Later, we added the ground chilli paste, garlic and ginger slices.
It’s easy with a pressure cooker.
Recipe (all approximations as with Malay/Asian cooking):
For the blended ingredients:
2-3 medium sized 🧅
2-3 cloves of garlic
4 huge tablespoons of blended dried chillies (they sell ready made ones here but you can blend them yourself. Dried red chillies boiled full soft. Remove seeds. Blend till fine)
About an inch of fresh ginger
A packet of food ready made buah Keluak (this I am very sure you cannot get outside our region. For sure. But it’s something new to learn if you’ve never heard of it before!)
Method
Fry the blended ingredients in oil till fragrant and some oil separates from the mixtyre
Add 2 pieces of crushed lemon grass and 3 slices of galangal
Add the cubes beef brisket
if using the pressure cooker, then cover and pressure cook for 30 min
Add two pieces of Assam gelugur (tamarind pieces) and one tablespoon of tamarind paste
Add fresh kaffir lime leaves and Bay leaves
If you’re using pressure cooker, there’ll be plenty of liquid. See if it’s sufficient for your liking.
Season again with salt
Some people add slices of Long beans and tomato wedges (like my mom). My MIL does not.
Add more water if you like more gravy and a thinner consistency
How to serve
Rawon here is served with other important accompaniments. They include:
Bergedil (fried potato patties)
Paru (marinated fried beef lungs)
Tempeh (fried tempeh)
Sambal belacan (fermented fish paste chilli)
Tahu (fried tofu)
Here is a plate of Rawon from when I visited my MIL. Her version and my mom’s are not far off at all. Both are tasty and delicious!
This is my plate from Mom’s version. I like it with loads of gravy. There’s the fried beef lung on the TOP left, the bergedil (potato patty) and tempeh. And a dolly of sambal belacan (fermented shrimp chilli ‘sauce’)
I’m keeping this recipe here so I can make it myself in future. The important thing is to buy the Keluak from a reliable seller who knows how to process this fruit well so it’s not that bitter but must importantly not poisonous!
Today’s simple dinner was inspired by sheer inertia. After staying home for several days cooking daily, I decided to create something simple yet delicious.
Saffron rice is really simple to make. This time round I used butter from an Indian store here. The butter is imported from India and it’s got a very strong flavour. Not good on bread or western type of cooking but for this rice, because it reminded me of ghee, I thought it made the rice more flavourful.
This is the brand of butter. I’ll never buy this again when this butter runs out because it’s just too strong for my daily use.
Add about 50g of butter together with a few swirls of olive oil into a saucepan. Add half a white onion finely chopped and a stick of cinnamon. Over low fire, cook the onions till very soft and translucent. In a separate small bowl, add a pinch of saffron to some milk. In the saucepan with the softened onions now, add about 500 ml of chicken stock (I used boxed ones) and two teaspoons of salt. Add the saffron milk mixture and stir well. Pour the liquid into two cups of washed basmati rice that have been sitting in a rice cooker. Close the rice cooker lid and press the ‘cook’ button. We Asians cannot live without a rice cooker! Hassle free staple every day!
For the za’atar chicken, marinade a small whole chicken with two tablespoons of za’atar spice blend, one whole lemon juice, salt and olive oil. Before roasting in the oven, marinade the chicken for a few hours.
And voila! The rice turned out perfect! It was flavourful and the chicken was tasty and juicy and crispy all at the same time. I served this with a side of mesclun greens and a bowl of coriander, tomato, green chilli and lemon juice chutney made from scratch. Just blend one fresh tomato (roast them over a flame or in a pan first), two green chillies (depending on how hot you like), a bunch of coriander and one whole lemon juice. Season with some salt.
The Occasional Cook 