Easy Peasy Kuah Kacang
Ingredients:
1 cup roasted peanuts (ground to your preferred texture)
5-8 shallots
2-3 garlic pips
5-10 dried chillies (boiled to rehydrate and soften)
1 - 2 cups coconut milk (depends on how creamy and how thick you want the sauce to be)
3-4 tablespoons palm sugar (can be substituted with brown sugar or combination of brown sugar and mollasses)
a few tablespoons of oil for sauteing
salt to taste
one stalk lemongrass (optional, but makes a world of a difference)
optional: 3 shallots and one garlic, thinly sliced and fried till brown, crispy and fragrant)
Method:
Ground shallots, garlic and dried chillies to a fine paste.
Saute paste in oil till fragrant and a thin film of oil rises to the top.
Add in the coconut milk, ground peanuts and palm sugar. If using lemongrass, break with the back of a knife and add to pot.
Bring to a boil and let simmer, stirring ocassionally, till a thin film of oil form on the surface. Taste and season to your liking.
Optional : before serving, sprinkle crispy fried shallots and garlic on top
Easy Peasy Almond Cookies
Ingredients:
3/4 cup (150g) butter @room temperature
1 egg yolk
1/3 cup powdered or fine sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond essence
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup ground almonds
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg white, slightly beaten, for dipping
crushed almonds for decoration
Method:
Cream butter, sugar, egg yolk and almond essence.
Add flour, ground almonds and salt, mix well.
Form dough into a ball, wrap in saran wrap (plastic sheet) and chill for 1 hour.
Take spoonfulls of dough and form into quarter (20sen) sized thick discs, dip in egg whites and roll in crushed almonds.
Place on ungreased baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes at 175deg C or 375degF until golden.
Makes about 5 dozen.
Last Friday, for the first time since I've spent Ramadhan here, we went for an iftar buffet at a hotel in Kh0bar.
When we were living in Malaysia, we go to an iftar buffet at least once during the month of ramadhan, either because Sm1th sponsors one, or we are invited by one of the other service companies. It is almost always fun, with a myriad of choices of food for breaking our fasts, main dishes for dinner and desserts to cleanse our palates with. The larger buffets would have all sorts of traditional malay fare from all sorts of noodles cooked in all sorts of ways and all sorts of rice cooked in all sorts of ways and all sorts of meats cooked in all sorts of ways.
The one we had on Friday was at Le Gulf Mer1dian, which is one of the more expensive hotels in Kh0bar. The price per person was much much more expensive than in KL. I think if I paid the same amount of money in KL, I would be dining in Carc0sa, or Ist4na. The banquet room was really nice. Each table had one of those arabesque lamps, a jug of zam-zam water, a pot of mint tea, a plate of dates, a plate of dried apricots, and decorated with a vase filled with white orchids.(sorry, they didnt allow taking pictures) Each party was given their own table, even if you're just a party of one (they give you a small table of course), I guess because the ar@bs really like their privacy. Fortunately though, there were no enclosed booths :).
I was a little dissapointed by the buffet spread though. The appetizer section had several types of hummous, tahinis and dips, salads, tabouleh , fried eggplants, smoked salmon, poached salmon and shrimp cocktail, but .. meh.. maybe I was haunted by the food in Malaysian buffets, so I wasnt really impressed (but I still ate a lot of smoked salmon! muahahaha) I kept yearning for mee rebus or something. The dinner buffet spread had Laham Mandi (lamb cooked in rice), which was yummy, several choices of grilled meat dishes and the obligatory breads and samosas.
What redeemed this buffet offering was the dessert selection. Oh. My. God. You would have gained 5 kilos just by looking at it. Lots of decadent cheesecakes, syrup laden pastries, cream smothered khunafa porridge thingy, cream filled puffs, and puddings in chocolate, custard or fruity flavours. The piece de resistance were 2 fondue fountains, one with white and the other with dark, chocolate. I had skewers of peaches and strawberries and marshmallows drenched in chocolate. The kids had a field day with the bask1n-robbins ice cream.
Towards the end of the iftar, they had a lucky draw with gifts sponsored by businesses around kh0bar. That is quite different from what we usually have in M@laysia, and it was kinda fun. The kids were dissapointed that we didnt win anything though :)
All in all, I thought the buffet was okay. Nothing much compared to those offered in Malaysia though ... tee hee
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Sakit hati tengok:
1. Satu family bukan agama kita ni, datang iftar buffet, tapi belum waktu berbuka lagi, diorang dah ambik makanan dan makan! Bukan nya kita terliur pun, tapi sungguh tak menghormati tetamu lain. At least tunggu lah azan sekejap sebelum makan. Even my kids yang tak puasa pun tunggu sampai bunyi azan sebelum diorang jamah makanan diorang depan tetamu lain yang berpuasa. Taufik cakap "Patutlah orang marah sangat sampai nak tembak..."
2. Orang yang ambik makanan bertimbun-timbun dalam pinggan macam tak makan sebulan, lepas tu tak habiskan, pastu pegi ambik makanan lain pulak! Pastu waiters pun kenalah ambik pinggan diorang and makanan tu, terbuang ajelah nampaknya... Sungguh membazir! (Tapi my kids pun gitu sebenarnya, and guess who yang selalu end up habiskan makanan diorang?? Mak jugerrrkkkkkk.... how to kurus liddat?)
3. Budak-budak yang ambik cawan and tadah chocolate at the fondue fountain. I jealous sebenarnya.. nak buat jugak, tapi malu.. heh heh.
I wanted to post this earlier, but Ihsan wanted Nasi Lemak for his birthday dinner, so I spent most of the morning splitting ikan bilis (please remind me to buy ready-split ikan bilis next time), which took longer than usual because I had to entertain Izani in-between. In the afternoon I had to make Panna Cotta (again) and then prepare for iftar.
Aaanyways.
If there's one thing these two men in my life have, it's their common passion for gardening/farming. When we were at our orchard in Alor Setar, Kedah the last time we went back to Malaysia, Taufik didnt run out of things to do for even a minute. Ihsan would follow close behind him to ask "What can I do?", and Taufik would oblige him.
Below is a picture of them cutting down old banana trees and trimming the leaves off the ones that still have not bear fruit. I was shocked at first, that Taufik would let Ihsan handle a handsaw, but I watched Ihsan use it and was assured of his ability to handle one with strength and safety. He even had that little cowboy hat to protect his head from the sun! :) He is truly growing up so fast.
hard at work, but enjoying themselves
Taufik .. *sigh*, what else can I gush about him? He's filling out a bit (maybe due to my constant cooking? ;) ) but I still think he looks hot. I think he has reached most of the goals he had set for himself when he was younger. I am really proud of him, and he may have a few chinks here and there, but I think I've known and loved him long enough to see them as charming rather than annoying.
Happy 36th Birthday, Taufik, and Happy 8th Birthday, Ihsan!