Last Wednesday there was a scheduled power interruption in my compound, so I decided to make it a day out with the kids. We went to the bookstore at the mall and I found this widely-promoted cookbook on the shelves. My kids were ecstatic and insisted I buy it coz they saw it on Oprah and was drooling when Oprah raved about how delicious the brownie was.
I looked at the price and was suprised that after currency conversion, it was cheaper than I thought it would be. Needless to say, I was sold and bought the book.
Leafing through it while eating Fish and Chips for lunch with the kids, I wondered how I could use this newly discovered knowledge of hiding pureed vegetables into the dishes that I cook every day (read:Malay food), but this made me realize that hiding pureed vegetables is not rally a novel idea. We Malays have actually been doing it for ages!
Thin about all of the bingkas (malay cakes) you've ever had - bingka keledek, bingka ubi, bingka labu, bingka pisang.. arent they pureed vegetables made into a dense cake?
Cekodok is simply mashed banana fritters.
The Johoreans have been adding pureeed sweet potatoes in the gravy for their mee rebus (noodles with sweet+spicy gravy) for ages.
The book's recipe for donuts with pureed sweet potatoes reminded me of Cucur Keria (look for my recipe under Culinary Jam). And we take the mashed sweet potato donut a step further - by turning it into a spicy prawn filled ball (cucur badak).
And Vade and Masalodeh - are simply chickpeas and lentils mashed and made into savoury cakes - a very good way to subtitute meaty nuggets.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to put down Mrs Se1nfeld, or her efforts. I'm sure I'll be trying our her recipes, and I'm sure I'll love it.
I'm just saying, maybe we should come up with a melayu version of this lah.
Like how to hide sayur in Ayam Masak Merah.
Mesti boleh buat punya lah...
Siapa nak join? Kita kasi tajuk .. "Sedap tapi Tipu", boleh?
ha ha.
Salam Madam elisa,
ReplyDeleteJust to let you know that I am doing another library project. Now in Machang, Kelantan. Do let me know if you want to help.
Dah blog about it.
we've known about this for ages but not them. It's totally new for them because when they say vege, its actually salad with dressing and bukan cucur kodok.. hehehe..
ReplyDeleteSalam Elisa. Lama tak komen tapi baca tak tinggal. Biasa la tu kadang2 terkena tapi tabik la, rajin betul Lisa masak. Saya nak masak seminggu sekalipun susah...hemm alasan sibuk dan penat tu biasa la kan. Jadik, bila baca kat blog elisa ni yang penuh dengan pelbagai menu dan resipi, rasa seronok je nak masak.. Tapi boleh kata, tinggal angan2 je la..hehehe.. Salam
ReplyDeleteLet's take the idea one step further - if vegetables are vile, then what of medicine? Here is a recipe from mokciknab (the real one), which followed the deceptively delicious principle:
ReplyDeleteTake one panadol (may be substituted with other foul-tasting pill), sumbat inside half a banana, and swallow.
Genius!
Iskandar - oh yeah, I read! Tengah pikiag camner nak buat. Prolly got to ask my financial advisor in Malaysia to transfer funds. Tungguuu...
ReplyDeleteneeza - tapi bila pikir about all the frying that we do, bagus jugak recipes nih.. kurang minyak/lemak :)
nad - setiap kejayaan bermula dengan angan-angan. Teruskan Usaha Anda! Nad Boleh! :D
KakLong - hey.. back from the depths Menteng.. :) I tried that trick with Ilham the other day (when he had to take antibiotics for the cut on his head), but he still had trouble swallowing. :P