Grilled Rendang Chicken.

Oh hi again! I've just finished grilling chicken (again)..hehe. Today's grilled chicken recipe is different from all the previous versions me and mom made. This time mom made a "rendang" grilled chicken. Yep, first we cooked them "rendang" style and then we grill it.

What's RENDANG? It a traditional dish usually cooked during Hari Raya or special event (such as weddings, kenduri, etc.) And this is my mom's easy version. My mom is the kind of woman who always comes up with a simpler easier version of any typical Malay dish.

Ok this is what Rendang is supposed to look like. Spicy. Yum!

BUT, instead of cooking the chicken through, we take them chicken out of the gravy and grill them! Like this...

And then they become this! OH!

Yes yes yes. IT IS SIMPLE, TRUST MY MOM.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients to blend together:

• 3 tablespoon of chili boh (a kind of smooth blended dried chili / takes about a handful of dried chilies)
• 3 large garlic
• 2 large onions
• 1 inch ginger
• 1 inch galanga (lengkuas in malay, its fine if you can't find it but it will taste slightly different)
• 1 tablespoon turmeric powder

Other Ingredients:

• 8 chicken drumsticks
• 5 lemongrass (beat them once or twice to flatten them)
• 2 turmeric leaf shredded (its fine if you can't find it but it will taste slightly different)
• 1 tablespoon KURMA spice powder (easily found here in Malaysia but elsewhere; try finding them in Asian specialty shops or those that carry Indians spices)
• juice of 5 calamansi (limau kasturi) / or key lime.
• 1 cup of water
• 1/2 tin of evaporated milk OR milk of 1 coconut
• salt to taste

NOW there is NO NEED FOR OIL. i repeat, NO NEED FOR OIL.

1. First, blend all the ingredient that needed blending (my mom usually already have pre-made blended chili boh mixed with garlic, onions and ginger ready in the fridge. PS: this recipe does not use my mom's pre-made mixed chili boh)
2. Toss in ALL INGREDIENTS in a preferably non-stick pan. Including the cleaned chicken.
3. Yes, you read that right, there was NO OIL involved and i did wrote TOSS ALL INGREDIENTS IN.
4. The liquid here isn't enough to fully cover the chickens, so you may have to keep moving the chicken about to cook them evenly.
5. Cook for at least half an hour and until the liquid thickens.
6. At this moment, you may just let the chicken rendang cook until the liquid thickens more and it will be a simple version of CHICKEN RENDANG and you may serve them as it is OR
7. At this moment, you may take out the 3/4 cooked chicken and grill them.
8. If you decide to grill, then the remaining liquid can be used as gravy to be served with the grilled chicken. (You may thicken it more or as is)

That's it! Enjoy!

Marshmallow Fondant?

Oh Hi!

11th day of Ramadhan today and i'm googling recipes of cakes, cookies and stuff. I'm eager to try out fondant / sugar paste making but sadly the ingredients are very hard to find here in Malaysia. Where can i get liquid glucose? or glycerin? and even corn syrup is hard to find....ugh. I don't want to to have to buy the ready made one (which i don't know elsewhere to get but from ICCA's at Damansara) cause i wanted to try to do it myself, plus it should be cheaper to do so, plus Damansara's a maze to me and i always get lost there....sigh T___T

So, i googled and googled and googled until my head spins.......

And found out about Marshmallow Fondant!

oh. my life is saved by the google fairy.

Found this lovely website >>> clockworklemon
and i'm going to try this out soon! hopefully i remember to snap pictures and stuff for posting on this blog...hehehe.. :p

bye for now <3

Beef Rice Noodle Soup

Bihun Sup Daging or Beef Rice Noodle Soup.

This is what i had for berbuka today. Yum. 

This is definitely one of my family's favorite rice noodle+soup. :) 

What's your family favorite soup?

What's Taro???

Have you had taro? how do you like your taro? do you even know what taro is???

so this is what taro is. often mistaken as yam but mind you, they are two very different kind.

most taro loving people like them in various ways such as in bread and buns, as garnishes, cooked with coconut milk, with rice or most famous, as desserts. but for my family, we like them plain and fried! :)

fried taro + sirap bandung :)

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FRIED TARO

taro

water

flour

salt to taste

1. slice the taro (french cut)

2. mix flour, salt and water according to your personal taste (i'm sure you're familiar with simple flour batter).

3. dip them taros in the batter.

4. fry em!

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SIRAP BANDUNG

1 part rose syrup to 4 part water

1 part milk or soy milk OR

1 table spoon of sweetened condensed milk (if you like more sweet)

you can even substitute the water for cream soda for fizziness

1. mix them all together according to your taste.

2. i like mine sweet so i usually use sweetened condensed milk instead of regular milk or soy.

3. best served chilled.

there you go, a very traditional "kampung-style" malay evening snack.

enjoy!

Cats and Caramels Are Awesome!

Here's something random for today's Thursday morning! I just finished cleaning the cat's litter and now they're out playing and climbing banana trees :)

this is Obel (snowbell), the first of four kittehs i have currently :)

and this is caramel coffee + pecan-something-something-bun from starbucks that i had weeks ago and is craving right about now.... T___T

that's it. hehehe. i love caramels. yum. 

i am fasting btw :p

Mamachops Papagrill Review!

Some time ago (not so long....July 14th..), our family celebrated Mom & Dad's Anniversary. it should be on 31st, end of this month..but since its Ramadhan month, we celebrated early.

so our restaurant of choice was THIS:

Mama Chops Papa Grill @ Giant Hypermarket Batu 9, Cheras Kajang.

there weren't many customers here. i'm not sure if its because the mall itself is new or of the restaurant lacks "welcoming" aura or whatever. anyways, me and dad surveyed it on the evening before coming with our family at night.

 everyone's so intent on what to choose except me :p

anyways, here's what we ordered and ate :)

(click pictures for larger view)

beef sirloin for me :D

the beef was quite nice, tender and the sauce was peppery good. nothing to brag about but overall it was good.
RM18.90
(don't understand how beef would be more expensive than lamb here)

mushroom chicken for mom.

the chicken was okay for my liking but the sauce for me was too simple.the mushroom was....wait, where is the mushroom????
RM16.90

lamb chop for bro.

i'm not a fan of lamb. but i think this was nice. sauce is virtually the same as mine.
RM16.90

bbq chicken for dad.

the chicken is okay but the sauce is like bbq sauce from a bottle....sad.
RM16.90

meat platter for nephew + niece.
various mix of meat, small lamb chop, beef steak, chicken chop, a hotdog and fries. great for those who wanted to try everything!
tastes just like other's but with pepper sauce.
RM25 (somewhat around this price)

beef stick with rice for sister-in-law.
wait, was this beef or lamb? i honestly forgot. i didn't taste this either...but from my sister-in-law's verdict that night, it was quite nice.
i honestly don't remember the price...but it's not above RM20 i'm sure..

oh this is my dad! say hi dad!
uhhh..well........

btw, uhmmm, thats our drink...
yeah.
pineapple assam boi, choco, hazelnut coffee.

fizzy lemon ice cream, raspberry esprit.

drinks mainly priced around RM6-15.

and these two angel is my neph (Hasbul) and niece (Alya)....

oh my. Alya was crying cause she just got her ears pierced. heee...she kept asking the whole time whether her ears were bleeding...(they weren't, but she's known to be quite the drama queen in our family...hehe)

and after the good meal, we had chocolates from the Ryverra's next door.
and my bro had a little massage too..... T___T

yep. that's it. overall, i'd give it 6/10, mainly cause the meat was cooked right, unlike some other places i went to where the meat was too chewy for my liking. and cause the serving was fast (i think that's because there were only like two other family than ours...and come to think of it, the major factor of this isn't just because this place is new, it's because Fullhouse is just next to it.... T__T

until next post, love <3

Grilled Chicken plus Sides.

Today's the 5th Ramadhan. Mom heard about my grilled chicken + steamed broccoli lunch combo from Tony Roma's and wanted a similar kind of berbuka dinner for the family. So I googled for some inspiration and came up with my own version.

What do you think? :)

Grilled chicken + steamed broccoli + mashed potato + garlic bread + mushroom soup + vanilla ice cream soda... All made from scratch...NO KIDDING! :)

Easy-peasy Recipes, Yayyy!

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1) GRILLED CHICKEN:

8 pieces of chicken thigh
1 1/2 cup of sour cream
some salt to taste
some black pepper to taste (i used 1 teaspoon of freshly crushed black peppers)
1 teaspoon of seasoning of your choice (i used a local vegetable based seasoning named Sudee)

1. Mix all ingredient in a zip-lock bag or a tupperware and put in the fridge. Preferably in the morning if you want to make this for dinner.
2. Grill the chicken on non-stick grilling pan. (Mine is Tefal's Thermo-Spot Grill Pan and highly recommended!)
3. Keep it on its side until cooked before turning the other side, best not to keep moving them.
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2) Steamed Broccoli:

as much broccoli as you want
water for steaming

1. Well, this is easy! Clean and cut broccoli and steam em!
2. If you don't have a steamer, boiling is okay too...But it can get too soggy.

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3) MASHED POTATO

4 fairly medium sized potatoes (any kind, but i used the russet ones which is not as smooth)
water for boiling
1 cup of whipping cream
2 tablespoon of butter
some salt to taste
some seasoning/herbs to taste (optional) (i didn't use any this time)

1. Boil potatoes to perfection (until your fork pierced through smoothly). Drain.
2. Warm butter and cream in the microwave (or on a double boiler).
3. Mash potatoes in the butter+cream mixture (and seasonings if you want) and mix mix mix until smooth.
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4) GARLIC BREAD

1 loaf of bread (i got mine from TESCO and its only RM1! no joking! see picture)
some butter (depends on how buttery you want the bread)
some garlic (depends on how garlicky you want the bread)

1. Grate garlic and set aside.
2. Slice the bread according to your preferences.
3. Spread butter on them.
4. Spread grated garlic over the butter.
5. Toast em in the oven (or like me, grill them on a grilling pan)
6. Eat. uhhhh...i mean, set aside in a airtight container until lunch/dinner time...
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5. MUSHROOM SOUP

2 1/2 cups of button mushrooms sliced (about 8 to 10)
4 cups water
1 1/2 chicken stock cubes
1/2 large onion - diced
1/2 whipping cream
1 teaspoon freshly crushed black peppers
2 tablespoon unsalted butter
2-3 tablespoon flour

1. Boil water with mushroom, onions and chicken cubes. After the mushrooms are cooked (telltale is the mushroom is now darker and soggy.
2. Let the soup cool a little, take out a few (2-3) and roughly chop them and blend the rest to bits in a blender machine. (Note: Make sure you cool them out a little 1st or you'll risk the hot vapor bursting)
3. In a nonstick pan with low heat, melt butter and mix in flour. (Use wooden spatula)
4. Pour in the blended mushrooms and mix well. Mix in black peppers and whipping cream and keep stirring until combined.
5. Salt to taste. Add in chopped mushrooms, stir and you're done!
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6. Vanilla Ice Cream Soda

cream soda (F&N all the way baby)
vanilla ice cream (trust me, Wall's is way creamier than Nestle's)

1. In a tall glass, put a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
2. Pour in the yummy cream soda.
3. DRINK IT!

THAT'S IT FOLK! A very "Western-lah-sangat" Dinner. Crazy-easy right? :)

Flashbacks?

Ok, I have tried food at various places before, had them photographed too. But I never posted any reviews what-so-ever before. Mainly cause I thought there were already reviews about them somewhere here in cyberspace.

But then again, they were other people's reviews....NOT MINE.

Recipes too.

Now, today, I thought, what the heck, I tried them, tasted them, cooked and baked them so I'm sure as hell should be posting them too. OLD or NEW, if I have the time (which I have tons of right now) I'm going to post them nonetheless. :)

Tony Roma's Lunch Value & IKEA's Most-Famous!

So, last Friday (July 20th - the day before Ramadhan), my boyfriend, me and a friend went to IKEA Damansara to get some juicy meatballs and to see The Dark Knight Rises at e-Curve. But since it was in the afternoon (about 12pm or so) the "canteen" was fully packed, more than usual. I think it's because tomorrow was Ramadhan, so everybody decided they wanted juicy meatballs too...

Anyways, we decided we wouldn't want to wait (cause our movie starts at 2pm) and headed to the many many restaurants just across the street. But as soon as we saw the Lunch Deal at Tony Roma's (well, actually since I saw the deal cause I've been dying to try it since like, ever) we quickly went in and got our table. We were quite dorky and very "kampung" cause we were "..oooh, ...aaah" inside and I'm sure everyone talked about how "kampung" we were. But I didn't care! Ha.ha.ha... (of course I do...)

Anyways here is the LUNCH VALUE menu:

DON'T BE FOOLED by the RM16.90 cause NOT ALL of them are that price. I think maybe 4-5 items is but they were good enough for me :)

View from our table to the bar and kitchen. We waited for about 15min for our food so it aint that bad I guess.. The free-flow drinks came first too. Me and my friend had Iced Lemon Tea and my BF had Mountain Dew. The drinks are inclusive of the Value Lunch. :)

OH GOSH! This is a VERY VERY BAD FOOD REVIEW isnt it? Cause I TOTALLY FORGOT to take the closeup of the FOOD! But instead, there we are camwhoring with our food! Ugh. Anyways, I had MOJO CHICKEN (RM16.90), my BF had BBQ CHICKEN (RM16.90) and my friend had CHICKEN CAPRESE PASTA (RM24.90).

Now let me tell you about the portion and what is it we ate; my MOJO CHICKEN consist of a decent sized chicken breast, a handful of steamed brocolli and pineapple salsa (both which i LOVE!) and (i think) a cup of rice (i resembled our very own nasi minyak). My BF's BBQ CHICKEN consist of a decent sized chicken leg, a handful of fries and some coleslaw. Meanwhile........our lucky friend (notice the big smile!) meal consist of LARGE serving of pasta in tomato sauce and a decent sized chicken breast. (I was jealous, next time I am totally having the pasta!)

OH, then we went and watched TDKR, which in our opinion, was AWESOME!

...after the movie, we sneaked to see if IKEA's "canteen" is still packed and it was..but not as crowded. SO we decided we would get some snacks.

Yeah, SNACKS....yum. Me and le BF had Apple Pie, Marble Cheesecake and a-i-forgot-its-name-but-very-foreign-i'm-sure "tart". And ofcourse, our friend couldn't resist but to have the oh-so-yummeh-and-juicy IKEA's famous meatballs :)

Our wallet hated us that day (well, mine didn't..since my BF paid for the food :p)..

But trust me, IT WAS WORTH IT!

Until next post, love :)

Introduction? Yesss!

Hi! This is my 100th blogging tryout...(jk). but it's probably like the 10th or 11th. I have often failed to keep up with them, neglected them and so on..I have tried most blogging platform there is and always fall back to the trusty blogger :)

Anyhow, this blog is nothing like my previous blogs where I usually post nonsensical things and random thoughts. Well, I'd probably still post random things every now and then...its inevitable, but mostly (I HOPE!) this blog will consist of RECIPES and REVIEWS of FOOD! Like my blog title says, I'm a Certified OMNOMNOMNIVOR :p

Ok ok, enough with the introductions. I'm going to start posting reviews now of my latest food excapade! And since I'm actually in between cooking right now, I will probably post the recipes for it too later on!

Til my next post, LOVE!