143. Happy Birthday Malaysia

It is Malaysia's 52nd Independence Day today. I am proud to be a Malaysian. And what is more facinating for me, it is to be able to see the changes in developements that comes with it. I love this country. I would like to see justice and prosperity prevail in this beautiful land that we called Malaysia.

Merdeka Malaysia! Happy 52nd Birthday to You!

Cheerio.

142. Bubur Asyura

Tired after the outing on Saturday, today I stayed home. Aya did not have time to cook this morning as she was late waking up for work. So I decided to just cook 'Bubur Asyura'. It is simple and I have some leftover rice from yesterday which I have put in the fridge the night before. I decided not to waste them.

My simple 'Bubur Asyura' served with salted quail's egg and some ketchup in it.


'Bubur Asyura' is a simple 'Bubur Nasi' (rice porridge) but you add some more ingredients to it.
Many people have their own ways of cooking this 'Bubur' and I am sure they are as delicious or maybe more. So I am showing the way it is cooked the way my grandmother taught me and I'll keep my finger crossed :)

Cook 2 cups of rice in a pot of water until it becomes a porridge form.

Add some finely sliced ginger


Add some finely sliced garlic


Throw in some rempah, like 'Bunga Lawang', 'Cengkih', 'Buah Pelaga', a bit of 'Kayu Manis' in


Add in a packet of coconut milk


Add 1 packet of 'Supreme Minced Meat'


When the meat is cooked and porridge well mixed, add in salt and aji to taste.

Besides salted quail eggs, sometimes I cooked thinly sliced salted vegetable with eggs to eat with this 'Bubur Asyura'.

Enjoy your day.

Cheerio.

141. Seberkas Pasar Ramadhan

The 'Pasar Ramadhan' at Seberkas roundabout has lots of things and items to offer. I noticed they are more cleaner and much to my surprise this year the sellers at the stalls have put large banners to promote the food and things or items they are selling. This is good, easier for the buyers to know where the items come from and what are the names of the food they are buying and how much.

These are 'Kuih Lapis Sarawak' a very popular kind for the coming festive season 'Hari Raya Puasa'. I like to read the names of the kuih and asked the person who sells, what the kuih are made of, for example there is this cute 'Swiss Roll Kek' it has some taste of blueberry and pandan in it, I was told. Many more which I really cannot remember their names :)



































Many types of 'Dodol', This is 'Dodol Labu' and 'Dodol Kacang Merah'.


















At one end, clothes like ready made 'Baju Kurung' of different sizes and affordable prices are on sale too. This is very convenient.


















These are for those who wear 'Tudong' (like myself) and are called 'Siti Nurhaliza's Tudong' (after our Malaysian artist and singer).


















For the ladies who are crazy about costume jewelleries you can find them here too.


















Now, I've never eaten this. It is 'Char kuey' the lady said. So curious to find out how it taste I bought one 'tapau'. It was looking good and tempting when it was hot and being fried. Unfortunately, when it was 'sungkai time' it has got cold and not too nice. But it was a great experience to taste it.




















I stopped by at a cousin's stall who is selling 'Murtabak' and 'Roti Canai'.


















'Murtabak Daging' cooking on the hot plate.


















These, down here, are 2 types of chinese kuih that I like to eat, and these are made by a converted Chinese lady who married a Malay man, En Latip, so she was the one who made them.

I am not sure (correct me if I am wrong :) but I think the red ones are called 'Kuih Koci' and the one wrapped by the special leaves is called 'Kuih Chang'. Inside this 'Kuih Chang' is some grounded peanuts and some chicken meat.

Kuih Chang & Kuih Koci.







































A rare dish, this is 'Umai Obor-Obor' (Jellyfish)


















Seberkas Pasar Ramadhan was packed with crowds of people towards evening and barely space to walk. Traffic was heavy due to people coming and going home.

It was a little after 6pm when I reached home.

Cheerio.

140. Best Place

This morning I have this idea of putting the 3 vases and the 2 candy jars that my helper washed yesterday on top of my new large refrigerator.

Look!


What do you think? I thought the 2 colours blue and red (the candy jars) will just fit in with the kitchen colours later. My kitchen has red and white laced curtains and red and white satin tablecloth for the 2 kitchen tables. I thought that's the best place to put them. I am pleased.

Cheerio.

139. How...

Today my weekly helper came to help me clean the house a bit. I am grateful I can get some help from her these days. I need her to clean those part of the house or things that I don't have time to clean them myself. I've told her just now that the festive season 'Hari Raya Puasa' is coming near I will need her to come to the house twice a week instead of once a week.

Hmm..this year's Hari Raya will be a bit different, in the way that in the past years, the cakes & biscuits will be all arrayed in my decorative trays and placed on the sitting room tables. Not this year. I think that would be impossible to do the same thing again. With my grandson Alif now a year and 4 months old and walking, I suppose nothing can be placed on the tables anymore lol...

I was at this moment thinking of how to serve and place the cakes and biscuits without Alif disturbing them. Do give me a clue how if you have any idea, he he... I did think of putting a high table nearby but that would cram up space in the sitting room. Anyway, let me think about this again later :)

I've started to get out things like vases and festive bowls for my helper to clean. There'll be more to clean but I'd like her to do it bit by bit.

Down here were some of the old vases that I bought 3 years ago which I want to use to redecorate some parts of the house but just do not know how. The problem too was they are blue in colour whereby this year's theme of my sitting room decor is the same like last year, which was brown. As for my kitchen I've decorated it with maroon and white laced curtains followed with the same red and white satin tablecloth for the 2 kitchen tables. And it looks like this year it will be the same colour as well.


Almost time for 'sungkai time' I suddenly crave for fried ikan pusu or 'fried anchovies'.
So I made some! It was as a side dish, I like eating it with hot rice.


And 'fried ikan pusu' has plenty of protein.

Cheerio.

138. Flowers

My favourite flowers


 

 

 

My favourite creeping plant
 

Have a nice day.

Cheerio.

137. Bubur Pedas

'Bubur Pedas' is a favourite dish during fasting month in my household. And my children likes best when I make it. I am not a good cook but I took the initiative to learn how to cook this dish from my aunty with whom I lived with when I was young. I am sure others have their own ways of cooking this dish but this is how I cooked it.

I bought 2 packets of the 'rempah' of the 'bubur pedas'. There will be lots selling in the 'Tamu Muhibbah' during the fasting month. Today I bought mine at the old 'Tamu Muhibbah' and these packets are made by 'Norisa Mohamad, Lot158, Kampung Lereng Bukit, Jalan Pujut Miri'. I bought these packets because they smells more of the 'rempah' in them. Each packet cost RM2.50.


'Rempah Bubur Pedas' RM2.50 each


In hot cooking oil in a pot, saute pounded ingredients of 3 garlic, 3 red onions and some chilli paste (self made). The chilli paste will be according to your taste, the more you put the more 'pedas' the 'bubur' will be. I like mine more so it will be a bit hotter.
Once done, add at first some water and pour in the 'rempah bubur pedas'. Let the ingredients boils in low fire for a while. This is to allow the 'rempah bubur pedas' to really gets thicken in the boiled water. Only then I would add the ready slices ingredients one by one according to their hardness to get cooked.


Add in 2 chopped chicken wings


And 3 medium sized sliced cube potatoes


Mix this packet of powdered coconut milk with half cup of water and add into the boiled ingredients


On the left is a packet of young corns (RM2 perpacket) & a knot of 'daun kunyit' (young tamarind leaves - RM1) both items are sliced very thinly. Add these too.


Add in these thinly cut long beans (1 ikat - RM2)



Now these 2 items down here can be bought altogether in 1 whole packet. I called it 'sayur campur'. It contained dry items like dry bean curd, dry mushrooms, dry tanghoon, dry pucuk pisang. These at first are soaked in water and later sliced thinly. And also added in as well.




Lastly add in half a kilo of skinned prawns.


Add salt and aji to taste.

I was surprise after adding some many ingredients the end result was I got almost a half fulled pot of 'bubur pedas' :)


My share of 'bubur pedas!


Instead of the chopped chicken wings, I could have substitute with minced meat but since we have had 'curried meat' the day before I thought let's try chicken wings instead.


'Selamat Bersungkai!'

Cheerio.