337. A Happy Birthday

My children asked me,' Ma, what shall we do on Pa's birthday?'. I answered,' He likes to eat at SCR (Singapore Chicken Rice) Restaurant, so we invite him to eat there'. I know hubby didn't like sitting in big expensive restaurants where we have to be on guard on our eating ethics, so I suggested this moderate affordable eating place. Plus, if we go out he loves eating SCR.

Mak Isah feels this post is a little bit personal than the rest, nevertheless Mak Isah still wants to share...so bear with Mak Isah ok :))


Aya & Noormy took the time to buy a birthday cake for their dad




'Baca doa' & singing a birthday song, wishing a 'Wish' & blowing the candle




Makan Time :)







'Singapore Chicken Rice'



The Chicken that goes with each plate of rice



Thai Sauced Bean Curd



Chicken Nuggets



Seafood Baby Kailan



One for the Album, Zu and Alif



My 4 'Jewels' :)



My Doted Grandson :)



Thank You for Sharing!


Cheerio.

336. Kerabu Nenas

Apart from Durian, my next favorite local fruit is Pineapple. I could eat it everyday.

I eat it raw, peeled and cooled from the fridge. I cooked it with my ikan 'Asam Pedas'. I cooked it with ikan 'Salai', make chutney or make it into something simple like this 'Kerabu Nenas'.


Kerabu Nenas



To prepare, it's very simple :-

Peeled the skin, cut away all the 'mata' of a moderate sized ripe pineapple.

Chop and cut into small slices.

Put aside.

Ground 3 red chillies and 7 cili padi (very hot small red chillies).

Add in 2 tablespoon belacan (shrimp paste).

Add in 2 teaspoon sugar.

Half a cup of anchovies (ground lightly).

Mix all these grounded ingredients into the cut pineapple.

Add a bit of salt to taste.

Cool in the fridge.

Eat as a side dish with rice or by itself.



Cheerio.

335. Sneak Peek

Okeyyy...a 'sneak peek' into my kitchen during 'Hari Raya' and following the 'Laksa Sarawak' that I cooked during 'Hari Raya' :p

I like my kitchen to be spacey and not have too many furniture around. I find it easier to move and walk around.

This first picture is my kitchen area, a dining table with chairs, near it, a sink with a mirror above it to wash our hands and further up are my natural gas stove as well as oven. I have 2 exit doors from there, one door to my right and another door to my left.

And that's Zu helping me peeled up some eggs for my 'Laksa Sarawak' he he...




This is the window near my dining table. You can also see my black oven and microwave oven there :)


That's a little bit of views of my kitchen. You can compare these pictures to my last year's Hari Raya' kitchen pictures (click on kitchen pictures) if you like :)

This year's theme I still chose brown, mixing with white and red (more of maroon) color for the kitchen and my living room. I used simple, cheap, affordable but comfortable furniture and stuffs. It was not a total makeover but just a little spruce up on my part. Things are too expensive nowadays, isn't it? :)

Only my curtains are new this year (of course they will be changed to the previous year's set) once Hari Raya is over so these new curtains can be re used for next year's Hari Raya. I only changed to new curtains after 2 years. Do you do the same thing? :)

My maroon curtain with brown teardrop patches design on it.


Actually this is a space for Alif (my grandson) or for any visitors who has children to sit around. I put no table here, just stools and a tv in front. So, while the adults ate and talked, their children can sit here and watch cartoons.




It looks like this :)



And on top of the tv, I placed some goodies for the children to bring home.



So, on the right, of the tv space, is this sitting room, for the adults to sit of course. As you can see, the curtained door in the middle, is to my kitchen earlier on.




Remember my thrifty buy of photograph frames last year? I placed them here, adding some more family pictures to it... right next to my old antique desktop, near the door to my kitchen.



Mak Isah feels kinda proud of my humble kitchen and living room. I am sure you are proud of yours too!

Once again, thankss for joining in the tour :)


Cheerio.

334. Brisk Walking again

With all the rich food during Hari Raya, I kind of feel bloated and uncomfortable so I decided to resume my exercise routine again - briskwalking at Cityfan ( my usual exercise place). I went last Thursday and yesterday, Saturday. Today I am off and felt much better :)

Miri Cityfan is a nice place to brisk walk in the evenings. Others come here to jog or just walk with families and children.
It is called Cityfan because it is a unique fan shaped (when viewed from the air) urban civic park. It is a safe place to exercise and walk because there are a number of security guards with trained dogs around the place.

Some of the settings one can see at Miri Cityfan :-

This is where I brisk walked and some people jogged or just walked.



The pathways runs under shady big trees near the ponds





Children busy feeding fishes in the pond


Or you can just sit down and have a chat or eat titbits where you can buy at nearby stalls


This is on the other side of the pathway. In the middle, below there is a flat platform. This is usually used for stage shows or concerts.
Children enjoyed playing there too


This is one side of the above picture. Just imagine that the pathway for my briskwalking goes in a large square shape.



And for someone as old as me, I can do 4 rounds of brisk walking non-stop LOL...

I feel much better already :p


Cheerio.

333. What Mak Isah have for this Hari Raya...

Beside 'Satay Gravy' to eat with 'Kelupis' (steamed glutinous rice cooked with coconut milk wrapped with 'daun nyirik') , I also made 'Umai' (click here to find out how). This is a favorite dish among my family and one of my son's friend, actually a Chinese, requested me to make him this when he comes visiting on Hari Raya!


My Umai Ikan Yu



And then there was 'Laksa Sarawak' (click here to find out how) which I prepared each day until on the 4th day! This was also on my children's friends' request ha ha...imagine, they said they want to come and eat my 'Laksa'! But I like...I cooked and they love to eat :) And my children loves it too, so I didn't mind as I find it fun to see people enjoying the food I cooked.

My Laksa Sarawak gravy still boiling on the fire



How I served my Laksa?

I prepared all the condiments in a large tray like below here...Now once a year my guests have the liberty to enter my kitchen and actually sat at my dinner table to eat. So they take their own plate and put all these condiments on it and go to my boiling Laksa gravy on the fire and ladle the amount of gravy onto their laksa condiments! So if you come to visit me on Hari Raya, you will get the same treatment too :)

Condiments for Laksa Sarawak




A bowl of prepared Laksa Sarawak


Laksa Sarawak was my main course. If you don't feel like eating it, there were also other dishes that I served, like 'Curry Chicken', 'Tomato Sauced Chicken', 'Taufu Soup', 'Ginger Beef' with white rice.

'Tomato Sauced Chicken' was popular, I think most of my guests and my children like this dish, until we have to cook it for 2 executive days he he...

Anyway, there were cakes, biscuits and other goodies on the sitting room table too...


My 3rd daughter Aya specilised making the cakes, only the 'Dodol Durian' and 'Dodol Kacang Merah' I bought. Just for little info, from top left : 'Lapis Kandos Cheese', 'Kek Pandan', 'Kek Pisang'. From bottom left : 'Lapis Peppermint', 'Kek Batik', and next to the 'Dodol' was 'Lapis Cranberries'.



Besides the goodies I love putting the Chinese Sweet Tangerine oranges on the table :)
As you can see besides titbits, I have only 4 types of biscuits this year :) Right top : 'Kuih Makmor' (Mak Isah's favorite), 'Rock Biscuits', ' Almond Cookies' (the red ones) and 'Pineapple Tart'.



That was more or less what I have on the table for this Hari Raya. All in all, it was fun and good to mix with friends and be with my family.

Mak Isah hopes you all had enjoyed your this year Hari Raya Aidil Fitri. Insyallah... we will meet again next year Hari Raya :)

Have Fun & have a good holiday today!


Cheerio.

332. Homemade Satay Gravy

I know... I should be posting pictures taken during this 'Hari Raya' but I couldn't resist posting this 'Satay Gravy Recipe' of mine first. It's special because this Satay recipe was 'founded' by hubby and me, through constant practice of course. Constant practice means we both keep on trying and trying to cook a 'Satay Recipe' that suited our taste at last. One that the children would say 'nothing can compare to our dad and mom's Satay gravy' LOL...

And it's also special because this Hari Raya's 'Satay Gravy' hubby had helped me in the kitchen with it :p

Unlike other dishes like 'Chicken Curry' which we cooked in the early morning of Hari Raya, we cooked our Satay gravy one day before, and when cooled I will put it in a container and freezed it. That way, I can save a lot of time to cook other dishes on the eve of Hari Raya.
I will take out the container of Satay gravy the night before Hari Raya so it will thaw and can be heated and eaten the morning of Hari Raya.

So here, I would like to share the recipe with you. You may have a different type or different ingredients in making your Satay gravy.

Try ours if you like :)

Homemade Satay Gravy



Hubby helped too :)



To start off...

Fry 1 kilo peanuts without oil in a frying pan until brown and cooked. Blend and keep aside.

Blend 3 pieces of 1 inch Lengkuas (galangal), 2 inches ginger and 3 lemon grass with a little water, in an electric Mini Food Processor.


Blended lengkuas, ginger and lemon grass


Add a bit more water to it. Sieve and keep the juice to one side.



Add the juice of lengkuas, ginger and lemon grass to your blended peanuts.
Keep aside.





Blend 7 small shallots and 7 garlic with a little water in a food processor

Blended small shallots and garlic



Heat oil in a pot



Add in the blended shallots and garlic

Add 3 tablespoons of blended dried red chillies (according to taste).

Add some cut red meat (optional).


This was how it looked like after adding shallots, garlic, meat and blended red chillies.





Then add in the peanuts gravy to it.


This was how it looked like.




Keep fire at moderate rate at this stage. And keep stirring the gravy as to make sure it does not burn at the bottom.

Stir often until the gravy thicken, the oil from the peanuts comes out and the gravy looks like the first picture above.

Add salt and ajinomoto to taste.


Before signing off, it's 5th day of Hari Raya and bulan Syawal, SALAM AIDIL FITRI MAAF ZAHIR BATIN to all dear Blogger Friends celebrating this wonderful Hari Raya from MAK ISAH.

Keep smiling!

Cheerio.