apple juice

 been attempting to make apple juice multiple times. and this time i hit the mark. managed to make the taste similar to the one i bought from shop or supermarket. 

the ingredients are these

3 apples
4 limau nipis
a splash of apple cider vinegar
1 litre water
4 tablets of stevia (dunno equivalent to how much sugar)
aloe vera (optional)

basically just chopthose apples i removed the seeds. squeeze those limes and pour in a bit of apple cider vinegar maybe like 2 spoonful amount. put in the stevia or sugar or honey or whatever sweetener you can think of. fill up the blender up to 1 liter so basically the amount of water i use is less than 1 liter as there are already other ingredients inside. blendddddddddddddddddddd and were done. can drink straight away or if you hate the fibre/pulp feeling. filter using muslin cloth filter and youll get a clean juice only.

add on aloevera to your liking. i read that aloe vera can be consumed raw even with the latex but some advise to wash away the latex first as prolonged consumption is not good. also the aloe vera latex is not goo dfor people with kidney problem or taking antihypertensive/ diabetes medication. how to prepare aloevera? cut the leaves. peel of the skin using knife or peeler.you will get a slimy translucent jelly like substance inside. rinse with water to  get rid of the latex or you can use the latex for your hair or skin then just chop the jelly and put in your drink

smoke house

 in view of covid and returning pkp, a lot of people went for panic shopping. my dad already predicted this earlier and guessing price will increase after this went for shopping spree a bit earlier. he returned with loads of salmon and other seafood. so what do we do with all these salmons? lets try making smoked salmon. 

using things from around my house we build the smoke house using zinc as the wall and metal pole as the pillars. 

now the smoke house is ready time to lay down the salmon. since this is just a test run we just put plain salmon and some of them rubbed with a bit of salt. the hanging thing is a metal collander tied using wire to the roof of the smoke house. i put some chillies to make smoked dried chillies. initially i want to hang meat but oh well, thats for another time i guess.

smoking started at 6pm and left until 7am tomorrow morning and voila the result. i used jackfruit wood as thats the only wood material i have around the house. oh yeah we did put in too much wood to burn and that causes the smoke house to be too hot and cooked the salmon too fast. we had to smother them with soil to prevent fire from coming up. note to self. use less wood

overall the experiment was a success. them salmon taste exactly like smoked salmon you buy from market. its a bit dry but that can be improved next time.

side product. the chillies i smoked became super dried and brownish in colour. probably because of the heat i think. went and blitz em to make chilli flakes. all went well except the blitzing part. the moment i opened the blender to transfer the chillies my eyes started to become watery and the next thin i know im crying like a little girl. not to mention the sneezing that ensues. the smell of the smoked chilies was so strong that everyone in the kitchen started sneezing. i had to stop breathing alot during the whole process to prevent further sneezing. also, not opening up the blender straight after blitzing helps to reduce the chilies particle from flying in the air.

i remmebered i used to love ewating smoked salmon with cheese but that was cold smoked salmon and i cant remember what cheese i ate with it. so far successful combination for the salmon is to go along with honey mustard or relish added with some chili flakes. tastes good.

i wish i can do cold smoked salmon but the idea is not viable in malaysia as this is a tropical country. 

javanese curry

 ive long wanted to try what does katsu curry taste like. tried several times in some japanese restaurant but those are not high ends restaurant so the taste is quite meh. tasted like prepackaged food or canned food mostly which i think dont do justice to the real one. other restaurants though mostly are just non halal as thy usually use pork in the making.

so i ended up buying this prepackaged curry sauce from this japanese shop in mid valley. my friends recommended this item as they say it is quite good.im not really into cooking using paste actually. i prefer to cook things from basic ingredients but meh just make use of everything available. so why not since i dont know how to make japanese curry from scratch anyway.

this is the curry im talking about. its quite expensive. well, imported stuffs are always expensive

the cooking directions are super brief and skipped some steps during the saute process. nevermind that. im the type that never cook following instructions step by step. usually i just see how things a re made roughly and tried cooking them my way but this time i tried to adhere to the instructions as close as possible just so that i can get the taste as close as i can to the normal japanese curry. heck i even weighed my meat this time which was never done before. it just happened that the bag of frozen meat i have in the freezer is close to the instruction actually. even if the frozen meat is way off the weight ill still use them all too.

prepping part. chopped up everything that need to be chopped up. notice how cooking in professional kitchen or restaurants are fast? thats because the prepping stage are done way earlier before opening time and the only thing left to do is to mix them in fire thats how you get food to be served fast.i now this looks like a lot of waste of bowls usage but for presentation purposes they are necessary. im cutting these things while getting my meat thawed in microwave. forgot to bring them out earlier. oh yeah i decided to cut them because its easier to eat everything in bite size rather than chunks of everything. smaller pieces also means they cook faster  

oh yeah right off the bat i didnt follow the instructions as i mentioned before. its really hard for me to adhere to instructions step by step when it comes to cooking. i ran out of carrot so i replaced it with tomatoes, celery, brinjals, and mushrooms. the other 2 ingredients are potatoes and onions. i decided not to  put any chillies in as my parents cant stand too much spiciness also iwant to try these non spicy japanese curry. also it rained alot nowadays and the chillies in y backyard are going to be hotter than usual.

now first part of cooking sauteing the ingredients. onion first, then the root vege (e.g carrot/potatoes) as they take more time to be cooked. then only you add the other ingredients. leafy stuffs usually will go in last. meat was added together with the roots vege. i dont care if theyre still half frozen as long as i can break them into small pieces instead of one big ice block. let the thawing process continue in the pan

add water get them to boiling and simmer for 15 min. this looks like im making stock. oh yeah the frozen chicken turned out to be marinated with black pepper that my mom prepared earlier. oh well more flavour i guess. now while waiting back to playing game for 15 min.

looking good. tatoes are staring to get soft after 15 min.  time to add the curry sauce

once the curry sauce added up the whole thing become thick. no need for me to add thickening agents at all nor do i need to reduce the the curry by heating. no wonder the instructions stated to get everything cooked first then only adding up the sauce. just put on low flame while awiting to serve.

itadakimasu. well the result is better than any low end restaurants ive tried so far though they have similarities in term of the flavours. also the taste is completely differet from south east asian curry. i think the decision to add more vegetables made the curry taste better than it's supposed to be. my parents accept the curry well and they even had seconds. that means this curry can be 6-7/10. its not spicy at all so they can eat it happily but its still a bit heaty since the chicken was marinated with black pepper earlier. 

the bowl with the green content is just mashed avocado. we eat it like a condiment as it bring creamy texture to food and lighten up any spicy or mellow down sharp flavours. its like eating rice with tempoyak but Juan style instead of Ali style. 

overall this is one of the better curries ive made. time to get to know how to cook it from scratch.