new condiment

yeap another post about food because thats what ive been actively doing lately.

i decided to make mapo tofu  as i stumbled upon doubanjiang (bean chilli paste) in market after a long time searching for it. after psyching myself up to cook it i went to the kitchen only to find a big pot of assam pedas kari kepala ikan salmon ready to be served. huh. im not gonna contest my dish with this dish. so scratch the plan and ill cook it sometimes later. anyway, i find it a good timing to make mapo tofu right now because ramly minced beef is on promotion at Mydin. RM15/KG for beef is a very good deal. normal price for beef should be around RM29/KG. go get your meat folks.

anyway, here i was in the kitchen with no mapo tofu to make, I decided to make hot chilli oil as it is one of the ingredients needed to make mapo tofu.it's really easy to make. all i need are

dried chilli pepper blended to flakes/powder (i have this in abundant since i use it as condiment)
oil (also abundant because who doesnt have oil in the kitchen?)
salt (pshhh i can get this from my tears)
peanut (optional)
black pepper (also optional but i use it just to give some heat to the body)
sesame oil (again optional)

so yeah only 3 ingredients needed to make it actually and theyre too easy to find here in Malaysia.
ratio of oil to the chilli powder is 4 to 1. every cup of chilli powder i use ill add 4 cup of oil and for my first try i used half cup of chilli and 2 cups of oil. the other ingredients... 1/2 tsp of salt, a genggam of peanut and 1.5 tsp of grounded black pepper (well i just put them according to my liking)

so what i did is heat the oil in pan, wait until i see tiny smoke to come out, put the flame out and pour in all the mixed dry ingredients and stir. voila done. i just wait for the oil to cool down before pouring into a container and add a splash of sesame oil for the fragrance and i can enjoy it with any dish.

here's the video of where i learn about this thing.

my own hot chilli oil

yeay so new condiment to be used while eating. i tested it with bubur lambuk that i got and it is good. it has the roasted peanut smell while giving hot tingling feel on your lips and tongue from the chilli and at the same time making your body a bit heaty thanks to the blackpepper. i wish i have the sichuan peppercorn to make it numbing hot. oh well, this is good enough for now. another ingredient secured for mapo tofu!!!

also i might make lasagna or pasta dishes any of these days with the stocked minced beef i bought. the problem is tomato is a bit expensive right now and it is widely used in pasta dishes. damn it. i thought it is supposed to be cheap right now because it is a summer fruit. Malaysia is always summer what... another thing to be home grown...tomato

seafood chowder

i decided to hold on my cheese making adventure since i dont have cheese cloth and thermometer for cooking but the real reason is that i still have my block of cheddar cheese that im slowly consuming. no point having too much cheese when my cheese consumption is not high. it will only lead to moldy cheese.

so instead of making cheese i decided to make seafood chowder for my next culinary adventure. seafood chowder is basically seafood soup but the soup is very creamy. ive been planning to make one for a long time already since i have mussels and cream in the fridge idling.

it started off with me going to mydin buying fish for the first time on my own. i dont really care bout fish before so never buy it.so here i have a variety of fishes in wet area and which one should i choose. my preference would be fish with big bones only so terubok is definitely a no go. it must be big too since small fishes will only make my work harder. in the end i decided to pick tongkol (mackerel tuna) because its size is medium and there are some of the fishes that doesnt have red eyes. most of the big fishes have red eyes already indicating they're not fresh anymore. 

so here are the ingredients i used to make my seafood chowder.

1 big onion diced

2 carrots diced

2 celery sticks diced

turkey roll (as a substitute for bacon because haraammm)

butter (i dont know how much im supposed to use. just go with instinct)

chicken stock (since my house never have any fish stock)

water 1 lL (happen to know because a measuring jug just appear nearby when i needed to use water)

3 oyster mushrooms (why not. its been sitting in the fridge begging to be cooked)

2 poetaytoes cubed

1 pack of mussels (always better to use fresh one) 

2 salmon slices cut to small chunks. 

1 whole tongkol

cooking cream (also pour as much as i like until i start thinking whether i poured too much or not)
black pepper (a splash of saltbae style)

so yeah prepping food always takes time. i did my food preparation 30 min before breaking fast. peel chop dice the first 3 veges and then i move on to fillet a tongkol. i was a bit worried since i dont really know the bone structure of tongkol but it turned out fine . managed to fillet it like a pro.....ish. also removed the bones from my salmon slices with knife and tweezers. by the time i finish cutting my fishes into small chunks it was already time to break fast so pause and go to have dinner.

then i continue with the cooking part after finishing my dinner. cut the turkey roll into small pieces. i just use several slices according to my liking. melt the butter in the pot and toss the turkey roll in. then toss in the diced onion and sautee (tumis) for a bit. after that i add the celery and carrots and give it a quick stir. any free moments i used to peel and chop the potatoes into small cubes. oh yeah i also added some rosemary and thyme just for the sake of using them. after that i added the potatoes, stir a bit and and add water with chicken stock.cover the pot and bring it to a boil to cook the potatoes. and then it's already time for me to go to terawih. since im supposed to let it simmer when the water is boiling i just turn off the heat added the cream, mussels, and fishes and just cover the pot and leave for terawih with my hand still smelling fish. im just using the heat from the soup itself to cook the fish. cant risk leaving the stove on for an hour.

did a bit of taste test before going to  terawih and it was good. anyway that was a mistake because i cant focus in terawih and i drooled during the prayer hahahaha. so after i came back i just reheat the pot again a bit and then time to chow down. uhhhhh the taste of seafood chowder... so rich and creamy and full of seafood goodness *kreygasm

I could make the chowder thicker and creamier for improvement. also move variety of seafood can be added. nevertheless, got approval from my parents haha. overall, success!!!

chunks of tongkol and salmon deboned

all the vegetables swimming merrily

added the cream and seafood right before going to terawih

this is the only pics i get since most of the time my hands are dirty and wet. also learnt the basic from this video.

nasihat

Dan (ingatlah) ketika suatu umat di antara mereka berkata, "Mengapa kamu menasihati kaum yang akan dibinasakan atau diazab Allah dengna azab yang sangat keras?" Mereka menjawab, "Agar kami mempunyai alasan (lepas tanggung jawab) kepada Tuhanmu, dan agar mereka bertakwa."

Al-A'raf 164

fwesh milk!!!!!

my culinary adventure is good right now. manage to get my hand on freshhhh milk. this is not the fresh milk from mall that is already bottled. this is fresh from cow's udder. cret cret cret moomoo.

initially I went to the house where i used to buy the milk from but the house was empty and there was no animal at all. the lady next door said that the owner died already so she gave us a new location where i can buy fresh milk. she herself has goat milk but she doesnt sell it. it's for personal usage. i'd have bought from her if she sell some.

anyway off i went to the new house and buy a pack of milk for RM5. well the price is a bit cheaper compared to the fresh milk in market. RM6.66 for a litre instead of RM7.50 per litre. not bad and the milk is fresh and creamier. you can even smell the cow from the milk lol. (i know lots of people cant stand this smell)

the result was satisfying. the milk looks clean and i finish it in one night. nevertheless, the taste of the milk is quite thin. it is not as thick compared to the milk that i buy from the old place. hopefully it's just the cow having less fat in the milk and not them adding water into the milk. after all, i'm not a milk expert to be able to distinguish them. anyway, i can enjoy myself drinking fresh milk at a cheaper rate and tastier hehehehe.

oh btw, since i can get my fresh milk supply, let's start with cheese making project. my aim is to make my own mozarella (if that's possible) so that i can enjoy the fresh mozarella at low cost. there's no way for me to be able to get fresh mozarella here in Malaysia. anyway, first step is to make paneer. indian cooking should come up after that ^^

terimalah aku seadanya

you know when we talk about marriage, the issue on the qualities of the partner always come up. is the partner good physically? what about personality? and mentality? of course everybody want to get the best partner if one can but we're human. we're never meant to be perfect. there will always be imperfection in human and we have to suck it up and deal with it.

is it common for you to hear people say one will change the bad habits/attitudes after marriage or one will change the partner to be a better person after marriage? well it is common for me and though it is possible for those things to happen but we have to remember people dont change that easily and most of the time youre stuck with that bad qualities for the rest of your life or everything spirals down and your marriage ends up with divorce.

tension will rise quickly in a relationship where one treat the relationship as a repairing project. constantly trying to improve and making the partner better which is not much different from a control type relationship.

tired of this changing because of partner or marriage we have the ideology of accepting a person as who you are. love the person as a whole including the imperfections. that way we can avoid stressful relationship and be content with each other. win win situation. even though it sounds nice but in reality how long can one stand with the negative qualities of the partner? how many negative qualities can one accept before saying thats enough. this usually happens to those getting tied during the lovey dovey period where everything is wonderful. well, love is blind and it blinds you. when the love feeling subsided then reality hits you.

as for me i dont really agree with the concept of accept me as it is. i want someone that love me for who i am and never want me to change. that statement is a no for me. why? to me that is just an excuse. i found the term accepting one as who they are is always being used as an excuse to not move forward. in other word the person is comfortable to being stagnant. not bothering to try to improve oneself or life is a big sign of not giving a shit to the people around you and it will affect the partner. as time goes things happen and people will change. if one doesnt want to be better one will definitely aiming to be worse.

i know i have my bad qualities and so does others. accepting bad qualities, give and take, and sacrifices are just parts and parcels or being in relationship but i wont accept someone whose not willing to improve oneself just because it's one's identity. change takes time and so it is understood that you dont expect people to turn into someone else over a night but for someone that doesnt even bother to improve oneself, there's no salvation for that person and that person wont be able to help me improve myself too

expensive habit

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queue

apparently queuing is an issue that can get lots of people in malaysia quarreling especially between the youngsters and the pakcik makcik. yeap youre thinking the right thing. i had an argument with an old fellow about queuing.

it happened when i was in a mall doing grocery shopping. got myself some cheap looking good vegetables, bagged them and went to weighing counter and the staff was not there. several people were waiting at the counter and so i waited together with them while looking at other vegetables. then the abang timbang came rushing to the counter as he realised that lots of people were waiting. seeing him i joined the queue and yes that was when this old pakcik came rushing from behind and put his stuffs on the counter in front of me.

me: pakcik. beratur.
pakcik: pakcik beratur la ni. da lama da tunggu dari tadi.

this pakcik got me like

me: pakcik tunggu tu tunggu tapi beratur la
pakcik: pakcik da beratur la ni lama tunggu dari tadi awak tu baru datang

so the argument going back and forth with me asking him to queue and him insisting that hes queuing by cutting me and then he said something like me berlagak macam supermarket ni bapak aku punya. few grumbling and then keluar awak pun sama melayu. so i said apa kene mengena dengan bangsa. then he said he is the older one and im young so i should shut up. i just said i dont care. thats why i ask him to queue.

well the arguments die as he get his items weighed and left while i sambung to abang timbang saying that orang tua biasa la x boleh kena tegur.

yeap from that incident i learnt that im still not good in debating and arguing with people. i get heated easily over simple stuff like this. i would have been able to burn other people easily if i can keep my cool. guess practice makes perfect. oh yeah i also learnt that being patient is so not enjoying while it is more fun to be rude and make fun and burn the oldman. so, be patient or just listen to the devil?

no point mentioning about the old generation stubbornness (which im already mentioning here) as the mentality aku makan garam lagi banyak apa ko taw is deeply ingrained in us which makes it very hard to change the culture.