Shakira and Piano exam

Yesterday afternoon, Shakira sat for her Grade 2 piano exam conducted by ABRSM. ABRSM is the exam board of the Royal Schools of Music. This year we selected the practical exam and skipped the piano theory conducted in Subang Jaya. Last year Shakira got a distinction in her Grade 1 Theory and a Pass for her Grade 1 Piano Practical.

I stood out in the hallway throughout the 30 minutes to listen Shakira playing her piano pieces. It sounded not too bad until she reached her 3rd piece. There were a few flaws but she continued on playing. When she came out, she was so relief. Good job girl. 

The video below was taken 3 days ago at home when she practiced for her exam.

 

Rendang Daging Manis Mak Tok Part 2

Recently, I attended Pak Teh's open house in Tiara Setiawangsa. Pak Teh is my other half's cousin.

Main dish was lamb curry, masak lemak kuning itik and rendang daging manis.What caught my attention was the rendang daging manis with thick gravy.  It really reminded me of my late MIL's rendang manis. I digged the history of the rendang from my SIL and what I found out, it originate from my other halfs' aunt, whom we called Mak Datin or Mak Mah.

But I much more enjoyed my late MIL's version.

As for the recipe, well, when it comes to malay cooking, it's always 'agak-agak' or it's up to your own judgement.....

Boil or pressure cook your meat. Once tender separate the meat and the reduced stock.
(Cooking tips: for tender meat, when boiling put a metal spoon for the 1st 20 minutes. Then take it out. Continue boiling the meat. Well if you have pressure cooker than you can forgo the tips...muahahaha).

Slice the tender meat thinly but not too thin, agak-agak la. Then fry it in hot oil for about 2-3 minutes depending how big is your frying pan. The bigger quantity you cook the longer time it will take to achieve a semi crispy texture. Set it aside once complete.

Slice generous amount of garlic and ginger and fry them in hot oil. Agak-agak la the ratio of oil in your cooking. Add chili paste, sugar and salt to your taste. Once the oil has risen to the top, add the meat and stir thoroughly. How long to cook? Gheezz agak-agak la again. I pun tak sure.

Then add the stock and stir until it thickens.  Add kerisek. And finally generous amount of dried shallots. When I said generous amount, I really meant it.

Something just click, does it require coconut milk? Hummmmppp sorry folks need to get back on that.

My mom's fridge.

My mom is such an organized person.

When we were staying at our old house in Sec 14 PJ, my sister and I get panic attack whenever my mom returned home from work. Hahaha...we had to make sure that the house is in its condition. News papers and magazines folded and placed on the table, couches is in the correct positioning etc....so that mom won't get mad at us when she gets back from work. Ialah balik kerja penat and then tengok rumah bersepah...siapa tak bengangkan.  But both of us were good kids.

So the morning I started my Assam Laksa project, this is what I discovered.

So organized kan. Wish had mine like that.

Shakira Khatam Al-Quran.

My other half and myself were so happy and thrilled that Shakira has finished her Al-Quran reading, all 30 juzuk (or chapters). Of course coming from a strong religious background, my other half pride himself for completing his Al-Quran at an year early age of 8-9 years old. Whereas yours truly only started reading at the age of 11.

I promised Shakira when she complete her Al-Quran I will prepare pulut kuning and chicken rendang. We will sedekah to our neighbors and her religious teacher.  When I mentioned earlier " I will prepare..." it actually mean I will cater someone to prepare the pulut kuning. I have never cooked pulut kuning before and I have no intention of learning how to cook one.  I find it very tedious. Went around asking if anybody can prepare pulut kuning on the eve of raya, but no takers.  They must have found me crazy. Here, a day before raya, people will be busy preparing ketupat, nasi impit, lemang and rendang and we have this one crazy lady asking for pulut kuning.

I am not a huge fan of pulut kuning. Even when I completed my Al-Quran, I asked my grandmother to prepare bubur gandum instead. Now that Shakira has finishes hers, I want to make pulut kuning just like what it should've been.

Nak tak nak, I have to do it myself. Niat dah pasang and I must fulfill it before raya which is 2 days away. I looked through recipes, and ways to cook pulut kuning on You Tube and even Blogs. Memang suspend sangat because you just do know exactly how its supposed to turn out.  But alhandulillah,.....menjadi jugak.

Five cups of beras pulut soaked over night with water, turmeric powder and 2 pieces of asam gelugor (tamarind). Why tamarind? it is said that your pulut kuning akan nampak cantik dan berkilat.

Preparation started on Tuesday night (2 days before raya).  After the soaking process, I set the pulut a side and began on my chicken rendang. One and half chicken used to make my rendang.  In order to encourage my children to eat rendang, I reduced the amount of chili. They love it. This is how my rendang looks like during the cooking process.

The finished product. Not too dark, well actually at 2 am no shops are open to get kerisik. Just used with whatever balance I have in the fridge.

I refrigerate the rendang. Finally at 3 am I'm off to bed since I still had to go to work that morning. 7 am I woke up and off to work. It's only half day work and realized I need to changed my two front wheels. Left office and went to the workshop had my 2 front wheels replaced. Once that's done, on the way back, stopped at our local grocerer to get stuff to prepare Assam Laksa for pagi raya. Then arrived home to start my pulut kuning.

After the first 20 minutes of steaming the pulut. It is yellow but don't know why the color did not came out in the photo.

After another 25 minutes of steaming.

Taa... daa... the finished product with my chicken rendang packed in containers.

Hahahaha...it is amazing what one can come out with when you put your mind into it.  Presentation, ok. Taste, pun ok jugak.  Thank you to all (my FB friends) who encouraged me throughout this process.

Selamat Hari Raya!

Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri.

It was a hectic day dan lack of sleep. We left Ampang at 1.30 am for Parit on Thursday morning. It was quite a surprise to see lots of cars on the road but our journey was smooth to up north. We arrived Parit around 4 am and I immediately get right down on my project.


If you read in my past posts, I like to take charge of the kitchen on raya morning. Once in a while my sister prepares her specialty which mostly comes in pre-mixed packets which I do not favor. Since this year she did not celebrate 1st raya with us, I stepped in and offered my services. So, I decided to cook Assam Laksa. Mom didn't object. In fact she called me up to add more of the laksa noodle. All 6 kgs of them.

4:25 am - Among of the ingredients required to prepare Assam Laksa.

I prepare a mean Assam Laksa, the classic Penang style. It all started when we were staying in Penang in the late 80's. My sister and I would walk from our Green Lane house to a small housing area ( can't remember the name maybe Taman Free School?)  to ta-pau Assam Laksa.  The old Chinese lady must have been preparing laksa her whole life. It is the authentic Assam Laksa. Little by little I tried to recreate the original. I think I came closed several times, to my best taste bud knowledge. Please, we stayed in Penang for almost 3 years and I can tell you, we have tried so many version of Assam Laksa but we kept going back to the old Chinese aunty's laksa. We loved her laksa.

Maybe to some people, Laksa is just laksa.  No big a deal, right? But to laksa lovers they will hunt down to get the ultimate laksa taste to satisfy their own craving.

Assam Laksa is my signature dish on Raya morning at mom's. It has been said countless time, when you cook, you cook with love. And that's what I did. It made me feel special that my relatives do look forward to my Assam Laksa. All day today I had so many complimentary comments like, "Wow, bestnya!", and "Macam laksa kat Gurney Dr." and lots of nodding and happy faces. Ada yang dah dapat laksa, sat quietly at one corner and dig into their bowl of laksa. Hihihihi.....Happy giler.

While trying to organize myself to start with the laksa preparation, I helped myself to my FIL's rendang manis which I brought from Ampang.  I saw mom had already prepared nasi impit or "pressed rice". Apalagi bedal la.....

Nasi impit and rendang manis.

After one and a half hour, my Assam Laksa is almost ready.

 Condiments for Assam Laksa.

Top view of the condiments. Left to right:cut chillies, lime and mint leaves. Next is salad leaves, sliced cucumber, pineapple, sliced red onions, and the end of the photo, chopped bunga kantan and petis udang. Laksa is not laksa without all of the above. By the way, I left out the laksa noodle from the picture.

And of course, this is Kuah Assam Laksa.

How many bowls of Assam Laksa I had? 4!

Hope you guys had a good Raya. Happy holidays!

Thank you for the experience!

Alhamdulillah.

Syukur ke hadrat illahi rezeki yang di berikan pada bulan Ramadhan ini.

This is the last batch of 'dadih' today. It went smoothly. Thank you to my other half who has been very encouraging throught out the process. At times I just wanna give up. Now I can catch up on my sleep. Insya Allah until the next Ramadhan, I have lots to learn and lots to improve not only on the presentation but especially on my budget strategy. I started with RM100 and today, I manage to rake RM1,747.00 in sales.  Simply amazing.

Also to my meentor, Kat, who pitched this dadih idea, thank you very much. Never expected I had enough courage to last this long, 26 days!

I am going to miss the daily incoming cash but life has to go on. Only God knows what is in store for me next.