We discovered a new Japanese restaurant in Sg Chua, Kajang. I think the restaurant has been operation few months back. When I saw this restaurant, I told hubby let’s give it a try and hubby reluctant to try it out cos he wonder whether it is an authentic Japanese restaurant or not as compared those in KL and PJ.

Few weeks back, after fetching my kids from school, it was raining heavily and I couldn’t go back on time to cook dinner for the kids. Hence, me and my kids give it a try at this Japanese restaurant in Sg. Chua, Kajang. ( Ooppss, forgot what is the name of the Japanese restaurant ! LOL ). Son ordered a set of Chicken Katsudon Bento Set and daughter ordered a Mix Sushi Set that come with some fried tempura and chicken karaage.  Chicken Karaage is my son’s favorite whenever we dine at a Japanese restaurant. Well, for the food quality,  I shall considered OK lah for Kajang standard especially in Sg. Chua, my kampung. LOL. At least we can have Japanese meal without driving so far down to KL and PJ. During the Mother’s Day weekend, we brought Mom and Dad for dinner at this restaurant again since it is so near the house.

Today I am sharing an easy recipe for Chicken Karaage. It is the typical Japanese fried chicken that uses boneless chicken thigh which cut into small bite size pieces.  It is juicy inside and crispy on the outside.  Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from : Cooking with Dog in YouTube

Ingredients:
2 chicken thigh, cleaned and cut into bite size pieces
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt
A dash of pepper
1 tbsp grated ginger
1 tbsp grated garlic
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 egg, beaten
2 tbsp corn starch

Method:
1. Marinate the chicken pieces with soy sauce, salt, pepper, grated ginger and garlic, sesame oil and egg. Mix well and marinate for an hour.
2. Heat oil in a wok till hot.
3. Coat the marinated chicken pieces with corn starch. Deep fried the coated chicken till golden brown.
4. Transfer the chicken on a wire rack to drain off the excess oil. Then re-fried again for a second time in hot oil. Dish up and drain off the excess oil.
5. Serve with mayonnaise as dipping.

We’ve been to the mall during the weekends and there are lots of roadshows on music instruments. I wonder there must be quite a lot of demand for music instruments otherwise there won’t be so many roadshows going on. A friend looking for audio technica instruments and perhaps can asked her to visit those booths at the shopping mall.

When I am home alone I will usually cook instant noodles for myself. My kids did asked me once, “Mommy, why you can eat instant noodles and we can’t?” With that I stop buying instant noodles and once in a blue moon, when I am craving for it,  I bought a packet and keep it in the kitchen drawer.

Quick lunch at home today. With no instant noodles, I cook fried rice with Chinese waxed sausages ( lap cheong ) with the left over rice at home and compliment with a bowl of Tom Yum Soup. Everyone at home love fried rice and it is also pretty easy to cook with whatever left over in the fridge.

There are may varieties of fried rice in the menu here in Asia.  In each country I visited in Asian, they have their own localized version of fried rice. The Chinese have varieties of fried rice in their menu. The Malay also have varieties of fried rice in their menu too. Same goes to the Thai’s and Indonesian’s restaurant.  Anyway for me and my family, as long as fried rice, we all love it.

Ingredients :
1 bowl cooked rice, preferably overnight rice left in the fridge
Some chopped garlic and onions
1 Chinese waxed sausage, cut into thin slices
1 egg, beaten
A handful of anchovies / ikan bilis, washed and drained
Salt, pepper & soya sauce to taste

Method :
1. Heat some oil in a wok. Sautee chopped garlic and onions till fragrant.
2. Add in Chinese waxed sausages and stir fried for a minute.
3. Then add in the rice. Season with salt, pepper and some soya sauce to taste. Stir-fried for few minutes.
4. Add in the beaten egg and stir fried again for few minutes. Taste and more seasoning if required.
5. Serve hot.

It’s been raining almost everyday at this hour of time, especially after office hours. I really hate it every time it rains because all my laundry at home will be getting wet. I have been thinking to get a clothes dryer at home but Dad said it consume quite a lot of electrical. Another friend mentioned her dryer couldn’t work and she has to get a dryer repair technician to come over to have a look at it. Ended up the repairing cost her few hundreds Ringgit Malaysia!

I am having dinner with my kids at Pizza Hut two days back. My two kids fighting for that piece of pathetic garlic bread that came with the pizza menu package. I told my two kids, after the dinner here, we will got to Jusco and get a loaf of baguette. I will make my own garlic bread for them and eat till they drop and stop fighting over that piece of garlic bread as though they have  not eaten before. At times my kids can drive me crazy. Hahaha…

Bought a loaf of baguette home and slice it about 1 cm thickness before I spread it with my homemade garlic butter.  You can either toast it or baked in an oven till brown and crispy. To make garlic butter is pretty easy. Just chopped up some garlic and mix it with the butter. You can add some parsley flakes too into the butter.  Spread it over the baguette and baked it till crispy. Pretty easy right?

Since I got a box of whipping cream left in the fridge, I cook a bowl creamy mushroom sauce for my kids to dip their garlic bread with it. My son gives me a thumb up for it and he ate so much of it. Can even lick the creamy sauce clean from the bowl.

Ingredients for Garlic Bread :
1 loaf baguette, slice into pieces, about 1 cm thickness
About a tablespoon of chopped garlic, you can add more if you prefer more
3 tbsp butter
Some parsley flakes

Method :
1. Mix chopped garlic and parsley flakes with butter.
2. Spread the garlic butter mixture on the sliced baguette.
3. Baked in the oven till golden brown or crispy.

Ingredients for Creamy Mushroom Sauce :
200ml whipping cream
100ml milk
A packet of Shimeiji mushroom or any mushroom of your choice, slice it
Salt and pepper to taste
A knob of butter

Method :
1. In a pan, melt the butter.
2. Stir fried the mushroom for few minutes.
3. Add in whipping cream and milk. Simmer for about 1 – 2 minutes.
4. Season with salt and some black pepper.
5. Dish up and serve as dipping for garlic bread.

Nasi Kerabu is one of the famous Malay dish mainly in the east coast region like Kelantan and Terengganu. Nasi Kerabu is a type of herbs rice or we called it nasi ulam in Malay, and the rice is tinted with the blue colouring from the blue pea flower plants ( bunga telang.

When my good buddy Gertrude from My Kitchen Snippets  buzzed me in Facebook and invited me to join her MFF – Kelantan Month Event, the first dish that came across my mind is Nasi Kerabu. I hardly travel to the east coast and in my entire working life, I’ve only been to Kelantan and Terengganu once and that was many many years ago. I remembered I put up a night there and the place is so uninteresting and boring and that was about 10 years ago. I believed today Kota Bahru has changed a lot. I must make a trip there again.  The next morning, my sales personnel came over to pick me up for breakfast before we proceed for trade visit in a very very rural area in Kota Bahru. My sales personnel brought me for Nasi Kerabu breakfast. That is where I learn how to earn Nasi Kerabu and fall in love with it. LOL.

It is quite hard to find a stall that sells Nasi Kerabu near my place. Hardly anyone sell it  around my neighborhood. I wanted to cook my own Nasi Kerabu for many times since I’ve planted quite a number of herbs needed for Nasi Kerabu. Every time when I wanted to cook, I got lazy. Last two weekends, I am clearing my garden and plucked quite a lot of daum kesom, daun limau purut, daun kadok, daun ketumbar and bunga telang from my potted plants in my garden. To throw it away, it will be such a waste and hence I decided to cook Nasi Kerabu for breakfast the next Sunday morning.

Nasi Kerabu, the blue colour tinted rice is eaten with all kinds of ulam ( herbs salad ), kerisik ikan, fried ikan kembong, ayam percik, solok lada, grilled beef, salted egg and keropok ikan. Then it is added with the sambal tumis with coconut milk, sambal chilli belacan or budu. Budu is a kind of fermented anchovy sauce which was widely used in east coast region. For Nasi Kerabu, it has to go with the kerisik ikan and sambal tumis. Without these two ingredients, Nasi Kerabu will not complete.

My Nasi Kerabu is pretty simple. I didn’t cook any fish or chicken side dish. Mine is just the herbs salad, with the sambal tumis , sambal chili belacan and kerisik ikan plus keropok. I am fine with this simple Nasi Kerabu for breakfast. My daughter love it too but not my son and hubby. Hubby hate the smell of daum kesom and bunga kantan.

Here is my simple Nasi Kerabu.

Ingredients for Blue Tinted Rice :
2 cups of brown rice, washed and drained
3 pcs daun limau purut / kaffir lime leaves
20 pcs blue pea flower
Water for cooking the rice

Method :
1. Soaked the blue pea flower in a cup of hot boiling water in order to get the blue colouring. Remove the flower buds.
2. Soaked the brown rice in the blue colouring over night in order to get the blue colouring tinted on the rice. Drained.
3. In a rice cooker, cook the brown rice as normal by adding a few pieces of kaffir lime leaves into it.

Ingredients for Sambal Tumis Santan :
10 shallots
3 cloves garlic
2 big onions
15 pcs dried chillies, soaked in hot water till soft. Remove the seeds.
1 knob ginger
1 stalks lemon grass
1 pc asam keping
2 tbsp sugar
Coconut milk from 1 coconut ( I bought the ready squeezed coconut milk from the wet market ) & add 1 cup of water into it.
Salt to taste

Method :
1. Blend shallots, garlic, big onions, dried chillies & ginger in a blender.
2. In a pot, add in the blended ingredients, lemon grass, asam keping and coconut milk.
3. Simmer in low fire till the oil separated and gravy thickens.
4. Add in sugar and season with salt to taste. Set aside in a serving bowl.

Ingredients for Sambal Belacan :
4 red chillies, remove the seeds
3 red chili padi
Some lime juice
1 small knob toasted belacan

Method :
1. Pound red chillies , chili padi and belacan till fine.
2. Mix with some lime juice and set aside.
Ingredients for Kerisik Ikan :
1 Kembong fish, steamed and flaked ( I used pan fried salmon, which is left over from my dinner )
1/2 grated coconut
4 shallots, pounded till fine
4 cloves garlic, pounded till fine
Salt & sugar

Method :
1. In a pan, fry the grated coconut till brown in colour.
2. Add in the flaky fish meat, and pounded shallots and garlic. Season with salt and sugar to taste.
3. I gave it a pulse in my Thermomix machine in order to get a finer kerisik ikan.

Ingredient for Herbs Salad :
Daun Kesom
Daun Kadok
Daun Ketumbar
Bunga Kantan
Beansprouts
Four Angled Beans
Long Beans
Cabbage

Method :
1. Cut the above herbs and salad  finely.
2. In a big bowl, mixed the herbs with beansprouts and set aside.

Garnishing :
Keropok Ikan

To assemble the dish :
In a plate, put a bowl of blue rice. Add about 1 tbsp  or more of kerisik ikan and the desired amount of herbs salad. Then add in a tablespoon of sambal tumis sauce and a tsp of sambal belacan. Then top it up with few pieces of keropok ikan.

To eat :
Mix everything and time to enjoy the Nasi Kerabu. Adoiiii…. sedapnya.

I am submitting this post to Malaysian Food Fest, Kelantan Month hosted by Gertrude of My Kitchen Snippets.

A friend called me up and asked me to recommend her where to get a cheap bari saxophone. Errr… I am not to sure where to get and I asked her she want to get it for who? She told me she needed to get one for display in one of her event. Hmmm.. I asked her to check it out from the website or maybe she can try it out at those music center.

Crispy roast chicken rice is my kid’s all time fav. Its my fav too. I tend to get lazier to cook on a weekends instead of weekdays. My friend was saying I am kind of a weird person. She said I should be lazy to cook on a weekdays instead of weekends because I need to work on a weekdays . Hmmm… maybe what she said is true. I tend to cook a 3 dishes meal for dinner from Monday – Friday and when come to Saturday and Sunday, I tend to cook something like a 1 dish meal. Ya, I felt Saturday and Sunday is more stressful to cook on a working days. Hahaha….

This is a pretty easy recipe. I love the Chinese style of roast chicken because the skin is crispy and it is full of flavour. My dad taught me, if I use the whole chicken for roasting, I have to air-dried it under hot sun for few hours before roasting. I am using chicken thigh and hence I didn’t air-dried it.

The beautifully roasted chicken. A bit of burnt but still taste delicious when you eat it with fragrant rice ( yau farn ). The rice is full with flavour too. My son can eat a plate of it without the roast chicken .

Ingredients :
2 chicken thigh, cleaned and pat dry
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp five spice power
1 tbsp maltose / honey

Method :
1. Marinate the chicken with all the ingredients. Marinate over night in the fridge uncovered.
2. Pre-heat the oven at 180 DC. Baked the chicken thigh for about 40 minutes or till the chicken skin is brown and crispy.
3. Remove from oven and chop into smaller pieces.
4. Serve with fragrant rice.

Ingredients for Fragrant Rice :
5 shallots, thinly sliced
1 cup of brown rice, washed and drained.
1/2 tsp salt
Water, just enough for cooking the rice

Method :
1. Heat some oil in pan and fry the shallots till golden brown and crispy.
2. In a rice cooker, mix the brown rice with fried shallots and salt.
3. Add water just enough to cook the rice in the rice cooker.
4. Serve the cooked fragrant rice with crispy roast chicken.

My son called this kuih … Blue Rice. Its his favourite. There is one morning,  I send him to tuition. Before he get down, he told me “Mommy, later if you go to the pasar, please buy me Blue Rice for breakfast later. Without thinking what he meant by Blue Rice, I bought a packet of Nasi Kerabu back for him.  When I drove back home from the wet market,I kept thinking and curious why my son know how to eat Nasi Kerabu. Since when he know how to eat Nasi Kerabu cos I’ve never buy it for him. So I thought he must have been taken it somewhere in his daycare center.

When he reached home from his tuition, he opened up the packet of Nasi Kerabu and he … Ewww… gross. What is this, Mommy? I told him this is the Blue Rice you requested and he told me NO not this one. Then I asked him again, what Blue Rice you are asking for? Then only he describe the Blue Rice is eaten with Kaya and my sister bought that before for him to eat. No wonder…..

For the past few weeks, he kept asking for Blue Rice and this kuih hardly can be found in the wet market here. And I told him I will make myself for you and you can eat till you drop. My son really enjoyed it with the homemade fragrant and sweet Kaya (coconut jam) I bought from one of the coffee shop in Sg Chua, Kajang.

I have a big pot of blue pea flower  ( bunga telang ) plant in my garden and the plant has been creeping all over my garden. I will usually plucked the flowers and then dried it and keep it in a container and into the fridge for later use.

The ready steamed glutinous rice.

Ingredients :
300gm glutinous rice, washed and soaked in water overnight
Few pieces of pandan leaves
1 cup coconut milk
1/4 tsp salt

30 pcs bunga telang
1/2 cup water

Banana leaves

Method :
1. In a small pot, add in the bunga telang and 1/2 cup water. Bring it to boil in order to get the blue colour. Remove from heat and discard the flower. Let it cool.
2. Soaked 1/3 of the glutinous rice with blue colour water and the balance of the glutinous rice with water. Soaked overnight.
3. The next morning, drained the rice and put the rice and pandan leaves in a steaming tray.
4. Mix coconut milk with salt. Pour 1/2 the mixture of coconut milk over the glutinous rice in the steaming tray.
5. Steam over high heat for about 15 minutes.
6. Fluff the rice with a pair of chopstick and add remaining coconut milk mixture and steam for another 15 minutes.
7. Prepare a 8′ X 8′ square tray. Line the bottom of the tray with banana leaves.
8. Pour the glutinous rice into the tray and create the marble effect of blue and white. Press down the glutinous rice on the tray till compact and line the top with a piece of banana leaves. Leave it to cool completely.
9. Cut into small square pieces and serve with Kaya.

Happy Easter Day everyone. My kids asked me where is the egg chocolate? Where is bunny chocolate? Errr… I told my son, the Kinder Joy Egg Chocolate, aren’t that egg chocolate. Hahaha…This morning we went to Nilai Memorial Park with the kids to pray my late sister in law. It’s hubby younger sister, who passed away 13 years back. Reached Nilai at 7 am but got stuck in a jam for 1 1/2 hours which is merely 500 meter from the main entrance of Nilai Memorial Park. Only managed to get in and parked my car at 8.30 am. What the heck!

On Easter Sunday, we had late lunch today. I am tired after the prayers and lazy to cook. The kids is not eating because they are still full after having their late breakfast with the in laws. Hubby’s friend is dropping by our house to pass some documents to him and hubby invited him for lunch at my place. Adoiii…. so last minute what to cook la? Searched thru the fridge and see what left in the fridge. I ended up settled lunch with Singapore Laksa. I bought  two packet of Prima Taste Singapore Laksa pre-mix when I was in Singapore last year. I remembered I’ve seen this brand before on the supermarket’s shelves in Malaysia but couldn’t remember where.

It is easy to prepare and surprisingly it turned out quite nice. I’ve added additional kesom leaves, freshly picked from my herb garden into the laksa. The portion is just nice for 2 – 3 persons. I’ve added fishballs and fish cakes and beansprouts into the laksa.

I am going to search again in the supermarket here for this brand. Hopefully I can find otherwise, the next round I visit Singapore I am going to carry back a few packets.