My mother's cooking

Today as my parents fast for the Muharram month my mother cooked something nice. These are my favourite dishes . They complement each other beautifully.

She cooked 'gulai ayam' or chicken curry ,spinach and sweet potato  , fried chicken and sambal.  The sambal add more zest  to the curry . Sambal is made by pounding red chilies, salt and shrimp paste . Then add some salt and squeeze some lime .  When my husband comes back home early , he likes to watch videos. So I would leave him be for awhile . Then I add a lot of rice for him and more fried chicken  because he loves my mother's curry. I don't  normally cook at home  for the family because I am not as good as my mother when it comes to cooking .As I  might have written somewhere  my mother said that she has cooked since she was 12 so experience counts. He he he.

I went to One Utama yesterday , I saw  the Women's Weekly cookbook called 'Little Pies'. I like  the small little pies or the mini fritatta. I have yet to buy the muffin tray. Another dessert that caught my eye is poached pear in syrup served with hot chocolate , vanilla ice cream and cream or chantilly cream . Later I found out  the  dessert is called Poires Belle- Helene or  Pears Belle Helen.Little do I know that I am into French cooking.

Well ,Bon Apetit.

Tumeric powder for pimple, Tia Amelia and raw meat for kitten

Last week I have three ugly looking pimples . They were large. Fortunately I remembered the turmeric powder or Kasturi manjal which I had bought  before. So I took some powder and add some water and put  it on the pimples. It stings and I could feel my skin tighten immediately . After 3 days inclusive of  one day  using it as  a face mask my pimples is gone and  with  no apparent scar. I use  the Eswari tumeric powder  for the face which can be found  at the  Indian shops at Jalan Masjid India in Kuala Lumpur.

My mother is also using Tia Amelia turmeric cream. I used to wear it  and the result is great. but since I love to try out new creams I don't use it so much. My mother faithfully uses before retiring  at night without fail.  . The big size cream costs RM 69.90. I think turmeric is great  for the face . Now my mother's face is flawless.

I was also  searching for the right kitten food. After delving for the premium dry and wet kitten food. I find myself   going back to the idea of   feeding raw food  to  Jingga. I liked the idea  so  I went back searching for the blog  I used to  look at  and I found it at : http://www.catnutrition.org/pictorial.php . I like the idea of feeding my kitten with raw food. Jingga has benefited from eating boiled chicken breast . His eyes are large and shining.   He is now  2.8 kg.  . Another website is for making raw cat food is : http://www.catinfo.org/commercialcannedfoods.htm#The_Basics .

The thing is that I don't feel like buying a grinder which is a must . Perhaps I should buy the  other ingredients for the supplement or  for the cat's elixir.  Do I have the monies to buy it  that is the question  or  do I just close my eyes and buy it as  you only have to buy  it once ? It looks like a hassle but I love to see the photos of the beautiful cats  after eating the raw diet.

Another website I stumbled across is http://www.felinefuture.com/?p=2381 . They have a powdered premix called Instincts TC and Instincts   Plus   which is to be added to the raw food. I have not seen the premix in Malaysia. Perhaps it is available if you ask around. Still you have to have a grinder. Or I might take out the cleaver and chop , chop,chop.There is grinder sold  at Tesco for less than RM 200 and I have seen another sturdier looking  grinder for around RM 500 at Best Denki stores  or Jusco. I also like the jar for storing the prepared but  from what I read zip lock bags are used.

Happenings

This week all of us went to Viccudha restorant in Damansara Utama. It's a Thai restaurant which is very popular  .All of us were there except Yati, Sadd, Mal and their families. It's to celebrate those whose birthdays are in December . Mine included too he he he.

I have been thinking of making the Ile Flottante or Floating Island recipe. It's a classic French recipe. I'm seriously considering to make it. It's not that  I will make it some day.  The first time I saw this snow white beauty with the custard sauce or Creme Anglaise was in Martha Stewart show at NTV7. I like to watch the show in my room around 11pm or 12 pm . The recipe calls for 18 egg whites, so now I have been collecting recipes via the net .

You can poach it in milk too , I saw that in a recipe from AFC . The  Asian food channel,  there is one from You  tube too . Now I have to find the cream of tartar. Maryam my niece also made some ice cream with a kid's ice cream maker . It does make ice cream . Her birthday is coming soon. Now she is into cats.

Last Friday  and Saturday the ladies  went to  One Utama to shop for clothes.  . Nas is here about two weeks.  My brother Zahid works in a tuna company. The tuna is very tasty .  However the tuna is not sold here in Malaysia .

There's a new all white male cat which appears in the house chasing Jingga . Jingga is very scared. It has been quarelling with Awang who came back after two days of dissapearance. 

Colmar Tropicale

The Black swans

On Sunday , our family went to Colmar Tropicale to celebrate my father's 73rd birthday. My brother Zahid  and family came back for their  vacation from Seychelles. My sister Nas and children , my two brothers, GG and Mal ,my parents and I .  Colmar Tropicale is situated on  Bukit Tinggi ,Pahang  . It is a french themed resort Alsace to be exact  . Very romantic. It is one of Berjaya group's  many properties.  I have not been there before so this is a very nice trip for me also.

In the morning my mother prepared Nasi Lemak.  With fried chicken, sambal , 'kangkung' and of course the nasi lemak which she had cooked  last night. We are off around 12.00 noon. I had left  a bowl of  dry cat food for Jingga and the other cats.  The trip was not long from Kuala Lumpur to Berjaya Hills. It was cool when we reached there . The buildings are nice , we took a lot of pictures.There were many visitors.

The white swans

  
We went to the rooms at 5.00 pm The suite was   large with two rooms with white poster beds overlooking the square. After wolfing down  the nasi lemak I was back to la la land. My mother also plonked besides me. Before we got to our rooms, we went up to the Japanese gardens. The trip up the gardens was fun as it was a winding road on an open air van.  My nephews and niece rented the kimonos . Maryam looked nice in the red kimono so did Zahin and Hamzah.

It was beautiful at night with the  the lights. We had dinner at the La Flamme restaurant. We had lasagne , alfredo spaghetti, carbonara and bolognaise and pizzas. Some of us did not go to the bowling alley and tried archery. My mother also did not want to watch the international dance  at the square at 9.30 pm.  I was very tired and retired early.

                                                             

The next morning after breakfast we went to see the white swans and  the black swans. The pair of white swans  swam to  us . So we bought some food for them. My mother said to give the swans  the food on the palm  of  our hands but I was scared. The black    swans are beautiful . It wanted to go to the other side. of the pond. . Then we went back. I would definitely go back to Colmar with my husband one day.

My nephew wanted to see the rabbit but too bad the rabbits were not around anymore . So we went to horse trail.  The guy at the stables told us that the horses can bite so to be careful.  Then my two nephews and my brother Zahid took a ride.

 

After that we went back and had lunch at D'templer , a chinese Muslim restaurant at Gombak.  The dishes are tasty.  We had some dimsum  and of course rice. He he he.

Steamed asparagus , poached eggs and hollandaise sauce

 It was Aidhil Adha last week. Nas had cooked bryani rice and the tomato lamb .  It was tasty .

On Saturday I made some steamed asparagus. First I made the hollaindaise sauce using a recipe for a blender hollandaise sauce from Allrecipe. It works well and quick.The  recipe is quick and easy. Just blend the egg yolk , lemon juice and mustard, then pour the hot butter slowly while blending the egg yolk mixutre in the same blender . I steamed the asparagus  with some salt while doing so. I think I have steamed the asparagus too long  . It became limp and soggy.  Then came the poached eggs. My mother wanted to help too. We don't eat poached eggs in the house. Later I learnt how to poach eggs from  Video Jug using egg rings. I saw some sold at Tesco . The next time my husband goes there I will buy maybe two of those . It is said that you can make really nice pancakes using the egg rings, and make an egg banjo.

This recipe is one of  the dream recipe . The recipe  I love to look at and always come back . So the next time, I will try to poach the eggs first. I will steam the asparagus for lesser time. After that we put the dish in three separate plates. The verdict is  eveyone ate it. My mother, my sister and my brother. I kept the recipe  of the this dish  years ago and kept it in mind .  It looks good.  Yummy.The thicker asparagus cost RM 5.00  per bunch.