Showing posts with label Mama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mama. Show all posts

Monday, November 10, 2014

Oven Roasted Lamb Shank







Ingredients:

4 – 6 Free Range Lamb Shanks (trimmed of excess fat)
5 Large carrots 
1 Large onion
2 Cloves garlic
400ml Lamb stock - (I substituted with beef stock)
15ml Worcestershire sauce ( I substituted with soy sauce. You could also use tamarind juice)
½ Cup red wine (I substituted with pomegranate molasses)
I Tin whole tomatoes (I use whole peeled Italian tomatoes)
15ml Tomato paste
1 Tbsp. Thyme (Dried or fresh Thyme)
Olive Oil
Salt & pepper
Flour for coating the Shanks

Directions:

If the lamb shanks have not yet been trimmed, then trim off all the excess fat and connective tissue. This allows the meat to brown evenly and prevents the meat from becoming tough. Once you have trimmed the fat off the shanks, season your flour with salt and pepper and coat the shanks in the flour, dusting off excess flour before cooking. Heat a table-spoon of olive oil in a large oven proof casserole on the stove and brown the shanks in batches. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Chop your onion and garlic and sauté over a medium heat until soft and lightly browned. Peel and slice your carrots and add to the pan, continuing to cook over a medium heat, stirring often. Then add the dried Thyme, lamb stock, worcestershire sauce and red wine to the pot. Puree your tinned tomatoes and add them and the tomato paste to the pot – stir to combine. I also add a teaspoon or two of brown sugar just to cut the acidity from the tomatoes. Then place the lamb shanks back in the pot, cover and place in a preheated oven at 150°c. The cooking time may vary, depending on your oven but I recommend 2 ½ to 3hours, checking every ½hour. (Mine was 3 1/2 hours and 20mins on the stove to reduce the gravy a little more)


The result should be a deliciously rich sauce, with meat that is falling off the bone. Serve on a bed of soft fluffy mashed potato.

Monday, October 20, 2014

Ihsan's COKOLOT

Alhamdulillah, my children really love these banana balls. "Cekodok pisang", is the commonly used term in our language but in this house, "cokolot" is far more popular than "cekodok". It started when Ihsan was younger, when he was 2, if I remember correctly. It seemed for him pronouncing "cEkoDoK" was so difficult, so he had settled with just pronouncing it "cOkoLoT". Funny I know, but it sounded adorable, "Mama, I want some more, "cokolot", "yeeeay! "cokolot","cokolot, pyease (read: please)", Cute right? Imagine seeing him say that with that chubby cheeks of his. (yeah Ihsan was quite a chubby toddler). *heart-melt. So we decided to leave it that way. Until now, "cokolot" is the word we all use when it comes to these banana balls. It is our family "thing". 


There are many twist to this simple recipe. It really depends on how you like your "cokolot" to be. Some prefer it soft and not quite rounded, some prefer it squishy and round, some just don't like it all, either because of the taste of it or because of the tonnes and tonnes and tonnes of calories even a single ball carries. Yes...this is not quite a healthy finger food (just to warn you) because you'd have to deep fry these balls. Not to mentioned the amount of sugar that goes into the batter.

Okay, this is the way we like our "cekolot" - crispy in the outside and soft in the inside, rounded with a tiny tail he he he. Best eaten hot!!!

Recipe:
4 bananas - mashed
6 tablespoon of sugar
2 tablespoon of milk powder (of any kind, Nido, Enfagrow, Pediasure, trust me!)
Flour - this I can't really tell how much, but just enough, as in not too thick and not too runny
A pinch of baking soda
(I sometimes add some cut palm sugar "gula melaka" to the batter because Azmi likes it that way, a bit sticky, but most of the time, I just omit this)

Steps:
Just mix everything together. No water needs to be added. 
Heat pan with cooking oil at medium and just before you drop those batter in the pan, make sure to scoop out some oil and add to the batter. Mix well.
Fry both side until golden brown.

Tip:
The added hot oil in the batter will give you a crispy outer layer of the ball.


P.s. my Malaysian friends would laugh at me for sharing this "too easy" recipe. He he he...but this is not for the experts okay but for my dearest 3K1B. One day, if they feel like eating "cokolot" and I would not be around to make this for them anymore, then they at least could refer here and try this on their own.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Rosemary Lemon Baked Chicken

On days when my schedule is packed, I will always resort to food that are easy to prepare - one pan cooking/baking with less supervision. My class finished around 1030 this morning, so I only have about an hour to get lunch ready.  I have some thawed chicken in the sink and some fresh rosemary in the pot so, easiest is Rosemary Baked Chicken. I dont have any red potatoes so substituted them with the regular baby potatoes. Nyums, love potatoes of any kinds. So, after popping those chickens in the oven, went on to transfer load in the washing machine to the dryer. And while waiting for the chicken to be ready, I have my class homework and preparation done. Alhamdulillah, all by Allah's will, that I am a multitasking Mama. Pray for me. Pray that Allah will always make easy for me. Ameen!



Roasted Lemon Chicken with Potatoes and Rosemary

Ingredients
8-10 pieces of your favorite cut of chicken - skin on
1 lb. baby red potatoes
½ onion - cut in large pieces
2 lemons, 1 sliced and 1 juiced
⅓ cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tablespoon fresh Rosemary plus sprigs for garnish
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon fresh ground pepper

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Spray a glass 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish with cooking spray. Arrange chicken pieces (skin side up), potatoes, sliced onion and lemon slices evenly in pan.
In a small bowl, whisk together lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, rosemary, crushed red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Pour mixture all over chicken and potatoes. Sprinkle all over generously with additional salt and pepper.
Bake uncovered for about 1 hour, or until chicken and potatoes are fully cooked.

Yum!

Recipe copied and pasted from http://laughingspatula.com/roasted-lemon-chicken-with-potatoes-and-rosemary/

Saturday, October 18, 2014

A Loaf of Bread for a GIFT!

A loaf of bread for a gift? 

Who would do that?

Me, Mama...the crazy Mama!

Why?

Becauseeeee...someone in the house has been talking about wanting to eat a fresh, healthy homemade loaf, made from other than the all purpose white flour.

So why not Mama surprises him with one - A SEMOLINA SANDWICH LOAF.


Time:8 to 12 minutes to knead; 1 1/2 to 2 hours to ferment; 1 to 1 1/2 hours to proof; 35 to 45 minutes to bake

Makes:1 Sandwich loaf (31.2 ounces/885 grams)
300 grams (1 1/2 cups/10.6 ounces) water, tepid (70 to 78 degrees) – 60%
5 grams (1 teaspoon/0.2 ounce) instant yeast – 1%
500 grams (3 1/4 cups/17.6 ounces) fine semolina (durum) flour – 100%
15 grams (1 tablespoon/0.5 ounce) granulated sugar – 3%
50 grams (1/4 cup/1.8 ounces) extra-virgin olive oil – 10%
10 grams (1 1/2 teaspoons/0.4 ounce) sea salt – 2%

Mixing the dough:Pour the water into a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer.Add the yeast, flour, sugar, olive oil and salt and stir with a rubber spatula just until a rough dough forms.

Kneading – By hand:Lightly dust the counter with semolina flour.Scrape the dough out of the bowl and knead it with smooth, steady strokes until it is very smooth, shiny, and elastic, 10 to 12 minutes.

By machine:Use the dough hook and mix the dough on medium speed (4 on a KitchenAid mixer) until it is very smooth, shiny, and elastic, 8 to 9 minutes.

Fermentation:Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled container with a lid.Cover and leave to rise at room temperature (70 to 75 degrees) until it inflates into a dome, reaching double; 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Shaping loaf:Grease a loaf pan (8 1/2 x 4 1/2) with oil.Lightly dust the counter with semolina flour.Uncover the dough and turn it out onto the counter.Form the dough into a pan loaf.Nestle the loaf into the pan, seam side down, pressing it gently to fit.Lightly dust the top of the loaf with semolina flour and cover the pan with plastic wrap.

Proofing:Let the loaf rise at room temperature (70 to 75 degrees) until it crowns just above the rim of the pan, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Preparing oven:About 15 minutes before baking place rack in middle of oven.Preheat oven to 375°F.

Baking:Place the loaf on the middle rack of the oven.Bake until the loaf pulls away from the sides of the pan and the crust is a deep golden brown, 35 to 45 minutes.

Cooling and storing:Remove loaf from pan and allow to cool, right side up.Cool bread completely before slicing, about 1 hour.Store the cut loaf in a resealable plastic bag at room temperature.It will stay fresh for about 3 days.For longer storage, freeze in a resealable plastic bag for up to 1 month.

Recipe copied and pasted from http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/4213/semolina-sandwich-loaf

Lamb Chop with Mint Oil Drizzle

To start with, I will share the recipe of the blog header photo, Lamb Chop drizzled with homemade Mint Oil. Prepared this for that special someone. Got the recipe from this video: Laura Vitale - http://youtu.be/Oe23Jte2i3M

I love this recipe because it is pretty easy to prepare and quite tasty. Alhamdulillah!


Why this food blog?

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim!

My husband and I, we are no expert when it comes to preparing food but since it is our responsibility to feed our 3 Kumbangs (read: 3 Boys) and Bunga (read: 1 Girl), we try as much as we can to do our best, either we get the recipes from our Heads of Masterchef (yes 3 heads, read: Mother, Mother-in-Law and Father/Father-in-Law), our Sifu Chefs (read: family and friends) or from the internet, obviously because we aren't food "engineers". However, based on our countless mistakes that we have encountered during our food ''adventure'' (read: preparation), perhaps we could incorporate some simple tips and techniques to make the food edible. He he he.

The main intend of this blog is to collect all those recipes for safekeeping and reference of our children. InshaAllah. If this blog could benefit other blog readers as well, that would be great. Alhamdulillah. May it be a source of our jariah too. Yes, recipes are also knowledge that we all could share, even simple ones. InshaAllah.

Apart from collecting recipes, we will also share photos of food that we eat during our family outing, more of sharing how beautifully prepared and presented those plates or how tasty we think the food were. InshaAllah, we could then use those photos to help our food preparation at home (Yes, we love beautiful plates. Thanks to Papa for always presenting food nicely for us, now Mama is a big follower) and since we cant be eating out all the time, we sometimes search for recipes in the internet that may resemble closely of what we just ate outside :)

Food memoirs will also be one of the many things that we will share in this blog, inshaAllah.

So there, our long overdue food blog is out and before we end this entry, we are warning you, there'll be lots and lots and lots and lots of food photos in this blog ;P If you cant stand them, this blog is definitely NOT for you.