Ramadan day 14

A nice treat from my one and only partner for tonight's dinner. We went to a buffet restaurant. I can choose any foo I like. I just could not eat much. A plate of steak, mashed potatoes, and corn. It was delicious. I ended the dinner with vanilla ice cream in cone. The restaurant also serving chocolate fountain. I had strawberries and pineapples coated in chocolates. It was so delicious.

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Baked Fruitcake

I love fruitcake. But I would not buy them at the store unless the fruitcake is a home cooked fruitcake. The factory made fruitcake often taste bitter because they add too much of the lemon rinds.

This recipe is very simple. But if I have to do it again, I would reduce the raisins and skip the Baking Powder. I would also grease the pan.

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1 cup of chopped dried red cherries
1 cup of chopped dried green cherries
1 cup of orange marmalade
1 cup of raisins ( I would reduce to half cup)
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1 1/2 cups of water
2 sticks of unsalted butter
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of soda bicarbonate
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
3 large eggs

Method:
In a saucepan, cook water, sugar and  all fruits until bubble and raisins plumped.
Add butter and let it melt. Set aside to cool.
In a bowl, whisk eggs.
Add vanilla.
Add flour, soda bicarbonate, baking powder.
Add the fruits and all the juices.
Mix well.
Grease the bunt pan.
Heat oven at 375 degree F.
Bake for 40 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 325 and bake for another 10 minutes.
Test to make sure cake is cook through using tooth pick.



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Ramadan 2015 Day 18 - Break Fasting Party part 3

Another blessed day today for having to break the fasting at relative's house. There are lots of food to eat and lots of dessert and drinks to enjoy.

 Fried Chicken.

The company was nice. No complain on the weather. It has been nice, breezy and cool all day long. I could turned off the air conditioner at home all day.

 Baked Beans

 Corn

Peanut Reese's Chocolate cake. Delicious.

Early in the morning I was working in the garden. There are lots of peas, beans and lettuce to pick. I had a great time harvesting them since the weather was very nice.

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Ramadan 2013 Day 5 - Steak and Mashed Potato

It was a sunny Sunday today. I was planning to go out to the store to get thread for my Raya dress. Unfortunately, the weather was too hot for me. I should have work in the garden yesterday when the weather was nice and shady. Today, I spent my time at home washing clothes and sewing my baju raya. I am in the mood of making a simple tunic with a flare skirt. My break fasting meal today was steak and mashed potato. I was so hungry that I did not take the picture of the steak. It was just a simple steak seasoned with salt and ground black pepper. I sauteed onion and it went on top of the steak. The mashed potato had the skin on since the potato I was using are small potato with soft skin. My dessert today are just some fresh blueberry and dates. As for the drink, I had a cup of hot tea with milk. Delicious!

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Ramadan 2013 Day 4 - Ground Cherry

A few years back, I have tasted this delicious ground cherry fruits. So far, I have never seen it sell at any market near my area. I've found the seed sold online. So I bought a packet and grow about 8 plants. 3 of the plants died when the wind broke the top part. Luckily, the rest of the plants survived.

The plants need a pair to produce abundance fruits. I was excited when I found them ripe and fell on the ground. There was no worm or any bug feasting on the fruits. Earlier of the season, I thought the plants I had was the purple tomatillo. I was wrong. They are the sweet ground cherry plants. I am happy with this plants. I cannot wait to pick more. The husk is not edible. The cherry inside is smooth and yellow color. Delicious! Share

Before Sunrise Meal - Sahur

Sahur or early morning breakfast is taken before the sunrise in the month of Ramadan. I try to eat well balance food during this year's Ramadan. I will drink a glass of soy milk. Silk brand has soy milk mix with fruits. They are tasty. I have tried their soy milk with Mango and soy milk with berries. The next time I am going to try the soy milk with strawberry and banana. The soy milk provide the protein I need to go through  the fasting day where I cannot eat or drink until sundown.

In the above picture, I have fresh strawberries, cake squares and dates for my breakfast. I also had a cup of chick peas or garbanzo beans to go with this meal.

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Ramadan 19 - Steamed Plantain

I am not a dietician nor a doctor, but I just wanted to share the information passed down to me recently. My doctor said plantain is better for me than the regular banana because plantain has lower sugar content. Here in the US, plantain is sold at a cheaper price. I can buy 4 plantains for only one dollar. Some plantains are sold when it is still green and some are already ripened. The green plantain is tart and suitable for plantain chips.
I like banana and I like plantain too.

Growing up, I like my mom's steamed "pisang tanduk" aka Horn banana. To me, plantain has similar texture and taste like pisang tanduk. I usually slice the plantain and fry them to make plantain chips. In Puerto Rico, I see people sell the plantain deep fried whole and serve it for lunch or dinner. They are using ripe plantain and it taste really sweet.

To steam plantain, firstly we need to wash the plantain and cut both ends off. My steamer is small so, I had to cut the plantain into half. Steam the plantain for 10 minutes or until the skin cracked. You can eat this steamed plantain in anyway you like. You can add coconut flakes, or sprinkle some brown sugar, or with berries sauce or melted chocolate, etc. I like to eat this steamed plantain plain. It taste delicious and much helthier for us.
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Cassava Cake and Prickly Pear Cactus Fruits

The moment of truth. I cut the prickly pear cactus fruit. The inside flesh is dark red. The juice and the fruit smell sweet. I had a bite and yes it was super sweet. But the seeds inside are hard like a rock. The flesh around it is sweet and soft. It melted in my mouth almost like eating an ice cream.

I bought a frozen already grated yucca aka cassava or in Bahasa Melayu it is called Ubi Kayu. This cake is easy to cook.
All you need are:
1 lb bag of grated and frozen yucca
1 cup coconut milk
1 egg
1 cup sugar
1 cup water

Mix everything in a bowl.
Heat the oven at 400 degree F.
Bake this delicious cake for about 30 minutes or until the top is brown.

My meal for break fasting tonight was marinated salmon and string beans. I was too hungry that I forgot to take the picture of the salmon and string beans.

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Homegrown Watermelon

Petite, juicy and super sweet homegrown watermelon for breakfasting. I couldn't describe how happy I was seeing the redness of the flesh. Honey doesn't care for watermelon, so I ate half for breakfasting and the other half at dawn.
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Pancake and Porridge

We received more than a foot high of snow yesterday. I was snowed in the house. A family came to the door and offer to shovel our driveway for $30. We accepted their offer. There are too much snow to shovel just the two of us.

They did a good job given just 10 minutes to finish the area. It seems sufficient they did it just around the house and not the whole walkway. We have the longest walkway to deal with.

I would be happy as long as my car could go in and out of the driveway. When snowed in the house like this, nothing is comforting than to have pancakes for our breakfast. My pancake was loaded with fresh apples and top off with some cinnamon and sugar. It was the best pancake I have ever made.

I am using a regular pancake mix. One cup of pancake mix with 3/4 cup of water. Whisk it well. This batter yield 4 pieces of 5 inches in diameter pancakes.

I cored, skinned off of an apple. I was using the green apple. Then I diced the apple thinly.

I was also using a ready to use cinnamon sugar sprinkles.

Melt 2 tablespoons salted butter in the non stick pan.

Pour 1/4 of the batter. Let the heat on medium low.

Once the pancake bubble at the top, layer it evenly with diced apple.

Then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

After about 3 minutes, turn the pancake to the other side.

Let it cook for another 2 to 3 minutes.
Serve warm with some maple syrup. The First magazine said maple syrup is the secret ingredients to lose weight.

As for lunch, I was having a bowl of warm porridge. I garnished this porridge with some pickled radishes and salted peanuts.

Ingredients for the porridge:

1 cup long grain rice

4 cups water

1 cube chicken stock

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon dried parsley

1 cup shredded carrots

1 white potato (dice small)

Method:

In a big pot, add water , salt and chicken cube.

Heat on medium high uncover.

Add rice and potato.

Add carrots.

Add parsley flakes.

Let it boil for 1 minute.

Then turn the heat to low and let it simmer until rice broken up.

Turn off the heat and cover.

Serve warm.

Nasi Lemak and Fruits Salad

I cooked nasi lemak for my brunch today. Since I landed in London soil the night before, I had my systems on different time zone. I don't have appetite to eat proper meal. But today I am feeling up to the challenge to prepare Malaysian number one favorite meal, Nasi Lemak.
My sister had the spicy sambal ready. So, I fry some eggs and roast some peanuts to go along with this nasi lemak.
The nasi lemak was easy to cook.
I used 4 cups of white short grain rice.
Mix it with 1/4 cup coconut milk and 5 cups water.
Add 2 inches ginger root(whole).
Add 3 pieces screwpine leaves (daun pandan)
Add 1/2 teaspoon sea salt.
Cook everything in rice cooker.

I served this meal with slices of cucumber and cherry tomatoes that was cut into half.
Here is a fruit salad prepared by my brother in law. He mix all kinds of berries.

Apple Pizza

Super easy apple pizza.
Remove the skin from 5 red apples.
Remove the core and dice it small.
In a bog pot, heat up apple on medium high.

Will continue the rest of the instruction soon....

I am back...

Add 1/3 cup splenda.

Cook until apple is soft. Dash with some powdered cinnamon.

Turn the stove off.

I am using ready to use biscuit dough.
Flatten the dough with a rolling pin into a round shape.

Spread with smooth ricotta cheese. You could use cream cheese too.
Lastly add a big scoop of the cooked apple.

Bake in the oven at 350 degree for 15 minutes.

Delicious!
Honey doesn't like sweet pizza. So I have to freeze the rest of the pizza and take to work one at a time. I just heated it in the microwave for 30 second.

Fried Banana

There are so many ways we can eat banana. I always buy my banana from a warehouse store like Costco or Sam's club. The banana could last me two weeks. I have to remember to take one to work each day. Sometimes, I just brought and kept the whole banana at work.
By the end of the second week, the banana turn really ripe and the only way to eat it is to make this delicious fried banana also known in Bahasa Melayu as Cekodok pisang.

For this recipe, I am using about 4 super ripe banana.
2 cups regular all purpose flour.
1 cup brown sugar.
1 teaspoon baking powder.

Mesh the banana. Add brown sugar. Mix them well.
Add flour.
Add baking powder.
Let them sit for 5 minutes.
Heat about 1 inch olive oil in frying pot.
Make sure the oil is really hot before dumping the banana mixture.
The banana fritters will plump up.
Fry until it turn golden brown.
Serve warm or at room temperature for breakfast or afternoon tea.
Enjoy!

Tat Nenas and Kuih Siput

So far I have made tat nenas, kuih siput and biskut kurma for this year Raya celebration.

Seventh Day Ramadan - Fruits

I am sorry guys, no cooking on the 7th day of ramadan. Honey, Tina and I went out to dinner. I had cheese pizza with unsweetened ice tea at Arooga's restaurant. We went to a movie prior to breakfasting. Honey picked me up at my job and all three of us went to see Final Destination 3D. Unfortunately we didn't go to the screen that can projected 3D. So our experience watching the show was like any ordinary movie.
I am sure I will not pick this movie if I were given a choice. This movie will give me chill and trauma. As usual the picture is graphical. But I just closed my eyes if it is too much. There were too many guts gushing out and even liver flew down from the sky. Yikes!
After the movie, we stopped by at Sam's club and Walmart. We bought our usual brand of items from these two stores. Yes, we are into the brand when it comes to certain food. Honey is a picky eater although he won't admit it.
I bought these three types of fruits from Sam's club and will have some fruits salad. Yummy! Just drizzled them with some of my favorite strawberry syrup. O la la. I like them cold so I will cut and chill them in the fridge overnight before I serve.
Do you know that you can make banana chocolate covered ice cream from this fresh banana? It was easy. Just peel off the banana skin. Using parchment paper to separate each banana so that they will not stick to each other in the freezer. Freeze them overnight. You can submerge the frozen banana into chocolate melt. Then drizzle some chopped almond. Again, another O lala. Delicious!
Have fun!

Sixth Day Ramadan - Lobster Tail, Shrimp with String Beans and Cantaloupe Smoothie

Day sixth still a breeze. I was very hungry around lunch time especially when I smell delicious meal from around my desk. But I keep on concentrating on my code. My code was working the other day but as soon as I change the setting, it didn't work. I hate it. It was until almost 4 pm that I realize the weird behaviour. I really really hate it.
Anyway, before I reach home, I stop by at my garden. I dig out some carrots and beets. I also pull out all the onions from the other garden. But I was not feeling weak or hungry. Yeay!
I even clean out my car because I need to use it this saturday. The weather has been very nice today. Not too sweaty for me.

I found some lobster tails in my freezer. The lobster tail will be our meal for breakfasting today. To go along with the lobster tail, I cook shrimp and string beans. Lastly, I make smoothie out of my cantaloupe. I spice it up with diet mountain dew. It was delicious.
I have been cooking shrimp and string beans for quite some time. Honey like it so much. So whenever I am out of idea for a meal to serve him, I will always go with this shrimp and string beans. You can read my other post on this meal here and here. But for today's shrimp and string beans, I am trying a different style of cooking it. This is what I did:

Ingredients:
2 cups frozen string beans. I just washed it in cold water.
2 cups medium size shrimp
1 medium size red onion (homegrown)
2 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 tablespoon butter
4 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Method:
Heat pan on medium.
Add olive oil.
Add butter. Let the butter melt.
Add thinly dice onion. Stir.
Add chopped garlic. Stir. Let them both brown. But not to let the garlic burn.
Drain excess water from the string beans.
Add into the pan. Stir well.
Let it cook for 5 minutes.
Add shrimp.
Add salt and pepper.
Stir to incorporate everything. Turn off the stove when the shrimp turn pink.
Do not cook too long or your shrimp will be tough.
Serve warm.

The different here is the red onion. I usually do not put onion in my shrimp and string beans. I only use garlic. Lots of them. But since this is a homegrown onion, the flavor is very strong. The taste was superb. Honey took a big portion of this beans.
This cantaloupe smoothie is really good. All I did was to blend cantaloupe with a can of diet mountain dew. This drink is very refreshing. It is suitable for this hot weather and quench the thirst of the people who is fasting. It is also very filling. I could just drink this smoothie and meal is done.
Here is my one and only probably watermelon from my garden. Aren't it a cutie pie?
This watermelon is actually sweet despite the color of the inside and it's size.
Happy Ramadan!

Second Day Ramadan - Fish Assam Pedas, Sweet Potato, Canteloupe and Cold Milo

Second day of Ramadan is little bit tougher to get by. Breakfasting at 7:55 pm today add to the suffering. But somehow, I managed. I started to prepare for dinner around 4:30 pm. I started with cleaning and boil the carrots that I dug out from my garden. I like to boil the carrots with some salt to reduce the tartness of homegrown carrots.
Then I started to prepare ingredients for the fish assam pedas. I am using fish head that I bought from the asian store. The fish head is cut into bite size pieces.

Ingredients:
1 lb fish head. (I bought the fish head from the asian store which has been clean and cut into bite size)
2 bell peppers (roast in the oven for 20 minutes at 400 degree F)
2 shallots
2 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 tablespoon turmeric powder
1 cup daun kesum (Vietnamese mint or Vietnamese coriander leaves)
1 tablespoon chopped lemongrass
1 tablespoon shrimp paste
3 tablespoon lemon juice
Salt to taste
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 - 2 cup water

Method:
Chop shallots finely.
Roast bell pepper in the oven at 400 degree F for 20 minutes or until the skin is charred. Remove the bell pepper skin. Cut open and remove the seeds. Then finely chop the roasted bell pepper. I am using this roasted bell pepper to replace other vegetable like okra or tomato thta usual added into the fish assam pedas.
Heat a big pot with olive oil on medium heat.
Add onion and garlic and cook until brown.
Add bell pepper and cook for 2 minutes.
Add turmeric powder.
Add chili paste.
Add shrimp paste.
Add ground lemongrass.
Cook until fragrant and slightly dry.
Add fish head. Coat well.
Add lemon juice.
Add 1 cup water. Add more water if you like more gravy.
Add daun kesum.
Add salt to taste. Simmer until fish cook. Turn off the stove and serve warm with white rice.
Next is a super easy Sweet Potato. This one I can serve to honey's plate along with his fried fish and fried shrimp. Yes, I have to cook asian food for myself and honey's simple food.
Sweet potato is so popular in honey's family. I like to cook it fresh using homegrown sweet potato that I can get from the farmer's market. Some people like to use the ready to make sweet potato in a can. I like to control my own sugar content in this meal. Plus, it doesn't take long to cook it.

Here is my ingredients and method:

4 medium size sweet potato
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup water
1 tablespoon powdered cinnamon
1 teaspoon powdered nutmeg
2 tablespoon butter

Method:
Peel sweet potato and cut into bite size.
In medium size pot, heat water and brown sugar on low.
Add butter.
Add cinnamon and nutmeg.
Add sweet potato.
Simmer until potato is soft. About 20 minutes. Serve warm or cold as side dish.
Sweet cantaloupe. I am using ice cream scoop to cut the cantaloupe into half ball. Chill this cantaloupe in the fridge.

I also serve sweet corn from my garden. I just top it up with butter.

As for the milo for drink, I use 3 tablespoon of milo and dilute it in some hot water. Then I pour milk in the same glass leaving space for my ice cubes. I didn't put any sugar in my milo. If you like your milo sweeter, you can add 1 tablespoon sugar. Milo is my favorite drink since I was young. I can drink it hot or cold.
Enjoy!