Ramadan day 27

My day and night are going to be upside down today. I had dinner at the airport, a simple baked fish with salad on the side. Share

Ramadan day 24

I am clearing out my fridge and start cooking anything that I can find in there. Today's meal was just a simple fried chicken with string beans. Share

Ramadan day 13

Half month through the fasting month. I have been eating light and spent most of my time driving for 20 miles from home to the camp ground. The RV had a new water heater and need to be tested. Today's meal is a simple fried mee hoon. I added lots of lettuces that I grow in the garden. Fried Meehoon is one of my favorite meal.

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Ramadan day 11

Today's dinner was sugar snap peas smothered in butter, salt and ground black pepper. They are delicious. Every year, I never fail to grow sugar snap peas. It might look like I am growing this peas for selling, I am not. I will freeze the peas and use it throughout the year. Share

Ramadan 2015 Day 26 - Sambal Goreng

Sambal goreng is actually a medley of potato, tofu, string beans, carrots, tempe and some dried hot chili peppers. I also added some rice stick noodle or suhun to the dish.

This dish is nice to be eaten with cube white rice or ketupat. It can also be eaten just like that.

Slice the string beans at an angle thinly. Set aside.
Slice carrots thinly. Set aside.
Cut potato thinly. Deep fry and set aside.
Cut extra firm tofu the same size as the potato. Deep fry and set aside.
Cut tempe the same size as the potato. Deep fry and set it aside.
Soak rice noodle or suhun. 1 cup.
1 stick of lemon grass.
1 inch of galangal (lengkuas).
1 tablespoon of dried shrimp.
1 can of lite coconut milk.
1 tablespoon of salt.
3 pieces dried hot pepper. Cut it thinly at an angle.
1 onion. diced.
1 tablespoon of chopped garlic.
2 tablespoon olive oil.
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger.

In a big pan, heat olive oil. Fry onion, garlic, and ginger until brown.
Add dried shrimp. Fry a little bit more and then add coconut milk.
Add salt to taste. Let it bubble.
Add string beans and carrot. Mix well until string beans softer.
Add fried potato, fried tofu, fried tempe, Mix everything well.
Let the coconut milk reduced.
Add sliced red hot pepper.
Lastly add the rice noddle.
Mix everything well and let it cook until all the coconut milk is dry.

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Ramadan 2015 Day 21 - Gnocchi and Pea Shoots

A simple meal for tonight's dinner, gnocchi with pea shoots. It was sort of cooking 2 items in one pot.

Firstly, I boil the gnocchi until it float. Fish the gnocchi out.
In a bowl, add the gnocchi, add 1/2 cup of alfredo ready to use sauce, and add 1 tablespoon of salsa.

I used the same water that I boil the gnocchi to blanche pea shoots. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to flavored.

Serve the pea shoots with the gnocchi.
Delicious!
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Ramadan 2015 Day 19 - Pea Shoots

A very tasty meal today came right out from my garden. I picked almost all of the pea plants. They are done as the weather is getting warmer. If left alone in the garden, the plant will turned brown and maybe lots of bugs will eat them too which will never be good. The bugs could lay eggs and the eggs stays in the ground until next year.

 The pea shoots are delicious. They taste just like peas.

For today's meal, I decided to stir fry the pea shoots with some other homegrown vegetables I have. I added string beans and radishes. As for the seasoning, I used anchovies cube. It tasted so delicious.

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Ramadan 2015 Day 17 - Break Fasting Party part 2

Another day of feasting on lots of food during iftar or in other word breaking the fast dinner at another friend's house. I wish I could stay much longer after dinner but unfortunately dinner started around 8:40 PM. Before I knew it, the clock was ticking and it was almost 11PM at night. I felt like Cinderella where I need to be home before midnight. Some of the ladies make themselves comfortable at that house. They have been to the friend's house many times over the years. Waiting for the terawih prayer was a challenge for me. I wish I could perform the prayer with the group but like I said earlier, I need to be home by certain hour.

 I brought this store bought triple chocolate cake. This cake is divine.

 The table is serving lots of main food. I just don't know which one I want to eat. I certainly cannot sample each and every dish. They are all look delicious.

 This pineapple and cucumber salad is my number one favorite food. I could eat the whole bowl. The sweetness of the pineapple gives delicious flavor to the cucumber with a hint of hot pepper and onion. This salad is refreshing.

 The dessert table is full with lots of sweetness.

This fish curry is delicious. As a matter of fact there are several different types of fish being served. Some are fried fish dress up in hot and spicy sambal, others are fish in coconut milk and fish in plain soup.
All of the food are delicious.

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Ramadan 2015 Day 13 - Zucchini Mini Pancake

I picked some 8-ball zucchini the other day. I gave one to my friend and the rest are for myself. Today's dinner, I decided to make mini zucchini pancake.

Grate the zucchini.
Squeeze the excess water.
Add spices into the mixture.
I added the following spices:
A pinch of powdered cinnamon
A pinch of powdered onion
A pinch of powdered cumin
A pinch of Mrs. Dash
A pinch of powdered hot/cayenne peppers
1/2 teaspoon of salt
4 tablespoons of all purpose flour
2 eggs.
olive oil for frying

Instructions:
Mix everything in a bowl.
Heat about 4 tablespoons of olive oil in the non stick pan.
Use spoon to scoop batter.
Fry until both sides are golden brown.

The smell was aromatic and the taste was fantastic.


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Ramadan 2015 Day 4 - Sugar Snap Peas

Early in the morning, I went to the garden to pick some vegetables. The soil was very wet from the heavy rain we had last night. I put on my garden boot and start picking the peas. I managed to harvest about 2 bags full of sugar snap peas and shelling peas. I also picked some romaine lettuce, spinach and spearmint.

For morning breakfast, I had egg sandwich and a bowl of coco puff cereal.

For today's breaking fasting, I cooked the sugar snap peas lightly tossed in butter, salt and ground black pepper. They are super sweet and delicious. I took the dish to a friend's house. She hosted the breaking fasting dinner at her house together with many other families. There are a lot of food and I just couldn't name them. There are satay, salad with peanut sauce, chicken, beef, fried noodles, cakes, cookies, super sweet drinks like fruit cocktail with pink rose syrup, watermelon juice, coffee, etc.

I did stop at the flea market earlier and bought for myself 2 pots of lavender plant. The smell from the lavender is soothing and I hope the rabbit is not going to eat them. I will plant these lavender in the front yard. As for now, they are safely kept on a higher ground. I am pretty sure the rabbit cannot reach them.

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Pennywort

My good friend Gertrude brought back my memory to when I was growing up, my late mother (rest in peace) used to cook or prepare pennywort for our dinner. Pennywort also known as pegaga in Malay or Rau Ma in Vietnamese is a healthy choice vegetables. Pennywort is easy to grow in warm climate.
I am so lucky to be able to buy this vegetables from the Asian store.

The vegetables has been cleaned. I could find only a few pieces with roots.

Since the store sell such a big bag, I have no choice but to find a way to consume these leaves. Besides eating the pegaga raw, steamed, sautéed, I juiced them. I added an apple to sweetened the juice. This pegaga juice is so refreshing and delicious.

I potted the pieces that shows some roots. I hope they will survive. If I grow these plants, I don't have to drive over to the Asian store much.

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Lemak Lodeh and Picnic

Lemak lodeh is a traditional soup made of vegetables and some shrimps. For today's lunch, I am having a bowl of lemak lodeh.  I also cut up some of my homegrown cherry red tomato dressing in salt and ground black peppers.

It is very easy to cook lemak lodeh. The main ingredients are tempeh or tofu, shredded carrots, shredded cabbage, coconut milk, hot peppers, onion, and salt. I added ground turmeric to give some color to the dish. I also use shrimps and vegetable stock for flavors. Boil everything with 3 cups of water and 1 cup of coconut milk until they bubbling. Turn off the stove and serve warm.

Slices of tomatoes are my favorite dish.

The mosque was hosting Eid Mubarak picnic. Honey and I join the event. The bbq chicken was delicious. There are many other dishes served. We stayed until the end. It was a relaxing day.

The kids line up for some ice cream. The weather was really beautiful. Breezy and not too hot. It was just perfect to be outside.

The pavilion for the men.

The pavilion for the women.
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Ramadan 2013 Day 12 - Rojak Campur (Mixed Platter with Peanut Sauce)

I really like peanut, and all kind of food that has peanut in it. Today, I feel like cooking a simple peanut sauce. To go with this peanut sauce, I have boiled potato, hard boiled egg, bean sprout, snow peas and home cook shrimp fritters.

This dish can use any vegetables. Since not many people eat in my household, I only limit the dish to potato, egg, bean sprout and shrimp fritters. The snow peas came from my garden. They are fresh and delicious.

The peanut sauce is made from crunchy peanut butter. I added 2 tablespoons of powdered hot pepper, 1 teaspoon of chopped lemongrass, 1 teaspoon of grated ginger, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and sugar, 1 teaspoon of chopped garlic, 1 teaspoon powdered onion, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder and about 4 cups water. Cook on low heat until oil start to separate.

Blanch snow peas and bean sprout in boiling water for about 3 minutes.
Boil eggs for 5 minutes. Turn off and let the egg cool before peeling.

The shrimp fritters is using 1 cup of pancake flour mix with 1 cup of regular all purpose flour. For the spices, I added 1 tablespoon of Mrs. Dash mix, 1 teaspoon of dried parsley, 1 teaspoon of dried basil, 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper, 10 shrimp (cut smaller), 1/2 teaspoon of celery salt. Mix all wit 1 cup of water and adding a tablespoon if it is too thick. Fry in olive oil until golden brown.
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Kohlrabi Soup

Today's breaking fast dinner was this simple homegrown kohlrabi soup. I am blessed with lots of kohlrabi this year. For many years in the past I've been trying to grow this delicate and delicious vegetable but was never succeed. Having lots of rain in the early spring has helped this vegetable to grow beautifully.
I cooked everything from this plant except for the root. I cut the leaf and the bulb into bite size.

 This year, I am growing two types of kohlrabi. They are the purple kohlrabi and the pale green kohlrabi. Both types are doing so well in the garden.

The secret to a nice bulb of kohlrabi lies in the watering. This plant requires lots of water to grow. I do not fertilize this plant and yet they came up nicely.

The recipe for this kohlrabi soup is pretty simple. All you need are:
5 kohlrabi with leaf
1 cube of chicken bouillon
8 cups of water(divide half)
3 pieces hot peppers
1 tablespoon of dried onion

Method:
In a big pot, boil 4 cups of water.
Slice the kohlrabi leaf into bite size.
Cut the bulb into bite size.
Add the kohlrabi into the boiling water.
Cook for 5 minutes on high heat.
Strain the water out. I like to remove the bitterness and the earthy taste from the leaf.
Add the remaining 4 cups of water into the pot.
Add hot peppers and onion.
Add chicken bouillon.
Let it boiled and then turn the stove off.
Serve hot or warm.
Delicious!
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Vege Fried Rice

A simple breaking fast meal tonight. This fried rice was loaded with sliced zucchini, chopped green bell peppers, chopped ripe tomato, chopped long string beans and an egg. I was using about 1 tablespoon of olive oil and sauteed the chopped onion. Then I added all of the vegetables I've picked from the garden. Add cooked rice and fry them until heated through. I used soy sauce for seasoning. Delicious!

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Roasted Mixed Homegrown Vegetables

The weather is humid these days. But we did receive some thunderstorm. Yesterday's thunderstorm fried our router to our wireless. I don't think I can live a day without internet anymore. Luckily, I still have the Clear device to hook up. Anyway, I went to the garden and found these beautiful vegetables as featured in the picture above.
I like growing carrots. They always surprise me with their shapes and sizes. I pulled one carrot out and here comes this stubby almost like a globe shape carrot. The carrots are beautiful. I refrain myself from pulling too many. Carrot will not mind in the ground until the first frost.

The kohlrabi has been receiving lots of water during this hot weather and it pays. This is the first year I ever get a round and plump kohlrabi. I find the purple kohlrabi is easier to grow than the green one.

Because of the scattered rain and the hot weather, I decided to pick all of my bell peppers and hot peppers. If I let them growing in this condition they might easily get fungus or blight. I hate to waste any of my crops. I can always use them in my cooking. They could stay fresh in the fridge for up to two weeks.

I try not to let the zucchini grow any bigger than my finger. I love frying them in a tempura batter. They are sweet and delicious.

I did get some long string beans. They are crunchy and I just munch on them raw. I could cook them if I want to. But raw long string beans are good enough for me.

What was not featuring in the picture above are my tomatoes. I have about a bowl of them. They are delicious marinated in balsamic vinegar.

As always, beets never disappoint me. I always get good size of beets. They are just delicious roasted in the oven at 450 degree F for 40 to 60 minutes. Don't get alarm if your urine turned red.

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Edible Weed - Amaranth

Every time working in the garden, I see lots of weeds. A friend told me that some of the weeds are edible. I never thought that weeds which always growing wildly in the garden are edible. The above picture is one of the weed that is said to be edible. This weed also known as amaranth grows abundantly in my garden.

The root of this weed is reddish in color. The plant is easily pull out from the ground. I could just stir fry this vegetable with salt and pepper. I am sure it could be cooked the same way you would serve your other green vegetables. The taste is a little bit bitter to me. But very interesting.
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Fried Collard, Onion and Zucchini Flower

I grow lots of collard greens this season. Because of the beautiful weather we had in early spring, the collard green just perking. Since I am frying the zucchini flower, I decided to fry the collard greens with the same batter. This was my first trial to eat the greens this way. I usually cook the greens with chicken stock or stir fry.

The batter is easy to prepare. I am using about 1/2 cup of ready mix pancake flour mixed in with half a cup of rice flour. Add some water and a pinch of salt.

I like to use turmeric powder in the mix. This will give a nice golden color. Deep fry the vegetable in olive oil or any cooking oil you like. The rice flour in the batter will give a nice crunch to the fried vegetables.

I add a dash of salt to flavor the batter. I also grow a sweet yellow cherry tomato. This tomato is very sweet and I do not have to cook them. I just pop them in my mouth. I also picked some sugar snap peas. I really like it stir fry with lots of butter.

The fried collard was so crunchy and the fried zucchini flower was delicious. This year I am growing just the Texas Sweet Onion and Georgia Sweet Onion. As the name implied, the onion is super sweet. I stir fry it with the sugar snap peas and I can eat them all. The neighbor gardener was shocked today to see my onions are growing bigger. She thought my onions are not going to survive. They look very small earlier on.
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