Keropok Lekor

This is my husband's favorite snack and he never gets tired eating it *LOL*. Keropok lekor tastes very much like fish keropok but it is shaped like a sausage. There are 2 types, one is chewy and the other is really crispy to a point like eating sticks *lol*. You will usually need to cut them into pieces before frying. I decided to give it a try over the weekend and fortunately they came out nice :) For this, I used the saba (mackeral) fillets that you can get from the supermarket, usually prepacked in 400g package. Otherwise, you can get fresh ones and get the fishmonger to fillet them for you. I get about 8 sausage pieces with this recipe.

Japchae ala Zu

Japchae is a korean dish which is actually glass noodle salad. It uses the sweet potato glass noodle instead of the mung bean ones that we normally see in the supermarket. I like this one better as it is chewy and slightly thicker than the regular mung bean version. It is almost as thick as the laksa noodle, maybe slightly thinner. So in the midst of clearing my pantry and refrigerator, I decided to make this for my lunch in the office today.

You can get the more authentic recipe from here For me I stir fry everything and have it as a main dish :D The sauce ingredients are generally sesame seed oil, soya sauce and sugar or honey for sweetening effect.

Nasi Samin/Nasi Minyak

We had it with Chicken Bamiah and pickled cucumber+carrot

This is the first traditional dish I made for 2012. This was actually inspired after a chat I had with my dad recently. Nasi samin is made using butter made from animal fat like cow, goat or camel. Here, we can get ghee (clarified butter) which is derived from cow easily. So my version is using ghee. It is a relatively simple dish, not much fuss and ingredient. To serve, I pan fried the cashew and raisins with a bit of ghee for flavour and aroma.

Ingredients:
3C basmati rice, rinse till water is clear then drain
4C water
1 medium size cinnamon stick
3 cloves
3 cardamoms
1 star anise
2 large onions, sliced
5 cloves garlic, sliced
2 T ghee
1 T oil
salt to taste

for garnishing, some cashews and raisins, pan fried with a bit of ghee

Method
1. Heat pot with both ghee and oil, once melted add onions, stir till onions becomes translucent
2. Add garlic and the spices (cardamom, clove, cinnamon stick, star anise) and stir till fragrant
3. Add rice and make sure they are coated with oil, add salt
4. Pour water into the pot, stir and cover to let the rice cook
5. Once the rice is cooked, sprinkle cashew nut and raisins before serving

Happy New Year !

I would like to wish all my readers a good 2012 .. May all your wishes come true. Thank you for all your support and reading my blog. I know I have not been updating this regularly especially after my dearest mom passed away in June last year. Now I will try to update as much as I possibly can try to stick to quick n easy recipes as per my blog title :-D

Thank you again :)