Sotong Masak Lemak Chilli Padi

I love Malaysian Cuisine especially Masak Lemak kind of dishes. I have been craving for this dish Sotong Masak Lemak Chilli Padi for almost a week but I couldn't get the sotong/ squid from the wet market then, but this morning we had early breakfast so we managed to get to the market early and lug back a kg of very fresh ones for a very affordable price of rm35 per kg. 

I cooked half portion of the one kg of Squid/Sotong  and the rest will sit in the freezer for another dish. Yours truly was very happy...finally get to cook this dish for early dinner. We were hungry coz we had early breakfast  🤭

This is my favourite dish..anything seafood I like! 😜

Very appetising dish, cukup pedas,  cukup masam and cukup lemak in Malay language. Meaning in English, it means enough heat, enough sourness and enough creaminess!

Sotong Masak Lemak Chilli Padi

(I used Che Nom recipe but replaced chicken with Squid)

Ingredients 

10-20 bird's eye chilli
2-3 inches fresh turmeric ( ** OR ½ tablespoon turmeric powder)
A little bit of water
1.5 kg/ 1 chicken
2 lemongrass
2 potatoes
Thick coconut milk (from 1 coconut)
**Or 2 small boxes of coconut cream extract
Salt to taste
1 turmeric leave
2 tamarind slices

Or cooking method

Click here

Blueberry And Cream Cheese Muffin

I found this delectable muffin recipe from HidaMari channel on You tube which I would live to try out and true enough it turned out delicious and suit my taste.

I substitute raw sugar with Lakanto so that I can without guilt. I used frozen blueberries - leftovers from making blueberry ice cream. And with tips gathered it is to coat the blueberries with flour before adding to the batter so that they won't sink to the bottom nor burst while baking. They muffin will turn bluish green on the spot where the blueberries are. Observing these tips my muffins looks great, no blueberries sank to the bottom and no bluish green spots.

I made only four pieces with half her recipe. The next bake I will make a full load. It is delicious with the cream cheese in the muffin. 

our delicious tea snack with hot coffee

Ingredients 

100 gm unsalted butter

100gm sugar- reduced to 70gm Lakanto 

2 eggs

200gm cake flour

6  gm baking powder

50 gm yogurt

50 ml heavy cream

50gm blueberries - coat with flour

100 gm cream cheese- cut into cubes

Method:

Cream butter and sugar tog till fluffy, add eggs.  Fold in gently the cake flour with baking powder, once the flour mixture is in, fold in in yogurt and heavy cream last. 

Scoop batter into muffin cups half, add in cream cheese cubes and blueberries, fill up with another scoop of batter add on top with blueberries and cream cheese. 

Repeat until all batter are used up.

Bake at 180c for 40 minutes

Check out her video 

 Click   Link

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No Sugar No Flour Nuts and Rolled Oats Cookies

Early morning bakes. I managed to bake a load of No sugar No flour Nuts and Oats cookies for myself this morning. My favourite run to cookies when hunger pang strikes. Eat with no guilt. Made up of almond flour, dessicated coconut , walnuts, almonds, salt, vanilla extract, grated nutmeg, melted butter and egg.

Easy to whip up kind of healthy cookies

two types of nuts..almond and walnuts

It is easier to shape them into small balls if you wet your hands before shaping them

I love all the ingredients used in this recipe. 

Ingredients 

(A)

100gm Almond Flour

70 gm Rolled Oats

70gm walnuts - chopped

70gm almond nibs

1/4 cup dessicated coconut 

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2tsp cinnamon or nutmeg powder

1tbsp vanilla extract

(B)

70gm unsalted butter - melted

1 large egg - beaten

Method:

Mix ingredients (A) together till well combined.  Leave aside.

Whisk ingredients (B) together till well combined. Add (B) to (A)  slowly till a soft mixture is formed and combined into the soft cookie dough. 

Using wet hand, make round balls, (33) pieces) the size of a fifty cent coin. Gently press down .Place on parchment paper liner on a baking tray. Bake at 175c for 17 mins or till light golden colour and cooked thru.

Once cooled down, store in air tight container.

Note: baking time depends on individual oven. Mine I added another 5 mins.

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Kimchi Revised Version

I have recently recreated a new recepi for my homemade kimchi to suit my now diet. I have omitted fermented shrimp (cincalok) and instead of rice paste I use blended pear/apple to help ferment the kimchi. They turned out too.

Recently I also discovered that I can use kimchi to marinated boiled Hotate ( Japanese Scallop) and serve as banchan or side dish.

The photo below shows the Marinated Hotate with Kimchi that I made recently.

Ingredients used for making my revised version of  Kimchi

Napa cabbage 

Carrot 

Spring onion 

Korean Chilli flakes/ gochugaru

Garlic paste 

Onion paste 

Blended Pear/Apple

Fish Sauce

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Stir Fry Tempe With Garlic , Chilli and Curry Leaf

Plant-based snack. Tempe is a very healthy plant based protein food. Rich in fiber and plant protein, chewy texture and takes on any flavour it is cooked in. 

My healthy snack.

First I lightly fried the temperature. Then once it is golden brown, I add in lots of chopped garlic, chilli, curry leaves and stir fry till well combine and the garlic are well coated on the Tempe. Add in the mint leaves for extra flavour.

 Tempe- extracted from wikipedia 

"Tempe or tempeh is a traditional Indonesian food made from fermented soybeans. It is made by a natural culturing and controlled fermentation process that binds soybeans into a cake form. A fungus, Rhizopus oligosporus or Rhizopus oryzae, is used in the fermentation process and is also known as tempeh starter"

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CherryTomato , Feta Cheese and Egg 'Pizza'

Cherry Tomato ,Feta Cheese and Egg Pizza 😆 topped with my homemade tomato sauce. So good! Great for breakfast or light meal. Easy to whip up and delicious too.

Ingredients 

2 beaten eggs - seasoned with salt & pepper 

10 cherry Tomatoes - cut into halves

Feta Cheese

Coriander - chopped 

1tbsp of butter

For Topping 

Homemade Tomato sauce - click link for recipe

Method:

Add in one tbsp of butter into non stick pan. Heat up pan , once butter has melted add in the  cut cherry tomatoes and saute for a minute.

Add in the beaten eggs and lower heat. Once the egg has set. Add in chopped coriander and feta cheese. 

The Cherry Tomato, Feta Cheese and Egg Pizza is ready. And before serving add homemade tomato sauce for topping.

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Homemade Chilli Sauce

We ran out of homemade chilli sauce so yesterday we went out and get fresh red chillies from Lotus. 

Soaked the chillies in baking soda and vinegar to get rid of pesticides. Drain them dry.

Today, they were ready for for the blender. Blitz the red chilli together with shallots and oil. Ratio - 1:1:1/2 - red chilli: shallots: cooking oil. Can keep up to 3 mths in the fridge.  I added chilli padi for extra heat 😜

Cook the chilli mixture over low heat. Keep stirring every one min for an hour. Once the chilli sauce is ready, add salt and sugar ( I replaced sugar with Lakanto ) to taste.

Great for dim sum items like siumai, wonton, fried Beancurdskin rolls, fishballs and noodles. So good! Before serving as dip, you can add chopped coriander to the chilli sauce for extra flavour.

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Chickpea Sweet Corn and Tricolour Quinoa Salad

 

Yesterday I whipped up a simple salad for myself for dinner. Promised to self to eat more salad this year. More to plant-based food.

Chickpea, Sweetcorn and Tricolour Quinoa Salad. Added whatever veggie and fruit I can find in the fridge 😆 cucumber, cherry tomato and apple. Chopped up some coriander and added hard boiled egg😁 . Made a mustard and balsamic dressing for it. Added a tsp of Sumac and one tbsp of extra virgin olive oil to the dressing sauce. So good! 

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Homemade Tomato Sauce

 

It's been a while since I blogged. Been busy with travelling to Australia to see the grandchild the whole of last year.

Now I back to staying home and start cooking again. Most probably you will see more cooking and baking for this year 2025. 

Last Saturday I bought 2.5 kg of ripe tomatoes from Jaya Grocer. Decided it was time to make some tomato sauce. Since having recovered from C, I have not touch any canned stuff. So everything has to be prepared from scratch. 

First soak the tomatoes in water with baking soda and vinegar to remove pesticide and bacteria. A day's job,  roasting and cooking with onions and garlic. After roasting, blend them and  add Sumac spice , bay leaf, mixed herbs to cook till sauce thicken . The aroma wafting out from the cooking sauce makes all the hard work involved was so worth it!

Seriously worth it when you get tasty healthy sauce. I can't wait to try them out on a plate of roasted eggplant and cheese. Wholemeal pasta and homemade beefballs. 

Dinner will be good for the next few weeks. Have a good day.

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