Foodelicious!

Hehehe.. this has been my little hobby for the longest time. I love to plant vegetables and see them grow. It gives me a sense of accomplishment when they grow... green, healthy and looking scrumptious! Hehehe..

So far, I have planted zucchinis, choy sum, long beans, french beans.. on top of all the usual herbs like lemongrass, tumeric, curry leaves, rosemary, sage, basil, thai basil, lemon basil kaffir lime, mint, sawtooth basil, torch flower (bunga kantan).. At the moment, I have cabbages, yau mak, capsicum, siew pak choy, choy sum, malabar spinach, yam and passionfruit. Oh yes, the banana trees are still around and I have just cut down a 7 combs bunch of bananas! Woo Hoo... it's gonna be a Nanalicious Christmas!

Oh yes.. Christmas! That's why I have been so quiet in here lately.. I have been extremely busy with my usual Christmas orders. After 4 years, my customers are familiar with what I have to offer and have placed their orders.. woo hoo.. so, on top of taking care of my vegetable garden, going to work, running a household and bringing up a teenager, I am also running my business! Hahahahahaha.. quite a bit for an old hag like me.

So.. be patient.. Christmas goodies will be shown very soon.. in the meantime, think of all the vegetables that I will be having.. fresh, crunchy, sweet, tender vegetables that are free from all sorts of chemicals. Ohhh yess.. I dont even use fertilizers as I enrich my soil by recycling all my kitchen waste, ground coffee beans, tea leaves. So, nothing can be more organic than this!

Making this is a lot of effort.. hence, you dont find this dish nowadays. Even if you do, it's not as good as it should be... This dish is judge base on the cook's ability to balance all the fragrant leaves, rempah and taste, savory, sour, bitter and sweet and her skill of cutting! Oh.. this is all about the cutting!! Daun kadok, daun kunyit, daun kesum, bunga kantan, serai and lots more have to finely cut. Something that it rather impossible for me to do if there is no aunty! Hehehe..

Perut Ikan means fish stomach.. people those days eat every part of anything.. nothing is gone to waste or thrown away.. Everytime, a fish is cleaned, if its stomach is big enough, it will be preserved. The process of preserving the fish stomach is tedious and long to ensure it does not get contaminated or rot... so, again, it's all about skill.... There is no measurement for people then... they perfect their skills by observing.. It is an art!!

To cook this, a lot of work... and it will take a few ladies sitting around the kitchen to make it happen.. hahahhaa.. some will be peeling and pounding, some will be slicing, some will be washing and frying... ooo.. you cannot imagine the work.. but the end result is always a big pot of treasure!! Lovely treasure that will get better as the days goes by..

This is not something I will sell.. no amount of money is worth the effort and patience. But I am lucky to have learnt and watched how this dish is made... long time ago by my aunt's mom and now my aunt... and hopefully one day I will make it and someone will learn... passing on the skill, knowledge and art of making something so great....

I personally am not a big fan of salmon... but I am a big fan of salsa! Hahahahhaa.. On hot days, I like my salsa to be tangy. On rainy days, I like it spicy. Today, as I am not well, I have decided to pan fry a piece of salmon and ladden it with very tangy mango salsa. This shall be my monster's lunch today.

On a hot pan, as the salmon sits sizzling, I chopped up tomatoes, onions, pineapples and mangoes into small cubes, spice them up with bunch of thyme with lime, salt, honey and a dash of balsamic vinegar. Once the salmon was dished up, it was generously ladden with tangy Mango Salsa.. The aroma is simply very very enticing and with a plate of hot rice, my monster polished off all in a jiffy.

With the extra salsa, my monster and I had a whale of time watching TV and eating corn chips dipped in these salsa. A very addictive passtime..

You will not be able to find this dish being sold anywhere nowadays and quite frankly, most people dont even know there is such a dish! Hehehe... This is a bygone era dish. This dish is very popular with the Penang Peranakan clans. During those times, people are very frugal and I must say very creative to come up with dishes that does not require expensive ingredients but yet is extremely appetizing, flavourful and most importantly, filling to the stomach. You dont need a lot of this to eat plenty bowls of rice..With this dish, one will polish off at least 2 bowls of rice.. 2 big bowls!! This is plainly because the sauce or kuah from this dish is so seducing.. once it is mixed with hot rice, one cannot stop eating it.. spoon after spoon after spoons of rice.. and I always tell myself.. "ok! this is the last spoon.." but some how, it is never to be... Hehehehe...

To prepare this dish, one must have the patience of a nyonya.. hehehe.. I can just imagine girls born into and brought up by in a Peranakan family. These girls are required to have good cooking skills.. Everything has to be nicely done... there was no blender then and you just have to slave away using the mortar and pastel!! Peranakan girls are also required to cut everything finely, something which I will fail face down! Hahahahaha.. any fine cutting or chopping or slicing are always done by my aunt.. I dont have such patience... not even for food.. Heh! heh! heh!.. So, you can guess who did most of the work for this dish.

To start making this dish, one has to get lime, wash them, grate off the green part nicely and make slit around the fruit. Boil a pot of water and drop these "processed" lime and scoop up. Leave them aside to dry. Slice garlic, onions, chilies finely. When I say finely, I mean finely.. like hair! Sun dry them together with red and green chili padis for a few days.. while those are taking a nice sun tan, one can start with getting the sauce ready.. tumeric, vinegar, sugar and lots of oil.. fry them and when everything is nicely blended, leave it to cool. Once this sauce is ready, just dump in all the nicely tanned and finely sliced ingredients.. mix and throw in the limes. Let them soak for days.. (if the whole thing bubbles up, you can kiss all your hard work goodbye and start again!) After a week or so, it should be ready.. and that's when you fry some fishes and drop them into the acar. The fried fish will soak up the flavour of the acar and together, the taste is extremely appetizing and exciting! It's savory, it's tangy, it's sweetish, it's spicy, it's aromatic, all your five tastebuds will be alive! Woo hooo...

And yes, on a draggy Thursday, I really need something like this to make my day. Hehehe.. yes, I am waiting, not very patiently though, for Friday to come....

This is an all time favorite with kids and adults since beginning of time! This dish is good with hot weather, rainy weather, no appetite days, fussy kids days or simply a lazy to cook days. Yup, take your pick as to what day it's today for me.. hehehehehe...

Originally, this recipe calls for Pork but since I dont eat pork, I substitute it with chicken fillet. Season the chicken fillet, chop up some onions, tomatoes, cucumbers and pineapples. Heat up the wok with oil till very hot, fry the chicken fillet, scoop up! Fry the onions, garlic, tomatoes, cucumber, pineapple and add in the sauce.. tomato sauce, a dash of vinegar, salt, sugar, plum sauce, worchestire sauce. Throw in the fried chicken fillet and toss it around a bit and dish up! Serve with hot rice and that will make a bad day seem bearable! Hehehe..

Tuesday started cloudy and dark with wind blowing and the many wind chimes around my house were happily dancing to the tune they make. My favorite weather.. aaaahhh... with such weather, it never fail to incite me to make something different.. today is something spicy and contrasting...

Yes, got everything together.. Yes, I always have most ingredients in my house.. either in the garden or in the fridge and slave away! Hahahaha.. yes, making this dish has a bit of slaving away work to do.. Gotta clean the serai, lengkuas, kunyit and a tiny bit of ginger which I yank out from my garden, pluck the chilies from my garden, peel the onions, toast the belacan a bit, put everything into the mortar and pastel and pound away. Yup, with all your might and anger.. very good for anger management! Hehehee... Once that is done, heat up the oil, fry the ingredients with a few pieces of kafir lime leaves, Vietnamese mint and if you have, torch flower till fragrant and oil floats up. Add in some cut up tomatoes and for today, I add in fresh pineapples. Add in tamarind water and once it starts to boil, add in fish, cut up brinjal and ladies finger. I like to season my dish with a twist of lime, sugar and salt and garnish with mint from my garden... My lunch is ready...

For me, it's always easier to cook than to go out to eat. Many a times, I stand and stare around at food court, restaurants, shopping malls not knowing what to eat.. Sad! Such incidents have taught me that it's always easier to cook... hehehe.. a simple meal of steamed 3 types of eggs and blanched vegetables with oyster sauce is just as yummy and satisfying as a meal in the most expensive restaurant cooked by the most renowned chef. Life can be great with simple things....

When I was in London, I noticed that people in London make use of every available plot of land around their housing area. Even tiny strips of land next to the road are used to cultivate something or another.. I even saw a chicken coop with a few chicken clucking away! Oh.. how I wish we are able to do just that here. Sigh.. this is the difference between a developed country and a non developed one like KL!!

Anyway, back to my stories, I was very inspired and motivated to start my farming again especially after a visit to Kew Gardens, London and with the many packets of seeds, I came back and planted some of them. After 2 months, I now have 2 very healthy zucchini plants in my mini vegetable farm.. a few cabbages are in progress, bell peppers fruiting.. oh.. the sight is simply very pleasing. It's such sights that give me tremendous happiness.. hehehe..

From my 2 healthy zucchini plants, I am able to harvest some zucchinis.. not big though but they are chemical free, organically grown with everyday produce as fertilizers.. grounded and used coffee beans, heads and ends and peels of vegetables that I use everyday, orange skin, lemon skin after having their juices, fruits and vegetable pulps from my daily juicing.. I dont need commercial fertilizer do I?? Hehehe...

With my harvest, I made this today for my monster's lunch. A very simple but deliciously appetizing dish.. zucchini and chicken in oyster sauce. Fry lots of chopped garlic, throw in cut up chicken fillet seasoned with a dash of pepper, salt, corn flour and sesame oil. Stir them up quickly, add in the sliced up zucchini, add a dash of oyster sauce, stirring all the time and lastly, a bit of water to give it a bit of sauce. When ready, dish up and serve with hot steaming rice. My monster can wallop 2 big bowls of rice with this dish! And my! the zucchini slices are so succulent and sweet!! I wish I could have more zucchinis in my garden! Hehehe...

With this, Monday dont seem so bad afterall.... Have a great week everyone!

I bought these seeds from Kew Gardens and when I got back, I grew them.. the first packet didnt work but the second packet blossomed! Hehehehe...and now I have a pretty pot of Greek Basil.

The ones I saw in London were of smaller leaves and greener.. The fragrant was also very different... it was very mild and sweet in London.. but over here, this plant is rather similar to Thai Basil.. sweeter in taste and smell...

Oh.. I also have courgettes growing in my garden... they are still baby stage and once it grows bigger, I shall capture a picture and post it.. Hehehe..