Monday, February 18, 2008

Recipe For A Mouth-Watering Chicken Rendang!

One of my most favorite dish of all time is my mothers’ Chicken Rendang. This is my mother’s signature dish. Every Hari Raya, she would make this dish. This dish is so delicious that every time I see it, my mouth would start to water. Chicken Rendang is actually a rich coconut chicken stew. It’s a bit spicy and has a rich flavor and best eaten with plain or glutinous rice. I will give you the recipe for this dish so that you all can enjoy it too!

The ingredients are:

4 tbsp of cooking oil
3 lime leaves, torn
1 whole chicken (900g/2lb), cut into 8 pieces
1.5 cup coconut milk
palm sugar (to taste)
salt (to taste)

The ingredients for the spice paste are:

8 dry medium-sized red chillis, softened
10 small shallots, finely chopped (or an onion if you don’t have any shallots)
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
50g ginger
30g galangal, peeled and thinly sliced
2 stalks lemon grass, smashed
1 turmeric leaf (or some turmeric powder)

The methods to cook it are:

1. Grind the softened chillis, shallots, garlic, ginger and the turmeric leaf either in a pestle and mortar. Or if you want to be lazy, put it in a blender. (Pestle and mortar version makes it taste better for some reason though)

2. Heat the oil in a wok or a pot over moderate heat and fry the paste in step 1 for about 10 minutes until fragrant. Keep adding a little oil a bit at a time if the paste becomes too dry to avoid the paste from burning.

3. Add the galangal, lemongrass, lime leaves, turmeric leaf and the chicken pieces into the pot. Then stir in the coconut milk and add salt to taste.

4. Bring to a simmer, cover, and stir from time to time until the chicken is cooked. (About 20 minutes).

5. Add palm sugar to taste, increase the heat and cook a few more minutes until the sauce has thickened.

I hope you all will like this dish as much as I do. ENJOY!

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Me As A Singer.....Imagine That....

My BEL260 lecturer, Pn. Shima told me to imagine that I’m a singer. So now I’m going to imagine that I’m a world famous singer with my own album and songs. My album title will be I, My, Me. This album will feature songs that are all about me so that the whole world can get to know the real me and who I really am. My album will contain 10 songs in all. 5 songs will be about me and the other 5 will be about my hopes and dreams for the future.

The 5 songs that tell the world about me is Cats & Kittens, The Pink and I, The Aqua That I Am, Happy-Go-Lucky and Making New Friends. The song Cats & Kittens is all about the wonderful world of these very cute and furry animals. This song I wrote especially for all you cat lovers out there.

Pink is my most favorite color, so obviously you would know that the song The Pink and I would be all about the color pink and how beautiful it is because pink IS the color of love and healthiness which is 2 of the most important things in our lives.

The Aqua That I Am is actually a song about Aquarius. This song is a dedication to me and to all those other people in the world who are also an Aquarius.

I think of myself as a happy-go-lucky person. I like to smile and laugh a lot. I also like to see other people smile and laugh especially if those people are smiling and laughing with me at my jokes. Anyone who listens to the song Happy-Go-Lucky will definitely feel happy. I dedicate this song to all those people out there who are down on their luck.

The song Making New Friends is obviously about making new friends. I’m a person who likes to have as many friends as I can; the more the better. I make it a point to make at least 1 new friend whenever I go to someplace new. I hope when you hear this song you would want to be my friend too.

The songs My Dream House, Complete Cats Collections, Show Me the Money, My Very Own Library and Be the Best That I Can Be are the 5 songs that tells you about my hopes and dreams for the future. My Dream House is a song that tells you about the house of my dreams. My dream house will have, among other things, an in-door swimming pool. This dream of mine might never come true, but it never hurts to dream.

If you have heard my song Cats & Kittens, you will not be surprised that one of my dream is to have a complete collections of cats; kittens included. That’s why I created the song Complete Cats Collections. Don’t you think it would be fun to own all kinds of cats? I know I do.

Everyone needs money in life, including me. I do hope that one day I would have enough money to buy anything that my heart desires. The song Show Me the Money was created based on that hope.

My Very Own Library is about my hope to have a library that’s filled with all the books that I love to read. This library will be like my sanctuary. I can go there whenever I want and read as many books as I want.

The last song in my album is the song The Best That I Can Be. This song is about my hope to be the best that I can be in everything. I hope being the best that I can be will be enough for me to be successful in the future.

My Hit Song is Happy-Go-Lucky. I chose this song as my Hit Song because I think that this song describes me the best. This is the song lyrics for Happy-Go-Lucky:

Happy-Go-Lucky

Smiling is like a ray of sunshine
That brings light to our lives
Smile from your heart
And it will brighten up your life.

As the saying goes
Laughter is the best medicine
When you’re feeling down
Laughter can lift up your spirit.

(Chorus)
I smile, I laugh
You smile, you laugh
Everyone smiles, everyone laughs
We’ll all be happy together.

A smile is free
A laugh has no price
Together they are priceless.

Repeat chorus 2x

I know that I’m not really a singer and it’s highly unlikely that I’ll ever be one but you can pretend that I am and buy my album. This is the end of my imaginings but before I really end this, I have just one thing to remind you. Please buy the ORIGINAL!