Easy Peasy Skillet Queso

Skillet Queso

* 2 cloves of garlic, minced*

* 200g minced meat (beef)
* 2-3 tbsp chili paste
* 1 tsp paprika
* 1 tsp cayenne pepper
* 1/2 tsp cumin powder
* 1 cup cooking cream or milk
* 8-10 slices of American cheddar cheese

Steps

1. Fry garlic, minced meat & chili paste. Season with paprika, cayenne & cumin

2. Add cooking cream. Let boil

3. Add in cheese, stir. Serve

I wanted to make the chips as well but I found Mission Tortilla Chips in Tesco so I took the easy way out. You can make your own by slicing and frying tortilla wraps.

Enjoy!

Yee Mee Spice Soup

Yee Mee Spice Soup

Hello! Here's another super simple something for you to cook on those lazy days.


Ingredients

• 5 cups water

• 1 tsp Chinese Five-Spice Powder (cinnamon, cloves, fennel seed, star anise & sichuan pepper)

• 1/2 tsp ground cumin

• 1/2 tsp ground aniseed

• 1 tsp Maggi Cukup Rasa

• 1 tsp chopped coriander

• salt & pepper

• 2 eggs

• 2 bunch yee mee

Steps

1) Boil water. Add spices, Maggi Cukup Rasa, salt & pepper.

2) Crack and beat eggs, pour in pot. Let cook, stir occasionally. 

3) Once boiled, add in yee mee and cook for about 1 minute until soft. Garnish with chopped coriander (or flakes) and serve!

Roti Canai

You now know how to make sambal and dhal, what to eat them with?

Why, roti canai of course!

And here's a super easy recipe with instructions.

Roti Canai

Ingredients

* 2 cups wheat flour

* 1/3 tsp salt

* 1/2 cup water

* 1 tbsp margerine/butter

* 1 tbsp condensed milk (susu pekat manis)

Steps

1. Mix flour, salt, planta & water. Add condensed milk.

2. Shape dough into 4 to 6 balls. Daub with planta. Leave 1-2 hours or overnight.

3. Roll out the pastry by hand while daubing more cooking oil. Pull till thin, bunch up into long rope and coil.

4. Flatten with palm & fry in a bit of hot oil.

Potato Dhal

So I don't eat vegetable and most recipes requires a whole bunch of leaves and pokok in it. A bit of a waste if no one else is eating. Here's the recipe for potato dhal. Not veggie free but not a huge waste either.

Potato Dhal

* 200g kacang dhal (small ones)

* 1/2 stick carrot

* 3 potatoes

* 1/2 tbsp curry powder

* 3 dried chilli

* Salt & Maggi Cukup Rasa

* Halba campur (mixed spices - Fenugreek, mustard, jintan manis & jintan putih)

* 1/2 sweet onion

* 1 stalk curry leaves

* 1 cm ginger

1. Boil overnight-soaked dhal till soft in a pot. Add in curry powder & stir. 

3. Add cubed (and peeled) potatoes & carrot, cook till soft. Add salt to taste.

4. Sauté mixed spices, diced sweet onion, ginger & curry leaves till fragrant. Add into pot.

It's GREAT with sambal. Get the recipe here.

Nasi Lemak (Coconut Rice) and Sambal Recipe

Bashed lemongrass 

.::Nasi lemak::.

Ingredients

- 2 cups rice

- 1 cup coconut milk

- 1 1/2 to 2 cups water

- 1 tsp salt

- 1 lemongrass (white part), bashed

- 2 fried shallot

- 2 cloves garlic

- 1 inch ginger

- 1 tbsp margarine (skip if you want pure white rice)

- 2 pandan leaves

.::Sambal::.

Ingredients

- 5 shallots

- 3 cloves garlic

- 10 dried chili

- 1 inch ginger

- 1 tsp tamarind paste

- 2 tbsp palm sugar

- 1 tbsp white sugar

- 1 tsp salt

- 5 tbsp cooking oil

- a handful of anchovies*

- chili sauce/ chili paste*

Steps

1) Peel, clean, chop & blend (use blender, skip the mortar and pestle) shallots, garlic, dried chili & ginger. Add anchovies.

2) Heat oil, sauté ingredients in step 1 until fragrant. Add in tamarind paste, palm sugar, sugar & salt.

3) Add a little water if too dry, cook until you see some bubbles popping.

Cooking this favourite dish of many Malaysians requires some strategising so you don't waste time. You'll want the sambal and condiments to be ready when the rice is cooked so you can have it piping hot!

So... once you have all the ingredients ready- measured and washed, etc. you can start by frying the shallot for rice. Just switch on the electric rice cooker, pour in some oil and add chopped shallot. Let it fry a bit then simply put in washed rice and the rest of the ingredients, close the lid and let cook.

Next, boil eggs (if you like your rice with hard-boiled egg) or start frying the peanuts, anchovies and lastly the telur dadar. 

Finally, prepare the sambal and tadaaahh~

Serve hot! Okay, maybe let it warm a bit.

I hope you'll enjoy this easy peasy basic nasi lemak recipe!

People who eat pokok, I mean, vegetable, go ahead and cut those cucumbers and add a slice of two to your nasi. My no-veggie gang can start eating already ;) 

Pasta Udang Masak Lemak

Masak Lemak Prawn Pasta

Udang masak lemak is basically prawn cooked in coconut milk and turmeric. It's *probably* a Malay dish, usually eaten with rice.

There are a variety of masak lemak dishes from crab to pumpkins. So I decided to tweak the recipe a bit and add in... pasta. I used spiral and that tube-like macaroni pasta because despite the coconut milk, I think the masak lemak is quite a light sauce- more to broth, really.

Ingredients for 2 servings

• 2 1/2 cups water

• 2 cloves garlic

• 1 shallot

• 2 inches ginger

• 1 tbsp chili paste

• 1 tsp turmeric

• 2 tsp Maggi Cukup Rasa

• 1 tsp pepper & salt

• 1/2 cup coconut milk (santan)

• 10 cleaned prawns

• 1 cup spiral pasta

• 1 cup macaroni pasta

• chopped coriander (sprinkle)

Steps

1) In a pot, mix in finely blended garlic, shallot & ginger, chilli paste, turmeric, Maggi Cukup Rasa, pepper and salt into hot water. 

2) Add in prawn and coconut milk, bring to almost boil. Add rinsed pasta and cook for about 8 minutes.

3) Ready to serve after a sprinkle of chopped coriander~

It's a bit weird if you're used to having it with rice but interesting kind of weird. Easy to prepare & cook too and that's pretty much what my cooking is all about :

Easy Butter Chicken

When I cook, I try to keep things simple and easy. If you're like me, hit that follow button because I'm sooo lazy, I always look for simple but delicious recipes :)

Here's one of my fav... 

Butter Chicken

• 2-3 pcs boneless chicken

• 1 tsp salt

• 2 tsp curry powder

• 1/2 tbsp sugar

• 1 tbsp flour

• 1 egg

• 2 tbsp butter

• 1 tbsp chili paste

• some curry leaves

• 1/2 cup milk

• cheese (cheddar & mozarella)

• chicken seasoning

• 1 tsp sugar

• black pepper

• salt

Steps

1) Clean & cut boneless chicken into bite-size cubes. Marinade in salt, curry powder, sugar, flour & egg for at least 1 hour. Cook for a bit, put aside.

2) In a clean pan, melt butter. Sauté chili paste & curry leaves for 1 min. Add milk & let boil before adding in cheese, chicken seasoning, sugar, pepper & salt.

3) Add in the cooked chicken & stir. Let the sauce thickens.

This recipe works for prawns too! Marinating is optional for prawns. Just put in cleaned prawns into marinade mix and pour everything in after Step 2.

Keep this in your phone!

Basic Egg Soup

This dish is super basic and great for those days when you feel like having something simple. What's better is that you can also make this as fancy as you want it to be. Simply add meat, sea creatures or lots and lots of veggie if you're inclined.

But let's start with the basic!

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp cooking oil 

• 3 cloves garlic

• 2 inches ginger

• 1 egg

• 1 tbsp chicken seasoning

• 2 cups water

• pepper

• salt

Steps

1) Heat oil. Saute garlic & ginger for 1 min. Add water & chicken seasoning. Let boil.

2) Pour in egg, let for about 10 seconds before stirring. If you want to add cleaned & cut veggie, add now.

3) Add salt & pepper to taste.

Save the pic below for quick reference!

Basic Mashed Potato

Ingredients

• 2-3 potatoes, washed but unpeeled

• 1/3 cup milk

• salt

• pepper

Steps

1) Cut & boil potatoes until soft, 5-10 minutes

2) Drain water. Mash potatoes and add warm milk

3) Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with grated nutmeg or your favourite gravy

Easy cooking!

Spicy Shrimp Aglio Olio

Spicy Shrimp Aglio Olio

Ingredients for 2 servings

• 10 shrimps

• 4 cloves garlic

• 1 lemon (juiced)

• 1 tsp chili flakes

• 1/2 tbsp chopped parsley

• 1 tsp salt

• Olive oil

• 1/4 cup anchovies

• Spaghetti

Steps

1) Cook spaghetti al dente. Toss peeled & deveined shrimps in peeled garlic, lemon juice, chili flakes, chopped parsley, salt & 2 tbsp olive oil.

2) Heat oil & cook shrimps with marinade. Once half cooked, add anchovies & cook throughly.

3) Add in spaghetti. Coat well & serve!

Not Your Usual Nasi Goreng

Ha! Why am I calling this Not Your Usual Nasi Goreng (fried rice)?

Usually, we'll just use cooked white rice to make fried rice. THIS recipe requires you to ditch the rice cooker for a heavy pan and cook the rice yourself. Still, it is as easy as other recipes I've shared, I promise.

In this recipe, I used shrimps but you can use squid, chicken, meat, veggie or whatever you can find in your fridge. Season accordingly.

Ingredients for 2 servings

• 1 cup uncooked, washed long grain rice

• 2 cups chicken broth (I cheated & used 2 cups water + 1/2 tbsp chicken seasoning)

• 1 tbsp salted butter

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• 10-12 peeled, deveined shrimps

• 2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

• 1 tbsp chopped parsley

• 1 tsp salt & pepper

Steps

1) Season shrimps with salt & pepper. Put aside. 

2) Melt butter in heavy pan, stir in rice. Add chicken broth. Let boil & once all liquid absorbed, cover the pan. Cook on low heat for 15 minutes.

3) Heat olive oil in a wok. Cook shrimps before adding in cooked rice, cheese & parsley. Mix well.

P.s. Stir rice occassionally after 8 minutes of covering the pan (after liquid all absorbed).

... and that's why this is Not Your Ordinary Nasi Goreng Udang ;)