Nasi Bukhari With Chicken / Meat

I went to a cooking class held at Chef Ismail's Rebung some time back (but it wasnt the chef who taught the class). We were only using the facilities there and the chief cook for the day was a fellow food enthusiast who shared with us a most remarkable recipe of hers.

I made this a couple of times and both times the children gave thumbs up sign for it. It's easy, simple and simply sedaaap.

Here's how..

1kg basmathi rice
1 whole chicken (cut into pieces) * The chicken could be substituted with mutton or beef.
3 + 3 pandan leaves
Ghee (minyak sapi) & cooking oil
Mint leaves (pudina) or you can use curry leaves too

A
Dried chilli (amount according to taste) or chilli boh
1 medium onion
3 garlic
1 inch ginger

B
1 medium tomato (cut into 8)
5 tablespoons crisply fried onion (bawang goreng)
1 packet bukhari powder (beriani powder works fine too)
1/4 can evaporated milk
About 1/2 cup tomato sauce

C
1 stick cinnamon (kayu manis)
5 cloves (cengkih)
3 cardommon (buah pelaga)
2 anise seed (bunga lawang)

Directions
1. Blend A together till fine.
2. Mix chicken, A & B together. Marinate for 10 minutes or so.
3. Heat ghee & oil and add C. Fry till aromatic. Add marinated chicken & its ingredients. Simmer for a short while.
4. Add water, salt and pandan leaves.
5. Stir. Close lid. Cook on a slow fire. Occassionally stir the chicken.
6. When chicken is cooked, put chicken in a serving dish with about two thirds of the sauce.
7. Put washed basmathi into the rice cooker and add in remainder of the chicken sauce. Add enough water. Add also salt and remaining pandan leaves. Stir. Cook.
8. When rice is cooked, garnish with mint / curry leaves.
9. Serve rice hot with chicken.

The kids really love this. And I didnt know I could cook that good, actually..

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Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme Part II aka Beef Stew

I've been very busy for some time and the last few days, busy doing nothing. Maybe I've reached the plateau after doing a lot of things..

Anyway, I made the beef stew like I had planned. It turned out ok. I served it with some warmed roti Arab I got at the pasar tani. Eirfan and his father loved it but the others kata a bit creamy and they cant take a lot of it.

I dont know what the original recipe should taste like because I had omitted the red wine (obviously) and parsnips. But I think with a bit of cili api the stew would be a bit more like a local dish. Personally I think it is quite good. Maybe I will make it again with the chilies.

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I got the recipe from Jamie's website (of course) and he calls it Jool's Favorite Beef Stew. Here's the recipe should you be interested.. Oh, the photo's from his site too.

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/meat/jools_s_favourite_beef_stew

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Meatballs You Must Try

I quickly put this in for Poji as she had asked for it. I earlier wanted to send the recipe in an email but decided to share it here after all.

For ages I had wondered how to make meatballs for my spaghetti and now I know. If you like you can omit the rosemary. But I think rosemary can really make a dish, you know.

And yeah, you guessed it - this is another one of the Naked Chef's recipe. Here's how ~

900 g minced beef
2 slices bread (use the food processor to turm them into breadcrumbs)
2 tablespoons dried oregano
1/2 teaspoons cumin (jintan manis); pounded
1/2 small dried chili; pounded
1 tablespoon freshly chopped rosemary
1 egg yolk
salt and black pepper to taste

Optional
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1. Mix together beef, breadcrumbs, oregano, cumin, chili, rosemary and egg yolk in a bowl.
2. Add salt and black pepper. Add the optional ingredients here if you are using them. (Personally I dont)
3. Mix well. With wet hands, roll and pat into meatball shapes / sizes that you want.
4. Preheat a thick-bottomed casserole to a very hot temperature. (Make sure this is a non-stick pan otherwise you'd be in so much trouble.. )
5. Add 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil, swirl around the bottom of the pan and add the meatballs.
6. Fry until they are brown all over, being careful not to break them but just moving the pan around so that all sides are nicely colored. Remove from fire.

You can add this to your spaghetti sauce when it is almost done or arrange them in your serving plate / plate and then pour the sauce on top of them.

Yumm.. you must really try this.

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