Simple beef steak from the heart....

They say, one of the best way to win a girl's heart is to cook for her. Your first few shots might not be good, but a girl will understand if she sees that it's from your heart. With a spoon full of love in every cooking, I bet anything a guy cook for his girl will be nice.


So I'm going to give a simple menu here, a simple beef steak with the least cost possible. The best part for a steak will always be the sirloin...coz it's more tender... but beef knuckle also can la...cheaper also... the tip is, to make the chunk smaller. So this dish, it'll just be beef steak on top of mash potatoes with stir-fried vege (broccoli + green pepper) and romaine lettuce salad.


First we wash the potatoes, romaine lettuce, broccoli and green pepper. Cut whatever you need to cut at the comfortable size. I prefer breaking my lettuce to bite size instead of cutting them so that they'll remain 'fluffy'. As for the potatoes, it's best to not peel of the skin...but here I peeled off some parts which does not look really good.


We boil the potatoes for 10-15 minutes..depending on the size of your potatoes la... Add some salt to give some taste...and to speed up the softening of the potatoes. While waiting, we cut the meat to medium size chunks. Some prefer marinating the meat but for me, I'll just add black pepper and salt on the meat right before putting them over a hot pan. For me, beef is a heavy meat. You'll need a lot of spices and herbs to cover the taste of beef.... and the spices are not cheap. Since you want to eat beef steak, it means you want to eat beef...so why not bring up the flavor of beef..and the best way is to put salt, that's it. So for me, I just rub salt and pepper on the side I'm going to put on the pan... then rub salt and pepper again on the other side when they're already in the pan...then flip it. To get the right set, you'll need to flip it often....especially if you want it to be medium-rare.


By now... it should be time to mash the potatoes. Drain out water from the pot, add salt, mayo and fresh milk (to moisten)..then start mashing and mixing them...hahahha.. that's the fun part. As you mash your potatoes, take breaks by flipping your beef....and by the time they're (potatoes) done, you can start cooking broccoli+green pepper.


We're going to stir fry them with butter.... but to prevent butter from burning, add a table spoon of oil for every tablespoon of butter. As the butter melts with the oil, add a garlic clove...and as soon as all the butter melts, add broccoli. Now, it's up to you which you want to put in first. I want my broccoli to be soft and green pepper to be crunchy..but if you want it to be the other way around.. then start frying green pepper first. Once they look a little soft, add the other vege and turn off the heat. Heat from the pan will do the rest.


Now our beef should be done...take them out of the pan and cut them to smaller chunk. Remember, you're going to eat with your girl...not another barbarian.... plus, by cutting them to smaller chunks you'll be able to see if they're at the right rarity. Now put them back into the pan, increase the heat a little and add chicken stock...just a little. This is to make the sauce. The best way to make sauce is to extract the taste from the meat itself. If suggesting chicken stock because the taste of chicken is rather mild and will not overwhelm the taste of beef. If you have more $$$, use a mild wine... if you've spent all your money, pipe water also can la. To thicken the sauce, add some corn flour...not too much okay..we're not making Cantonese noodles here...


So there you go.. a simple beef steak... byah!!

P/S: Add some love ya!!

Home made Caesar Salad

This one is basically cheat code punya...coz Caesar Salad will have Romaine lettuce, salad dressing, croutons, Parmesan cheese powder and some meat (usually chicken breast, lamb or prawn). But my chicken boobs were still frozen, I haven't abducted lambs in Desa Ilmu and I was not in the mood to play with prawns...so I decided to make this one fully vege. As for croutons, I just ran out of bread and for Parmesan..dush dush...only ada cheddar..... So in the end, it's just Romaine Lettuce and salad dressing.... :P


Salad dressing for Caesar Salad is made of:

1) Egg yolks + cider vinegar + olive oil + salt + you beat them until kembang = home made mayo...

2) Add the product above with canned oiled anchovies

3) 1 + 2 + with black pepper and Parmesan cheese powder + mustard + beat them all up....

and PRESTO!! You have your Caesar Salad dressing..oh wait, you'll need to store them in the fridge for 12 hours... DESPAIR!! DESPAIR!!

Fear not..that's where ready made mayo comes in handy..ahaks... I simply don't fancy canned oiled anchovies because... I can make my own version of oiled anchovies... Just heat up some oil in a pan..while waiting, pound some dried anchoves but not until they're all mashed up like powder...just lenyek lenyek penyet.. Once the oil is hot, off the flame and throw in your pounded anchovies.. let them cool down and ten tambah mayo, salt and black pepper..don't forget, a pinch of love... PRESTO again!! Ada salad dressing...


So now, just gaulkan them both in a bowl and they're ready to serve... Byah!!

p/s: For more info, just email me..

Sri Lankan Induced Beef Curry

Now..before we go on...I'm not doing something disrespectful here. I do know most of them there (India, Pakistan, Sri Langka, Bangladesh and etc..) do not eat beef and I'm not making beef curry with 'Sri Langkan' in front to anger anyone. I am controversial, but I don't want any war. That's why I put 'induced' in the middle.


Here in Malaysia, Malays usually cook their beef by making them into rendang or masak kicap... To me they're way too thick and too oily, at times they're more towards sweet rather than spicy... Thus when I saw a couple of Sri Langkan recipes via TLC, I decided to adjust a little and thus call it Sri Langkan INDUCED Beef Curry. It's not entirely Sri Langkan style, I just like the part they use pandan leafs and curry leafs... their style of cooking made me come up with this recipe..


Anyway, for this dish I'm using ingredients available at my house; ginger, garlic, kayu manis, curry leafs, pandan leaf, beef cutlets, curry powder, turmeric paste, and some coconut milk (instant pun ok). Again I'm not going to tell you step by step, you have to email me for that. Basically I marinated some beef for 30 minutes with salt, curry powder and some lime juice. while waiting, blend ginger and garlic...add some cooking oil and chicken stock in (this will be half of the amount of kuah you want).


It's time to start cooking... heat some oil in a pot.. put in kayu manis, then pandan leaf and curry leafs... Don't wait until they're all burnt...once the aroma starts to rise, put in your blended stuffs. Also add in curry powder and turmeric paste..Let them all play together for 10 minutes or so (until starts boiling)..tambah garam and a pinch of love...Bila dah boil, then baru masuk in beef and lower the flame.

Some people prefer frying meat first before adding water or so on..... But that's not the correct way. According to Chef Sanji of Baratie, if you cook it that way, the taste of your meat will larut with the kuah..and thus the taste of meat will get all over the kuah and not in the meat itself. If you put in meat when the kuah boils, only the taste on the outer layer of meat will larut, but the inner part will still retain the taste...and so far I have to agree.


When the kuah starts to boil again, the meat dah masak...This is when we add the coconut milk...let it simmer for a while and there you go...sedap wooo.. Byah!!

Mee Sua or Mee Suah?

What ever the real spelling is, I love mee suah... The aroma of rice wine, the tenderness of chicken thigh and the softness of the rice noodles/vermicelli...


Owh... Just look at the picture!!

Luckily for me, I know how to make mee suah. The most important element is the soup. My style of cooking is always simple. You don't need all those fancy spices from some sing-sheh. From my experience in cooking, always use fresh ingredients available near to you, imported stuffs doesn't really ensure good results. Plus, locally available ingredients are cheaper and easier to get.

I'm not going to tell you step by step, but I'll tell you what you really need. You'll need chicken, always use fresh chicken thigh. You'll also need rice vermicelli, garlic, shallots, Shiitake mushroom (dried ones also okay) and some rice wine (cheap ones pun ok). Basically you just dump everything (except for shallots and rice vermicelli)into a pot of boiling water. Then you slow down the flame and let them all play together for 30 minutes. If you like your soup to be strong, add more rice wine. When the soup is done, it's time to prepare your noodles. Add rice vermicelli into a bowl of bowling hot water. Take them out as soon as they're soft. Timing is important here 'coz if you put them for too long in hot water,they'll get all sticky. You don't need them to be fully cooked since your soup will do the trick.



So in a bowl you have your noodles, add in your soup and chicken thigh. Chop your shallots, sizzle them with some oil and then pour them into your bowl off mee suah..... So there you go..Mee Suah/Sua.... For full recipe and steps on how to make mee suah, just email me.... Byah!!!!!!

Crabby egg

I'm allergic to some seafood, especially crabs. But doesn't mean I don't know how to cook crabs (for the record, I can cook ya). The easiest style will cooking crabs with eggs. For this menu, it's soupy style as in with a lot of kuah.


First of all, you'll need garlic, ginger and lemon grass. Usually others will not use ginger if they're using lemon grass and vice-versa, but I I want the soup to have the spiciness of ginger and the aroma of lemon grass. You'll also need some eggs (depending on portion of crabs) and don't forget our main ingredient, crabs.

Basically you just fry the ginger, garlic and lemon grass. Then dump in crabs, stir them around and add a little bit of water. On the first boil of kuah, get your mobile phone and set your timer for 5 minutes. Just before you take them out, add some eggs and stir a bit. The reason we add eggs is to add volume to our dish. You see, usually when we buy crabs, we prefer the ones with eggs. But usually out of 10 crabs, maybe 3 with eggs. So thats where chicken eggs come into play. Don't worry about the eggs, the heat from the kuah and ketam shells will cook them. Time to serve...



p/s: For full recipe, just email me and I'll be more than happy to share for free!!