At around 11am yesterday, while doing some surfing on the internet, I realized tak dak sapa kat dapoq... There was nobody in the kitchen! So I thought, eh, elok pi masak-masaklah!.
Why do you cook when nobody's around? Hehehe. Simple reason: if the food turns out ok, then keep it. If it doesn't, you don't want anybody to see you forcing the food into your throat (that's if you think 'boleh gagah makan'!), or putting it behind the house for the squirrels, birds or biawak to feast on.
Within 40 mins or so, I managed to get 3 items done. 2.5, actually! These were: (1). Sirap kayu manis (Cinnamon cordial); (2). Masak lemak kobis & tempe (Cabbage & tempe in coconut milk); and (3) Cucur bawang-roti (Onion-bread fritters?).
I won't go into the details, telling you the way of preparing the cordial, the vegetable dish & the snack, step-by-step. My style is ikut dan, ikut suka, ikut gerak hati. Professional cooks won't like it, ha? If you ask me how much of this, or that, or how long do you boil it, I'll just smile at you.
Items used to prepare the Sirap kayu manis: Hydrogen oxide, cinnamon, artificial cochineal colouring, a pinch of salt, & sugar. I was glad to have the chance to use our very old (isteri dah sorok!) aluminium pot in preparing the cinnamon cordial. I was also happy to be able to use cinnamon, instead of the usual pandan or rose flavouring that the others in the house like.
For the Masak lemak kubis & tempe, besides cabbage and tempe (fermented soya bean), the other ingredients used were santan segera (pre-packed coconut extract), dried shrimps, red onions, red chillies, salt, sugar. and bilis extract. I love using the glass pot because it gets heated quickly and retains heat longer. Does the dish look come lote?
The final one, the cucur bawang-roti. I used whole-meal bread. The bread slices were soaked in water and mashed. Wheat flour, salt, egg, sliced onions, dried shrimps (udang geragau), and daun kucai (Allium Tuberosum) were added to the bread mash, and mixed to form the fritters paste. I should have added in some sliced chillies into the mixture, to make it more come lote but I forgot (I decided to use udang geragau after reading an entry by one blogger friend sometime ago who had used it in her preparation).
I didn't have enough time to fry the fritters paste because I then realized that I had to go somewhere. So, the cucur bawang-roti was actually 50% done (that's why I said earlier I managed to complete only 2.5 items altogether). The paste was 'smartly' hidden at one corner of the refrigerator, and would be fried, again (!), when nobody's in the kitchen!
Whenever I work in the kitchen I would always make sure that it does not look worse off than it was before! This is to avoid getting leteran la.
When we had our lunch late in the afternoon yesterday, my wife said, "Sedap juga masak lemak yang Tan Cik (our niece) buat ni, kan? Sirap pun ok. Dia bubuh apa?".
