Fried Prawn with Leek

INGREDIENTS:

Mid Sized prawns
Bird eyes chillies
Garlic
Red Onion
White Onion (big)
Leek
Turmeric powder
Salt
Sugar (optional)

METHOD:

Clean prawn, add in turmeric and salt and leave them for while. Heat a pan, add in some oil and fried chopped garlic, chillies, and red onion until the fragrant comes out. Add in the prawn. After the prawn is cooked, add in leek and white onion which has been sliced thick. Add in sugar.
Serve hot with rice.

BREAD PUDDING

Ingredients:

A loaf of Bread (Gradenia) * Can keep in the refrigerator first/almost expired bread is best used.
2 spoon of marjerin/butter
2 eggs
Half cup of condensed milk
(If isian milk is used, sugar is needed)
Sugar for garnishing
Dried fruit
(cerries, berries, apricots, dates and nuts are good too)

Method:

Slice bread into small cubes. In a bowl, beat egg, marjerin/butter together with condensed milk. Then add in the bread. If it is too dry, some water can be added. Baked in greased tin or baking caserolle. Sprinkle sugar and dried fruit on top. Bake for about 25 minutes.

Before serving, put some fresh/multi purpose/whipped cream and pour some maple syrup on each slice. Best served hot.
* This pudding is dry type.

DHAL VADAI

Lentils are leguminous crops known as pulses. The lentil was probably one of the first plants ever to be domesticated by humans. With 26% protein, lentils have the third-highest level of protein, by weight, of any plant-based food after soybeans and hemp, and has become an important part of diet in many parts of the world, especially among the large vegetarian population in "Indian subcontinent". Lentils are cooked together with rice in India and are popular in the Middle East and Mediterranean dishes too. These rich sources of iron make them an important part of a vegetarian diet, well-known to be useful for preventing iron deficiency. Iron is particularly important for adolescents and pregnant women, whose requirements for it are increased.Lentils supply us some extra vitamin A (required for good vision and immunity to diseases), B2 vitamin (riboflavin) (required for energy ) and calcium (required for bone formation during growth and prevention of bone loss during old age) from lentils.

The extra protein from 50 grams of lentils will not only contribute to quantitative increase in protein consumption (required for growth and maintenance) , it will also complement the basic rice protein to give the consumer a considerable qualitative advantage. Both rice and pulse proteins are by themselves what is called "second class" protein, in that their essential amino acid profiles are not as complete as the animal proteins.

Essential amino acids, as the name implies, are those amino acids (the building units of proteins) that cannot be synthesised in the body and must, therefore, be supplied with food. Rice protein is deficient in the essential amino acid lysine, which is abundantly present in pulses.

On the other hand, pulse proteins are deficient in the essential amino acids methionine and tryptophan, which rice has in good quantities. Rice and pulses together, therefore, complement each other's proteins, and combined together the two would make complete proteins, with nutritional value as good as egg or milk protein.

Many studies showed that pulses consumption is highly correlated with a reduced mortality from coronary heart disease. So why not add pulses into our diet today!

RECIPE

This recipe originally is an Indian recipe which has become popular among Malaysians. Dhal can be served as a healthy breakfast menu or afternoon tea menu.

INGREDIENTS:

Dhal (soaked in water for few hours and boiled until soft)
Red and green chillies
Onions
Curry leaves
Flour
Water
Fresh shrimps

METHOD:

Chop chillies, onions and curry leaves. In a bowl, combine dhal, chopped ingredients, salt and add little flour to help ingredients stick well to each other. Take a small portion of the mixture and roll it into a ball, then flattened in a bit by pressing the ball on your palm. Add some water into some flour, mix them well. to glue shrimp on vadai, brush the flour-water mixture on the surface of each vadai and place shrimps on them. Press a bit. Lastly, deep friend Vadai and serve hot with chili sauce. Happy trying!

Cucur Jagung n Bubur Jagung

FOOD FACTS

Corn which is also called maize, has always been popular all around the world because of it versatility and taste. In some countries like US and India, corn is grown in abundance and accepted as staple food, as rice is for Asians. There are over 800 varieties of corns nationwide, with colours ranging from golden yellow, red, white, brown, and even black and blue. Corn doesn’t grow in the wild, and therefore must be sown and harvested. Corn can be found in many forms; corn flour which is commonly used to thicken sauces, corn oil, cornstarch, corn syrup, or even corn whisky and vinegar in some countries.

Its grains or kernels are rich of lutein, an antioxidant that helps lower the risk of blindness in older people. rich of phosphorus, magnesium, manganese, zinc, copper, iron, selenium and has small amount of potassium. In terms of vitamin, corn is a good source of Vitamin B (Tiamin), vitamin B6 (Niacin, Riboflavin and Folate). It also has traces of Vitamin A and Vitamin E. While the calorie content of most cereal s lie between 330 - 350 calories per 100 gm, corn offers its caloric value of 342 per 100 gram.

Fresh corn comes in green husk. To check the freshness, we can pull down the husk and press the kernels with our fingernail. If milky liquid comes out, it indicates that the corn is fresh and not decay. If there is water, it is not fresh, and if it is sticky, it is already spoiled.

High temperature can turn corn starchy, so keeping it in refrigerator is recommended. One golden tip is to avoid putting in salt when boiling corn as it will make the texture rough. Instead, it is best to add salt (and maybe butter) just before serving.

CUCUR JAGUNG

INGREDIENTS:

Flour
Corn Flour
Salt
Sugar (Optional)
Egg
Water
Fresh corn
Chilies
Spring onion
Onion/white onion
Baking powder (optional)
Fresh prawn or dried shrimp (optional)

METHOD:

Flour, egg and water are mixed together in a bowl, stir slowly and avoid the batter from getting lumpy. The batter should not be too thick. Add salt to taste. To add crispiness to cucur jagung, add corn flour (about 1/3 of amount of flour). If you like it soft and fluffy, add baking powder instead. Grate freshcorn, chop chilies, onion and spring onion. Add them into the bowl. Prawn or dried shrimp can also be added. Leave them to set for about five minutes. Then, heat cooking oil and fried the batter. serve hot with chili sauce or tomato sauce.

BUBUR JAGUNG

INGREDIENTS:

Coconut milk
Fresh corn/canned sweet corn
Sugar
Pandan leave
Sago (optional)
Salt (a pitch only - optional)
Durian flesh (optional)

METHOD:

Grate fresh corn. Soak sago in water for ten minutes. In a pot, boil the corn with sugar, salt and pandan leave. When the corn is soft, add in the coconut milk. Add one to three pulps of durian and sago. Bring them to boil and serve them either hot or chilled.

CIK MEK MOLEK & KUIH KERIA

Food Facts - Sweet Potatoes

One of the best foods we can include in our diet plan is the sweet potato. So in our daily diet, make the sweet potato a part of our daily menu. They can definitely help us to achieve optimal health.

Sweet potato is tuber of a plant originating from Central America, that produces long creeping stems with leaves that can be eaten. The sweet potato is not related to the potato, despite its name. The flowers of the sweet potato form in bells and it is classed with plants sharing this characteristic. There are more than 500 varieties of sweet potatoes, the flesh of which varies from white, yellow and red to purplish blue, such as the yellow Malaga sweet potato, the large African potato and the red American sweet potato. Sweet potatoes have skin that is usually orange in color. They can also be white, purple, or red. It looks like a regular potato, but the difference is the shape of the ends.Sweet potatoes are a staple part of the diet of people in Asia and Latin America. It is very popular in the southern United States. The main producers of sweet potatoes today are China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Uganda, Japan and India.

Sweet potatoes are rich in beta carotene. Beta carotene is included in a sweet potato in the form of Vitamin A, which is vital for healthy tissue and night vision. It is also an excellent source of potassium. It contains vitamin B9 (or folic acid). The stronger its colour, the higher its vitamin A content. Sweet potatoes are richer in starch than potatoes (up to 18% depending on the variety), but it also contains the same quantity of carbohydrates. Antioxidants number many in this vegetable as well. For example, sweet potatoes have anti-inflammatory properties due to the fact that they are also a rich source of vitamin C. Vitamin C and beta carotene together have capabilities of fighting most types of arthritis pain. These nutrients also help to reduce the breathing difficulties of asthma.Sweet potatoes are also rich in manganese. Manganese helps blood glucose levels, restores bone mass, and also plays a role in our fatty acids working for the good. Manganese has also been known to help our thyroid gland to function in a healthier way if we have a problem in that area. It also helps the other vitamins stored in our body already, to work better for us. One sweet potato alone will provide us with 0.52 mg of the daily requirement needed. Since sweet potatoes contain at least 3 grams of fiber for each one, they are a nice source of roughage and will help us to establish better regularity. The bones are also helped by our consumption of a sweet potato because this vegetable contains about around 23 mg of calcium each. If we have iron deficiency anemia, having sweet potato in our diet is a good idea. The iron provided in this vegetable is around 10 percent of what we need, which is not high on the scale, but will help to round out our blood hemoglobin if eaten on a regular basis, like twice a week, along with richer iron sources. Copper is another nutrient found in the sweet potato. One serving provides us with nearly 17 percent of what we need daily from copper. Copper is an aid for the healing of wounds, problems with our nervous system, and also heart health.

The recipes below are popularly served with tea/coffee during breakfast or during tea time.


RECIPE

CIK MEK MOLEK

INGREDIENTS:

5 mid sized sweet potatoes
1 cup of wheat flour
Sugar
Oil to deep fry
A pitch of salt (optional)

METHOD:

Boil sweet potatoes until they are cooked and become soft. Peel them and finely mashed them. Add in a cup of flour add a pitch of salt (optional) and make them a soft dough. Roll the dough into the same size of dough balls, make holes inside them and fill in the holes with about a tea spoon of white sugar each. Then cover the holes and roll the dough into shape. Deep fry the dough.

KUIH KERIA

INGREDIENTS: (same as above)


METHOD:

Divide dough into small balls. Press the balls into shape with holes in the middle just like when making donut. Fried them and put them aside and wait until they are cool. Meanwhile, heat a pot (preferably non stick pot or pan), pour in sugar and very little water. When the sugar melt (avoid it from getting brown), quickly remove the pot from the heat and roll the fried dough into the sticky sugar. Leave them to cold before serving.