The Great Chef

Beans are my favorite non-animal source of protein. They are super nutritious, tasty, and easy to cook. Of all beans, lentils are the quickest to prepare because they do not require soaking prior to cooking (Yes, I tend not to use canned beans). Because they are extremely rich in protein, the only thing you need to add to a meal with lentils (or other beans, for this matter) is either some carbohydrates or anything at all. The following recipe is for one of the most popular dishes in the middle east: the addictively delicious mejadra. This dish is versatile enough to work as both a warm and as a cold meal. The blend of spices is beautiful and it brings a whole new level of flavors to the dish. You really have to try it.  For about 6 servings, you are going to need: 1and 1/4 cups brown or green lentils 4 medium onions thinly sliced 3 tablespoons all purpose flour 1 cup of sunflower oil 2 teaspoons of cumin seeds 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of coriander seeds 1 cup of basmati rice 2 tables...

Let's spice up life with some spicy food instead of sweet cakes today ~ Nasi Lemak With Sweet Sambal!   Being a Malaysian, I am sure this is everyone's favourite, right?  We can almost have this for every meals; we usually have this for breakfast, but the same goes for lunch too, for afternoon tea break, or dinner and even for supper too!  What a marvellous dish this is. And yes, this sweet sambal is the sambal I am looking for.  Just love the sweetness in it. Easy Sweet Sambal with Gula Melaka (recipe source from  NasiLemakLover with some changes) Ingredients 15g dried chili (trim and cut into 2-3pcs, boil in hot water and drained) 2 fresh red chilies 3 large onions (I used 2 large onions for blending only and 1 onions thinly sliced for frying into the chilli paste) a small knob of belacan (shrimp paste) 50g Gula Melaka (palm sugar) 1pc tamarind peel (asam keping) 1 cup cooking oil ½ cup water salt to taste Method 1. Blend dried and fresh red chilies...

There are so many recipes that I have bookmarked I wanted to try out but sometimes when I am not in the mood to cook, I have to tell myself it is better not to do it at all .   I wanted to eat this "Lor Mai Fan" so desperately and have been eyeing it since Wendy of Table for 2...or more posted her Lor Mai Fan 3 weeks ago.   One failure I made is the roasted char siew.....duh.....I made it in a jiffy as I was not prepare to cook this lor mai fan at all that day.  I took out the meat from the fridge and prepare to marinated it.  I didn't marinate it for long and just go ahead to bake it.  Call that impatient and resulted the meat wasn't nice to eat at all. But nevertheless, the glutinous rice is so yummy and fragrant.  I like it.  Of all the food I have during my childhood time in Kampar, this is the food, Lor Mai Fan that I don't prefer to put the curry sauce in it.  There was a time, many many years ago, I was back to Kampar for a visit, and...

I was borne in Kampar Perak.  And if you might have known of this small town Kampar, though it is just a small tiny town, but it has many many famous and well known food and delicacies.   When I am still a little girl, my grandma and mum used to buy those yummy food at the stalls at the wet market.  To name a few of these goodies food that I used to indulge in are "Lou See Fun", "Fun Jai" (never had this eversince my family and I left Kampar in the 80's), "Chee Cheong Fun in curry sauce" (oh, this is my favourite....  and I remember the first time my Johorean brother-in-law had this, he is so stunned that chee cheong fun drizzle with curry sauce!"), Claypot Chicken Rice, Chicken Biscuits, "See Hum Dan Fun",  oh....there are so many and even the desserts like agar agar and cakes like "Kai Dan Koh" are so yummy!  (Apologise that I had to mentioned all these food in Cantonese ). Many years ago, I remember there was a time I was cr...

STICKY RICE WITH CORN PUDDING Recipe sourced from  Febie   Ingredients   ½ cup uncooked sticky rice (glutinous rice) 2 cups water plus more 2 tbsp sugar 1 cup fresh corn or from the can Coconut sauce 2 2 cups coconut milk  (I used only 1 cup) ½ cup sugar  (I used less than 1/4 cup )   ¼ tsp salt  (just a pinch) Soak the sticky rice at least 4 hours or over night. Put rice and water in the pot cook on medium heat, stirring often. (You might need to add extra water if it is too thick). Add sugar and corn stir together and turn of the heat. In another pot cook the coconut milk sugar and salt until melt Serve the corn and rice topped with coconut sauce . Serves for 2-3 person This post is linked to the event,  Little Thumbs up  organised by  Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids)   and  Mui Mui (My Little Favourite DIY)  and hosted by Ester of Copycake Kitchen  

Usually I prefer to cook ONE POT dish because it is easy (but some one pot dish needs some long list of preparation ). Well, I do admit that sometimes I can be lazy to cook for a set of meal of 3 dishes; because you need to stand for hours preparing the ingredients, cooking, clean up etc and lately with this kind of hot weather makes you feel more lazier!   When ever I finished cooking for all the three dishes and by the time ready for dinner, I always tend to eat little. hmm...probably already so "full up" cooking and inhaling all the fragrant and aroma inside me!  I understand well now, previously when my mum cooked all the di shes, she will eat teeny weeny only and all of us the children feel why our mum so painstakingly cook ed for us and she is so scrimp of dishing up the delicious food into her plate! So once in awhile being as the chef at home, so it is alright to just cook one pot dish and hope no one is complaining and muttering  out "Ah, only one dish?...

I recently bought a beautiful napa cabbage but I did want to use it in a way other than sautéed with garlic or braised in wine. I look it for a moment and those wonderful, enormous leaves gave me the idea of making wraps! The outer leaves are large enough to handle the same way as a tortilla with the advantage of having no preservatives and being gluten free. Much healthier, then. The question, you may say, is that if they can be as tasty as a tortilla. As a matter of fact, they can and I will prove it to you with this recipe. I had to decide on the stuffing. I did not want meat or fish because the cabbage is very delicate. I open my pantry and my eyes fell on a bag of brown rice next to the nuts container. That was it. Here it is my recipe for 8 wraps: Start with the rice. In a pot, melt 1 tablespoon of butter over medium heat. When the butter has melted, add 1 cup of brown rice (I used long grain but you can choose the one you like the most) and stir well. Add two cups of warm water,...

With Summer approaching, my body craves more for salads and fruit than for anything else. And even though the weather have been playing a really not funny game with us here, along New England, the biological clock keeps ticking and you know that the scarce sun rays seen are warm and a prelude for long, hot, sunny weeks to come. It is time, then, to renew or enlarge the summer menus. I got inspiration for this salad from the Food Network web page. I did not follow any recipe in particular but my version of this salad turned out really tasty. By combining lentils with rice you, actually, get your daily portion of carbohydrates and proteins since lentils are a great source of protein. I know, I know... "Omg, carbohydrates! This girl is crazy! I will never fit in my bikini, bla, bla, bla". You need them. Just eat the right amount and always listen to your body. If you have a sudden craving for pasta or a muffin, most probably your system is lacking sugar. Your brain works with su...