My Unforgettable Experience...............

A fortnight ago, I had a surprise invitation out of the blue from a beautiful lady blogger friend. She invited me to pop over to her place for lunch in the Southwest of Johor.

 An hour plus journey from my place.

 Southwest Johor is located 62KM from Johor Bahru city, the state capital of Johor, Malaysia.

At her lovely, spacious home with it's beautiful surroundings of coconut and fruits trees. I was surprised to see a TV van and crew there. And my blogger friend is ........

Cik Shahriah Abdullah  a beautiful Malay lady who is a Malaysian well known novelist, cookbook author as well with outstanding culinary skills. She was awarded the ultimate, as a Master Chef. I believe she has a 7th Dan Black Belt in baking and cooking.

Above two pictures are her published Malay novels.

Johor Laksa cooked by Cik Shahriah. A noodle dish using spaghetti top with fish paste gravy and garnish with onion, beansprout, Vietnamese coriander leaves, mint leaves, cucumber, chilli paste and  freshly squeeze lime juice is sprinkled on the dish.

After lunch, I got the shock of my life when Shahriah informed me that I'm invited as her guest to be interviewed on TV in her program. You can imagine my apprehension and my being very very nervous. As watching TV is one thing but to appear on TV is another thing. It really frightened me. LOL

The TV crew getting ready to do the shooting.

Yours truly interviewed by TV producer. And first time had my face made up by a TV makeup artist. I was really nervous, towards the various questions they asked me.

I was asked to help decorate the Pavlova dessert baked by Cik Shahriah.

 

The TV producer interviewed us how we first met? Viewing my blog and discussed about my blog posting. My most unforgettable experience being invited as a guest.

Cik Shahriah, I thank you so much, my dear friend. It was really an honour and a privilege, as well a thrilling, fun experience to have been invited as your guest to your beautiful home. Once again, Terima kasih.  
Yours Sincerely,
Amelia

This program was shown in TV1 @ Persada Aksara Episode 11 on the 3rd January 2014.

Beggar chicken

Beggar chicken is a dish from Changshu, a city in China's Jiangshu province that is famous for its delicious taste. Beggar's chicken is called "jiaohuaji" in the Changshu dialet. The chicken is stuffed, wrapped in clay and roasted following a traditional eastern Chinese recipe.

Many Chinese dishes have names adapted from folklore, legend, or story.
Once upon a time a beggar led a wandering life in poverty. One day, he was very hungry. He lucked into a chicken, but had neither tools nor condiments. He came to the foot of Yu Mountain and roasted it without plucking it. When it was finished, the smell spread over a long distance. About 100 years ago, a small restaurant created a method to cook this kind of chicken and called it Beggar's Chicken.

Ingredients
1.5kg chicken, washed and patted dry
1 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp dry sherry or Chinese rice wine
1 1/2 tsp five-spice powder
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
2 tsp salt
2 pieces lotus leaves ( optional ) Soak the leaves until soft
Aluminum foil

The texture is very moist and tender. 

Run for your life.......

Stuffing for the chicken

1 canned button mushroom - cut into half
8 red dates
1 tbsp goji berries
2 cloves garlic - chopped
2 shallots - chopped finely
1 thumb size ginger - slice thinly
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt or to taste
2 tsp oyster sauce
1 tsp black soya sauce
1 tbsp sherry or Chinese rice wine
2 tbsp water
pepper to taste

1/  Pour 2 tbsp oil in a sauce pan, saute garlic, ginger and onion until golden brown.
2/  Add the button mushroom, red dates, goji berries and stir fry for 1 min.
3/  Add the rest of the seasoning ingredients and stir fry for 3 to 4 mins.
4/  Stuff mushroom into the chicken and secure it with a toothpick

Rest the chicken on the lotus leaves. If you can't find lotus leaves, omit and wrap with aluminum foil.

 5/  Wrap the chicken with 2 layers of lotus leaves follow by a layer of aluminum foil.

6/  Then wrap the chicken with salt dough, decorate and play around with the extra dough.
7/  Bake the chicken in pre heat oven for 2 hours at 200 deg C.

8/  Break the salt dough with a mallet, remove foil and lotus leaves.
9/ Serve while it's hot.

Come on babe......

Salt dough for chicken
800gm plain flour
3/4  to 1 cup water
100gm salt

1/ Mix all the ingredients together and knead into a soft dough. ( Add the water gradually )
2/ Floured your table top and roll out the dough to 3/8 inch thick.
3/ Wrap the chicken with salt dough and baked for 2 hours.
 

Have a wonderful week ahead. Cheers!
Amelia

What else we can eat with curry besides rice........

I did some Indiana Jones research, and this what I found.......

Most people in the world today know what curry is, or at least they think they do.

In Britain the term ‘curry’ has come to mean almost any Indian dish, whilst most people from the sub-continent would say it is not a word they use, but if they did it would mean a meat, vegetable or fish dish with spicy sauce and rice or bread.

Fish curry compliments from a friend.

The earliest known recipe for meat in spicy sauce with bread appeared on tablets found near Babylon in Mesopotamia, written in cuniform text as discovered by the Sumerians, and dated around 1700 B.C., probably as an offering to the god Marduk. The origin of the word itself is the stuff of legends, but most pundits have settled on the origins being the Tamil word ‘kari’ meaning spiced sauce.

Babylon in Mesopotamia.

There's a saying "eating curry can be like a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.... especially the last movement, with everything screaming and banging Joy"

Curry spices

Vindaloo Prawn Curry 

Spicy Vindaloo prawn curry my style. Vindaloo is an Indian curry dish popular in the region of Goa. Often regarded as a fiery spicy dish, though it's not necessarily the hottest dish available.

I have watered and diffused down the hot chillies, to be less spicy,......it won't be in the thermonuclear 5 megaton range, burn your tongue, and think of me, or make you aroused, so that when eating you no need to hop, skip or tip toe to the bathroom put whole face under the tap or take cold shower.

Irresistible juicy and crunchy prawns.

oppss...you'll be doing this if the curry is too hot.

Ingredients A

500gm large fresh prawns
2 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp salt

1/  Wash and trim the feelers off prawns. Rinse and pat dry with kitchen towel.
2/  Marinate with salt and curry powder for 4 to 5 hours. Chill in the fridge.

Ingredients B
4 tbsp vegetable oil
1 large onions -diced
4 cloves garlic
3 green chillies -  remove the seed and cut julienne
4 bird eyes chilies- remove seed and chopped coarsely
120 mls coconut milk
1 tbsp tamarind pulp
2 tomatoes - diced
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
3 tsp sugar or to taste
salt & pepper to taste

Onion, tomato, green chillies, ginger, bird eyes chilli.

Ingredients C
6 whole dried chillies - soak in hot water and remove the seeds,
3 tsp coriander seeds
2  tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp whole black peppercorns

Coriander seed,  cumin seed, black peppercorns, masala garam, dried chilles, garlic.

Ingredients D
1 bowl water or more
100  grated coconut - toast until slightly brown

1/  Pound ingredient C until smooth and fine. Or you can use a blender / food processor to do the job. Best to use mortar to pound the spices same time can exercise your biceps and triceps workout.
2/  Mix the tamarind pulp with 2 tbsp of water and sieve the tamarind juice, keep aside.
3/  Heat the 4 tbsp of oil in a wok over medium heat. Stir fry the onion until slightly golden and fragrant.

4/  Stir in the green chillies and bird eyes chillies let it cook for 1 minute.
5/  Add the curry paste ingredients C, stir fry for 2 minutes. Add prawns and cook for 2 minutes. Pour 1 bowl of water, coconut milk, garam masala, turmeric powder and tomatoes, simmer for 5 minutes.

6/  Add tamarind juice, sugar, salt and pepper to taste and cook for further 3 minutes or till the prawns is cook.  Add in the toasted coconut and mixed well.
7/  Serve hot with rice and papadum.

Not only Indian curries can be hot, but.....

Bollywood actress Mayuri

Eat while it's hot.....

See what I mean.......
Bollywood actor/model Allu Arjun

Hot pepper plants. Don't fool around with it. I can tell you.... this is in the 10 megaton range.

This is one way of eating rice with curry.... banana leaf rice. In banana leaf rice, white rice is served on a banana leaf with assortment of vegetables, curried meat/ fish/ prawn, papadum or pickles. It's traditionally eaten with the hand.

 String hoppers with prawn curry.

Roti canai or roti paratha with prawn curry.  This roti canai I brought from the Indian restaurant. But you can easily make this delicious bread at home.

Or you can serve it on a plate.

Hot peppers

I can make it very hot, but this is what going to happen.....

 Crispy Karapincha

1 bowl fresh karapincha
2 tbsp oats
1 tbsp butter
1.5 tbsp sugar

1/  Wash and drain dry the karapincha.
2/  Toss dry the karapincha in a non stick pan, add the butter and oats.
3/  Use low fire and keep stirring until the leaves dry and crispy.
4/  Remove from heat, add sugar and mixed well. Serve immediately.

Sweetened mango yogurt to cool down your tongue.  Dice one mango and mixed with 150 mls yogurt. Mixed well and chill in fridge. 

The banana leaf is used as it's believe that the hot rice will release the coating on the banana leaf, which aids in digestion.

Danger! Handle with extreme caution.

And even whats his name wouldn't fool around with this. It'll be " Hasta la vista, baby"!

After eating, if you find the curry is hot, you might be encouraged to do this........

This iced water just for insurance, just in case I slipped up somewhere.

Have a wonderful week ahead.  It's been fun having you drop by.

This post is link to Foodie Friends Friday host by  Marlys of This And That and her co-hosts