One thing that hinders me from putting more post every week as much as I love to do, is due to lacking of digital camera.

I planned to present a DSLR for my self in the 1st month of 2009, but suddenly some things popped up! which is more important and requires immediate financial support.

Guess my DSLR will only be available the following year ^.^ (2010?!?!?!)

How am I gonna update my food blog without any photos -.-” (/thinking)
Ohh, all this while the photos in my blog was taken by using my friend’s digital cam, and uhmm I wouldn’t be able to frequently borrowing their cam rite.. being the case, I hope you can understand many inconsistency of my blog updates.

Ok, enuff mumbling, lets cooking!
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This is my new version of salted mackerel dish I called Shitake Rides With Salted Mackerel…. :p

This is more as a side dish, but could be a main as well. Perfect to accompany cold beer, Or just eat it like that with hot plain rice.

The ingredient:

1. A slice of Salted mackerel (bottled)
2. 4-5 Shitake mushrooms
3. 2-3 Lemon grass
4. 1 Large onion and red onion
5. sugar / aji-no-moto (MGS)
6. Lime juice (optional)
7. 2-3 Hot chili @ cili api (optional)

The process:

1. Sliced the mushroom and onion (anyway you like, strip slice is best for me, the one in the photo is for experimental).
2. Chop lemon grass to small particles.
3. Debone the salted fish, and chop it or slightly mash it with a fork.

This is how it looks after taken out from the bottle.

Now they are ready!

*Dried shitake mushroom has to be soaked for couple of hours or best left overnight.

4. Begin cooking with a very small amount of oil/butter + 1-2 table spoon of the salted mackerel’s oil (from the bottled mackerel). The dish is nicer with little extra oil.

5. Pour in the deboned salted mackerel (nahh.. strong aromas gonna fill all over your house and neighbors, flies might be attracted too :P).
Stir for 10-15 seconds.

6. Pour in the lemon grass and mushroom. Stir for about a minutes until most oil absorbed into the mushroom. Add sugar for taste.

7. Pour in the onions, stir for 10-15 seconds.

8. Additionally you may add chillies for that extra bite and to spice it up.

9. Serve with a sprinkles of lime juice.

It taste very good when consumed hot, and as well as in room temperature.

Well, salted fish is always good ^.^

I added a chopped young cucumber seed on the side as a dilutes (some might find it too salty or spicy for them).

Another good thing about the dish (besides delicious :P) is that the dish can be kept for several days in room temp. That’s dayyyss of nyum nyum nyum!

But in this case, it was neatly cleared to perfection in one shot… by my maid! … and I’m happy for her (usually she doesn’t each much :)).

I just swallowed my saliva the next day ^.^

Cheers!

(delayed post due to line down -.-”)

From 24th Dec, it begins after the Christmas’s eve prayer with a simple family dinner on my  in-law’s side, and then consistent celebration in the afternoon and followed on evening functions, non-stop everyday until yesterday 28th Dec.

It was all heavy meals with heavy meat, heavy oil, heavy fat, heavy salt and everything!

And with lots of cannot-be-refused alcoholic drinks ranging from 5% alc. of various beer which some I never heard of (tsing tsao?, jazz? wth? ), 20-25% alc. of tapai and lihing (Sabah’s famous local rice wine) and some 35%-45% alc. of various liquor.

Gosh! it is only 30th! Year end and New year celebrations is still ahead. I really need a break, at least on my menu zzzz

So I have nothing else in my mind now except greens and nature’s naturals. I found these two in the market and they are very welcoming.

yes, a fern leaves aka paku-pakis

and another cousins of fern aka lombiding. When I see somthing wrap in such, I know how good and  fresh the thing is. Hoho can’t wait to cook it and I love it in a simple traditional way.

Ingredients: Just a couples of onions and garlic sliced, belacan @ fermented shrimp cake/paste and that’s it.

Pluck the young leaves and shoot only. Just use your finger, you wil be able to feel the hard stem, leave em. Clean with lots of water before cooking it.

With a very little oil - half table spoon, caramelised the onions and garlic until the aromas smelled, mix belacan (melted with small amount of water), stir for about 10-15 seconds, mix the vegies, add salt for taste and a pinch of sugar, stir and cook boiled for about 1 minute and 2 minutes the most.

I finish these with half rice and a glass of water ~ nyaman!

The pakis was mixed with leftover of sardines in salted black beans.

Fully satisfied, and tomorrow and the day after tomorrow it will be kampong vegies again!

Cheers for 2009!

Christmas is coming soon, and I was thinking on the dishes I would serve for the family’s Christmas dinner.

It’s gonna be a pot-luck cum cooking competition for the immediate family. The idea to have a cooking competition among us are just for fun and to make it merrier.I think it’s a good idea.

The last time we had it, my dish won the title which obviously upsets many especially the sisters :). It will be interesting to see this Christmas around, whose dish will win.

So, I have two in mind.

The 1st one is my favorite indoor barbecue style - Smoked pork belly with generous spices and the 2nd in mind is Salted mackerel with black mushroom. I can say  both dish has a potential. It’s unique and new for them.

I was inspired to come up with my own version of smoked pork belly after watching License to grill and it hooked me straight away.

While salted mackerel was introduced by my friend about 8 years ago, and since then I’ve been experimenting various cooking style for it.

But today (yesterday) I will do smoked pork belly first and maybe tomorrow for the salted mackerel (I haven’t got enuff materials for it yet)

So, smoked pork belly, here we go.

Ingredients:

A)    Pork belly : Any amount you choose. I  use 1 Kg.
B)    Aniseed : Approx. 1 table spoon.
C)    Dried chili : 1-2 pcs  - Grind to a small particles but not dusty
D)    Star Aniseed : Approx. 1 tea spoon - Grind to dust
E)    Cinnamon : Approx. 1 tea spoon - Grind to dust
F)    Brown sugar : Approx 2-3 table spoon.
G)   Black pepper : 1-2 tea spoon
H)   Melted butter with garlic and honey for glaze

The process - marinating:

• Clean the meat, dry it with kitchen towel. Use your knife to take off the skin but keep  the fat attached  on the meat.

• Prepare a dry marinates by mixing B, C, D, E, F and G in a bowl. You can always adjust the amount to suit your preference.

• Rub the marinates to cover the whole meat. Leave to rest overnight in refrigerator. If you don’t have 1 night, well at least rest it for couple of hours.

Grilling:

Note that I did this indoor simply because I don’t have a real wet kitchen yet -.-”. Here’s my simple stove preparation.

• With everything ready on set – bbq stove and the marinated meet. Get the charcoal on fire. I make mine the fast way.

• Meanwhile waiting for the charcoal ready, soak your wood chips in water for few minutes. Take it out and wrapped with a foil. Use a fork to create holes all over it. You can use almost any wood as long as it is from fruity tree. Alternatively you can also use fruit’s peeled skin such as long an, rambutans, mangostene etc. If you don’t have any at all don’t worry, the charcoal alone will do just fine.

• Once the charcoal is covered with white dust and glowing red, means it is ready. Pile it properly on 1 end side of your stove.

• Place your meat on the other end side of your stove.

• Place woodchips above the charcoal and cover it immediately. It is very important to cover the stove thoroughly. Use wet towels and foil.

• Now is waiting time and be patient. Opening the lit every now and then will spoil the temperature down. For this method I noticed the timing are : 25-45 minutes to get medium rare to medium and 45 – 1 hr for well done. While waiting, have something.. I handled my crave with this 25% Alc. mixed with mountain dew :).

• Do the mopping/glazing with the melted butter 10 minutes before taking it out.

• Once done, put on a cover and let it rest for at least 10 minutes.

• Serve it with your preferred sauce. Mine was a mix of  mustard, light soy sauce, tomato ketchup, vinegar and honey.

The results…

For those celebrating Christmas, I would recommend to try it. The earthy taste from the Aniseed which will only be found after biting it, mixes with the spiced meat, makes the taste uniquely delicious. My wife says it’s a bit western, you try it.

Cheers!

On my very 1st post in this blog, I would like to share one of a dish that is a proud of my people. It is called sambal tuhau (too-how). Sambal is equivalent to a dipping sauce and tuhau is the main ingredient to make it.

By mentioning the name alone, it is already mouth watering! So, it’s a yummy yummy dish and it’s a hot one.

For those who don’t have any idea about tuhau, perhaps some light background information will help.

• Sambal tuhau is a traditional side dish prepared by the natives in Sabah, especially by the Dusun who lives in the interior. It’s perfect to accompany local rice wine or beer and to treat hangover :).

• Other cousins of tuhau which is use by many in preparing delicacy are tumeric, galangal/red ginger and of course wild ginger.

• The main ingredient is the tuhau which is scientifically known as E. coccinea a plant from zingerberaceae family, grown wildly and abundant in our tropical forest. This is how it looks like :

Photo credit to http://zainijimmy.blogspot.com

Alrite, enough said, lets go to the business! I’m gonna show you how to prepare the original sambal tuhau, the way we loves it so much in my home town.

**Before anything, in order to make a really good sambal tuhau, you must get the freshest raw ingredient possible. If you know where to get it green around your area, go get it pls.

Main ingredient:

A) Tuhau : any amount, but to make a medium bowl portion, get 8-11 stems

B) Lime : 5 – 8 (depends on your preference, but I use 5 large size limes). Rice vinegar  can replace lime, but your sambal will be less than half good.

C) Chillies : 1 pack (contains around 35-45 chillies). It must be a hot chillies like Thai chillies or in Malaysia we have the Cili padi @ bird’s eye chilli (I use this one – mind blowing hot).

Optional (but better have ):

D) Onions : 3 medium size onions, thinly sliced.

E) Belacan / prawn paste / fermented prawn cake : Get a thumb size or more if you like.  Give it a direct bbq for about 40-50 seconds till it produce slight burnt aroma. BUT don’t burnt it! Cut it into small cubicles or mash it with your pestle/mortar.

Ingredient for taste:

F) Salt : For this portion I use 3.5 tea spoons. Adjust the saltiness to meet your preference, but it should be a bit salty to cut the sour citric lime juice, and to awake the taste.

G) Sugar : 1.5 tea spoons or if you like, try monosodium glutamate (MGS) for 1 tea spoon. MGS is a famous flavor enhancer for Asian and the best brand is Aji No Moto which means ‘essence of taste’ (I use this one). Well, if you are a serious health conscious, you can forget about it :).

The process:

1. 1st of all – clean everything.
2. Peel off the hard tuhau skin by using a knife or your finger’s nail if you have a strong one. What we want is the soft inside of the stem. If you are not sure, try to bite a little, if it disintegrate easily with your chew, then it is. I use knife.

   
   

3. Cut the tuhau into shorter sizes (10-15 cm). This is just technical add-on, so that it’s easier for the  next step -.-“)
4. Slightly mash the tuhau with the knife’s side, and then by using the reverse side of your knife (knife’s spine) hit the tuhau from end to end as if you are cutting it. But don’t cut it through. We want it still tangling lightly by its  fibers.
5. 

   note the fine fibers attaching between those parts

6. Once done, leave it rest to colorizes into light brown. But, never leave it too long, it will turn to dark brown. If you prefer it original color, you may dip it into your lime juice immediately.
7. Cut the lime and extract the juice ONLY. The lime’s seed if mixed will turn the juice bitter and bitter and bitter. To get the most juice from your lime, roll press it under your palm and cut it properly.  This is the right way to cut your lime, unless you are using lime juice extractor.
   

   create a triangle around the stem

8. Pluck the chilli’s pedicle/stem. Grind the chili using mortar grinder or blender/chopper.
9. Properly mix together the processed A) Tuhau, B) Lime juice, C) Chilli,  D)Onions E)Belacan, F) salt and G) sugar.
10. The sambal is done!.  Optionally, you may also add spring onions, garlic clove and even anchovies.  Play with your imagination, make the dish yours and serve it best while fresh!

This is the end product.

And this is the mess

Sambal tuhau can be preserved for couple of weeks if kept properly inside a bottle/jar and refrigerated.

In Sabah, you can find the ready made sambal tuhau sold on the road side or in a market place, mostly in the interior such as in Tambunan, Keningau and Ranau. It taste slightly different as it is prepared using rice vinegar for a better preservative.

Photo source :http://www.mount-kinabalu-borneo.com

Additional notes:

Not everyone would love tuhau though. I know a dozen who can’t even stand the strong smell of tuhau especially those who are not from Tambunan.

For the 1st timers who love to try, go for a very little amount and taste it around the tips of your tongue. If you feel ok with it, then proceed with more amount.

Another good way of tasting tuhau for the 1st timer is by having a small amount of it in your spoon and dip it into your soup and taste it. You will know if you are enjoying it or otherwise immediately. Mixing tuhau with noodle soup or maggie is damn good!, try it :).

Tuhau in KK eateries?

It is very difficult to find but there is one outlet in centre point basement, (located beside the only vegetarian canteen) that provide sambal tuhau as their side dish. I was actually surprise by it.

However, it’s a bit frustrating though, the sambal tuhau in centre point is just too light. Perhaps the owner purposely make it very light for his customers.

If you are eating in Tambunan, go to Restaurant Trusmadi (besides TIPS and pasar), they still provide tuhau as a side dish for FREE and UNLIMITED. The food is nice too.

Hurmm, one last point..  beside being used to make an appetizer, tuhau is also a very good ingredient to make fish or chicken soup. I think that should be my next sharing

That’s it for now guys, cheers!

Some other post about Tuhau from the net:

http://jpajuni.blog.com/1705140/

http://zainijimmy.blogspot.com/2007/11/kampung-food-tuhau.html

http://www.dalbergpoulsen.com/ginger_poster.html

http://picasaweb.google.com/ng.wc.karen/Sabah2007#5180644762202429378

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I would like to dedicate this post to the person who has made sambal tuhau popular in Tambunan and slowly it spread throughout Sabah. That man is my beloved father, Mr. Dalus Anggat.

I remember well, father used to serve his noodle soup with unlimited refill of tuhau and also a bottle of lihing – rice wine. It is still fresh in my mind, the combination really make a fortune for the family on those days.

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THIS is the famous local rice wine in Sabah - TAPAI.

One of these days, I’m gonna share on

how to make it and how to taste a good one.

Stay around