Fried Apple-Pie

There's a McD joint near our house where we can just conveniently drive-thru and place our orders and voila, your dinner. Despite the fast-food campaign huh! Anyway, among all, my kids love McD Apple-Pie. The pastry is rightly between soft and crispy and the filling is just righly sweet and sour. Sold at RM2.90 each and if you add one more, they are 2 for RM3.00! Tambah seposen aje tu. If they can sell it at RM1.50 each, imagine how much they mark-up the price!

Anyway, seeing Kakak and Iman munching their pies dengan gamak sekali, it prompted me to try my own. Furthermore, it's fried and not baked. We still haven't bought an oven yet so whatever experiment needs to exclude one with oven. After googling, I found a few recipes on the net.

Naturally, I did the filling first. It reminded me of the good-old-days when Iman was just a baby. His favorite food was applesauce and the apple pie filling recipe is exactly like applesauce. Only with sugar and it is not blended down into saucy-consistency.

FRIED APPLE-PIE
FILLING
Ingredients
1. Green apples - 3-4 apples, peeled, cored and diced.
2. Sugar - 1/2 to 3/4 cup.
3. Good dash of cinnamon powder.
4. A bit of water

Step-by-Step
- Put apples in a pan and add just a little water. You may not want the filling to be watery as this will 'soak' the pastry.
- Add sugar and cinnamon powder.
- Bring to a boil over high heat and then reduced to low flame. Let to simmer for 10-15 minutes until the apples are a bit soft.
- With a fork, mash some parts of the apples while leaving some part solid. So will have a nice combination of 'saucy' and cruchy apples.
- Let to cool.

The next day, I did the pastry and eventually the pie. It was such a tough task. It's hard to get even simple things done when I have many assistants. Kakak insisted to help so she got her portion of pastry that she rolled, knead and whatever until it turned blackish. Iman, who was already sleepy while I was rolling the dough thin, insisted that he needed to sleep right between my legs. So there was I, with all the 'assistance' I needed!

PASTRY
Ingredients
1. 2 cups of multi-purpose flour (I used the usual tepung cap-sauh).
2. 1/2 cup of shortening/butter (I used shortening and I used 3/4 cup of it).
3. 1 tsp salt
4. 1/2-3/4 cup water

Step-by-Step
- Mix flour with salt. Then 'ayak' (apa omputih cakap ayak ek?).
- Rub shortening with your fingers. (of course the mixture got a bit lumpy)
- Add water and knead into dough (the original recipe said 'use a fork' but I prefer to do with my hands)
- Roll the dough into desired size.
- Lay the filling and fold the pastry.
- Use a bit of water to 'glue' the pastry.

Since it was getting late and Kakak got overly excited with the kneading and rolling and Iman was trying his best to fit and snug himself between my legs, I decided to abort the last operation - frying. Maka jadilah 'frozen food'. Malam semalam baru goreng 2 ketul. (I got 6 pies. Had I not throw away some ingredients, I may have gotten 8. Errr... they are all of many shapes and sizes).

Anyway, a few additional information
1. Shortening
2. Rub method

before & after

Garlic-Butter Stick

Lepas 'kejayaan' saya buat pau, saya try buat CAKOI tapi hasilnya amat menghampakan. Tak gebu langsung. Bila goreng, keras kejung semacam aje. Tebby said I'd better stick to pau dulu. Nanti boleh cuba cakoi lain kali. Saya tak buat proper pau afterwards tapi saya buat something else from adunan pau yang diolah-olah sana sini. So, saya buat GARLIC BUTTER STICK. Saya buat sambal telur as pencicah.

Ingredients
1. Wheat flour – 500gm

2. Dry yeast – 1 ½ teaspoon
3. Corn oil – ¼ cup
4. Sugar – 1/4 cup
5. Salt - 1 tsp
6. Garlic-butter - 2-3 tbs
7. Warm water – 1 ½ cup

Step-by-step
- Mix flour, yeast, salt and corn oil in a bowl.
- Add garlic-butter.
- Dilute sugar in warm water.
- Add water into flour-mix bit by bit.
- Knead into a dough. (Approximately 10 minutes) Leave to rest for 10 minutes.
- Flatten the dough using a rolling pin, about 1cm thick and cut into strips.
- Fry until golden brown.

Nasi Rempah Ber-Ayam

Hari ni Tebby sakit perut! Dek sebab itu, maka kami makan lunch a bit late than usual. Kena tunggu sakit dia reda sikit then only he could pegi beli barang-barang dapur untuk masak. Mula-mula ingatkan nak buat tomyam (which he does all the time, saya tak pernah buat tomyam seumur hidup!). Lepas tu kami ubah plan, buat anything 'nasi'. Nak buat Nasi Daging dah lewat sebab nak kena rebus daging untuk dapatkan beef-stock. Lama pulak nak tunggu daging empuk. Last-last Nasi Daging jugak tapi guna ayam and I changed a bit bahan-bahannya. Ayam pun cepat sikit nak masak. Tebby makan bertambah lunch tadi. Dia kata sedap. *saya kembang*


Bahan-Bahan
1. Ayam - seekor saiz sedang - cut into big chunks or quarter depending on the pot you have. rebus dengan halia+garam kasar hingga 1/2 masak. asingkan 1/2 untuk ditanak dengan nasi dan 1/2 lagi untuk digoreng.
2. Beras Basmathi - 1 kg - basuh dan toskan.
3. Minyak Sapi - 1 sudu besar
4. Marjerin - 2 sudu besar
5. Serbuk Rempah Kurma (3 sudu besar) + Serbuk Ketumbar (1 sudu besar) - campurkan dengan air dan jadikan pes
6. Bahan Tumis A (Kulit Kayu Manis, Buah Pelaga, Bunga Lawang, Bunga Cengkih)
7. Bahan Tumis B (Bawang Putih, Bawang Merah, Bawang Besar & Halia)
8. Cili Boh - 1 sudu besar
9. Tomato - 3 atau 4 biji - dipotong dadu
10. Daun pandan - 2 atau 3 helai - simpulkan
11. Susu cair - 1 gelas.
12. Garam dan Gula.
13 Bawang goreng dan kismis sebagai hiasan.


Cara-Cara
- Panaskan minyak sapi dan marjerin hingga cair.
- Masukkan bahan tumis A. Tumis hingga naik bau.
- Masukkan bahan tumis B. Tumis hingga agak garing.
- Masukkan cili boh dan sedikit gula. Teruskan menumis hingga pecah minyak.
- Masukkan pes rempah kurma + serbuk ketumar. Tumis hingga garing.
- Masukkan tomato dan kacau hingga layu.
- Masukkan air rebusan ayam, susu cair, daun pandan dan garam. Sesuaikan rasanya. Biar mendidih sedikit.
- Masukkan beras dan ketulan ayam.
- Tanak hingga masak.
- Hidangkan dengan kismis dan bawang goreng.


AYAM GORENG
Gaulkan ayam yang telah direbus dengan garam, kunyit, serbuk paprika dan yoghurt. Perapkan 10-15 minit dan gorengkan.


Hidangkan panas-panas dengan air rebusan ayam yang dihias dengan sedikit potongan daun bawang.


Sebenarnya saya tak tau nak letak nama resepi. Kalau ikut adik-beradiknya Nasi Daging, yang ini patutnya Nasi Ayam, kan. Tapi Nasi Ayam ni dah lain pulak. Masa Tebby dok gaul-gaulkan nasi tadi, senduk patah! Saya kata kita letakkan namanya Nasi Ayam Senduk Patah! Tapi macam tak kena pulak. So, Nasi Rempah Ayam bolehlah kot?

Tebby's Nudle

Simple recipe.

Just prepare the broth beforehand by boiling slowly chunk of beef with garlic and ginger. Once cool, slice the beef and put as garnishing alongside boiled eggs, celery and spring onion. I'm just lovin' it!

Garlic-Butter Prawn

it's been so long since i last update here, huh!

anyway.

ada sesapa suka makan roti bakar disapu dengan garlic-butter? i do! makan tengah panas-panas, best! alkisahnya selalunya saya tak buat sendiri garlic-butter, sekadar beli yang ready-made. dan selalunya mesti dalam kotak square kecik. agak mahal to me. saiznya kecik aje, harganya no less than R5.00 except those yang dah dekat expiry date. last time i was looking for garlic-butter, jumpa malaysian made at much lower price. apalagi, belilah kan. the result was not satisfactorily. agak hambar. sangat tak berlemak. dah beli takkan nak buang kan. makanya duduklah garlic-butter dalam peti sejuk sementara menunggu expiry date. bila dah expired nanti taklah rasa guilty sangat membuang kan. malam semalam tengah dok fikir-fikir nak masak apa, teringat pulak garlic-butter prawn. apalagi, saya gunakan saya garlic-butter tu. that saves me a lot of effort and money. walaupun resepinya ala sempoi yang amat, saya kongsikan juga di sini..

Ingredients
1. udang sederhana besar (saya guna yang kecik aje)
2. garlic-butter
3. garam

Step-By-Step
- bersihkan udang. buang kulit, tinggalkan bahagian ekor sahaja. belah dua 3/4 badan. ekor biarkan intact.
- basuh dan keringkan udang (i rolled them up in kitchen towel)
- gaul dengan sedikit garam.
- panaskan non-stick pan.
- masukkan udang dan garlic butter.
- goreng atas api kuat sehingga udang masak
- hidangkan panas-panas

rasanya ala-ala buttered-lobster yang makan kat kedai tu. kakak specifically told me to do it again today so karang Tebby kena pegi beli udang. malam semalam pun budak-budak gonek tu dok meratah sampaikan tinggal berapa ketul aje untuk abahnya. err... ummi pun meratah jugak sebenarnya....

btw - here's an easy way to garlic-butter. butter + minced garlic + chives + salt + pepper -> blend.