Beef Stroganoff is originally a Russian dish of sautéed pieces of beef served in a sauce made with sour cream. From its origins in mid-19th-century Russia, it has become a very popular dish around the world, with considerable variation from the original recipe.

It is a very easy dish to cook and pleasantly nice to eat especially if you add a more liberal dash of brandy. I have not made it for a long time but recently I am so lazy I just want to cook dishes that takes less than an hour from start to finishing cleaning my kitchen.

Hubby loved it and had 2 bowls for his lunch! That mean I passed. He can have 2 bowls but no more bread.

Remember you can add more mushrooms, onions etc. When I could I love to add whole small onions. it is entirely up to you. As there is so many variation of this dish make it your own by cooking it to suit yourself.

It had been a long time since I made Pea & Ham soup so I was very happy to see some freshly roasted ham hogs for sale from the supermarket. I quickly grabbed 2 last week but I was not able to make use of them until today. There were just too much food in the house curtesy of daughter from work.

The daughter has been bringing home, sandwiches, breads, jackets potatoes and beef slices. So I have not the need to do much cooking this week. On top of it I have an eye stye that annoys me a lot. I have never had it in my life for half a century and I have to experience one now. I have planned to go to the garden centre this coming weekend but now not sure. I am still vain enough not to want to be seen with a swollen eyelid.

We did have a lot of fun and laugh, me wearing a hot eye-patch compressor and singing ‘Like a Virgin’ and explaining to hubby all the old wives’ tales of pantang-larang (superstitions) aka, tying red string on middle finger, using 7 husks to poke the eye stye and chuck them behind you etc. If you heard of any more please do not hesitate to comment. kekekekeke

Surprisingly when I told my MIL she told me the English people have superstitious in this area too!!! It’s to rub your eye stye with a gold ring! She mentioned this morning there was a ‘gold ointment’ too in the old days! Amazing!

Anyway back to this soup. When I was making it I shed a few tears (not into the soup) mind you but this soup reminded me of my FIL. I really missed him but I knew he would be so proud of me. He would laugh at my plating but he would be beaming with pride. He had taught me well.

This soup also reminded me of the time when I bought a new stick blender for him and when we were rinsing and washing it my mother-in-law suddenly shouted at him “It’s electric” She was having a blonde moment and thought of the old adage ‘never mix electric with water’ However in this case we all looked at her and laugh till tears in our eyes.

Happy memories. Treasured memories.

p/s 1 – When frying the onions, garlic and potatoes make sure they do not colour or else your soup will look meh with brown or black bits.

p/s 2 – Turn the heat off as soon as it’s boiling after you add peas. Boil any longer and you will not have a beautiful green colour.

Those who know me well know that I do NOT like Katsu curry at all. However my boy loves it as he is not a spicy fan. He doesn’t mind Katsu styled curry though as the ‘heat’ is all right for him. Recently he has been buying Katsu ready meals as mummy has been poorly.

I actually do not like him to do that if I can help it because I know prepared food sold in supermarkets contain a lot of e-numbers. It is not hard to make Katsu sauce from scratch so today I cooked it for him with help from my daughter using chicken thighs.

I even went the extra mile of marinating and then frying the chicken skin to give that extra texture. I do not like soft curried chicken skin myself.

On the other hand my girl prefers my normal Malaysian version curries with added belacan. Hubby will eat both as he eats anything I serve him, no complains. All he asked is that I do not serve him fats and innards. Heck he even like petai, stinky beans that I do not eat or cook myself. Since lockdown he has not had any because we could not visit a friend who sometimes cooks it for him. Poor man, not really. kekekekekeke

Nasi lemak is special, special to the hearts of all Malaysian. Although in my household one would think my husband was an Asian in his last life, or so all my elders (family & friends) members seems to think so.

The most important expect of nasi lemak is the nasi lemak sambal. Each person seems to have his/hers own special recipe as well as each household.

One can have nasi lemak with fried fish, chicken, sardines sambal, prawns sambal, sotong sambal and for me the dreaded petai sambal. (I just cannot get on with the smell of petai!)

There are limitless types of food you can serve nasi lemak with but the old school MUST have is the sambal sauce, the cucumber, peanuts, boiled eggs, and fried crispy ikan bilis (anchovies) served with fragrant coconut and pandan leaves flavoured rice.

This is my nasi lemak sambal recipe. I have a little chat with a good friend and finally found out what I have been missing in my nasi lemak sambal kuah (sauce). I was never quite satisfied with mine till now. I have since cooked this twice to make sure. Now I am extremely satisfied and felt I can share this. I do not document food I do not like.

Put this sambal in air tight containers and vacuum sealed. I have even posted to friends who are extremely happy with it. You can absolutely freeze them for a lazy day.

In this pic you will see my nasi lemak share platter which I served with tri-coloured rice. I cooked the nasi lemak sambal the night before and on the day itself I boiled plain coconut and pandan rice with a couple slices of ginger, then I did the same with pandan juice and saffron. I like a nice presentation, yes I do. Food taste much nicer if they are pleasing to the eyes.

TIP – After I fried my ikan bilis and removed from hot oil with a sieve I like to sprinkle them with a dusting of icing sugar while still hot. This makes your ikan bilis stay crispy longer and a lot more tastier. It’s the combination of salt and sugar that is irresistible. However you do not have to do so.

p/s I am sure you do not need me to tell you how to boil nasi lemak However do not forget your liberal pinch of salt.

Update (06/09/2020) – today I added galangal as part of my ginger portion and I really love the taste

Please note that I fried a bunch of anchovies (ikan billis) first then used the oil to cook the kuah. In the kuah itself I add in extras minced ikan bilis (not the fried ones) and minced undang kering. These really add extra ‘ooooomph’ to my kuah in my opinion. After the kuah is done then I added in a portion of the fried ikan billis and saved some for garnishing.

I make this sambal udang balacan/belacan a few times a year. It is when we, the family kept asking me when I am making again or when my friends persuade me “when you next make sambal udang belacan can I book 10 jars please” then only I make.

Now I am not sure how to write a fix recipe as I have never measured my ingredients. I taste as I make and add a bit of this and that to make it resemble the taste I know. The taste of how my mother’s sambal used to taste like.

When I was a youngin’ when my mother made this, we always make them into sandwiches Do you know dried shrimps sambal that has a generous amount of dried shrimps taste amazing with buttered bread? If you have not try before, try it. My husband loves this on buttered brioche rolls.

Now as I said I have not measured my ingredients. when I asked my mother she will tell me a bowl of this and half a bowl of that. So I will attempt to tell you. However sambal is one of those dish you can make your own. There is absolutely no right or wrong. When I first started making I tried to add this and that (not mentioned by my mother) but in the end I do not like the taste. Not nostalgic lah. so I stick back to the basic ingredients. If for any reason I want to use this sambal to cook other things then I will add other ingredients as and when.

Take this recipe as a guide and make your own as sometimes our onions has a stronger taste or our chillies is hotter. I remember one time I bought some chilli powder that were so hot! I of course had to add more sugar. I will give you tips to adjust.

Oh yes when using the dried chillies, snip off the heads a bit and empty out as much of the seeds as you can. When I was young grandma use to say don’t let the males eat chilli seeds or they can’t pee – kekekekekeke Funny things I remember from young but now that I am all grown up I know that it is the spicy hot food that can increase bladder pain and inflammation in some people thus making it hard to pee for them. BUT there is some truth in so called ‘old wives’ tales after all!

Today we are still in lockdown in the UK due to Covid-19. This morning I woke up in a cooking mood. At first I wanted to cook 3 meals for today, breakfast, lunch and dinner.

However I ended up only cooking 2 meals. Brunch of roast chicken with noodles and dinner is traditional old British stew.

So early in the morning I phoned my mother in law and went over with her the steps for cooking this dish. I have watched her enough time cooking it but it’s nice to hear her instructions kekekekekeke She did give me a very crucial information that I did not know before!!! Then I realised why I don’t like cooking stews. It sticks to the bottom of my pan and I need to soak overnight to wash!

However due to my mother in law’s tip I cooked the best stew ever and nothing stuck to the bottom of my pan. My son woofed down 5 dumplings when he came back from. I will definitely cook this for him again! His ‘so good mum’ makes me so happy.

It is seldom that I cook stew because I am also not a big fan of stew but today I cook for my son as I know he loves a good stew with dumplings, lots of my special dumplings. Also when he last went out to do shopping with his Dad a fortnight ago he bought a stew pack – a packet from the supermarket containing the root vegetables for stew. I think that is a big HINT!

I have a few potatoes left so I decided to add them in too to bulk it up a bit. Both the hubby and the son were really happy!

Note – Traditionally you can serve this with mashed potatoes but I prefer to stew the potatoes as well. One step of work less.

The weather is abysmal today. Rain rain and more raindrops, not heavy rain just constant wetness.

Hubby needed lunch earlier as he has a meeting and I decided to go for tender slices of beef in bagels with onions, cheese and mushrooms. An easy half hour cook.

I bought a piece of beef skirt for £5. it weight about a kg. Beef skirt is not too expensive and when cook this way it is not bad to eat and hubby loves it as not too fatty. otherwise he is not a fan of red meat. I often use beef skirt to cook stir fry, leeks, Chinese leave cabbage etc.

My tip on making the beef really soft and tender – Hubby loves his beef this way. It’s the secret Chinese way. Often I have been asked by the Brits what is the Chinese secret to making really tender beef with our stir fries, just like the ones they get from the restaurants and this is the way.

The secret is bicarbonate of soda. The most important secret is not too much and do not marinate too long. You want to tenderizes the beef not turn them into mush. if you do it this way I guarantee you no more tough beef.

However this is unnecessary with expensive cuts of beef like chateaubriand, filet mignon etc

TIP – Do not season your beef before o when frying. Salting the beef now draws out the juice and won’t leave them tender and juicy. Season AFTER frying.

TIP – If you want to use as stir fry Asian style lose the worcestershire sauce and instead use soy sauce, touch of rice wine and a tsp of cornstarch. Loosen the marinated beef with sesame oil before hitting the pan to flash fry with garlic, ginger etc. Then use your tender beef to fry your vegetables of choice.