My Pet Peeves

Today I want to talk about my pet peeves. This is my list :-
1. Rudeness and arrogance
2. Know it alls
3. People with inferiority complex but act as if they are better than others
4. Sexists and racists
5. Those who use religion as an excuse
6. Those who comment about others' personal matters without being asked

Wanna know why I'm talking about this today? Because for the past 2 weeks I've been pretty irritated with this particular person who is on my friends list on FB ... but I cannot delete that person because I don't like to unnecessarily make people my nemesis. (BTW ... hence the existence of this blog because FB is not a flexible application as far as privacy is concerned). i don't want to make that person my nemesis nor do I want to be his/her friend. I just want to be an acquaintance. The person in question is just a know it all whose life is actually empty but just loves to comment about and belittle other people's personal lives, choices and achievements by telling just how great he/she and his/her life is. For example .. if I were to say I've been somewhere ... then that person will also say that he/she has been there or has been to an even better place. It's as if there's nothing which anyone has done which he/she hasn't. I just wish that person would just go away ... I really don't care about whatever you have, who you know, what you like, how great you are etc etc etc because I just think you are just an empty keg rolling down the hill and trying to make as much noise as you can on your way down in order to get some desperately craved attention! So there! I've said my piece ...

Ayam Masak Padprik (Padprik Chicken)

This is a recipe which was given to my mom by one of our Thai neighbours when my dad was posted in Tanah Merah, Kelantan. It is unlike the padprik chicken which is usually sold in Thai Restaurants in Malaysia. I was made to understand this is authentic Southern Thai recipe for padprik chicken. It's a simple one pot dish which does not require much effort but tastes delicious. Needless to say it is one of my family's fav dish. So, I'm sharing the recipe here with you and also uploaded the pic of the padprik chicken which I cooked today for our lunch. Happy cooking & Enjoy!

Padprik Chicken Recipe

- You can either use chicken pieces which have been cut into desired sizes or thinly sliced chicken breasts. Marinate with salt and tumeric powder for about 30 minutes

- Blend together : dried red chillies, birds eye chillies, 1 inch galangal, 1 stalk lemon grass, 1 onion, 3 cloves garlic. The number of dried chillies and birds eye chillies depends on how hot you want the dish to be.

- 3 tablespoon nam pla sauce (thai fish sauce), palm sugar/demerara sugar/white sugar, juice from 1 whole lime, kaffir lime leaves

- sliced tomatoes

Fry the chicken in a wok till 3/4 cooked in oil, then take the chicken out of the oil and set it aside.

Using the same wok and with the remaining oil, fry the blended ingredients till fragrant.

Then mix the chicken with the ingredients frying in the wok. Stir fry them thoroughly.

Then add the nam pla sauce, sugar, lime juice into the mix and season according to taste.

Finally add the sliced tomatoes and kaffir lime leaves and stir fry for 5 minutes before taking the wok off the stove.

Voila! it's ready.

First Achievement in 2011

Hello everyone! This is my first entry in 2011 and I'm going to start by telling how I managed to cook Nasi Kerabu for the first time ever in my life ... yep! Nasi kerabu is one of my fav dishes but I never bothered to find out how to cook it because my mom is such a good cook that whenever I feel like eating nasi kerabu, I would just ask her to do so for me and my beloved mom would willingly oblige. I know I sound like a spoilt daughter ... but my mom is like that ... a typical Malay mom who shows her love not through words and hugs but through her cooking. Anyways ... since the past 1 month I have been plagued with cravings for traditional Malaysian food. Today, I suddenly got the craving for nasi kerabu and immediately started searching for the recipe online. Thank God! for the world wide web ... i found a number of recipes readily available online. One would think that the best way for me to go about it would be by simply asking my mom ... but that's the way I was raised by my parents ... try to do things on my own first ... then only should I ask for help if I need further advice. To cut the story short, despite the fact that there were a few unavailable ingredients such as fresh coconut, herbs to colour the rice dark blue/colouring, lada solok, salted eggs and daun kesum or vietnamese mint ... i still managed to cook my very first nasi kerabu. Thank goodness I brought back a botol of budu with me to UK when I was in Malaysia in March last year. Hubby and Sany both said my nasi kerabu was delicious. Hubby had 2 extra helpings whilst Sany kept on saying I should open a restaurant!! Hahaha ... biased! Anyways ... I'm posting the pics here for your viewing pleasure. BTW ... cooking nasi kerabu is not difficult and if you want to keep it simple .. just have it with fried chicken instead of lauk percik. You can also have nasi kerabu with ikan celup tepung or slices of roast beef.