Organic Samm

The last time i used my breadmaker was when i was still pregnant with Gordon. he’s 8 years old now, LOL!!!! I keep reminding myself that i must somehow bake something with it. I dunno what got into me one night, i went and bake a carrot cake with it instead of bread, haha. Well, maybe it’s because i’ve never used the cake function before. And so……..

I got all the ingredients needed to bake a carrot cake.

Dumped everything into the breadmaker and let it do the mixing for me.

Added the carrots and ground almond to the batter after 5 minutes of mixing.

Here’s Gordon, checking out the contents of the breadmaker before the actual cycle starts. Oh gawd….. it takes 2 hrs 50 minutes for the whole cycle to complete. Compared to an hour when baked with an oven!!!

And this is how the carrot cake looks like as soon as the breadmaker beeped and with its lid off. Wuah….. the aroma wafting up is mmMmMmMmmMMMmMMMMmMmm. Checked with a skewer and nothing’s stuck to it. Finger test all springy and firm. PASS.

The bottom of the cake is rather dark although i set the crust setting to “light”.

Texture wise, really not bad worrrrr…..

According to Malcolm, my 5 year old, his bravest soldiers will guard the carrot till he wakes up the next morning, LOL. Geeeee…. i just love cooking and baking for my family. So, if you have a breadmaker sitting somewhere in your kitchen, go bake something with it. The best part of it is that you can leave the mixing to the breadmaker. Less washing to do if you have to take your miser out, right. Just remember to make sure your butter is really soft and not stuck to the bottom of the pan. One more thing, pull the paddle out once the mixing cycle stops so that you wont get that huge hole under your cake.

I celebrated my birthday on the 15th of August by having a good time cooking Siamese Laksa together with hubby. We bought most of the ingredients needed for this mouth-watering dish on Sunday noon after he told me i shouted out “Assam Laksa” in the middle of the night in my dreams, lol. *aitelyu…. something must have gotten into me…. iSwear!!!*

We have all the ingredients prepared by Sunday night, ready for cooking on Monday noon.

Here are the prepared ingredients for making the spice paste. Shallots, garlic, turmeric, galangal, lemongrass, cili boh paste and belacan.

My second sis gave me this Tefal Rondo 2500 food processor some time back. This is the first time i’m using it.

Pic of all the spice paste ingredients in the food processor.

I had a hard time with the final blending as i dont have a proper blender to do the job. It’s hell with a hand blender as the lemongrass is so difficult to blend, niamah. In the end, had to stop and drive to the nearest electrical shop to buy one back. Wasted so much time just to blend it.

Nah, the spice paste ready for frying.

3kg of Ikan Kembung in the pot. Thanks God my MIL has a set of Renaware. Ngam-ngam fit all the fish in…. phew!!! No more preparation pics after as i had to go pick #1 up from school. Hubby did the rest after this.

Siamese Laksa with all the garnishings………

And this is the bowl of the most yummilicious Siamese Laksa hubby and i cooked together. Looking at it now…… i need a bowl desperately!!!!

And this is the recipe for the Siamese Laksa. Have fun making it. Make sure you have ample time on hand to make this, lol.

Spice Paste Ingredients:

550g shallots
100g galangal
30g turmeric
3 cloves garlic (peeled)
7 stalks lemongrass (sliced)
50g belacan (dried shrimp paste)
4 tbsp cili boh paste

Fish Stock Ingredients:

3kg Ikan Kembung
3 liters water
200g tamarind paste
200ml oil for frying
1 liter santan (thick coconut milk)
3 bunga kantan (torch ginger buds), split
3 bundles daun kesom (laksa leaves)
20 daun limau purut (kaffir lime leaves), lightly crushed
8 pieces asam gelugor (tamarind peel)
salt to taste

3kg laksa noodles

Garnishing:

3 bundles mint leaves
1 pineapple, cut finely
3 cucumbers, cored and cut finely
4 large onions, halved and sliced finely
4 red chillies, sliced finely
3 torch ginger buds, halved and sliced finely
15 limau kasturi (calamansi limes), cut away top

Method:

To prepare spice paste:

Grind all the spice paste ingredients until smooth

To cook fish stock:

Bring water to boil and add the fish in. Lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes.Turn off heat, remove fish, and reserve the fish stock. Flake the fish meat into a separate bowl carefully and discard the heads and bones.

To prepare tamarind juice:

Soak the tamarind in some fish stock prepared earlier and squeeze it for the juice. Strain it and set aside.

To prepare laksa gravy:

Fry the prepared spice paste with the oil till fragrant. Add in the tamarind juice and fry a little. Add in the coconut juice and mix well. Pour everything into the fish stock, stir and bring the mixture to boil. Add the bunga kantan, daun kesom, daun limau purut and asam keping. Simmer the gravy for 30 minutes until the whole house is enveloped with this heavenly aroma. Finally, add the flaked fish and season the gravy to taste with salt. Simmer for about 5 minutes but not too long as you dont want the fish to break up into small pieces.

GAOTIM!!!!

Fuyoh….. aitelyu…….

Now, faster go blanch your laksa noodles in boiling water and drain off excess water properly. Garnish and serve piping hot.