Crab and chicken dishes for the day

the tent infront of our house, neighbour's kenduri

yesterday was a not so happy day. Why? I was going to warm up the engine of our car when I saw broken glass on the seat next to the driver. Somebody smashed our car window and took a few things from inside the car and the dashboard including , I think especially the CD player., plus the smart tag and the touch and go card. We were not so sure about other things. Perhaps the broken glass, the CD player, the smart tag and card could be replaced but the CD collection? the 'not so good' person took the CD collection too... most of the songs were our favourite, our compilation. Only the night before, on our way back from dinner at Restoran N*l*yan, we were listening to 'Deep Purple', smoke on the water, etc and was telling the kids that these were the group that Abah and Mama used to listen to during our student days., not forgetting Metallica, Whitesnake, Def Leppard, Queen and many more. Wah, boleh tahan rocker jugak, :-)hehe... those were the days.

but life had to go on. I still need to cook lunch for the kids. We had been eating Thai dishes these past couple of day because our neighbour were marrying off their daughter, not that we are complaining because the dishes were superb! from the beef soup to the mutton curry and ayam masak ( i don't know the names of the dishes ) to its sambal belacan, everything was delicious! Can't wait for their next kid to get married...hehe..

so, the menu for yesterday was Malay style, with Ketam Masak Cili and Ayam masak lemak cili api. These to are my kids' favourite dishes ( amongst others)

This is my version of the Ketam MAsak Cili( where did I get this recipe from?:

rub a little salt adn tumeric onto the crabs ( need to clean the crabs first, of course)

fry them and put aside.

meanwhile, you can start making the gravy:

melt butter in a wok,

fry curry leaves and lemon grass ( smashed slightly ) till fragrant

add in the following:( blend them altogether)

garlic

ginger

chillies

when the ingredients are cooked, add in

tomato sauce,

chilli sauce

oyster sauce

lime juice and

salt and sugar to taste.Add back the fried crabs

for ayam Masak LEmak cili padi:

a little story about how and where I learned this recipe from. I was 20 when I left my family to further my studies, with little knowledge about cooking ( just the basic which I learned from school )and for having an elder sister in the house, I did not bother to learn how to cook. Fortunately I had very good cook as housemates. We all went to the same school, the three of us and the other one from one of the girls boarding school in Selangor and all four of us did our A Level together, the pioneers in Kelana Jaya. Idah, from Johor is the best cook I think, and she taught me this Ayam Masak Cili Api.Thanx so much Idah and I had been using this recipe until today.

this is a very simple and easy to make recipe:

all you need to do is-

slice up some onion and garlic

mash/ tumbuk cili api

heat oil, tumis onion and garlic and lemon grass, followed by the cili api. when they are cooked, add in chicken, until the chicken is half cooked. Then add in some water, enough to cover the chicken and cook until the chicken is tender.Add in coconut milk, stir a little bit, salt and sugar to taste. Finally, a bit of air asam jawa.

I use the same recipe for my Ketam Masak Lemak, and it tastes equally good.