Relaxing Weekend

Hakeem wanted meatball pasta. Thus, inspired by Jamie Oliver and due to a scarcity of halal meatballs here, I made an attempt at making them today. Here's what I did :-

Mix the following together :

1/2 kg mince meat

1 egg

Salt, pepper to taste

Half packet of crushed cream crackers (any plain cracker will do)

Recipe requires freshly chopped rosemary and oregano (I omitted coz there were none in stock). Maybe one can substitute with a mixture of dried Italian herbs which I also did not have in my pantry

Roll into balls of equal size

Pan fry in olive oil for some minutes until evenly browned

Ready to be used in pasta dishes

This is the white sauce version which is Hakeem's fav. Just tumis bit of chopped garlic in extra virgin olive oil, add meatballs, add pasta, give it a stir, add mixture of an egg with cream. Quickly stir everything up as we don't want the egg mixture to curdle. Season to taste. Give it a couple of stirs and it's ready. Grate a good amount of Parmesan cheese on top.

This is the red sauce cheat version as I used ready-made bottled pasta sauce. Should have added some bay leaves but none in stock too.

Overall, we had a swell time this weekend. Our newfound friend Zura and his mega cuteness son was here and we spent a lovely sunny but cold Saturday makan-makan and lepak-lepak. Zura is such a cool Mom, pandai menjahit pulak tu, cuba tengok hasil jahitan Zura di sini. She handles Mick herself since birth and look at Mick now....pride and joy to both his Mama and Papa. I wouldn't have managed on my own. My darling Mama was with me throughout the confinement period of all my kids and sungguh manja saya di kala dalam pantang coz Mama said tak boleh buat anything strenuous...takut bentan...to the extent of tak boleh baca buku even, for fear of it being a strain to the eyes. The first baby memang ikut arahan completely. Then for the second one, I was a bit degil. Three weeks into the pantang period dah pergi Carrefour sebab rasa dah sihat and tolak heavy trolley up the ramp. Balik rumah jer esok started bleeding rather heavily. Of course I had an earful after that, terus takut and dengar jer cakap Mama. I love you, Ma.

Big White-haired Red Giant Uncle.....for some reason Mick takut kat Uncle Eddy. Dengar suara Uncle dia yang teringin mengagah Mick, terus Mick terperanjat sampai nangis. Aperahhh Uncle ni...go pick people your own size!

Lovely tulips from Zura...one of my favourite flowers apart from daffodils. They brightened the otherwise dreary winter weather.

We had mee kari, nasi ayam and popiah basah.

Old Town white coffee and chocolate cake with creme brulee ice cream. Sinful but nice....so today became the "what the heck day".

Ni tengah tengok muka Uncle la ni...terus sebek and nak nangis.

Sangat comel Mick. Uncle was definitely not in sight!

Mick and his lovely Mama.

By the way, this is a follow-up version of popiah basah after my first attempt hari tu. So Fasha dear, kalau nak buat sekali makan, dapat dalam 24 keping, use this recipe yer. Kak Yong dah cuba, tried, tested and adapt here and there. Kalau tak der sengkuang, I suppose can omit that, taste wise tak lari sangat.

Kulit Popia (adunan ni dapat dalam 24 keping kulit)

Bahan-bahan

4 cawan tepung gandum

2 biji putih telur

Garam

4 tbs cuka makan

4 tbs oil

1 ½ - 2 cawan air (agak2x sampai texture mcm buat cucur udang, boleh dijemput)

Cara

1.Campurkan semua adunan kulit. Gaul hingga sebati.

2.Rehatkan tak kurang dari sejam.

3.Tuang sedikit minyak ke dalam kuali non-stick for the first time jer. Sapu kering dengan kitchen towel. Panaskan kuali, then turn down heat to low.

4.Jemput kulit popia dan letakkan atas kuali - pakai tangan, lengserkan kuali dengan adunan starting from the outer circle to the inner part. (The first one dia selalu melekat sikit, lepas tu bila kuali dah season, dia ok).

5.Biar dalam seminit, then balikkan, biar sekejap then angkat. Boleh peel dari kuali, tak melekat.

Inti Popia

Bahan-bahan (sukatan ni lebih dari cukup untuk sukatan kulit popiah di atas)

Segenggam udang kering ditumbuk lumat and some fresh prawns

100 g taugeh

1/4 biji timun

Sebiji sengkuang kecil

Sebatang carrot

10 g bawang goreng

2 biji telur, dibuat dadar

Boleh tambah tauhu goreng juga.

Kacang tanah.

Cara

1.Celur taugeh

2.Shred timun

3.Parut sengkuang dan carrot, kemudian ditumis dengan udang basah dan udang kering. Campur garam/gula secukup rasa.

4.Goreng tauhu, kemudian potong halus-halus

5.Shred telur dadar

6.Sangrai kacang tanah dlm oven, tumbuk.

Kuah popia

Bahan-bahan

Kismis 1 1/2 cawan (boleh ganti dengan kurma, guna separuh kismis, separuh kurma pun sedap)

Cuka 2 sudu besar

Cabai kering 10 biji (ikut selera kepedasan yang dikehendaki)

Gula 3 sudu besar (ikut selera kalau nak manis tambah lagi tapi kalau guna kurma, kurangkan gula)

1 sudu besar petis udang

Sedikit air

Sedikit garam ikut rasa.

Cara menyediakan kuah popia

1.Rebus kismis/ kurma, kemudian kisar dengan cabai kering

2.Masukkan kismis/ kurma yang dikisar dengan cabai kering ke dalam periuk. Masukkan sedikit air

3.Campurkan petis udang, cuka, gula dan garam secukup rasa.Masak dengan api yang kecil sehingga kuah pekat

Last sekali assemble popiah macam biasa…sapu kuah atas kulit, letak all the inti starting with campuran sengkuang/carrot, timun, taugeh, telur dadar, bawang goreng, kacang, gulung. Sapukan kuah kat atas sikit.