Kuala Lumpur Assam Laksa (N.Z. version)

This is my mum's version of the Assam Laksa recipe. All the ingredients are available in N.Z.

Fish Gravy
1 Trevally fish
1 big onions
1 bunch of daun kesum
5 pieces of tamarind skin
1 packet Assam Laksa spices (I use Hup Loong's
famous Assam Laksa)

Ingredients
1 packet of thick dried rice stick noodles (soaked over night
or for 5 hours. Boil for about 5-10 minutes)
Fresh or can pineapples. Cut into strips
1 cucumber, shredded
4 hard boiled eggs, cut into half
Some mint leaves



Method

1. Bring 7 cups of water to boil. Put in the trevally fish and cook for about 10 minutes or until just slightly cooked. Carefully remove the fish and drain.
   
2. Remove flesh from fish and put the bones back into the stock together with the onions, daun kesum, a packet of Assam Laksa spices and 5 pieces of tamarind skin. Simmer for 1 hour. Strain through a sieve, only the stock is required.
   
3. Lastly put the fish meat into the stock and bring to a boil. Taste and ready to serve (do not boil the fish for too long.

To serve

1. Place a serving of noodles in a bowl. Top with some pineapples and shredded cucumbers.


2. Pour the very hot laksa gravy together with some fish over the noodles and vegetables.


3. Serve with mint leaves, egg, prawn paste and lemon (optional)

RSS and newsreaders

Wow this is something new to me. I have a Bloglines account and have subscribed to a number of feeds. My favourite is the Unshelved -library cartoon feed. Personally news feed will be very useful for someone that their job requires them to be up-to-date all the time. Profession such as Journalist, corporate librarian, PA will find it useful. Is definitely useful in a library situation but I am not convinced totally. Is important to know current events because librarians are being asked some of the time with school homework etc.. My doubt is that there are enormous other tasks that librarians are required to do. Therefore, I am not sure whether keeping that up-to-date is really essential.

Week 3

Technologies

I love the online databases. My favourite is Press Display. Is an online database that library subscribes too. It has the full version of newspapers from many countries. Very useful to keep up to date with gossips ...

I did had a look at Bebo, Myspace and Facebook. I am not a huge fan of these but I like Flickr. I did the tour and managed to create magazine cover, stamps and badges. I can see the possibility of these in library displays.

Just a thought. This year's Library Week theme is Pass It On. Among all things that librarian does it so well, is it crucial that we pass on our technology knowledge to our customers?

Let me know your thoughts

p/s The photo was taken in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia in July 2007. Is a tea plantation. I used Flickr to create the border and I love it

Week 2

Dear all, thank you for all your feedback. This is the first time I am doing a blog and so far it has been fun. I thought it will be hard but no. It's even easier than Millennium-library management system. So here you are another recipe this time a dessert.

Steamed coconut corn cake

Ingredients A
1200ml think coconut milk
100g rice flour
100ggreen peas flour
2 tbsp custard powder
250g caster sugar

Ingredients B
1 can cream seeet corn
1 tsp salt
1 tsp alkaline water

Mix all ingredients A in a big bowl then ingredients B and mix well.

Pour the mixture into a pot. Stir and cook at low heat until very thick. Pour into a 20cm greased round steaming tray and steam for 35 minutes until cooked.

Cool completely and cut into pieces. To look really porfessional, try to get those knives that are jagged.

The recipe is from Pasar Malam Delights by Bee Sim Chan, Plilip Yoong and Alan Kok

Recipe Part 1

Welcome to my blog. My reason for setting this blog is because I would like to share what I know and hopefully other people will contribute too. Unfortunately, there are not many nice Malaysian restaurants in Auckland. Occasionaly people asked me to recommend. Personally I am not even able to even shortlist even one restaurant. The most disappointing thing is the turnover of Malaysian restaurant owners are very high. Therefore the standard of the food and service drop. You might like the restaurants on your first visit and when you are back the second time round, you might see a new menu and different staff.

Anyway, let me share this recipe with you. Nice and easy to make.

Rojak

Part 1
Sauce: 4-6 red chillies, 1 tsp toasted belacan, pounded finely
3 tbsp tamarind paste
1 tbsp thick black soya sauce mixed with 1/2 cup water
4 thsp shrimp paste (har koh)
1/2 tsp salt or to taste

Part2
About 300g toasted peanuts (yes you can toast it in the oven), skin removed, pounded coarsely
50g toasted sesame seeds

Ingredients:
You can use fruit or vegetables such as mango, cucumber, pineapple and apples.

Method:
Mix part 1 until well combines. Add 2/3 of the peauts, mix to form a thick paste. Pour into a bowl.
Arrange or stir all ingredients on a big platter or bowl.

Easy to prepare and can be done hours in advance.

Enjoy!