Monkey Beach Excursion

Monkey beach (Teluk Buyung) located in Penang National Park is a place that brings fond memories during my teenage years especially when I spent time camping on the beach with my schoolmates.

The surrounding hasn’t changed much except the park is now managed by the Forestry Department and there is a visitor center before entering the park.

The new attraction in the park besides the rich flora and fauna is the canopy walkway but it’s closed for renovation.

Being the smallest national park in Malaysia, the Penang National Park is another tourist’s attraction available in Penang. Several other noticeable changes includes amenities provided such as rest areas, toilets, signage and litter bins. The path that led to Monkey beach is narrow and steep at certain stretch as the path were laid along the steep land parallel to the coast line that formed part of the park’s boundary .

Yesterday morning, I joined my students to hike to Monkey Beach starting from the entrance and passed through Aling Bay (Teluk Aling), where the USM Marine Science and Coastal Studies Research Center located.

It took us about 1 ½ hours to reach the destination. The white sandy beach and several dilapidated bungalows and broken huts along the beach were just the same when I was there during the 80’s. No amenities available in Monkey Beach as it is situated on private land but local tour operators has set-up huts and barbeque stove and camping ground for tourists and visitors.

Nearby, is the Muka Head light house built in 1883 and is still in operation. It was fun and enjoyable day as I had lunch on the beach and watched students playing games.

Besides the students, foreign tourists were seen coming to the beach by speed boat to swim, fishing and sun bathing. As in any other tourist’s spots in Malaysia, the cleanliness is the prime issue. I can see rubbish strewed on the stretch of the beach.

After resting for an hour, it’s time to return. All my students choose to take speed boat when returning but I decided to hike back to where we started and it took me an hour. I met many friendly tourists along the hiking trail.

Minestrone Soup

Preparing and serving Minestrone Soup to my two kids is a whole lot of wonderful experience. I would bring them to shop for ingredients. My eldest would definitely ask to help in the kitchen, and I enjoy working with her in the kitchen though she could only wash (and play with) the vegetables and drained the kidney beans. She has her apron on and has to stand on the stool to reach the sink comfortably…

To us, Minestrone Soup tastes even better the next day! We love the melted cheese in the soup. It really enhanced the taste. It is certainly a complete meal for my kids!

Serving: 6

Ingredients:

2Tbsp Olive Oil
1 (large) Onion (diced)
2 cloves Garlic
100g Bacon (diced)
200g Leeks (finely sliced)
200g Carrots (diced)
200g Celery (diced)
2 – 3 liters Stock
375g Tomato Paste
1g Basil
1-2 Cloves (optional)
200g Potatoes (diced)
200g Tomatoes (diced)
420g Can red kidney beans (drained)
1/2cup Dry macaroni or spaghetti (broken into pieces)
2 tsp Salt (or to taste)

Grind black pepper

Shaved parmesan cheese (for serving)

Parsley leaves (for serving)

Methods:

1. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan. Sauté onion, garlic, bacon and leeks until lightly browned.
2. Add carrots and celery, and continue sauté.
3. Add stock and tomato paste. Bring to boil and simmer covered for 1 hour. Stir occasionally.
4. Stir in basil, cloves, potatoes, tomatoes, kidney beans and pasta. Simmer for 20 – 30 minutes.
5. Adjust seasoning of the soup with salt and grind black pepper.
6. Garnished with shaved parmesan cheese and parsley before serving.

Spicy Onion Prawn / Sambal Udang

In my memory, this is one of the few spicy dishes that I start to take when I was young. I love the natural sweetness of the onion and juicy prawn. Whenever my mum prepared it, I would go for second helping of rice. Just add a few slices of freshly cut cucumber together with hot steamed rice make a perfect match of a complete meal for me!



Ingredients:
600g Prawn (medium, shell removed)
200g Onion (sliced)
½ cup Oil
70g Tamarind Pulp
1 cup Water (for tamarind juice)
1 tsp Salt (or taste)
1 tsp Sugar (or taste)

Curry Paste (Pounded)
50g Dried Chilies (seed removed)
200g Shallot (peeled)
3 cloves Garlic
2 stalks (large) Lemongrass
1 Tbsp Turmeric Powder

Methods:
1. Heat up oil, sauté curry paste at medium heat until lightly brown and fragrant.
2. Add sliced onion. Stir fry until soft.
3. Then add prawn, stir fry until well mixed with curry paste and aromatic.
3. Add tamarind juice and mix well with the prawn and curry paste.
4. Lastly add sugar and salt to taste and continue simmer to reduce curry to desired texture.
5. Serve well with hot steamed rice and slices of freshly cut cucumber.

Cempedak Butter Cake

Every year around this time of the year, I enjoy baking Cempedak Butter Cake to share with friends. I love the flow of cempedak aroma with the mixed of butter, sugar, egg, and flour surrounding the entire house when the cake is baked.
Cempedak gives off a strong aroma which can even be compared to the aroma of durian, the king of fruit, when it becomes ripe. It is certainly unfair to call it the “ugly cousin” of the jackfruit.
I always choose the fruit which emits strong aroma, the skin appears light green/yellow in color with slight brown spots and also should be sticky due to the latex secretion. The trees bear fruit once or twice a year.

Cempedak is nice to eat raw, deep-fried with batter (even the seed can be eaten), and of course, make it to the tropical fruit cake…


Ingredients:

220g Butter
100g Brown sugar (the color mixed well with cempedak flesh)
¼ tsp Salt
5 Egg yolks
3 Egg whites
50g Brown sugar
220g Plain flour or multi-purpose flour
2 tsp Baking powder
250g Cempedak (cut into cubes or strip)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and Line 7”x 7” baking tray with baking paper.
2. Cream butter and brown sugar together for ~ 5minutes at medium speed.
3. Beat in egg yolks two at a time at low speed, allowing 1 minute beating. Scrape the mixing bowl when necessary.
4. Whisk egg whites until frothy and trickle in brown sugar. Whisk until soft peak formed (meringue).
5. Add flour and baking powder (sieve together 3 times) into batter at low speed and mixed well.
6. Fold in meringue.
7. Lastly, stir in cempedak.
8. Pour into lined baking tray and bake at 180°C for 20 minutes and 170°C for another 20 minutes or until done. Test with a skewer.

Tips:
· Adjust the sugar amount base on the sweetness of the fruit.
· Use fresh cempedak, as its aroma may lost its peak if store overnight in the refrigerator.
· Butter cake is best to eat the next day.

Green Curry

Whenever I see the small and round eggplant/aubergine/brinjal in the market, and if time permits to cook, I would grasp it for Green Curry.

I describe Green Curry as a family curry, as it is not spicy though is called “curry” and children can enjoy this aromatic curry with steam rice or bread. I would normally add in the usual purple elongated-shape and my favorite small and round (green/white/purple) eggplant. In Nyonya food, we used this small and round eggplant for “perut ikan” (pickled fish stomach with finely cut vegetables cook with spicy gravy) as well.

Ingredient (Curry Paste):

2 Tbsp dried shrimp - optional (soaked in water till soft, pounded)

2 tsp cumin seeds, finely pounded
1 tsp black peppercorns, finely pounded

8 (large) fresh green chilies, removed seeds and cut to big pieces
200g shallots, cut to big pieces
6 cloves (large)garlic
~ 5cm fresh galangal, roughly pounded
~ 20g fresh coriander leaves and stems (Chinese parsley), coarsely chopped
6 leaves kaffir lime leaves, coarsely chopped
3 stems lemon grass
2 tsp grated lime rind (optional)

2 Tbsp coriander powder

Method (pounded):

1. Fry pounded dried shrimp till fragrance but not brown.
2. Process pounded spices and dried shrimp in food processor for ~5sec. Add the remaining ingredients and process until mixture forms a smooth paste. (add ~ 50ml water if too dry to process.)

3. Mixed well with coriander powder.

Ingredients (chicken curry):

3 Tbsp cooking oil
1 (medium) onion (sliced)
1.5kg chicken thigh, cut into bite-sized pieces
200-300g egg plant or long beans (cut into 1½ inch)
6 leaves kaffir lime leaves
2 stems lemon grass
250ml water
1 Tbsp Thai fish sauce (or to taste)
1 Tbsp lime juice (or to taste)
2 tsp brown sugar (or to taste)
250ml thick coconut milk
5g fresh coriander leaves

Method:

1. Heat up oil, sauté curry paste at medium heat until lightly brown and fragrant.
2. Add sliced onion. Stir fry until soft.
3. Then add chicken pieces and egg plant/long beans. Stir until coasted well with curry paste.
4. Add kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass and stir well with the mixture.
5. Add water and heat till boiled. Then reduced heat, simmer for ~ 20minutes or until chicken is tender.
6. Then add fish sauce, lime juice and brown sugar to taste.
7. Lastly, add coconut milk. May sprinkle with fresh coriander leaves before serving.
8. Serve well with white rice or bread.

Nyonya Acar - Spicy & Sour Pickled Mixed Vegetables

My sisters and I occasionally meet up at our mother’s house to prepare our favorite dishes together. This time, we decided to prepare Nyonya Acar. We have extra hands now, as my nieces are grown up and interested in cooking as well. As a typical Nyonya, my mum is very particular in how the vegetables are being cut, such as it must be same in length.

This is certainly a harmonious dish. It’s a colorful dish with variety of vegetables. And of course, while chit-chatting, we cut vegetables together and soon it was ready. The atmosphere was just like festive season where the adults were busy with the dish while the young ones running around.

Last Sunday we managed to get our “Nyonya Acar” ready for late lunch. No other dishes, the same colorful and very appetizing Acar was served during dinner. Everybody went home happily with some Acar too.

Ingredients:

Vegetables:
2 large Egg Plant (with skin, cut into 1½ inch length)
2 medium Cucumber (with skin and seed removed, cut into 1½ inch length)
3 medium Carrot (skin peeled, cut into 1½ inch length)
1 medium Pineapple (cut into 1½ inch length)
3 (large) Chilies (seed removed, cut into 1½ inch length) 1kg Long Beans (cut into 1½ inch length)
500g Water Chestnut (cut into 1 inch length)
500g Cauliflower (cut into big pieces)
1kg Cabbage (cut into big pieces)

To blanch the vegetables:
8 liters Water
300ml Vinegar

Spicy & Sour Paste (pounded/blended):
100g Dried Chilies (seed removed)

500g Shallot
3 stalks (large) Lemongrass
2 Tbsp Turmeric Powder

To sauté and flavored the paste:
500g Oil
4 Tbsp Vinegar (or to taste)
150g Sugar (or to taste)
1Tbsp Salt (or to taste)

Garnished:
200g Roasted Peanut (grounded)
50g Roasted White Sesame

Methods:
1. Blanch the vegetables to preserve the color and flavor. Add vinegar into water and bring to boil. Add vegetables (carrot, cucumber, cauliflower, cabbage, long bean) and boil for ~ 2 minutes. Then, blanch the egg plant separately, as it would colored the water (brown). Remove and immerse vegetables in cold water.
2. Turn off the heat, add pineapple into the hot water and drain off. Chilies and water chestnut not required to blanch.

3. Heat up oil, sauté spicy & sour paste at medium heat until lightly brown and fragrant.
4. Add vinegar, sugar and salt to taste. Turn off the heat.

5. Then, add all the vegetables. Mixed well in the wok.

6. Lastly, add the ground roasted peanut and sesame.
7. Serve well with hot steam rice. Store well in the refrigerator up to 1 week.

Local Basil Leave 九層塔

Am having bad cough and flu for the past 10 days. My lung is congested and there is too much phlegm. The usual medication given by doctor did not help to improve my conditions. I decided to walk to wet market this morning to look for an old man selling the homegrown vegetables and leaves.

I know he should have some traditional remedy to ease my cough. Well, without disappointment, Local Basil Leaves (九層塔) was recommended. Take a deep sniff on the leaves, I like it!

Without further delay, I washed the leaves (1 bundle, which cost only RM0.50), poured 3 liters of filtered water into a pot, dropped the leaves into the pot and bring to boil. Add sugar-cane rock sugar and boil till it melt.

I drank the water when its warm and it immediately soothed my throat. After awhile, I drank another 2 cups, and poured some into my Thermos Mug to bring with me to my class. It really helps, as my class was not interrupted by cough today, I stopped occasionally to drink the water.
Thanks to the nature for the wonderful leaves!