.: Kitchen sessions :.

5th day of holidays.

My parents are here, so mum roped me in her cooking spree. Coincidentally, my cousin MSNed me asking whether I'm going anywhere since I still have a long stretch of holidays. I said yes, and the destination is the kitchen.*Family are fairly used to my level of irony. coughs*

The leafy greens are i.e. Daun Kunyit [turmeric leaves], Daun Pisang [banana leaves], Daun Kari [curry leaves]. If these sound familiar to you, it's also used in Indian cookery. As I'm feeling cheeky today, I'll list out a few Malay herbs i.e. Daun Kesum, Daun Kaduk, Daun Mengkudu, Pucuk Ubi and I doubt anyone is still with me now. :) Truthfully, I don't think there are any English names for it. *Anyone can prove me wrong on this?* Otherwise, I am clearly unaware of it. Lastly, is the tempe [fermented soy beans], a synonymous ingredient in southern cooking.

• Samosa filling wrapped in Popiah skin :: Did a few triangular samosas, then I became sluggish. Had a smashing good time pounding the coriander seeds to smithereens. ^^
  
• Kuih Kaswi :: Steamed rice cakes mixed with palm sugar, normally eaten with slightly salted grated coconut. In the old days, mum used to use Chinese porcelain tea cups as moulds. I must have broken most of it as a kid, so we had to make do with the plastic ones.
  
• Kuih Lopes :: Steamed glutinous rice, sprinkled with slightly salted grated coconut, drizzled with palm sugar. Thought that mum made bak chang. Never felt so cheated in my whole life.
  
• Sweet Popiah :: Stuffed tahina [sesame seed paste] in the leftover Popiah [Spring rolls] skin. In Malacca, they're famous for their Ais Krim Goreng [fried ice-cream]. Wanted to imitate it by stuffing ice-cream, but I ended up consuming the ice-cream instead. *pathetic*
• Pais Ikan :: Fish stuffed with paste, steamed in banana leaves. Besides steaming, another method is to grill it. *We had this for lunch today* :)
  
• Poori :: My aunt made curry. Decided to make poori as we were tired of rice. Astonishingly, it turned out good for a first time. Aunt did the frying, I ate. *haha~!* Other than eating, I made the dough, kneaded and rolled it. :) First time I had Poori was in school. Enchanted on how efficient the Indian lady was doing it, I was resolved in having a go at it. She was all the more obliging to entertain me, although she only allowed me to make chapatis in fear I might scald myself when frying the pooris.
  
• Caramel Custard :: A year had gone by yet I'm still not over this craze over the devilishly tantalizing caramel custard. We had ice-cream and fruit cocktail left behind, therefore I threw those in. *We had this after lunch today* :) Quite a hot day, so it was just what we needed. Would have made some tong sui, alas I succumbed to my cravings. :)
  
• Pancakes :: I prefer to call it lempeng [Malay pancakes]. Made some cinnamon flavored ones, topped with ice-cream, butter and golden syrup.
  

For the time being, mum is having a blast teaching me food chemistry, having talks on recipes, even cooking methods. I suppose, this can be taken as an approach in strengthening our mother-daughter relationship. Moreover, aunt and sis have become the ultimate food critics. Who says cooking can't be nerve-racking?

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Once during lunch, we brought one of my brothers *in some way, I think of him as more of a dad* to a Malay restaurant, complete with the traditional Malay settings to have a taste of authentic Malay food. *there were a couple of other foreigners in our group*

Brother :: So sister, can you cook this?
Me :: Yeah. Taste will differ a little, but yeah.
Brother :: So does that mean we can come to your house?

Now he's just being cute.

6.09pm Malaysian Time