I am, eventually, going to attempt making Kuih Akok and Onde-Onde...

Akok, which I like to eat straight out of the fridge:
Ingredients:
9 large eggs
1 coconut, extract cream equivalent to 1 bowl
2/3 cup sugar
70-80 gm rice flou
Method:
1. Beat the eggs lightly with sugar
2. Pour in coconut cream and mix well
3. Add in flour
4. Heat the brass mould
5. Spoon mixture into mould and close the lid
6. Remove when cooked.


Onde-onde:
Ingredients:
250 g Glutinous rice flour
200 ml Pandan juice (Blend 10 Pandan leaves with 220 ml water.)
150 g Gula Melaka (Palm Sugar), finely chopped
100 g Grated coconut
A pinch of salt (or sea salt)
Method:
1.In a large bowl, combine the glutinous rice flour with Pandan juice and knead lightly. Pinch a small piece of the dough (about 40 g) and drop it into boiling water.
2.When the dough rises up the surface, remove it with a slotted spoon and shake off the excess water.
3.Mix it back into the main dough and knead well to form smooth dough.
4.Cover the dough and set aside for about 15 minutes.
5.Mix the grated coconut with a pinch of salt and steam for about 2 – 3 minutes and let it cool completely.
6.Bring a pot of water to boil.
7.Pinch a small piece of dough (about 15 g each) and flatten lightly.
8.Fill the center of the dough with gula Melaka.
9.Roll them in your palm to form a smooth ball and cook the glutinous rice balls in the boiling water.
10.When the rice balls float to the surface, remove them with a slotted spoon and shake off the excess water.
11.Coat the rice balls with grated coconut and serve immediately.
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If this works, you can expect some to be served on the day of my open house because I'm lovely like that. AND Sirap bandung because it's awesome.

Rest easy that the obligatory Raya poem will make an appearance eventually, fasting started out well but I still need to drink more water.

Things to do:
- Source out Some cartoony photos of a bunch of characters and some topography maps for The Expanded Screen (ES)
- Do all ES readings in prep for Tuesday's class.
- Buy a sketchbook for Make and start sketching things
- Sketch out idea for the 'paper' portion of Make and hopefully not get overambitious
- Design two different ideas for the same house, zoning, examples of images and types of materials to use for the house for Light Trap (LT).

Really, now that I've written all those tasks down, it's not that much of work actually...

P/S, today's mindfuck is brought to you by AntiVJ


EYJAFJALLAJÖKULL from Joanie Lemercier (AntiVJ) on Vimeo.

Typing here on my new Asus Transformer Pad, after a hearty meal of homemade tacos (recipes for the whole shebang, below). The Transformer Pad is awesome! A worthy replacement to my old Vaio netbook which is around 8 years old and behaving terribly. I'm slowly putting all the important softwares in the form of apps into it so I can quickly access it when I have a pretty good idea. I probably need to wipe out everything in the other computer before I hand it over to the fatherling.

I'm in the midst of packing for the Redang trip which I'm leaving for tomorrow night. 4 dives for the weekend, or 3. Depending on how I feel. I haven't met up with my grandmum and I've got a dinner with my grandad and uncle FH since he's back from London. Such a sweet old man. Hopefully the dinner with my grandfather will mean the confirmation of my club membership... Aaaaaaand that made me sound like a brat. Hahahahaha...

Now, the recipes below are pretty much only for me to remember what I had put in because I have a habit of cooking blind and realising later, after eating the delicious edibles that I'd probably would want to make it again. The tacos come in a few parts, most of which require preparation, especially the Chili con carne which tastes better when left overnight to let the flavours merge.

Sha's Chili Con Carne:

4 tbsp cumin powder
1 tbsp cintan manis (I have no idea what this spice is in English)
3 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp paprika powder
1 tbsp Cayenne pepper
2 tbsp cacao powder (give or take)
1 tsp instant coffee (for a secret kick)
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
1 stick cinnamon
a few habanero peppers, cut, blended or left whole, whatever tickles your fancy
a bottle of pickled jalapeno peppers, sliced

2 cups white onion
1 cup red onion/shallots
3 to 4 cloves of garlic

1kg fatty beef, cubed or ground
2 cans of kidney beans
1 can of other beans, I don't know what the white ones are called.
250g canned chopped tomatoes or tomato puree
salt to taste

Epic Tomato Salsa:

5 chopped tomatoes
1/2 red onion blended to a paste
1/4 cup pickled jalapeno peppers blended to a paste
1/2 lime juice, give or take
1 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
salt to taste

Delicately nommy Guac:

2 ripe avocados
1/2 red onions blended to a paste
1 tsp pickled jalapeno peppers blended to a paste
2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 lime juice, give or take
salt

Other stuff to prep for tacos:
Taco shells, sour cream, thinly sliced lettuce

I remember a time when Ashie and I made Radish Leaf Pesto which we adapted without remorse from a recipe found on the internet. It had peanut butter, cloves of garlic, salt, blue cheese, olive oil, and of course radish leaves. It was delicious. I do intend to make it again, this time as a dipping sauce and/or spread for breads since the last time I made it, it had fared weakly with pasta. Maybe more garlic, perhaps? And add a dash of pepper or chilli flakes for the extra bite.

I have lunch sorted out for tomorrow, and dinner should be a tomato soup BUT I don't have any cream or chicken stock, but whatever, I have made with less and it still tasted divine. It's time to do a fridge-raid tomato soup.  Oh, and I have run out of bread. I had to chuck some out because things were starting to grow out of it.

I have forgotten what else to add into the three-hundred word essay due on Friday morning. Six sketches still left to do and another batch of sculpture-photograph-drawing based on a poem about sleep. It's a lot dark for such a beautiful concept. Sleep clears your mind, mends your body and transports you into a realm only your subconscious can define, that even you cannot begin to comprehend. It's like being underwater but without the Darth Vader breathing apparatus: The regulator.

Was it really minus-two last night? I did have trouble sleeping but mainly due to some bad teh-tarik. Surely not from the cold. Also, I had a cuppa at 4PM which means the caffeine is still surging through my veins like a glorified bad-ass. Dear, my, I'm rambling.

Puasa coming up. I have the timetable for puasa times already, ready to go. I have a religion, it's called Islam. It means 'peace'. Being a Muslim means that how I practice MY religion is my own and only God may judge me so shut your trap and go spew your self-righteous bullshit somewhere else. Leave me to my meanderings and my rights or wrongs and let me not hear of your misconceptions and hypocricy because I don't want to get all up in a bunch during my zen time. Also, the lecturers better not merapu extra or I might have a little trouble being forgiving with my tongue. Not that I'll be any different anyway, ha-ha.

Cheese guys... Yes, guyS, as in Plural. There's two of em. Their names are Alex and Dennis. Eheheehe...
I love Vic Market. :D
Nak usha lagi sebab kena usha tadi. XD

Aaaaaanyway, I gotta buy a hand blender so I can make soups. How lovely.

Alright, to be completely honest, winter isn't as inhospitable as I had thought last. I still don't enjoy being cold all the time, don't get me wrong.

What I do with leftover filo pastry: Strawberry filo tarts topped with whipped vanilla cream. And it was delicious, perhaps though too much of it. Next time it'll be just two layers of filo and jam instead of four... and in smaller, cuter ramekins. I, again, have forgotten to take pictures but for future reference, here's the rough recipe.

Makes 3-ish small ramekins of tarts...

tarts:
250g fresh strawberries
2 tbsp brown sugar
filo pastry sheets

vanilla cream:
thickened cream or whipping cream
some sugar
some vanilla essence (better if you had a vanilla pod and scrape out the seeds to plonk in)

1. cut strawberries into bitesized chunks and put into a saucepan on medium heat, cook with sugar until syrupy and as thick as you want (it'll dry out further in the oven). Remember to taste and adjust the flavour as you cook it into jam.
2. arrange the filo pastry in the ramekins so that it resembles a small cup and put a few spoons of jam. make two to three layers of it.
3. (Preheat the oven at 200degreesC) When it's at the appropriate temperature, put ramekins into the oven and let bake for 25 minutes.
4. While it's baking, whip the cream til soft peaks then add sugar and vanilla and beat to hard peaks.
5. When ready to serve, put a dollop of cream onto each tart and garnish with fanned out strawberry.

I'm mentally chastising myself for not taking pictures. It was pretty but now it's in my belly. XD

Things I have learnt about myself:
- I think I'm some kind of genius when I come up with quips when I'm all alone.

I made cake in a cup. No, not a cupcake. A chocolate cake... in a cup.

I made too much and it overflowed and I stood at the kitchen counter eating the cake that spilled over. There's still a lot left in the mug. I got full.

Recipe:

4 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp self raising flour
1 egg
3 tbsp vege oil
3 tbsp milk
3 tbsp cocoa powder
3 tbsp nutella

nuke it in the microwave for about 2 minutes... or 3 et voila! OMNOMNOMNOM...
I'm gonna try turning it into a brownie next time...

Since it's Saturday in the wee hours of the morning. 8PM tonight is Tapas night! YAY YAY!
It's been a while since I had a proper shindig.

KL in less than a month! OMG I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE MY CAT!