Pad Kra Pao (Chicken Stir-Fry with Holy Basil).

I don't cook a lot (because one - I am a very lazy person actually and cooking is just too much work, and two - I don't like to wash the after-cooking-things).

But this MCO has "motivated" all of us to some sort of not be lazy in a sense.  

So, to make time pass faster and to do something other than putting my kids to sleep (back-to-back), I cook on the weekends. Or at least I try. 

My mother-in-law is someone who always makes sure that our kitchen/pantry is well stocked up (even on normal days before the whole #dudukrumah thing started), so cooking at home is already a step easier - no need to wake up early to go do the marketing.

I am a big fan of Thai food (shame on you if you didn't already know that - kidding!), so it only makes sense that I have always wanted to master cooking Thai food. 

This basil dish has always been my sure-order whenever I have Thai food. But it is so hard to find one that is really good and satisfying - with the right level of spiciness. Most of the times, it is just not spicy enough - no kick. 

So, I decided to try it for myself - since many people told me that it is quite an easy dish to make. 

This recipe is really simple okay. 

I like to prepare all its ingredients and sauce before I start so I don't like panic last minute (something I learned during this MCO). Heh. 

Preparations (step by step) for you guys. This is what I do but you can do it another way of course.

1. Bring out the minced meat (or diced chicken or any protein) and let them be thawed first. Cannot cook the meat if it is still frozen okay. 
2. Peel 5 cloves of garlic and put them into a blender. Don't blend/pound yet! Add in 5 red chillies and then only blend. You can use any chilli actually depending if you want the dish to be spicy or not. If don't want spicy at all, then no need to blend/pound anything - just chop the garlic. Once done, set aside the garlic & chilli paste. 
3. Pluck the basil leaves and wash, then leave them aside. 
4. Chop some onions (you can add long beans and any other vegetables too). I tried with long beans and cauliflower and it worked too!
5. For the sauce: EQUAL amount of oyster sauce and soy sauce and HALF of fish sauce, a bit of sugar, a bit of water and a bit of dark soy sauce. I usually will use 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce and soy sauce, then half tablespoon of fish sauce - then sugar, water and dark soy sauce I put a little bit (no measurements wan). Mix all of it in a bowl. 

Once all is ready, then it's cooking time! 

Put in some oil and the garlic & chilli paste. Stir-fry until the aroma is everywhere and you find yourself coughing. Hah. Kid you not. 

Then, add the minced meat. 

If I have vegetables, then I will add in my long beans first. 

Once the minced meat is cooked, then add in the onions. I like to add onions later because I love that it is a bit crunchy and not softened. 

Stir them for a little while more and then add the sauce. 

Let it simmer for a while. At this point, you can put in more dark soy sauce if you would like it to be darker. 

The last step is to put in the basil leaves and turn off the heat. 

Stir the leaves in and the dish is ready to be eaten! 

I used the same recipe to make Thai Basil Fried Rice and Pad Kra Pao Spaghetti and they were bombs, please! So so good.

I don't use just minced meat all the time - sometimes cubed chicken meat and sometimes minced salmon. It can really be any protein you want to be honest that is why I love this recipe so much. It is so easy! 

The sauce is really applicable to all kinds of stir-fry if you asked me. It's like my secret sauce now. Not so secret anymore heh. Highly recommended for those who cannot really cook well but loves cooking. This is your go-to sauce please!

Go try them!

Till next recipe, bye now! 

Homemade Pesto Meatballs.

The husband made pesto second-time (both without pine nuts because don't know where to get them nuts) and we kept some of the pastor sauce in the fridge so we can use them next time. Ain't nobody got the time to do pesto as and when one craves for it. Heh.

With the extra pesto sauce in the fridge, I thought of eating something other than pesto pasta for a change so I went to google to get some ideas.

TGFG - Thank God for Google!

Then, I saw the word 'Pesto Meatballs' and I was immediately sold - because I know how easy and mess-free it is to make meatballs.

So, I grabbed half of a chicken breast (with the other half, it looks like a butterfly. Since this is a first-time trial, I decided not to risk wasting my chicken breast. Heh.

I took half of the butterfly cut and grind it with our newly-purchased Tefal blender (because the previous one broke down in the middle of MCO) and we have for ourselves, a handful of minced chicken meat.

TGFOS - Thank God for Online Shopping!

Then using just one bowl, I mix all the ingredients:

- Minced meat (you can use pork, beef whatsoever meat you want - it is your meatballs after all).
- one whole egg
- pesto sauce
- bread crumbs
- salt & pepper

Don't ask me on the measurements okay because I just put according to how I feel only. HAHA.

Then, mix all of these ingredients together. I should have put in more crumbs so that my meatballs not too sticky but it was still okay. Mine just lack salt because I was so scared that it becomes too salty since the pesto was quite salty already.

Then, after that just shape them to however you like.

It can be mini patties too actually - because the second batch I made it flatter.

BECAUSE I DID NOT WANT TO ADD MORE OIL INTO THE PAN - save them oil okay.

And we have ourselves some really yummy homemade pesto meatballs - the green colour is really a bonus! Loved it!

Definitely will be making more of these meatballs in the future.

Till next time. 

Thai Duck Red Curry with Blue Elephant.

It seems like when the Movement Control Order (MCO) is lifted, many people would have expanded their cooking skills and menus.

I am one of them. 

But I am not those who cook from scratch - because I may very high likely waste the resources and those fresh ingredients that my mother-in-law get from the market. She is risking her life every time she goes to market okay. So we gonna use them wisely. Heh.

I would actually like to cook something really impressive during this MCO, but we all know that is never going to happen. What is impressive is I did homemade nuggets and 'roasted potatoes' with air-fryer and they were bombs. So yeah. 

Anyways, I am the biggest fan of Thai food and since it is also as risky to order food via DeliverEat, Foodpanda or Grabfood - it's best I learn to cook it myself. 

I made one visit to Jaya Grocer and intended to get everything I needed for the next 3-weeks but of course, the mission was only 90% accomplished. Even though I've written down on the to-buys, I still managed to forget other things. Hooray me. 

I spent quite a bit of time in the Asian Food area because I just wanted to get all things Thai food - curry, paste and whatnot. 

But I managed to pull myself together and got one, yes ONE thing. 

This Blue Elephant Thai Premium Cuisine - Red Curry edition (RM9.90 from GP's Jaya Grocer). They have green curry as well but I thought of doing something out of the norm. I have never ordered Red Curry before whenever I dine at a Thai place so I thought hmm why not. 

The packaging looks promising and I am a sucker for nice packaging one. Ask my husband. Heh.

Behind it, there is a simple recipe where you can follow (or not) so quite a win for me in that sense. I just followed the recipe and get the items listed.

The recipe says Thai Red Curry with Roasted Duck. We have smoked duck - similar. Heh.

The recipe also mentioned to add cherry tomatoes and cubed pineapples - nope, I didn't add those in. 

Anyways, I tried to keep it simple and edible. Heh. 

So here goes.

Red curry paste is made by pounding together dried red chilli, lemongrass, garlic, shallot and galangal. The texture of this paste is thick (as seen in the photo above), rich in its flavour and it is spicy.

The paste is the only thing that's in the packaging - unlike Marion's Kitchen Thai Red Curry Cooking Kit (available in Australia and USA only boohoo) wherein the cooking kit, you will get the red curry paste, coconut milk, dried herbs & chilli and bamboo shoots.

Win.

Anyways, back to this. So I didn't really follow exactly the recipe but close enough la. I got the duck, kaffir lime leaves and red chilli ready.

Oh and the fish sauce - such an important element in all Thai food.

First, I put oil in the pot and stir fry the red curry paste till the aroma comes out. Mine was almost burnt. Heh.

Then, I pour in half of the coconut milk and some water. This is the part where I so pandai go and cut the amount of water cos I thought too much water later too watery.

It ended up becoming quite a thick curry - but still yummy.

Then, continue to stir it until it becomes a legit red curry looking thing. I also realized at this point that I really do need the not-too-big-and-not-too-small-spatula to cook.

Let the curry boil for a little bit - then add the kaffir lime leaves and chilli and stir.

Lastly, add the smoked duck and let the curry boil a little while.

Then, garnish with some coriander (any nice-looking green leaves) and chopped chilli - ready to be served.

My husband and mother-in-law loved it so more cooking of this kind of this next time! Gonna try other types next time.

Till next time, bye now. 

Koay's Love Language #42.

We were having a breakfast conversation this morning and I was handling Sofia's car seat.

Me: I think right - next time for sure Sofia won't be scared of me wan.
Him: Why eh?
Me: Alex for sure will listen to me like now since so close right. But Sofia..
Him: Hm..
Me: Because Sofia is your precious girl and you will protect her wan so she won;t be scared of me.
Him: But I am scared of you.

BOTH BURST OUT LAUGHING.

Spicy Tuna & Egg Puff Pastry.

Yes, Sarah is cooking again. 

Because this one is super easy - anyone can do it. 

I've always liked eating puff pastries whether it is savoury kind or sweet kind. I tell you ah - I can have like a few times month cravings towards chocolate pastry one. 

Then, I found out from Jo Wyee how his mom makes sardines puff and that was it - I went to get the puff pastry sheet and "make" the ingredients.

I didn't make la.

I decided to start with tuna because it is so simple.

Step 1: Buy a can of tuna of any brand. My personal favourite is the spicy type from Tesco.
Step 2: Mix the tuna with chopped shallots (or any other ingredients that you like).
Step 3: I added some mayo into my spicy tuna mix because it was way too spicy.
Step 4: Mix together and wa-la, ingredients ready to be used.
Step 5: I decided to be a bit extra and got some hard-boiled eggs ready too.

Once the inti is done and ready, then it is time to take out the puff pastry sheets and start working.

Of course, you need to get the puff pastry sheets first before you begin this 'baking'.

I got mine from Tesco - the brand is Kawan (costs about RM5++ cannot remember the exact amount) but I just found out that you can actually get them online too. Click here to go to their website. They have more items there. Of course you have to order a total of RM150 and above for free shipping since Kawan is located in Shah Alam.

I kept them in the freezer because I found them stored in the freezer in supermarkets so I guess it must be the right way to store them ya.

So, if you plan to make this, remember to bring it out earlier to let it defrost nicely.

I am not artistic at all, so obviously I googled to see what kind of shapes I can do with tuna fillings, and I decided that I was gonna play safe and do one style. Square-ish kind.

The puff pastry sheets that I got are in squares so I decided to roll them and make it longer a bit then cut into half so my tuna puffs can be slightly bigger than bite-sized puffs.

So here goes.

Also, since there's like 10 sheets in a packet, I decided to use all and not keep. I took out a chocolate bar and cut them into small pieces and googled on how to make mini chocolate croissants - sort of.

I tried okay. Keyword: tried.

Last step after finish making into shapes and all is to brush egg wash on top of each pastry with a brush to have that golden brown effect after baking.

Oh, remember to pre-heat the oven first so you can actually pre-heat the oven while you make the puffs - can save time.

BEFORE.

AFTER.

And.. everyone loves it! Except my mom because she doesn't eat tuna. Heh.

Adrian loves it so much he kept going back to the kitchen to get it. Super nice when it's served hot. I love the chocolate ones because it' so mini and I can just pop the entire thing into the mouth. Ahhh - o bestnya.

No need to spend so much money buy outside ones already.

Sendiri make can keep in fridge some more.

This recipe is really very easy. I think next time I am gonna try it with ham & cheese and sausages.

#dudukrumah be making all of us chefs by the time the whole thing is lifted.

Go away virus. Time for you to disappear already, Covid-19. You will not be missed.

Till then, bye now. 

Working From Home Feels.

I have always thought that people who get to work from home are really blessed and their company so best kan.

Not until Coronovirus invaded the entire world and with Movement Control Order ongoing (strictly), working from home is tough. It's like you're on maternity leave but needs to be in front of your laptop most of the time. 

It's funny how I realized that ever since MCO started, Alex has been waking up awfully early every day and Sofia has been sleeping so poorly in the noon - means she wakes up every 15-30 minutes and wants to be carried. Excuse me, I love my daughter so much but she is 6.2KG (as I'm writing this) and that is one heavyweight to be lugging around in the house. 

For Alex, it's a lot easier to handle now that he is much older. I just need honey stars, chips (for desperate times) or any other adult foods that he can see. We had to hide snacks from him okay. This one just needs food - and sometimes, a fellow human whom he can play with. 

On not so good days, Alex wants to be glued to me and on that same kind of day, I will have a lot of emails to tend to and work-stress level is high. They always have to be on the same day wan. These kinds of days - I sleep at 8PM wan. 

Apparently, it has been 2-days in a row that we (Penang) do not have any newly reported cases so that's really good news. Really hoping that the Government is not going to extend another 2-weeks of working from home. 

So yes, my working from home is tough because I've got to handle two minis and work at the same time. It is physically very challenging. 

But I really do enjoy working with Adrian, from the same table. He sits in front of me so it's like so ideal man? Can see his face all the time. Can share snacks and drinks too. So lovely right?

It is getting easier because now I can sort of predict and plan accordingly with the two minis and Kelly - because I am using her laptop to work. Lots of research done and calls made so it does actually feel quite productive as the days go by. 

Our meals are getting simpler too. 

We all miss eating out really. 

But we are just gonna be good and stay home now. 

#dudukrumah #stayathome #notstuckathome #letsdothisworld #wegotthis #strongerthanbefore

My Eyelash Lift Story.

Before I go on about this experience, if you must know, I have had some other experiences before with beauty related things because seriously, every girl wants to look good (so does every boy nowadays) and feel good so if it is affordable and not dangerous - why not.

Anyways, here are some of the other stories if you may be interested to read up. 

My Braces Story

My Eyeliner Embroidery Story

My Eyelash Extension Story

I never knew how long short my eyelashes were until I decided to try lifting them. Heh. This is how it goes actually. 

I was scrolling through Fave for cheap-cheap full body massages because my back is starting to ache again and the last time I went for a full body massage, the ache disappeared. But obviously I got sidetracked because I ended up with a Keratin Lash Lift voucher, instead of massage related voucher. 

By the way, Fave can be so addictive. It's like before you know it, you have so many vouchers bought and stored. Heh. 

There is one thing I always do first before I purchase in Fave, and that is I will call up to the shop and make appointment first because my time is very limited (with a job and two kids whatsoever) so if they can cater me with my date/time slot, then I will go ahead and purchase. If not, then - it's onto the next potential voucher. Hah. 

If you have read on my experience with eyelash extension, you will know that I am really not a big fan of it. It's expensive and real lashes drop alongside with the fake ones. But I wanted to achieve the same outcome that eyelash extensions give so I thought, "Hey! Let's try Lash Lift!"

So appointment made on my first annual leave of the year and I was truly excited. Come and think about it, I should have combo it with their RM58 (first trial) facial massage. 

The whole process took about one and half hours and no, there is no pain at all - unless your pain tolerance is close to zero. Heh. Seriously no pain wan la this lash lifting procedure. 

And yes, you will have to close your eyes the entire time. And yes, I fell asleep a few times. That was how smooth it went. Vivian, the beautician was really good and caring. 

After Vivian greeted me and we talked for a little bit (before the start of lifting them lashes), she already said this, "Hmm, your lashes very short so may not see very obvious.."

In my head, I was in denial kuat-kuat. 

Inside me, I was talking to self - Wait till if's lifted then you will see how long it actually is. 

I truly felt and thought that the lash lift will reveal the truth of how long my lashes actually are. Joker me I know. I think I will call it positive thinking okay please. 

Then, when it was done, I told her to help me take photo. 

OH GOODNESS ME. 

What are those?

Baby eyelashes is it?

Truly she was right - my eyelashes damn short and non-existent.

Of course she went on and introduced and suggested me to use eyelash serum to let it grow longer. Since I haven't done enough research and read on eyelash serum, I did not impulse buy. 

She was very honest when she said that there is actually no point for me to do this eyelash lift treatment again if my eyelashes doesn't grow because really waste money. Needless to say, I trust her la of course. Now no budget to buy eyelash serum all - unless you guys have tried and confirmed that it works. Then I will buy. Heh. 

So, I guess that is all for my eyelash lift story because it's so short there is nothing else to say.

I spent more time in the shop (Des Aesthetic Salon at Prima Tanjung) and asked her on eyebrow embroidery procedures because I really want to get it done. 

You know how it is very normal for mothers who have just given birth to lose hair? Well, it's the same for me except the hair that I lose is not for my head, they are from my eyebrows. It's just so weird. I used to never need to draw them eyebrows wan but ever since I gave birth to Alex (and now Sofia), my eyebrows are slowly disappearing from my face it's not even funny. 

Every morning, I had to like wake up earlier because it takes so long for me to draw my eyebrows and some more it is never consistent wan. So stressful with this. Hah. 

But I wanted a procedure where I don't have to leave the salon looking like a fool (heh) - with a very darkened eyebrows and takes days for it to fade la and all. I wanted an immediate natural looking eyebrows where I can actually like go shopping right after the treatment. 

And from the photos that Vivian showed me, I was impressed and ready to go for it. The price also much cheaper than others that I have asked and researched on - RM650 - can last up to 2 years. 

BUT I DIDN'T DO IT. 

Because of breastfeeding - highly not recommended. 

This story to be continued when breastfeeding journey ends. 

Oh wells. 

Till next time, bye now.