Easy peasie lentil soup

- Muz's.

So this takes a few minutes of preparation, and about 20-25 mins of boiling time.

This makes about 4 medium-sized servings.

Ingredients

1. 1 Tbsp oil (he used ghee)
2. 1 red onion, diced
3. 1 big/yellow onion, diced
4. 1 shallot, sliced (I didn't have shallots so I skipped this)
5. a few cloves garlic, chopped
6. 2 tsp cumin
7. 1 tsp turmeric
8. 1 tsp cinnamon powder
9. 1 medium-sized carrot, diced
10. 1 cup red lentils, washed
11. 1.5 cups water/liquid stock
12. salt
13. pepper
14. a few tsp chilli flakes/powder
15. optional: lettuce leaves

Steps

1. In a heated pot, sautee onions, shallot and garlic with cumin, cinnamon and turmeric till slightly soft (a minute or two under medium fire).
2. Add lentils and carrots to the pot. stir around lightly.
3. Add water/stock, chilli flakes/powder and seasoning.
4. Cover pot with lid and leave to boil for about 20 mins, stirring occasionally.
5. Before serving, add in a few ripped-up lettuce leaves.

I had mine with a few slices of toast and a hard-boiled egg tossed in. :)

Bon appetit :D

Honey Tomato Chicken

- Zaty.

I'm just so sick of my own cooking (and I'm sure Mr. M feels the same way) so yesterday I tried to make a modified version of "ayam masak merah" (ie. tomato chicken). This was inspired by this recipe; I adapted it to suit what I had around the house (I didn't have tomatoes and ginger, most importantly).

The taste was bit different from what I expected, I'm guessing 1/2 can of tomato puree was too much, so next time I use this recipe I'll use only a 1/3 or less. I had to add in a bit of boiling hot water to make the gravy less thick, and added in honey and soy sauce for extra flavor.

Anyway, here's the (fixed) version of what I made yesterday:

Ingredients (for 2 people)

• Group A - to 3/4 fry:
• 4 pieces of chicken nibbles
• turmeric powder
• Group B - to blend:
• 2 shallots
• 3 Tbsp dried chilli blend
• 1cm ginger (I was out of this so I used galanghal, but next time I'll make sure to use ginger)
• 3 pcs garlic
• 1 medium onion
• Group C - other stuff:
• 1/3 tin tomato puree
• 1 large Tbsp-full of honey
• 2 T soy sauce
• 1/2 tin of button mushrooms, sliced
• 1 small onion, cut into rings
• 1 cup frozen vege (peas, carrots, corn).
• sugar
• salt Optional: 1 cup boiled water
• Optional: 1 cup boiled water

Instructions

1. Clean and prepare chicken as appropriate (small pieces is easiest and fastest to cook). Toss the chicken pieces in a bowl and cover them completely with turmeric powder.
2. Heat up some oil in a pot, and fry turmeric-covered chicken until about 3/4 done. While waiting for this, blend everything in Group B - it doesn't have to be finely blended.
3. Take chicken pieces out and sautee the blended Group B ingredients till a fragrant smell rises.
4. Add in tomato puree, mixing well. Wait for a few minutes so that everything heats up well and the paste produces some oil (ie. until 'pecah minyak').
5. Add in soy sauce and honey as desired.
6. Add in sliced mushrooms, stir for a few minutes.
7. Place the previous chicken pieces back into the pot, stir well. 
8. Wait for the gravy to thicken, stirring the pot content every half a minute. Continue until sure that meat is cooked.
9. When gravy has thickened (might take about 10 mins), add in sugar, salt, peas etc. Wait for a few minutes, stirring constantly. 
10. When done, serve with rice (preferably tomato rice, but I ate it with plain rice).

Result

Will update with picture when my internet's not being annoying. :P

Have a nice day!