My busy Monday started with preparing my oldest son morning tea and lunch box, then dropping him at kindy. Then off I went to the kitchen preparing this cake with few pauses because the little one waking up. Sorry baby, probably you are not used to the loud mixer sound, well you better get use to the sound as you will hear it most of the time in the upcoming future. I will post the recipe later with few notes and tips as I didn’t do so well with this cake.

How my oldest boy felt so happy looking at the cake. He always excited looking at cakes because he loves singing the birthday song and blowing off the candles. This time, he did like uncountable times of singing, blowing and clapping hands. I guess it was kinda like a little practice before his upcoming birthday at the end of August.

Tuesday was all about planning, scheduling and shopping. Garlic, shallot, ginger, turmeric, candle nut, lemon grass and chillies for pounding, grinding and pureeing. Banana leaves, garlic shoots, broccoli, spring onions, parsley and carrot for decoration. Glutinous rice and flour, coconut milk and cream, potatoes, tofu, chicken eggs and quail eggs, prawns, can of petai in brine for the ingredients.

Buzzz… grrrrrrr…buzzz…. grrrr, that was the sound of Wednesday. Oh not to forget the hwaaaaaa… ooowaaaaacccchhhhh… (baby crying) and mommy look at this… mommy I want this that and it goes on and on and on…

Thursday, let’s the kitchen war begin!!! YAY and hubby had a day off, meaning that lots of lots of help with my two boys. Early in the morning, hubby and the oldest one went to the embassy to renew the passport and that made me so much easier in arranging banana leaves on platter. This was my third attempt in making the platter.

• The first one was last year on my boy’s birthday. Result: unsuccessful because of poor time management.
• The second attempt was last December on hubby’s birthday. Result: unsatisfied because of lack of research on how to arrange and decorate your dishes on the platter.
• The third attempt: Satisfied, however still need to improve on decoration varieties and perhaps bigger platter will be result in a much more attractive looks.
• Note to myself: find a storage space in the tiny apartment to store a new big platter

Here are the dish starting from yellow rice clockwise: Nasi Kuning (Festive Yellow Rice), Sambal Udang Pete Balado (Prawns with Petai cooked in Sambal Chilli), Perkedel (Fried Mashed Potatoes), Telur Dadar Gulung (Rolled Omelet), Tahu Bacem (Fried Tofu Marinated in Palm Sugar and Herbs), Sambal Bajak Terasi (Sambal Chilli with Shrimpt Paste Bajak style in Tomato Basket), Mie Ulang Tahun (Fried Egg Noodles with Red Boiled Quail Eggs), Ayam Panggang Kremes (Grilled Chicken).

Conversation with Hubby while preparing those Tumpeng dishes around 4 PM:

Me: OMG we ran out of rice. We need to buy them ASAP.

Hubby: Ahhhh… I don’t wanna go out anymore today (answering with sleepy eyes, laying on the carpet)

Me: Oh well I suppose I could go tomorrow buying rice (25 kg) and chicken for Saturday (about 28 pcs of Chicken Maryland, those are for Theo’s one month things. We usually gave a packet of yellow rice with chicken, red egg, red traditional cake, and sweets to close friends and relatives. Traditionally, this thing is done to let them know that there is a new baby born in the family)

Hubby: Zzzzzzz… (snoozing already on the carpet while the toddler destroying the house with all of his toys all over the house)

Friday, lots and lots and lots of thing had to be done. First thing, feed all the boys then bath them and myself. Before we went out, it was already 12.30 PM. I was in a panicking zone. We all went to the city and darn it.. as usual no parking spot. Thank God I had a help that day from a friend. She watched the boys while I parked my car in a no parking zone (hoping that no parking office will pass and give me a ticket). I ran to the shop telling to the housekeeper that I need a 25 kg rice and then straight to the butcher asking him to give me 28 pieces of chicken maryland. I told them to be quick as I parked in the no parking zone. The porter carried the rice to the car, but there was no sign of the chicken from the butcher yet. I ran straight to the car and I was so lucky to spot a parking spot, although it meant that I had to drive backward about 5 metres on a busy zone. Back to the butcher asking him where the hell was my chickens. Surprisingly he handed me a big box of chicken.

Me: (still looking surprised) OMG how come you gives me the box? I only asked for 28 pieces of chicken.

Butcher: Yes 28 pieces of chicken maryland.

Me: (wondering how big those chicken pieces hidden inside the box) Mmm.. I need someone to help me carry this box to the car

Butcher: Okay.. no worries

Me: Hang on a second, I need to buy extra lemon grass

(Butcher kept going and went out of the store without me while I was paying the shopkeeper. Me following behind him and running)

(Me Arrived at the back of the car panicking and worrying that all those salmonella leaking and dripping from the wet box would contaminate my beloved car. I quickly placed lots of plastic bags on the car so the butcher could place that salmonella box on top.)

I think the box weighs almost 20 kg and don’t ask me how I get them all up to my apartment. A very hard work indeed. I had a very busy day and night after the chicken arrived on my kitchen station.Lots of chopping on the extra chicken fat. Lots of pinching the extra feather left on the huge chicken pieces. I wonder how big the chickens were when they were alive. I had to finish at 1.30 AM in the morning since my brain wasn’t really synchronized with my doing anymore.

All I can say about Saturday was busy hectic and kind of panicky, not so much for the cooking but for my two nagging boys. We started the delivery at 12.30 PM and arrived back home at 7.30 PM at night. What a journey, starting from inner west, eastern, northern, west, and city. Well thank God both of my boys was behaving nicely, especially the little one who slept all the way through and only woke up once for a fed.

This is one of the packet we delivered to relatives and close friends. I made 25 packets of them, each consists of Nasi Kuning (Festive Yellow Rice), Ayam Panggang Kremes (Grilled Chicken), Telur Merah (Red Boiled Egg), Kue Ku (Glutinous Rice Cake filled with Mung Bean Paste).

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find fresh petai in Australia, at least not that I know of. All I could get is frozen petai or petai in can. I usually buy the frozen one, however when they are defrosted, they become soggy and you couldn’t really achieve how the petai should be taste like in a dish, if you know what I mean. My aunt actually suggested me to use the can one instead of the frozen one because she said they are crunchier and taste fresher. Well next time I’ll definitely give a can one a go.

I believe not everybody will love petai because of its distinct smell, and if your toilet could complain, it will reject you from doing your things there. The smell will remains for quite sometimes in the bathroom. To prevent you from curiosity, have a go with cooking something different for your dinner tonight, then you will understand what I meant.

Ingredients

• 1 kg prawns, head off , shell off and vein off but keep the tail
• 500 gr potatoes, cut into cubes and deep fried
• petai also known as Sator (could be found in Asian groceries store, frozen or canned in brine)
• 1 tomato, wedges
• 1 tbsp garlic puree
• about 1 cup of chilli puree
• 1  tsp salt or according to your preferences
• 2 tbsp vinegar (different brand might have different level of sourness, so don’t add everything at the same time)
• 3 tbsp sugar or according to  your preferences
• 1 1/2 tbsp tomato sauce
• oil for stir frying

I bumped into Jamie Oliver recipe few days ago, and decided to give it a go since he have so many great reviews. To find out the recipes, click here.

These are few things that I did, I hope they are helping:

• When he says rub a generous amount of salt all over the chicken, in and out. He really means GENEROUS amount. I don’t think my amount is generous enough as I couldn’t really taste the saltiness. I should just rub the sea salt all over its body instead of cracking the sea salt over the chicken.
• I didn’t leave the chicken long enough in the fridge so I guess they are not really marinated with the salt and the salt is not absorbed thoroughly into the meat. I only left them in the fridge for about 30 minutes, because I was waiting for my brother coming back from buying lemon.
• The recipe states that the potatoes skin has to be peeled. I didn’t peel the potato skin because I was worried that boiling them for 12 minutes would make them well done and thus turn them into mash potato. However today (few days after I made them), I find out that you actually have to peel the potato skin and boil them for about 5 minutes (not 12 minutes, or probably it is depend of what potatoes you are using).
• My steam potatoes couldn’t get chuffed up and fluffy when they were toasted on the pan, and they didn’t turn crispy when roasted. I probably really need to peel those skin
• I tossed butternut pumpkin in the pan with some fresh crack sea salt and olive oil for about 10 minutes. Then I placed them together with potatoes in the roasting pan (the last 45 minutes of cooking process).
• A handful of thyme was a bit too much for me. The smell of the herb was so strong that I felt like smelling a menthol balm.
• The roasted garlic was so good.
• The overall recipe is great and easy to follow.

So, here are some pictures of my roasted chicken fresh from the oven. The above picture was taken using a table lamp, and the below picture was simply on the manual mode. They should look better when are taken on daytime, but what can I say it was our dinner.

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You!!!