Homemade Chicken Stock Powder Recipe

Wow! This is amazing.. I never thought I could do it.

But I did, and this recipe works.

Main ingredients
800 g raw boneless chicken
200g salt (you may want to increase this amount for greater taste if you want it to taste like the Maggi chicken stock cubes)
1 bunch fresh coriander
2 tbsp Parsley flakes
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp white pepper corns
2 sticks carrot
2 sticks celery
5 big yellow onions
20 cloves garlic

2 tbsp oil

How
Place all ingredients in to food processor and blitz till fine or pasty (I used my meat grinder). (or place into TMX 10 sec speed 7)
Heat up wok and stir fry minced ingredients until dry. (I took 1 hour 15 minutes!)
(Much easier in a TMX - MC/25 mins/VC/Spd7)
You can spread the cooked mixture onto a lined oven tray and bake at 160 C until it's completely dried out (but I did not do this. I felt the frying was sufficient)
Place mixture back into blender for a finer texture.

Delicious Penang Acar Recipe (nyonya spicy mixed vegetable pickles)

I only post recipes that work, and taste like the real thing. Because this blog is for my own reference as well as for yours.

And for my kids, too. When they grow up.

My son said, "Mom if I wanna eat the dishes you cook for me as a kid, I'll ask my wife to go to you for lessons."

I said, "Son, just ask your wife to read my blog." Isn't that simpler, and far more pleasant without the potential for any conflict?

Vegetables
600g cucumber, keep the skin on and slice length-wise into inch-long pieces
300 g cabbage, cut into large pieces
100g carrot, skin peeled and cut lengthwise like the cucumber
200 g long beans, cut lengthwise
A handful finely chopped kefir lime leaves (daun limau purut)
Salt and sugar to taste
100g ground, roasted peanuts
5 tbsps roasted sesame seeds (as much or as little as you like)


Spice paste (to blend)
10 shallots
18-20 fresh red chillies (discard seeds) (adjust to your spice level)
1 inch fresh turmeric or turmeric powder
5 candlenuts

To add into the work when frying 
5 tbsp oil
2 stalks lemon grass (you can add this whole, and bruised into the wok. Need not blend)
80ml rice vinegar or tamarind juice (large ball of tamarind pulp, soak in water then squeeze out the juice)
Water

How
Prepare the vegetables.
Blend the spice paste.
Heat up the wok with oil and fry the spice paste and lemon grass till aromatic.

Add vinegar or tamarind juice. Let boil, then add salt and sugar to taste.
Add all vegetables into the wok and turn off fire immediately. Add ground peanuts and stir everything well.
Top with sesame seeds when serving. 
Dish out, let cool and serve.
Or, keep in refrigerator and serve the next day.
Keeps well in fridge for several days.

Snatch thefts and muggings... in Malaysia

Every Malaysian has read, heard about or even experienced a snatch theft, or worse, a mugging.

Sure, such crime could happen in any country. But I live here. In Malaysia.

How do you protect yourself from falling victim to such a crime?

My experience # 1

This happened  20 years ago when I was still a Chambering Student fresh out of university and undergoing my pupillage with a law firm in Kuala Lumpur.

It was a Saturday morning and I was going to the office. I had parked my car and was walking along the road towards the office building. Handbag was on my shoulder facing out towards the street.

Mistake.

I was walking in the same direction as the traffic flow.

Mistake.

A motorbiker came noiselessly behind me, and smoothly grabbed my handbag by its sling. I didn't scream. (I'm not the screaming type) . I probably jerked my handbag strap towards me more out of reflex than a conscious effort to save it.

Fortunately for me, my cheap handbag (hey, I was only a poorly paid chambering student then) strap snapped and the snatch thief rode away. All in about 5 seconds.

God's grace.

Lessons?

• Always walk against traffic so that you can see oncoming vehicles.
• Walk as far into the sidewalk as you possibly can.
• Sling your handbag on your other shoulder, facing inwards away from and not outwards to traffic
• Be alert, and listen listen listen.
• Never pull or fight to save your handbag. You might fall and be dragged on the road by these thugs who care nought about your life.

My experience #2

I had arrived at my parents' house at 830pm after work, to pick up my kids. This was 10 years ago.

My parents, brother, kids and maid were in the house. My brother's car was parked in the driveway and I pulled up behind.

I wasn't sure whether the gate could close with 2 cars parked nose to back in the driveway. So I did something uncharacteristic of me.

I got out of my car with the car engine running and the gate opened.The gate was open!

One big mistake.

As I surveyed the distance between my car and the gate, deciding that yes the gate could close, a motorbike with 2 helmeted men rode by just outside the gate. I felt alarm almost immediately.

Good reaction.

In a second, the motorbike did a U-turn and came back towards my parents' gate. I KNEW I was in trouble. The pillion guy jumped off the bike and moved towards me. The gate was still open.

Think!

In that few seconds as the guy was coming close to the gate, and as I stood and watched him, I frantically thought:

• Do I shut the gate with the remote in my hand? Of course!
• Will it close in time? I don't know, but do it!
• If it doesn't close in time, do I run towards the house? I didn't have the house keys in my hand, they were in the car. So, no! Don't run to the house.

I was more worried for my family than myself. I didn't want the muggers to hold me hostage with a knife to my throat and use me to force their entry into my parents' house. To rob my parents and brother. To possibly hurt my kids. That possibility spurred me into speedy action to get back into my car! It's nearer. Go, now!

So I did. I pressed the gate control, turned in my high heels and ran back to my car, jumped in, slammed the door shut and locked it. I could see in the rear view mirror that the gate had not shut in time and the biker criminal had come through. I saw his helmeted head bobbing on the left side of my car (we are right hand drivers in Malaysia).

I wanted to reverse my car into him, but he was at the side, not the back, of my car. Damn!

I heard him trying to open the passenger door on the left. I pressed down hard on my car horn and it blared. I saw my dad and brother come to the front door of the house. I hoped they would NOT come out. I didn't want them in danger.


Thankfully, with me holed up in the car and my family safe in the house, and my car horn blaring, the 2 biker-would-be-robbers decided to leave. Bastards.

Lessons?

• Never get out of your car before you shut the gate.
• Make sure you are not followed before you get out of your car
• Stay calm and think
• Play out different scenarios in your head to prepare for an emergency. I consider this experience an emergency
• Consider running over would-be attackers with your car if you have the chance to

I attribute the safe outcome of experience #2 to calmness and a certain measure of mental preparedness. And God's grace. Always God's grace.

Be safe, everyone.