Sambal Raya di Hari Rayaaaa :D

well not yet , as in the prayers and whatnot because its 4.44 am in the morning. I did my laundry and ironing clothes for tomorrow. And just finished cucuk satay for the Malaysian community in Cardiff for tomorrow eid celebration , yesza cucuk satay for like what, 300 of them , there's even more but we're run out of sticks ( alhamdulillah hahah ) 

I was initially excited like woa new skill huh , but after 10 of them , I'm just 'why I am here again' and who even asked for satay pagi rayaaaa who. 

Unlike previous years, many things are different this year, the most obvious is I am not in Malaysia, here I am using hashtag #teamrayaperantauan , fast 29 days of Ramadhan here , and the most exciting and yet confusing as well , is the part of knowing when exactly Raya is, on the 25th or the 26th. 

And we (as in the house) decided to play it safe ( better heh? ) assuming its on Monday. though silently wishing it to be on Sunday , its a mixed feeling anyway, because Ramadhan is leaving us and at the same time those syahdu feelings seeing your family in their raya outfits ( my tears run down like each time ) ( helpless ) 

So it was like what 7 pm in the evening a senior of mine sent us Malaysian Embassy (ke?) announcement showing that its TOMORROW ( now its today ) and we're in a rush like hey lots of things to cook yet we're lazying around. So luckily the dish I chose is pretty straightforward ( hehe ) and it took me like 10 minutes of preparation and the rest of the cooking process, took like an hour I bet. 

I choose to do this one traditional dish my mum / my aunt / my grandmother will cook every Raya in Melaka but I am not sure whether you know it, its the SAMBAL RAYA , its not rendang and its not sambal either, its somewhere in between with a hint of kaffir lime leaves ( fancy dok nama English untuk daun limau purut haha ) ( thank youuu Puan Nurul pepagi pun layan je anak dia ni nak recipe huhu )

ITS LEGIT GOOD GUYS ! - I mean if you're trying something fancier than rendang haha 

Aigooo all these while all I know is the preparing part and eating of course, not that I know its like super duper easy to make. 

I bought like 500g of undefined which part of the beef ( I asked the butcher for the softer part with all the fats but he apparently can't get me , like why this one lady here asked for fat , anyone care telling me what TETEL is in English zzz ) . The funny part is that I initially asked for 200g of meat ( cheapskate I know ha-ha ) and again the butcher was like whats wrong with this girl, is she giving away meat to the seagulls huh . 

So for that precious 500 g of meat cubes, lets cook sambal raya with me. Its always nicer to have TETEL part ( the good and soft fats and meat ) for this 

SAMBAL RAYA recipe nenek Melaka :) 

All you need , is to dump everything in a pot and let it simmer, boil? ( rebus ) 

First of all, take like a handful of dried chillies ( cili kering ) and boil them. Boil because you want to cook the dried chillies, or else it will taste uncooked?er? 

After that you blend them make it into a chilli paste. Life is always easier in Malaysia, you can just get cili boh anywhere in the market. If the chilli paste seems a lot, set aside some in a container or something but if its not, leave it the blender. 

In the same blender , 

you put in 2 bawang holand ( bawang besaq ) , cut into smaller pieces so its easier to blend them 

8 ulas bawang putih ( garlic ) ( bahahahhaha I initially thought that 8 was like 8 labu, bahahhaha ceq menangis nak kupas 8 labu aih ) , 

serai ( GOOGLE told me serai in english as LEMONADE hello google its LEMONGRASS ) ( idk like how many of them but I am left with only 1 serai at home, so one it is ) , 

lemonade pun boleh 

and 2 inches of lengkuas ( my lengkuas has been sitting there frozen in the fridge for 9 months guys, I searched it online to find that the name is galangal but I was just too lazy to find one that is fresher ) ( UK tak pakai kot lengkuas ni, and another side note they're like freaaaaking hard to be cut through , idk because its frozen or what but lets just omit the preparation part )

And you blend them again, until they are finely blended er? 

all the things mentioned above, put ALL OF THEM ( ikan di laut asam di darat , di dalam periuk bertemu juaaaa dapnyaa singgang ikang haha ) in the pot 

Then you put 1 can of santan ( coconut milk )  , idk the measurement because that what I had in my house, 

The original recipe requires gula melaka ( palm sugar ) but its nowhere to be found here, ada tapi malaih ceq nak cari , so I used brown sugar instead, by guts I put in 4 spoonful of brown sugar (aherher by guts sekarang , macam mak mak gituu ) 

and 1 spoon of of salt ( idk my salt is not that salty ) 

not to forget a generous amount of kafir lime leaves , daun limau purut , I put like 5 of them. I got many in the fridge huhu 

let it simmer/boil ( in a medium fire/ api sederhana - lols your direct translation ) for like 45 minutes to make the meat tender. Nowadays people used pressure cooker instead, that perhaps took aroun 15 - 20 minutes heh? 

You can always add in more chili paste to make it spicier, but I prefer it bearable and tolerable hence less spicy for me please. 

Voilaaaa its ready and one of the wanders of the world is ready to be served. 

tak ambik gambar pula haha 

I need to sleep, the raya prayer is at 8.45 and its 5.20 now. zzz.

Its already Raya in Malaysia, and alhamdulillah I am still a part of the tradition, perhaps whats different is I'm not physically there, maaf zahir batin semua

melihatkan 'clingyness' sekarang, I don't think (for now) I can tolerate anyone to be away from home for Raya , example ; husband-who-knows-who aherher

Love, the'ann