Can you teach me how to cook?

That was the question posed by one of the guests who turned up for the makan-makan last night. A sweet young lady who will be getting married one day in the near future. Me? I could only look at her with such incredulity. Since when am I an expert cook? Let's see what we had yesterday for our guests - about 10 of them. Last night, I did new experiments. I was already bored with cooking the same thing i.e. nasi tomato or nasi daging or ... so, I tried nasi lemak kukus with the beras basmathi Moghul. I tried to cook the rice first since last week. First time, it was too much water. The rice was soft and broken. I could not get the kind of rice where you see the long rice one by one. Berderai. Second time was not very successful either. Third time it was okay. So, for the nasi lemak kukus, I asked advice and opinions from my staff. Thus, I got this.

Nasi lemak kukus - first time experiment

It was perfect. MasyaAllah. SubhanAllah. Alhmadulillah. Syafiq was the food tester. For tasting, he ate one small plate.  :-DD  I got it right finally. I MMS to Ikram becuase the other experiments were done when he was at home. He replied it was not fair as he was not home.... ;-{  

Then the side dishes. Jamilah had made for me pre-cooked ketupat palas so all I had to do was steamed it for an hour. I did another experiment with advice and tips from them. The gulai daging for the ketupat palas. Yes....it was successful too !!!!  :-))   I also tried the ayam goreng berempah. Well, just for the fun of it. As usual, I added laksa Johor for variety and choice.

The dinner without the fried chicken

As usual, I did not eat what I cook. Everybody had a great time eating up the food ravenously. I enjoyed watching them. I served sarsi+ice-cream soda as cold drinks and hot earl-grey tea. I loved it when they really appreciated the food. I think the best compliment was from my brother in law - "Boleh buka kedai macam ni..."   :-D))  Thus, I received that request. My response? I told her I did not know how to cook when I got married except for the basic cooking rice (in an electric cooking pot), fry fish and vegetable. I experimented and asked a lot. I was willing to learn and my husband and children plus their friends became my guinea pigs ... :-DDDD   Just like these guests now .... willing guinea pigs !!!! When they came over to the house, they expected my cooking. I guess I should be honoured that Noor's guests have a high regard for my cooking.  :-}

Mak never taught us how to cook per se. We were mostly helpers. Assistant cooks who cleaned and cut the ingredients needed. We all ate her "air tangan". When she was warded for quite some time after Suraya's birth, Kak Ti had to take over the kitchen, being the eldest sister around. Until now, she felt challenged and upset when Mak asked her at the hospital why Bapak complained that she could not cook asam pedas. She took it upon herself to learn to cook after that. Bapak had been spoilt by Mak's cooking. Kak Ti ended up as an ERT teacher and had gone to England just to study pastry. She was then posted to Setapak Vocational School which was always in charge of food preparation for the Agung and VIP dignitaries. I loved her chicken pie. Bapak never complained about her cooking after that. And what did we learn from this incident ????? We, the younger sisters, did not have to learn how to cook because we had elder ones who would. Ha..ha..ha... Thus, we were relegated to the duties of assistants and general workers i.e. did all the cutting and preparing the ingredients, went to the shop, took out the rubbish, washed the dishes, became waitresses and the best part - food testers !!!!  :-DD))  

So, when did I really learn how to cook? When I went to college. We had no hostels. We were sent to houses. My house cum hostel consisted of 14 girls. 7 seniors and 7 juniors. We had a duty roster for cooking, marketing and cleaning up. I partnered Sham, my room mate. She cooked and I did the preparation. Being 2 years older than I am, she knew more. Then, when I went off to Kelantan, I lived in rented houses. Since the food was not to my taste initially, I cooked my basic food. Fried fish or chicken and vegetables. When I moved back to KL, I stayed with Kak Ti during my first year. Thus, the old role of general worker and assistant cook. After that, I moved to a rented house in Keramat. I used to buy my food. Then, I got married .... with a husband who preferred home cooking. Thus, the experiments started .... ha..ha..ha.. most of the time, it was trial and error. A lot of listening to advice and tips. Added with sincerity and love. And, to top it all ... Noor liked to bring home people for dinner .... his friends, his visiting officers, his family members .... was it a surprise that I had to learn how to cook and cooked well !!!! Finally, when the boys came along, I learned how to bake cakes. And cookies. Thus, Noor and the boys had been spoiled just as Bapak was spoiled with Mak's cooking.

Hence, my advice to the young lady ... experiment, make mistakes but cook not because you have to but you want to. Never forget, as Ikram used to say - "dengan penuh kasih sayang."   :-)