Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Beef

This entry was written way back in May 2006! Even before Amar was admitted into the hospital. It was found again when I started to put a category to each entry. It's about time for this entry to make an appearance since I still am too busy (and malas) to write a new post about Sarah and Amar.



I know my parents, parents in law and most of my friends who read this blog live in UK or have stayed in the UK. So you all may already know (or know more than I) about our source of protein in our food.

Fish, seafood and lamb are expensive. Halal beef is scarce. So we eat chicken almost everyday.

Here in Coventry, there is a regular supply of halal beef from Birmingham distributed by a Malaysian family. About two weeks ago, I ordered 2kg of beef for the first time.

Over the two weeks, I cooked four types of dishes.

Dish #1: Mi Kari


I didn't get a good photo of the Mi Kari.

Dish #2:


The family's all time favourite, chicken or lamb soup. This time, I tried using beef.



Dish #3:

Initially I wanted to make daging goreng kicap. But decided to make daging paprik instead, with fresh and crunchy veggies. (p/s: my first attempt at GIMPing. A tool for photo editing)


Dish #4:




The last dish was Rogan Josh, served with pillau rice and acar timun. Recipe for rogan josh was from Babah's Indian Recipe book (a birthday present from Aminuddin his friend from Uni).

Babah's verdict:
Dish #1: 2/5 (Babah is not a fan of curry)
Dish #2: 2/5 (We prefer LAMB soup)
Dish #3: 5/5 (He thought it was lamb. I kept quiet. But he had second helping which was pretty unusual)
Dish #4: 5/5 (Babah said my Rogan Josh jadi! But I thought it was on the masam side, I put too much chopped tomatoes)

More on how to cook beef
I watch a lot of cookery programmes. I've heard or learnt that there are certain ways of cutting beef. And which part suits which type of cooking. And did I put them into practice?

NO!

I have no idea whether the beef I purchased was from the back or the leg, or the shoulder??? No idea at all. And my style of cutting or slicing was totally freestyle too! I have no idea why I watched cookery programmes in the first place. But I did get full ratings twice. (Or perhaps Babah was being generous)

The next question is are we going to buy more beef in the future? The answer is most likely no. We prefer the tender and juicy lamb. We will stick with our local halal supplier for our weekly supply of poultry and lamb.

For those who are interested to know more about beef cooking method etc: I have a few links below, please feel free to click on them.
Cooking method , here
More detail information on beef, here
How to cook beef in diagram form, here


18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on the double perfect scores! I think these pics really belong in a cooking book: Mama Sarah's Busy Mom Coooking Manual.

For a nation that doesn't really know how to cook, it is odd indeed that the UK telly is filled with excellent cooking programmes. I like watching them as the chefs are reallygood in explaining why they do such and such; you gain a better understanding of food preparation that way. And it is always fun to see them prepare deceptively 'easy' dishes seemingly at the drop of a hat. My fave is Saturday Kitchen, though I rarely get to watch it these days.

dith said...

Nisak,

Waa...lumayan habiss! Sampai ada entry extra yang belum di upload lagi! hehe..

Anyway, the pictures of your coking look great and very inviting. Who needs Babah's verdict? hehe

Kudos! Remember the glossy cookbook I mentioned? WHat was the title? Lupa dah..

Ikelah said...

delicious...hmmm especially the lamb.
nampaknya ramai yang suka lamb. kalau kita ajak orang melayu makan kambing, mereka akan kata "tak makan, panasss...". walaubagaimanapun i noticed it was gulai kambing that finished first amidst the frequent "panasss.." answer.

let us launch the Blogger's lamb club. ;)

let KKl be the president and supply us with the kambngs(banyak di kg Paya Pasir). kita punya first activity will be kenduri kambing sempena wedding anniversary KKL-OK, sponsered by cik ma and cik pa. ;)

Mama Sarah said...

KKL Do you remember our 2nd house in Cardiff? We can overlook into our next door neighbour's kitchen from the room upstairs. Their kitchen (in fact the whole house) was always immaculately clean. Tak pernah nampak diaorang menumis ke masak ke or prepare hot meal. Selalu nampak sandwich je.

Until later, the lady cakap dia allergic dgn onion! Kasihan sungguh.

DITH this was what you said previously:

--> compile into a glossy book entitled "Cooking from the heart: recipes away from home"

hehe... must bear that in mind. bersemangat nak tulis buku. haha. macamlah ada orang nak beli.

hmmm probably i would end up printing it for my own personal collection kan? MAcam simpan album gambar. :)

ikelah peminat lamb! i thought the kenduri anniversary was supposed to be at Pokok Limau?

Anonymous said...

Mmm mmmm... food pictures like ones in a restaurant menus.

Beef soup maybe to enhance lagi rasa dia, grind some black pepper, cinnamon and bunga lawang into the soup. Add kicap. So it's a little bit different that chicken soup or lamb soup (both have clearer liquid than the beef soup I've described).That's how my mom do it.

Anonymous said...

salam,

saya suka sup kambing gak. kecik2 arwah ayah dah ajar, p makan sup kambing cicah ngan roti kat gerai mamak masa kami duduk bt.pahat dulu.mmg kaw kaw sungguhlah..rindu plak sup kambing mamak tu heheh.

Unknown said...

yus dulu tak makan kambing. Tapi sejak duduk UK, belinya lamb jer...beef, adalah kot 2/3 bulan sekali. Duduk sini, lamb lagi sedap kan...

Resepi Rogan Josh tu mcm mana ekk?? Baru first time dengar ni...hehe.

Anonymous said...

Yam yam sedapnye lamb. I was among the few yg tak makan lamb when first came to the UK. Tapi bila dah cuba, wahh sedapnye! Tender juicy meat. Cair air liur tgk gambar2 tu.

Mama Sarah said...

dyanna boleh cuba tambah rempah ratus nanti. thanks for the very special tips.

syikin hehe saya pulak lebih gemar lauk yang berwarna. Sup ni tak de warna, maka kurang menarik. tapi lepas kahwin dan bila tinggal kat UK ni, sedap pulak hirup sup panas time2 sejuk.

yus lamb memang sedap. lembut. resepi saya boleh email or nanti saya type lah kat comment box ni.

naja i was among the few yang kurang pantang larang langsung. Apa ada, makan saje lah. haha.

Anonymous said...

Mama sarah, sedap nya those dishes!!!!
Yes, this household pun suka makan beef juga but not too often because it is not good to eat so much. Sometimes I'll cook beef stew, oxtail soup,rendang daging mish's style, i suka rendang dengdeng, the kids like beef soup and my personal fav dari kecil -daging masak merah!

My father yg ajar I cara potong daging supaya tender bila dimasak. hehehehe..

-sherin almashor-

Anonymous said...

Why did u go to London (menyebok je nak tau) :D

Anonymous said...

KKL is right you know. Your pictures do belong in a cookbook.
I was wondering who you were when I read your comments at other people's blog. Rupa-rupanya it is you Kak nisak.
I have tried to leave 3 comments yesterday but failed due to beta blogger. Hehe
Am spending saturday night at Juraina's house ni, she's putting Nabil to sleep right at this moment. Okla, I'll be sure to read your blog after this...

Jamil said...

The dishes all look so tasty. I wonder if any of the nearby restaurants are still open at this hour. I'm suddenly feeling very hungry

Anonymous said...

Hai mamasarah, lama tleh masuk kat komen awak nih,...emmmmmm sedap nyer tengok makanan tu,....tengok dah sedap, rasa blum lagi nih...he..he

Mama Sarah said...

sherin dendeng... dah lama tak dengar perkataan tu. Ajar masak please!

naja gi buat passport :) and pergi cari ABC di Mawar. Tapi machine still rosak!

Jalilah you are always welcome here! Visiting your B.Ina over the weekend ke ;)

Hiyoshi Isykh 3x!!! Selalu lapar lah dia ni!

Shami rasa memang selalu out! Haha.

Anonymous said...

Kat Msia, beef is more common than lamb unfortunately.. unless we are in KL where there is more lamb in the choices...

However, there is a premium to it. There are a couple of nice places, secret recipe is nice, but there is a mamak shop in Shah Alam near bukit Jelutong that serves a huge helping of lamb shank curry. I ordered one lamb bryani for lunch thinking it would be the normal diced lamb but I got the shank. Pleasantly surprised and good price too.

Anonymous said...

*sigh* it's already 1.30 pm... i'm procrastinatng to go to lunch to look at these pics over & over again to build up my appetite, coz i know wht i'm about to have for lunch is a far cry from ur amazing dishes lah MS!
Huhuhu sedih pun ada. Hari2 makan kat restoran periuk tanah yg x sedap ni :(

Mama Sarah said...

OK besar mana eh the shank tu? We bought lamb leg twice, bila masak, kecut. tapi oklah sekali makan for 4 of us.

Anne I'm embarrassed by your statement lah. I'm sure restoren periuk tanah tu jauh lagi sedap. I can almost guarantee you, my cooking sangat2 average. Otherwise, mynn would have plumped like a balloon.