Sardine with Fishball and Egg Scrumptious

I love sardine since young and mom always her way to cook sardine in her own way. We, during childhood, always fond with mom's cooking. Mom always find her way to feed her hungry children in her own way and sardine is always an easy option as it is cheap, delicious and  a meal which can be ready in minutes.

One of my mom's sardine signature is Sardine with Fish ball and Egg Scrumptious (dry version) and below are the recipes:

Ingredients:

• Ayam Brand sardine - 1 big tin
• 1 big onions chopped finely
• 5 cloves garlic & small piece of ginger blend in blender
• 2 dried chillies (remove the seeds and slice into two
• Curry leaves - cut into small portion
• Chilli powder - 3 tbsp
• Fish curry powder - 1 tbsp
• 2 tomatoes  (cut into 4 portion or blended roughly into the blender)
• 1 egg
• 8 piece of fish ball slice into 2 or 4 pieces
• 1/4 cup of water

Seasoning:

• 1/4 cup of lemon juice
• Salt

Preparation Method :

• In a pan, heat oil and fry the sliced onions, dried chillies, curry leaves, and blended garlic and ginger in oil.
• Now add fish ball till it become slightly brown and stir fry for 3 minutes, constantly stir to avoid burning the paste.  
• Then, add sardines with the sauce, add in the chilli powder and fish curry powder.
• Mash evenly the sardine and add in the tomato slices or the blended tomato. 
• Add in the lemon juice, water with the seasoning and close the lid for 5 minutes.
• Lastly break the egg and pour evenly  into the sardine paste and let it simmer till it becomes little dry.
• Serve with hot rice, bread or chapati.

Herbal Cooling Tea/Chrysanthemum Tea

The weather is too hot for me to digest, therefore, last Sunday i drag myself to a nearby Chinese medicine shop to purchase the dried herbal cooling tea (chrysanthemum tea) packets. This was taught by my great chef, MOM! It has been a time, her passion for her family health being had taught me good food leads to healthy life style.

With its beautiful color and refreshing flavor, chrysanthemum flowers are highly regarded as a detoxification herb in Chinese medicine. It helps to clear heat and toxic materials which have accumulated within the body.  Regular consumption aids in the removal of toxins trapped in the lungs as well as breakdown of mucous formation. Chrysanthemum flowers also make a great rinse for red, swollen and irritated eyes. 

As it is cheap and easy, below are the ingredients and steps to make chrysanthemum tea:

Ingredients :

• 1 Dried Chrysanthemum Flowers packets
• 3 slices of Chinese licorice (moistens the Lungs and stops coughing, and therefore it is good in treating upper respiratory ailments. It has an anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic effect. It reduces the toxicity of many substances including nicotine, and caffeine. However, a word of caution,people with high blood pressure should avoid taking these.)
• 1 tbsp of Wolfberry (ability to strengthen the liver, the kidneys and the eyes, as well as the ability to nourish the blood.)
• Rock Sugar ( according to your level of sweetness) 

Steps:

• Add the ingredients above into a tea pot and pour 500 ml hot water. Boil it in slow fire for 10 to 15 minutes.  
• Filter the chrysanthemum flowers andsieve the liquid through a strainer. 
• Serve it with hot or chilled with love! :) 

Note : You can boil it for another two or three times for another round. I keep boiling it for another few round and  drink it for another two days till the flavor gets lesser. 

Green Gram Curry/Pachai Payaru Kuzhambu

Normally, when we heard about dhaal curry, we always imagined of dhal (lentils). I always have gas and burping problem whenever having lentil curry, so mom taught us to substitute with green gram which is more healthier and less gas problem :) I choose to skip the coconut milk and substitute with milk or leave it without adding white liquid into the curry to sustain the freshness of the curry.

My version of green gram curry as below :

Main ingredient :

• 1/2 or 1 cup of green gram (1 cup equal for 2 time meals for minimum 5 people, some people prefer green gram without skin which you can get it in supermarket or Indian Cash & Carry)
• Either put the 1/2  cup of green gram into grinder and grinder it till it become powder or boil 1 cup of green gram for 20 minutes till it become softer. 
• Salt
• Turmeric powder
• Coriander leaves

To cook it into oil and add into the green gram curry :
 

• 1 big onion (dice into small slices)
• half piece of ginger and half clove of garlic ( either pound it into pounder or put into blender and blend it)
• 3 red chillies (remove the seeds as it can cause gastric or appendix) or 3 dry chillies (chop it into 2 portion) 
• 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds (Jeeragam)
• 1 teaspoon Mustard seeds  (Kaduku)
• 1 teaspoon Coriander powder (Kottumalli)
• 1 teaspoon Basil Leaves (are sold in most supermarket)
• 1 teaspoon Fenugreek seeds (Venthayam)
• Asafoetida Powder (Perungakayam powder)
• Curry leaves (based on your preferences)

To put below ingredients while curry is half boiling :

• I tin of button mushroom (drain the water out and wash the button mushroom and slice it into medium slices.)
• 4 Tomatoes (Slice all the  tomatoes into 4 portion, put half portion into blender and blend it substituting with tamarind.)
• 2/3 stick of drumstick (Murungakai) chop it into 3 to 4 small sticks.
• 2 potatoes (peel the skin and cut into 4 portion)

Getting ready for Green Gram Curry :

• Rinse the green grams with water until the water becomes clear. In a medium sized pot, add about 3 cups of boiling water and turmeric powder into the washed green gram and let them simmer until boiling point on medium heat.
• Once it has reached boiling point, reduce the heat to low and continue to simmer until soften (just make sure the green grams are not too mushy).
• In the meantime, fry the onions together with the seeds, and curry leaves on a pan until the onions turn brown.
• Add ginger and garlic paste, chillies, remaining spices, potatoes and tomato paste and continue frying until aromatic.
• When the green grams  are soften, add the fried mixtures into the green grams and stir well. Let it simmer and add in the drumsticks and button mushrooms for further 10 minutes. 
• While it looks like going to boil, add in the remain chopped tomatoes. 
• Just before serving, sprinkle chopped coriander over curry and serve it with hot cooked rice and other side dishes :)