Secrets of Domestic Bliss

Sambal Belacan

Simplest thing in the world to make, and yummy with... potato chips, roast chicken, stewed pork, tapioca chips, cucumbers...everything!

The trick is, you need a mortar and a pestle of the stone variety, which isn't exactly easy to find this side of England. Note to self: lugging it all the way from Mustafa in Singapore had better be worth it!!!

Ingredients
10 red chillies
4cm piece belacan, roast till fragrant - use a toaster, or a microwave
Pinch of salt
1 limau kasturi

Method
Pound chillies until rather coarse in texture. Break up roasted belacan and add into chilli mixture gradually. Continue to pound until texture is neither too smooth nor too coarse. Add pinch of salt. Put sambal in a bowl. Squeeze lime juice in and mix well. Serve sambal as an accompanying side dish.

Basic Muffins

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Method

Sift together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
In a small bowl, combine together egg, milk and oil, using a wire whisk. Add egg mixture at once to the dry ingredients. Stirring mixture only until the dry ingredients are moistened. The batter will be lumpy.
[Stir in any ingredients you want to add]
Spoon into prepared muffin tins, filling each cup half to two-thirds full.
Bake in 400*F oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven. Let cool completely on wire rack.
Makes 1 dozen muffins.

I like my muffins savoury (apparently a very New Zealander thing) and my favourites are ham and cheese, or olives and sun-dried tomatoes. Currently wondering how nuts, shredded carrots and cinnamon would taste... kinda like a carrot cake variation?

Barley Water

This mum-says-it's-cooling drink is great for cold winter nights when hot, and refreshing enough with a touch of lemon in hot summer days. I like it this way, which isn't exactly how mum makes it...

I boil it at low eat on the stove after dinner when the stove is relatively empty.

Ingredients
5 handfuls of pearl barley (about 1/2 cup by standard measures)
1 handful of rock sugar (1 tbsp)
5 or 6 sticks of sugared winter melon (this little darling you mostly find in Singapore)
1 litre of water

Method
Boil all ingredients on low heat for about 30 minutes until water turns cloudy. Remove barley water and store/serve with sugared winter melon.

Note to self: the winter melon is what makes the barley water "cooling".