Cerita-cerita Zainur

Men who can cook are definitely attractive! Ladies, do you agree with me?

I say so because....
1. whenever I'm busy or come back late from work he already prepared dishes for me.
2. whenever I'm sick and not feeling well, he cook for me and serve me on bed! (mengada you)
3. whenever I feel lazy or tired he just volunteer to cook

And what make he's more attractive is when he actually not even know how to cook before he got married. And I just feel so lucky and blessed to have that kind of man!

Some girls would have been dreaming to have a future husband who can cook. Either because they are not good at cooking or they just love to have ones. I mean, who won't? Isn't it great to have some one who can help you in the kitchen. Me, myself pun kadang rasa jemu asyik masak aje everyday. Sometimes, dah tak tahu apa nak masak apa! Maybe because I'm not the one who loves to cook kot? I would prefer eating than cooking. Hikhikhik... Me on the other side, have never dream something like that even though I'm not good at cooking. I was positively think that I would learn and master it after marriage. And my other half, he knows nothing about cooking except 'masak maggi' if that can be consider as cooking.

However, as time change people change too rite? Change for the better la of course! Since we are living 60,000 kms away from our families in Malaysia so nak tak nak kena belajar hidup independently. Nak dijadikan cerita pula, tak lama lepas kami diijabkabulkan, we terus fly away. So, we learn pretty quick how to survive. And I'm so glad my partner (hubby) has helped me a lot. Masa awal-awal he helps me in kitchen (potong bawang, sayur etc) and later he managed to cook for me all by himself. Now, I boleh jer request nak makan apa but of course I kena provide the recipe so that he can just follow the instruction.

So, as a conclusion I think, every man can cooks actually. It just the matter of the willingness jer. I'm pretty sure guys yang studying/working kat overseas (especially yang belum kahwin) mesti sedikit sebanyak pandai memasak at least one simple dish. From my observation, kebanyakan kawan-kawan saya yang isterinya belajar, suami nya mesti expert memasak itu pun selepas datang overseas! Tapi, tak semualah. Ada juga laki-laki yang egoistic yang fikir kerja memasak ni hanya untuk wanita sahaja. So, sabar saja lah.

There might be a few factors for guys yang studying/ working kat overseas pandai masak:
1) Mungkin sebab kat sini tak da warung yang kalau malas boleh drop by or singgah untuk tapau and makan. Here in overseas, is not that easy to find halal food except yang belajar kat timur tengah or live in a community yang ramai muslims.

2) Kalau ada restaurant halal pun, it might be expensive. Kalau everyday, kerjanya nak makan luar aje boleh kopak.

3) Pengorbanan atau rasa cinta suami terhadap isterinya yang belajar.

Anyways, even you (guys) tak belajar or kerja di luar negara sekalipun, itu tak bererti yang you man have no reason to learn cooking. Kenapa? I believe every wife and mother would be pleased if their husbands or sons happen to cook for them at least once in the blue moon. Percayalah! Sebab cooking is not man's specialty (except for those who are gifted like Chef Wan) so, bila sang lelaki masak untuk sang wanitanya definitely wanita itu feel special- disayangi/ disanjungi/ dihargai etc. Perasaan itu adalah sangat membahagiakan. You will not only make your wife happy but seeing your love ones happy would definitely makes you happier. Betul tak para isteri? Haha... Try it and experience it and you gonna love the result.

Entry ini adalah untuk menggalakan para suami (terutamanya) untuk memasak sekali sekala bagi menunjukkan rasa cinta dan penghargaan kepada isteri instead of saying 'I love you' but why not express it in different way? What say you guys? Haha!

For wifes, jangan tersinggung atau berkecil hati if your man doesn't know how to cook or not even help you in the kitchen because they might be good at certain other things that we might not even realize it. Just be grateful and keep on cooking dengan seikhlas hati because the ganjaran di akhirat sana lebih besar dari apa yang kita bayangkan. So, let's cook even tho' malasnyaaaaaaaa yang amat. Heeee...


P/S: However, having a husband who is really good at cooking could (sometimes) also be annoying... Hihihi....

I'm emotionally unstable. Makan nasi pun tak lalu even though lapar sangat. Even spicy and sambal cooking which always been good appetizer to me failed to do so. I don't know if this has something to do with hormane exchange or what so ever but I'm pretty sure this has nothing to do with pregnancy. 99.9% sure!!! Itulah... dalam previous entry punya berlawak nak kenakan orang kan sekali masin mulut Chekgu.....hadoiii.... Bukan tak mahu pregnant tapi setiap hari terpaksa hirup udara kimia yang toksik saya pun jadi pening inikan pula kalau ada baby yang di kandung. That's another different story to tell.... *sigh*

Anyway, today I wanna share my little experience in organizing a so called open house for Raya celebration. Actually if I have a choice I don't want to do 'open house'. There are many reason behind it and one of the most BIGGEST reason ever is "Mak tak pandai masak nak!!!" *dush*

Okaylah fine, setakat masak untuk 2-4 perut tu boleh lah. Tak adalah sampai tak reti sangat. Kata orang takat nak isi perut yang lapar. I PASS! But, to cook for 25-30 adult people not including kids is something that I never did before! Not even imagine it once! *gosh* Do I have choice?

Since most of the seniors here already opened their house including my bestie so they'll keep asking me bila pula nak open house. Haishhh... Memang myself ada niat nak jamu beberapa orang senior especially those yang dah banyak tolong us masa we first arrived dulu tapi bukanlah nak jamu sampai berpuluh-puluh kelapa kepala okay!

Tapi sampai bila mak boleh mengelak nak? Lambat laun rumah mak tetap akan mereka serbu sama ada mak ready atau tak. Maka al kisahnya terpaksa lah mak open house juga...

So, me and habibi discuss waktu terbaik untuk open house ni. We're suppose to do it in weekends tapi banyak weekends yang full dengan activities and last-last we chose Friday night which is on 23 September from 7pm till tetamu rasa nak blah... Haaa... And we planned to cook Nasi tomato with beef tagine prune, ayam masak merah and salad as main dishes while dadih and puding jagung as dessert. And believe it or not I have never cooked ayam masak merah yang sedap before this. Usually kalau masak, most of the times akan sangat pedas sampai husband yang tahan pedas pun tak boleh nak telan! Haha.... walhal I dah ikut resepi yang baik which I google from internet lah. So we blamed the cili kering! Sebab even I used small amount of cili pon the red colour pudar tapi the taste is super hot! So cili yang salah bukan salah saya yang tak expert nih. Yeay!

So what happen next?

On Thursday evening we went to shop for the groceries. Then after isya we started to prepare the ingredients. Habibi helped me a lot in the kitchen. In fact habibi lah yang tolong siang daging 2 kilos and ayam 3 kilos. We fried the chicken that night and cooked dadih as well. Around 2 am baru tidur maaa. And the next morning we get up early. I do the cooking while he do the house cleaning. Everything went okay... so far... sampailah time masak nasi tomato.

Jeng jeng jeng!

Masak tu we masak 8 cups each untuk 2 periuk nasi elektrik. Periuk nasi pon terpaksa pinjam bestie because mine punya muat 6 cups aje! Kat sini problem bermula apabila periuk nasi tersebut asyik menendang aje. Nasi belum totally masak tapi the periuk dah off cooking. At first I wasn't panic at all because normally after I kacau-kacau and korek-korek the nasi dia akan okay and the periuk will continue cooking. But this time around, every 5 minutes dia akan off. Aaarrrrghhhhh...

I was panic and blur don't know what to do. Tanya habibi yang confirm tak pandai masak dari I ni lagilah tak membantu. We keep adding water into the pot. We thought air yang kurang. Bertambah tensi bila dua-dua pot jadi gitu. Habibi pon dah panic. Apa taknaya lagi 2 jam lebih tetamu nak datang. Wakaka... Lauk siap nasi mentah? Oh no!!!!!Kalau kat Malaysia mesti I dah kelam kabut keluar beli kat restoren aje! Haha- Poor me~

The funniest part is tetiba I rasa nak balik Malaysia! Not because of my phd thingy tapi... Mak tak dapat tahan malu nak andai kata 2 tahun lagi duduk sini orang kata open house mak makan nasi mentah! Alahaiii.....

Di pendekkan cerita I siap 'bercakar-cakar' dengan habibi sebab dua-dua pun dah panik and tak sangup tanggung malu! Last-last suruh habibi called kawan yang we all pinjam periuk ni. Konon tanya awat periuk hang asyik menendang aje. BTW, my bestie tu husband dia a great cook. Open house lepas pun husband dia yang masak. Wallaa kelas gitew...

So her husband cakap angkat periuk nasi tu letak atas api dapur yang kecil. But before that, balut periuk tu dengan aluminium foil supaya tak keluar wap. Masak dalam 20 minit insyaAllah okay! So we all follow aje lah and alhamdulillah salah satu periuk tu nasi tomatonya masak elok while the other one yang we all asyik tambah air tu agak lembik sedikit but still boleh di makan!

Maka dengan itu selamat lah Mak dari kena balik Malaysia sebab malu... Kah kah kah...

What ever it is alhamdulillah we manage to organize it well. Ayam masak merah Mak yang selalu tak menjadi pun habis licin sampai ada yang tak sempat merasa. Tak tahulah sedap ke tidak janji licin I senang hati uols! And my tagine pula dapat pujian dari mat saleh. Katanya sedap! I'm glad! And there are a few things that I learned and InsyaAllah next year will be even better and I proud of myself sebab at last I dapat juga membuktikan yang wanita tak berapa pandai masak ni still boleh masak sendiri untuk jamu 30 orang makan tak payah pakai catering macam dekat Malaysia uols.... *cehh berlagak taik kucing!*


psst: Penggunaan kata 'Mak' adalah merujuk kepada penulis manakala 'Nak' kepada pembaca budiman...

It's Monday blues again...haiyyahhh... Nobody loves Monday rite? I used to look forward for this day but not anymore since it becomes a day with Mr Supa @ supervisor heh! Anyway, let's just forget that for a moment. Today, I would like to share my experience and two cents knowledge on how to cook in less than 45 mins? Woww... it may sounds impossible especially to those who are not 'yet' expert in cooking. Just like me!

Mari kita buka sedikit rahsia! Honestly, saya memang tak reti masak! But that is not the reason you can't get married, of course! Haha.. All you have to do is to know and learn the basic skill of cooking! Masa first time belajar masak dulu I take approximately 1 hour 30 minutes to cook rice with 2 dishes. Owhh.. sila la gelak kan saya! Seriously I'm not that expert! I always do thing step by step. But now since I'm able to do multi-tasking I can cook less than a hour. Sometimes within 30 mins aje! Acehh...gila riak! Siap lah kalau habibi baca statement ini. Haha..

So what's the secret? There's no secret at all. It's just a few tips and skills...

Fisrt, if you plan to cook chicken/fish/meat, you need to defrost them first unless yours are fresh from market. Usually on Monday, saya akan balik lewat. Time berbuka adalah jam 5++. So akan kelam kabut lah nak memasak and what so ever. So before I go to collage, I will take out the chicken out from the freezer. So by the time nak memasak, ayamnya sudah lembut dan mudah untuk dipotong and dikerat-kerat. But if you have microwave, than you can use it to defrost. In my case, I don't have a microwave (pity me!). But watch out ladies, jangan defrost sekali dengan plastik-plastik unless that plastik or tupperwares are microwave safe!

Secondly, get things ready. This will include the kitchen utensils and the cooking ingredients. Imagine kalau periuk belanga you tak berbasuh, you will take extra time to clean it first before you can use it unless you have a lot of others pots and pans. That is totally different case. But me, I have 2-3 pieces only. So haruslah I basuh siap-siap before going to collage. But if, I have lots of pans pun I tak suka tengok dirty pans bertimbun-timbun memenuhi ruang dapur, nanti terus hilang selera nak masak! Especially kalau dapur rumah kecil! As for cooking ingredients I takda lah nak sediakan satu persatu macam rancangan memasak pula. Tapi if you have stock bawang yang dah dihiris, cili yang dah siap di'blend' and etc it will make things easier. Trust me!

Luckily in OZ, the people here just love cooking and make things simpler and easier. For example they have their spices all ready in a bottle tube. All you have to do just picit-picit jer masuk dalam periuk. You just name it lemongrass (serai), garlic (bawang putih), ginger (halia) and a lot others. Takda la macam kat Malaysia nak kena kupas kulit bawang, blend sendiri, ketuk-ketuk batang serai and what-so-ever lah. Haha... this part memang I like it very much. It really help busy woman like me... Acheh! macam la busy sangat kan!

Another tips is you have to be multi tasking! Masa tengah tumis bawang tu sambil-sambil tu potong la sayur ker or tanak nasi. Tapi watch out jangan sampai hangit pula kuali uols! Tapi, kat sini sayur pun ada yang dah siap potong. Sangatlah senang! Ada duit beli saja. But for me, I don't need it. Semua benda nak mudah aje mana boleh nanti your skill memasak hilang pula!

Last but least, try to make it simple. If you have limited time janganlah berangan nak masak lavish dishes. From my observation, mat saleh ni dia biasa combine aje sayur dalam apa jua masakan. Meaning that, kalau masak sup ayam janganlah letak ayam semata-mata tapi you can add potatoes, carrots, cabbage flowers (bunga kubis), celery and others yang relevant lah. So, in just one dish you have all the diet balance. But if you have free time like weekends ker baru lah try recipe yang boleh kecur air liur.

All this tips is just for a beginner like me. To those yang dah expert tuh mesti awal-awal lagi dah close page ni. But if any of you have others tips please share it here. You are the most welcome. It might be useful to others and me.

Okay, I think that's enough. Next time I will share more. So girls, if you rasa tak tahu masak, don't be sad because I'm just one of them. But, as day goes by you will master it and be like a masterchef!

psst: Owh did I mention to you guys that most of the tv's programs here are all about cooking?

Cheers!

Pejam celik, pejam celik....

Hari ini 18 Oktober. Beerti sebulan sudah daku bergelar isteri. Macam tak percaya rasanya. Seakan baru kenal erti cinta! Baru mula nak berkasih. Rasa malu? Yep! tak usah kata la...masih lagi menebal di jiwa... huhuhu....

Beginilah agaknya bila bercinta sesudah kahwin. Walaupun tak pergi honeymoon ke Bali, ke Krabi atau ke mana sahaja tempat romantis di bumi ini sekalipun tapi kami tetap ber'honeymoon'. Dan pastinya tempoh honeymoon ini akan lama kerana masing-masing baru nak kenal in and out. Tapi, andai diizin Allah, kami ada jua merancang untuk ke Langkawi. Harapnya sebelum kami berangkat ke Ausie awal tahun depan. Oh ya! Ke Ausie itu akan menjadi honeymoon kami yang terpanjang. 3 tahun beb!

Sepanjang tempoh sebulan ni baru 2 kali sahaja sempat memasak untuk Hubby. Apa nak buat, bila terpaksa berjauhan. Hujung minggu sajalah bertemu. Terasa betapa singkatnya waktu. Serius saya tak lah pandai mana memasak! Kalau masak pakai santan lagi out. Haha... Tapi, untuk tempoh 2 kali memasak ni hubby puji. Sedap katanya, macam dekat kedai. Pandai sahaja dia nak ambil hati saya kan? Tapi, lauk habis licin. Kira ok jugalah tu. But I still need to improve my skill. Next time, nak dengar pujian 'sedap mengalahkan kedai makan'! Baru ummmphh! Hehehe... Give me some time ok. I know, I need to learn a lot of things....

Hidup berumahtangga ni sangat manis. Walaupun ada juga masam kelatnya. Tapi, bila suami isteri saling bertolak ansur dan berkomunikasi, InsyaAllah akan moleklah kapal berlayar. Dan hidup berumahtangga ni mengajar saya erti perkongsian. Perkongsian jiwa, susah, senang, suka duka.....semuanya lah....

Oh, sangat merindui dirinya kini. Cepatlah hujung minggu.........