Scrabulous

The only application I like in Facebook is Scrabulous. You can play with others or you can play with the computer in practice mode. It is so addictive. I have 4 games going and while waiting for my turn (which can take days) I play against the computer. The computer is a tough opponent. Seriously, who knew that APPUIED is a word. Seriously! and the computer received 76 points for this first move. Do you know what this word means? I, for one, was aghast that such a word exists. It is not fair, the computer has logic, mathematical formulaic strategy and an entire dictionary in its 'brain'.

Anyway, after much practice against the computer (which resulted in demoralizing defeats on my side) I, Zarinah Binte Ali, am very satisfied and happy to say, I WON! Yes, I won against the computer. 346 me, 322 computer. Hah! The computer lost! Wooo Hoooo! My faith in humanity and our ability to out-think a computer has been restored.

Hah hah, yeah, I am a Scrabble addict. I love Scrabble. And no, people, it is not an English teacher's thing. In fact Scrabble has nothing to do with the English Language. It is all about strategy, logic and Maths. Plus, one must have good vocabulary, preferably a sound knowledge of 2 and 3 letter words, like QI, LI, EF, ENE and so on. Ahh...Scrabulous, the one and only good thing in Facebook (so far).

Fishball Soup ikan tenggiri

Another of my favourite dish. Home made fishball soup. Today being a holiday I decided to take over the kitchen and cooked for my family, with the aid of instructions from mummy of course. Anyway, I woke up late on the account of temporary insomnia last night and so my mummy prepared the potatoes and bawang and stuff. ("Aku kasi kau tidur puas puas dulu. Lagipun nak tunggu kau bangun, bila nak start masak?" heh heh) Anyway, she has seen me peel potatoes, garlic and shallots, so she has faith that I can do that part well and need no more practice. heh heh. So she left the hardest part to me: to clean the fish and scrape the flesh of the skin and bones and to make the fishballs and soup.

Here are the ingredients:

• I ikan tenggiri besar ( I have no idea what this is in English)
• 3 potatoes, cut into chunky pieces
• 2 1/2 big onions
• 10 garlic
• halia 2 batang (sepanjang jari) - (in english is this galaghal?)
• 1 biji buah pala
• 3 bunga cengkir
• 1 stick of cinnamon/kayu manis
• 4 biji buah pelaga
• 3 bunga pe'kak/star anise
• 1 teaspoon of white pepper
• Salt to taste

Prepare the fish by cleaning away the guts and sliced it through the middle, so you get 3 very long slices. Usually the fishmonger will do this for you. So you bring home 3 very long slices. One of the slices has the bones on it. Scrape carefully making sure every tiny bit of flesh is scraped off, even in between the bones. You should only have the skin and bones left after the procedure.

Chop 2 onions and garlic thinly. Place them in a big pot. Halia just squash them a bit (titik kan) and place in a big pot. Break the cinnomon and buah pala in 2. Potatoes, half of the buah pala and both cinnamon sticks plus the star anise, buah pelaga and bunga cengkir should be placed in the pot too. Fill half the pot with water. Boil the mixture.

While the soup is being boiled, prepare the fishballs. The flesh that you have scraped off from the fish can now be rolled into balls. 1 fish could make 80-100 balls depending on the size of fishballs you make. Some people pound the flesh or use a tool to flatten and mix the flash together. This is optional. You can do so if you think there are a lot of bones in the fish. By punding and flattening the flesh you are squeezing out skin and bones. If you are confident that there are no or very few bones, then this step can be eliminated.

Tip: Wet fingers and palms constantly when making the balls so that the flesh won't stick to your hands.

Next: take half of the buah pala, half a big onion, 2 pieces of garlic, a small piece of halia and white pepper and pound till you have a paste. Heat up a small pan and use a little bit of oil. Pour in the paste and stir until it has turned brown and crispy (my mum described it as garing - I can't find a better word to descrbe). Pour into the boiling pot of soup.

By this time, the potatoes should be cooked and fishballs should be placed into the soup one by one. It is better to put in the fishballs individually because if you put them together, they will stick to each other. Put one tablespoon of salt into soup. Once you see the fishballs turn white and float, you can turn off the fire and eat!

Okie, this is a very simple dish. The most troublesome part is the fish and that is the main ingredient. So it takes around 1 1/2 hours to prepare.

So this is the outcome. Eat with rice, bread or by itself. It tastes great. Remember always get the fish fresh because you want the fish to crumble and melt in the mouth and not have the springy texture. You can add spring onions to your own bowl of soup. For me I prefer to eat it with rice together with sambal lonteh. Power!

It is time....

....I learn to cook. heh heh. Today I learnt from my mummy how to cook Sotong Masak Hitam. Yumm! One of my favourite dishes - cholesterol laden seafood goodness. This is how it turned out:

In the pot

I made everything myself with no help from mummy. Just directions from her. Very simple to cook. I cleaned the sotong myself and took the bits of ink. I actually liked doing it. The difference I suppose is I wanted to cook as opposed to being forced to learn to cook. Anyway, it tastes great, not in the least bit different from my mummy's cooking. And the sotong has EGGS! Oh super tasty! I love sotong eggs.

Sotong and rice.

See the sotong egg peeping out of the sotong on the left? Yummm...yumm. Ate it with sambal lonteh. Super good. heh heh. As of right now, when I am writing this, no one else have eaten it except the girls' maid and myself. The maid said it is good! My parents are fasting so must wait for reviews at maghrib. As for myself, I can't wait to cook more simple good food like this. I am well on my way to be a super wife! Heh heh.