I Made Lepat Pisang in Dubai

lepat pisang has always been one of my top 3 favorite kuih melayu. the others would be apam kelapa, and tepung pelita. i can’t believe in a million years that i would even attempt to make my own lepat pisang.

 

khaleef enjoying his mom’s homemade lepat pisang

 

it all started when my dear kak muna, another malaysian in dubai, ‘donated’ folds of banana leaves to me. her son studying in KYS is currently off on school holiday and had just arrived in dubai from malaysia, bringing all sorts of goodies. so sweet bawakkan mak dia daun pisang! hihi.

since i have A LOT of banana leaves, i was thinking of making – lepat pisang! what is lepat pisang in english? steamed banana parcels? haha!

one of my biggest motivation to make lepat pisang other than :

1) it’s my favorite kuih,

2) i have a lot of banana leaves lying around –

it’s 3) when i make my OWN lepat pisang, i can finally put A LOT (and i mean A LOT) of kelapa parut or grated coconut ikut suka hati in my lepat pisang. i simply HATE lepat pisang that contains no grated coconut. i feel cheated! huhu.

so i want to make my OWN lepat pisang, just the way i like it!

 

* * *

 

there are so many variations of the recipe for lepat pisang out there – some use corn flour, some use custard flour, and some put santan! so i just googled ‘resepi mudah lepat pisang, and go from there!

basically what you need :

• bananas
• wheat flour
• corn flour
• white sugar
• brown sugar
• salt to taste
• grated coconut
• banana leaves

 

okay, my ever risky way of making this lepat pisang is ‘campak-campak’, so i don’t have the exact amount of everything. i mix flour with banana, and when it’s too soft, i add more flour. and when i add more flour, i add more sugar.

it’s all about the texture of the mix – you don’t want it to be too soft or lembik, and you don’t want to dump too much flour that will make it too hard.

 

 

banana, of course is the main ingredient. if you used mango, jadi lepat mangga pulak kan!

 

 

i used 4 parts of flour (tepung gandum), and 1 part of corn flour (tepung jagung) and mix them together with white sugar, brown sugar and a lil bit of salt.

 

plop one lump of banana-flour-sugar mix on the banana leaf, and – now this is the best part – i put A LOT of grated coconut. A LOT. because i like it A LOT!

also, a note to myself : i thought my mix was too soft as i put it on the banana leaf, but it turned out okay. so yes syigim – let it be a LITTLE SOFT. it’s gonna be fine! haha.

 

tada! wow tak sangka boleh tahan kemas jugak aku melipat lepat hihi

 

before, and after!

 

i read in of the recipes, make sure the water for steaming is already boiling before you put the lepat pisang. steam for 20 minutes, add more boiling water, and continue steaming for 10 more minutes.

me? i steamed for straight 30 minutes. tak bukak bukak periuk. haha.

and yes, it seemed that you CAN stack all the lepat pisang together in the steam pot and all will be cooked equally together.

 

tada~ *speechless*

 

can’t. believe. i. made. lepat pisang!!!!

 

 

my mr. khairul, as usual was my biggest fan, my worst critic and my royal food-taster. one gulp, and he lit up - “eh, sedap lah!”

i gave him a BIG hug!

of course sedap, it’s cooked with love okay!

for those of you who are used to make tepung talam without even looking at the recipe, or those who make kuih cara lauk selamba je for afternoon snack, or those who can make kuih lopeh once a week – this may not be a big deal. so what if you can make lepat pisang? but i can’t even fry my goreng pisang right – so hey, excuse me but me making lepat pisang on my own for the first time IS A BIG DEAL.

so be a friend, and just congratulate me okay. thank you. hihi.

* * *

ok next, you nak i buat kuih ape?

Manggis Dubai

i don't really like manggis (mangosteen). but today i'm writing about manggis because i saw this at waitrose dubai marina, and it's aed15.50 a packet. lebih kurang rm15.50 jugak.

i think there's only 10 bijik inside. 15.50 dirham.

okay, i'm not a manggis expert, but i'm sure you can get way more manggis with rm15.50 back in malaysia, right? i read somewhere that in kelantan you can get sekilo manggis for as low as 80 cents!

sekilo dah berapa manggis kan!


the morale of the story : buy, eat and enjoy local fruits when you're in malaysia.

hihi. hey, though i dislike manggis, i do love other local fruits. my favorite fruit happens to be banana! and yes, my boys share the love, hihi. other than banana, i also like mango and rambutan!

in fact, there was a mango tree right outside my old house in ipoh, where us sisters used to climb and make 'tree house' out of newspaper and cardboard boxes!

i don't like tembikai or betik because i think they're 'messy' fruits (go figure). and i also don't like langsat and ciku coz they taste funny. haha.

yah yah picky, picky!

parts of a manggis

anyways, though i don't really fancy manggis, i'll share what i found out through the magic of googling :

• it has no connection with mango!
• to open up the fruit, you have to twist or press the fruit until it breaks apart
• each manggis contains a type of “flower” at the bottom of the fruit, indicating the number of segments/slices the fruit contains
• while durian is 'king of fruit', manggis is said to be the 'queen of fruit'
• the manggis dark purple skin contains coloring/getah which is difficult to clean off if it stains your clothes
  
• manggis has cooling effect - so you often see durian and manggis sold side by side, because durian is heaty - so you can neutralize the effect of heatiness by eating the cool manggis
  

i found packets of rambutan too. sedih betul tengok. it's just that it looks so NOT fresh; with lebam-lebam and blackish.

also, because back in mr. khairul's kampung, there's a whole orchard of rambutan! there would be a LOT, and i mean a LOT of rambutan everywhere you look - up in the tree, or down on the grass, even up the steps leading to the house! click here for the entry i wrote about the glorious red rambutan invasion!

there's so many that mr. khairul's mom would make jars of rambutan jam. really!

so, when i see a small bunch of rambutan sold in packets like this, i feel really blessed that i could just go balik kampung soon, and eat rambutan as much as i want to, whenever i want to. just a petik away!

Durian in Dubai

cravings?

call it what you want, but since mr. khairul's mom is here, why not take advantage and request my favorite dish from her before she leaves?

i wanted *pengat durian! i LOVE pengat durian. my abah loves it with pulut and santan, but i could eat slices and slices of bread dip in that sweet, gooey, lumpy pengat durian!

* pengat durian is a malaysian dessert made from just durian flesh, coconut milk, water and sugar! throw everything together and wait for it to boil. add pandan leaves to intensify the aroma!

in the end it should look like thick, gooey gravy with durian pulps - perfect as a dip for bread!

* * *

and so my beloved mr. khairul searched far and wide for a nice durian in dubai. found a small thai grocery in karama. and found a packet of frozen durian.


it costs him 30+ dirham (lebih kurang rm30 kita jugak)! and how many ulas durian inside?

just FOUR!

but hey, to get a veteran touch in cooking this dish - priceless, huh?


it was the night that mr. khairul was supposed to send his family to abu dhabi airport to catch the now defunct air-asia dubai-KL flight. however, my mom-in-law sempat lagi whip up a pot of pengat durian, good for days to come!

Going Bananas!

i'm nuts over bananas. the fruit, lepat pisang, cekodok pisang, goreng pisang, kek pisang, lempeng pisang, muffin pisang, waffle ngan pisang, banana split - you name it. i'm nuts over pisang.

oh, but i tried this banana ice-cream once - not good. trust me. i'm a pisang nut.


and so it goes that one day, i thought of goreng pisang. man, i love goreng pisang. goreng pisang makcik bawah back in abah's house in ipoh. goreng pisang makcik tepi jalan at kg lalang, mr. khairul's kampung. goreng pisang depan masjid where our nikah took place. i miss those goreng pisang!

so i decided, it ain't so difficult and i should try frying some banana fritters myself. ok stop gelak - memang this was my first time frying goreng pisang. especially since i'd be making my own batter, and not using any tepung goreng pisang adabi!

yesterday we went marketing in spinneys, and got the filipino pisang because that's what it says. oh, another confession - both khairul and i had absolutely no idea what kind of bananas needed to make goreng pisang. haha. pisang awak ke, pisang saya ke, pisang tanduk ke - we can't even tell which is which banana!

so we bought one sikat, and hope it tastes good!


what do i need? (the simplest 'recipe' i found that involves the ingredients i already have in my kitchen - pasal takde tepung beras!)

• bananas
• flour
• 3 spoons of cookin oil
• water
• lil bit of salt & sugar
• lil bit of serbuk kunyit

- mix all!


did i mention that i love the color yellow? hmm. yellow. banana. probably there's a connection somewhere. haha.

ok back to my maiden effort to make goreng pisang - i cut it out in my own 'suka hati nak bentuk ape' way, dip it in the batter, and put them in the already acceptionally hot cooking oil.


after few minutes of wondering whether they're ready, i can see they're turning golden, and crispy hard to the touch. it's done!

i waited a few while before trying out one. not bad! (takpe takde orang puji, puji diri sendiri) bravo me and me first try!

khaleef the banana boy

khaleef was enjoying it tremendously. pasal dia pun hantu pisang. but the sneaky boy sat right in front of the plate of goreng pisang the whole time and gobbled 'em all up, that i only got to eat a few slices, and mr. khairul didn't even get to eat one!


what did kahfi eat for breakfast? he ate a bunch of banana mash, then he quit and wanted his fav gingerbread man biscuit with grape juice. i absolutely love watching him eat the gingerbread man. coz he'd be holding the cookie with both hands - and always eats the head first, like a giant baby on a gingerbread man massacre! haha. totally adorable!

ok, goreng pisang, anyone? and while you're at it, here's an interesting page on the goodness of my fav food of all time, banana! click here!

Rambutan Picking @ Kampung Lalang

rambutan. the hairy prince of the fruit-ies. i love its sweet, juicy crunch, but i caution myself whenever i'm faced with this seductive red hairball - i get sore throat when i eat too much! and i will when it's in abundance back in mr. khairul's kampung lalang!

somebody stop me!

look at that rumpun of rambutan. selambak!

we dropped by my in-laws' place in kampung lalang to pick up khaleef who had stayed there for the past week. unable to resist, we plucked a few rambutans to bring back to ipoh.

khaleef picking out rambutans with his opah

my mother-in-law took charge and went to the back of the house, where there were trees laden with the red hairy fruit. the branches and twigs drooped to the sandy floor with the weight of the rambutans! khaleef joined in to help pick the red, ripe and irresistable rambutans!

sure there's probably rambutan sold at tomorrow's pasar tani, or perhaps you'll encounter a stall along the road. but nothing beats picking out your own rambutan, at your own backyard, on your own sweet time.

ah, the kampung life!