Happy New Year 2012, Everybody! - A Celebration of North Indian cuisines with the BBQ

Happy New Year 2012 Everybody!

I know I'm like four days late to do this shout out but it's better late than never. How was your New Year celebration? I hope it was great enough to keep you going and pumping with excitements throughout this year!

My celebration was fantastic. It was fantastic because we being a true Malaysian celebrated the coming of the new year with a simple yet delicious home cooked dinner at home. We had some tandoori chickens on the BBQ, chicken tikka masala, raita, papadoms, rice, some fried vegs, and 'siakap bakar' ( grilled Barramundi, I think that's what it's called in English) and cold Root Beers with ice creams for desserts.

So all in all, we had an outdoor dinner right on the front yard with the main theme of North Indian dishes. Of course we had to have the BBQ  for the boys to start playing with fire and that's just more than enough excuse to have the tandoori chickens too. Initially we wanted to buy some Roti Naan (Naan Breads) from the nearest Mamak shop to compliment the tandoori but thankfully we were all out of hands and if we did get some Naan breads, I think we would have an awfully stuffed tummy hours before the countdown of the new year begins.

I had a splendid pigging out session with my family during New Year's Eve and I think we badly needed that little time to have everybody finally sitting together at the same time and have a good meal to kick start the New Year.

So here goes the pictures.  Some really decent ones that I'm really willing to share with the general public. Haha.

[caption id="attachment_2614" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="A bowl full of heavily gravy-ed Chicken Tikka Masala, Papadom and some diced cucumber to make the raita"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2615" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="All in a plate - rice, chicken tikka, papadom and raita minus the fish and tandoori"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2616" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Tandoori chicken on bbq - very Malaysian style lah!"][/caption]

 

Finally, let's have a wonderful, happy, healthy, wealthy, lots of travel and more adventures for this year 2012! Happy New Year 2012 Everybody :)

 

Photo Essay :The Best Food In The World - BBQ!

The best food in the world for me has to be a BBQ! Of course, you should never indulge in too much of the good, yummy food everyday because as we know it, too much of the good things are bad for you.

Anyways, this particular BBQ is yet another best BBQ that we have from time to time. BBQs for us are usually reserved during days of cravings or festive seasons. :)

 

[caption id="attachment_1963" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="The BBQ pit"][/caption]

The BBQ pit is actually a cut off, used oil drum. You can look for used oil drum from the junk shop near your place and request to have it cut into half. BBQ is way better with these drums because the pit is kind of deep, so your food won't be charred but instead it will be cooked almost like they are smoked.

 

[caption id="attachment_1964" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Let is smoke or rather BBQ-ed!"][/caption]

This meal is for 3 person.

 

[caption id="attachment_1965" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Yum! This is a sirloin cut I think. Medium rare."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1966" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The fish looking good to eat by now."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1967" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="And other stuffs on the menu - Freshly caught Tilapias! They taste super sweet!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1968" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="We are Asians so we have to eat those stuffs with a sambal - bird chillies,soy sauce,shrimp paste mashed with mortar and pastel"][/caption]

There you go, The Best Food In The World which is a BBQ! Well, at least for me any type of BBQ with fresh ingredients got to be the best meal ever. Are you drooling just yet by looking at the pictures? If you are not, you are so not fit for a BBQ with me. Haha.

How to make a sand oven?

The after effect of way too many BBQs and watching endless cooking shows from Jamie Oliver, Robert Rainford and anything cooking related shows on Travel Channel, we had successfully attempted on creating a sand oven during our must have BBQ sessions each year. The whole point of creating an oven from sand is to have the 'steamed' effect on the cooking and also to get back to basic when it comes to preparing simple yet delicious outdoor cooking.

Here is how you prepare a successful sand oven:

1. Your location for the sand oven should and obviously be right on the beach where there is endless supply of the sand.

[caption id="attachment_512" align="aligncenter" width="150" caption="The Beach"][/caption]

2. Simply dig a little hole out of the sand to prepare the oven. Nothing too deep or too shallow. For digging purposes, have a tiny spade handy.
3. Charcoals and some fire starter to make the fire for your oven. Once your charcoals have started to burn and formed into 'bara api', dunno what you call this in English, it's pretty much ready to be tossed into the hole you've dug earlier.

[caption id="attachment_515" align="aligncenter" width="150" caption="Charcoal inside the hole"][/caption]

We always lit up the charcoals from the BBQ set first and later move some of it into the sand hole because by doing that, we can have two sets of burning coals. One on the BBQ set and the other on the sand oven. Also, I think if you are to lit up the charcoals straight from the sand hole, it's going to be a pretty tough thing to do because the sand tend to be rather moist the further down it is below. However, I think it's still possible to lit the coal straight from the sand hole.

[caption id="attachment_516" align="aligncenter" width="150" caption="Burning charcoal in the bbq set"][/caption]

4. Once you have layered the ground of the sand hole completely with your burning charcoals, put directly whatever you want to be cooked on the burning charcoals. In our case, we usually put a huge fish like the Seabass (Siakap in Malay), lightly seasoned it with salt, pepper,spices,lemon, or whatever you want on it and nicely double wrap it on an aluminum foil.
5. Next add more burning charcoal on top of your foil to have a double top and bottom cooking effect.

[caption id="attachment_520" align="aligncenter" width="150" caption="Covering top layer with more charcoal"][/caption]

6. Lastly, cover up the final layer with sand. Make sure you fully covered the sand hole in order for the steam to remain within the hole and create the oven effect that you are looking for.
7. After a good 30 minutes, your fish should be ready to eat and dig the hole up to seize your awesome meal! I suppose, it takes longer time if you have chicken or meat in your oven.

[caption id="attachment_517" align="aligncenter" width="150" caption="Lifting up the fish in the foil using a tiny machete and tiny 'cangkul'"]

Digging out your 'oven cooked' fish

[/caption]

8. The cooking result from this sand oven will produce really moist, juicy and succulent dish; in our case, the yummiest steamed fish we ever had! And this techniques never gets old and definitely a must try thing if you are looking for adventure, beach side, cooking. It is yet, another plus thing for any BBQ-lovers!

[caption id="attachment_518" align="aligncenter" width="150" caption="Yummy Seabass"][/caption]