Monday, 19 March 2012

Easy peasy recipe: Mashed potato and gravy

This is my family's favourite and I'm sharing the recipe here. The gravy recipe was taken from myresipi.com with slight adjustment due to available ingredients and my convenience ;)

Both hubby & son's favourite dish

Mashed potato
Ingredients:
- 5 potatoes (medium size)
- 2 tbs butter
- fresh milk
- salt & pepper

Method:
1. Peel off potatoes and boil til soft.
2. Drain the water and mash the potatoes while they're hot.
3. *Melt the butter and mix with the potatoes.
4. Add fresh milk bit by bit to the mixture and stir to combine, til soft up to your liking. 
5. Add salt & pepper to taste.

*Notes: for those who like it more creamy can add 1 more tbs of butter. (in step 3)


Mashed Potato gravy - credit to myresipi.com 
Ingredients:
- 650 ml water (I roughly put 2-3 mugs of water)
- 5 tbs of chicken stock (I used a cube of maggi brand stock)
- 1 onion chopped (I used half of big onion)
- 1 celery (I didn't use)
- 40 g butter (I didn't add any)
I don't like it too buttery since butter has been added in the mashed potato.
- 20 g flour (I used 1 tbs of flour)
- 1 tbs tomato sauce
- 1 tbs of oyster sauce
- few drops of soy sauce
- salt & pepper

Method:
1. Boil the water in the pot and add chicken stock, celery and onion. Simmer for ab 10 mins.
2. Then filter the sauce into a bowl (to discard the onion & celery).
3. *Pour back the sauce into the pot and put on a low heat. 
4. Dissolve the flour in the water before adding into the pot and stir.
5. Add the oyster sauce, tomato sauce and few drops of soy sauce (for colouring).
6. *Add salt & pepper to taste.

*Notes: 
1. taste first before adding the salt as the oyster sauce & the chicken stock is already salty.
2. If prefer to add butter, melt the butter in the pot before pouring the sauce into it. (in step3)

Serve the mashed potato with the gravy and it's yummy! I can say, more or less like the kfc version;)


Saturday, 17 March 2012

Gabungan tradisional dan moden di Souq Waqif



Souq Waqif (سوق واقف) is literally translated to "the standing market", a very popular place among locals and expatriates. This place dates back at least a hundred years and has been recently restored back to its original glory. As for me, it's kind of a unique 'souq' (market) as we can see a mix of traditional and modern character in it. We love to go there, sometimes just for dining. We enjoy strolling along the shops and dining in an open air during winter when the weather is cooler. There are dozens of good restaurants serving cuisines from all over the world and it is also famous for shisha lounges.

In Souq Waqif, we can find almost everything from clothes, handicraft items, spices, pets, jewellery, perfumes and souvenirs.  There are also shops selling 'ihram' clothing and other  essential materials for those who wish to perform Hajj / umrah. We like to buy dried nuts (I mean pistachios, almond, walnuts, etc). There's also a money changer which offer reasonable rates for those who'd like to exchange the currencies.

During holiday seasons, it sometimes hosts mini concerts and also some other art events at night. It's indeed very cheerful and lively nights. It's a 'must-visit' place for tourist while in Doha!! I'll definitely take my family and friends to Souq Waqif when they come to Doha :)


Let's scroll some of the pics taken in Souq Waqif...

a shop selling shisha pipes
@one of the pet shops
along the handicraft shops
Restaurants 
Yummy Haagen Dazs is here too!
Malaysian cuisine - famous nasi lemak, nasi goreng and satay 
rows of clothes shops

Officers on horses
Street show - Avatar theme

one of the art shows 
art show @ night
shop selling traditional rugs


Sunday, 26 February 2012

Menyelusuri seni Islam silam


Going to museum? Yawn! Well, it might be boring to some people but not us, I mean me. When we were about to leave the house to the Museum of Islamic Art, my son asked me: "Why museum??" Sigh.




When I entered the building, my first impression was Wow! 
I love its masterpiece architectural and peaceful ambiance. 





~Among the displayed items~

This pen box from Spain was beautifully crafted from Ivory and brass, dated 1003-1004 AD.
 i.e. more than 1000 years ago and it's still in an excellent condition!!
Impressive!

These are quadrants from 13-14th Century.

Compass and ruler from 19th century

Gold coins of no particular order:
Muayyad dinar, Tremissis (third dinar), Abbasid dinar, Fatimid dinar and Ottoman findiq.
It was ancient ago!!

Hunting horn from Italy dated 11-12th century.

Ramayana text from India since 16th century.

Steel armour for the rider and horse from Turkey dated late 15 century.

And actually lots more of magnificent artworks collection from the different regions of the world (Turkey, North Africa, Middle east, Iran, Iraq, Europe, Far east, China, India, etc.) dating as early as 7th century. The (studied) physical evidence somehow provides useful information to the modern generation of the early Islamic civilisation, the Islamic world history, their inventions, technology, the diversify culture and creativity. 

For more information, please visit this website:
http://www.mia.org.qa

Sunday, 19 February 2012

Singing Dune

Dune Adventure ~ 17 Feb 2012

Last Friday, my family and I went for dune adventures in Al-Kharrara. The place is called Singing Dunes as ones can hear the natural sound phenomenon produced by the movement of the sand, triggered by wind passing over the dune. 

That was the first time we went there, being lone ranger and just guided by the gps. It was like a 'redah' trip. Approaching Al-Kharrara, we saw the dunes from a far but we didn't really know how to get there. Luckily, there was this one 4WD vehicle coming from there. So we followed the same trail towards the dunes. It was an open rocky area with the trail of the vehicle tyres. We went around the nearest and biggest dune and found out quite a number of cars parking with some of family members were having picnic and barbecue. The children were having fun, going up and sliding down the dune. There were also few vehicles coming from the other direction, arrived the spot about the same time as us. The weather was just nice with bright sunshine. It was not too hot and not too cold even it was windy. 

Excitedly, we parked our car along and began to climb the dune. The other new arrivals joined the climbing, including a couple of middle age folks. At first I thought it was easy but it took a lot of energy and it needs a good stamina to climb the sand dune. I was panting huhu... Being on top of it was priceless! Going down the dune was relatively easy. Being down, we were watching this one 4WD going up and down the dune. Wow, it was impressive! It was then we heard a loud, eerie 'humming' sound from the dune. It was surprisingly loud which at first I thought it was coming from the aircraft engine or something and it lasted for only few minutes. Well it was actually the 'Singing Dune' :)

My son was so eager running up the dune

Bergolek-golek siap

The boys were on top of dune
We relaxed a while, feeling so good and captured the pics around.
Pic of the middle age couples were relaxing on top of dune.
Magnificent view from the top
The view of parked cars from the top. 
The children were having fun sliding down the dune

4WD dune adventure


Thursday, 16 February 2012

Organise- dressing table

I'm still looking for the suitable cases or holders for my my skincare items and 'you-name-it' stuffs on my dressing table. There are some more on the other side of the dressing table and some are hidden in the drawers:p I found a basket from Zara Home and toss the skincare bottles and tubes in it. I'm using the bathroom toothbrush holder set to hold the brushes, eye liners, etc. 



When googled, I found there are actually variety cases available in the market.

1. Wooden case
2. Acrylic case




I fancy this shoe ring holder :)

from website: elegancebyelena.com

I've yet to find the ones suitable for my dressing table stuffs and also for the rings...