Ninie Ahmad: Off her yoga mat.

Since you (and I) can’t get enough of Adam Levine,
here’s another yoga rockstar poster for us to sleep on tonight..

Another one for the road..

You had me at Helllllllo – Chair Pose!

The last time I checked (yesterday),

• Aunt Flow was in town
• and my abs still look like this

In case you still didn’t get my practical joke,
there is NO bun in the oven!

Love and (en)lighten up.

The calling is near.

I ALSO WANT A LITTLE GIRL TO PLAY AND SING WITH EVERYDAY!

Give me a couple of years
and I’ll share with you YouTubes of me and my super cute little girl
singing, walking on their hands, French-Canadian-Bugis-Malaysian girl OK?

(Don’t hold your water, I am not even trying to get pregnant yet.)

‘Till I can get my husband to agree with me on having a baby girl (he wants a boy!) as our first..

And this is how I spent my Hari Raya in a country that has never heard of Ketupat .

Rented a beautiful beach house at east of downtown Toronto the whole week we were there..

Went boating..

Inukshuk-making and squirrel watching..

And managed to catch Cirque Du Soleil’s TOTEM! Boy, I thought I was flexible..

I also managed to sneak in h-o-t Dubai
(it was boiling 40 degree Celcius at night! Count your blessings, Malaysia..)
to visit my long lost soulmate who lives in Dubai right now with her husband.

and of course, to stand upside down for a while.

I swear I tried to challenge gravity with the tallest building in the world behind me, ahhhh.. but the Burj is too tall for full-blown inversion or else I could have repeated this seemingly signature pose in front of fancy cities’ landmarks.

Been home and back teaching again at Upward for a couple of day nows but sadly, haven’t had my share of my favourite vegetarian Hari Raya staples (ketupat & burasak, lodeh, lontong, sambal kacang) just yet.

Anybody’s throwing out Hari Raya open house today as we speak?

I have been making batches of nasi lemak (staple Malaysian breakfast with ‘fat rice’ as literal translation) using 90% organic ingredients lately for breakfast or brunch on weekends and so far, it has been a hit with my husband, my family and some lucky friends !

How possible (or impossible) is it to make ‘healthier’ nasi lemak?

Organic ‘Nasi Lemak’

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes (seriously!)
Serves: 2 (or double up the ingredients for 4)

What you need:

• 1 cup of rice (I refuse to use organic brown rice for this just because! )
• 1½ cup of organic full-cream milk (but I used low-fat today as I don’t stock full-cream milk at home). RM14.99 per carton from Cold Storage, Bangsar Shopping Centre
• ½ a can of Waitrose Organic plum tomatoes (you may opt to make tomato sauce from scratch but organic tomatoes cost around RM25 for FOUR!) RM6.99 a can from Cold Storage, Bangsar Shopping Centre.
• 2 tablespoons of organic sesame oil (or may use extra virgin olive oil for alternative. Say big NO to vegetable oil already!)

• 1 tablespoon of no-MSG chili paste
• 1 inch of ginger (I can’t seem to find organic ginger in KL ) – halved and bruised
• ¼ organic Japanese cucumber or organic English telegraph cucumber
• ½ a yellow Australian onion, sliced
• 2 pasteurized eggs (or may opt for organic free-range eggs, you can find them at Village Grocer, Bangsar Village. Con: they cost RM33.90 for TEN!)

• 1 fistful of gluten-free organic groundnuts. RM6.99 a packet and can be found at most bigger grocery stores.
• Filtered water, organic sea salt and organic brown sugar to taste and season
• 1 foot wide banana leaf as base
• 3 strands of pandan leaves

Notes:

- I get most of my organic vegetable supply from Jaya Grocer, Empire Subang
- DO NOT add on tamarind (asam jawa) juice if you are using tomatoes like me to prevent overly-sour ’sambal’
- Unless I have guest(s), I exclude ‘ikan bilis‘ (dried small anchovy) as part of the ’sambal’ (chili sauce) and condiments for personal (and household) preference.

How to prepare:

1. In this order, prepare the rice first as it takes about 20 minutes to boil
   • and then boil the eggs which takes about 10 minutes to boil
   • and frying the nuts and making the sambal can be done in between.
2. Rice:
   • Rinse the rice twice and at third rinse, drain the water and add 1½ cup of milk (rule of thumb to cook rice in electric cooker: 1½ cup of water / liquid for every cup of rice). Sprinkle some grinded sea salt and add the ginger. Using the knotted pandan leaves, stir the rice and set to cook in electric rice cooker (fyi, we have THREE O_o as our wedding gifts)
3. Eggs:
   • Fill the pot with ¾ full of water and carefully place the eggs using a strainer (to prevent premature crack) before the water starts to boil. Add salt to speed up the process.
4. Groundnuts:
   • Using medium heat (7 from 10 on ceramic stovetop), heat up the pan and pour sesame oil (I personally feel sesame oil is best used when frying nutty and fish based sauce, grapeseed oil for low-smoke and olive oil for pasta sauce / dressing). Carefully throw a string of onions to season and fry the groundnuts until its colour turn a hairline darker.
   • Filter the nuts and lay on two layers of kitchen roll for excess oil absorption. Sprinkle some grinded sea salt for seasoning.
5. ‘Sambal’:
   • Using the same pan and oil from frying the nuts, sautee the onion in medium heat (7 from 10 on ceramic stovetop).
   • Carefully add chili paste and stir evenly for one minute.
   • Pour half a can of plum tomato broth onto the sauteed onion and chili paste. Season with a pinch of brown sugar and sea salt. Add two plum tomatoes and crush using your spatula and stir the mixture for a minute.
   • Set heat at low (3 from 10 on ceramic stovetop) and let it season for a couple of minutes before turning the heat off.
6. At this point, switch off heat for the eggs and drain the water. Under tap water, peel its skin and cut into halves or quarters.
7. Using bamboo spatula, stir the rice to even out ‘fat’ from the milk and serve rice in a bowl with banana leaf as a base.
8. Serve rice piping hot.

There we have it – guaranteed heathier, cleaner, MSG-free
and most importantly, made-with-love organic nasi lemak!

Try it this weekend?