Nina Ninot is quietly back.
EVERYDAY TREATS: TEMBOSA
Egg
Tepung Bawang / Aru-aru
Tepung Bawang / Aru-aru
Egg may sound the simplest but we have added a kick of onions and chillies.
Also, it is our modest offering of a vegetarian option; but with apologies, not for vegans.
Tepung Bawang / Aru-aru
Tepung Bawang / Aru-aru
Tepung Bawang / Aru-aru
Tepung bawang / aru-aru: The Aunties referred to this one as "tepung bawang," while it is aru-aru for the rest of us. It seemed to be the original, no-frills version but to us, it beats them all.
Sweet potato + lemongrass + shrimp + coconut milk = scrumptious tembosas.
Spunky Sardine
Tepung Bawang / Aru-aru
Curried Chicken
Jazzed up in true Nina Ninot fashion, this is surely spunky,
Sardines, onions and chillies galore.
Curried Chicken
Curried Chicken
Curried Chicken
So many family members have an aversion to chicken, with vague reasons and roots. So, we decided to boost the filling with Aussie carrots.
Filling includes: chopped chicken, potatoes, carrots.
Curried Beef
Curried Chicken
Curried Beef
This tembosa is widely available. Dare we say that in ours, you can taste the meat and the potatoes are there to enhance the taste and not to bulk up the filling?
Filling: minced beef, potatoes.
Xxx
Curried Chicken
Curried Beef
To Be Announced
Thrilling Treats
Beef Briyani Mini-Tembosa
This filling follows a traditional family recipe, where the flavour is closer to the briyani taste than the curried beef filling. With more complex ingredients and a nutty boost, it makes for a more sophisticated but delicate minced beef filling.
Its shape is small and round, resulting in a more dainty tembosa.
Gugus Nina Ninot
This Johorian specialty is a
savoury snack, whereas in other states, it
tends to be sweet.
Glutinous rice is steeped in
coconut milk, then steamed. It is flattened, in small portions,
to add a filling of prawns, dried shrimps, cooked ahead with
lemongrass, dried chillies and coconut milk.
Then, it is rolled in banana leaf for grilling - all tedious work - but if yummy, why not?
Personally, the effort behind these puts me off but it's still a family fave.
Gugus Choo
A second gugus version is available:
Gugus Choo
Much milder, Gugus Choo is suitable for people, who shun chillies but love pulut. Choo's version of gugus is quiet and subtle; rather like our late aunt herself.
The main difference in Choo's filling is that fresh chillies are used instead of dried chillies; more fresh than dried prawns; plus, other ingredient quantities are less.
Choo was our late aunt, the punctilious one, youngest sister of my mum. She was actually the only one who was formally trained in home economics but barely hands-on in cooking, except for meal preps for Tok Atan @Tok Datuk, way back when.
Oddbits & standbys
Sambal Lumat
Technically a dry sambal, a condiment of dried shrimp base.
Again, long hours and patience are required for this concoction of dried prawns, lemongrass, dried chillies sealed in with cooking oil and sugar.
For many, this is Malay food in your suitcase when you travel.
With rice, plain rice porridge, fried rice or just buttered toast - a sure cure for homesickness.
Sambal Lumat Gift
The same sambal lumat. Just some cuter containers, ideal for gifts.
Sambal Lumat should be in the packing lists of
- student studying abroad
- travellers who may crave for home food
- pilgrims
At home, it is the best standby food.
FESTIVE FEASTING
Arissa
It's no secret that Hari Raya is an excuse for a food fest. Nina Ninot joins in a little! Ours arissa is most definitely beef.
We stick faithfully to my mum's recipe. Just as well this is a once-a-year affair, really! If you do not know this dish, leave it at that because it's a lot of effort for something so dreadfully unhealthy.
- Arissa demands:
- Upfront, hours-long spices prep from scratch.
- Cooking on high heat for 2 rounds of 3-4 hour stretches.
- Hot, heavy, constant stirring and splattering.
- Just too much QBB ghee!
Arissa, being a delicacy, and not so easily available, can be considered as a special gift, especially if you're OK with no-frills.
Nina Ninot is a home-cooked no-frills food service.
Nina Ninot offers
- Johor-influenced food
- Home-cooked food
- Ready-to-eat dishes or snacks
- Convenient, no frills, frozen food
- Oddbits, albeit at our whim and fancy
- Delivery (may be chargeable)
Nina Ninot as Gifts
Remember these tiffin carriers?
I remember how they always signified a grub gift from one my Aunts. Given they each had their own specialties, unstacking the tiffin was thrilling indeed!
Plus, Aunts feeding us was a frequent occurrence: their return of favour to my mum for a seat in her car to Singapore, almost every Thursday and Friday. And believe me, Johorians, then, bought everything from the island nation.
So, may we persuade you to follow my Aunts' lead? How about Nina Ninot goodies as grub gifts?
Try: tembosa / gugus / sambal lumat?
To be or not to be food-picky?
- Beef, we use imported halal Australian beef.
- As for chicken, we find many in the family are choosy about it; so we stick to our regular vendors.
- We don't go for those perfect plastic chillies - we favour local chillies, and of course, chilli padi.
- Mutton (goat meat, and not senior sheep) comes from an established supplier or straight from the farm - yes, we have sensitive senses too. We also get it that some just adore lamb and mutton, while others get headaches.
- Many vegetables, used at Nina Ninot, are imported like fresh button mushrooms and carrots from down under - even some basic veg. We find it makes a difference, although our clients don't quite believe us sometimes.
Shortcuts Rock!
At Nina Ninot, we are big fans of shortcuts in and for the kitchen. They are not signs of disrespecting the old ways or people, nor do we neglect customs and traditions. We do it à la Nina Ninot.
- We cook the food and freeze. straightaway for later consumption.
- We have abandoned the batu gileng, although we still have the mortar and pestle. That means we are not into machine shaming!
- If there's a way to shorten cooking time, we do. We call it: proritizing.
- When something can be done easier, that's the option we take aka. smart cooking.
OUR ROOTS
Throwback to Johor
Johor Bahru, Jalan Mesjid Abu Bakar, to be precise, was where all this began for me. The food can be traced back to Tawakal, my grandfather's home. In our family, any major event or discussion seemed to be against the background of food.
My mum was always a stickler for home-cooked food and my sister caught the baking bug
early. I was enthusiastic about eating but not the least bit interested in cooking.
Enter my authoritarian aunts: confident, relentless, no-nonsense cooks. Cooking was no hobby: it was an essential part of daily life. Why wouldn't you cook? When we arrived at an aunt's house, no matter how fleeting the visit was, we were always offered a snack or something and "tembosa" was a great favourite. Their pastry finishings were delicate and perfect. We do not promise such finesse but I feel we do echo the pastry.
For some dishes, we dug up old recipes, did some research and conducted repeated trials to finally arrive at the present Nina Ninot end-product. As for the other dishes, we adapted recipes or created them. Any ideas for a new recipe?