Ramadan Special Part 1: Celebrity Chef Ili Sulaiman presents 3 Quick & Easy Recipes for Sahur

Everybody loves Ili Sulaiman. She’s the bubbly, down-to-earth and very approachable chef of the Asian Food Network’s Home Cooked: Malaysia and Family Feast with Ili. You might even have seen her cooking “Live” on Facebook yesterday (May 9) doing the Iftar Cooking Show for The Curve, Mutiara Damansara.

If you have missed all of that ─ don’t worry, you’ve got Ili Sulaiman right here on Motherhood.com.my, whipping up three very Malaysian, very easy to cook Sahur dishes to fill you up before you start your fast.

That’s not all. Ili doesnt just stop at Sahur. Watch this space for more of her dishes ─ Recipes for Iftar (complete with Rendang, oh yes!) made just perfect for Buka Puasa.

Before we Dive into the Food, Here is a Little Bit about Ili

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[dropcap letter=”I”]li is of Chinese, English, Malay and Sri Lankan descent. Because of the diversity of her background, her tastebuds and her cooking styles reflect exactly that. Ili’s speciality lies in condensing all of her legacy and distilling it down to a plate sized wonder, packed full of flavour and presented to you with her breezy, inimitable flair.

With every dish inspired by her heritage – Ili landed her first cooking show called Diary Mangkuk Tingkat Bersama Ili which aired on Astro February 2015. With a burst of new found followers and her desire to share her cooking knowledge she decided to submit her video to Asian Food Channel and Food Network Asia’s “Food Hero Competition” and to her amazement won one of the two spots to be Asia’s Food Hero 2015.

Since then she has had many shows on the Network such as Taste Of Home: Malaysia and Taste of Home in the kitchen series and By The Sea with Ili. She has also since completed two heritage driven shows called Belanga Kacukan for RTM and Jelajah Rasa Nusantara for Astro Prima. Both series touch on heritage, culture and the origins of local delicacies.

Ili also often plays host and co hosts with international food celebrities such as Roger Mooking (Man, Fire, Food), Chef Anna Olson (Bake with Anna Olson), Nicholas Tse and David Rocco (East Vs West).

Now, without further ado ─ lets get down to Ili’s 3 Quick & Easy Recipes for Sahur .

Sup Ekor or Oxtail Soup

Here is an all-time Malaysian favourite to nourish the body on any day, especially during Ramadan. Clean, hearty and spicy, the trick is to cook it the night before. The next morning, all you’ll have to do is to heat it up just in time for Sahur! Ili says it’ll be even easier if you cook it using a rice cooker. Make sure the ingredients are chopped in large chunks before you cook it so that it will keep its shape and size after cooking it for 2 hours.

• Creator : dishbyili
• Prep Time: 15 Minutes
• Cook Time: 2 Hours
• Total Time: 2 Hours 15 Minutes
• Yield: 4

Ingredients

• 1kg Ox Tail
• 6 x shallots
• 1cm ginger
• 4 x cloves garlic
• 1 star anise
• 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
• 1 x cinamon stick
• 1 teaspoon Fennel seeds
• 1 x celery stick
• black pepper corns
• salt
• ground black pepper
• 1 x carrot
• 2 x potatoes
• 1 litre water
• 1/4 cup chopped spring onions
• 1/4 cup corriander leaves

Garnish

• 3 x bird eye chili
• 4 x table spoon sweet soy sauce

Instructions

1. In a bowl, pat dry ox tails and sprinkle salt and pepper and coat
2. In a pot, add in a dash of oil and brown the ox tails on all sides set aside for later
3. In the same pot, add in shallots, sliced ginger, garlic along with all spices and fry until fragrant for at least 3 to 4 minutes
4. Then add in chopped up celery sticks and fry for a couple more minutes before adding 1 litre of water, a sprinkle of salt
5. Slowly add in the ox tail and cover the lid and let that simmer on a medium to low heat for at least 30 minutes
6. After 30 minutes, add in chopped up carrots and potatoes and cook for another 10 minutes until potatoes and carrots are tender and the oxtail falls off the bone. serve into a bowl, sprinkle with chopped up spring onion and coriander leaves
7. In a small bowl, cut up birds eye chili and add in sweet soy sauce to drizzle onto the oxtail soup for a spicy kick

Tip:

Cooking the oxtail long enough will get you to achieve really tender meat that falls off the bone. So good!

Apam Balik

Don’t we miss eating Apam Balik! A great breakfast for sure and it’s gluten free too! Not only is this so yummy, it’s also super healthy because it uses all natural sugars only.

• Creator: dishbyili
• Prep Time: 5 Minutes
• Cook Time: 5 Minutes
• Total Time: 10 Minutes
• Yield: 4-6

Ingredients

• 1.5 Cups of Rice Flour
• 1/2 Cup of Corn Flour
• 1 Teaspoon of Baking Powder
• 1 Teaspoon of Salt
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Packet of Coconut Milk (about 250ml)
• 1/4 Cup of Vegetable Oil
• 10 Dates, Seeds Removed and soaked in 1.5 Cups of Hot Water for 1 Hour
• 1/2 Cup of Ground Peanuts, Toasted and Crushed

Instructions

1. Toast the ground peanuts over low fire until they’re evenly golden brown. Take out place it into a small blender and blend until smooth.
2. Then in another blender, pour in the dates and it’s water and blitz to a fine pulp to create the date syrup.
3. In a bowl, add in the rice flour, corn flour, salt, and baking powder.
4. In another bowl, add in the coconut milk, eggs, oil and mix until even.
5. Then pour in the coconut mixture into the flour mixture and mix well. Add in the date syrup and mix.
6. In a hot pan, add in about 1/2 cup of batter. Sprinkle over some of the crushed peanuts. When it starts to bubble on top, fold it over and put aside. Continue until all the batter is used up.
7. Serve immediately.

Tomato Rice

Tomato Rice is another all-favourite Malaysian dish ─ full of body and flavour and easy to whip up when you’re short on time. Pair it with Ayam Masak Merah in Part 2 of Ili’s Ramadan’s dishes. It’s so good, you can eat it on its own.

• Creator: dishbyili
• Prep Time: 10 Minutes
• Cook Time: 20 Minutes
• Total Time: 30 Minutes

Ingredients

• 1 cup of Long Grained Rice, Soaked in Water
• 2 Medium Sized Tomatoes, Chopped
• 1 Tablespoon of Tomato Paste
• 1cm of Ginger and 2 Cloves of Garlic, Ground to a paste
• 2 Onions, Finely Chopped
• 1/2 Teaspoon of Turmeric Powder
• 1 Teaspoon of Brown Mustard Seeds
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons of Coriander Seeds
• 1 Teaspoon of Fenugreek Seeds
• 2 Bay Leaves
• 4 Dry Red Chillies , Cut into 3 and Deseeded
• 2 Tablespoons of Ghee
• Salt To Taste

Garnish

• Spring onions and sliced shallots

Instructions

1. In heavy bottom pot,  heat up the ghee up, add the spices (mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds and coriander seeds) and fry them for a few minutes.
2. Add in the sliced onions, dried chillies along with the garlic and ginger paste and fry until brown before adding turmeric powder and bay leaves.
3. Once the onions are brown, add the chopped tomatoes to it and tomato paste. Mix well before adding the drained washed rice with salt and mix well
4. Add in 1.5 cup water and stir before  covering and leaving the rice to cook over medium-low heat for 30 minutes or until rice is cooked.
5. Once cooked, garnish with fried shallots and chopped spring onions

Tip:

Ili says add more dried chilli to this if you want it spicier. But even without the added hotness,  the rice is already amazing!

All recipes and images by Dish By Ili 

If you’d like to find out more about Ili Sulaiman, do visit her Facebook fan page or go to Instagram by @DishByIli + @ilisulaiman.

Stay tuned for the next set of Ramadan dishes  ─ Recipes for Iftar by Ili Sulaiman ─ by checking back at Motherhood.com.my.