How to make simple fritters

Fritters are very easy to do. There are many types of fritters. In Asia, mainly Malaysia, most famous fritters are known as 'pisang goreng' which means banana fritters. Bananas are split into two and dipped in home made batter and deep fried till golden. Some use carbonated drink such as Sprite or 7up to make the batter more crispy or even use ENO, the fast-acting effervescent fruit salts. Other than banana fritters, we also use sweet potatoes, yam,  anchovies, cempedak (same species as jackfruit but a little smaller and softer in texture) you can deep fry the whole fruit together with its pit. The taste of cempedak pit when boiled with salt  for about 15-20minutes is nutty. Skin must be peeled off before eating them.

Anyway, today, I will share with you a simple recipe for making dried anchovy fritters or locally known as cucur ikan bilis. This is my favourite 'tea- break' / 'high tea' food. Its very easy to prepare and the ingredients are very basic. To me, this is the most easiest and most simple fritters recipe you can get! I would categorize this simple anchovy fritters as salty fritters where it is best served hot and must be accompanied with condiments like chilli or tomato sauce.

How to make a simple dried anchovy fritters recipe / Cucur Ikan Bilis
Ingredients: (Serves 4-6 person)

700grams all purpose flour *you might need more depending on the batter consistency at later stage
350ml water added with a teaspoon of salt *this is just an estimate, you might need more
1 egg
Some red chillies, depending on how hot/spicy you want the fritter to be (cut into small squares)
3-4 small shallots, finely chopped
Dried anchovies (take about half the size of your palm), finely chopped

Method:
1. Heat up wok with enough oil.
2. In a bowl, put in the all purpose flour, then add water. Mix using a spatula or a wooden spoon. Gradually  add enough water to make the batter smooth & a bit sticky.
3. If your batter is still sticky and lumpy, add more mixture of water and salt. Remember how much salt you put in! Might get a salty batter since dried anchovies are salty too.
4. Adding the egg will  make the batter smoother, thicker and a bit runny.
5. Finally, add chopped shallots, chillies and anchovies and mix well.
6. Using a small laddle, scoop the batter and pour in wok slowly.
7. Fry until golden color.

***Please make sure your batter is not too runny as it will break to smaller pieces as soon as you pour the batter into the wok. The batter should be somewhat waffle batter consistency.

***If you happen to add too much water and you have a watery batter, add more flour and don't forget to season.

Serve hot ! Enjoy your simple dried anchovy fritters recipe!

How to cook a simple beef tripe curry

Cooking beef tripe can be tricky. Under cooking the tripe makes it tough to eat. Over cooking it makes it too soft and can be mushy. Here is a recipe for simple beef tripe curry. You start with half a kilogram of beef tripe, thinly sliced about the size of width of your fifth finger. You also need a pestle & mortar to crush/pound the ingredients for this simple beef tripe curry.

Pounded ingredients, tomatoes, onion, star anise and cinnamon stick

Pre-boiled beef tripe

Ingredients:
500g of beef tripe, thinly sliced about the size of your fifth finger, cleaned
Half clove of garlic, skin peeled (**)
3 medium sized shallots, skin peeled (**)
1 inch ginger(**)
Half of 1 big green onion (Bombay onion), thinly sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
250ml coconut milk
1 medium sized tomato, cut into wedges/halves
1 medium sized potato, cut into quarters
2 heaps tablespoon meat curry powder (dissolved in water to make a thick paste)
Salt to season
(**) Pounded together

Method:
1. Clean and slice the beef tripe. Pre boil the sliced beef tripe for about 20minutes. Strain and set aside.

2. Heat up wok with enough oil to stir fry the onions and tomatoes. Add in all the pounded ingredients together with tomatoes, cinnamon stick and star anise.

3. Stir for 1-2 minutes and then add the curry paste. Stir for another minute and add in the tripes.

4. Mix the beef tripe with the curry paste till all the tripes coated with it.

5. Add about half cup or a cup of water, stir and leave it covered for about 5minutes. Add the potatoes.

6. I am making a dry curry, so you can adjust your water input according to your liking. If you want a curry with more gravy, add a  bit more water. Else, you may add the coconut milk now and cook for another 10-15minutes.

7. Season & serve hot with white rice.

Beef Tripe Curry (Dry type)

Windows Explorer has stopped working - Windows Vista

Windows Explorer has stopped working

Problem Signature
Problem Event Name: InPageError
Error Status Code: c000009c
Faulting Media Type: 00000003
OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 46aa
Additional Information 2: 550813108d42c370043e28bb37aac5af
Additional Information 3: d6aa
Additional Information 4: 550813108d42c370043e28bb37aac5af

---

The above problem happened to my Windows Vista OS, for some reasons the Windows Explorer crashed and freezed the system from functioning normally. This happens at Windows start-up and non of the applications are usable including the windows itself and antivirus software. By clicking on "Check online for a solution and restart the program" options will not solve the problem. And furthermore, running on Windows Safe Mode also encounter the same errors message.

Based on Windows 7 forums this could due to the Harddisk failure due to bad sectors or the read/write hardware damaged.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-performance/windows-7-explorer-crash-bug-explorer-has-stopped/06f4ac0c-e486-491e-8861-30903b8791b1 and

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-performance/windows-explorer-has-stopped-working-error-status/52211efb-3368-e011-8dfc-68b599b31bf5?msgId=85f60232-d968-e011-8dfc-68b599b31bf5

However the windows 7 forum discussions are not convincing enough to tell what exactly wrong and what really caused the corrupted Windows Explorer. Before throwing away my harddisk and spend money to buy new one. What I did was;

1. Take out the harddisk and put it on another computer for further diagnose.
2. Run Kaspersky Antivirus scan on the harddisk
3. There is an error from the scan result (thumbcache_idx.db -- processing error) on file located "\appdata\local\microsoft\windows\explorer\thumbcache_idx.db"
4. Navigate to that folder and deleted the file "thumbcache_idx.db"
5. Put the harddisk back to the original computer and turn on. Everything back to normal.

So the conclusion is that the "thumbcache_idx.db" is causing the Windows Explorer to stop working in Windows Vista. However you may need another computer to diagnose the harddisk as all the Windows functionality are locked when this event occurs at windows startup. Or maybe this can be done through Windows Safe Mode in command prompt only to delete the "thumbcace_idx.db" file.

Read more about "thumbcache_idx.db" on wikipedia...http://www.forensicswiki.org/wiki/Vista_thumbcache

Multiples Chrome.exe processes in Windows Task Manager

You might wondering why there are so many Chrome.exe processes on the Windows Task Manager although there is only 1 chrome browser is open. To understand Open Google Chrome browser and click on the toolbar at the top right hand side and click "View Background Pages". You will notice the number of processes there matched exactly the number of processes displayed on the Windows Task Manager. These processes are usually as follows;

1. Chrome browser itself
2. All the Chrome Tab windows - where multiple sites are opened
3. All the Extensions

Opening multiple sites (especially video streaming or with flash ads) and also active extensions that constantly communicate with websites i.e. Skype Toolbar, Kaspersky Toolbar, etc resulting in high usage of memory and caused may caused the computer and browser itself to slow down significantly.

Therefore open only the necessary pages and extensions to prevent lags.

Windows Task Manager with *32 designation

You might wonder why the following processes have *32 signed on it and is it safe or infected by viruses, malware, spyware, worms, or trojans?

chrome.exe *32
DSUpd.exe *32
IAStorIcon.exe *32
jusched.exe *32
Snagit32.exe *32
SnagitEditr.exe *32
SnagPriv.exe *32
STService.exe *32
Toaster.exe *32
TsHelp.exe *32

Based on all the finding made, this is normal. Assuming that you are using 64-bit version of Windows 7 or Vista you will encounter the processes have the *32 designation on the Task Manager processes file because these file are running in 32-bit mode.

For example my Computer Run on Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit have these processes as shown in the image below. This is because in Windows 7 64-bit the programs files are divided into 2 which are;

1. Program Files -- 64-bit version
2. Program Files (x86) -- 32-bit version

The two folders are explained in Windows Community Forum here http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-files/programs-files-vs-program-files-x86/7d631676-e688-472a-a1bb-eefccfeca6d7

Those processes .exe files that are located at the Program Files (x86) are designated by *32. To prove this do right click the file on the Task Manager and click properties, there is an information to show the file location.

Conclusion: This is safe and normal processes for Windows Vista and Windows 7 64-bit version