Pickled Egg, I called it Pink Egg

 Out of curiosity I decided to make this British delicacy, which I heard it's popular pub snack in England.
It's pretty easy to understand why. In a simple word, delicious!
Especially, with its pretty color like this, any girl can easily tempted to eat it, right? :)
By the way, remember pickle beet I made the other day?
So, the brining/juice from the pickle beet is what making this egg looks pretty, and girly. Imagine if the color is blue, or black, I probably lose my appetite. Wouldn't you?

Pickled Eggs
recipe adapted from The Mile End

6 large eggs

2 - 21/2 cups juice of pickle beets

Washed eggs under cold running water, then boil until they are cooked, about 8 minutes. Remove from the heat, refrigerate until cool completely. Peel the egg and place them in a sterile glass jar. Pour pickle beet juice liquid into the jar, refrigerate for 3 days. Remove eggs from the pickling juice into a bowl, cover, refrigerate for another 3 days. I actually only refrigerated for 1 day, it was pretty good already. I think next time I will wait for another 3 days before consuming it. I bet it tastes more pickley.

Pickle Beets

Apologize for being absent for too long, sometimes, what happening day to day in our life can really get in a way, and leave no time for thing like blogging :). No, nothing bad happening with me, I am still healthy though a bit chubbier since I ate quite a bit since my mum and sister were here.  Now that they are all left, I think I can manage to start posting a recipe or two in my blog.

Early spring last year, I harvested quite a bit of beet roots from my vegetable garden. I only pulled them out as much as I needed, so I had just enough to cook for that day. I thought about pickling them, but the process of making it seems a little bit intimidating.

In search of an easier recipe (and less intimidating process), I settled on a recipe I found in  this book. The book is not about pickling at all, but it has a few recipes for pickles, including pickle beets, and pickle eggs which I have been meaning of making it for quite sometimes. But, in order to make pickle eggs, first, I have to make pickle beets. It is why I post this pickle beets today. Anyway, the recipe for both pickles are quite easy to follow. Please come back next week, if you would like to see the recipe for pickle eggs.

Pickle Beets

Recipe adapted from Mile's Ends

For vegetable pickling brine:

3/4 cup + 2 tbs Diamond Crystal kosher salt*

10 tablespoons sugar

3 cups + 4 cups water

3 cups cider vinegar*

3¾ cups distilled white vinegar

For pickle beets:

2 pounds red beets, peeled and quarter

2 teaspoons whole all spice berries

2 fresh bay leaves

6 sprigs thymes

2 teaspoon black peppercorns

In a large non reactive pot, combine salt, sugar and 3 cups of water. Set the pot over medium heat, stir from time to time until sugar and salt are completely disolved and the liquid is clear. Stir in the rest of ingredients, remove from the heat, and let it cool completely.

Arrange beets in a non reactive pan, add whole spice berries, bay leaves, thymes, and black peppercorns. Pour pickling brine just enough to cover the ingredients. Bring to simmer until the beets are tender, about 30 to 45 minutes. Remove from the heat, cool completely. Once cooled, pack the pickle into sterile jar, cover, refrigerate overnight before using. This pickle can be store in the refrigerator up to six months.

Nasi Campur, or Indonesian Rijsttafel. A simpler Version of Indonesian fragrant rice with side dishes.

I have been meaning to make this dish for quite sometimes, but the thought of making so many dishes was always put me off. When I told my mom who is currently visiting us how much I miss this dish, she told me she wouldn't mind to make it for me. So, we both worked in the kitchen, and made a much more simpler Nasi Campur ( Indonesian Rijsttafel).

Nasi campur basically means mix rice with side dishes. What kind of side dishes you put into this dish is really up to you. Every house hold will have different style, every restaurants and small cafes have their own as well. No standard recipe required, but I notice that the dish always includes, meat or poultry dish, boiled egg, fried noodle, and some kind of vegetable stew.

Here are the recipe that my mom and I made for this dish:
Nasi gurih (fragrant rice)
Mee Goreng (stir fried egg noodle)
Be Siap Mesisit (Balinese shredded chicken)
Gulai Nenas (Pineapple curry)
Kare Lobak (Daikon radish curry)
Kacang goreng (fried peanut)
Sambal Bajak (Javanese Pirate's spicy sambal)
and, fried peanuts

For nasi gurih (fragrant rice):
2 cups jasmine rice
1 cup coconut milk
1 dried galangal (use fresh if available)

2 stalks fresh lemongrass
2 salam leaves (Indonesian bay leaves)
1 tsp salt

Heat a steamer over high heat until water is rolling boil.

Wash rice in several changing water until the water is clear and no longer cloudy. Drain, add coconut milk, galangal, lemongrass, salam leaves, and salt. Cook on a medium heat, stirring from time to time until coconut milk evaporated. Transfer the rice into steamer, steam until the rice is cooked, about 20 to 30 minutes.

Mi Goreng (fried noodle):
4½ oz dry egg noodle
1 small onion, sliced
2 carrots, peeled - sliced
2 celery, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
7 white peppercorns, grind to powder
pinch of nutmeg
1/2 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)
1/2 tbs fish sauce
5 scallions (green onion), cut into 1-inch
2 red chili, seeded - sliced
2 tbs vegetable, or vegetable oil
2 tsp sesame oil

Cook egg noodle according to package direction, rinse under cold running water - drained. Place it into a bowl, add 2 teaspoon sesame oil, mix well, set aside.

Heat 2 tablespoons vegetable  oil in a large wok set over medium high heat. add onion, fry for a few seconds, add carrots, and celery, continue to fry few more seconds. Add noodle, and the rest of ingredients. Stir fry for 3 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

Marbled egg (telur pindang):
4 eggs
red onion skin from 1red onion
shallot skin from 2 - 3 shallots
1 black tea bag
2 Indonesian bay leaves
1 stalks lemongrass
1 piece dried galangal
salt, to taste

Place egg and the rest of ingredients in a small sauce pan. Add enough water to cover them. Bring to gentle boil for about 10 - 12  minutes. remove the eggs, crack the skin lightly, then return them to the pan. Continue to cook for another 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from the pan, and cool completely.

Be Siap Mesisit. Balinese Spicy shredded chicken
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 large shallots
5 cloves garlic
2 kaffir lime leaves
1 tbs ground coriander
3 red Fresno chili peppers
2 red Thai chilies
1tsp dry roasted shrimp paste
1 Roma tomato
1 tbs fish sauce
2 tbs vegetable oil (or coconut oil if you have. It will taste so delicious)
salt, if needed

Steam chicken breast until cooked. Cooled - shredded. Set aside.

In a food processor add shallots, garlic, kaffir lime leaves, ground coriander, Fresno and Thai chili peppers, dry roasted shrimp paste, and roma tomatoes. Process until smooth.

In a wok, heat vegetable oil until hot. Add the paste, stir fry for a few second until fragrant. Add shredded chicken, and fish sauce. Continue to stir fry for a minute or two. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

Gulai Nenas (Indonesian Pineapple Curry)
1 medium size pineapple
2 tbs finely chopped shallots
2 tsp chopped garlic
2 red chili pepper
1 tsp chopped fresh turmeric (or, use 1/2 tsp turmeric powder)
chopped lemon grass
1 tsp cumin
2 candle nuts (substitute with 5 cashew nut if unavailable)
1 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup water
1 tsp sugar
3 kaffir lime leaves
1 tbs fish sauce
2 tbs vegetable oil
salt, as needed

Peel, core, and cut pineapple into chunks. Rinse under cold running water, drain.

In a food processor, add shallots, garlic, red pepper, turmeric, lemongrass, cumin, and candle nuts. Process to make a smooth paste. Add water if necessary to keep blade running.

Heat oil in a pan set over medium heat. Add spice paste, fry until fragrant. Add pineapple, stir for a few seconds. And coconut milk, water, sugar, kaffir lime leaves, and fish sauce, bring to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat to low, simmer for 5 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

Kare Lobak (Daikon Radish Curry)
4 - 5 cups (cut into matchsticks) Korean daikon
2 large shallots, roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp coriander powder
2 fresno pepper
1 tbs freshly grated ginger
1 lemongrass, white part only - sliced
3 kaffir lime leaves
2 tbs vegetable oil
1 tbs fish sauce
salt

In a food processor add shallots, garlic, fresno pepper, ginger, and lemongrass. Process to make a smooth paste. Add water if necessary to keep blade running. Scrape the paste into a medium size pan set over medium heat stove, add 2 tablespoon vegetable oil, turmeric and coriander powder, fry until fragrant. Add daikon, kaffir lime leaves, and 2 cups of water, stir to mix. Cook until daikon is slightly soft, add coconut milk. Turn the heat to low, continue to cook for another 5 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

  If you like, you can also add fried peanuts to this dish. I used Spanish peanuts as they are sweeter and tastier. I fried the peanuts with a few garlic cloves just to add some flavor to it.

Sambal Bajak (Javanese Sweet and Spicy sambal)

2 shallots, roughly chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

15 red Thai chiles, for less spicy use about 5 Fresno chilies

2 large red ripe tomatoes, quartered

3 tablespoon canola oil

2 tsp Indonesian dry roasted shrimp paste

1 tbs Javanese gula merah (palm sugar)

salt

Heat 2 tablespoon oil in a skillet set over medium heat, add shallots, garlic, chillies, and tomatoes. Fry until shallots and garlic are a little bit light brown. Add shrimp paste, continue to fry for another 5 seconds. Remove from the heat and let it cool a little. Once cooled, transfer to mortal and pestle, add the Javanese palm sugar and salt.  Pound until smooth. If you don't have mortar and pestle, you can use food processor and process until smooth. Scrape sambal paste back into skillet, add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil, and fry over low heat for another 2-3 minutes, or until the sambal is slightly thicken.