Crispy Fried Pork Hock With Chilli Caramel, Steam Rice And Spicy Thai Salad

We went for a casual dinner at our good friend's house one day, he made this sinfully delicious caramelized pork, served with equally delicious, fragrant (thanks to lots lots of fresh lemongrass and herbs), sweet and tangy cucumber salad. Another meal that quite memorable among his friends, including me, and it is also the second most frequently ask dish, after his famous crab curry. I must warned you if you are planning to make it, the cooking is slow and long, so many steps and process, it practically takes two days in the  making, but the end result is really rewarding. Tempted? The recipe can be found here. Thank you dear, you know who you are :)

Quick Stir-Fry Tofu With Bean Sprouts and Green Beans

Everybody knows that tofu is pretty bland on its own, but when combine with other ingredients can make a delightful and light side dish. If you want this dish to be completely vegetarian, omit the fish sauce. Serve as is, or as side dish to accompany plain steam jasmine rice. Serving size varies from 4 to 6 people, but it all depends on your family.

Ingredients:

3 cloves garlic, peeled - crushed with the back of the knife

5 - 10 whole dried red chili pepper, optional

6 oz green beans, cut into 2 inches long

1 slice, about ¼-inch thick fresh galangga

1 stalk lemongrass, white part only - bruised lightly

2 - 3 kaffir lime leaves

1 red bell pepper, seeded - sliced

a bunch (about 5 - 7) scallions, cut into 1-inch long

12 oz lightly fried tofu

16 oz mung bean sprouts, rinsed - drained

salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
1 tablespoon fish sauce

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Set a large wok, or a large shallow pan over medium high heat, when it is hot enough, add vegetable oil, wait until the oil is a little bit smoky, add garlic to the wok, saute for about 5 to 10 seconds or until the garlic is fragrant, then add dried chilies, fry for another 5 seconds, just enough to char the chilies, being careful not to burn them. Add green bean, galangga, lemongrass, kaffir limes, saute for 2 to 3 minutes. Add bell pepper, scallions and tofu, stir to mix, saute for 1 minutes just enough to soften the bell pepper. Lastly add tofu and the bean sprouts, season with salt , white pepper, and fish sauce. Taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking. Transfer to a large serving dish, serve at once.

Japanese Beef Curry, Not Too Spicy and Highly Addictive

I was thrilled when I saw a video of Mark making this curry, so I decided to give it a try. For the first time I conjured up the most delicious homemade Japanese curry. I used beef shanks for this recipe, but like what he said, you can use any type of meat, poultry, or you can even turn this curry into a completely vegetarian meal. I also cooked the roux a little longer, resulting a much darker curry. One little obstacle was that I had trouble of finding tonkatsu sauce, I did find a bottle of katsu sauce, which I am not entirely sure what the different between tonkatsu and katsu. The recipe only need 1 tablespoon of this sauce, that leave me with a whole bottle of katsu sauce, I don't even know what I am going to use it for. I better e-mail him and ask for advice what to cook next with this sauce. Thank you to Mark for sharing the recipe, and show us how to make the authentic Japanese curry.

For Joanne, and her regional recipe hope she will like it !

Ethiopian Chicken Stew

I always like to make any kind of spice-paste in a big batch, including this berbere spice paste. I keep it in an airtight jar, then store it in my refrigerator. It will keep up to a month as long as you put enough oil to cover the paste. The spice-paste is quite versatile, another reason why I like it, I can just add a tablespoon or two of this spice-paste to any kind of my favorite meat and vegetables, voila it become a quick and instance meal ready to serve for for dinner during busy week schedule.

2 (3 lbs total) cornish hen, cut into pieces

1 small onion, diced

1 cup diced Roma tomatoes

3 cloves garlic, sliced

3 tbs or more (depending on your taste) berbere spice-paste

1 tbs vegetable oil

½ cup unsalted chicken stock, or water

salt and pepper, to taste

• Fry the onion until soft over medium heat, at garlic, fry another minute. Add the chicken pieces into the pan, along with tomatoes, berbere spice-paste, and chicken stock or water, season with salt and pepper. Stir to mix the ingredients, continue to cook until it starts to boil, then turn the heat to low. Cook for about 40 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked thoroughly, and the liquid is reduced and thicken slightly. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Serve with flat bread, pita bread, rice, or couscous.

Sambusak With lamb Filling

For this Sambusak, I used pastry dough recipe that I found from Martha Stewart website. I was pretty satisfied with the result, it was buttery, crumbly, a little bit crunchy from the addition of semolina flour. I also found out that there are many different variety of sambusak. Some, using pastry dough like what I have here, and some using some kind of pizza or bread dough. You can also put some cheese filling if you wish, but, I like mine with meat or poultry. Sambusak With lamb Filling ~elra~ I forgot to count how many sambusak yield for this recipe, it was a lot, probably about 25 to 30 sambusak. 1 recipe for sambusak pastry dough 1 lb ground lamb 1 onion, diced 2 tsp cumin 1 tsp ginger 1 tbs olive oil salt and pepper handful of pine nuts, lightly toasted 1 egg yolk 1 tbs milk sesame seeds Prepare the pastry as directed in the recipe. Set aside. Fry the onion until browned, add the lamb, cumin , and ginger. Cook for about 10 to 15 minutes, season with salt and pepper. Set aside to cool, then mix in the pine nuts. Preheat oven to 350F. Roll out the pastry to about ¹⁄₈-inch thick, then cut into 3 inches circle. Fill the middle of each circle with 1 to 2 tbs lamb, fold the pastry to enclose the filling, press the edges and form into a half moon shape. Arrange on a baking sheet. Make the egg wash: mix the yolk and milk in small bowl. Brush sambusak with eggwash, sprinkle the top of each sambusak with sesame seeds. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, or until golden brown. note: I didn't have any pine nuts at the time I made this sambusak, but I include it in the recipe because it really give a nice texture and more delicious flavor.

Pineapple Fried Rice

Quick and easy to prepare, delicious and perfect for a light lunch. I love the addition of pineapple, it really give a little bit sweet and tangy.

4 cups cooked Jasmine rice (make sure that the rice is cold), see note.
2 large shallots, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minched
½ to 1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp ginger powder (ground ginger)
2 stalks lemongrass, white part only-lightly bruised
1 cup fresh pineapple chunks
1 tbs fish sauce

¼ tsp freshly ground white pepper
pinch of salt, if necessary
vegetable oil

• Fry shallot in vegetable oil until caramelized a little, add garlic, chili powder, turmeric, ginger, lemongrass, and the fresh pineapple chunks, saute for one minute. Add the cold rice, fish sauce, and ground white pepper, stir continuously for 5 to 10 minutes until the rice is really really hot hot. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Serve immediately.

Note:

if you have leftover rice, store the rice in a ziplock bag and refrigerate. When you are ready to make fried rice, take it out from refrigerator, then crumble the rice (without opening the bag) until the kernel is separate. It is much easier this way, then try to break them in a wok with the spoon.

L'shanah Tovah

Photo courtesy of my son AD

Red Snapper Wrapped in Banana Leaves With Balinese Spice Paste (Be Pesan)

The banana leaves add unique and fragrant flavor to this Balinese style fish, if you don't know where Bali is, check here. You probably think it is a spicy dish, it is only appear that way, the bumbu is pretty mild, but being me, I like to add whole, or chili slices to it. When you add whole chili as a garnish, the result won't be spicy at all, only if you bite to it, then you'll be in trouble. The most common way to make this fish is to steam it, then grilled quickly over hot glowing charcoal. Since I don't really have steamer large enough to accommodate the fish, I bake them in the oven, then lightly grilled. You can use steamer if you wish, also you can omit the grilling process as well.

Red Snapper Wrapped In Banana Leaves (Be Pesan)

~elra~

2 whole (about 3 pounds) red snapper

lime juice from 1 lime

3 large shallots

5 cloves garlic

2 tbs roughly chopped ginger

1 tbs coriander seeds

5 candlenuts, roughly chopped

2 tomatoes, chopped

2 stalks lemongrass, white part only, chopped

1 tsp toasted shrimp paste

2 tbs oil, just enough for frying the paste

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 tsp kencur powder (zedoary powder)

10 fresh kaffir lime leaves

1 or 2 slices fresh galangga (about ¼ inch thick)

salt

1/2 tbs fish sauce

banana leaves

1 or 2 whole mild green chilies, for each fish (optional)

bamboo tooth picks

Clean - gutted, then rinse the fish under cold running water, pat dry with paper towel. Cut a few slashes on both side, then lay them on a ceramic dish, drizzle both sides with lime juice. Cover with plastic, let sit in the refrigerator while you are making the bumbu (spice paste)

Place shallots, garlic, chopped ginger, coriander seeds, chopped candlenuts, chopped tomatoes, chopped lemongrass, and toasted shrimp paste in to a food processor, process into smooth spice paste or bumbu. Fry with oil over medium heat, add turmeric powder, kencur powder, kaffir lime leaves and fresh galangga, fry until it releases its fragrance, about 3 to 5 minutes. Season with salt and fish sauce. Stir and fry for a few second more. Take it out from the heat, cool completely.

Preheat oven to 375⁰F.

Lay 2 layers of banana leaves on a kitchen counter top, spread a little bit of bumbu, then place one fish on top, spread another bumbu directly on the fish, lay a whole green chilies or chili slices if using. Wrap and secure both end with tooth picks. Do the same process with the other fish. Transfer the wrapped fishes on the baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, or until both fish are done. If you wish, you can grill them still wrapped over hot glowing charcoal, or on your gas grill over medium high for about 3 minutes on each side. Serve with steam rice and simple saute vegetable, fresh lemon basil and tomato sambal if you wish.

Vegetables and Tofu Curry, Javanese Style (Sayur Lodeh)

When I was in college, my sister and stayed in a rented house with a bunch of other students from many different islands in Indonesia. The house had communal large kitchen with several stoves in it. Don't even imagine a stove like what we have now days, it was one of those kerosine stove ha ... ha ... ha. They might still use this kind of stove in the remote villages, not sure though, because most my family in Bali has portable propane stove (look like these), when the propane tank empty, you either call the store to deliver or just go and buy it your self. That's quite an upgrade huh?. Anyway, we took turn to cook, always got excited to taste food from other island. One thing that was very often appearing at the kitchen table was this "sayur lodeh". Sayur means vegetable, but I had no idea what lodeh means. In Java, they called this dish "Jangan Lodeh", Jangan simply means vegetable. Each household has their own version of this dish, for most, tempeh and tofu are almost always included, along with eggplant and Chinese longbean. Carrots and zucchini are never used to make this dish. Of course there is no rule on how to make it, basically you can add any kind of your favorite vegetables. If you have Chinese or Japanese eggplant, you can just simply add it to the recipe. Note that I put 5 red jalapeno in this recipe, please don't worry, the dish won't be spicy. But, you really need to take out the seeds and the white membrane that the seeds attach to it. Just make sure that no trace of the white membrane still visible. The pepper will give the curry more delicious red looking without the spiciness, and making it more appetizing. Vegetables and Tofu Curry, Javanese Style (Sayur Lodeh) 3 cups Chinese long bean, or green bean 3 large carrots, sliced 2 large zucchinis, sliced 4 cubed (1 package) lightly fried tofu, cubed * 2 large shallots 4 cloves garlic 5 red jalapeno, seeded and discard the white membranes 5 ripe roma tomato, chopped 2 stalks fresh lemongrass, white part only, chopped 3 whole kemiri nuts, chopped 1 tsp dry-toasted shrimp paste 1 slice (about ¼ inch thick) galangga, lightly bruised 2 tbs vegetable oil 2 cup coconut milk ½ cup water, optional (depending how thick you want your curry) 2 tbs fish sauce 1 tsp salt, optional Using a food processor make a smooth spice paste by grinding together the shallots, garlic, jalapeno, tomatoes, lemongrass, kemiri nuts, and toasted shrimp paste. Transfer to a large pot, add the galangga, and vegetable oil, fry on a medium heat for 3 minutes or until the raw smell disappear. Add the Chinese long bean, and the carrots, cook until the carrots are softer a litlle. Add the zucchinis and the tofu, stir well. Pour in the coconut milk, water if using, fish sauce, turn the heat to low. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes until all vegetable are soft to your liking. Taste and add more salt if needed. Serve with simple steam Jasmine rice. * Available in Asian market, otherwise you can use regular tofu that available widely in most supermarket.