Tom Yum Goong

I wanted to make this dish since last week. Just realized that I have 1.5 lt of the shrimp broth and I need to make something with it because freezer start to be too full with many kind of stocks. Beef, chicken, shrimp and veggie stocks.

So finally today I made it, but completely forgot to get cilantro and basil. Auch!

So, this one is a twisted Tom Yum, but I LOVE it since I did something really different and this soup became sweet and sour and WITHOUT adding any sugar or sweetener!

Let’s start!

Ingredients:

• 2 cm of ginger, crush it
• 2 cm of galangal, crush it
• 2 lemon grass, crush it
• 3 green tomatoes, quarter it
• 1 red tomato, cut to 8
• Lime leaves
• Big red chilies
• Small red chilies
• Small bird chili
• Shallots (as much as 1 big yellow onion), slice it
• 2 garlic cloves, crush it
• 200 gr of shrimp/ prawn
• 2 big squids, cut it to bite size. DO NOT throw away the squid ink. This is the “sugar replacement”
• Salt
• White pepper
• Lime juice

Instructions:

1. Prep up the shrimp and the squid. Pour in the lime juice, salt and white pepper.
2. Heat up the pot in medium flame, add in oil, and once ready, add in the shallots and the garlic. As usual, the key to whole and deep and sweet flavor is to caramelize the shallots/ onion!
3. Once almost caramelized, add in the lime leaves, ginger, galangal, and lemon grass, continue until you see your onion/ shallots is caramelized.
4. Add in red tomatoes, mix it in for about 1 minute, followed by green tomatoes, and the chilies, and pour the shrimp broth. Wait until it starts bubbling. Then lower the flame and simmer for about 10 mins.
5. Then, add in the shrimp and squid only until the shrimp goes red. (Around 4-5 mins)

That’s it.
Yes, it’s that easy. Spicy, sweet, sour, hot and fresh for the hot day!

Spicy green chili chicken gizzard & liver

I had the inspiration to cook it from a shared post by a friend of mine in Facebook. The recipes were different one to another, but I got the idea.

Then, just based on my taste, I decided to go with my guts. Here it is!

Ingredients:
– 100 gr curly green chilies
– 100 gr large green chilies
– 100 gr bird’s eye chilies
– 10-15 medium shallots
– 5 garlic cloves
– Salt
– Lime leaves
– Bay leaf
– 2 cm ginger
– 2 cm galangal
– 5 pairs of liver & gizzards (around 500 gr)
– 3 small green tomatoes or 1 red tomatoes

Optional: curly lettuce (I’ll tell you why later! 😉)

Instructions:

1. Simmer the liver & gizzards along with 2 cloves of garlic and salt until the gizzard is tender.
2. Do not throw away the water after the gizzard is tender. Instead, put all kind of green chilies and the tomato and boil until they’re soft.
3. Fry the liver and the gizzard (half fried) and then put them aside.
4. While frying the liver and gizzard, slice the shallots and 3 cloves of garlic. Once done frying the liver and gizzard, then saute and caramelize the shallots, garlic, lime leaves, bay leaf, galangal, and ginger.
5. Use the food processor, pulse the chilies and tomato only until they’re “shredded”. Or you can also use the mortar and pestle. I’m lazy. I chosed food processor. Not even a minute!
6. Once the ingredients in your pan are caramelized well, mix in the shredded chili and tomato for about 2 minutes, then add in the liver and gizzard. Just mix them and that’s it. You’re done!

I had an ice cream sandwich earlier in the afternoon. So, to reduce my guilty feeling, I tried to be healthier on my dinner. I was inspired by the Bulgogi that I ate by wrapping it up with the lettuce, so I also wrap it up with the curly lettuce! And guess what? I LOVE IT!

Selat Solo (Javanese Beef Steak)

Ingredients:

– 1 kg tenderloin/ shank
– 20 shallots (more or less)/ 1 big green onion
– 3 garlic cloves
– 3cm ginger
– 2 ghost chillies
– salt
– pepper
– 5 tbsp tomato ketchup
– 2 big fresh tomatoes (dice it)
– 1 big fresh tomato (slice to 6)
– Sweet soy sauce (5 tbsp)
– lettuce
– 4 boiled eggs
– 4 tbsp sweet soy sauce
– a bit of freshly ground nutmeg
– 1 tbsp corn starch

Complements:
– fried potato wedges
– steam/ boiled green beans and carrots
– mayonnaise

Instructions:
1. Marinate the beef with salt and pepper for at least 3 hours
2. Blanche the potato wedges, carrots and green beans in salted water.
3. Put the beef and the veggies in the fridge
4. Grind/ blend shallots/ onion, garlic, ginger and chilies with a bit of coconut oil in the food processor
5. Dice the 2 tomatoes
6. Heat up the pressure cooker on the big flame, pour about 3 tbsp of coconut oil once you can see the smoke, brown the meat on all sides. About 1-2 minutes each side. Put them aside.
7. Start to sautee the shallots-garlic-ginger-chili mix. About 3-4 mins, on a medium flame. Then add in the diced tomatoes, until they go wilted and a bit caramelized.
8. Add salt, pepper, freshly ground nutmeg, sweet soy sauce, tomato ketchup. Stir it up, add the browned meat and boiled eggs.
9. Pour boiled water around 1-1.5 ltrs, crank up the heat and cover the pressure cooker with the lid. Turn the stove off 20 minutes after sizzling.
10. Move the meat and the egg to a big wok, and strain the broth.
11. Simmer it to the consistency that you want (I love the broth so I always leave more than enough broth, and anyway…you need the broth to be the gravy)
12. When it seems enough gravy you have in the wok, then, add the mix of 1 tbsp corn starch with a bit of cold water. This will make the broth turns to gravy consistency.
13. The rest? Just fry the potato wedges, steam/ boil the carrots and green bean. Don’t take too long for boiling them, since crunchy veggie is the key.
14. To serve it, just arrange the egg, lettuce, sliced tomatoes, fried potato wedges, the veggies on the plate and put the meat in the middle. Pour the gravy all over and put 1 tbsp mayo to complete it.

It’s easy. Just too much to do 😁