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!

Vietnamese Spring Rolls & Nuoc Cham Sauce

NUOC CHAM sauce:

Crush together:

• 1 garlic
• 2 chilies
• 1/2 cup of fish sauce
• 4 lemon juice
• 4 limes
• 5 shallots – blend with water

Instruction: Mix everything and keep it in jar.

VIETNAMESE SPRING ROLLS

Ingredients:

• Basil
• Baked crunched peanuts
• Shredded crunchy vegetables (cabbage, white radish, carrots, etc)
• Sauteed peeled shrimps (optional. If you’re a vegan, just skip it)
• Banh Trang (rice wrapper)
• Warm water, put it in a big bowl with the same diameter with Banh Trang.
• Damp cloth

Instructions:

1. Mix everything with splash of the dipping sauce
2. Spread the damp cloth (this is where you will roll up)
3. Dip the Banh Trang to the warm water (don’t go too long. Just dip make sure it’s all covered, then pick it up and put it on the damp cloth)
4. Put the shrimp at the front, and mix veggies behind it
5. Roll it.

Best way to eat it? Dip it in the Nuoc Cham sauce. That easy? Yes. That easy.

 

Easy Recipe: Vegan Black Pepper Tempe & Tofu

Hello! This recipe is not twisted from any recipes. It is based on my original Black Pepper Beef recipe (yes yes…next time, meat eaters!), but I twisted it for my BF that decided to join the plant-based lifestyle. So instead of using beef, I use Tempe and tofu (a rich source of protein from soy). I also took out the oyster sauce but use everything else.

MAYBE, not a real vegan dish too (I’m being undecided) since I was using 8gr of brown sugar. But…some vegans still consider the brown sugar vegan. So…forgive me. I’m not an expert at this.

So yeah! I made it for my BF, and he called it “the last supper”. Why? I got a new job! Whoohoo!! But, my office will be about 20Km from home and in Jakarta, it is a pain in the arse to commute that far on weekdays. So I decided to rent a room nearby the office. But he said for the last supper he wants this menu as if I work in another country. Hahahaha… silly him.

Alright! Now let’s go to the recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

• 250 gr tempe
• 250 gr firm tofu
• Coconut oil to fry
• 1/2 big red bell pepper
• 1/2 big green bell pepper
• 1 medium onion
• 1 garlic clove
• A dash of Sea salt
• 1 cup of water

  Marinating Sauce:

• 3 tbsp black sweet soy sauce
• 3 tbsp tomato ketchup
• 8 gr (1 stick) brown sugar
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine/ Rice wine (substitute: Pale Dry Sherry)
• 3 tsp crushed black pepper

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Fry the tempe and tofu half done. As long as you can already see the outer part is firmed, considered it’s done.
2. While you’re frying the tempe and tofu, mix all of your marinating sauce ingredients in a big bowl
3. Ground onion and garlic with a little bit of coconut oil using a food processor or mini chopper until it forms like paste.
4. Prepare the bell pepper as you like.
5. Transfer the fried tempe and tofu to the marinating sauce.
6. In the pan, saute the ground onion and garlic until you can smell a piece of heaven in your kitchen, then put the marinated tempe and tofu along with the sauce and mixed them all. Stir it until you can see some of the sauce is caramelized, then pour the water.
7. The sauce is easily thickened by the ground onion and garlic so you don’t need to add flour/ corn starch to thicken it.
8. Then simmer the sauce to your preference, then 5 minutes before you’re done, add the bell peppers, mixed it, and cover with a lid and let them simmer further for 5 minutes.

THAT’S IT. It won’t take you more than 30 minutes to prepare this dish (including washing your dishes!).

He LOVED this dish, and even more today. Go on and try, then tell me how it goes!

The Best and Easiest Chicken Gravy Recipe

So, today I’m feeling a bit like an adventurer. I wanna make chicken gravy from the scratch based on ingredients I love and think are the best pair for chicken. So I decided NOT to take a look at any recipes and just go with my guts. It turned out AMAZING!

No. I’m not the only person who said it, by the way. Both my bf and his best buddy said it too. Then I decided to write down the recipe now before my limited memory decided to archive it to the place I would never be able to retrieve. (yeah, I’m THAT bad. hihihi)

This gravy is best made using homemade chicken stock (I promise I will give you the recipe as soon as I make it this week), and chicken fat that was dripped of your roasted chicken. But of course, you can just replace every cup of chicken stock with 1 chicken bullion cube and 250 ml (1 cup) of water, then double the butter to replace the chicken fat. (BUT, I really recommend the chicken fat drips!).

Here are the INGREDIENTS:

• 1 tbsp butter (you can use salted or unsalted butter. Just remember to adjust the salt)
• 1 yellow onion
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tbsp cumin (a lot? yes, that’s because I love it. But you can adjust it to your taste. Start with 2 tsp at least)
• 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp chicken fat drips (or replace it with butter)
• 2 cups of chicken stock (or 2 chicken bouillon cube + 500 ml water)
• Black pepper
• Salt

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Start with 1 tbsp butter in a pan using just medium flame, and add the thinly sliced yellow onion right after the butter is melted.
2. Once the onion starts to look transparent, add in the thinly sliced garlic. Keep turning them until caramelized.
3. Once it’s beginning to be caramelized, add dried thyme and cumin and keep turning them around 2 minutes.
4. Add in all-purpose flour and mix it with the onion and the garlic and after they’re mixed, pour the chicken fat (or extra butter) in and turn it for 1 minute, then pour in the chicken stock (or water with the chicken bouillon cube).
5. Shimmer it on small flame to thicken to about 1 cup (Since you need to strain it later, take a wild guess that after it’s strained, it’ll be 1 cup)
6. Season it with salt and pepper, taste it, and after you’re happy with it, leave it there for 2 extra minutes before straining it.
7. Now all you need to do is just straining the gravy and prepare to receive praises with grace!

What can you do with the gravy? Well, pour it on a chicken sandwich for breakfast, or on your mashed potato at lunch and on your roasted chicken for dinner! You can even pour it on your pasta! Use your wild imagination! Be crazy about it JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN! Make more of it because this recipe is only made for 1 cup of gravy!

Lemme know how it goes! If you twist this, let me know how you twist it and I promise I will give it a try!

An Easy Meat Soup Recipe!

I think I’ve told you already about my “Lazy Keto” eating style? Yeah. I happen to LOVE every fatty things this world offers. I don’t like sweet food and not really enjoy carb. In Indonesia, we normally eat white rice. But I don’t like it. I LOVE egg noodle tho. So the only challenge for me in getting into Keto style is to say goodbye to egg noodle. Pfftt…

Well anyway, my love to fat makes me cherish this soup very much. Not only it’s easy and practical, but also it’s so yummy! This time, I’m not twisting anybody’s recipe (Boooooo….!!!!!). I just love every ingredients in this recipe and I just decided to add them all. How about that? hihi…

You need pressure cooker if you want it to be fast. But if you don’t have it around, well, just add everything in the pot and shimmer it over small flame for 2 – 3 hours (until the meat is tender).

These are the only ingredients you need:

 

Exactly that!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 tbsp of coconut oil/ unsalted butter
• 1 big yellow onion
• 1 red tomato
• 4 – 5 garlic cloves
• 2 stalks of celery
• sea salt (I use 1 Tbsp)
• white pepper
• 500 gr of beef brisket (I choose the most fatty ones!)
• Boiled water (double the water over the mix of veggies and brisket. If you see in your pressure cooker the height of the mix is 5 cm, then make sure the water goes to 10 cm. Take a wild guess!)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Heat up the coconut oil in the pressure cooker pot over medium flame
2. Add in Onion, then garlic, then tomato and then celery stalks. Fry it until you can smell a piece of heaven in your kitchen (I like to get a little char on the veggies. Somehow it creates better taste). While you’re waiting for the veggies ready, you can boil the water.
    
   

   
3. Then throw in the brisket, and sear it. Then, add the boiled water, and put on the pressure cooker lid, and crank up the high flame.
4. It’ll be done 25 minutes after the first sizzle.
5. (This one is optional) Take out all of the veggies and leave only the tender brisket and move it to a medium pot. Taste and adjust the sea salt and white pepper to your liking. Then it’s done!

This recipe makes 3 meal portions for me.

You can add in carrots, cabbage, or potatoes after this step. But I like it this way. Even tho my bf doesn’t like fatty food, he always devours the broth and happily drink it. He will take around half the broth and then add in potato, carrot, barley, glass noodle or whatever he likes. You can do that too!