Sambal Belacan Okra

Sambal belacan is very popular among the asian. Sambal belacan is a blend of hot peppers and roasted shrimp paste. I am so lucky to easily find a good quality belacan (shrimp paste) at the asian store. The belacan was made in Penang, Malaysia. A friend of mine gave me some of her homegrown okra (kacang bendi in bahasa melayu) today. I like to eat the okra simply by blanching them in hot water for a while and then tossed them with some spices.

For today, I cooked sambal belacan as the dipping sauce for this okra.

Ingredients for sambal belacan:
2 medium tomatoes
1 tablespoon of really hot chili paste(I am using a blend of red hot chili, onion, garlic, ginger and lemongrass)
3 tablespoons of apple sauce
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon belacan (roasted shrimp paste)
1 tablespoon olive oil

Method:
Cook okra (whole)either by steaming or blanching in hot water. Toss and set aside.
Cut tomato into halve and then slice them thinly. Set aside.
In a medium pot, heat olive oil.
Fry the hot chili paste and shrimp paste.
Make sure you open all of the kitchen windows and turn on your kitchen fan as the smell of this roasted belacan is overwhelmingly strong.
Add apple sauce and salt.
I am adding apple sauce to tone down the hotness of the chili paste I have blended.
Add tomatoes.
Stir and taste. Cook for just 5 minutes.
Turn off the stove and serve over the cooked okra.
Superb! Delicious!

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Red Beet Pickled Egg

I grow a lot of beets this year. For this red beet pickled egg, I sliced about 4 small red beets. In a big pot, boil 1 cup white vinegar and 1 cup water. Dissolve 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Let the vinegar cool. Pour the vinegar into the jar with peeled hard boiled egg and beets. Store the jar in the fridge.

After one day, I cut open 1 egg and I was lucky to get double yolk in one egg.
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Deviled Eggs

Today is a Veteran's day. I spent my time off at the doctor's office. It was not fun driving to her office in the cold and windy day. The leaves on the tree are turning orange and yellow and most of them are already on the ground. I was tempted to go shopping after the doctor's visit, but the cold weather make me turning my car around and heading home.

I received a speacial order for dinner today. Honey suddenly care for some deviled eggs. Thanksgiving is 2 weeks away and I guess he cannot wait for some deviled egg. I don't think I have ever cook deviled eggs before. My in laws usually prepare them for thanksgiving or christmas. Since honey loves mustard, I make sure this deviled eggs has mustard.

Ingredients:
6 hard boiled eggs
1/2 tablespoon yellow mustard
1 tablespoon creamy ranch salad dressing
2 tablespoons mayonaise
a crush of sea salt and black pepper
paprika for garnish

Method:
Peel the eggs.
Cut the egg into half on lengthwise.
Remove the yolk into a bowl.
Add yellow mustard, mayonaise, salad dressing, salt and ground black pepper to the egg yolk.
Mix until smooth.
Using a piping bag, pipe the mixture into the white egg.
Garnish with paprika.
Chill in the refrigerator for an hour before serving.

This deviled eggs turned out great. I am glad honey like it.
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Salad with Spicy Peanut Sauce

The weather is warmer today. The temperature is around 45 degree F. I took the adavantage by going out to the Asian store and bought some Asian vegetables. For today's salad, I am using a long string beans, jicama, beans sprout, and okra. You can use any vegetables that you fancy. This selection is typical to the asian dish. Some might add fried tofu, hard boiled eggs or boiled potato.

I blanched the vegetables except for the jicama.
To blanch the vegetables, boil some water.
Wash the vegetables and cut it into bite size.
Blanch each vegetable separately and you can use the same boiled water.
Let the vegetable sit in the hot water for about a minute.
Then toss it and set aside.
Do the same to the other vegetables.
Okra might need more than a minute to get it nice and soft.

Ingredients for the spicy peanut sauce:
3 cups nuts ( I am using honey roasted peanuts, pistachio, and mixed nuts)
2 tablespoon sambal mix (hot pepper, onion, garlic, ginger and lemongrass)
1 tablespoon sweet soy sauce
1 cup coconut milk
2 cups water
2 tablespoon olive oil to fry the sambal mix.
1 teaspoon salt

Method:
In a big pot, heat olive oil.
Add the sambal mix.
Add sweet soy sauce.
Mash nuts.
Add into the mixture.
Stir.
Add water.
Add coconut milk.
Add salt to taste.

To serve, take some vegetables on the plate. Then drizzle some of the peanut sauce on it.
Delicious!

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How to pickle hot peppers

I bought a big bag of hot peppers and was thinking of making a pickle out of it. I asked my good friend Gertrude for her recipe since I have never done this before. She gave me some guideline and so here is my recipe put out to the test.
I read somewhere that I should use Teflon pot or anything that is not metal. The metal from the pot will react with the vinegar and create cloudy mix. Teflon pot will prevent this from happening. I am used to mix vinegar with sugar for my cucumber and pineapple salad. So for this plain hot peppers pickle, I am using the same format except this time I followed Gertrude method that is to cook the vinegar first.

Panko Breaded Okra

While at Gertrude's, we went to the farmer's market. I bought a bag of okra. Okra is my favorite. I like to eat okra that is fried, or in asam laksa, in curry, steam and serve with some hot and spicy sambal, in gumbo(if uncut), etc.
For tonight dinner, since I was heating the oil to fry honey's panko breaded whiting, I took the advantage to fry the okra.
This is a simple step to coat bread crumbs to the okra. Firstly, I wash the okra and then cut both ends. If you cut first and then wash, you will get all that slimy thing all over the okra.

Then I coat the okra with the dry spices. As usual I am using the zatarain fish fry dry spices. Put the dry mix in a zip loc plastic bag and shake them with the okra.

In a bowl, mix 2 egg with 1/2 cup of milk.
Add some flavor like ground black pepper and tiny bit of salt. As for me, I am using the roasted garlic and peppercorn spices. It smells so good.
Mix well.

In another bowl, pour the panko bread crumbs.

Roll okra in the egg bath.

Then dump it into the panko bread crumbs.

Fry on medium low heat until golden brown in a shallow frying pan.
Serve this crunchy and tasty breaded okra with some potato salad and fried fish. Yummy!

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Seaweed Salad

No recipe for today but I want to share one of my favorite salad. A while back when I was having dinner with my sister at a sushi restaurant, we had seaweed salad as our appetizer. It was my first time eating a seaweed salad. I like the mild tangy and chewy yet crunchy salad.

I was at Giant the other day shopped for some fresh fish. While waiting for my porgies to be cleaned, I saw a tray of seaweed salad. I was so happy yet a little bit nervous if the taste is not going to be as I expected. I thought of asking for sample but I don't want to spoil my stomach at that time. The price was a bit high, $8 per lb. I braved myself and asked for half a pound.

As soon as I got home, I quickly have a bite of this Giant fresh made seaweed salad. Oh Yes, this Giant seaweed salad taste better than the one I had at the sushi restaurant. Luckily honey does not like sesame seeds so all of this seaweed salad is mine. :-)


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