I tried…

Sometime ago, I got these from my friend, Victor…

*Archive photo*

…and I liked the crispy prawn chili on the right. There was a lot of oil in it though so I had to pour that away the moment I opened the jar. Of course, it is all gone now – I had it with anything that I felt was compatible, even our local Foochow kompia and chu nu miang. I am not all that fond of the other one, the sambal with shrimps as I feel it has that smell that one would find in those canned sambal ikan bilis and the like, even though the smell is not as strong.

I did try using it to fry rice in the morning and it turned out quite good and that day, I used it again to fry this…

– fried rice with ikan bilis (dried anchovies), the sambal with shrimps and petai (stinky beans)…

It was basically my very simple kampung fried rice, more or less. I just fried some ikan bilis, chopped garlic and sliced shallots in a bit of oil till all were golden brown before adding a spoonful or two of the sambal with shrimps and the rice and mixed everything together well. Finally, I added the petai and egg. You may want to add salt (and msg), if you are thus inclined and prawns would probably bring the taste top a whole new level but I was fine with it just like that. It probably would be nicer with freshly-pounded udang kering (dried prawns) sambal but this was less of a hassle and it was good enough for me plus I am sure my neighbours would not be too happy to be rudely awakened by all that pounding at 5 or 6.00 a.m. in the morning.

Moving on from my fried rice, when my girl came home last weekend (not this weekend), she wanted to make these…

…and she did – her tater tots with sweet potatoes, broccoli, oats, cheese and eggs, baked, and because she bought the purple variety of the tubers, they turned out this colour…

They tasted great – no salt, no msg and no oil either since she baked them in the oven. Of course, like everything else, the mum had them with chili sauce but I enjoyed them on their own, savouring every bit of the lovely ingredients used. I wouldn’t say I was all that fond of the colour but I did enjoy munching them and enjoying the delightful taste. LOL!!!