I did mention in my previous post that in the week-long break, my girl had a few loose ends to tie so she and the mum were out one morning to get something done. Left to my own devices, I decided to cook lunch.
These were the ingredients…
…I pounded – some shallots and garlic, peeled and sliced, kunyit (turmeric), and lengkuas (galangal) and one big chili.
Other than those, I soaked some asam (tamarind) keping to soften, got ready two stalks of serai (lemon grass), ends pounded, and some kunyit leaves, cut into thin strips and of course, the meat (pork – I guess you can use chicken, prawns or whatever else)…
I heated a bit of oil in the wok and fried the pounded ingredients…
…and the serai followed…
Then I added the meat…
…and the asam keping…
…and mixed everything thoroughly before I added some water.
After adding a pinch of salt and a bit of sugar, I simmered till the gravy had thickened and dried up somewhat…
…before adding the kunyit leaves…
…and it was done.
I also fried some kangkong (water spinach) with finely-chopped garlic and some sambal belacan (pounded dried prawn paste with chili) that we had in the fridge and served garnished with fried ikan bilis (dried anchovies)…
The kangkong was very nice, spicy because of the sambal but the meat was rather disappointing as that big chili that I used was not hot at all.
Before I heated it up for dinner, I added a few cili padi (bird’s eye chili), seeds removed and thinly sliced…
…and yes, that certainly helped a lot – it was very nice, after that.
Wanna give it a go?
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 