Rujak Serut - Indonesian Shredded Fruit Salad

The perfect little salad for summer. Ultra refreshing, very appetizing, full of textures and flavors. I love this as an appetizer, side dish, snack or even dessert. Making this does require quite a bit of work shredding the fruits, but the result's totally worth it.

The fruits

These super cute and adorable rose apples. I love the bit of crunch and spongy texture, its sweetness with a bit of tang, and its adorable shade of pink!


These green mangoes have deep yellow interior. The texture's firmer than the yellow ripe mango, it's very fragrant, it almost has coconutty/floral scent, and it is very sweet. I pretty much gnaw on the thin and small seed to clean up the part of the flesh which I could not shred. The cook's prerogative!


Jicama is a must in many Indonesian fruit salads. It gives the combo a nice crunch, with fresh yet earthy flavor.

I've also used fresh ripe pineapple, which I didn't photograph because I am forgetful. But I am sure everyone has seen pineapples before. Golden deliciousness!

Peel and shred all the fruit into matchsticks (except the rose apples, simple remove the core and chop away). I just used half a jicama, 1 mango, 2 rose apples and half a pineapple.

The combination of fruits is not fixed. Feel free to use anything which are available in your area.

The palm sugar dressing

The majority of the dressing is palm sugar, for its deep, sweet, coconutty, almost caramel-ish flavor; then salt to balance the sweetness; tamarind paste and lime for the sourness; a touch of shrimp paste for that extra savory umami-ness; and bird's eye chillies for the hot slap on the face.

I didn't exactly measure when I made the dressing, I started with a few chunks of palm sugar pieces, a tsp of sea salt, a tiny drop of shrimp paste, 1 tsp tamarind paste, 1 chilli, juice of 1 lime and a bit of hot water. I mix them together and keep adjusting the flavors to achieve the perfect balance of everything. The paste would be thick in the beginning, you can dissolve it by adding more hot water until you reach a thin-ish syrupy consistency (I should be killed for my very unclear "description", I know) and keep adjusting the flavors as you're thinning the dressing.

This is the kind of salad that needs quite a bit of dressing. All the fruits should be able to get just submerged in the dressing to let all the flavors marry.

Pour dressing over all the shredded fruits and refrigerate. The already multi-faceted flavors of the dressing will be combined with all the different juices from the fruits, you can imagine how complex it is, but yet...perfectly balanced. Just before serving, squeeze a bit of lime juice for that final punch.


Serve cold, of you can even add ice. If you wish, top with a bit of roasted nuts for more crunch.

Enjoy...and happy Friday!

Steamed Chicken in Shrimp Sauce

Oh no. I might be addicted to shrimp sauce.
It makes every single stupid simple thing taste so bloody delicious it's just unbelievable.
This one's just an easy and simple steamed chicken dish, which would be as boring as my weekdays without that magical touch of shrimp paste, which some of you might think is stinky.
Opps.
I love stinky.
It's like a perfume to me.

Recipe
- 2 boneless chicken thigh fillet, skin removed, cut into bite sized chunks
- a sprig of scallion, chopped
- 1 or 2 pieces of red chilli, chopped
- 2 tsp shrimp sauce (I used Lee Kum Kee)
- pepper, sugar, oil, 1 tsp corn starch
Mix chicken meat with shrimp sauce, pepper, a bit of sugar, a bit of oil and corn starch, marinate for at least 15 minutes if you have time (the longer the better). Before serving, steam for 10 minutes or until the chicken chunks are thoroughly cooked. Serve with warm steamed rice.

Stinky delicious.
I meant fragrant.

Ugliest Food Photo Ever - NSFW - Shrimp Paste Roast Duck - Bebek Panggang "Terasi"

Warning! Offensive food photo!
Don't look if you're anti ugly food photo!

What is it with me and posting bird's ass pictures?
My apologies. I should've posted pictures of the duck after it's been carved, perfectly styled on pretty little plates with steamy rice, gorgeous placemats, cutleries, condiments, etc.

But...
...apparently, I DON'T KNOW HOW TO CARVE A DUCK!
...and I am LAZY!

So, I literally ripped the duck apart before I figured out how to get the duck breast meat off its bones using a knife.

Oppps.

Ugly and all...it was delicious AND super easy to make ;)

Recipe
- 1 whole duck (hmmm, medium size?) or you can use fillet, or your can use chicken (whole or thigh fillet, preferably with skin)
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 cm ginger, crushed
- 2 cloves shallot, halved
- salt, pepper, sugar, shrimp paste (I used Lee Kum Kee)

Preheat oven to 180C, clean your bird, place some salt, sugar, shrimp paste and pepper into a small bowl. Rub your bird all over with the shrimp paste, salt, sugar, and pepper combo. Be generous, we want flavors! Remember to rub the inside of the bird. Now stuff the garlic, ginger and shallot up the bird's ass and seal the bird's ass shut with satay skewer. Place the bird in a roasting tray, cover with aluminium foil and roast covered for 1.5-2 hrs. Crank up the heat to 250C, take the bird out, uncover, baste the bird with more shrimp paste and put the bird back in, roast until golden brown, flip once.

Perfect with rice and some chilli paste.

Now...to compensate the ugliness, here's something that I think is rather pretty...

Happy Monday, y'all~!

Shrimp Paste Fried Rice - This Ruined My Diet & Indo Food Styling

I should really be on diet...

...trying to lose baby weight and all...

But what a carb-loving girl to do when faced by a huge plate of delicious shrimp paste fried rice? It's carb-tastic! There was a huge wok of this fried rice, and if I went all the way, I think I could really finish the whole wok myself.

But I know I shouldn't, so I just ate half a wok ^_^'

If you grew up in Indonesia, you gotta remember the typical Indonesian food styling, especially for fried rice, which is "to arrange everything in circular order". I asked my helper to put the fried rice onto a plate and I told her that I was gonna take pictures of it.

She went all out.

See? Even the chicken frank pieces and chillies are arranged into circles.

Ahhhh...it makes me miss home.

Recipe
- 3 cups of rice, ideally left in the fridge overnight (you can obviously make less, we're just greedy)
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 3 cloves of shallot, sliced thinly
- red and green chillies, chopped (adjust according to your heat tolerance)
- 3 chicken franks, sliced (you can replace this with any meat or seafood or skip it altogether)
- 3 eggs, beaten, fried and sliced (or you can mix the eggs into the fried rice instead of cooking them separately)

- shrimp paste (I used Lee Kum Kee), fish sauce, sugar, white pepper, oil

Saute garlic, shallot and chillies in hot oil until fragrant, add chicken franks, add shrimp paste (use sparingly, add bit by bit as it is a bit salty), add rice, season with a bit of fish sauce, a bit of sugar and white pepper, mix well, add sliced fried eggs, serve hot.

I wonder if pumping more milk could compensate this carb-madness afternoon?

Grilled Shrimp Paste Chicken Wings

What do new moms do?
Waltzing around with her super adorable, smiley, cooing baby?
Dressing her cute baby up in cute outfits?
Shopping for more cute baby outfits?
Having high-tea or dim sum with other moms with cute, smiley baby in tow?
Cooking delicious, elaborate, complex and elegantly presented dishes while baby is gazing adoringly, quietly from his/her crib?

I wish.

Most of my days as a new mom involve these fun activities:
Bottle feed baby.
Try to make baby finish his bottle of milk.
Burp baby.
Clean baby.
Groom baby.
Try to stimulate baby to ensure that he develops well, i.e. playing (thanks for making "playing" sound so-not-fun).

Try to stop baby from crying.

Check diaper.
Try to figure out why baby wouldn't stop crying.
Pump breast milk for baby's next meal.
Try to stop baby from crying.

Check diaper.

Try to figure our why baby wouldn't stop crying.

Clean baby.

Change diaper.

Try to play with baby.

Try to stop baby from crying.

Bottle feed baby.

Try to figure out why baby wouldn't stop crying...

...and so on ^_^'

So...elaborate, complex dishes?
Thanks, but no thanks.

Here's one of my latest super duper easy dish.

Recipe

- Chicken wings (as many as you want)
- Shrimp paste (I use Lee Kum Kee)
- Sugar, white pepper, olive oil

Marinate chicken wings in shrimp paste, sugar, white pepper and a bit of oil (I poked chicken wings with a fork to let the marinate penetrate the wings) in a refrigerator for at least half an hour, the longer the better (ideally overnight). Preheat oven to 200C, grill chicken wings until golden brown.

Lip smacking and super easy.

Ideal for new moms, who generally need to stop in the middle of meals trying to figure out why the baby wouldn't stop crying.

But when my baby smiles, it just makes my day like nothing else does.

Ohhh....how sweet and sentimental....

I blame my hormones.

Spicy Lamb & Shrimp Paste Fusili

Oh my goodness. It's been a while since I've made pasta, I wonder if I could still pull it off. Those who normally read my blog know that I don't do things authentically, nor innovatively. I just do things my lazy way. There were times when I put 2 + 2 = 100, and there were times when I put 2 + 2 = -100, to put it simply, they didn't work. This time, I wanted some Asian flavors on my pasta, so I tried mixing lamb and shrimp paste. Let's see how it goes.

Don't you feel that when you've stopped doing something for too long, when you do it again, it feels kinda weird and you have to start getting a hang of it all over again? (Nooooo I am not talking about THAT. Hehe)

That's how I felt about cooking pasta. Suddenly, I didn't know how to tell if the pasta's cooked just right, I added too much shrimp paste (boy, it's powerful) and had to adjust and adjust. A lot of work, I was glad it ended up great. A tad too tasty, but it worked for me.

Spicy Lamb and Shrimp Paste Fusili

Recipe
(serves 4)
- 1 cup of fusili
- 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 6 cloves of shallot, thinly sliced
- 3 red chillis, chopped
- a bunch of fresh corriander, chopped
- 0.7 lb lamb, sliced thinly, sukiyaki style
- 2 tsp shrimp paste
- 1 tsp sugar
- pepper, olive oil, water, salt

Cook pasta as directed in the packet, drain. Saute garlic, shallot, chilli and a bit of corriander in olive oil, add sliced lamb, add shrimp paste and sugar, cook through, add pasta, mix well, serve with freshly chopped corriander.

There's something else I haven't done for really really long time...submitting a pasta dish to one of my favorite foodblog events, Presto Pasta Nights. I miss it dearly. This one's for you, guys. This week's it's hosted by lovely Pam from Sidewalk Shoes. Hop over to her blog to check out the roundup.

Now...there's still another thing I haven't done for a very long time...I wonder if I'd still be good at it. Let's see. ;)