{"id":15009,"date":"2011-10-03T06:08:30","date_gmt":"2011-10-02T22:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=15009"},"modified":"2011-10-04T14:11:47","modified_gmt":"2011-10-04T06:11:47","slug":"re-entering-the-kitchen-sambal-goreng","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2011\/10\/03\/re-entering-the-kitchen-sambal-goreng\/","title":{"rendered":"Re-entering the Kitchen: Sambal Goreng"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Over here\u00a0in Singapore, we are really spoilt with a wide array of international cuisines. Just look at our very own home-grown multi-racial fare, it is already quite an impressive spread of mouth-watering delights. Take for example the Chinese food here. I could easily enjoy cuisines from various dialect groups such as Teochew, Hainanese and Cantonese.<em><\/em> If I&#8217;m bored with these, I can switch over to Malay or Indian food any time. And there is also the Peranakan food, a fusion of Chinese and Malay cooking, which I can happily divert to.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15027\" title=\"sambal goreng 1 blog\" src=\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/sambal-goreng-1-blog.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/sambal-goreng-1-blog.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/sambal-goreng-1-blog-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>One of my favourite Malay dishes is sambal goreng (meaning: chilli stir-fry something).\u00a0 Surely the name doesn&#8217;t lift an eyebrow but oh the flavours! This is a protein- and calcium-packed powerhouse,\u00a0not to mention the\u00a0telling\u00a0fire-power from chilli itself. Below is a glimpse of the nutritional value of the main ingredients (by bulk)\u00a0of this dish:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Long beans<\/strong>: a vegetable rich in protein and calcium<\/p>\n<p><strong>Firm tofu <\/strong>(&#8216;tau\u00a0kua&#8217;): coagulated soy milk rich in protein and calcium &#8211; yep<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tempeh<\/strong> (fermented whole soy beans into cake form):\u00a0fermented soy product rich in protein and calcium &#8211; need I say more?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fresh prawns<\/strong>: seafood rich in protein, selenium, vitamin D and low in calories &#8211; raise your hands if you already like this dish!<\/p>\n<p>Just the other day, I decided to pluck up some courage to ask the <em>mak cik* <\/em>selling Malay rice dishes at my workplace for her sambal goreng recipe. And she so generously did. Thank you, <em>mak cik!<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Recipe for Sambal Goreng<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ingredients:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>red chilli \u2013 1 big, deseeded if you wish to reduce spiciness<\/li>\n<li>onion \u2013 1 big, peeled and\u00a0quartered<\/li>\n<li>garlic \u2013 2 cloves, peeled<\/li>\n<li>lemon grass \u2013 1 stalk,\u00a0cut off the very bottom bit and top part\u00a0leaving 7-8 cm of the bottom\u00a0portion.\u00a0Peel away any\u00a0outer layer that is dirty. Chop into 2-3 parts.<\/li>\n<li>belacan \u2013\u00a01\/4 tsp<\/li>\n<li>tomato paste \/ sauce \u2013 1 tbsp<\/li>\n<li>sugar \u2013 \u00be tbsp<\/li>\n<li>salt \u2013 \u00bd tsp<\/li>\n<li>long beans \u2013 4 stalks, cut into 1-inch lengths<\/li>\n<li>prawns \u2013 6 medium, shelled and deveined, each divided into 3 chunks<\/li>\n<li>firm tofu (tau kua) \u2013 1 block, cut into\u00a01-cm cubes (buy freshly made ones at any wet market or Sheng Siong if you can)<\/li>\n<li>tempeh \u2013 1 piece, cut into small cubes<\/li>\n<li>vegetable oil<\/li>\n<li>water<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Method:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Blend the first 4 ingredients with some water to form a chilli paste.<\/p>\n<p>2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Heat up some vegetable oil in a heated non-stick pan and fry tofu and tempeh cubes. Stir\u00a0every now and then\u00a0to ensure all the sides of the cubes are lightly fried. Remove from pan and set aside.<\/p>\n<p>3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Add 1 tbsp oil and stir fry the chilli paste until fragrant. Add belacan, tomato paste, sugar and salt and stir to combine well.<\/p>\n<p>4)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Add long beans and stir fry in the chilli paste until cooked. You might want to add\u00a0some water to aid in the cooking of beans. The water will evaporate after a while.<\/p>\n<p>5)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Add prawns, the fried tofu and tempeh cubes to the long beans and stir to combine well. Once the prawns are cooked, dish up and serve with steamed white rice. <em>Sedap**<\/em>!<\/p>\n<p><em>*A respectful way of addressing an elder woman in Malay, just like the way we call any\u00a0elder woman as &#8216;auntie&#8217; here.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>**Delicious in Malay.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over here\u00a0in Singapore, we are really spoilt with a wide array of international cuisines. Just look at our very own home-grown multi-racial fare, it is already quite an impressive spread of mouth-watering delights. Take for example the Chinese food here.<\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-read-more\"><a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2011\/10\/03\/re-entering-the-kitchen-sambal-goreng\/\">Read More<span class=\"cleanwp-sr-only\">  Re-entering the Kitchen: Sambal Goreng<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-home","category-recipes","wpcat-6-id","wpcat-14-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15009\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}