Herbed Green Beans

I made these tonight for dinner, a variation on a recipe I found on recipezaar. The original had mustard in it, but my mom can't stand mustard and so I left it out. We got a basket of fresh green beans from the garden, and from my herb garden some garlic chives, parsley, and green onion. It was delicious! I ended up snacking on the leftovers all evening long, whenever I would walk through the kitchen :-)

1 tablespoon of butter
handful of chives, parsley, chopped together
two green onions chopped white and all
approximately 1 pound of fresh green beans
salt and pepper to taste

Boil the green beans in salted water for 6 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water, set aside. In the pot they were just boiled in, melt the butter. Saute the herbs and green onion in the butter just until warm and fragrant. Add salt and pepper. Toss the green beans to coat and reheat. And serve warm.

My Grandmother's Legacy

I grew up getting used to eating animal organs, such as intestines, lungs, and liver. But that's about it. Tongue, brain, hooves, and others, that's where I draw the line, or is it because I was never served those growing up?

It's pretty common to see animal organs cooked in many ways in both Malaysian and Indonesian dishes, but I would say that I see more of animal's internal organs in Indonesian cuisine, most probably because of Indonesia's rich cultural diversity. My father says,

"You can find more good food in Indonesia than Malaysia."

By that he meant more variety. And of course! Because Indonesia is comprised of so many islands, thus many tribes, ethnic variations, cultures and food compared to Malaysia. My father was also born and raised Indonesian, which would explain the indignant loyalty. In some ways, I feel a sense of loyalty to Indonesia too, because I was raised mostly eating Indonesian food, as my grandmother was the main cook for quite a number of years during my childhood.



I have to say I love the texture and chewiness of cow's intestines. Cubed, they are actually the main ingredient of this dish my grandmother would make for occasions like Eid when we held our open house events. I don't think people balked at the prospect of eating cow intestines, for Indonesian food is also now pretty common in Malaysia. For the record, I personally don't like to draw a definite distinct line between Indonesians and Malaysians, because I believe that we're not that different, but when discussing food, cultural differences, (in my humble opinion) have to be discerned, for it adds to the appreciation and knowledge of the discussion.

Soto is a dish mainly comprised of clear thin soup with meat and vegetables, eaten with vermicelli and compressed rice cakes. In Malaysia, Soto Ayam is well known, and is what I remember purchasing for some of my iftars at the evening bazaar in Malaysia while I was in college. There are many kinds of Soto, but Soto Ayam is the only Malaysian Soto I ate in Malaysia. Years back, an Indonesian sister made Soto Betawi, which I still crave now (not knowing how to make it myself). That was my second Indonesian Soto, but I have come to realize that Indonesia is really rich and abundant with many varieties of Soto, most of which sound and look delicious!

I have to admit, I don't know how to prepare animal organs for cooking, and I can just imagine my children's disgusted expressions if I do, seeing that they already feel weak in their knees watching me handle raw chicken. So, in my years of living far away from family, here in the United States, I have substituted cubed beef for the cubed intestines, and the Somali Global Mall's Halal Store, which sells beef cut sukhaar-style makes it even more convenient for me, as I don't have to spend time cubing chunky slabs of meat.


Fill your bowl with some vermicelli and a few rice cakes, and ladle the steaming soup, making sure to get a generous amount of cubed potatoes, carrots and meat. Garnish with fried shallots, and a small but potent dash of hot and spicy kicap sambal (mainly comprising of sliced bird's eye chilli swimming in sweet thick soy sauce and made tangy with lemon juice), and you're good to go.

This remains one of my favorite comfort food.

The measurements below are merely estimates, but the ratio of the meat, potatoes, and carrots to each other should be about the same.

Soto Madura

Beef cut sukhaar (as much as the potatoes and carrots) - boiled in 8 cups of water till fairly tender to your taste (keep the stock)
4 potatoes, peeled and finely cubed and soaked in water
4 carrots, peeled and finely cubed and soaked in water
2 onions cut into chunks
7 cloves of garlic
1 -2 lemongrass stalk, bruised
2 -3 dried asam gelugor
2 bay leaves
3 tsp ground turmeric
2-3 Tbs ground coriander
oil
squirts of lemon juice
5-6 bird's eye chillies
sweet thick soy sauce (llook for Indonesian brands)
vermicelli
Nasi Himpit (compressed rice cakes) - a good explanation and recipe on Pahang Delights.


1. Blend 1 onion and 3-4 garlic cloves with turmeric, coriander, and lemongrass
2. Pound or blend the remaining onion and garlic separately
3. Heat oil in tall stock pot, and saute the blended onion and garlic in Step 2 till fragrant
4. Add the blended mixture in Step 1, and continue sauteing to draw out the flavor of the spices and bulbs
5. Dump in the potatoes and carrots and and saute them along for about 5 - 7 minutes
6. Add in the beef, and water and bring to boil
7. Add in the bay leaves, a few squirts of lemon juice, and salt to taste
8. Prepare the vermicelli by submerging them in hot water until they're soft, then drain them and set aside

To prepare the spicy Kicap Sambal:
9. Put in a blender the bird's eye chillies and enough sweet soy sauce so they would blend smoothly. Blend till chillies are thoroughly broken up, and add a few squirts of lemon juice


How do you eat it? (Like you would chicken noodle soup!)

1. Using a spaghetti server/tong, scoop one serving of vermicelli in an empty individual soup bowl. Add in a few cubed rice cakes.
2. Ladle the Soto, replete with potatoes, beef, and carrots over it, such that the white thin rice noodles are swimming in the pool of yellowish soup.
3. If you wish, top it with a teaspoon (or less, depending on your hot and spicy tolerance level) of spicy Kicap Sambal. (It is like the Somali Bizz Baazz).
4. Eat it with fork and soup spoon, or if you're feeling dexterous, chopsticks.

Ginger and Chicken, No Oyster.

Originally, oyster sauce is used for flavoring and provides authenticity of Chinese cuisines.. I think! But this time, I decided to make Chicken Ginger without oyster sauce because we were out of it , besides I could make it an Allergy-Free version who craves for the real taste of this wonderful chicken cuisines but can’t do shellfish - oyster, scallop, shrimp, squid and anything made from one of these. In my humble opinion, by using sesame oil for sauteing really gives the true taste of Chicken Ginger , and yes.. do not omit the ginger; that’s where the main flavor and aroma comes from. So make sure you have dark or light sesame oil in hands ;it can be found almost anywhere now.

The substitute I used in place for oyster sauce was based on my grandma’s whom I adore for her cooking soooo much, she is absolutely a great cook to the whole family. I guess everybody thinks their grandma’s foods are the best.MasyaAllah, my grandma doesn’t use oyster sauce much in her cooking yet still get the wonderful flavor and of course taste. She loves tamarind and palm sugar in most of her recipes . The idea of subbing these 2 ingredients came up then. Thanks grandma! I love you…!!

I forgot to measure each ingredients in detail because it was a quick ‘experiment’ . The good news is the Chicken Ginger turned out as good even though no oyster sauce added. The actual taste is still there.. alhamdulillah!

Ok, let’s see what we need to make No Oyster Sauce Chicken Ginger...Please adjust salt and sugar to your taste.

Chicken Ginger

Ingredients:

To marinate:

1 1/2 lbs chicken breast , sliced

1/2 cube chicken bouillon

1 tsp. white pepper powder

1 Tbsp. cornstarch (See Notes)

Combine all together and marinate for 20 - 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

Mix together :

1 or 2 Tbsp. palm sugar

1/3 Cup thick tamarind juice

1/4 Cube chicken bouillon (See Notes)

Mix all until sugar and bouillon are completely dissolved.

Other fresh Ingredients:

2 Inches ginger root, thinly sliced

1 large yellow onion, roughly sliced

3 Cloves garlics, pounded

2 Tbsp. dark sesame oil ( See Notes)

1 Cup thinly sliced carrots

1 Cup green peppers , slice 3 inches length

1 Cup red peppers , slice 3 inches length

1Tbsp. Cornstarch mix in 1/4 - 1/3 Cup water

Salt , palm sugar and white pepper to taste ( See Notes)

Garnishing : Chopped green onions , fried shallot, toasted sesame seeds

Method:

Heat a medium sized pan on medium-high, drizzle 2 Tbsp sesame oil and let it heat for 1 minutes or 2.

Add in sliced ginger and marinated chicken and saute for 2 minutes. Stir every few minutes until the chicken just slightly crisp and fragrant from the ginger .( Do not cook the chicken too long especially chicken breast , this is to keep the chicken moist and tender)

Stir in the onions, peppers and carrots until they begin to soften. About 4 - 5 minutes. Pour the sweet sour mixture ( tamarind, palm sugar, chicken cube) , let it boil. Lower the heat to low , slowly pour cornstarch mixture, keep stirring to avoid lumps.Add more water if necessary . Let it thicken , add salt/sugar / white pepper to your taste. Garnish with chopped green onion, fried shallot and sprinkle sesame seeds on top.

Serve immediately with hot rice.

Served with hot jasmine rice

Notes Of The Day

1. If you can’t use or out of cornstarch, replace with potato starch or sweet ( glutinous) rice flour . These too are great option to thicken your sauce.
2. If you can’t find chicken cube ( the halal) in your place, vegetable bouillon would be find.
3. Use Dark sesame oil for best result. light sesame works too. Like olive oil, grape seed oil and other low saturated fat oil… sesame seed oil provides health benefit to us and help lower cholesterol. If canola oil all you have, that’s find! .. it just the real flavor you will miss. Try not to use olive oil.. it works terribly.
4. I didn’t have to add salt and extra sugar - chicken cube contains salt. I only had to add a little more white pepper - I wanted it hot and spicy.

Eat Your Greens!

I personally love stir-fried vegetables, Chinese style. The aroma of freshly cooked vegetables, particularly that of green beans, cabbage, and carrots drives up my appetite. It brings back memories of one vacation I had on the high plains of Malaysia's central mountain range, Cameron Highlands where my father rented a vacation house, and we got to cook freshly bought vegetables from the local farmer's market.

I think I can officially attribute my love of greens to my grandmother's incessant nagging of,

"Eat your greens. You'll stay looking young that way."

I would dutifully eat my greens, even the bitter tasting ones, because looking old was something to be scared of back then. My father doesn't look his age, and neither does my mother, and for that matter neither did my grandmother. I feared not looking my age (the opposite way) since almost everyone in my family seem to have this youthful look, so I gobbled up my greens. I grew to love them. In fact, I don't remember hating them at all. Now, I deem any meal that doesn't have greens as lacking something crucial.

Unfortunately though, my kids, despite eating their greens with gusto in their earlier years, are now rather fussy about their greens, well, except for my eight year old son, who seems to maybe have inherited my love for greens. So, in an attempt to give a twist to my usual cabbage and carrot stir-fry, I decided to experiment.

Thus was born my Chips in Stir Fry...

2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/5 of a yellow onion, minced
1/5 of a cabbage, sliced thinly
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
1 potato, peeled, and sliced very thinly (imagine making potato chips)
2 tbs oil
salt
pepper


1. In a frying pan, heat the oil and fry the potato slices till golden on both sides
2. Drain the fried potato chips on a plate lined with paper towel
3. In the same oil, quickly throw in the minced onion and garlic and saute them till lihgtly browned and fragrant
4. Toss in the carrot slices and stir-fry till slightly soft, or crunchy, depending on your preference. (if the carrots begin to stick and the oil evaporates, add a little water)
5. Throw in the cabbage and stir
6. Toss in the potato chips and stir till combined
7. Salt and pepper it to taste
8. Take the pan off the heat when the cabbage glistens and looks bright green
(I like my cabbages slightly undercooked for the crunchy texture)\

Cook's Notes:

• I like my greens slightly undercooked. If you like yours thoroughly cooked, don't take them off the heat until they're thoroughly cooked. Duhh...





• You can double, triple the recipe as you see fit.





• We usually eat our veggies with cooked white rice and a meat/chicken/seafood dish - one of our staple lunch and dinner. If you're not Malaysian, you can try eating this with taco shells or wrapped in tortilla, or just by itself!





• For a healthier version, you can brush the potato slices with oil and bake them until they brown, and then toss them in with the stir fried veggies.

Is this a hit with the kids? Yeah, pretty much, though some of them still pick through the whole medley for just the potato chips. Maybe I need to blend all these veggies and sneak it in their drinks.