Soba Salad (Otsu)

8 months and 3 weeks!! It’s been quite a journey and although wonderful and amazing, I’d be lying if I said it’s been easy. So about a month ago, my pelvis started hurting like crazy, to the extent that I can barely walk around now. It’s supposed to be a oral condition for pregnant mums during late pregnancy but honestly, there’s really just so much more punishment my poor body can take!

So I suddenly had the urge to cook again, and amazingly, my appetite got better out of the blue last week. Seeing as I have a packet of Soba noodles that need eating, I decided to try out this recipe that I found on this wonderful website http://www.101cookbooks.com. It’s a recipe called Otsu on the site and I tweaked the dressing somewhat according to what I had in my pantry. So here goes.

Ingredients:

Grated zest of 1 lemon
Fresh ginger, cut into a 1-inch cube, peeled, and grated
1 tablespoon honey
3/4 teaspoon japanese red chilli flakes (Nanami Togarashi)
3/4 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
Less than 1/4 cup vinegar apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup shoyu sauce (used shabu shoyu as a substitute)
2 tablespoons coconut oil
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil

12 ounces dried soba noodles
12 ounces extra-firm nigari tofu, fried
3 spring onions, thinly sliced
1/2 packet of baby asparagus, lightly blanched
1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds, for garnish

Fruitful Friday

Really felt like cooking today, have been looking up carrot cake recipes last few days and thought to give it a go. Also decided to try the Pineapple Fish recipe that I learnt 2 weeks ago, so here goes…

Pineapple Fish

Ingredients for Rempah:

• 7 large chilli and 4 chilli padi, deseeded
• Small thumb of tumeric (Kunyit), skin scraped off and cut into small chunks
• Small knob of Galangal (Lengkuas), skin scraped off and cut into small chunks
• 1 whole clove of garlic, peeled
• 4 slices belachan
• 1 lemongrass, roughly chopped
• 3 large handfuls of small red onions (bawang merah)

Ingredients for stock:

• 2 pcs Lemongrass, ends pounded
• 1 good knob of Galangal (Lengkuas), lightly pounded

• 3 pcs of Pomfret or fish head (H’s mom recommends Tua Pan Fish head – have not figured out what fish this is)
• 1 large pineapple

Method:

1. Fill half large stock pot with water, place 2 pcs of lemongrass and the galangal, bring to boil and lower to medium to simmer.
2. In a blender, blend all Rempah ingredients except for onions, till fine. Add onions last and roughly blend to maintain some texture.
3. Pour Rempah mixture into the stock and bring to boil, lower to medium high after approximately 15mins.
4. Slice Pineapple – remove skin and eyes, cut into 3 portions and slice 1cm slices off the side until only core is left
5. Add Pineapple to stock, bring to boil and simmer for about 20mins.
6. Season to taste. If not sour enough, add tamarind juice (soak tamarind in water and press in to form a paste. Strain into stock through a sieve)
7. Put fish in and bring to boil. Remove fish once cooked, unless ready to serve.
8. To serve, Bring stock to boil and add fish pieces. Serve with soup and pineapple chunks in a tureen.

Babi Rosip

So Rosip is a sort of fermented Ikan Bilis sauce that you get only in parts of Indonesia. Looking at it, it resembles Chinchalok which is a fermented prawn sauce more commonly used in Asia.

It’s wonderfully fragrant and also works as a delicious dip when mixed in with cut chilli and some lime juice. Perfection with fried fish or other steamed seafood and even blanched vegetables.

But i digress.

I’m not a lover of Pork by far and don’t normally touch fatty pork even. But exceptions have to be made for this, it just won’t taste the same otherwise.

Ingredients:

• 1kg Belly Pork, sliced into thin slices less than 1cm thick. Place in a colander and let the excess water drain
• 12 – 15 pieces lemongrass, finely sliced, discard old leaves
• 100g langkuas or blue ginger, skin scraped off and sliced thinly
• Approximately half a bowl of Rosip, top up with hot water to make a bowl of sauce
• 1 heaped tbsp mashed garlic

1. Heat 3 generous glugs of soy oil in a wok over high heat.
2. When oil is hot, add lemongrass and fry till crisp, stirring often 
3. Add blue ginger to the lemongrass and fry for 2-3 mins 
4. Add the garlic and fry the mix till fragrant and a little brown, do not let it get too dry
5. Add pork and stir in well. Lower the fire slightly and fry till fragrant. Add a little bit more oil if too dry, fry till the oil from the pork comes out or until wok has a bit of char.
6. Lower fire to medium, strain half the rosip sauce into the mixture, adding only the liquid. Stir well.
7. Add the rest of liquid and half tbsp of sugar. Taste.
8. Add a glug of rice wine, stir in to taste. If mixture is too dry, add a little hot water to form gravy. simmer for another 5-8 mins and season to taste.

Here’s how it’s supposed to look: