Garlic Butter Prawns

Did I already tell you how much I love prawns? Prawns and shrimps are one of my favorite ingredients in cooking. They taste great and can make the taste of most of the food better. For example, I love to add a little bit minced prawn when I make fried rice, or spring roll, or any kind of dumplings.  Sometimes, I puree it together with wheat flour and spices to make a prawn batter, fry it, and add it in my soup. I really love it.

This time, I still have about 1/2 kg frozen tiger prawn in my freezer and I would love to make a nice dish out of it for our dinner. I will make a garlic butter prawns. This is one of the best prawns dish I've ever eat.

It is very easy to make. But, talking about prawn (and shrimps), is all about preparation. Peeling their skin is not really a fun thing to do especially if I have to peel skins of huge amount of  prawns. Removing their back is easier but still need quite a long time. I only need to make a shallow cut on the back of the prawn and remove the black vein. I've shown you how to devein a prawn without make a cut on it when I made ebi furai long time ago. It's more complicated and need much more patience. But thanks God, I don't need to do that for this recipe. I don't even need to peel their skin because I cheated!  Ho ho ho... I bought frozen peeled-deveined prawns. It really help to reduce the preparation times. I just need to thaw the prawns. Don't use a microwave to thaw a prawn or the prawn will be ruined. Just leave it in the room temperature for about 30-60 minutes. It's the best way to thaw a frozen prawn. Once they're thawed, remove the excess water, dry them well with kitchen towel, and the prawns are ready to be cooked.


Ingredients :

• 500 grams tiger prawn, peeled (Tip : you can always leave the tail on.), and deveined
• 50 grams (about 1/2 cup) white flour
• 2-3 tbs olive oil
• 15 grams (1 tbs) butter
• 30 grams  (2 tbs) butter
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 medium chili pepper, remove the seeds and the stem and slice it thinly
• salt
• ground black pepper
• pinch of freshly chopped parsley

Preparation : 

1. First dust the prawns with flour lightly.
2. Heat some olive oil in a skillet. 
3. Once the oil is hot, place the dusted prawns in an even layer on the skillet and cook it until they turn pink. Flip them over one by one and cook the other side until they become pink. The total process will take about 1 minute. 
4. Take the prawns off the skillet and set it aside on a plate.
5. Repeat until all the prawns are cooked. 
6. Prepare another bigger pan. (Tip : I'm using a wok pan because my skillet is quite small. If your skillet is big enough to make a stir fry, remove the leftover oil and clean the surface with kitchen towel if needed and you can use it again for the next step. Be careful it's hot)
7. Heat the pan and melt 1 tbs butter. 
8. Once the butter is melted, stir in minced garlic and sliced chili pepper for about 1 minute or until they start to become tender and smell good.
9. Add precooked prawns and cook and stir them together for about 1-2 minutes until all the prawns are mixed well with all the garlic and chili pepper. 
10. Season it with salt and ground black pepper
11. Add 2 tbs butter into the pan and stir it just until the butter is melted. 
12. Turn off the heat and add some chopped parsley.
13. Serve immediately. (Tip : Serve it with hot steamed rice)

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Cumi Gulai Padang (Padangnese Squid Curry)

Cumi gulai padang is one of my husband's favorite food. He's a huge fan of squid dish. Any kind of it. And this time i want to spoil him by making a squid dish with Padangnese curry sauce. We call this sauce Gulai. Gulai  is a type of food containing rich, spicy, succulent curry-like sauce. This dish is commonly found in Indonesia and Malaysia.  The main ingredients could be poultry, beef, offals (jeroan), and seafood. It is very delicious and goes well with hot steamed rice and sambal. I believe this kind of dish is one of a kind that can make every Indonesian feel homesick when they are abroad.

I got this recipe from my mother in law. She's good at making Padang or Aceh dish. I tried her recipe and it turned out great. Everybody like it. Even my daughter like it. Actually, I was not so sure she would eat it, but she liked it as well. The squid was chewy but tender. I didn't throw away the tentacles. They are edible too as long as you do not overfry them. The sauce was rich with a bit touch of lemongrass and tamarind. The spiciness was acceptable (not spicy enough i think. But otherwise my daughter won't be able to eat it). My idea adding some fried tofu was excelent as well. Basically it was because of some economical reason but acceptable.

That's why, I'd love to share this recipe. To share my happiness when I ate this dish. :-)

Ingredients :

• 800 grams squid
• 200 grams tofu, cut into 3 cm cubes
• 3 shallots
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 3 candlenuts
• 1 chili pepper, remove the seeds
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder (or about 3 cm fresh turmeric root, peeled)
• 3 cm fresh ginger, peeled
• 1 lemon grass, bruised and knotted 
• 1 bay leaves
• 1/2 tsp tamarind paste (reduce the amount if you have a very sour paste)
• 500 ml coconut milk
• salt and pepper
• about 1 1/2 cup vegetable oil

Tip : feel free to add some small chili peppers (cabai rawit) if you want to make a spicy version 

Preparation :

1. Clean the squid by removing the internal organ, cartilage (white transparent squid back bone), eyes, and the ink sac. (Tip : You can see the pictures in here ) No need to remove the outer skin/membrane but feel free to do it. 
2. Wash it under the running water and dry it nicely with kitchen towel.
3. Blend together shallots, garlic, candlenuts, chili pepper, turmeric, and ginger until you get a paste form.
4. In a pan, pour and preheat the vegetable oil to fry the tofu and the squid.
5. Fry the tofu for about 2 minutes until the surface become golden brown
6. Remove the tofu from the oil and drain it well.
7. Put the clean squid into the same pan and fry it for about 30 seconds. ( You can see the tentacles start to shrink and curled up)
8. Remove the squid from the oil and drain it well.
9. In another pan, preheat about 4 tbs vegetable oil.
10. Add the spice paste and saute for about 3 minutes until fragrant.
11. Add fried tofu and squid into the pan and stir it carefully until they are covered with the spices.
12. Add lemon grass, tamarind paste, bay leave, and coconut milk.
13. Stir again and bring it to a boil.
14. Reduce the heat and simmer it for about 20-30 minutes until the liquid is slightly reduced and the coconut milk become slightly oily.
15. Turn off the heat and serve it hot with hot steamed rice and green sambal.

Tip : do not fry the squid too long otherwise you will get a very tough squid. But you can not skip this process as well otherwise during the cooking process you will get a excess water coming out from the squid. 

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Sapo Tofu

This is one of popular dish in Indonesia with Chinese influence. I and my friends used to order this this at the restaurant back then when We were still in University. Until one day, my mother taught me how to make it by myself. It turned out to be so simple to make. The ingredients are not hard to find as well. I only need soft tofu, and many vegetables. My mother suggest me to use seafood or chicken or pork for this dish. But I can use egg instead of seafood and chicken for less meat version. Well... to be honest, I do not know if this is Szechuan style or Cantonese style or any other style. I only know this is my mother's style and it is as delicious as restaurant style.

Few weeks ago, i made sapo tofu at home for dinner. I was using frozen mixed seafood (It is a mix of small shrimp, calamari, surimi, ark shell, and mussels), fish ball, and chikuwa (roasted fish roll). I bought them all in Asian grocery store. For the vegetables, i was using broccoli and carrot because that were what i had in hand. Another vegetables such as baby carrots, pak choy, or even paprika will work as well. You can add shitake or champignon mushroom as well if you like.

Ingredients (Serving for 4-5 portion):

• 2 pack of egg tofu
• 3 tbs corn starch
• 2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 medium onion, cut stripes
• 2 clove garlic, minced
• 200 grams (about 2 cups) of frozen mixed seafood, defrosted.
• 150 grams broccoli, cut into small pieces
• 200 grams carrot or 2 medium carrots, sliced
• 6 fish balls, cut into half
• 6 chikuwa, cut into half
• 250-350 ml (about 1-1 1/2 cup water)
• 3 tbs oyster sauce
• 1 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tbs sweet soy sauce
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• 1/4 tsp ginger powder
• 1 tbs sesame oil
• 1 tbs cooking wine/angciu (optional)
• salt and pepper
• in a small bowl : mix 1 tbs tapioca starch with 2 tbs water. Set aside

First, let's make fried tofu. 

1. Take out the tofu from its package by cutting the package and the tofu into 2 part. (You will see the cutting like on back of the package)
   
   
   
   
2. Cut the tofu into small cylinder with about 1.5 -2 cm thickness for each slice. You will get about 6-7 sliced tofu out of 1 package.
3. In a pan, preheat vegetable oil.
4. Meanwhile, dust the sliced tofu using corn starch until all the surface is covered well.
5. Put the tofu into preheated oil, and fry them until golden brown.
6. Remove the tofu from the pan and remove the excess oil.
7. Set aside.

Tip : when frying tofu, do not flip it over too often otherwise you will break the tofu. Let it sit on the hot oil until the bottom become golden brown before flip it and fry the other side. This kind of tofu is very soft and fragile. 

Now let's make sapo tofu.

1. In a big pan / wok pan, preheat about 4 tbs vegetable oil
2. Add sliced onion and minced garlic into the pan and saute until the onion become translucent.
3. Add mixed seafood. Stir it well.
4. Add all vegetables. Stir them all until the vegetables are half cooked.
5. Add fish ball and chikuwa and stir it again
6. Add water, oyster sauce, soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil, and ginger powder
7. Stir them well and let it cooked for a while until the vegetables become tender and the water is started to boil.
8. Add salt, pepper, and cooking wine
9. Stir mixture of tapioca starch and water in the bowl, and pour it slowly to thickened the liquid of sapo tofu. Stir it slowly.
10. Add fried tofu, and stir it carefully. Be careful not to break the tofu. 
11. Serve it warm.

Tip : If you do not like seafood, you can always substitute it with chicken or pork (about 100 grams sliced chicken/pork will do the work) and skip the fish ball and chikuwa . If you want to make meatless version, use scrambled egg instead. Before sauteing the onion and garlic, beat 2 eggs and make scrambled egg in the pan.  Remove the scrambled egg, and set it aside. Start to cook the onion and other vegetables and add the scrambled egg back before adding mixture of tapioca starch.

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Balado Udang dan Tahu (Prawns and Tofu Balado)

Hmm.. I want to eat something hot and spicy. So, I'm going to make balado dish today. What is balado? What kind of dish is it? Let me introduce you. Balado is one of Indonesian dish which is originally from Minangkabau. It is very popular in Indonesia especially around West Sumatra or Aceh Province. Balado means with / using chili. The chili will be blended together with garlic and shallot, and then sauteed with oil. This sauteed chili will be mixed with any kind of ingredients such as boiled egg, chicken, dried meat, and many thing else. We can use balado as condiment as well. We call it sambal balado. Is it spicy? Of course. It's chili. :)

My mother in law taught me how to make prawns balado. She learned it from her mother in law who is originally from Aceh Province. So i can proudly tell this is an original family recipe. Well... not really original because i add fried tofu into the balado for economic reason.

Ingredients :

• 10-12 Chili peppers
• 3 medium shallot (or 8 Indonesian shallot)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• vegetable oil
• 1 tbs sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbs lime juice
• 500 grams prawns
• 1 block of tofu
• 9 quail egg

Preparation :

1. Peel and clean the prawns including the tails and the veins.
2. Rinse them with water few times and dry them up with kitchen paper.
3. Cut the tofu into small cubes (about 3x3x3 cm for each cube. No need precise cut)
4. Put quail eggs into a boiling water and boil them for about 5-6 min. Remove the eggs from the hot water, rinse them with cold water, and peel the eggs. 
5. In a pan, heat about 1 cup of oil. Fry all tofu until the tofu become golden brown. Remove them from the heat and set aside. 
6. In the same pan, fry all the prawns until they are cooked and their color become pink. Remove them from the heat and set aside. Do not overcook the prawns otherwise they will become too tough.
7. Remove all chili pepper's seeds.
8. Blend all chili peppers together with shallots and garlic. (Add some water if needed)
   
9. In a big pan, heat about 5 tbs oil. Saute the blended spices with low medium heat until fragrant and its color become red. At this point, about 50% of the water are evaporated already.  
   
   

   

   This is blended spices before sauteed. 

   
   

   

   And this is blended spices after sauteed for few minutes. Most of the water are evaporated already and the color become darker then before.

     
10. Add sugar, salt, pepper, and lime juice.
11. Add fried prawns, fried tofu, and quail eggs into the pan.
12. Stir well for about 5 min until all prawns, tofu and eggs are covered with the spices. 
13. Serve it hot with steamed rice, sliced cucumber and starch cracker. 

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