Part 1 & Part 2

PART 1

Two days ago, I made a simplified and modified version of Ayam Lemak Cili Padi.

Here's what I did.

3 medium sized onions, 1 inch of lemongrass, 6-7 cloves of garlic, 3 bird's eye chilli (cili padi), 8 stalks of green chilli (You may adjust the amount of chilli to your desired level of hotness). OH, please add 1 whole candlenut (buah keras) if you have. Mine's finished.

2tbsp of turmeric powder (serbuk kunyit). Don't mind the amount on my spoon. This is just for picture's sake. Blend everything.

This is about 2tbsp of chopped Laksa leaves.

Saute the blended mixture. Once the oil separates from the mixture, add the laksa leaves.

I added water and two cubes of chicken stock here.

Finally, when everything has set, add the chicken and half a cup of milk (I used Magnolia's Full Cream Milk to replace coconut milk HAHA and HEY IT WORKED TOO OKAY) and cover until the chicken is thoroughly cooked. Season with sugar and salt to taste.

Verdict: I liked it! Husband approves as well. Maybe next time I'll try blending the laksa leaves with the other ingredients to see how it'll turn out.

PART 2

Budae Jjigae (Army base stew)

This was prepared yesterday when our friend, Sarah, came over for a baking session. I wanted to try cooking Laksa for lunch since I had all the ingredients. But when Sarah told me to look this Korean dish up on Google, I was hooked. 
Looked a lot like steamboat.
Steamboat pon steamboat lah.
Laksa can wait.

The huge problem with this dish was the soup base. We needed to use "Gochujang" (red pepper paste) but we had a hard time looking for a halal one at NTUC. All, or most brands out there, have wine/vinegar thing as one of their main ingredients.

God knows if there is even a halal one in our Singapore supermarkets.

Thought of making it from scratch but it was so tedious. 

Wanted to give up but then.. wait. Fermented soybeans. Isn't that taucho?
We found this!



Cool. We could work with this.
Since Gochujang is slightly pungent, sweet, salty and peppery, I could add maple syrup (or honey) and some pepper to make the soup base.

So here's how I made Budae Jjigae in 8 simple steps:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add dried anchovies and kelp. (I also added beef slices in this pot so everything boils together and you'll get some salty beef stock. Mmmmdap.)
2. For the soup base, add the chilli bean sauce, maple syrup, ground chilli powder, white pepper powder, chopped garlic, soy sauce, fish sauce in a bowl and mix well.
3. Strain the boiled anchovies, beef and kelp and you'll get the broth for your soup. This broth is salty as it is, so you don't have to add salt.
4. Arrange whatever ingredients you have in your steamboat.
5. Put two dollops of soup base in the middle of everything.
6. Pour over the broth.
7. Stir.
8. EAT.

Verdict: I'm making this again. And again. And again. Maybe this will become a staple when I have guests. Or no guests.


 Hope y'all are having a good weekend.


Mwah mwah.