.: evil jungle prince :.

For today's lunch, I decided on making gulai udang merah, or Indonesian shrimp in coconut sauce. So many of these ingredients were available fresh just outside my window, so why not? Kaffir lime leaves, chillies, and lemongrass are all growing like mad this time of year in my desert garden.

(And, blogging about dishes from Malaysia, Indonesia, or the Philippines has the added fun of getting more than my normal share of comments. It seems people with roots in these countries really have a love for their culinary heritage and for discussing it!)

1. I started out by creating a crushed paste* of 5 shallots, 2 cloves garlic, 1/2 inch of ginger, and 3-4 chili peppers sliced into rings. (Unfortunately I did not have red peppers, as the recipe called for, and substituted green.) This spice mixture was then placed into a pot and combined with a can of coconut milk.

2. As the coconut mixture began to heat over a low flame, I then added a slice of galangal root, 1 stalk of fresh lemongrass (crushed slightly to release its oils), 1 tsp turmeric, and a few torn kaffir lime leaves. This was brought to a very slow simmer.

3. Finally, I then added cleaned, de-veined shrimp and 1 fresh tomato, sliced into rounds. The shrimp and tomato were allowed to cook briefly. Before serving, I also added salt to taste.

* note that because I don't yet own a stone mortar, I used a food processor to create my bumbu spice mixture.

I really enjoyed this, and what really made it was the addition of the fresh tomato. It lended what otherwise would have been a rather heavy dish a distinct freshness -- cool tastes and textures counterpointing the heat of the peppers and spices. Yum.

Posted by Evil Jungle Prince at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (1)

This first attempt at Korean daksanjeok (chicken kebabs) met with decent success.* This was a tricky dish based on the fact the chicken goes through a number of processes -- pounded with a meat mallet, fried, simmered, and then finally cut into pieces and skewered. The end result is definitely worth the effort, however.

1. First I began by placing patted-dry chicken fillets under plastic and hitting them with a meat mallet until flat. These were then dashed with salt and pepper. The flattened pieces were then fried briefly (1-2 mins) on each side and then set aside.

2. Next I prepared a seasoned soy sauce of 5 tsp soy sauce, 2 tsp sugar, 1 tsp ginger juice, 1 tsp rice wine, and 1/4 cup water. (The recipe also called for 1 tsp malt liquid, which I did not have and excluded.) This was added to the pan until simmering and allowed to thicken slightly. The chicken pieces were then added and allowed to simmer for 10 mins. After removing, sesame oil was added to the chicken and the allowed to cool down.

3. The chicken meat was then cut into strips and added to the kebobs, interweaving in pieces of very lightly stir fried green onion.* They were then garnished with strips of Korean red peppers. (Also called for in the recipe was strips of egg omlette, which I omitted as I don't like the taste of egg.)

* Problems encountered: one problem was that I had pounded the chicken breasts too hard, making them very thin and difficult to skewer in Step 3. Next time I will not make them quite so thin. I encountered a similar problem with the green onions. Even though I only stir fried them for a few seconds, they came out a little wilted for my taste. I will remedy this next time by barely cooking them at all. I may even skewer them fresh.

This was a fun dish to make and it would definitely appeal to a broad range of people, as the only spicy component, the red pepper garnish, can be removed easily by hand. Be forewarned however that Korean peppers are incredibly sneaky in the way they change flavor. When green, they are entirely mild with a taste similar to a Japanese shishito pepper. However, when they turn red, they are wickedly hot -- so much so that when I was shredding the ones seen in the photo, I began to choke from their fumes. This was entirely unexpected as I've always eaten my gochu when green. Be cautious and enjoy!

Posted by Evil Jungle Prince at 06:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I've been so lazy this weekend. I wanted to try something new and fun that required little energy, and finally decided on trying out this recipe for kalamansi soda.

1. First I squeezed the juice of three kalamansi limes into a glass. I then added 3 tsp sugar and a few drop of soda water, stirring until the sugar was completely dissolved.

2. Next I filled the the glass to half-way with more soda water and then added ice until the soda reached the top of the glass. I used a fourth kalamansi, cut in half, as a garnish.

This was really refreshing and cool -- just the thing for a hot and lazy day like today.

Posted by Evil Jungle Prince at 04:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

When I lived in Honolulu, there was a Vietnamese place down the street which specialized in rice stick dishes -- that is, various types of grilled or fried foods placed on a bed of cool rice noodles. These were such simple dishes but so elegant and refreshing with their liberal use of fresh, aromatic herbs. Channeling that incredible restaurant, I'd thought I'd try my best to recreate one of their dishes.

For a first attempt, I was fairly happy* with the result. Following is how I prepared the dish:

1. First I prepared the rice sticks by covering them in boiling water and allowing them to sit for ten minutes. (Note that I don't mean boiled for ten minutes -- I mean poured the water over the noodles and allowed them to sit without further cooking. Otherwise the noodles will fall apart.) These were then drained, rinsed with cold water, drained again, and then placed into the refrigerator to cool down.

2. Meanwhile I prepared a sweet/sour salad. (This dish originally uses turnips instead of daikon but I was using what I had on hand. I also remembered seeing a Khmer recipe for the same dish using daikon.) First I I julienned equal parts daikon and carrot and then tossed in a little salt, allowing the mixture to sweat. I then rinsed out the salt and drained the mixture. I then added 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup rice vinegar, and 1/2 cup water to the mixture, combined, and placed into the refrigerator to cool.

3. Next I prepared the sweet/sour fish sauce by boiling 4 tsp sugar, 8 tsp water. This was allowed to cool. I then added 1.5 tsp lime juice, 1.5 tsp fish sauce, 1 clove minced garlic, and 1 minced red chili. This was then placed into the refrigerator to cool.

5. Finally, I placed some slightly salted, raw shrimp on kebabs and grilled them briefly. All the ingredients were then combined, placing the shrimp, sweet/sour salad, some chopped peanuts, and fresh basil on top of the cooled rice stick noodles. Before eating, I poured the sweet/sour fish sauce on top of the noodles.

*This pretty much turned out the way I wanted it with only two problems which I hope to remedy next time:

Problem #1: the shrimp did not blacken on the grill as I remember them at the restaurant. I was a little disappointed by this, as the slight blackening really gave the shrimp a real kick. The problem here, I assume, was my use of a grill pan as opposed to a barbeque with actual flames. Any ideas on achieving a slight blackening?

Problem #2: the few remaining rice sticks I had in my pantry went stale and some fell apart when cooked. Obviously, the answer here is to use fresh ones! And, in the future, I may experiment cooking stale rice sticks for a shorter period to see if this help sto remedy the problem.

Posted by Evil Jungle Prince at 09:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I planted a new pomegranate (Punica granatum) near my air conditioner to try and hide it from view, plus I have been keen on the idea of growing pomegranates as they are supposed to do so well in the desert. (They originate from Persia, so this seems natural.) After planting about six weeks ago, the plant has already doubled in size.

I dug up my lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) and divided the rhizomes into three pieces. After replanting, it looks like I'm going to have a banner crop this year based on how quickly they are regenerating. I originally began my crop from just one lemongrass stalk purchased from the grocery store which had a little bit of root left on it...

My potted lychee tree (Litchi chinensis) is starting to develop some new leaves for the first time, after about a year of doing nothing. These aren't reputed to do especially well in California, so we'll see what happens.

I planted some goji berries (Chinese wolfberry/Lycium chinense) once the weather warmed and they are already sprouting.

My potted avocado tree (Persea americana) is producing fruit... amazing! Luckily the neighbors have two mature trees so the bees were apparently able to pollinate the tree successfully. Let's see if the birds stay away and allow these to mature.

Posted by Evil Jungle Prince at 07:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

This was my first time playing around with jackfruits in cooking. When I came across this Khmer recipe, I thought I'd never find jackfruit locally but salivated at the thought of eventually trying it. As it happened I then ran across canned jackfruit at the local Filipino market, so, here we are!

1. First I preheated the oven to 325F and greased a muffin pan.

2. Next I combined the following ingredients to make a batter: 2 egg whites, 1/2 cup palm sugar (or brown sugar), 1/2 cup coconut milk, 1 cup white flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp vanilla. Mix until a smooth batter is achieved. Finally, spoon in 3/4 cup cubed jackfruit pulp by hand so that they remain as cubes.

3. Bake until a toothpick can be removed cleanly, which should be around 15-20 mins. Allow to cool slightly before removing from the muffin pan.

Before I bit into my jackfruit muffins, I was wondering whether jackfruit would be cooling or heaty. The sensation I felt on my tongue felt exactly the same as when eating durian... definitely heaty!

P.S. As you can see from the photo, I also added some toasted coconut to the top of the batter before baking. This added a little extra texture. Next time I will try adding some macadamias or other nuts to the batter, too.

Posted by Evil Jungle Prince at 07:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Sometimes a dish turns out so well that I can hardly believe I've survived in this world without making it a part of my regular culinary vocabulary. This is one such dish, or sidedish I should say: kerabu timun, or Malay cucumber salad prepared with a kerabu dressing (coconut, chili pepper, dried shrimp, and lime juice).

Similar in some ways to Korean kimchi, this might be better described as a tropical kimchi as it is prepared with ingredients entirely lacking from Korean fare. This flavor combination was so robust and refreshing... I just loved it.

1. Dry roast 2 tps grated or dried coconut flakes. Add to a mortar together with 3 tps dried shrimp (after soaking water). Crush/mix with pestle.

2. To the mixture now add 6 fresh red chili peppers with seeds removed. Mix. Also add 1 tsp dried shrimp paste, pan roasted without oil. Mix. Add fresh cucumber pieces into this mixture.

3. In another bowl, add the juice of two limes, 1tsp brown sugar, and a pinch of salt. Mix and add to the cucumber mixture just before serving.

Posted by Evil Jungle Prince at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Last night I was looking at a recipe for gkai pad gkaprow (spicy basil chicken) when I noticed that it said 'anything goes' when it comes to replacing the chicken with other proteins, so I tried preparing spicy basil tofu. To my suprise it really came out great and I'll likely be repeating this recipe from herein.

1. First I prepared the ingredients by slivering 2-3 shallots, 2-3 cloves of garlic, a few kaffir lime leaves, and slicing a couple of Thai chilli peppers (to taste) into small rounds. I also set a aside a handful of fresh Thai basil, half a block of cubed, firm tofu, and 4-5 green onions (cut into 3 inch lengths). I then pre-mixed my seasonings in a small bowl by mixing 3-4 tablespoons of soy sauce, white pepper to taste, and half a teaspoon of shrimp paste in soy bean oil.

2. Next I heated the wok until smoking, added peanut oil, and then the shallots, garlic, and chilli peppers. Once fragrant, I then added the tofu. After about 15 seconds, I then added the pre-mixed seasonings. After about 15 more seconds, I added the green onions. I then added the Thai basil and removed the contents as soon as the leaves were about mid-way, but not entirely wilted.

By the way, here is the new wok I picked up in San Francisco. It is pure heaven using this after dealing with a Le Creuset wok for so many years that never functioned the way I wanted it to. That wok was the bane of my kitchen existence -- it had so many problems. It was flat bottomed and always fell off my round-bottom burner while cooking, it never seasoned properly and food always stuck to it, it was too heavy and too bulky to easily remove food, and the list goes on. On the other hand, my new wok seasons perfectly, fits the burner perfectly, is light enough to easily remove food, has two handles, and is an all-around joy to use. My wok burdens have been lifted!

Don't forget: anything goes with thai basil.

Posted by Evil Jungle Prince at 07:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (1)

I'm always yearning for the taste of Thai basil -- partially because I'm addicted to its basil-licorice-mint flavor combination, so unlike all other basils, and partially because it's impossible to buy locally and represents a rare culinary treat when I can get my paws on it.

This year I finally had some luck growing my own and here is the first batch!

It wasn't easy. Here in the desert, Most of my herbs will only grow in the winter -- it's during this season they will be cool at night and obtain spring-like weather (compared to the rest of the world) during the day. Most herbs thrive in this type of environment. Thai basil, on the other hand, will sprout but refuse to do anything but sit there, obstinately opposed to maturing fully. So cruel for the person who craves Thai basil and can't have it.

But this year we have had summer-like weather come on early in the year and my Thai basil has suddenly decided to come to life. Even in the full of heat of day, this herb thrives. Who wants some Thai food?

Posted by Evil Jungle Prince at 06:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Now that it's getting hot in the desert again, I'm breaking out some cool summer dishes. This one, today's lunch, is kong guksu (콩국수), which is cold noodles served in a chilled sesame-soy broth. Oh baby, was this tasty...

1. To make the sesame-soy broth, I first soaked 1/2 cup of dried soy beans in water for an hour. These were then boiled for 45 minutes on the stovetop.

2. Meanwhile, I placed a few tablespoons of sesame seeds into a pan and dry roasted them until they began to be fragrant. These were then placed into a blender with a little water and pureed until liquid. After the soy beans were done boiling, I added these as well and more water. Both were pureed until liquid.

3. Next I squeezed the sesame-soy bean mixture through cheesecloth to create the sesame-soy broth. After removing the solids and retaining all the liquid broth, I added sea salt to taste and placed the broth into the refrigerator to cool.

4. After about 45 minutes, allowing the broth to cool adequately, I began boiling the wheat noodles. Once ready, I removed them and rinsed them with cold water thoroughly. I then arranged them in a bowl and poured the chilled sesame-soy broth over them, also adding some julienned cucumber, tomato slices, and some sesame seeds.

Tip: if your broth isn't totally chilled at this point, you can add some ice cubes. You will find that a chilled broth is far superior in taste than a semi-chilled one. Also, not sure if this is authentic or not, but I finished mine off with a little bit of mustard oil just because I like my food to have some kick.

This was the perfect meal for a hot afternoon. 95F/34C today and it's only May!

Posted by Evil Jungle Prince at 03:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Before leaving for San Francisco, I prepared this batch of kkaktugi (깍두기), or diced radish kimchi. This is one of my favorite kimchis and it was a great way to use up the remainder of my daikon and green onions. I love the crunchy texture of it.

1. Cut a daikon into 1-inch cubes.

2. Create a brine by mixing a handful of sea salt in a large bowl of water. (Do not use table salt.) Soak the radish cubes for about 3-4 hours. If necessary, weigh down the radish with a plate so that they are completely submerged.

3. Make the seasoning paste by combining rice porridge (3/4 cup water + 1 tablespoon of rice flour heated to boil on the stovetop and then left to cool), 2/3 cup fish sauce, 1/3 chili flakes, 2/3 cup chili powder, 1/3 cup finely chopped garlic, 1/3 cup finely chopped ginger, 1/4 cup sugar (optional). Chop 10 scallions and set aside.

4. After 3-4 hours of sitting in the brine, rinse off the cubes under cold water. Drain again.

5. Combine the cubes with the seasoning paste and scallions. (Don't use all the seasoning paste if the combination is getting soupy - it should only cover the cubes and no more.) Place into a ceramic container, sprinkle top with a pieces of sea salt, and allow to ferment in refrigerator for 1-3 days before eating.

Posted by Evil Jungle Prince at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

As I haven't had a chance to buy groceries after my long trip, the kitchen is fairly empty and I've been hard pressed to come up with full meals. This is particularly true for any recipe that requires fresh vegetables. I did manage to find a frozen chicken though, so last night I decided on preparing samgyetang (삼계탕), or Korean chicken ginseng soup.

Actually I have been wanting to try making this soup for a long time, but all of the ingredients are impossible to find locally. Fortunately, thanks to a great tip by a fellow food blogger, I wound up my trip to the Bay Area last week by visiting Kukeje in Daly City -- a Korean supermarket in the truest sense of the word. It's huge! Of course I was in complete nirvana and I must have spent more than two hours there examining all the foods, ingredients, banchans, and cooking wares. I'm surprised they didn't call security on me.

I looked at a number of samgyetang recipes before deciding on the following. They were all fairly similar but with some variations, mainly having to do with the amount of garlic used and how long to simmer the chicken.

1. First I washed 1/3 cup of glutinous rice and allowed it to soak in water for 1/2 hour. I also rinsed the following stuffing ingredients: 5 jujubes (dried Chinese dates), 4 dried chestnuts, and two fingers of dried ginseng.

2. Next I cleaned the chicken and placed the rice, jujubes, chestnuts, ginseng, and six cloves of whole garlic inside the cavity. I then sewed the cavity shut and tied the legs together tightly so that the contents would remain inside during the simmering process.

3. In a large pot, I boiled water and then placed the chicken in the pot. When the water began to boil again, I turned it down to a slow simmer and simmered the bird for three hours. (This is where recipes really vary, so you may want to check around and see what others say in terms of how long to simmer the bird.) Remove anything floating on the surface during this step so that the broth remains clear.

4. Finally I removed some of the broth into a separate bowl, adding salt and pepper to taste, and then added some of the stuffing ingredients for presentation purposes. The rice stuffing was served in a separate bowl.

This was an interesting dish to experiment with. Some problems I encountered were: burning myself when I placed the chicken into the boiling water, filling the pot too full and having water spill out when I placed the chicken into the pot, and underestimating the size of the chicken in relation to the size of my pot. (I 'solved' the latter problem by flipping the bird mid way through the simmering process, but what I really need is a bigger pot.)

You can learn more about the lore of samgyetang, a revered dish in Korea, by visiting here. If you don't have a local Korean market handy, I've spotted all of these ingredients at Chinese markets as well although their jujubes have never looked quite as nice as the Korean packaged type. Got samgyetang tips for me or stories? Please share them!

Posted by Evil Jungle Prince at 07:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Before I made my way to San Francisco last week, I stopped over in Sacramento to visit my mother and help spiffy up her garden. Now that she's getting older, taking the proverbial machete to the vines which quickly dominate the other garden plants has become more and more of a challenge. Not too many years ago, I used to dread such chores. Fortunately, however, at this stage in my life I love gardening. How things change.

As I worked my way through the garden this time, I began noticing my mother's penchant for the color purple. From purple passion flowers to purple tulips, her garden is ruled by this majestic hue. Armed with my new camera, I began snapping photos.

Mom's blood orange tree produced only one orange this year due to the excessive rains in Northern California this past month. I find these fruits so beguiling because they are full of surprises. On the outside is a normal orange. But cutting into the flesh, the orange immediately bleeds a purple-red juice. So unexpected. We purchased this tree about two years ago and I plan on adopting it once mom retires, unless of course she pulls rank and takes it for herself.

I'm always amazed by how green Northern California is when I fly up there. Looking around, it's the first thing that hits me. So unlike the desert, the plants thrive everywhere whether cultivated or otherwise. It even smells green. These flowers are no exception; despite being totally waterlogged by a month of rain, they still managed to eek out an existence.

Well I am back in the desert now. To my amazement, all of my garden plans look about twice the size they were when I left -- pictures soon!

Posted by Evil Jungle Prince at 06:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)