Sambal Chicken Skewers with Pineapple Jicama Salsa

I know, I know... another sambal-centric dish.  But, in my defense, these dishes were eaten a month apart, only blogged right in a row. Furthermore, this Bon Appetit recipe made the cover of the July issue, so the juicy chicken was just staring at me constantly from the coffee table, tempting me.  It had to be made.

A simple, tasty marinade/sauce for BBQ chicken, for sure.  However, for me, like in the case of the sambal/banana/shrimp dish, my Indonesian sambal (labeled "EXTRA PEDAS") was a bit too spicy... I think the heat from the stuff I buy here is several notches higher than the sambal oelek you get in the U.S.   Tim and I had a couple coughing fits while eating this (which may also be partially due to the fact that I cooked this chicken on the cast iron grill pan inside, being too lazy to wait for the charcoal to heat up outside). We did think the flavor was nice despite the excessive heat, though.

I served the chicken with a side of cooling pineapple-jicama salsa and some lime and cilantro couscous.  I think the salsa was the big hit of the night: crunchy, fresh, a little sweet, super healthy... give this recipe a try for sure!

Bacon Weaved BLT

BLT Night!

Made BLTs tonight, decided to try another Pinterest post where bacon pieces are weaved to make sure there is  delicious bacon in every bite! Three pieces of bacon cut in half and weaved together.  Added some Sriracha mayo to it, yum.

Roasted Shiitake and Eggplant Pasta

I bought eggplant to make this great grilled eggplant dip that you eat with sticky rice (we had it in Laos), but was struggling to figure out what to cook to go with it.  Similarly, I had purchased mushrooms to make this creamy mushroom soup I saw via Pinterest.  Somehow neither of these dishes have yet to materialize (don't count them out yet, though, they're still on the list), but their ingredients ended up in this tasty pasta dish.

Doesn't look like much, but this dish has a really great rich, meaty flavor from the roasted mushrooms and a hint of spice from the sambal (PS: I used Sriracha because the only sambal I had in the house was called "Heboh Pedassssssnya," which translates to "Excited Spiiiiiiiiiciness!" and it will burn your face off).  Good stuff! 

I used thyme instead of oregano (although not 2 TBS of it- more like a couple sprigs), plus I topped the whole mess with fresh cilantro at the end.

Grilled Veggie and Rice Salad with Fish Sauce Dressing

Omg.  This salad is so good.  Even Tim liked it, lamenting the lack of meat only somewhat, stating that, "maybe it would make a really good side... you know... to some meat."  I liked it on its own, but agree that it would also make a kick-ass side dish and/or bed for some Vietnamese-style grilled chicken (we made a recipe quite similar to this one at our Hoi An cooking class in June.)  

I had lots of fresh herbs left over from our Vietnamese pomelo salad last week and saw this herb-heavy, Vietnamese-esque recipe in my July 2012 Bon Appetit magazine... I am so glad I made it.  It's got a lot of ingredients, but don't be intimidated, as it's really quite easy once you light up the grill and is a great way to utilize all your summer veggies and herbs- corn, eggplant, zucchini, okra, mint, basil, cilantro.  Mmm.

I made only a couple small changes to the recipe- the dressing is supposed to have grilled Holland or Anaheim chilis, but here there are just cabe rawit (the little ones) and cabe besar (the big ones).  All are blow-your-face off hot and not really the equivalent of an Anaheim.  Thus, I decided to substitute with some Sriracha to taste.  Also, rather than plain white jasmine rice, I bought some whole-grain Javanese brownish/reddish rice and cooked it coconut milk substituting for 1/3 of the liquid.  I think the hearty, nutty rice and extra coconut flavor really put the finishing touch on the recipe.

Chinese-Style BBQ Ribs

Tim and I have had a rack of baby-back ribs in the freezer since Super Bowl... since we were running low on freezer space, we decided to bust them out for a slow-cooked Sunday dinner. 

(Sorry the photos are so bad... after smelling these things cooking for 3 hours, I was too impatient to set things up for a good photo.  Had to eat.)

We decided a Chinese-esque marinade sounded good, so I made a marinade that was an amalgamation of a Gourmet magazine recipe and a Rasa Malaysia recipe, with much success.  The resulting ribs were sweet, spicy, sticky and sliding off the bone.  Highly recommended.

Here's what I did:

- 1 rack of baby back pork ribs

- 1-2 tablespoons peeled, minced ginger

- 1-2 tablespoons peeled, minced garlic

- 1/4 cup soy sauce

- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

- 1/3 cup hoisin sauce

- 2 tablespoons honey

- 1 teaspoon Chinese 5-spice powder

-  a couple big squirts of Sriracha sauce (maybe 2 tablespoons?)

- Course ground black pepper

• I blitzed it all together with my stick-blender, reserved about 1/4-1/3 cup, and poured the rest over the rack of ribs.  
• I marinated the ribs in the fridge for about 7 hours.  
• I set the oven to somewhere between 325 and 350 F (our oven is in Celsius and is quite inaccurate to boot so I do a lot of estimating), wrapped the ribs in tin foil with the marinade (meaty side down) and cooked them for about 2.5 hours until they were tender and almost falling off the bone.  
• I opened up the foil, turned the ribs meaty side up, poured the reserved marinade over the top and broiled the ribs for about 7 or 8 minutes (until the marinade was bubbly and caramelized).
• Served with rice and sauteed veggies.

Super Bowl Bloody Marys

Here in Indonesia, Super Bowl Sunday occurs at 6:30 am on Monday morning... Tim insisted on getting up for it since his Giants are in the game. This early rising necessitates a special beverage and breakfast foods.  Bloody Marys it is!

Here's the recipe we made up based on ingredient availability (i.e. no celery salt, no horseradish, no lemon):

2 cups tomato juice

3 ounces vodka

3/4 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup lime juice

1 teaspoon Sriracha

Fresh cracked pepper and a pinch of sea salt

Celery sticks, lime wedges and olives for garnish

Mix all ingredients, shake with ice, pour into glasses, garnish, drink.

Served with scrambled eggs, hash browns and the unappetizingly named "streaky bacon" from Bali.

Tofu and Veggie Fried Rice

We made way too much pilaf for Sunday's Armenian-style horovatz, so I decided to make fried rice with all of the leftovers, also incorporating the leftover beet greens and stems. Feeling a little sluggish after a weekend of drinking and meat-eating, I decided to do a non-traditional spicy tofu and veggie fried rice with a little egg, loosely based on a couple fried rice recipes from Jaden Hair at Steamy Kitchen. My recipe after the jump!

Orange Pan-Glazed Tofu

Colleen sent me this tasty looking orange pan-glazed tempeh/tofu recipe a couple weeks ago, but I didn't get around to giving it a try until this week, and she's busy hiking the Inca Trail... good news is, the recipe is great, so I'm happy to make it for her when she gets back. I bet at that point, she'll probably be ready for a break from Peru's national dish, guinea pig.Crispy tofu coated in a sour, sweet, gingery glaze was delicious served with rice (to which I added some lime juice, cilantro and minced scallions) and roasted broccoli. The only change I made to the recipe (because it seems like I'm incapable of making a recipe word-for-word these days) was to add a couple big squirts of Sriracha to the glaze prior to adding to the tofu, because I like it spicy.

Chicken Meatball and Noodle Soup

I've been fighting off/dealing with a cold for the past couple days, so Tim and I decided chicken soup might be a tasty and comforting cure-all... Loosely based on these 2 recipes, we ground up some boneless chicken thighs in the food processor, threw them together with ginger, scallion, cornstarch, Sriracha, sesame oil, soy sauce and garlic, and rolled them into little meatballs. Then we seared the meatballs in the soup pot to crisp them up, took them out and set them to the side. Then we threw in a bunch of chicken broth, sliced ginger, scallions, rice wine, soy sauce and Sriracha and let it cook for a while. Strained out the ginger slices, gently dropped the meatballs back in to cook for a few minutes, then threw in some coarsely chopped bok choy and julienne cut carrots at the end.

Pretty good!

Crunchy Sriracha Chicken Strips

I saw these Sriracha chicken strips and knew I had to try them... they were pretty good! Spicy, gingery and crispy! Very easy, too.

Served with the same sesame stir-fried asparagus we tried and liked a few weeks ago (although I spiked the recipe with some Sriracha, too!).

Deviled Eggstravanganza!

After attending the always fabulous 6th Annual Eggstravaganza at the Marks-Finder household, we found ourselves with a plethora of hard-boiled eggs, just begging to be deviled. (Does anyone else read "deviled" like "de-viled" as opposed to "devil-ed"? Maybe it's just me.)

Chuck had the day off, so she was the devil-er. She rocked out six different and delicious types of devil, as follows, from left to right:

Herbed deviled eggs: chock full of fresh herbs

Lemon dill deviled eggs: similar to the herbed eggs, but with a lemony kick

Chipotle deviled eggs: smoky and spicy

Deviled eggs with capers, dill and cucumber: a little chunky from the cukes and vinegary capers

Avocado deviled eggs: nice in theory, but not devily enough/a little boring

Sriracha deviled eggs: of course, these spicy MFs were the most devilish and, therefore, the best of the bunch

Banh Mi: Vietnamese Pork Meatball Subs

I saw this pork meatball banh mi recipe in Bon Appetit's January issue and knew I had to make it... banh mi are (is?) basically Vietnamese grinders/hoagies/subs/what have you.

Conveniently, the CSA had the carrots and daikon radishes (which look eerily like my nemesis, the parsnip) that make up the slaw that the recipe uses to compliment the meatballs. Also, it calls for plenty of everybody's favorite spicy sauce, Sriracha.

If you dig on swine, I highly recommend you give this recipe a try... the recipe really made only enough meatballs for 4 sandwiches, but it made a ton of the carrot/daikon slaw, more than necessary.