Cooking with "Cradle of Flavor"

[C. sapidus]

Chris Amirault: Great pictorial – Ayam Panggang Sulawesi was already on my list, but it just moved up a few notches. How long did it take, start to finish?

ETA:

If only I could come over to enjoy!

Thank you very much, James. You are absolutely welcome to drop by for dinner next time you are in the neighborhood.

Edited June 6, 2007 by C. sapidus (log)

[Pan]

Chris, I'm sure the Ayam Panggang was good, but next time, try macadamia nuts; they're a good substitute for candlenuts.

[Adam Balic]

I'm surprised that candlenuts aren't on sale locally, as I was able to buy them vacuum packed even in Edinburgh (cheaper then macadamia nuts too). They should be cooked before consumption (roasted for example) as they are thought to be mildly toxic.

[anzu]

I'm confused by the references to curry leaves here. People seem to be equating curry leaves with daun salam, or have I totally misunderstood what people are saying?

Anyway, just in case anyone is equating the two, they are different, and have different tastes.

Daun salam is Eugenia polyantha, curry leaves is Murraya koenigii.

More on daun salam in the inimitable Gernot Katzer here.

Changing the subject, I thought I was done with cookbook purchases for a while, but this thread has changed my mind. Mouthwatering photos!

[Chris Amirault]

Chris Amirault: Great pictorial – Ayam Panggang Sulawesi  was already on my list, but it just moved up a few notches. How long did it take, start to finish?

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Thanks. It took about two hours, start to finish, which included all of the other dishes and prepping the grill.

I should note that we had about three cups of extra sauce left over to boot, which we're eating with rice and pickles as a quick lunch this week.

Chris, I'm sure the Ayam Panggang was good, but next time, try macadamia nuts; they're a good substitute for candlenuts.

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Yeah, that's what I was planning to do per James's recommendations, but I couldn't find macadamia nuts in a small enough portion size. I'll keep snooping around for candlenuts at other stores -- I have my fingers crossed for one in particular.

[snowangel]

Chris Amirault: Great pictorial – Ayam Panggang Sulawesi  was already on my list, but it just moved up a few notches. How long did it take, start to finish?

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Thanks. It took about two hours, start to finish, which included all of the other dishes and prepping the grill.

I should note that we had about three cups of extra sauce left over to boot, which we're eating with rice and pickles as a quick lunch this week.

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I would also think that there'd be no reason not to braise the thighs the day before and grill day of eating.

[C. sapidus]

It took about two hours, start to finish, which included all of the other dishes and prepping the grill.

Thanks for the time estimate, and good luck finding candlenuts.

I would also think that there'd be no reason not to braise the thighs the day before and grill day of eating.

Good point!

I found two more Cradle of Flavor dishes from the archives. I encourage everyone to make any of the rendangs in the book – they take a while but are so worth it.

Potato rendang in progress:

Potato rendang leftovers:

Indonesian beef rendang in progress:

Lousy picture of the only bite of beef rendang that survived a dinner party:

[djyee100]

I'm confused by the references to curry leaves here. People seem to be equating curry leaves with daun salam, or have I totally misunderstood what people are saying?

Daun salam is Eugenia polyantha, curry leaves is Murraya koenigii.

We're talking about the real curry leaves, murraya koenigii. On the handwritten list (post #19), curry leaves are listed after cardamom. Duan salam is listed separately on the facing page.

[crouching tyler]

I found candlenuts!

And I also found curry leaves, and duan salam - all at my friendly hometown Uwajimaya. Too bad I had to sit through baseball game traffic to get there. Anyway, found all sorts of good stuff and bought a fair share of it. Got to run for now, but hopefully by tomorrow there will be non-awful photos of meal #1 in my version of the Cradle of Flavor project.

[James Oseland]

I look forward to seeing the next results--the ayam panggang looks spot on.

There aren't many online sources for candlenuts, but here's one:

http://www.indomerchant.com/kemcannut.html

[C. sapidus]

Tonight we made Asiah’ eggplant curry (kari terung), from Malaysia. I used five Thai chiles, which gave the curry a good kick, nicely moderated by the coconut milk. This was absolutely delicious - sweet, spicy, fragrant vegetable candy. When the curry was finished I did as Mr. Oseland described in the book, “ate it without benefit of rice, devouring the eggplant like it was candy” (minus the rattan mat).

Ingredients:

Prepped and ready to go:

Frying the shallots, garlic, chiles, and spices:

Finished curry:

[Pan]

Bruce, that kari terung (they'd call it "gulai terung" on the East Coast of Malaysia where I used to live) looks Malaysian, but eating the lauk (side dish) without your nasi (cooked rice)? Jahat (~somewhere between "wicked" and "naughty")!

[C. sapidus]

Bruce, that kari terung (they'd call it "gulai terung" on the East Coast of Malaysia where I used to live) looks Malaysian . . .

Thanks, I appreciate your perspective as always.

. . . but eating the lauk (side dish) without your nasi (cooked rice)? Jahat (~somewhere between "wicked" and "naughty")!  

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Guilty as charged, perhaps with the additional malfeasance of eating a side dish without a main dish. I did eat rice while finishing the leftovers this morning - does that atone?

[Dejah]

I caved after reading and looking through this thread.

My copy is on its way.

[crouching tyler]

Sometimes, grocery shopping can be so much fun.

A portion of my groceries from yesterday's expedition. Ingredients for last night's dinner, and some staples:

Here's a close of up of the package of dried daun salam.

Last night's menu:

Beef Satay - Sate Sapi

Lemongrass- Scented Coconut Rice - Nasi Uduk

Javanese Cucumber & Carrot Pickle - Acar Timun

Sweet Soy Sauce & Lime Dipping Sauce - Sos Kecap Rawit

Ususally when we make Satay it is chicken satay, and it comes with this super tasty peanut sauce based on a Tom Douglas recipe. But Mr. Oseland suggested trying Beef Satay with a dipping sauce, so as to not overwhelm the taste of the beef. Smart man. This was beef candy with a sweet, bright sauce. Zero leftovers.

So, it looked a little underwhelming on the table after my two hours of puttering in the kitchen. (hey, I was making 4 new recipes at the same time - I did quite a bit of recipe reading while cooking). Some rice, some satay and a pair of condiments? But each element had so much flavor, that once we got down to to eating, it felt like nothing was missing - except maybe a couple more skewers of satay. In the future, I would probably add a vegetable side just to keep things balanced nutritionally.

And I think my rice curse has been broken. I think everyone is entitled to one food they just can't get right - no matter how simple it may be. In my case, that is rice. Sometimes, it doesn't even matter if I use a rice cooker. But, the lemongrass coconut rice, which requires a bit more attention than the usual rice recipe came out perfect. And we do actually have leftover rice, and I am looking forward to having more tonight, perhaps with some fish.

I had planned to fry up some shallots to top the rice with, but ran out of time, and frankly frying is not my favorite task. It would help if (1) we had some sort of exhaust fan in the kitchen and (2) if I wasn't a wimp about frying.

Satay attacks:

I also learned that my food processor will spray a fine dust of coriander out both sides while grinding coriander seeds. And, that as I suspected, Ting goes great with Indonesian.

As for the food photography, clearly I have a long way to go. First, I think Larry and I are going to have to learn to stop squabbling over the camera. Larry, by the way, is also the dishwasher, so I might have to let him take the pictures if I am going to keep him happy (given the amount of dishes this little project is going to generate).

[crouching tyler]

All the above food photos (okay, most of the above food photos)

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Hey!

Just for that, I have a suggestion for you: why don't you make (and occasionally post an updated version of) a list of all the recipes in the book, so you can mark off who has made what and what's left to be made?

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Soon come.

[C. sapidus]

Last night's menu:

Beef Satay - Sate Sapi

Lemongrass- Scented Coconut Rice - Nasi Uduk

Javanese Cucumber & Carrot Pickle - Acar Timun

Sweet Soy Sauce & Lime Dipping Sauce - Sos Kecap Rawit

So, it looked a little underwhelming on the table after my two hours of puttering in the kitchen.

Looks like a delicious dinner to me, and things always go slower the first time. The satay looks particularly tasty - it looks like you got a nice crust without overcooking the insides.

In the future, I would probably add a vegetable side just to keep things balanced nutritionally.

Raw veggies are great for this. If you want to stick with the book, try stir-fried Asian greens with garlic and chiles (tumis sayur) - quick, delicious, and adaptable to whatever greens look good at the store.

I had planned to fry up some shallots to top the rice with, but ran out of time, and frankly frying is not my favorite task.

Asian markets often have fried shallots in big plastic jars. We usually keep some on hand. So, what's next?

[Pan]

Bruce, that kari terung (they'd call it "gulai terung" on the East Coast of Malaysia where I used to live) looks Malaysian . . .

Thanks, I appreciate your perspective as always.

. . . but eating the lauk (side dish) without your nasi (cooked rice)? Jahat (~somewhere between "wicked" and "naughty")!  

←

Guilty as charged, perhaps with the additional malfeasance of eating a side dish without a main dish. I did eat rice while finishing the leftovers this morning - does that atone?

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Sort of, but you didn't quite get my meaning. In Malaysian food, _everything_ but the rice (or noodles) is a side dish! "Lauk" means "the stuff that gets put on the rice"!

[C. sapidus]

Sort of, but you didn't quite get my meaning. In Malaysian food, _everything_ but the rice (or noodles) is a side dish! "Lauk" means "the stuff that gets put on the rice"!

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Ah, I get it now. I have read that rice is central to many Asian countries, but the concept just doesn't seem to stick in my brain. I guess we all have our biases.

How's this: The other morning, I finished the kari terung with my leftover rice.

[C. sapidus]

Tonight we made beef satay (sate sapi) with crisp jicama and pineapple salad (rojak). The satay is a family favorite, but this was our first time making rojak. The boys weren’t crazy about the sauce, so Mrs. C and I finished most of it. Rojak has a fascinating combination of flavors and textures: pineapple, jicama, Granny Smith apple (sub for guava), cukes, mango, and papaya in the salad; roasted shrimp paste, tamarind, chiles, shallots, garlic, palm sugar, and kecap manis in the sauce.

We substituted ripe-ish mango and papaya for green mango and papaya, so our rojak lacked some of the tart counterpoint for the spicy-sweet-salty sauce. I forgot to add the peanut topping until most of the rojak was gone – oops. We have a few Thai and Chinese dinners planned, so I will sit back and enjoy what everyone makes from CoF this week.

Sate sapi

Rojak

[Pan]

Looks like you got a lot of char on your satay. That rojak looks really Malaysian. I wish I could get rojak like that in Malaysian restaurants here.

[Dejah]

Bruce: You said:

Tonight we made beef satay (sate sapi) with crisp jicama and pineapple salad (rojak). roasted shrimp paste, tamarind, chiles, shallots, garlic, palm sugar, and kecap manis in the sauce

I want to know if you roasted/toasted/whatever the shrimp paste IN the HOUSE!

I did that once in the house, and I don't think I will attempt it again. I have a side burner on the BBQ, so THAT'S where I'll be roasting the shrimp paste. better wait until the weekend when the neighbors go to their cabin.

[C. sapidus]

Looks like you got a lot of char on your satay. That rojak looks really Malaysian. I wish I could get rojak like that in Malaysian restaurants here.

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Michael: Thank you! I have never even seen rojak before, so credit to Mr. Oseland if it looks plausibly Malaysian.

I want to know if you roasted/toasted/whatever the shrimp paste IN the HOUSE!

I did that once in the house, and I don't think I will attempt it again. I have a side burner on the BBQ, so THAT'S where I'll be roasting the shrimp paste. better wait until the weekend when the neighbors go to their cabin.  

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Dejah: Aw, shrimp paste isn’t so bad. Yup, we whatevered the shrimp paste in the house, on the middle back burner with the hood fan on high (after warning the family, of course). I had the grill out tonight, so I should have experimented with outdoor whatevering.

[snowangel]

Bruce, what kind of rig did you use for grilling the sate? I'm trying to figure out how to get the first in the Trusty Old Kettle high enough (coal wise; the grate is not height-adjustable) to get the wonderful char.

BTW, last year, during the grilling and smoking blog during which it did nothing but rain, we broiled chicken sate, with less than stellar results.

[snowangel]

So, I went shopping today, and got just about everything essential. The things I didn't get were because my list wasn't detailed enough. I was just flat sure that the ddaun salam was in a the freezer case; but it's dried. I was convinced that the asam was in a jar, but no, it's in a plastic pouch.

But, other than candlenuts and shrimp chips (again, I hadn't done enough remembering to know just what should be in them or the recommended brands to make an informed decision).

But, I was pleased that my Asian market had just about everything, and pleased that I could find it. I'd have asked for help, but the place was mobbed. Gives me a good reason to return next week, and pick up a bahn mi (they were mobbed enough that the deli was depeleted).