Review and recipe: Sambal French beans with Tempe and beancurd

You would probably know this dish if you frequent any Nasi Padang stall. The highlight of this dish would be the Tempe, fermented beans packed with protein. It's quite hard to describe the taste but I would say it is like al denta beans compressed, bland, but good with sambal!
Traditionally, Tempe is handmade and wrapped in leaves. However, thanks to Today's technology, you can easily find it at NTUC supermarket, under the halal cold section. (See pic below)
So I'm very happy to find everything I wanted in NTUC. French beans, Tempe, bean curd and Kokita's Sambal Balado.
According to my Indonesian friend, Kokita is a very famous brand so we are blessed to be able to have it readily available in Singapore. I would say that this paste is a little spicy so if you would prefer it to be spicier, you can dice chili padi to add extra punch to it. It is also on the salty side, so people like me who prefers your sambal to be a little sweet can add sugar to it. Otherwise, it is good alone. With this paste, it recommends you to make sambal hard boil eggs, which is good for nasi lemak, Nasi Padang or even Briyani.
Overall, this is a versatile sauce and it made my mum take notice of the dish, complimenting and checking out more of its products. So it's worthwhile getting!

Ingredients:
1 pack french beans washed, plucked off ends and cut
1 pack Tempe diced
1 pack bean curd sliced
Oil
2 tablespoon Kokita sambal Balado
1 tablespoon brown sugar

1. Heat the wok on medium heat and pour in oil.
2. When oil is heated, place bean curd and do not touch it until it is thoroughly cook through, if not it will break as the skin will stick to the wok.
3. Flip over when the beancurd is cooked through and is brown.
4. When both sides are brown, it is done. Remove from heat.
5. Place in diced tempe and pan fry on both sides until golden brown. Remove from heat.
6. Sautée French beans and add Kokita's sambal Balado and sugar. Stir fry and simmer for a while. Add a couple of tablespoon full of water if you desire.
7. When French beans are almost cooked through, add Tempe and beancurd and make sure every piece is coated in the sambal.
8. Now it's done! Enjoy it with hot rice!

Inspiring yummy mummies
PoshPearl

Easy Japanese Bento Set recipe.

Preparing Japanese food at home can actually be easy and hassle free. You just got to decide what you want to eat then head off the buy ingredients, cook and assemble.

The following bento takes less than 1 hour to prepare!

Here's the little dishes incorporated in my bento:
Unagi
Yakitori (chicken and quail egg)
Yakiniku
Chawamushi
Mild Japanese chicken curry
Salmon sashimi
Japanese Rice

Please look through the ingredients list and cook in the following order to maximize time and freshness of food.

1. Japanese Rice
3 cups Japanese rice for 6 servings
Cook according to package.

2. Chawamushi:
Ingredients:
(makes 6 cups of chawamushi)

6 frozen shrimps, thawed (frozen packed shrimps are crunchier than fresh ones and are used in restaurants)
3 kani (imitation Japanese snow crab legs)
6 slices of Kamaboko (Japanese fish cake)
1 chicken thigh cut into 6 cubes
6 quarter sliced shiitake mushrooms
1 tablespoon of Japanese shoyu (available from Daiso or Medi-ya)
Pepper
280ml of water
60ml of Kikkoman Hon Tsuyu (available at NTUC finest or Medi-ya)
3 eggs, beaten
Optional: salmon roe/caviar/sliced
Unagi

Equipments
6 sets of daiso chawamushi
Porcelain cups with lids
Steaming cloth if there's no lid on cups
Sieve
Measuring cup
Frying pan
Steamer
1 satay stick

1. Season cubed chicken thighs with shoyu and pepper.
2. Slice Kani into halves.
3. Heat frying pan, add a little oil, heat for 1 minute on low heat.
4. Pan fry cubed chicken thigh on both surfaces for 1 minute on each side. Remove and set aside.
5. On Medium heat, pan fry shrimps for 30 seconds to 1 minute on each side, or has changed color.
6. Place in each cup, 1 of each: shrimp, chicken, kani, Kamaboko, shiitake mushroom.
7. Mix water and kikkoman Hon Tsuyu. The taste should be like Japanese broth. Add more Hon Tsuyu if you like.)
8. Add beaten eggs to broth and sieve egg mixture.
9. Carefully pour egg mixture into each cup, making sure you cover the filling. If there's excess, distribute the mixture again.
10. If you don't have porcelain cups
With lids, pls get a steaming cloth from Daiso, wet and tie the cloth to the cover of your steamer, add water to steamer and bring to boil.

11. Place cups in aluminum tray and steam for 15 minutes on medium heat. To check if cooked, use satay stick to pierce through and if liquid comes out clear, you are done!
12. Serve immediately! Top with salmon roe/caviar/sliced
Unagi if you wish.

3. Mild Japanese chicken curry
Ingredients:
1 pack mild Vermont curry
1 big yellow onion roughly chopped
2 russet potatoes peeled and roughly chopped
Cubed chicken thighs, pat dry
Oil
1. heat pot and add oil.
2. When oil is heated up, add onions and potatoes.
3. Pan fry until brown, add chicken and pan fry until surface brown.
4. Pour water to over all ingredients.
5. Bring to boil.
6. Simmer till potatoes are cooked through.
7. Add curry cubes, according to thickeness and liking. Do taste test.
8. When satisfied bring to a boil. Now it's ready!

4. Yakitori (scallop and quail egg)
Ingredients:
12 scallops
12 Boiled quail eggs
Yakitori sauce
Shredded seaweed for garnishing
1. String scallops onto skewers and Pan fry on medium heat on your flat pan.
2. Turn down to low heat. Add Yakitori sauce, simmer for a while on both sides.
3. Once scallops are cooked through, remove and add quail egg. Drizzle more yakitori sauce and it's ready!

5. Yakiniku
1 pack Shabu Shabu pork 200g
1 tablespoon Yakiniku sauce
Sesame seeds for garnish
Oil
1. heat wok with oil.
2. On medium heat add Shabu Shabu pork and use chopsticks to separate the slices to cook evenly.
3. Add yakiniku sauce and stir fry for 2 minutes. Now it's done!

6. Unagi
Get a pack of frozen unagi of your choice and place the sealed bag of unagi in boiling water for a few minutes. You are done with that!


7. Sashimi
Buy your own choice of sashimi and only prepare when you have assemble the rest of the dishes.
Do use the given wasabi and use your clean and dry hands to shape it into a leaf shape and use toothpick to create veins of the leaf for decoration.


Now enjoy this lovely Japanese dinner with your loved ones! Hope you like this recipe!

Inspiring Yummy Mummies
PoshPearl



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