Sambal Seafood Medley

Happy new Year 2011!

Here's a posting to get me back on track with the theme of this blog, which is cooking.

Sambal tumis with seafood, especially squid is one of my favourite Malaysian dishes.

I managed to pick up some prepared seafood from a local supermarket and thought I'd make some fresh sambal (chilli ) sauce to cook this.

The ingredients for the sauce are red chillies, onions (preferable shallots which I did not have at the time), garlic, toasted belacan (fermented shrimp paste) and tamarind juice.

Its best to pound it manually in a pestle and mortar but I was lazy and used a blender. I added salt and sugar during the blending process.

Then heat plenty of oil in a pan, brown some sliced onions, then add sauce and fry till fragant.

Then add seafood and fry for 3 - 5 minutes. Not too long or it will turn tough and dry, especially if you are using octopus.

And finally here is the dish. Would have looked better with some coriander garnish, but I had none at the time.

Sambal Sotong ( Chilli Squid )

Everytime I make some sambal paste, I freeze some and use it for various dishes at another time. Here is one, which is essentially the same sauce I used for this Nasi Lemak dish here.

Such simplicity! Fry the sambal, then add the cleaned squid and cook for 10-15 minutes and that's it. One of my favourite Malaysian dishes which you cannot buy anywhere, but in Malaysian restaurants, and even then, the quality is unpredictable.

Nasi Kandar

Some pics I took from my visit to M'sia last year.
In the middle of a hectic shoppping trip in one of the huge malls in KL, it's great to be able to take a breather in a food court which serves up to hundreds of different dishes, to replenish your energy. However, the problem is that there is such a big variety to choose from, and when your time there is limited, what do you do?

For me, I always resort to the Nasi Kandar stall. A plate of plain or coconut rice, and I select the meat and veg from dozens of mainly spicy dishes on display.




This one above was from the food court in 1-Utama and consisted of a fried kembung fish (like mackerel) marinated with spices, four angled beans in sambal, and brown reconstituted squid in sambal.

This one was from Mid Valley mall in Bangsar. Seemed a bit pricey, so I dunno if I have been ripped off or not. It cost me RM10. Consisted of long beans with white squid strips in sambal, cockles in sambal, and a type of four angled bean (direct translation from its Chinese name!), also with sambal!

A you can probably tell, I am quite fond of sambal (chilli paste with other spices like belacan) over the curry dishes, mainly because I can easily get curries in Manchester, but not good sambal.

These were not the best nasi kandar I have ever had, but when you have been living away for so long, anything will do!

Lobster Fried Ho Fun

Another treat for the Chinese New Year fortnight. Managed to get a frozen Canadian lobster. Added some other bits of seafood and then fried it with garlic, rice wine, soy and oyster sauce, then poured stock over it and thickened with cornflour. Then I poured the whole lot over plain fried ho fun (with a bit of sweet and light soy). This is my version of "wat tan hor" but without the egg cuz I never seem to get it right and always overcook the egg.

Chinese New Year Dinner

To celebrate CNY, I cooked up something with a red theme. Not all thew dishes were of this colour but two were. Not a massive feast as there are only the three of us in the family, but nevertheless, I ensured that it was something we dont have everyday.

For once, healthy eating was not a consideration!

Here is the meal all laid out. Rice and drinks not in view.




Butter tiger prawns, made with curry paste, butter, curry leaves, green chillies and garlic. Garnished with coarse black pepper and garlic salt.



Deep fried battered squid. Batter was made light and fluffy by using egg and carbonated water.



Sweet and sour pork. Using the same batter as the squid somehow did not work so well, as it got soggy very quickly once the sauce was added. Next time, I will make a tougher batter for the pork. Sauce was shop bought.




Thai shrimp crackers. Cositing 4 times more than ordinary prawn crackers, but tastes only twic as good, so I would consider this a bit overpriced!



Got another week and a half left of CNY, so I'll have plenty more excuses for more unhealthy meals like these!