Spicy Water Spinach (Kangkong) Salad a.k.a Plecing Kangkung

Plecing kangkung is the specialty dish from Lombok (the small island nearby Bali). Some recipes use palm/ coconut sugar, some don't. I'm a real Javanese and we like sweet food so much, so  I add small amount  of palm sugar in this recipe. When my beloved mom still alive, she likes to make the similar dish called 'Cemeding Kangkung'. I'm not sure where this name came from. I found that Plecing Kangkung, Cemeding Kangkung and Brambang Asem (that's the way Solonese called, in Semarang they call it with another name that I'm still trying to remember what it is- finally I recall it, yes, Semarangese call it Glandir) are similar but actually they are slightly different. The 'sambal' (spicy condiment) for Plecing Kangkung uses garlic and the acidity comes from lemon. While the 'sambal' for Cemeding Kangkung doesn't use garlic but the acidity comes from tamarind (the sambal for Cemeding Kangkung is the same with the one used for Rujak (spicy fruit salad)). Brambang asem (Javanese language) in English means shallot and tamarind. For this dish, the original recipe uses shallot and tamarind, without garlic. It also uses sweet potato's leaves instead of water spinach. But it has similar taste with Plecing Kangkung and Cemeding Kangkung.

Right now I'm going to share Plecing Kangkung's recipe:

Ingredients:

1 package of water spinach

For the 'sambal' (spicy condiment) to blend:

2 cloves of garlic

6 red Thai chilli peppers

1/2 tsp shrimp paste

1 medium sized tomato

2 tbs of palm sugar/ coconut sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tbs lemon juice from squeezed lemon

Direction:

Boil the water spinach until tender, make sure it's not over cooked and the leaves still in a light green color. 

Boil or steam garlic, red Thai chili peppers and tomato until tender. When they're tender enough, blend it altogether with shrimp paste, palm sugar, salt and lemon juice.

Serve the water spinach over the plate and pour the spicy condiment (sambal) on top of it.

Serving 2 people

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Laotian Chicken Laap

I like to try some foods from different country and Winnipeg is the best place for that. You name it! Indian food, Filipino, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Laotian, Thailand, Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Korean, France, Spanish, Portugese, Japanese, Ukrainian, etc...all you'll find it in here! Except Indonesian...so I'm expecting one day there is Indonesian open Indonesian restaurant...it would be awesome! First time went to Laotian restaurant calls the Taste of Laos, I didn't have any clue what I'm going to eat. We asked the waiter and he said the most popular Laotian food is Laap and beef and vegetable stir fry. So we tried both of them. The stir fry is like any other stir fry except they have really tangy taste, I think they put some herbs in it . While the laap is excellent, it tasted really Herby and definitely healthy food. Afterward I really want to make it by myself and started to search around in the internet and found a perfect recipe. So here it is the recipe which I have modified it:

 Ingredients:

2 chicken breast, slice it and bake it in the preheat oven for 30 minutes in 350 degrees F

10 cm lemongrass

2 shallots

3 cloves of garlic

A handful of cilantro

A handful of mint leaves

A handful of sticky rice, toast it and grind it to get sticky rice powder

4 tbs fish sauce

3 red Thai chili peppers, finely chopped

2 tsp black pepper

1 lemon, squeeze it to get lemon juice

Couple of iceberg lettuce

Sticky rice

Direction:

Put baked chicken breast, cilantro, mint leaves, lemongrass, shallots, garlic in a food processor to get finely chopped.

Take it from the food processor, mix altogether with fish sauce, chili peppers, black pepper, lemon juice and mix it thoroughly.

We usually eat it wrapped with iceberg lettuce and complement with sticky rice.

Serving 2 people

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Russian Salad

I still have a few beets left over from the summer picking garden and I just want to using it before it's getting bad. So I was thinking to make salad. After looked around in my book Super Salad, I found Russian Salad. I love beets...So here I am trying to make Russian Salad..

Ingredients:

5 beets, small until medium size

2 medium pickled cucumber, sliced it

1/2 medium red onion, slice it

Dressing:

1 1/2 tbs sour cream

1 1/2 tbs mayonnaise

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp white wine vinegar

Direction:

Wash beets gently, don't peel off the skin. Bring it to boil around 20-25 minutes until it gets tender.

When it tender enough, let it chill. Usually cook it in advance so that they chill enough.

Peel off its skin and cut into wedges.

Mix together beets, pickled cucumbers and sliced red onion.

Mix all the dressing ingredients.

Toss vegetables with dressing until combined.

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