Mixed-Vegetables Stirfry

I still had some fresh bell peppers in my fridge plus other vegetables I bought this week. So, I decided to make a quick and easy stirfry of mixed-veggies.

Ingredients:
1 cup mixed-color paprika/bell pepper, chopped
1 cup sweet baby corn, chopped
2 cups white oyster mushroom, chopped
1 cup shredded purple cabbage
1 cup chopped Chinese cabbage
3 shafts leek, oblique cut
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 cup prawn
1 cup chicken breast, cubed
2 Tbs oyster sauce
3 Tbs salted soya sauce
3 Tbs vegetable oil
2 cups water
1 Tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
ground pepper(optional)

Sweet Baby Corn, Mixed-Color Paprika, and Leeks

Mushrooms

Puple Cabbage & Chinese Cabbage

Prawns & Chicken Breast

How to:

1. Sauté garlic until it turn brown and fragrant. Stir in prawns and chicken breast. Add soya sauce and oyster sauce. Stir until the prawns and chicken breasts change color.

2. Stir in baby corn, paprika and leek. Stir for a while.

3. Add purple and Chinese cabagge.

4. And finally, add the oyster mushroom. Stir all ingredients well.

5. Add water, sugar, salt and pepper(optional). You may need to adjust the salt according to your taste (remember that the salted soya sauce and the oyster sauce will have rendered some saltiness already, so just add a little amount of salt first and try if it's already enough. Feel free to add more). Continue to cook. Let it boils for a couple of minutes until the veggies are tender. Serve with steamed rice.

Spicy Steamed Fish Head

The weather had been bleak for days and the sky had been gray and foggy the whole morning. It made me hesitant to go out, though I had wanted to shop for several run out items like vinegar and butter. In rainy season like this, I usually consume a lot of ginger tea or more spicy food to warm up my body. Since Indonesian is an archipelagic country surrounded by the sea, thus, Indonesian diet consists of a lot of seafood, mostly fish. We do have abundance of fish - many kinds, which we are very grateful for 'cause we have such immense source of protein from the sea.

So, I decided to cook spicy steamed fish head (Chinese style) and here is the recipe:

2 big red snapper fish heads (halved)

2 cloves of garlic (minced)

5 cm of young ginger (julienned) (add more as you like) 

10 hot Thai chayenne pepper (diced, if you don't like spicy leave the pepper undiced) - you can use any paddy chilli too (green ones)

2-3 small calamansi citrus to marinate the fish heads (you can subsitute it with lime or lemon juice just enough to season the fish head in order to eliminate the fishy smell) 

2 Tbs of vegetable oil for sautéing

2 Tbs of sesame oil

3-5 Tbs of salted soya sauce (adjust it according to your taste, I usually don't use anymore salt so I just add more to reach the salty taste).

1 Tbs of salted soya bean (optional) - if you use salted soya bean, you may want to lessen the salted soya sauce.

11/2 tsp of sugar

1 - 1 1/2 cup of water

2 sprigs of scallion, sliced

How to:
1. Marinate the fish heads with the lime juice for 5-10 mins, drained. Place the fish heads in a tin plate. 

2. Pre-heat the steamer and sauté garlic with vegetable oil until fragrant, add diced chilli, ginger, salted soya sauce, sesame oil and salted soya bean(optional). Keep sautéing until it turns brown. 

3.Transfer the sautéd ingredients over the fish heads, sprinkle sugar on top of it, add water.

4. Place the the tin plate in the steamer when the steamer is boiling or ready. Steam for 15 mins.

5.Remove the plate from the steamer when it's done and sprinkle with sliced scallion. Serve with steamed rice.

Sometimes I use dehydrated red pepper though fresh paddy chilli/hot pepper is best