Orak Arik Wortel--Carrots and Cabbage with Eggs

After the excess of feasting that is Thanksgiving in the United States, this is a simple, restrained vegetarian recipe.  As in many countries where animal protein is expensive and not a part of the daily diet of much of the society, in Indonesia eggs are a relatively inexpensive source of protein.  Orak arik are simple scrambles of vegetables and eggs. 

While a lot of Indonesian food is generously spiced, orak arik dishes tend to be rather tame.  The ingredients and the spicing indicate a Dutch influence.  According to this site, the orange carrots we are used to today evolved from varieties cultivated by the Dutch in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.  The Indonesian word for carrot--wortel--is taken directly from the Dutch.

Although this could be served as an accompaniment to a meat dish such as grilled chicken or fish, it also is satisfying on its own with some rice.  Especially after the glut of indulgence these last few days, a dish like this is simply satisfying. 

Orak Arik Wortel

printable recipe

1 1/2 cups julienned carrots (about 3 medium carrots)
1 1/2 cups shredded cabbage
2--3 shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 TBS oil for stir frying

Heat oil in a wok or frying pan over medium-high heat.  Add shallots and garlic and fry until fragrant.  Then add carrots and cabbage and stir fry until carrots soften, around five minutes.  Stir in eggs, salt and pepper, and scramble until eggs and vegetables are well mixed and eggs are thoroughly cooked.  Serve with steamed rice.

You may notice I added sliced chiles, but those are strictly optional.

Choy Sum Stir Fried with Eggs--Cah Caisim Orak-arik Telur

Indonesian food is a marvelous melange of ingredients and influences from around the world.  Peanuts, native to South America, were brought to Asia by the Portuguese.  Although nutmeg and cloves are native to Indonesia, many other spices commonly used in Indonesian dishes, including coriander and cumin, drifted to the islands from traders to the west.  Dutch, Portuguese, Arabic, Indian, Chinese and Champa influences are evident in the culture and cuisine of Indonesia.  Although  Chinese were reported to comprise less than 2% of the the population in the 2000 census, they have had a disproportionally large impact on Indonesian society and culture.  Of course, one of the greatest areas of impact is on the food.

There are countless recipes entitled orak arik.  Simply meaning scrambled, these are simple stir fry dishes in which eggs are scrambled with vegetables.  They are quick, flavorful, and a good source for protein for people unable to afford or not wanting to consume meat.  The ingredients as well as the cooking method point to the obvious Chinese origin of this dish.  Along with some steamed rice it makes for a most satisfying meal.

This is another recipe adapted from 240 Resep Hindangan Sehari-Hari untuk 2 Bulan 

(240 Recipes of Dishes for Every Day for 2 Months).

Cah Caisim Orak-arik Telur

1 bunch of choy sum (about 1/2 pound) cut in 2-inch lengths
2 eggs, beaten
2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
4 shallots, thinly sliced
2 red chiles, thinly sliced on the diagonal
1 tsp fish sauce
1 TBS oyster sauce
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/4 tsp sugar
2 TBS water
2 green onions, sliced into 1/2-inch pieces on the diagonal

2 TBS oil for stir-frying

Heat the oil in a wok and stir in the garlic, shallots and chiles.  Briefly fry until fragrant, then push to the side of the wok.  Add the beaten eggs and stir until scrambled.  Then add the choy sum, stirring until limp.  Add the fish sauce, oyster sauce, salt, pepper, and sugar.  Fry quickly, tossing the vegetables and eggs to coat thoroughly with the sauce.  Add the water and cook for a minute or two so everything is well cooked.  Stir in the green onions.  Remove from heat and pour into a serving dish.  Serve immediately.  (Although in Indonesia this might well be cooked at noon and not be eaten until several hours later, most Americans will probably enjoy this dish served hot.)

Brussels Sprouts with Red Pepper and Bacon

Until last year, I didn't eat brussels sprouts.  This is not that surprising since I long had an aversion to cabbage, and brussels sprouts are kind of an uber cabbage.  The smell of them cooking repulsed me. The smell of steamed brussels sprouts, which is the way Tjing usually cooks them, is the smell of decrepitude and death.  Walk into a house where brussels sprouts have been steamed and my first reaction is to look for the corpse rotting in the rocking chair.

One way to explain my new found appreciation for brussels sprouts is that taste buds change as we age.  There's a greater receptivity for bitterness.  It's as if our taste buds have themselves adjusted to increasing levels of bitterness as we age.  Another way to explain my change of heart towards brussels sprouts is that as I've aged I've become increasingly comfortable with the stench of of decrepitude and death.  Either way, brussels sprouts have become my new feel good vegetable.

This version is similar to a dish in Momofuku.  I had some home cured bacon that I was looking to use up, so I thought I'd give this a try.  The sprouts are stir fried in bacon fat along with a sweet long pepper and tossed with some nuoc cham.  The bacon pieces are returned to the dish to coat with the reduced sauce just before serving.

Brussels Sprouts with Red Pepper and Bacon

printable recipe

1 lb brussels sprouts, halved

1 long sweet red pepper or red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
a few tablespoons of water

2 slices thick cut bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1/4 cup nuoc cham with caramel sauce

In a wok or large frying pan, crisp the bacon piece over medium low heat.  Remove the bacon pieces and drain on paper towels. Turn the heat up to medium high.  Add the brussels sprouts, cut halves down.  Brown the sprouts, then add the pepper.  Stir fry a few minutes until vegetables are charred at spots.  Add a little water and cover the wok.  When the brussels sprouts are cooked through but still crunchy, add the nuoc cham.  Continue cooking and stirring until the sauce has been reduced to a glaze and the vegetables are thoroughly coated. Stir in the bacon pieces just before serving.

Nuoc Cham with Caramel Sauce

1/3 cup fish sauce
1/3 cup water
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/4 cup Vietnamese caramel sauce
juice of 1 lime
2 TBS sriracha sauce
1/4  to 1/2 cup white sugar, to taste

Pan-fried prawns with pea shoots

Since our niece (who is allergic to seafood) was out of the house for the night, I decided to make hay while the sun shone. That is, I decided to fry up some prawns. So I went down to the Asian Market on Broadway, picked up some meaty prawns and some pea shoots. With good fresh ingredients, I think preparation should be simple, letting the ingredients stand out.

The pea shoots aren't usually available; according to Bruce Cost they have a short shelf life, turning tough and bitter if consumed too long after they've been picked. In his marvelous Asian Ingredients, Cost recommends cooking the pea shoots with a little sugar, salt and rice wine. I added two, small, thinly sliced cloves of garlic. Like other leafy greens, the shoots wilt considerably when fried, losing about half to two-thirds of their volume.

I decided to cook the prawns in their shell. A recipe I have enjoyed time and again is Blonder and Low's Pan-Fried Prawns in Ketchup Sauce from their Every Grain of Rice. This cookbook is every bit as enjoyable as Blonder's very fine Dim Sum, which I've mentioned in previous posts. Americans tend to avoid getting down and dirty when eating, preferring their prawns shelled. But the shells not only help the prawns retain their moisture, they also provide flavor. By cutting through the shell and deveining the prawn, but not removing the shell, you have a colorful, flavorful dish that is still ridiculously easy to eat.

Pan-Fried Prawns in Ketchup Sauce

1 pound prawns in the shell
2 TBS ketchup
1 TBS oyster sauce
1/8 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 TBS vegetable oil
2 green onions, cut into 1-inch pieces

With a sharp knife, cut each prawn through the shell just far enough to expose the sand vein down the back. Remove the sand vein. Rinse the prawns and pat them dry. (This step is important, otherwise the prawns will not brown properly.) Cut off the sharp point from the tails, but leave the rest of the shell intact.

In a small bowl, combine the ketchup, oyster sauce, white pepper, and sesame oil and set aside.

Place a large skillet or wok over high heat. Add the tablespoon of vegetable oil. Place the prawns in the pan in a single layer. Brown on one side, then turn and brown on the other. Lower the heat to medium, add the ketchup mixture, and stir to coat the prawns well. Add the green onions and continue to cook just long enough to bring out the color of the onions, about 30 seconds. Serve immediately.

Dry-Fried Long Beans

Some cookbooks are mere collections of recipes. Others are glossy productions with great photographs and narratives of the country and cuisine they cover. These may or may not have recipes that you can or would like to cook in your kitchen. Some cookbooks concentrate on one ingredient or technique and include recipes that range from the absurdly simple (Peanut Butter Toast) to the ridiculously absurd (Nepalese Yak Shanks Stuffed with Peanut Butter Millet). Each has its own appeal and it is the rare cookbook indeed that has no decent recipe.

I find my favorite cookbooks to be written by people thoroughly familiar with the cuisine they are presenting. They are not simply visitors passing through on their way to their next cookbook. They know the landscape, the history and cultural background of the cuisine and can explain why one ingredient might be used rather than another. Patricia Wells and Joyce Goldstein are wonderful in writing about the foods of France and Italy. Diana Kennedy and Rick Bayless obviously have a great understanding and respect for Mexican food and it comes out in their recipes. Although I wouldn't call it a great cookbook, I'm very fond of Sri Owen's Indonesian Food and Cookery. In making the recipes accessible to western cooks she made some questionable choices, but her authority is undeniable. Her fondness for the cooking she grew up with is clear in her writing. These are authors whose books I admire because of their ability to convey the nuances of the cuisine to the reader, not simply compiling a collection of recipes.

An author I have increasingly come to admire is Bruce Cost. Several years ago my wife insisted we buy Asian Ingredients while in Chinatown one day. I didn't think we really needed it, but I always listen to my wife. This is a book that anyone who cooks Asian food should have. Its range and depth is astounding, and Cost writes with great clarity. He covers the history and uses of different ingredients and includes a number of unique recipes (Noodles Made from Shrimp with Sea Scallops; Chrysanthemum Leaf and Fresh Water Chestnut Salad). He explains how ingredients are commonly prepared and how they shouldn't be used. Some of the recipes are traditional and others are modern fusion interpretations. It is a book that I find myself going back to again and again to get more ideas and a better understanding of the ingredients I am using. Here is his recipe for twice fried long beans.

Sichuan Dry-Fried Long Beans
1 1/2 pounds long beans (about 1 bunch)
2 1/8 cups peanut oil
1/2 pound ground pork
2 TBS chopped fresh red chili peppers, including seeds
1 TBS chopped fresh ginger
1 TBS dark soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 TBS Shoxing wine

Cut the beans into 3-inch lengths and set aside.

Heat 2 cups of the oil in a wok or heavy skillet until nearly smoking. While it's heating, chop the pork to a finer consistency. Combine the chilies and giner and set aside.

When the oil is hot, add the beans (after making sure they are thoroughly dry), and cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until they wrinkle. Remove and drain.

Drain off the oil (it may be strained and used again) and reheat the wok. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil and the pork. Cook, stiriing, over high heat just until the granules are broken up and the meat changes color. Add the soy sauce and stir for 20 seconds, then add the chilies and ginger and cook for another 30 seconds. Add the beans, sugar, salt, and wine, and cook, stirring, until piping hot. Serve.

What do you look for in a cookbook? What are some of your favorites? I'd love to hear any recommendations you might have.

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