January 17, 2011
Sayur Lodeh
One of my favourite vegetable dishes is the Sayur Lodeh, a gravy for lontong (rice cakes), although I much prefer it to be eaten with rice (I’m not lontong’s biggest fan). It is some sort of a vegetable medley…a coconut based vegetable stew which is quite popular in Singapore, Malaysia as well as Indonesia.
The recipe I have is taken off the Asian Cookbook, but true to being me, I have to modify it. The original recipe requires the use of shrimp paste (belachan) as well as small dried shrimps, which, had I use it in any of my dish, Silver Bullet will definitely avoid it like a plague! And because I modify it as I go along, I might , once in awhile miss some ingredients…
Anyhow, here’s my version without the use of any shrimps/shrimp paste if you are willing to give it a go.
- 4 red fresh chillies, sliced
- ½” turmeric root or ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
- 2-3 cloves garlic
- 5 shallots, sliced
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- 1 (pref. beef) stock cube
- 500 ml very thin coconut milk
- 1 slice galangal root, bruised
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 carrot, cubed
- 1 cabbage, sliced
- Tofu, cubed (lightly fried)
- Long beans, sliced
- Mung bean vermicelli
- ½ teaspoon brown sugar
- Salt to taste
- Blend chillies, tumeric,garlic, shallots and coriander powder. Set aside.
- Heat oil and fry the blended ingredients until browned and fragrant.
- Add in the stock cube. Then the coconut milk, galangal and bay leaf.
- Stir and bring to boil.
- Add in the vegetables in the order they require cooking (in this case, carrot, long beans, mung bean vermicelli and toufu)
- Add sugar and salt to taste.Return to boil. Add water if you want a thinner soup.
- Serve hot with rice.