Monday, November 7, 2011

Malaysia fast side-dish

Our first batch of Mid/Late-August sowed Redland Pioneer bush bean started to produce many beans to pick last week and we shared some with our neighbour. Some Pak choi, sprouting broccoli and leek were also harvested last week.
We made a quick dish of Stir-fry beef and bean with black been sauce. I am not that much a fan of beans but I have to admit I enjoyed it because those bean tasted sweet. Moreover, unexpectedly my boys like to eat home-grown and home-cooked bean. 
Crushed 2 cloves garlic and and inch of ginger. Heat a little oil in the wok for frying about 300gram of slice beef. Fry the beef first till tender. Lift it up. Then saute garlic and ginger. Add in beef, bean or some carrot or leek and mix well with about 5 tablespoon of black bean sauce in the wok till those bean cooked. For seasoning, I add a spoon of sugar. A fast food to prepare on a busy day to enjoy together with a bowl of steamed rice.
Harvested some few remaining over-wintered carrots and beetroots.

My cousin Lenay surprised me by using beetroot in one of Malaysia traditional dish popular in Negeri Sembilan state where my father grew up. It is a very easy to make and well-loved dish that I think mama will at least cook it once a week for the family. The dish is known as "Berlada" basically means any spicy fried food coated with chilli paste. You can used fresh or dried chili and blended it well into paste for the basic ingredient. Usually fried anchovies will be mixed together with fried fermented soy bean (tempe) or potato or nuts with chili paste. This is Lenay version of ikan bilis, ubi kentang dan beetroot masak berlada ( Spicy anchovies, potato and beetroot).
Prepare chilli paste ( I usually keep a container of chilli paste from dried chilli in fridge that last me for 2 weeks, or pound 5~7 big chillies well this will depend on the chilli variety hotness you are going to use).
Cut 1 beetroot and 1 big potato size into wedges and fried them separately until a little crispy. A half bowl of fried anchovies.
Heat some oil into the wok, not too much oil or it will be oily. It will be very much depended on how many spoon of chilli paste you want to use. Maybe oil and chili paste ratio should be 1:1. To be on the safer side the amount of oil should be a little bit less than the the chilli. Add in chilli paste (about 3 tablespoon), cook and stir until the oil starts to come out at the side or fragrant. You know it will be ready if you start to sneeze. Then add in fried anchovies, beetroot and potatoes. Stir to coat them with chilli paste evenly. Enjoy with steamed rice. I found another way to cook beetroot that I like thanks to Lenay. 
I cleared a pot of polystyrene container that were growing excess seedlings of brown onions because it look more like spring onions now. I doubt it will produce decent bulb. We also harvested a cauliflower. Just had it for dinner and it was so crisp and sweet.
What to do with those look-alike spring onions.
Well mostly for garnishing.
We used those spring onions to garnish sesame honeyed-fried prawn.

26 comments:

shaz said...

So many delicious dishes. Thanks for the shout-out :) Oh now I realise the name is "berlada", ah! Never tried with beetroot before.

Bee Girl said...

What wonderful harvests!!! Great recipes, too! How exciting!

Sonia ~ Nasi Lemak Lover said...

Now I know what is call as Berlada, I like the Tempe Berlada with ikan . All your dish sound so delicious and healthy .

Sue Garrett said...

I picked lots of beetroot yesterday so will be cooking them today.

Lrong Lim said...

Wooh, all the dishes look so delicious...

tina said...

I can just imagine how sweet and crunchy that cauliflower was!

Robin said...

Beautiful harvest and such wonderful dishes! Thanks for sharing your great recipes!

rainfield61 said...

Forget to greet you Selamat Hari Raya Haji.

Yes, Selamat Hari Raya Haji.

wilderness said...

What interesting recipes. Much different that what I cook but am always interested in different ways of preparing food. I will add your blog to my favorites. Thanks for sharing.

kitsapFG said...

Beautiful harvests this week. That cauliflower in particular is very nice looking. The description of those recipes made me hungry - and I just ate breakfast!

Mark Willis said...

You eat so many lovely dishes! It must be great to be able to combine your traditional fare from Malaysia with the completely different "Western" dishes which I imagine are more common in Australia.

Makarimi Abdullah said...

Great harvest and delicious recipes...my mouth watering ;)

Barbie~ said...

Stirfry and prawns? Oh YUM! :-) Nice harvest and your dishes look great!

Phoebe said...

That looks GREAT Diana! What's your recipe for the honey fried prawns?

Jennifer@threedogsinagarden said...

Everything you have prepared sounds delicious. I have never heard of beetroot being cooked in this way . (My mother used to boil them which is bland and boring!) Your version sounds way more interesting!

Malar said...

That's alot of harvest and delicous dishes!

Liz said...

That's fabulous that you have beans already! Lovely looking stir fry. Those sesame prawns look great! Would you post a recipe?

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Shaz~I think if potato not around can substitute with beetroot. Beetroot taste much sweeter than potatoes anyway. So the combination of spicy and sweet works for us.

Bee Girl~Simple cooking to enjoy home-grown veggies.

Sonia~I like tempe berlada with ikan too.

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Lrong~They are just so simple dish. Nothing fancy.

Tina~It was one of the precious cauliflower left for this year.

Robin~Its the common dish we always prepare.

Rainfield61~Thank you for the wish.

Wilderness~I am also eager to learn new ways from different region on how to prepare and enjoy our home-grown.

KitsapFG~We have only few cauliflowers that look not that bad.

Mark~The fusion of east and west is fun and interesting. globalisation.

Orchid~ I am dreaming of traditional raya food.

Barbie~My boys like prawn so we have them once a week.

Phoebe~I will try to post a recipe of that honey fried prawn.

Jennifer~It was fun to think of a new way to enjoy beetroot.

Malar~Sekali-kala main masak-masak...hehehe...

Liz~I tried sowing bush bean earlier in our most sunny patch since we don't have any frost here. So that they flower bloom in the right time when the weather was warm to start producing. Maybe I will post a recipe for this prawn.

Norma Chang said...

I am with your boys, I too like home grown beans.
When you say anchovies, do you mean fresh anchovies? If it is canned anchovies, half bowl of fried anchovies seems an awful lot.

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Norma~ We used dried anchovies which is more commonly used in Southeast Asian cuisine. Also known as 'ikan bilis'. It just about an inch or less size. It is very crispy when fried.

Lou Murray's Green World said...

Fascinating post. I loved seeing what you did with your harvests, especially the spring onions. Glad your boys liked the green beans.

lena said...

you're good! the beef dish looks delicious, a lot of chinese also cook just like the way you cook this.

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Lou~Malaysian like to use spring onions for garnishing in many kind of main or side dish or soups.

Lena~We are lucky to brought up in a country rich with many cultures which influenced our cookings.

Biren @ Roti n Rice said...

Your stir fry beef looks delicious! I have been thinking of making that berlada dish for a while but never got round to it with all the holiday cooking at this time of the year. Hope to do it soon :)

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Biren~It will be a suitable dish after the very busy holiday festive season. This will give you plenty to rest after the busy season. Short time preparation and less dishes to wash.