Sambal

It’s popular now so you buy it by the bottle at the market, but I didn’t have any and wanted a more custom flavor and ingredients for an upcoming recipe. I recently bought some spicy tamarind paste which would have sufficed for the recipe but none the less wanted to cook up my own Sambal.

dried chili, plain and smoked, red onion,garlic, turmeric, scotch bonnet pepper,lemon grass,lime, galangal root,shrimp paste,ginger root,brown sugar.

The basic recipe calls for a paste made and then fried, and other ingredients added with some further cooking. Chilies are an essential element both fresh and dried. I had some scotch bonnet peppers frozen, some  dried chilies, but some were smoked  and would make a dark spicy sambal.

soaking the dried chilies

Processing the paste, it was first a bit thick but added some water that the chilies soaked in to thin and blend it further.

cooking the sambal paste

dark candy sugar added melted in to bring up the sweetness to spicy balance

 

The Sambal paste is put in jar and ready for use.

Citrus beverage

Similar to a previous post, a easy combination of fruit for cold beverage. Zest all the fruit, grate ginger root, squeeze the fruit and combine all with simple sugar, refrigerate. Amounts per your preference.

Citrus cake

Fom  Blogtasticfood.com

225 grams plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

115 grams caster sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 lime zested

1 lemon zested

115 ml milk

115 grams yogurt

2 large eggs

115 grams butter melted

2 teaspoons rose water

Lemon and lime for garnish

……………….. Citrus Butter Cream ………………

125 grams salted butter softened

250 grams icing sugar, 10x sugar

1 tablespoon lime juice

1 tablespoon lemon juice

A few drops of rose water.

…………………………………………………

Oven preheat at 350 degrees.

Prepare a baking tin with butter and baking paper. Usually about 8 inch round.

Mix and sift the dry ingredients with the lemon and lime zest.

Whisk together the milk, yogurt, eggs, melted butter and rose water.

Add the liquids to the the dry ingredients, whisk till mixed, no lumps are in the batter and spread in tin.

Bake about 45 minutes.

Make the frosting and decorate as necessary.

Cut cake into 2 layers, with frosting with Easter decorations.

Good cake but in my opinion very sweet frosting.

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Baking while the power is out?  The oven thermostat controls do not work during the loss of electricity  rendering the oven useless.

During a winter storm power outage it was still possible to bake or should I say steam a cake. Basically the same recipe steamed in a metal pan over boiling water.

Completed cake less the frosting.

 

 

 

Sweet and Spicy Chicken with Red Beans

Adapted from the pampered chef recipe cards packed with the Chef’s silicone Basting Brush

Sweet and spicy glazed chicken with red beans

About one and one half nectarines , chopped fine
About one half banana
Simple sugar to sweeten
Heat the above till a jam like consistency. Mash if necessary.

Add lime juice , lemon juice in small amounts
One finely chopped hot pepper of your choice
Chilli powder , your choice and amount
Salt
Garlic , pressed 1 clove
Black pepper if desired
Place in a sauce pan, along with a piece of cooked chicken, braised thigh etc.
Heat through. add some pan drippings from the braised chicken pan .
Plate with a side of red beans.
Snipped fresh cilantro , if available for garnish.

Not too appetitizing a picture , but turned out to be a mild, delayed heat.