The Rumbling Kitchen: Sesame Crusted Tuna with Spicy Miso Potatoes

The Rumbling Kitchen: Sesame Crusted Tuna with Spicy Miso Potatoes: The rich and meaty flavour of fresh tuna is best served either raw or just cooked. This Japanese inspired recipe uses a great combination of...

Sesame Crusted Tuna with Spicy Miso Potatoes

The rich and meaty flavour of fresh tuna is best served either raw or just cooked. This Japanese inspired recipe uses a great combination of umami flavours such as soy sauce and miso paste. The contrasting textures of the sesame crust and tender fresh tuna work really well together. Miso is a fermented soy bean and seaweed sauce and it's normally used to flavour soup in Japanese cooking.

Ingredients:

Serves 2

For the tuna

2 tuna steaks, weighing 150g each

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 tsp miso paste

1 tbs soy sauce, preferably Kikkoman 

1 tsp lime juice

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1 tbs plain flour

4 tbs white and black sesame seeds 

Vegetable oil for deep frying

For the marinade, in a bowl combine the garlic, miso paste, soy sauce, lime juice and ground black pepper. Coat each tuna steak with plain flour then toss them in the bowl with the marinade until well coated. Put the sesame seeds in a bowl, roll the tuna steaks to coat and keep in the fridge for 15 minutes.

For the spicy miso potatoes

200g new potatoes, boiled and halved

1 clove garlic, chopped

1/2 red chilli, chopped

1 tsp chopped fresh ginger

1 tsp miso paste

1 tbs soy sauce

1/2 tsp sesame oil

2 spring onions, sliced

Saute the garlic, chilli and ginger in a little bit of vegetable oil until fragrant and then add the soy sauce, miso paste, sesame oil and a splash of water.Throw in the potatoes and stir for a few minutes then remove from the heat. Sprinkle the spring onions into the potatoes and keep warm. Meanwhile heat enough oil in a pan for deep-frying. When it's hot deep fry the tuna steaks for 1 minute. Drain on kitchen paper, cut the tuna steaks in half and serve with the spicy miso potatoes and buttered green beans.

The Rumbling Kitchen: Pepes Ikan

The Rumbling Kitchen: Pepes Ikan: Pepes Ikan is a very popular fish dish in Bali and you can get it in almost every food stall (warung) there. The fish is marinated in a mixt...

Spicy Tofu Fritters

This simple recipe is really good for a mid-afternoon snack or if you combine it with a vegetable stir-fry and steamed rice would be a full meal itself. Tofu is widely available at major supermarkets and Asian supermarkets. This recipe works better using the firm tofu types, so avoid using the silken ones.

For the paste

1 shallot
1 clove garlic
1/2 red chilli or less
a handful coriander
1 tsp chopped lemongrass
1 tsp chopped ginger
1 tsp lime juice

Process all ingredients above in a blender or pestle and mortar until fairly smooth and set aside.

200 g firm tofu
1 tsp soy sauce
2 tbs plain flour
Breadcrumbs

Mash the tofu using your hands or potato masher, add the flour, soy sauce and the paste. Mix the tofu mixture thoroughly, season with salt and pepper, shape into medium size patties and roll in breadcrumbs until well covered. Keep the patties in the fridge for 30 minutes or overnight to firm up and shallow fry in hot oil when needed. Serve the fritters with some chilli jam ( the recipe is available from my previous post ).

Pepes Ikan

Pepes Ikan is a very popular fish dish in Bali and you can get it in almost every food stall (warung) there. The fish is marinated in a mixture of spices, wrapped in banana leaves and grilled over hot charcoal. The marinade - an aromatic blend of garlic, shallots, chillies, lemongrass, aromatics and herbs- gives the fish a fresh and fragrant taste and the banana leaf will lock all the moisture and flavour during the cooking process. This dish will be great at a barbeque party served with hot steamed rice. However, if you can't find any banana leaf use foil instead.

Ingredients:

2 medium size whole mackerels, filleted
1 medium size tomato, thinly sliced

For the marinade:

2 tbs chopped fresh galangal or 1 tbs ground galangal
1 tbs chopped fresh ginger
1 tbs chopped fresh turmeric or 1 tsp ground turmeric
1 red chilli, deseeded and chopped
1 shallot
2 cloves garlic
1 stalk lemongrass, chopped
1 kaffir lime leaf (fresh or dried), sliced
a pinch ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground clove
1/2 tsp shrimp paste
1 tbs vegetable oil

Process all the ingredients for the marinade in a blender or pestle and mortar until fairly smooth and set aside. Cut the fillet of fish into bite size chunks and tip into a bowl, mix with 2 tbs of the paste, sliced tomato, season with salt and pepper and mix properly until each chunk is well coated with the marinade. If using banana leaf soak it first in hot water for 2-3 minutes to make it easier to handle. Spoon the marinated fish into the centre square of banana leaf or foil and spread evenly. Roll into a log shape and secure each end of the parcel (use tooth picks if using banana leaf). Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 C for 15-20 minutes and serve with hot   steamed rice.

Ayam Betutu

It's been while since my last post so now I'd like to share a recipe of a very popular festive dish in Bali called "Ayam Betutu". It's a slow-cooked chicken stuffed with a mixture of spices called "base genep", wrapped with a combination of banana leaf and palm tree fibre, and buried underground with hot coal to cook for 4-6 hours. Yes, it sounds very labour intense, but the result is a very moist and soft chicken with the complex flavour of the spices penetrating every part. My version of this dish is a lot easier but with a similar result.


Ayam Betutu

1 whole chicken (weight 1.5 to 2 kg)


For "Betutu" spice:


2 tbs chopped fresh galangal
1 tbs chopped fresh ginger
1 tsp ground turmeric
2 stems lemongrass, chopped
4 cloves garlic
2 shallots
2 kaffir lime leaves
1 red chilli, de-seeded and chopped
2 clove, ground
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 candlenut or macademia nut
a pinch of shrimp paste
1 tbs palm sugar or brown sugar
1 tsp tamarind paste
1 tbs vegetable oil


Grind all the ingredients above in a blender until they turn into a paste. Fry the paste for a few minutes until fragrant then marinate the chicken with it. Put the remaining paste inside the cavity of the chicken. Place the chicken in a roasting tin and cover with some foil. Cook in a pre-heated oven at 160 C for 1.5 to 2 hours or until the meat falls off the bones. Serve with steamed rice and steamed kale or spinach.

TheRumblingKitchen: Grilled Chicken With Homemade Barbecue Sauce

TheRumblingKitchen: Grilled Chicken With Homemade Barbecue Sauce: "Cooking chicken on a barbecue is a bit tricky. To get the right result you need to pre-cook it in the oven before you put it under the grill..."

Grilled Chicken With Homemade Barbecue Sauce

Cooking chicken on a barbecue is a bit tricky. To get the right result you need to pre-cook it in the oven before you put it under the grill or on a barbecue, if not you might end up with an undercooked chicken. In this recipe I marinated the chicken with our homemade barbecue sauce (me and my wife argue over which of us created it). We did our research on the internet and came up with this recipe which combines Western and Asian flavours. It's a good cupboard staple to have because it's so versatile. Use it on a pizza instead of tomato sauce or to marinate pork ribs for a barbecue. I served my grilled chicken with a grilled corn on the cob which I had marinated with a mixture of the barbecue sauce and some butter. We also had a bowl of salad, some slices of focaccia bread and it was a great barbecue combo on a plate.

For the barbecue sauce:

Ingredients:

1 tbs vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 inch fresh ginger, chopped
1/2 big fresh red chilli, chopped
1 star anise
2 tbs molasses or black treacle
1 tbs dark soy sauce
5 tbs tomato ketchup
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
1 tsp smoked paprika
salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a sauce pan and fry the garlic,chilli and ginger until fragrant. Add the rest of the ingredients with a splash of water and simmer on a medium heat until the sauce has thickened up and is syrupy.

For the grilled chicken and corn on the cob:

Serves 2

2 chicken legs (including thighs)
2 corn on the cobs
1 tbs of butter, melted

Marinate the chicken with the barbecue sauce and cook in a pre-heated oven at 200 C for 15 to 20 minutes. While the chicken is cooking you can start preparing the corn on the cobs, by mixing the melted butter and barbecue sauce and marinating the corns with the mixture. Cook the corn under the grill, turning regularly until each side is cooked. After that continue to cook the chicken under the grill until the skin turns crispy. If you have a griddle pan you can use it instead of the grill but it will produce a lot of smoke in your kitchen. If you are having a barbecue, even better. This dish will guarantee everybody is licking their fingers and their plates.

Balinese Street Food

"Nasi campur" as I mentioned in my previous post is one of the most popular dishes in Bali and you can easily get it in every "warung". In this post I'd like to share a recipe of my favourite accompaniment to "nasi campur"; it's a type of sweetcorn fritter with spices and in Bali we call it "perkedel jagung", "jagung" means corn and I assume "perkedel" means fritter. I'm not entirely sure because the origin of this food is Java but it's so popular in Bali now so it has became part of Balinese cuisine.


Spicy Sweetcorn Fritters

Ingredients:


275g can sweetcorn, drained
65g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
2 tbs soy sauce
4 kaffir lime leaves, finely shredded
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 inches fresh lemongrass, finely chopped
1/2 fresh red chilli, finely chopped
1 handful fresh coriander, chopped


Put the sweetcorn in a food processor and process until fairly smooth. In a bowl whisk the egg, add the flour and baking powder and mix into a batter-like consistency. Add the rest of the ingredients and the sweetcorn into the batter, season with salt and pepper and mix thoroughly. Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Drop 6 separate tablespoonfuls of the batter and fry at a medium heat until golden brown on each side. Repeat with the remaining batter. Serve the fritters with some chilli jam (you can get the recipe from my previous post).

A Humble Risotto

Summer is approaching and the best thing to do to celebrate it is to use the best of summer vegetables. In this recipe I gave the humble risotto a lift by using a winning combination of tomato and basil. I slow-roasted the tomatoes in the oven to bring out the intense flavour and served it with some fresh and crunchy salad to balance the creaminess of the risotto. We invited one of our friends for dinner and served this risotto. It got good feedback from her -coincidently she's a vegetarian. But I think this risotto is good enough to serve to carnivores and it might change their mind about meat-free food.

Tomato and Basil Risotto with a Crunchy Salad

Serves 2

Ingredients:

200g arborio rice

10 cherry tomatoes, halved

1 tbs olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

a sprig fresh thyme, chopped

1/2 red or yellow pepper, sliced

1/3 courgette, sliced

1 cube vegetable stock diluted in 500ml boiling water

1 tbs crème fraiche 

75g cheddar cheese, grated

a handful fresh basil, roughly chopped

salt and pepper

For the salad:

5 radishes, thinly sliced

2 black or green olives, chopped

a handful salad cress

1 tbs sunflower seeds, dry roasted on a frying pan

1 tsp virgin olive oil

3 drops sesame or walnut oil

1 tsp lemon juice

salt and pepper

Start by preheating the oven to 140C, then arrange the halved tomatoes on a roasting tray, sprinkle with a teaspoon of caster sugar, season with salt and pepper and roast in the preheated oven for about 30-45 minutes. 


While the tomatoes are in the oven you can start preparing the ingredients for  the salad. For the salad dressing, in a bowl whisk the virgin olive oil, sesame oil, lemon juice, season with salt and pepper and set aside. 


For the risotto, heat the olive oil in a deep frying pan, add the onion and sweat until translucent. Add the garlic and thyme and continue cooking until fragrant, then add the rice, pepper and courgette and stir until all the rice is well covered with the oil. Keep stirring while adding ladlefuls of stock from time to time to the rice for about 15 minutes. Taste the rice for seasoning and texture, the rice should be 'al dente' soft on the outside but still has a bite in the middle. If you run out of stock before the rice is cooked, add some boiling water. 


Once the rice is cooked, add the slow roasted tomatoes, fresh basil, crème fraiche and grated cheddar into the pan and stir well. Turn the heat off and put the lid on the pan and let the risotto rest for 2 minutes. 


Meanwhile prepare the salad by tossing the radishes, salad cress, toasted sunflower seeds and chopped olives in a bowl with the dressing that you prepared earlier. Serve the risotto on a warm plate with a handful of the crunchy salad on top.