Lontong Sayur

Last week was the Superbowl Sunday and I had the whole appartement to myself. Usually, when I am left alone and have nobody around to impress, culinary or physically, I do stuff that is not considered as an appropriate material for this kind of blog. However, last Sunday was different. After a long break of serious cooking, I pulled myself together and decided to eat like a real human being. 

I cooked home food. Indonesian food. 

Here is what I made; a pot of tasty vegetable curry soup called Lontong Sayur. Well, basically Lontong Sayur has Lontong in it, which is rice cake. But I didn't have the will to cook one any of it so I had it with rice instead. Sayur means vegetable, thus it means the vegetable curry soup itself in this recipe, which is absolutely the main character of this lovely dish. 

The vegetable used in real Lontong Sayur is usually chayote, but chayote is not something easily find here in Quebec, especially in the middle of winter like this. I subtituted it with julienne vegetables. Since I am lazy like being practical, I bought a mix bag of julienne carrots, turnips, and brocolli stems. 

To be honest, this recipe is not the first Lontong Sayur recipe I wrote in this blog. The old one was simpler (and the picture was crappy) so I deleted it. I prefer this recycled and perfected recipe one. Yes, recycled and perfected are the key words. 

If you read the ingredients you need to make this recipe, it might look like dauntingly a lot with all those Asian herbs and spices e.g.: candlenut, terasi (belacan), kaffir lime leaves and all the rest, but it is how Asian recipes are. Somehow all those flavors work out very well together inside a boiling pot. Very tasty and none of them overpowering each other, infact, they sort of compliment and complete each other in harmony.  

Let's get started!

Ingredients to paste:
5 garlic
2 shallots
5 thai chili
3/4 tsp coriander seeds
1/4 tsp caraway seeds
5 candlenuts
2 cm fresh turmeric
1/2 tsp terasi (belacan)

Other ingredients:
500 gr chicken gizzard, cut into small pieces (optional ingredients)
500 gr julienned mixed vegetables (I used carrot, turnip, and brocolli stems)
Oil to sautée
2 lemongrass stalk, bruised
3 cm fresh galangal
3 cm fresh ginger
4 kafir lime leaves
3 salam leaves
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp shredded gula jawa (palm sugar)
800 ml water
400 ml thick coconut milk (1 can)


Cooking step:

1. In a cooking pot, sautée the paste ingredients with oil until fragrant, add lemongrass stalks, fresh galangal, ginger, kaffir lime leaves and salam leaves. Continue cooking until the kaffir lime leaves wilt,
2. Add the chicken gizzard and toss until it's all coated with the paste mix, continue cooking until the gizzards change color (become pale), 
3. Add salt, gula jawa, and water and bring to boil on medium heat, 
4. Check the tenderness of the gizzards, if it still too chewy to your liking, give it another minutes to cook, 
5. Add julienne veggies and coconut milk, stir gently until it re-boils, add the salt and or sugar if needed, 
6. Once the veggies are soft enough means it's done and ready to be served with a bowl of rice (or lontong). 

Et voila, it wasn't that hard, wasn't it?