Okra with Sambal

During working days, I just allow myself less than 30 minutes to prepare simple dinner. Okra with sambal is a vegetable dish that suits my hectic life. To reduce the cooking time, I prepared the sambal belacan before hand and stored in a air-tight container in the fridge. So, I can serve the sambal with boiled okra or with white cabbage later on. This is another simple way to savor a vegetable dish.

Okra with Sambal

Ingredients:
12 Okra, get the head and tail discarded and cut into half
1 tbsp of garlic oil
water

Sambal :
5 red chili
4 bird's eye chili
1.5cm cube of balacan
3 calamansi
3 Kaffir lime leaves (choose the young leaves) - optional
1 tsp of sugar
1 tbsp of light soy sauce

Steps:
The Sambal

1. Toast the belacan in oven preheated at 200deg C for 10 minutes. Leave it cooled and mash it with a spoon.

2. Blend the chillies, belacan and Kaffir lime leaves till paste form.

3. Sieve in the calamansi juice.

4. Season it with light soy sauce and sugar.

The Okra
Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add a tbsp of garlic oil. Blanch the okra in boing water for several minutes. Drain and dish out on a plate. Top the okra with sambal. Serve hot.

Chili Sauce

My earlier dish - the steamed chicken was served with this home made chili sauce. It's the common dips that you'd find in local chicken rice. It's a great condiment to complement the steamed chicken, roasted chicken and roasted pork. Without it, my steamed chicken will not taste such good. Thanks to the powerful chili sauce! It's pungent, sweet, spicy, salty, garlicky, gingery and zesty. It's so flavorful and yet simple to make!

Chili Sauce
Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
4 red chilis, seeded and cut into pieces
8 bird eye's chilis
1cm cube of ginger, peeled
3 cloves of garlic, peeled

Seasoning:
juice of 3 calamanci
1 tbsp of light soy sauce
salt to taste
brown sugar to taste

Steps:
Blend ingredients together. Add seasonings and mix well. Store in air tight container and keep in fridge. Try to finish it up in a week.

Fried Garlic Oil

Fried garlic oil - the condiment that I can't miss in my cooking. I always store some fried garlic oil in the kitchen. I made some over the weekend so that I can use it in my cooking throughout the week. I use it to garnish boiled vegetables and soups. It makes huge difference in taste for the dishes mentioned.

Fried Garlic Oil

Ingredients:
1 bulb of garlic, peeled and choped
half cup of oil

Steps:

Heat up oil in a wok. Fry the chopped garlic under medium flame. Continue to stir it under it turn golden yellow. Remove it from wok and leave it cool in a bowl. You can see the fried garlic turns golden brown after a while. Store it in an air-tight container after it cooled down to room temperature.

Tips: 

Do not wait till the garlic turns golden brown before you off the flame. This will burn the garlic.