Sambal = cooked rempah

And rempah is the raw chili paste that is the basis of much Indonesian cooking: a combination of shallots, garlic, chilies, and dried shrimp or shrimp paste. Instead of mirepoix.

We finished our culinary tour of Asia today with virtual visits to Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Because of their geographical locations, these countries were frequent stops for sailors and traders and their food is quite diverse, as a result. There are curries, but with minimal heat. Coconut milk and galangal, as well as corn and zucchini.

I'm reading The Soul of a Chef, a few pages every night before I fall asleep, and in class we're seeing episodes of the 2005 PBS documentary/competition "Cooking Under Fire." Both are making me feel incompetent and inadequate and perhaps lacking The Right Stuff. Making delicious food. That's the goal. I'll have a chance to put it on the line for the rest of the week in Chef Rhoda's class. Tomorrow is team competition: an Iron-Chef-like challenge where each team has to produce a salad, soup, appetizer, entrée, and dessert, with ingredients to be disclosed at the beginning of class. On Thursday and Friday, we have individual competitions: one day, we have to make a side dish, on the other, an entrée, again, with parameters provided by the Chef. On one hand, I feel like I take this challenge almost every day (except here, I call it "What's For Dinner?") On the other hand, I could easily go into a big funk and wonder if I've actually even improved as a cook since November. But that would probably be a bad road to take. I'll sip my Blue People tea in my new green mug and try to think good thoughts.

Today I prepared Curry Chicken Tofu Soup, and I made it with skill and a clean workstation, and with love. The chicken is poached in stock and coconut milk, with lemongrass, galangal (a root similar to ginger), garlic, curry powder, and cumin. Meanwhile, tofu is drained then cubed then deepfried. When the chicken is cooked, it's removed from the stock which is strained, then carrots and mushrooms are added. When the carrots are cooked, the shredded chicken meat and tofu are added to the soup, along with cilantro and green onions. It's really very delicions.Meghan made Singaporean Fried Rice: sweet with raisins, hot with red chilies, and yellow with turmeric.
Derrick made these interesting corn fritters, called Perkedel Jagung in Indonesia. One of the ingredients is candle nut, a very oily nut which you can actually light on fire. Chef demonstrated it for us in class today. Chef said that macadamias make an acceptable substitute, and that's what I'll be using when I make these at home tonight.Of course, we must have noodles, and Andrea made these, Stir-Fried Curry Noodles with shrimp, chicken, and cooked egg.These are "Murtabak," a flat pastry made with spring-roll wrappers and filled with spiced ground beef.The chicken satay was delicious. Adam had to make the sauce twice. The first time, it tasted off, and it was determined that the peanut butter was rancid. So he tossed that can out and started again.This salad is called "Acar Jawa" and you start with a rempah, the ground chili mixture, then cook it in oil and it becomes a sambal. That is used as a basis of a spicy/sour dressing for blanched vegetables. Dessert was stuffed pancakes, fluffy coconut milk pancakes stuffed with fried peanuts and coconut flakes. Chef says that in Indonesia, these are sold on the street, on a banana leaf, but we had to do with parchment paper.