Sayur Lodeh

One of my favourite vegetable dishes is the Sayur Lodeh, a gravy for lontong (rice cakes), although I much prefer it to be eaten with rice (I'm not lontong's biggest fan). It is some sort of a vegetable medley...a coconut based vegetable stew which is quite popular in Singapore, Malaysia as well as Indonesia.

The recipe I have is taken off the Asian Cookbook, but true to being me, I have to modify it. The original recipe requires the use of shrimp paste (belachan) as well as small dried shrimps, which, had I use it in any of my dish, Silver Bullet will definitely avoid it like a plague! And because I modify it as I go along, I might , once in awhile miss some ingredients...

Anyhow, here's my version without the use of any shrimps/shrimp paste if you are willing to give it a go.

Ingredients:

• 4 red fresh chillies, sliced
• ½” turmeric root or ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 5 shallots, sliced
• 1 teaspoon coriander powder
• 1 (pref. beef) stock cube
• 500 ml very thin coconut milk
• 1 slice galangal root, bruised
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 carrot, cubed
• 1 cabbage, sliced
• Tofu, cubed (lightly fried)
• Long beans, sliced
• Mung bean vermicelli
• ½ teaspoon brown sugar
• Salt to taste

Method:

1. Blend chillies, tumeric,garlic, shallots and coriander powder. Set aside.
2. Heat oil and fry the blended ingredients until browned and fragrant.
3. Add in the stock cube. Then the coconut milk, galangal and bay leaf.
4. Stir and bring to boil.
5. Add in the vegetables in the order they require cooking (in this case, carrot, long beans, mung bean vermicelli and toufu)
6. Add sugar and salt to taste.Return to boil. Add water if you want a thinner soup.
7. Serve hot with rice.