Accidental Nasi Goreng

 

Late night dinner cravings and leftovers from the dinner table and fridge are actually two interesting things for me. It's actually a party waiting to happen. I have started eating brown rice, I think two months ago or so for health and fitness reasons. And to be completely honest, its not as appetizing as the white rice that we all love. So I learned to switch it up or I felt I needed to switch it up for my sanity's sake.

 

Other than spicy food, I also love fried rice.  If you mix those two together, you get spicy fried rice? Close. I got Nasi Goreng. It became an instant hit for me when we went to Jakarta last year. I wouldn't have imagined that I will be cooking this here. Well, it was an accident, and I didn't know that this is going to be the outcome of all these leftover food being cooked together, until I had my first bite. It was like a light bulb went up in my head. I swear I could've shouted Eureka! Hahaha

 

Enough of the mumblings.. This is how the accidental nasi goreng happened....

 

Coming home from the gym made me all hungry and seeing that we all have a lot of leftover food on the table and fridge, I decided to whip something up.

 

Nasi Goreng

 

Ingredients:

leftover chicken breast 

leftover tilapia

leftover spicy bagoong (shrimp paste)

leftover chili garlic oil

leftover brown rice.

bit of oil

chili powder

garlic, chopped

onion, chopped

1 egg

 

Just cook everything as you would fried rice. I want my Nasi Goreng a bit on the "toasted" side, so I made sure, it stuck a little to the pan.

 

They had bangus steaks that night, that's my viand, and I chopped up half a cucumber, tossed it in vinegar, sugar, salt and pinch of chili pepper for a side dish.

 

I have learn to love the unexpected, and delight on the joys and pains that come with it.

Spicy Tuna and Sausage on Whole Wheat Fusili

 

I live for everything spicy and really tasty. I can eat something spicy any time of the day and still crave for it, the next time. That's how I was raised, having a Bicolana mother and a Bisaya father who learned how to a whole green chili as if it's fried chicken. This is nothing new to me, and so this is how I want my food, hot and spicy.

 

 

It was another lunch quality time with Matt that I needed to prepare for. Being me, and not having all the time in the world for grocery shopping, I always live off of what we have available in our pantry and fridge at home. So for this "lunch QT", I found my whole wheat pasta, leftover spicy Hungarian sausage that I got from Wielan and my ever reliable can of spicy tuna in oil. And so the cooking begins. By the way, I don't measure my ingredients, that's why I'm a better cook than a baker.

 

 

 

 

Everytime I cook, I am in a completely different zone. A good one at that. It's like work, but on a much different level. The different tasks involved just to get one dish out, is actually very tiring. The prep portion I learned to love. I hated it initially, because it was tiring. The cleaning up part, I am also in the process of learning to love. But overall, cooking has been very therapeutic, like when I had a phase that cleaning the toilet calms my nerves and helps put things in perspective. This now, helps me do that, well aside from other things like, massages, hugs.. Haha!

 

I am no pro, and just like in running, I don't claim to know everything or claim to be really good at it. I am an enthusiast and a foodie, that's why I love to cook.

 

Spicy Tuna and Sausage on Whole Wheat Fusili

 

Ingredients:

1 can spicy tuna in oil

2 pcs spicy Hungarian sausage, cut into pieces

whole wheat fusili pasta, cooked according to package directions

olive oil

garlic, chopped

onions, chopped

green chili, chopped

salt and white pepper to taste

my homemade chili garlic oil (as a condiment/topping)

 

Sauteed the sausage first to let the oil out, then throw in the garlic, onions and chili. Sautee till the latter ingredients are cooked. Add in a bit of olive oil, then the drained tuna flakes. Lastly, add in the cooked pasta and mix well so that every bit is coated with the oil. Serve hot and with the chili garlic oil to add more zing. Make sure to have lots of water with you to drink, if it gets too spicy. :p

 

 

 

Homemade Chili Garlic Oil - A Kitchen Experiment

 

 

    

 

This post has been in my drafts for a month I think. That's what I do now. Procrastinate a lot. Though I must say, that I do that a lot in my free time. Yes, the last statement didn't make any sense.

 

When I made this, I was actually cooking lunch for me and Matt to share. The inspiration came from the chili garlic condiment from Nomnomnom when we ate there for dinner. Matt had a cream-based pasta with baked salmon and it was served with this chili garlic sauce or oil as a condiment. Pretty interesting. And it actually complimented the dish well.

 

And because I think I had a lot of time that morning and I was pretty keen on replicating it, because it tasted so good, I started chopping the garlic, red and green chilis and started cooking this, alongside my pasta dish (which I will also post as a next entry).

 

Word of warning, the chilis are very dangerous and spicy, be careful in handling them as it may get to your eyes or wherever in your body that you may not like to be.

 

Homemade Chili Garlic Sauce/Oil

 

Ingredients:

red and green chilis (as much as you like)

garlic (as much or as little you want)

chili powder

oil

 

Just sautee everything in low to medium heat in a pan, until everything is cooked down. I think you can let this sit for a few days to let the garlic and chilis soften and it can be made into a paste or something like that.

 

Apologies for the poor quality of photos, I only use my iPad's camera for my food postings.

 

If you like your chili garlic or spicy stuff, you may want to try making your own spicy condiment to top any food you like. :)