beef and bitter melon curry

Finished off the rest of the bitter melon today, since i wont be around until thursday. Got the idea of a bitter melon curry for the the website mentioned last post (which for some reason didnt get published). Curries are relatively easy nowadays with all the spice pastes going around (just gotta get a good generic one) so this was a fairly simple to concoct. Somethings i wish i had around was chicken stock and cucumbers but, well i'll get by without it.

Started off with blanching bitter melon for a while, strain put aside. Started the curry with frying the garlic and ginger (maybe more ginger next time) and then in goes the onions. Wait a while, sit down watch some house *twiddles thumb* Cook the onions down then add the beef. Wait again, practice tossing the beef about like how they do on iron chef,  Oops, lost one =) Straight down the hatch. Well it looks brown enough now, add bitter melon and the strained water, bring to boil.

Thats it!

well, not exactly, but thats as hard as it gets. Now mix up some spice paste into the water and add whatever you think will help. I added kecap manis salt and pepper until the broth seemed quite tasty. Just keep adding bit by bit and constantly mixing and tasting. I hate recipes because you tend to just follow their amounts and do less tasting. Anyways once you got the broth up to scratch turned down the heat and simmered for 30 minutes or so.

Since i only have peanut butter around the house, i added that in to give it a satay-ey taste which actually went well with the "bumbu ayam panggang" paste. I couldnt imagine peanut butter in like a thai red curry paste... But yes, peanut butter in and simmer for another long while until the oil starts to separate from the sauce, you'll know you'll have this gooey consistency (that i like). If only I had coconut creme about, that would ahve been the extra oomf. In the absence of coconut creme, i will add apples, for tmr's lunch =)

The bitter melon this time was cut quite thickly and blanched significantly less, as a result even thogh it was stewed for quite a while it still retained some of its bitterness. Enough to not be masked by the curry, so a success! =P 

(bitter melon a-cha?)

Last night i was cooking on the porch... and got attached by a number of possums..Look at them GREEDY EYES!!! SHOOO!!! and stop drinking our BEER!!!