COLUMNIST: DINA WATT
Dina Watt grew up in Bandung, West-Java, Indonesia and now living in Aberdeenshire, she is known as The Indonesian Cook. Dina's love of nature and gardening fuels her passion for cooking.
In her column, Dina shares her own adventurous recipes for delicious home cooked meals that are easy to make, mostly using homegrown, seasonal fruits and vegetables from her own kitchen garden. She is passionate about using every bit of the plant in order to practice zero-waste principles.
Dina looks in this issue at reducing food waste by creating wonderful tasty dishes with Christmas leftovers.
Soto Ayam is a traditional Indonesian soup dish which normally uses ingredients such as chicken, noodles, and boiled or steamed vegetables. Turmeric powder is added as one of the main ingredients which makes the broth yellow. In this recipe though, you can make the broth using the Christmas turkey carcass and instead of shredded chicken meat, use the leftover turkey meat.
Garnishing is crucial to make this perfect winter soup look even more pleasing to the eyes.
First, in a large soup pot, add the vegetable oil and set the hob to medium. Then, while gently stirring, add the garlic paste, onion paste, turmeric powder, ginger, and lemongrass. Saute for a few minutes until golden then add the 3 litres of water into the pot.
Throw in the carcass and already shredded turkey meat. Season well with salt and pepper. Let it boil for about 20-25 minutes until a rich broth is created. Take the carcass out. If needed, add another 1 or 2 cups of water. Let it boil again on a low heat.
Prepare all the garnish ingredients. When serving in an individual bowl, start with rice noodles, add the boiled eggs cut in half, slices of the Christmas potato leftovers, finely sliced cabbages for crunch, and herbs.
Lastly, pour the broth over all the ingredients in the bowl and add the slices of lime. As an Indonesian, I love to add a spoon of my homemade chilli sauce to give it an extra kick.
This recipe is perfect to make use of your roast meat leftovers and uses the bok choy (also know as pak choy) I have been regrowing from food scraps. It is so quick - great for one of those lazy cooking days everyone experiences.
Mix the sauces above in a small bowl and set aside for use later.
Quickly marinate the leftover pork or beef with a splash of soya sauce and 1 teaspoon of sesame oil. You can add a teaspoon of finely chopped garlic too.
Prepare a non-stick pan for frying with approximately 1cm deep of veg oil and set on a medium heat. Dust the marinated pork or beef in corn starch before frying. Fry until each slice has formed a crispy coat. Once you have fried all of it, remove from the pan and set aside.
In the same pan, pour out the excess oil from frying the meat, leaving approximately 2 tablespoons of the oil in the pan, just enough to stir-fry.
Set on a high heat and add peppers, carrot, and garlic. Stir fry for about 2 minutes, then add the onion.
Add the prepared sauce mixture into the pan and stir well.
Keep stirring for about 1 minute then add the bok choy and the crispy pork or beef and switch off the heat. The remaining heat will slowly cook the bok choy. Bok choy is cooked last to prevent it from becoming soggy and to help retain its crunch.
Garnish with spring onions and serve with rice or egg noodles and prawn crackers.
Dina’s wee tips:
Regrowing spring onions, celery and bok choy from food scraps is super easy to do. Place the stalks of spring onions, celery or bok choy (with roots attached) in a jar and cover the roots with water. Place them in a sunny spot such as by a window sill. Change the water every few days. Within 10 days, there will be green foliage which can be used anytime.