In the spirit of procrastination..

Today's supposed to be my day off but I have to finish a story if I want to have our Sunday getaway to KeukenBdg. However halfway through,  I managed to convince myself to take a break and start a mess in the kitchen.

A quick browse later I decided to try a stir-fry veggie + salami recipe I saw in Epicurious and a lovely smoothie from a recipe featured in Gojee.

So what I wanted was something that can be served over rice, easy to make, and yea, salami..? why not? The picture looks pretty too! And of course something lovely and sweet in case the food fails :))

But if there's a lesson learned today, is that I am once again reminded that cooking is something that you have to learn and practice over and over again.. For instance: I didn't know iceberg lettuce has a bitter aftertaste and you cannot expect to make a proper smoothie using a fruit juice extractor.....!

So, without further ado, here goes...

1. Stir-Fried Lettuces and Fried Shallots (or in Indonesian: tumis sayur + bawang goreng)
Fry the shallots first. I used about 2 tbsp oil for 1/2 cup of finely sliced shallots over low heat. When color changed to golden brown, toss them over a plate/bowl lined with kitchen towel.

Over medium heat, add 1/4 cup beef salami (about 80 grams), 3-4 cloves of garlic, 1 1/2 tablespoons minced peeled ginger, and 1 tablespoon of crushed red pepper flakes. Stir until garlic turned brown-ish (about 2 minutes) then add 1/2 head of coarsely chopped iceberg lettuce and 2 cups of ..well I used this Chinese vegetable thing I found at the supermarket. I believe variations of pak choi/bok choi will do. Sprinkle about 2 cubes of broth and pepper. Keep 'em stirring until the veggies are all wilted, turn the heat off. Serve with the fried shallots sprinkled on top

Well mine wasn't as pretty as the picture. But it tasted okay.

2. Banana Strawberry Smoothie
The original recipe calls for peaches and vanilla extract. It's not easy to find peaches here so I just used more bananas instead. I also used vanilla soy milk, so no need to add the extract, PLUS soy milk sounds healthier :))

Pop all of the ingredients below to your blender/smoothie-maker:
4 bananas
12 strawberries
2 cups of vanilla soy milk
1-2 tablespoons of honey

Blend!
And then leave it to cool in the fridge for an hour or so before serving.. Yumm!

Howeverrrr..Since I used a 'fruit juice extractor' (and just in case you had also forgotten that what you have at home is a fruit juice extractor not a blender/smoothie maker but you already bought all of the ingredients) this is what you should do:
- Chop all of the bananas and strawberries into manageable pieces before pushing it through the 'juicer hole'.
- Wait for all of the gooey juice to drip down to the juice container before transferring them to a tumbler.
- Scrape clean all what's left of the bananas and strawberries on the 'waste' compartment. Don't forget to check under the blade as well. I lost a good gunk of banana-strawberry mesh left between the gaps :-(
- Pour in the milk and honey
- Make sure that the tumbler's cap is closed tight
- SHAKE IT

And yup, it does look something like that :)