"What's Sambal Oelek?" you may be asking.
Sambal Oelek, technically speaking, is ground fresh chili paste. But that's kind of like saying "Beethoven wrote music". It just doesn't cover it. In layman's terms, if you like salty, sour, spicy, umami flavors, this is your unicorn.
You can purchase your own bottle of S.O. in the ethic section of the grocery store. This has become a dangerous habit for me. Some nights my dinner is a bowl of jasmine rice with a generous plop of Sambal Oelek. I have no shame.
I've been experimenting with different stir fry's using S.O. as the base for the sauce, and I think i finally landed on a winner. So here you go.
Recipe: Sambal Oelek chicken stir-fry
Cut up 2 chicken boobs into bite sized pieces. I don't know what size this is because i don't know what your bite-wing x-ray looked like in 2015. So just cut up the pieces, mmm'kay? Throw them into a medium-sized glass bowl with a splash of white wine, a thumb-sized piece of ginger root that you've minced, one minced garlic clove, 2 teaspoons of cornstarch and 1 Tablespoon of peanut oil. stir it all around and let it sit while you...
... make your stir-fry "sauce" - In a small bowl, combine 2 Tablespoons Sambal Oelek, 2 Tablespoons fish sauce, 1 Tablespoon brown sugar, another splash of that white wine (and pour yourself a glass while you're at it), and 2 Tablespoons of cold water. Stir it up. Move on to your veggies.
Slice up a red bell pepper and a quarter of a yellow onion. If you wanna get fancy, you can also slice up some mushrooms, carrots, snap peas, whatever you have on hand. You wanna get to about 2 cups of cut up fresh veggies.
Next, over medium-high but more high-than-medium, heat up a big saute pan, or a wok if you have one. I didn't, so I used a fry pan like a noob. Once the pan is hot, swirl in 2 Tablespoons of peanut oil. Let it get shimmery hot, like a 24-year-old in a sequined top at the newest, trendiest night club in town. Once you've dealt with that mental image, throw in the chicken-cornstarch-wine-garlic-ginger mixture. Spread out evenly in the pan and let it get crispy-brown before you start scraping up the pan with a spoon or spatula or whatever. Just flip around the chicken to get it brown.
After about 3 minutes of this chicken-browning dancing and scraping, toss in the vegetables. I like to do the hard vegetables first, you know, the ones that retain their crunch pretty easily (like carrots, onions, celery, etc.). Cook that around in your saute-pan-that-is-not-a-wok for just a minute, then add in your softer vegetables (mushrooms, snap peas, red bell peppers, etc.). Stir it around quickly and then pour in your S.O. stir fry sauce. and stir it all up! Still over high heat! Oh my god, you are a wizard in the kitchen! Look at all that steam, all that grease, all that splash!
Turn off the heat and you're done. Serve it up with some jasmine or brown rice. You can toss some sesame seeds or sliced green onions on the top if you're feeling fancy. Tonight I threw some kimchi on the side of mine (because omg KIMCHI WILL BE MY NEXT LOVE AFFAIR), as well as another plop of S.O.
Until my next round of spicy colon blow,
Ashley Rebekah
Sambal Oelek, technically speaking, is ground fresh chili paste. But that's kind of like saying "Beethoven wrote music". It just doesn't cover it. In layman's terms, if you like salty, sour, spicy, umami flavors, this is your unicorn.
S.O. is used in a lot of asian cooking. If you've ever been to a Thai restaurant with those weird four-banger condiment trays, one is usually pickled jalapeños (YUM!), another is red pepper flake (YES!), another canister is usually sugar (BUT WHY?!), and the fourth compartment is usually housing some Sambal Oelek (HEY LOVAH!).
 |
| "hey lovah, hey lovah this is more than a crush..." |
By the way, umami is just a fancy, foodie way of saying you're kinda into MSG. I just learned this.
 |
| "now that i've tried to talk to you and make you understand all you have to do is close your eyes, and just reach out your hand and touch me hold me close, don't ever let me go..." |
You can purchase your own bottle of S.O. in the ethic section of the grocery store. This has become a dangerous habit for me. Some nights my dinner is a bowl of jasmine rice with a generous plop of Sambal Oelek. I have no shame.
I've been experimenting with different stir fry's using S.O. as the base for the sauce, and I think i finally landed on a winner. So here you go.
Recipe: Sambal Oelek chicken stir-fry
Cut up 2 chicken boobs into bite sized pieces. I don't know what size this is because i don't know what your bite-wing x-ray looked like in 2015. So just cut up the pieces, mmm'kay? Throw them into a medium-sized glass bowl with a splash of white wine, a thumb-sized piece of ginger root that you've minced, one minced garlic clove, 2 teaspoons of cornstarch and 1 Tablespoon of peanut oil. stir it all around and let it sit while you...
... make your stir-fry "sauce" - In a small bowl, combine 2 Tablespoons Sambal Oelek, 2 Tablespoons fish sauce, 1 Tablespoon brown sugar, another splash of that white wine (and pour yourself a glass while you're at it), and 2 Tablespoons of cold water. Stir it up. Move on to your veggies.
Slice up a red bell pepper and a quarter of a yellow onion. If you wanna get fancy, you can also slice up some mushrooms, carrots, snap peas, whatever you have on hand. You wanna get to about 2 cups of cut up fresh veggies.
Next, over medium-high but more high-than-medium, heat up a big saute pan, or a wok if you have one. I didn't, so I used a fry pan like a noob. Once the pan is hot, swirl in 2 Tablespoons of peanut oil. Let it get shimmery hot, like a 24-year-old in a sequined top at the newest, trendiest night club in town. Once you've dealt with that mental image, throw in the chicken-cornstarch-wine-garlic-ginger mixture. Spread out evenly in the pan and let it get crispy-brown before you start scraping up the pan with a spoon or spatula or whatever. Just flip around the chicken to get it brown.
After about 3 minutes of this chicken-browning dancing and scraping, toss in the vegetables. I like to do the hard vegetables first, you know, the ones that retain their crunch pretty easily (like carrots, onions, celery, etc.). Cook that around in your saute-pan-that-is-not-a-wok for just a minute, then add in your softer vegetables (mushrooms, snap peas, red bell peppers, etc.). Stir it around quickly and then pour in your S.O. stir fry sauce. and stir it all up! Still over high heat! Oh my god, you are a wizard in the kitchen! Look at all that steam, all that grease, all that splash!
Turn off the heat and you're done. Serve it up with some jasmine or brown rice. You can toss some sesame seeds or sliced green onions on the top if you're feeling fancy. Tonight I threw some kimchi on the side of mine (because omg KIMCHI WILL BE MY NEXT LOVE AFFAIR), as well as another plop of S.O.
 |
| i'm really good at taking shitty pictures of delicious food. |
Until my next round of spicy colon blow,
Ashley Rebekah
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