Babi Ketjap

A very quick and simple thing to make is Babi Ketjap. 

This is what you need:

500 grams lean pork meat (I used a fricandeau)

-1 or 2 bell peppers

-2 red onions

-1/2 red chilli pepper

-1 clove of garlic

-5 tablespoons of ketjap manis

-2 tablespoons of (rice)vinegar

-2 tablespoons of oil (and 4 more to bake the meat in)

-1 tablespoon of djahe (ginger-powder)

-1 teaspoon of ketoembar (coriander-powder)

-1 teaspoon of djinten (cumin-powder)

-1 or 2 tablespoons of brown sugar

-2 teaspoons of sambal manis

cornstarch and/or water and/or salt as needed

Dice up the meat and marinade it in the ketjap, vinegar, oil, djahe, ketoembar and djinten.

(Preferably do this in the morning and put it in the fridge...or make it about an hour or (at least) half an hour before you want to eat)

Next, dice the bell pepper(s), onions, red chili pepper and garlic.

Heat oil in a large pan, and bake the meat on high heat (try to add as little liquid from the marinade as possible, but do keep the liquid for later use!)

When the meat is done, stir in the brown sugar, sambal and the vegetables.

Bake for another few minutes, then add the marinade to the pan.

bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and let it simmer for a while (5 - 10 minutes).

(add a bit of extra water if it's too dry...but the marinade should normally be enough)

Give it a taste, 

add salt if needed.

Finally, bind the sauce with some cornstarch,

and serve it with rice (and additional vegetables if you like).

Pork Belly Buns

Never made these before and today i'm going to try and make a quick version,

not completely sure if that's a great idea, but let's see!

I've encountered way too many delicious pictures of pork belly buns on the internet lately,

so when I spotted the buns in the fridge of my local ethnic store, I just had to try.

Bought a couple of slices of pork belly (that's how they mainly sell pork belly over here, also called "speklapjes") and cut them in quarters

Baked them slowly on low/medium heat in tiny bit of oil (to get them started),

until the largest part of the fat melted away.

this will take about 20 minutes, and you want to turn up the heat and crisp them up a little at the end.

at that point, most of the fat was tossed and the meat was set aside.

in the little fat that was left, I heated a mixture of the following ingredients:

- 2 tablespoons of soy sauce

- 1 tablespoon of fish sauce

- 2 tablespoons of dry sherry

- 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar

-chopped ginger (to taste)

- thin rings of red spanish pepper (to taste)

after bringing it to a boil, the meat was added back in and the heat

turned back down to low/medium heat.

I let it simmer for a while; about 20-30 minutes.

next up was steaming the buns I bought from the store

(instructions are on the package)

and preparing the rest, in this case:

- slices of cucumber

- shaved carrot slices

- a tiny bit of hoisin sauce for every bun

et voila: