coriander in pho

Ooookay, I’m not super sure the English term for it, but it’s basically another Indonesian take at sambal (if we could put sambal on everything, we would—wait.) Kentang is potato, sambal is, well, sambal (chili paste — mixed with garlics, shallots, salt, sugar, pepper, and sometimes, shrimp paste,) and goreng means fried.

This dish is not exclusively for Eid, and many households cook it as side dish (yes, it has potatoes AND we eat it with rice) and one of folks’ favorites because you can keep it and re-heat it for the next meal.

Potato is the main ingredients, and folks add another protein on it: quail eggs, chicken livers and gizzards, and (sometimes, if you — and your nose — are strong enough,) stinky beans.

A bit of warning, this dish has lots of chilis and shrimp paste. This is not for the faint of heart.

For 4-5 people; and you can keep it for 2-3 days in a fridge

Cut and diced:
800 grams potatoes (you can round it up to 1 kg. This depends on how much you like this dish, though.)
300 grams chicken gizzards

Spices, blended:
10-15 pieces red chilis (I don’t know its exact English name, but in Indonesia, we call it “cabe keriting” (curly chilies.) In Malaysia, though, I’m using Johor chili)
5 pieces bird-eye chilis (if you like it really, really spicy)
6 garlics
10 shallots
1/2 to 1 teaspoon of shrimp paste (belacan/terasi) (heat the shrimp paste first to exude its aroma)
2 candlenuts
1/4 teaspoon of turmeric powder (optional)

Spices, mashed/tear:
3 kaffir lime leaves
3 bay leaves
2 cm ginger
2 cm galangal

To taste:
Salt
Sugar
Pepper

Cooking oil

Deep fried the potatoes and the gizzards separately. Set aside.

Put a bit of oil on the wok (you don’t have to use new oil; you can use the oil from previous fry (potatoes and gizzards) and heat the blended spices. Add the mashed spices/herbs. Heat it until it’s fragrant.

Put potatoes and gizzards into the wok and mix it thoroughly. In Malaysia, we had this term: Pecah minyak; in Indonesia, my aunt mentioned to me to cook it “until dry” — meaning that you need to mix it on the hot wok until the sambal sticks on the potatoes and gizzards and you could see the oil “separated” from the dish. You shouldn’t see some kind of “chili soup” on the wok. The sambal needs to look like marinated the potatoes and the gizzards. And yes, it needs upper arm workout to handle this dish.

Serve with warm jasmine rice or ketupat.