Ginger Beer

Ginger beer anyone?

Right, continuing with the theme of  self-sustenance, I shall talk about my ginger beer journey today! So the story began back in July. While in Jakarta I got myself my favourite Bundaberg ginger beer. And I was wondering if I can actually make my own, since it's so difficult to get it (can't find it here in my hometown). I searched some recipe and I decided to follow Joshua Weissman's recipe on YouTube!

My ginger bug (do not throw away)
Oh yes cover the bottle with a cloth/tissue paper and rubber band, don't cover it tight!

So to make your ginger beer, you need to make a ginger bug first. Basically it's like the starter of your ginger beer. It is a very straightforward and easy step. 500ml of water, two tablespoons of ginger and sugar each. Add the ginger and sugar every 24 hours for the next 3 days or so. A bit of warning, as a true blue Southeast Asian I just use our agaration method. I don't follow exact measurements hah.

My ginger bug is aliiiive

After 3 days the ginger bug turns to be very bubbly and kinda frothy. It smells very yeasty too. Reminds me of beer. After the ginger bug is ready we'll start to make our "ginger tea". Which is basically 2 litres of water, ginger and sugar. Once again, I use agaration for everything. I added extra sugar as compared to the recipe as I find it not sweet enough heh. Then cool the ginger tea. This is very important! If the tea is still hot, or even warm, you might kill the yeast in the ginger bug.

My ginger tea. Remember to cool it down!

Once it's cooled down, add half a cup of ginger bug. Close the bottle cap, and leave it in room temperature, away from sunlight, for about 3 days. It is also important to open your bottle once every 24 hours, if not the bottle might explode! My ginger beer was ready in about 72 hours. 

Leave it out for 3 days, opening once every 24 hours

You know it's ready when the ginger beer is fizzy and there's a gas buildup in the bottle. AKA the bottle pops when you open it. Then cool it in the fridge, and it's ready!

Personally I think this is a great and easy recipe to follow (thanks Joshua!). However there are some variations that might affect your results. Which I will cover in the next post haha. Alright I guess that's all from me now. I hope you can give thisva try and make your own ginger beer too! See you tomorrow.

Curried Chickpeas Taco

Hello again! It's the 15th of the 2nd Lunar Month today so I'm going to share with you the vegetarian recipe for this month! It's a new recipe I tried, Curried Chickpeas Taco (with kangkung).

Curried Chickpeas Taco With Kangkung  

Ingredients:

- 400gr of Chickpeas

- 2 cloves of garlic, diced

- 1 small or medium onion, diced

- A handful of kangkung (watercress)

- 1 teaspoon of garam masala

- 1 teaspoon of curry powder

- Salt and pepper to taste

- 1 tablespoon of oil

- A bit of water

- Taco shells

Directions:

As usual, if you're using dried chickpeas like I do, soak them overnight or for at least 6 hours. This time round don't crush them haha. I boil them for about 10 minutes till they're nice and firm (but nice to the bite). Or you can also skip the soaking and boil them straight away. I think you can do that.... I haven't tried it though heh. Or at least soak them for about an hour prior to boiling.

Heat some oil in the pan. Stir fry the onion until they are fragrant and transparent, then insert the garlic. Make sure they're not burnt (I learned my lesson here heh). Add in the curry powder, garam masala, salt and pepper and mix them all in into kind of a paste. Add a bit of water to loosen them a bit, make sure they're not too dry. And then stir in the chickpeas! :)

Mix until well-combined and a few minutes before serving, add in the kangkung and mix them till they wilt. Have a taste and add more seasoning if required. Take em out and serve! Just take a spoonful and put it on your taco and nom your way baby. You can also use burrito wraps I guess, I had some taco shell leftovers so I ate them on the taco shells. Or serving it with rice is great as well.

Alright that's it for my second MVR! I haven't tried any new veggie recipe so far... Made some miso soup last week though and it's quite good. Okay see you on the next MVR :D

Five-Spice Vegetarian Balls

Alright as promised, I'm going to share with you my 5-spice vegetarian meatballs recipe! I actually came up with this recipe after trying to make some falafels. Instead of using curry powder, I changed the seasoning to 5-spice seasonings, the one you can get at supermarkets! Here goes:

Five Spice Vegetarian Balls 

Ingredients:

- 500gr chickpeas

- 3 cloves garlic

- 3 cloves shallots

- 5 dried shitake mushroom (or fresh ones!)

- 1 carrot, boiled and diced finely

- 1 teaspoon of cornstarch

- Five spice seasoning to taste

- Salt and pepper

Directions:

If you are using dried chickpeas like me, soak the chickpeas in water overnight. Make sure you have at least 6 - 10cm of water above the chickpeas. If you are using canned ones just use them right away. Same goes for the shitake mushroom. After soaking them in water, dice the mushroom finely so that you can incorporate them into the crushed chickpeas. Same for carrots too!

I don't have a food processor so I blend the garlic, shallots and salt together in a pestle and mortar into a fine paste. I smash and crush the peace out of the chickpeas (get what I mean?) using a huge pestle and mortar too haha. Blend the chickpeas until they are almoooost fine. Do use a food processor if you have it! Anyway for the consistency it's really up to your preference. For me I like it not too fine, so that my "meatballs" have a bit of texture inside it. Once everything is blended, combine everything!

I put everything in a plastic container and use my wonderful hand to mix everything in. Fun fact: Some Indonesians believe that your food will taste nicer if you mix them using only one hand, and not both. Also please don't use your left hand. It's considered the "dirty" hand.

Once everything is combined, make into balls about 3/4 of the size of a ping pong ball. You can make them into a patty too to make burgers. Anyway one trick I learned from my sister-in-law is to fry one piece first to give it a taste and see if you lack any seasoning. When I cooked these I find that my mixture lacks in five-spice fragrance so I added more. Fry these balls in batches until they turn golden brown. Best served when it's hot! Either with chili sauce or garlic-soy dipping sauce :)

There you have it! The first of my recipe series (gonna label it as MVR - My Vegetarian Recipe). Sorry for the lack of photos, I might consider taking photos of the steps taken and include them. I will update you with more recipes! Happy cooking, and I hope you like the recipe. Try to eat less meat alright :P