Punjabi Chole Masala AFF Indian Subcontinent #5

It's a lovely condiment.
Spicy and fragrant.

It's quite easy to cook, because I used canned chickpeas. Cheating...haha.

Sambal Bongkot Bali - Indonesia AFF #2

Bongkot is Balinese for torch ginger or what we know as bunga kantan locally.

Sambal Bongkot is a special sambal from Bali that uses the shoot of the torch ginger, yes the shoot. Now, that is something that isn 't easily available in Malaysia, not in the market, any market for sure. The buds are easy, but not the shoots. Unless you have access to the plants

In Malaysia we use torch ginger bud to cook assam laksa and asam pedas fish. I used to think that the flower is not 'edible', as in 'swallow-able', but when I saw my ex colleague eating 2 buds in a row in her assam laksa, I knew it can be swallowed. Some things are meant to flavour and season and not everything is edible.

Thai Red Curry Paste - Thai AFF #3

For this month's AFF, It's Thailand. The land of smiles.

Thailand is famous for its curries of which is different from Indian curries that uses a lot of spices. Instead Thai curries uses herbs and aromatics as well on top of some spices.

The Thais have red, yellow and green colours for their curries, differentiated by the colours of the ingredients. The use is also different for each type. Red curry is one of most versatile curry pastes and can be used for meat, poultry, seafood and vegetables.

Red curry paste is the basic ingredient for making Thai Red Curry.