There are not many groceries available where I live. I have to go downtown if I want to find more complex, industrial-made ingredients for food. But the important thing is that the further away I am from the city center, it is good for my financial savings. I am also more creative in creating many interesting menus available in my village.
I hope the recipes I share can provide new inspiration for those of you who want to try authentic Asian touches.
MUSTARD GREEN FLOWERS
In this recipe, I use ”Mustard Green Flowers” which are edible flowers made from mustard greens.
I have also used these edible flowers several times in recipes on my previous blog.
These edible flowers are harvested at the end of the mustard green plant's life. In my garden, I also directly harvested these edible flowers. What a blessing it is when we can make food from our own garden.
Here are some collections of photos of fresh edible mustard green flowers before I harvest them. Because I didn't plant a lot of mustard green at that time, I harvested a little mustard green flower too. Usually, it will be enough to make a salad mix, fried rice mix, and noodle mix.
So for large portions of food, I buy mustard green flowers at the nearest vegetable shop in my house.
A small bunch of mustard green flowers costs IDR 2K, or USD 0.145.
These are mustard green flowers that are ready to cook.
HOW TO COOK MUSTARD GREEN FLOWERS
Just like cooking other green vegetables, cooking mustard green flowers is very easy. Simply stir-fry with simple spices such as red chilies or paprika, onion, garlic, and salt.
To add a stronger taste and hide the slightly bitter taste typical of vegetables, we can use broth.
- Step 1
Prepare mustard green flowers. So that the texture doesn't crumble, I don't chop the mustard flowers. But make sure the part of the stem to be cooked is still young. Hand checks the texture of the stems. If it feels hard and cannot be broken by hand, then the stem should be removed.
Then wash the mustard flowers carefully so they don't fall off.
- Step 2
Prepare simple spices. Chili, garlic, and onion chops. Then heat the oil, and saute until fragrant.
Add the broth powder or you can use a little broth water after the mustard flowers are added.
- Step 3
Add the mustard flowers and cook for about 3 minutes until wilted. Remove then set aside.
ROASTED TEMPEH AND SWEET POTATOES
Before cooking mustard green flowers, I actually prepare roasted tempeh and sweet potatoes first. So it saves time while the tempeh and sweet potatoes are roasting.
Before roasting, I season the tempeh with coriander powder, pepper, and salt. It's up to you to marinate or just dip it for a bit.
I roast the tempeh and sweet potatoes first at a temperature of 250 degrees Celsius. For the time it depends on the circumstances. We have to check for the doneness of tempeh and sweet potatoes because using the oven rate and the cooking rate will be different.
I put the sweet potatoes on the bottom rack of the oven and followed by tempeh on the next top rack. I put in 45 minutes and flip the ingredients on 20 minutes. Sometimes I add more cooking time if I want a crisper texture and a more golden brown.
SPICY SWEET POTATOES
To make spicy sweet potatoes, I make chili paste. This pasta is made to measure 300 grams of sweet potatoes.
- Step 1
Blend 5 cloves of red chilies, 4 cloves of red onion, two cloves of garlic, a pinch of salt, and 50 ml of vegetable oil.
Blend until smooth, blended into chili paste.
- Step 2
Stir-fry the chili paste until fragrant over medium heat so it doesn't burn.
- Step 3
Add roasted sweet potatoes and mix well. Cook for a while until the chili paste is evenly combined on the sweet potatoes.
Check the taste before removing it. You can add flavor-enhancing broth powder or simply add salt, according to your taste buds.
PLATING
Ah, this is always the fun part! I like to combine the ingredients into a plate for serving.
I have an obsession with creating a beautiful plate of food with simple ingredients from the countryside.
Let's follow me to prepare the dish to be ready to eat at once on one plate. Stay tuned!
Step 1.
Arrange Stir-Fried Mustard Green Flowers on the plate. I use these flowers for a plating base which will be added and sweet potatoes with the layering system.
Oh, I feel these Mustard Green Flowers are really beautiful! What do you think?
Step 2.
After finishing tidying the Mustard Green Flowers with a certain shape on the plate, I began to add slices of roasted tempeh to the Mustard Green Flowers.
Step 3.
Add Spicy Sweet Potatoes. Make sure it doesn't cover the previous ingredients too much.
Step 4.
In the final stage and this can be optional, add sauce to create brighter details and colors.
Mustard Green Flowers, Spicy Sweet Potatoes, And Roasted Tempeh are ready to be served!
The taste of Stir-Fried Mustard Green Flowers is of course like Mustard Green Leaves, a bit typical of green vegetables but not bitter in the Bittermelon level. It was also not a problem at all because there was another dominant sense that spicy from roasted sweet potatoes and savory and salty from roasted tempeh.
I hope this plant-based recipe will provide new inspiration for you. You can vary it with familiar ingredients in your area for sure.
Thank you for reading my blog day. Happy Yummy Day!
Best Regards,
Anggrek Lestari
Anggrek Lestari is an Indonesian fiction writer who has published two major books. Now She is a full-time content creator. She has a goal to share food content that makes others happy and can get inspiration for foods that are easy to make and contain elements of health.
Make sure you follow her blog as well for some interesting discussions about life other than food.
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