Description
Oseng-oseng pare is Javanese dish of bitter gourd stir-fried with shallots, garlic, chillies, and shrimp paste. It’s typical of Indonesian home cooking and has numerous health benefits.
Ingredients
Scale
- 300 gr bitter gourd
- 6 shallots, peeled, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled chopped
- 3 big red chillies, remove the stalk, chopped
- 3 bird’s eye chillies (optional, remove the stalk)
- 0.5 tsp roasted shrimp paste
- 1 red tomato, chopped
- 2 cm, galangal, sliced
- 1 Indonesian bay leaf (daun salam)
- Salt to taste
- 0.5 tsp sugar
- 100 ml water
- 3 tbsp cooking oil
Instructions
- Remove both ends of the bitter gourd, cut in half, and remove the seeds.
- Thinly slice it, then put it in a colander and sprinkle with some salt to sweat it. Leave it for around 15 minutes, and rinse thoroughly. Set aside.
- Using a blender or food processor, blend into a paste: shallots, garlic and chillies.
- Heat the cooking oil in a wok over medium high heat, and saute the blended spices and roasted shrimp paste, for around 3 minutes until fragrant.
- Add the chopped red tomato, galangal and daun salam. Fry for another 2 minutes.
- Add the bitter gourd, stir.
- Add the water, salt and sugar. Cook for around 10 minutes until the liquids have evaporated and the bitter gourd is tender.
- Transfer to a serving plate and enjoy!
Notes
- For a less bitter fruit, choose the bigger Chinese variety, while for more intense and bitter flavour, go for the smaller Indian variety.
Keywords: Spicy, Healthy, Shrimp Paste, Galangal