TIMOR-LESTE: THE FOOD

We’ve now made it over a month and a half in quarantine. The days are getting warmer, the trees are turning green, and I finally saw the fox that lives in my neighborhood. I’ve navigated home-based learning while working from home at the same time. My husband has navigated buying groceries, trying to buy car parts to fix my car, and encountering people who act like they’ve never heard of social distancing. It’s certainly been a learning experience. I just try to keep somewhat busy, spending my time listening to music and writing and doing Duolingo (I just made my one-year streak this week).

For as many eggs that are in this, you could probably call this a protein bar.

I’m grateful this blog keeps me busy. Today, we’re making food from Timor-Leste. It was kind of difficult to find a unique bread from this small country. After some searching, I found a recipe for Bibingka. But I had to make sure I had the right one since there’s also a version from the Philippines. For the Timorese version, I started out beating four eggs in a large mixing bowl until they were pale yellow. Then I gradually added in 1 ½ c sugar until it was well mixed before adding in a ½ c of melted butter to it. I mixed my milks together into one large measuring cup: ½ c whole milk plus one 12-oz can of coconut milk. I stirred to make sure they were the same consistency, even though it was still a bit lumpy. Then I poured in a bit of this milk alternately with my 2 c of rice flour, stirring to make sure it was all blended well. Then I pulled out my baking dish and greased it well with butter and then lined it with wax paper and poured this mixture in it until it was ¾ full. (You can also use small, individual brioche molds.) At this point, I took four salted hard-boiled eggs that I chopped up (the whites only) and sprinkled them on top. Before putting it in the oven, I sprinkled sugar and grated coconut on top of it. I baked it for about 20 minutes at 325ºF, but it was still really liquidy. I turned my heat up to 350ºF and left it in there for another 30-35 minutes or so. I could’ve been the baking dish I used, or the recipe was way off on the temperature and time recommendations. When it was done, I took it out and let it set up and cool a bit. I was skeptical about the salted eggs part, but with the coconut, it actually tasted good. The texture was a little chewy, but not bad. I was fairly impressed. The hardest part is making sure you get all the wax paper off of it before eating it.

This was pretty easy to make and tastes like it was much more difficult.

The main meal I made today is called Caril de Amendoim e Galinha, or Chicken with Peanut Sauce. I made some amendments to this for the sake of time, ease, and availability. The original recipe calls to use 4 c of raw peanuts and grind them down with water to make a paste. I’m going to skip that part and go with 1 c of peanut butter and mix it with water until it’s the consistency of thick milk (it ended up being about 2 c of water). Then in a large skillet, I placed some chicken thighs and let the outsides brown just a bit. After the outsides didn’t look pinkish anymore, I added in a can of diced tomatoes (I would’ve liked two cans, but that was all we could find), some diced onion and salt and let it sauté for about five minutes over medium heat. Then I slowly poured in my peanut sauce, letting it come to a boil before reducing my heat. If you want it spicy, you can add in a bit of hot pepper to it. The longer you cook the pepper, the hotter it’ll be. I left the pepper out completely and served this with some jasmine rice. I really liked this, even though it may have been better if my peanut sauce were a tad thicker. But it was good either way. My son was not a fan of it, but I thought it was wonderful. The chicken just practically fell apart.

Maybe one day, I'll head out to the international market and look for kangkong and try this again.

Finally as a side dish, I picked a dish called Kangkong Stir Fry. No, not King Kong, but kind of close because I knew I wasn’t going to be able to find it during this pandemic. So, I substituted bok choy for it. I washed and trimmed it before I did anything. In a skillet, I heated some coconut oil (the recipe called for sesame oil that I thought I had but couldn’t find) over medium-high heat and added in some chopped onion, minced garlic, and minced ginger (that I had to substitute ground ginger). I sautéed this until my onion started to turn translucent. Then I added in my bok choy, water, and soy sauce (you can also add hot peppers to this as well, but I left them out. I thought about adding just a tad of crushed red pepper). I stir fried this until the leaves started to wilt and then took it off the heat, garnishing it with sesame seeds and basil. I liked this, but I think it would’ve been better with the sesame oil or a bit more salt. Everyone liked it, pretty well, I think.

Overall, I liked this meal. It wasn't the consensus, but their votes don't count. LOL.

I’m glad that I was able to cover this country that all I really knew was that it was part of the Portuguese-speaking world. In fact, in one of my polyglot groups, someone recently joked, “Oh, yeah? I bet you don’t even know what side of the island Dili is on,” to someone. Of course, I replied, “Psht, everyone knows it’s on the north side of the island.” It doesn’t matter that I just learned that a couple weeks ago. Those details are clearly not important. The point is that I know now, and so does anyone who’s come across this blog. And we’re all better people for it. Well, that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

Up next: Togo