Welcome to East Timor or Timor-Leste! I've seen these two names interchanged on many different sites. One map says "East Timor" and the other says "Timor-Leste" so I don't know what the actual name of the country is! Admittedly, I don't know anything about this country (considering this whole time I was sure it was part of Africa...) so I had to do some research. This country has strong Portuguese roots and has a history of turmoil. If you want to read more, I found information here. According to Google, the population is 1.38 million people and the capital is Dili. Their national dish is...
Ikan Pepes!
It is fish in a curry sauce. To go with ikan pepes, we made Batar Da'an, which is a corn/lental/squash dish. This was all served over rice. As I was preparing the meal, I had my doubts about the curry sauce - it had some unique flavor profiles added! But, up for an adventure, we set off to make the meal. Here's what we did:
Banana leaves
Curry paste
1 tbsp tamarind pulp, soaked 5 minutes
2 tbsp warm water
6 aneheim peppers, chopped
1 stem lemongrass, only the inner part of the bottom, thinly sliced
5 macadamia nuts
1 small ripe tomato
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp dried shrimp paste
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 C loosely packed basil leaves
Fish marinade:
1 lime sliced in half
1 teaspoon salt
- Marinate the fish with salt and lime rubbed into the surface.
- Grind all of the curry ingredients in a processor till they are smooth (about 2 minutes).
- Place about 1/3 of the curry in the bottom of the sheet of banana leaf.
- Place the first filet on the curry sauce on the banana leaf.
- Rub about 1/3 of the curry onto the fish.
- Place second filet on top.
- Ladle the remaining 1/3 of the curry over the fish and seal up the banana leaf “packet”.
- Use string as necessary to seal the packet.
- Steam for 20 minutes.
- Unwrap the packet and serve over rice with chopped basil.
⅔ lb dried mung beans
2 lb butternut squash, peeled and diced
4 C water
2 onions, diced
8 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons avocado oil
Salt and pepper to taste
- The night before, soak the mung beans in water for at least 10 hours.
- Drain the mung beans.
- Boil them for 10 to 15 minutes in a large amount of water.
- Meanwhile, sauté onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat for 6-8 minutes in a separate pan.
- Add water, squash, beans and corn to the onion and garlic.
- Increase heat to high and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook, about 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until squash is tender and the liquid is reduced to a minimum.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with rice.
