Sometimes, I often think strange things when alone. For example, about me being trapped in someone else's body, then feeling the suffering of that other person for me to learn something. But the fact is, I and or all humans have never been trapped in someone else's body. We are ourselves we must be responsible. Whatever it is, we only live once in this world and have to go through a lot of trouble to learn wisdom.
Well, back to the topic of my post today, I put a lot of my feelings into my newest dish. I chose to put my mind to work in the kitchen. I like to keep my mind busy in useful ways as well as cook something new.
I like to make new food inspired by many moments in my life. Also, from the many beautiful food pictures I saw on the internet. Then, I create my own version while I try to accept reality (about the various problems I'm facing).
So no matter what problems I have, I still have my cooking skills to at least cheer me up for now. Then, let me show you about a dish with simple ingredients but with a beautiful presentation.
I created this menu as a substitute for my and my husband's fine dining activities from restaurants to just at our home. So, I formed various elements of the dishes into something as memorable as we are enjoying new food from a restaurant.
An enchanting plate of mushrooms on the top of soft baked sweet potatoes and with a little surprise of crunchy green leaves. With sweet soy sauce, it will make our minds think of sweet moments in life.
The Ingredients
- Sweet potato, here I use just one sweet potato but with a big size. Also, you can use some of the small sweet potatoes.
- Pakchoy about 3 bounch or more according to your serving amount.
- Mushrooms about 150-250 grams
- Chopped garlic and onion, 2 small cloves of garlic, and 3 small cloves of red onion.
- sweet soy sauce about 3 tablespoons.
- enough cooking oil to glaze sweet potato and stir-fry onion.
NOTE You can replace pakchoy with other types of vegetables that have a crunchy final texture, such as broccoli, green beans, and more. For the type of mushrooms, you can also use the type of button mushrooms, if you don't have the type of mushrooms in stock that I use.
Cooking Sweet Potatoes
Always make sure that we save time when cooking. We can do double work. So, I always start by cooking baked dishes.
First, cut the sweet potato if needed. Then, clean a big sweet potato or some small sweet potato. You can use a dishwashing detergent to clean the sweet potato skin.
After the sweet potatoes are washed clean, make sure they sweet potatoes are dry. Use a rag or food paper.
Then, coat all the sweet potatoes with oil and sprinkle them with salt.
Bake sweet potatoes for about 25 minutes on each side, then flip into another side. Bake for another 25 minutes. Here, I use the air fryer method. You can use the timed oven method. Bake until sweet potato tender. Use a fork to check if the sweet potato is cooked the way you want it.
Stir-Fry Mushrooms and Green Leaves
Prepare other side dishes while waiting for the baked sweet potatoes to cook. Discard the bottom of the pakchoy, also clean the mushrooms.
After preparing the chopped garlic and red onion, then start to heat the cooking oil. After that, add chopped garlic and red onion. Stir well until they become smells good.
Add soy sauce when the garlic and onions are fragrant. Stir well until they look caramelized. Use only low heat so they don't burn.
Add mushrooms and cook them for about 3 minutes. Stir well until all the sauce is absorbed by the mushrooms.
The final step, add pakchoy and cook them again for about 5 minutes.
If you are using broccoli, you can blanch the broccoli first before mixing the broccoli into stir-fried mushrooms.
SERVING!
Try your best to serve your cooking results. It will increase the appetite of those who see your food. Starting from the selection of serving plates to forming various elements of dishes into a charming shape. Do not serve your food as if you were feeding an animal that does not understand both sight and taste.
For the base dish, I put baked sweet potato first. I use a fork to remove the sweet potato flesh. Besides that, I don't need to put in extra effort to make mashed sweet potatoes because they have a soft and tender texture.
After finishing arranging the mashed sweet potatoes on the bottom of the serving plate, the next step is to arrange the pakchoy. I formed the pakchoy in a circle. But this is not the necessary way. You can add pakchoy in a random way.
Then, oh..., this time to add mushrooms all over the top of the mashed sweet potatoes. I like this step, really! I put the mushroom stema into the mashed sweet potatoes. Add a few spoonfuls of soy sauce if needed. It looks like beautiful art. Is not it?
For the final touch, add edible flowers. I really like my creation this time.
If you don't like the sweet taste of sweet potatoes, of course, you can replace mashed sweet potatoes with mashed potatoes. It will be perfect too. Just adjust the ingredients according to your taste buds.
Thank you for reading my blog and reblog if you want my blog this time worthy of reading by others.
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 life, poem, and food content that makes others happy and can get inspiration.
Contact Person: authoranggreklestari@gmail.com
Discord: anggreklestari#3009