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assalamualaikum

Belutak was probably (surprisingly!) the easiest to make although i lacked one key item that is needed to ferment(?) the slices of meat; cow intestines. yeah, its more or less like a chorizo (without the red colors) or blood sausage (without the blood) and of course, no pork. although, to non-muslims, i think if you try this method, it'll be mostly the same except the fact that beef can be slightly chewy. but for the sake of my own faith, beef is by far the best for me.

slicing then chopping them into dices wasn't as easy i expected. its as difficult as mincing raw chicken or fish. but the challenge comes when you cut the tough tendons and fat, both of which i also include to make the Blutak tastier.

that was a given fact, being hard to prep/chop. what astounds me the most is the ingredients; just basically 2, salt and LOTS of garlic. mix em up and let it stand for a while to dry a bit. if you have, by any chance, be in possession of a cow's intestine, that would be awesome. because it is essential when it comes to drying the meat under the sun (or in my case, hang in the kitchen near the window. doesn't stink at all. what i did was wrapped clear kitchen cling film and shape it into a sausage. tied each end with a rubber band and just hung it on the wall. sound unhygienic but no maggots nor funky stuff goin' on in the meat. just check every so often so that flies don't come disco-ing around on it. i hung it for a whole day (during a perfect sunny day) and transferred it to the freezer to eat another day.

this was like... my 3rd try. got lazy putting it in cling film, but still works!

normally i would stir fry it. some people deep fry it. i once actually roasted it. either way, it tastes awesome. FYI, i added hot thai chilli peppers in the mixture (because i'm the boss!) and it tasted even more kick-ass awesome. just adjust the salt to your liking... and voila!

"Belutak"

the second batch i made was a bit too salty but managed to skim it away by boiling it before frying (skims off a bit of fat as well)...

suivant... next in line...

chicken charsiu

i think i might be wrong or have modified it completely but i made it a few times, still tastes delicious ^^

what i meant about being wrong was that, as usual, pork was supposed to be the main meat ingredient. Charsiu or en anglais, barbecued meat or literally meaning "fork burn" (don't know why, so don't ask. i got it from Wiki... hehehe) is quite an experimental dish to me, since the first try wasn't that much successful in looks but taste-wise, it was delicious and satisfying. i was trying to get that steamed kinda look, with the skin still on (i love chicken skin! they are the best when deep fried and in steamed chicken rice!).

this was my first attempt... yeah, doesn't look appealing :-/

but the taste... super de-effing-licious!

the first try included ingredients as you would find in making chicken rice; soy sauce, garlic, ginger, sesame oil. not really charsiu ingredients but i was trying to get the hang of prepping its 'looks. as you can see from the picture, i pan fried/boiled it after marinating it for a few hours (i used the marinade as the sauce as well but you can make a new one if you are feeling hygenic... i didn't suffer any disease so it was okay).

the next few tries, after obtaining a bottled charsiu sauce/marinade, after deboning 2-3 chicken thighs (which i recommend as it is more flavorful and interesting), seasoned it with salt and pepper then rolled it into a log. i tied it with baking strings to keep the shape. the easiest but lengthy way was to roll it then wrap with cling film and freeze it for an hour before tying it with string. i used that way because tying it when its still soft was a bit to hard for me. after marinating overnight, i roasted it and kept basting it every 15-20 minutes until i have that nice crusty dark brown-red char on the outside. i also poured in water in the baking tray while the chicken was on the baking rack so it won't boil the chicken. it was merely to give it surroundings some sort of a humid atmosphere which i believe can maintain the juiciness inside the chicken while the outside it charred.

from what you can see from the previous Ramen recipe i made, there was also charsiu but i used meat and the prepping was as similar to the chicken except that i didn't have to roll it since you can purchase meat in a block form. i used a portion of rib meat so it was kind of chewy. next time i would probably boil it till it softens a bit before roasting and basting it with charsiu sauce.

wassalam