Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Manado/Minahasa Food : Rica Rodo

Some minahasan or manadonese food such as ayam rica-rica or bubur manado (tinutuan) are very well known. But only few know about rica rodo. From its first word 'rica', it is supposed to be spicy. Yes, it is. But it is far from ayam rica-rica, because rica rodo is a vegetable dish.




Disclaimer:
This is not original rica rodo recipe. Some of the ingredients are not used or replaced by substitutes due to avalabillity or economical reasons. For example, long beans are substituted by green beans (french beans), smoked roa fish is substituted with ready made sambal ikan roa (bought in Manado), big red chillies are substituted by long red paprika. I use powder lemongrass instead of the fresh one.

When I searched in internet I found there are a lot of variations of ingredient combination were used in the recipes. So I decided to make the recipe based on my remaining taste memory of rica rodo.

some ingredients used in rica rodo


For me, the ingredients that I will not skip in making rica rodo are:

  • Chili (= rica) 
  • Veggies trio: Eggplant, corn and long bean/green bean
  • Lemongrass
  • Fishy smell ingredients. In this case I use dried ebi and sambal roa.
  • Lime leaves
Here you are, my highly modified rica rodo recipe that bring me back to Manado for a few meals..

Ingredients:
  1. 3 tbsp oil
  2. 3 bulbs shallots, finely sliced
  3. 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  4. 150 grams red long paprika, finely chopped
  5. 6 small chili, halved 
  6. 1 tbsp mashed fried ebi
  7. 1 tbsp sambal roa
  8. 1 tsp lemongrass powder
  9. 4 dried lime leaves, rinse and soak in water before use
  10. 300 grams Eggplant (1 piece), 1-2 cm diced
  11. 150 grams green bean, 1-2 cm sliced
  12. 150 grams corn/ 1 piece corn, removed from cob
  13. 100 ml water
  14. salt to taste (around half to 1 tsp)
  15. 2 stalks scallion, 1-2 cm sliced
How to cook:
  1. Heat oil in a big frying pan or medium size pot over high heat.
  2. Saute shallot and garlic until fragrant.
  3. Add red long paprika (or big chili),small chili, and sambal roa, saute for 1-2 minutes.
  4. Add the rest of spices. In this case: lime leaves and lemongrass powder.
  5. Add the green bean, eggplant, and  corn. Stir until well mixed with the spices.
  6. Add a little bit of water if the mixture is too dry.
  7. Add salt to taste.
  8. Cover the pan or pot and cook for 1-2 minutes until all of the vegetables and corns ar well cooked. 
  9. Add scallion, stir, and rica rodo is ready to be served for 5-6 person.
This dish is very suitable to be enjoyed with warm plain white rice. If you love hot or spicy food, just add more small chili or finely chop them into smaller pieces instead of only half them.

Note:
I am really sorry for the poor picture. I forget to take a proper final dish picture. I guess now I have a reason to cook another batch of rica rodo!! ;)

Enjoy!







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