Mirin potato/meat in balado sauce

Following to my #ProjectMirin, I have tried various menu including (but not limited to) the Indonesian balado sauce dishes. As mentioned before, balado sauce is the Indonesian (particularly west Sumatra) spicy sauce - my all time favorite of the Indonesian cuisine. I have made my various version of this particular sauce since my elementary school years because I'm so crazy about it. My husband always loves my balado sauce but sometimes mine is too spicy for him so I need to reduce the hotness level. For this #ProjectMirin, I was kind of playing safe by cooked only the leftovers on my fridge i.e. potato. Usually, my balado will involve poultry and/or any other meats - with potatoes or not.

I was not really expecting a good result when I put mirin into the balado sauce, well, I have prepared myself to eat all of the potato balado if it turned out weird. However, unexpectedly it was nice. Not that there is a special taste to that balado but it added a nice sweetness to the sauce. As mentioned in my post about the spicy shrimp, I like the sauce to be hot and with a little bit of sweetness in it. Instead of adding sugar to the sauce, I then tried to add mirin. Just my two cents, the sweetness of mirin is not just a mere "sweet". I still strongly believe that there is the "umami" within it LOL.

Because of the "successful" first attempt, I made another potato in balado sauce, this time with beef, just a "noice try". Turned out it's nice and delish as well hooray, consistency "checked".

Well, the highlighted issue is that mirin is not limited to the Japanese and Chinese cuisine only. Mirin even suits the Indonesian balado sauce (hard to imagine for my family perhaps, but it is in-fact doable). With this #ProjectMirin going on, I think I'm really-really having fun in the kitchen. Experimenting things just like a rocket scientist hehe. I made several other dishes with mirin and surely there was a failure. It was the tofu with broccoli sauté - my mirin deaden the savoury part of the sauté. Others? Just feel right. mirin is also good for Indonesian soups. I tried it on my Indo spinach soup and a standard Indo cikin soup. For the love of food, please eat in moderation (me to me). Happy eating and cooking.