Rujak Bali

Rujak is generally an Indonesian word for fruits salad, with spicy palm sugar sauce. In other parts in Indonesia, there is crushed peanuts as part of the sauce's ingredients. But in this recipe, there is no peanut at all and it has shrimp paste (terasi) inside , and I was really wondering if it is very typical of Bali's rujak that the sauce is without sauce. It is too late to call home now, to ask my mom (she is balinese) about it, well anyway, I still enjoy the taste, although I prefer the sauce with peanuts, of course!

I added dry shrimp and dried chili inside, and for fruits, i used pamelo (jeruk bali), pineapple, but i was so wrong to use green papaya because you really have to use ripe papaya for this kind of sauce (however green papaya for the peanut rujak, tastes very good).

Asem-asem and Pindang Serani

My mom used to make a Javanese meat soup which i loved. As you all probably know, that i did not like Indonesian dish when i was a kid, bu t her meat soup which is called "asem-asem", (asem means acid) ugh, j'adore! But that was before she started adding curcuma (turmeric) inside that asem-asem to give it the yellow color, she said it is another variation. I told her that i don't see the difference between that and the regular meat soto if she makes it like that. Beside, i did not like turmeric (only when i live in france that i start to like it and coconut milk as well! Imagine being Indonesian, and does not like those two things, you can picture how stupid i was when i was young!).

Anyway, i made "Pindang Serani" yesterday, and i love the smell of the spices inside, which reminds me of my mom's yellow asem-asem. So i decided to make the asem-asem, but i add other spices so that i can call it my own version of asem-asem? Hehe...

Anyway, sometimes she made pindang-serani-kind of dish too at home, and as you might guess it, i did not like it either, so i hardly ate it.

Ingredients:

• 2 cm curcuma/turmeric, peeled and minced
• 5 cm galangal, crushed
  
• 1 tps ginger powder
• 1 tbs dry shrimp crushed
• 1 chili (or more) thinly sliced
• ½ tps andaliman or schezuan poivre
• 1 lemon grass thinly sliced
• 1 big shallots thinly sliced
• 2 garlic thinly sliced
• 2 tomatoes cut in wedges
• 1 tps raw salt
• 1 lemon, (for the juice)
• 1 spring onion thinly sliced
• 750 ml water
• 500 gr beef, cut

How to....?

1. Boil the beef in the water. Take out the residue resulting from the process (add water if necessary).
2. Add the remaining ingredients (except the spring onion).
3. Cook until the beef goes tender, throw in the spring onion, continue cooking for 1 minute.
4. Add the lemon juice and serve as rice's companion.

To make Pindang Serani:
The same spices as above, (except the andaliman, lemon, spring onion, shrimp and lemon).
Replace the beef with fish.
Boil the spices altogether, and then add the fish in the end, and continue cooking for about 10 minutes.

pindang serani

Stir-Fry Chicken

Tonight, i cooked Chinese food. Mr. Gorilla told me that he liked it a lot, while i actually am not a big fan of Chinese dish, especially tonight's dish. He told me that it had the same taste as what he ate once a week when he worked in Shanghai, and then he kept on by saying that maybe it was my cooking that he felt in love with, not with who i am (oh that nasty mouth of his!). He even told me that i am getting better and better on cooking compared to what i did 4 years ago when we just moved in to our small apartment, that i often spoiled dinner time with my fail cookings, haha.

Well, i actually wanted to cook something like schezuan chicken, unfortunately, the red pepper is what i have, not have the schezuan pepper, and at this moment, i am still trying to find where i can find it in Paris. I have not yet looked for it in the biggest Asian supermarket in Paris, Tang Frères, i am really really hoping that they have it. In the mean time, here is my recipe.

Ingredients:

• 250 gr chicken fillet, cut in small pieces
• 1 tsp red pepper (Peruvian pepper)
• 1 tbs dry chili
• 1 tbs rice vinegar
• 1 tsp ginger powder
• 1 tbs soy sauce
• 2 crushed garlic
• sugar (according to your liking)
• 1 red spicy chilly (discard the inside part and slice thinly).
• A bunch of coriander leaves
• 1 tbs of cooking oil
• 2 carrots, thinly sliced
• a bunch of bean sprout

Method:

1. Heat your cooking oil in a wok.
2. Add all of the spices, stir - fry until golden brown, or until it releases all of the aromes.
3. Stir in the carrots, soy sauce and vinegar.
4. Add the chicken, cook again until it takes all of the coulor of the seasoning.
5. Turn off fire, add bean sprouts, and sprinkle with coriander leaves.
6. Serve with rice.

Bolu Kukus

It is so difficult to make my husband to love Asian desserts. I notice that the French are chauvinist when it comes to their dessert and wine, they think that theirs are the best. Mr. Gorilla does not like something with jelly such as pudding, or agar-agar thing, and then he is not a big fan (or i can say dislike?) the relish of glutinous rice flour in the dessert, so only pisang goreng, kolak pisang, kue lapis legit (i have never tried making this, i heard it is sooooo difficult!) which stay as my chance to make him to like Indonesian dessert. But there is another dessert that he likes when i made it a year ago, Bolu Kukus muffin, one of the famous snack cake in Indonesia, which resembles a lot to muffin or cup cake. You can always easily find this cake everywhere in Indonesia.

Well this post is an old post, that i have on my old blog (in Indonesian) more than a year ago. Someone told me that she did not succeed making it, so i visited my old blog. It was my first time and I hope it is not my last time making it. Apparently it is quite difficult to make it, as many people does not have the blooming cake result in the end, but there is only one secret: do not open the lid of your steamer during the steam process. I used Melani's, (my friend) recipe to make it. I repost here and translate it into English. You will need the special molds to make it, (which picture she posted on her site) i bought 'em on the net, but i forgot which site. It was a Dutch site, quite expensive, but i was so eager to make it thus it was worth it!

Ingredients:

• 5 egg yolk
• 1 white egg
• 250 gr sugar
• 250 gr flour
• 125 ml sprite
• chocolate powder or other colourant
• bread paper, cut in squares (size enough to be put inside the mould)
  

Directions:

1. mix the egg yolk together with sugar until thick and well developed
2. Add the flour and the soda, part by part (not all once), and stir well.
3. Take half (or less) of the dough, and add the chocolate powder.
4. Pose the bread paper inside the moulds
5. Fill them with the white dough, and end it with the chocolate dough on top
6. Heat your steamer until the water boiled.
7. Cover it with a napkin, let it steam during 20 minutes (at this point i dont really remember if i really follow the recipe like it is written, because you know that i don't like doing it.... i don't remember if i just cover it with napkins, or i used the lid of the steamer to cover it and had it wraped with a napkin to avoid the steam fall down to the dough - however vaguelly i remember that i really followed the recipe).
   

Tom Yam Goong

It seems that i am obsessed again with Thai food. After spending an afternoon at a friend's place in the north of france, where she prepared a chicken tom yam using ready tom yam paste, which made me addicted after.

I went to Asian store today, and found out that the ready paste contains sodium glutamat, euh... i wonder that my friend's has the same chemical ingredients which caused me head over heels? Anyway, long time ago, i made this soup based on a Laotian cookbook. And before that, i also made my own version of this soup. Now it is time to search for a Thai version recipe then...alrightie.

Anyway, since the paste is MSG contained, which indirect/directly attacks my health i decided to make everything from scratch, including the nam prig prow paste, of course (click here for the recipe). It does not have the same taste as my friend's but it is not bad at all (i got addicted too, but i kept my head on my neck as the flavour is just natural, but very good). I learn that the spicier it gets the better it is, the more lemon juice and fish sauce you put, the merrier it gets, so be generous when adding the ingredients. I added galange roots, because i like the relish and i just bought them at the asian store :))

Fragrant Fish Soup

This recipe is a combination of periplus recipe and tom yam goong in general. Et voilà, it is not bad at all...(am happy, mam!)

Ingredients

• 700 gr Fish (fish with white chair)
• 5 cm of turmeric, peel and minced
• 1 tps ginger powder
• 1 tps galanga powder
• 1 tps shrimp paste
• 2 lemon
• 1 lemongrass bruised
• 2 kaffir leaves
• 2 shallots, thinly sliced
• 2 chilli sliced
• 700 ml water
• a bunch of asian basil
• 2 tomatoes, sliced
• 2 green fresh plum, (bruised)

Method

1. Marinate the fish with lemon juice, set aside.
2. In a big wok, heat 2 tbs of cooking oil, and saute the turmeric, ginger, galanga, shrimp paste, lemon grass, chilli and kaffir leaves.
3. Add the fish inside, cook for 5 minutes.
4. Add water and shimmer it. Add tomatoes and young plum, cook until they are tender.
5. Add the lemon juice and basil, continue cooking for another 3 minutes.
6. Serve.

Tofu and Broccoli Soup with Soy Paste

I am baptising this dish as my other lender of the last resort when i am running out of ideas of what to cook, but craving for good simple (oriental) food. It will remind you of miso soup of course, but this one is my creation, thus very rustic unline the fine miso taste.

Ingredients:

• Korean soy bean paste (soenchang doenjang)
• 1 tps dashi powder
• 1 tbs korean/japanese soy sauce
• tofu cut in dice or even bigger (next time I will use soft tofu so it would be even closer to miso soup)
• 1 broccoli, cut and washed
• 1 tbs mirin
• 700 ml water

Method:

1. Except broccoli, boil all ingredients, until the tofu takes color.
2. Add the broccoli, and cook to your liking.

tips:
If you want the soup's color to be clearer, took out the soy sauce, and do the inverse of cooking, boil the broccoli first, then tofu later.

Love in a Piece of Bread

"Love in a piece of bread" (Cinta dalam Sepotong Roti) is an old film by the famous Indonesian director, Garin Nugroho. But to tell you the truth, i have never seen the film, even though i am so looking forward to see it. I was only a young teenager at that time, and from what i read from Hai Magazine (haha..now you all know how old i am - yes i am from that generation), the theme of the film is very much controversial, but i forgot what it was all about. Anyway, i invite all the readers of my blog, should you have a copy of the film, don't hesitate to offer me one...eheheh...

Anyway, this bread (brioche) was made by my husband. He loves making breads and co. He made it with love by the way, hehe. Ages ago, when i was still teenager, i slightly heard that Frenchmen are romantic, and when i married mr. Gorilla, i never thought about the stereotype and hoping him would be as romantic as the stereotype which i had completely forgotten about. But anyway, he is quite romantic, although i am not sure if it has something to do with his nationality (maybe more related to his culture- haha). And if you think that i love living in France because the men are romantic, you are wrong... Well, my life in France has been quite a drama i am still thrivingly struggling here. When i was in Nz, i met a French who told me how difficult it is living here, now i understand very much of what he was talking about.

Well, anyway, above are the pictures about his raisin brioche. I am sure that you all can find the recipes on the net.

Acar Kuning

Acar or pickles was never my favorite. But so were many other Indonesian food when i was still young.

I found this Acar kuning (yellow pickles) on the net, and i am very willing to try since i have all of the ingredients in the cupboard. You can eat acar as your grilled fish companion, salty martabak, or nasi/mie goreng (fried rice or noodles).

Ingredients:

• 1 cucumber, cut as you like (i followed the original recipe)
• 2 carrots, cut
• 200 gr pineapple
• 300 ml water
• 1 tbs vinegar
• lemon juice from ½ lemon

spices, using your pestle, ground the following:

• 2 cm curcuma, grilled,
• 2 shallots
• 1 garlic
• 2 chillies
• sugar
• salt

Methods:
boil the water together with the spices
Add the pineapple, carrots, cucumber, vinegar and lemon juice.
Simmer until the veggies go tender.

Pindang Ikan and Ayam Betutu

Periplus is a name of a publisher based in Singapore (i think), which produce good books. When i was still in Jakarta, i collected some of their recipe books, that i keep dearly and use as top reference even today. I could not be happier when i realized that someone posted some of Indonesian recipes coming from Periplus on the net (who said that piracy is a bad thing?!).

I tried their recipe Fish simmered in Fragrant Soy, today. I remember that when i was still living in Jakarta, my mom made very rarely this dish because my father does not like fish (because of the strange smell, he says), while at that time, i don't like any soup based on fish meat (i don't know if sisters and brother really like it, but anyway, we did not live in the same roof for so long, so i don't know well their favorite food).

Anyway, today i wanted to make a simple soupy dinner, since it is very cold outside (bad weather experience in Paris), and i also remembered that i still have mahi-mahi (dorade coryphène in French),fish fillet in the freezer. I don't know what mahi-mahi means but it seems that this fish lives in pacific ocean, and the taste is very distinguish while the meat is quite firm.

This recipe is just perfect to make the used of the mahi-mahi fish, and unlike usual, i have curcuma roots (normally i use powder - works just fine for me, i don't complain). I replaced the carambola fruit with green acid plum.Now, about ayam betutu (roast chicken in banana leaf), it is a balinese (and lombok) dish that is very famous. I found the recipe posted here, which i tried several time, and i am never bored with the result. Of course, i replaced the duck with chicken. I cooked this when father in law came to visit us because he had a business trip in our neighbourhood about 3 months ago, and he said it was delicious. Now that is a compliment, considering he is a very difficult man when it comes to food.

Oseng Teri

Oseng means sauteing in English (or is it in France?), while teri means the small anchovy fish. In the past, I made sambal lada mudo, which is not that different from this one. The recipe is just my creation, and I love the taste of the lemon juice in it.

Ingredients:

• 200 gr deep fried anchovies
• cooking oil
• juice from ½ lemon

Spices:

• 2 shallots sliced
• 2 garlics crushed
• 2 chillies (discard the seeds and the white inside part), sliced thinly
• 2 kaffir limes
• 1 Indonesian bay leaf (omit if you don't have it)
• 1 tsp galanga powder
• 5 cm curcuma root, blend smoothly
• 1 lemon grass crushed

Method:

1. heat oil in a pan and cook the spices until wilt.
2. Add the anchovies, stir well.
3. Add the lemon juice, and stir once again.
4. Serve with steamed rice.

Meatballs

Making meatball is one the things that i cannot do properly. The taste is not the same as the one that they sell in Jakarta, Indonesia. I hope this is just a matter of finding the right recipe (and good motivation to blend the meat, haha).

When i was a kid, i went to a school which canteen sells very good meatball soup (a family runs this canteen). I heard that even our former woman president and her rival in politic (a daughter of an ex Indonesian president) go there every now and then to find the nostalgic of the meatball soup together with their big family who went to the same school (guess which school i went to?). But frankly speaking, I never return to the school ever since i graduated from my junior high school there. Glad to hear that the same family still runs it, and the taste is just the same as they were when we were still attending school there. Cool!

Anyway, the picture is quite sombre... it is very difficult to make food porn if:

1. My meatballs have this messy looking and scream that they were just being soaked in a polluted soup (this is a fish meatball, I used mackerel, i did not use any blender i just used my stupid hands to mince and shape it...dirty job!)
2. The table cloth has a dark blue character (wonder why i bought this colour though i hate it so much).

Result: blah and bof à la français (not happy smile on my face).

Recipe: I am sure you can find zillions of it on the net, this one is one of them, i used it to make these meatballs. Click herefor my old recipe of bakso (indonesian version).

Kumquat Salsa and Photo Experiments

I am still in the mood for trying fellow bloger's recipe, and I tried the Salsa Recipe from Cookingetcetera, as I bought kumquat yesterday, and were not sure if I liked to eat it just like that (too sour for God's sake). This is a very easy and original recipe that I am sure I will not be the only who who appreciate it.

By the way, bellow are the photos from my photo experiments. My one third French- one third gorilla and one third Kingkong husband (thank goodness for the gorilla part who makes him a very good looking species hahah) bought a low quality second hand studio flash light. He had already bought a set of low quality photo studio lightning (again second hand), but it is quite difficult to set them altogether in our small apartment. I am a big fan of the last item accquitted, for the result and for the practical reason: it is easy to use, and it is not space consuming. I used my G10 canon. I said: Finish with his Canon SLR, I want to do it on my own and getting familiar with my stupid camera that I have been having for quite awhile but rarely being used – Yeah G10 is rather so so. After that, I retouched a little bit with lightroom program, like I always do, and then GIMP program.


So what do you think?

Indochina Food

One of the best things about the net is that i can always follow other people's food blogs, and then I go drooling in front of the monitor screen caused by the beautiful pictures posted therein, and then I can follow their recipes.

This blog from Ravenous Couple is one of the ones that i often follow. I am a big fan of Indochina food (fortunately there are so many indochina communities in France, so i wont have problems finding ingredients or restaurating if i need to), and their blog expand my view about Vietnamese dish in general. I followed their Bo Loc Lac and Ga Kho recipes. Two thumbs up for their easy to follow recipes.

Bo Loc Lac

Ga Kho

Anyway, here are the pictures of sea food salad à la Thai. I used frozen agrume (citrus) cocktail ready package from Picard so that i wouldn't have problems cutting all of the citrus fruit to make the salad. I made the same salad long time ago, the basic vinaigrette (sauce) consists of the following ingredients:

• crushed palm sugar
• 2 tbs fish sauce
• ½ brown (palm sugar) crushed
• 2 tbs green lemon juice

Main ingredients:

• cooked (or grilled) seafoods such as calamari/shrimps/salmon
• citrus fruits in dices

Additional Ingredients:

• crushed peanuts/cashew nuts
• coriander leaves
• sliced chillies (optional)
• sliced red onion/shallots

Tongseng Kambing

More than a month of absent from blogging? That is really something for me (for a cook wannabe and who is thinking that cooking releases stress, an illness that very often catches me). I have been busy doing nothing as usual. One of the reasons that i do not cook often lately, is that we decided to cut on our food budget (lawyer ..eh...liar). We also try to stop eating beef for environmental reason (ask the net why?!). But even today we still eat it, in a less quantity, of course. We just cannot imagine how we torture the planet by eating more and more beef. What we eat is a kind of our responsibility to the planet (ahum... but forgetting rendang? no way jose!).

Anyway, here is something that i made long time before my absent. Tongseng Kambing (some kind of Lamb curry from central of Java), is one of my favorite dishes ever. I think i have already told a story about the best Tongseng Kambing sold alongside the road in Bandung, which i used to visit during my student years with my boyfriend at the moment (wondering where he is now, hehe).

The recipe is taken from Masakan Indonesia book, Yasaboga, Gramedia, a different recipe than those i have tried, simpler, but not less appetizing, it is on the contrary!

Tongseng Kambing

• 400 gr lamb, cut in dice
• 2 big European shallots
• 2 garlic, crushed, chopped
• 5 leaves of cauliflower, chopped roughly
• 3 chillies, sliced thinly
• pepper
• salt
• 3 tbs kecap manis (Indonesian soy sauce)
• 1 tbs lemon juice
• cooking oil for sauteing

Method:

1. Sauté the garlic, chillies and shallots until golden brown.
2. Add the lamb until the color changes.
3. Add 500 ml water, kecap manis, pepper, salt.
4. Cook with low fire until the lamb is cooked
5. Add the cauliflower, stir well.
6. Turn off the fire, serve by adding the orange juice.