Cooking with Mrs K

Super Turmeric Drink! (Jamu)

2016-09-27T14:00:00.003+01:00

Here's the top-secret recipe for a glass of the Mrs K Super Turmeric Drink™. You'll need the following ingredients:

Turmeric powder - 1 level teaspoon
Salt - pinch
Ground ginger - half a teaspoon
Tamarind concentrate - 2 level teaspoons (you can get this in Asian supermarkets, or online)

Mrs K says if you don't like (or want to use) tamarind, a quarter-glass of orange juice will do the trick.

Put all the ingredients into a ceramic mug or glass tumbler (it will stain plastic!) and fill with boiling water. Stir well and leave to cool. Stir again before drinking. Repeat daily. That's it!

The recipe scales well, so you can make larger batches and store in the fridge in a bottle for a few days if you wish.

The BBC recently did a fascinating experiment on the effects of turmeric - turns out it has a measurable effect on genes that are involved with anxiety, eczema, asthma and even cancer! More research is needed, but it's very encouraging. BBC Magazine: Could turmeric really boost your health?

It's been a while...

2011-03-03T11:02:00.000+00:00

We're painfully aware that we haven't posted any new recipes for a few months, and that's simply because we've been so busy (despite the rumours, Mr K has not been hibernating). But we certainly haven't given up on this blog and have plans for more recipes and tips over the coming months, so check back often or, even easier, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking on the link below for instant email notification of new posts.

Subscribe to Cooking with Mrs K by Email

Mie Goreng (Fried Noodles)

2010-11-25T19:46:00.005+00:00

Here's a very quick recipe post (sort of The Reduced Mrs K), mainly to see how short I could get the video and still make some sort of sense. Mie Goreng is cooked in a similar way to Nasi Goreng, but in this case Mrs K uses chicken pieces rather than lamb.

Ingredients

Carrots
Fresh greens
Mushrooms
Beansprouts
Onion
Dark soy sauce
Sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
Tomato ketchup (optional - it's just to improve colour)
Any kind of noodles - 'straight to wok' are fine, or boil up your favourite dried variety.

For the spice mixture:

1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1 large vegetable stock cube (crumbled)

To start, fry half the onion and 2 chopped garlic cloves until soft, then add the chicken and follow the steps in the video. Note the lack of chillies - you can add some if you want, but we usually just add some bottled chilli sauce or sambal when it's on the plate.

Gado-gado (vegetable salad with peanut sauce)

2010-11-06T17:54:00.010+00:00

Gado-gado is one of the only vegetarian dishes Mrs K makes. It’s a delicious mixed vegetable salad with peanut sauce (almost identical to satay sauce). The beauty of it is that the ingredients are not set in stone - you can use a wide variety of green and salad vegetables. One important (but again, not essential) ingredient is ketupat (rice cakes), which we’ve covered in another post.

Although you can use fresh greens or spinach, for authenticity kangkung (Chinese spinach) is worth seeking out. Many oriental stores stock this fresh - it costs a couple of pounds for a big bunch. Tamarind is another essential ingredient, and this is now widely available from supermarkets in block or paste form - Mrs K used a bottled paste for this recipe.

Tamarind paste is the most convenient form

In gado-gado stalls in Indonesia, the dish is made to order and you can choose exactly what ingredients you want. You can add others to the list, such as cucumber slices, fried onions, broccoli or cauliflower florets, or even grated carrots. It’s a supremely flexible and tasty dish.

Ingredients

Kangkung, potatoes, green beans

150g fresh beansprouts
250g kangkung, spinach or fresh greens
2-3 medium potatoes
100g fine green beans
3 shallots
1 dessert spoon tamarind paste
2 teaspoons sugar
1 dessert spoon dried chillies
200g salted peanuts
1 small packet of egg noodles
2 hard-boiled eggs
2 kaffir lime leaves
1.5 teaspoons terasi (shrimp paste)
2 dessert spoons dark soy sauce
2 dessert spoons sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)

Method

Peanut sauce

A rotary grater is ideal for grinding the peanuts

First you need to grind the peanuts into a powder. Mrs K finds that blenders don’t do this very well, so she uses (or rather, gets Mr K to use) a hand-held rotary grater (pictured). This takes a little time but is easier than it looks if you use a fairly coarse grater.
Put a saucepan with a litre of water on to boil (for the peanut sauce) while you prepare the rest of the ingredents.
Chop the shallots coarsely and fry in a little oil until they’re soft and starting to brown
Add the tamarind paste, terasi and lime leaves and sugar, mix and cook for a minute before adding the dried chillies.
Add the dark and sweet soy sauce then pour in a couple of dessert spoons of water and mix well. Cook for about 4-5 minutes.
When the saucepan of water is boiling, put in the ground-up peanuts, followed by the mixture from the frying pan. Mix it well and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent the mixture burning at the bottom. Add salt to taste - Mrs K adds about a teaspoon. Add a more water if needed to keep the consistency not too thick - it should run easily but slowly off a spoon.

Vegetables

There’s no real magic involved in boiling the eggs, noodles, beansprouts or vegetables, and they are usually served cold - the peanut sauce is the only warm ingredient. Cut the kangkung leaves from the stalks, cut stalks and leaves up into 2inch pieces. Dice potatoes into half-inch chunks. Chop the green beans into 1inch pieces. Boil them all to your taste - kangkung leaves and beansprouts cook in a minute or less, the stalks a little longer.

When the ketupat is cold, cut it into half-inch cubes. Put these into a dish and add a topping of kangkung and beansprouts. On this put some egg noodles, potatoes and egg slices. Then pour the warm peanut sauce over the whole concoction and serve - preferably with some nice krupuk (prawn crackers).

Ketupat (rice cakes)

2010-10-12T21:29:00.006+01:00

Ketupat is a rice dish that's served on special occasions, most commonly on the Lebaran (Idul Fitri) holiday at the end of Ramadan, but also on birthdays and weddings. Mrs K likes to cook it at any time.

Ketupat, by Meutia Chaerani from Wikimedia Commons

It's not a dish on its own, but a special way of cooking rice. In Indonesia, coconut or pandan leaves are used to create little woven containers into which the raw rice (known as beras: rice doesn't become nasi until it's cooked) is poured. On boiling, the rice expands and becomes compressed, making a solid cake. After it's cooled it can be cut easily into slices or cubes - it's normally eaten cold, and can be stored for a couple of days in the fridge.

Rather than scratch around for suitable leaves in the UK (banana leaves work, apparently), Mrs K came up with her own special method, using boil-in-the-bag rice (in fact, when we we first moved here, she thought this stuff was actually high-tech ketupat).

The only problem is that boil-in-the-bag rice doesn't contain enough rice to generate the compression needed, so once again Mrs K applied her eminently practical brain. She carefully cuts the bag open at the top, removes the rice and mixes in some extra; since she hates the easy-cook stuff they usually contain, she usually uses Thai fragrant rice or basmati.

After stuffing about 7-8 dessert spoons of rice back into the bag, Mrs K heat-seals it using a candle. We have tried various other ways, such as sellotape, elastic bands, bulldog clips and other contraptions, but the heat-sealing method gives the best results. A cigarette lighter would be just as good, but whichever you use take care not to set the bag (or your fingers) alight. It doesn't take much heat to melt the plastic.

Boil the newly-stuffed bag in a medium saucepan for about 1.5 hours, topping up the water with boiling water occasionally to keep the bag submerged. After about an hour, put a knob of margarine or butter in the pan. When you find it hard to distinguish the individual rice grains, it's cooked. Err on the side of caution, you can't really overcook it.

When done, take the pillow of rice out of the pan and leave it to cool for at least an hour or two before trying to cut it - preferably until it's completely cold. For a quick snack you can eat it with some hot peanut sauce.

All is revealed in the video below.

Bubur ayam (chicken rice porridge)

2010-10-03T21:10:00.009+01:00

Bubur ayam is a great Indonesian comfort food. It's also traditionally a breakfast dish, but we eat it at any time. Mrs K, as ever, has her own way of doing things - there are millions of variations. There is one new ingredient (pickled mustard greens), but it's only an optional garnish, so don't worry if you can't find it.

Once again, it's fairly quick, involves no special trickery and uses simple ingredients. The longest part is cooking the rice, so it's best to start that off first. The quantities below will easily feed 3-4 people and cooking time is around 90 minutes.

Ingredients

3 small chicken thighs (or about 200g of any chicken meat)
50g rice (about half a cup)
4 spring onions
1 onion
1 tomato
3 chillies
3 shallots
2 bay leaves
2 garlic cloves
Half teaspoon ground coriander
Quarter teaspoon ground turmeric
Pinch of ground nutmeg
2 desserts spoons dark soy sauce
1-2 dessert spoons kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)
2 dessert spoons cooking oil
Optional for garnish: pickled onions, pickled gherkins, pickled mustard greens

First a quick word about the pickled mustard leaves. These can be found in many oriental stores (Raan Thai sells it online) and only cost about £1 or less for a big packet. They're very sour, but a good match for this dish. They're not vital, Mrs K usually substitutes pickled onions and/or pickled gherkins - so choose whatever you prefer.

Pickled mustard greens

Method

Rice

Put a litre of water in a large saucepan and bring to the boil.
Put the washed rice in and simmer vigorously and stir regularly until perhaps half of the water has been absorbed.
Add another litre of boiling water plus a dessert spoon of butter (or margarine) and a bay leaf and simmer vigorously until half of that has been absorbed too.
Add another half a litre of water then keep stirring occasionally to prevent the rice sticking - the overall objective is to keep the water level topped up all during cooking .
The rice will start to thicken up a bit after 30-40 minutes, but keep cooking it for about an hour total until the consistency is like thick porridge. The exact consistency is a matter of taste - Mrs K likes it not too thick and not too runny. It should slide easily off the spoon with a bit sticking to the spoon . We suggest you cook the sauce first, then the rice, unless you're capable of multi-tasking - the sauce can easily be warmed up if needed.

Sauce

Chop the chicken meat into small pieces - about half-centimetre chunks is about right.
Chop the garlic finely, the spring onions, onion, chillies and shallots coarsely.
Slice the tomato - the picture below gives an idea.
Put the cooking oil (doesn't matter what kind - Mrs K uses sunflower oil) into a large frying pan and heat on a medium heat.
Put in the shallots and when they've softened nicely add the onion. Fry for a few minutes until they're all soft but not browned.
Add the garlic and chillies, stir in well for a minute or so before adding the tomato, coriander, nutmeg, turmeric and bay leaf.
Now add the chicken, mix in well and cook for 8-10 minutes or until the meat is nicely brown (but not burnt).
Add the dark and sweet soy sauce and mix.
Add the spring onions, mix in then add half a glass of water and crumble in a chicken stock cube plus half a dessert spoon of salt.
Simmer for another 3-4 minutes and its done. The sauce should be fairly thick and sticky, not watery.
To serve, fill a bowl with rice, add a few spoonfuls of sauce then put chopped pickles to taste on top as a garnish. One variation is to cook the dish without the chicken, but garnish it with strips of cooked (fried or roast) chicken when serving. The video clip below shows Mrs K serving it, and gives a good idea of the consistency of the rice porridge.

More krupuk!

2010-10-03T17:00:00.002+01:00

Mrs K has been going to the enormous Wembley Sunday Market for the last couple of weeks, mainly because one of the stalls is run by an acquaintance of our daughter. She hails from Wolverhampton and used to run an online Indonesian store tied to her real store, but that seems to have disappeared. But most Sundays she sets up stall flogging hard-to-find Indonesian treats, such as the krupuk pictured below.

The ones in the blue bag are a special treat - emping. These are crisps made from ground belinjau fruits (melinjau, belinjo) - there appears to be no English common name, but there's some botanical info on Wikipedia. Whatever they are, the result is delicious - not as hard as crisps, and with a slight bitter flavour.

Fried emping © Midori

As for the other snacks in the picture, the best ones are those in the front centre - these are made to look like slices of tempeh, complete with bits of soya beans, and are Mr K's favourites.

The packet at the far right was a disappointment - they're large fish crackers, but tasted awful. During the cooking, Mrs K remembered another tip: before cooking krupuk, they should be dried. Mrs K usually puts them on a tray and leaves them outside for a few hours (if it's sunny). An airing cupboard would be just as good. Drying seems to make them a lot crispier.

Midlle left are some Srikandi brand krupuk, which are similar to the Sidoarjo ones mentioned in our earlier krupuk post. They taste very good and are enormous, and can be bought online at Wai Yee Hong.

At the rear left are some ready-made rice crackers. These are nice too, and save the hassle of cooking. All the products are imported from Holland, where there is a large Indonesian community (it was part of the Dutch empire for several centuries). One of these days we must to take a trip there...

Sambal ulek (chilli & tomato sauce)

2010-09-23T21:13:00.006+01:00

Sambal ulek is one of Mrs K's star dishes. It's a smooth chilli sauce that's actually one of her simplest recipes (it doesn't even need a video!). 'Ulek' is the Indonesian name for a stone pestle (you will often see it spelled the Dutch way 'oelek'). Mrs K doesn't use an ulek as it takes forever - a hand blender is a perfect substitute and gives a much smoother result. You could use a food processor, but it would probably get stained unless it has a glass bowl.

This sambal can be used for anything - it's almost Mrs K's equivalent of tomato ketchup; perfect as a dip or pouring sauce, in cooking or even in your sandwiches. It can be as fiery or as mild as you wish - just pick the strength of red chillies you're comfortable with. In this batch we made, Mrs K used a mixture including birds' eye chillies and Scotch Bonnets. Needless to say it was extremely potent. The quantities used here make 5 small (300g) bottles, and cooking time is under an hour.

Ingredients

500g red chillies (any type, don't use green ones as they'll spoil the colour)
250g shallots
8 tomatoes
1 bulb of garlic (about 8-9 cloves)
2 spring onions
3 bay leaves
1 stick of lemon grass (use the soft bottom half only, or use the bottled minced variety)
2 inches of ginger root
Pinch of ground turmeric
2 dessert spoons salt
Sunflower oil (or the chilli oil from the sambal goreng tomat recipe)
4 teaspoons sugar
3 kaffir lime leaves (optional - Mrs K says some people don't like the taste)
1 teaspoon terasi / shrimp paste (optional - as above)

Method

The great thing about this dish is that you hardly have to do any preparation beyond washing everything, peeling the shallots and chopping the spring onions coarsely. When you've done that, put the chillies, garlic, shallots, spring onions, ginger, bay leaves (and kaffir lime leaves if you're using them) into a large saucepan. Top up with cold water until water's about an inch below the rim - quantity isn't critical as we just want to boil everything.

Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Now remove the bay/lime leaves, add the tomatoes and turmeric, cover again and simmer for a further 15-20 minutes until the tomatoes are very soft. Remove from the heat and leave to cool down for about an hour.

When it's cooled, pour off all the water except about a tumbler full. Using a hand blender, carefully start blending everything together in the saucepan. When it's become to a very coarse mixture like the picture below (this could take a few minutes' blending), add the salt and sugar, terasi if you're using it, plus three tablespoons of oil.

Continue blending until the sambal is smooth and creamy - again, this could take a while depending on the blender you're using. The colour will gradually turn to a rich orange, and it's ready to eat. Store in airtight bottles for up to a month in the fridge.

An aside: The joy of chillies

2010-09-23T16:48:00.001+01:00

We were alerted to this excellent article in the New York Times about why chillies are so addictive. Seems that scientists seem to think there's an element of masochism involved. Mrs K has her own pet theory, and it's a lot simpler: she says chillies are great 'because they taste good'. And you can't argue with that.

Taste Test: Madam Sal's Malay Fried Rice

2010-09-20T20:12:00.004+01:00

We found this lurking on the shelf in Tesco and were intrigued. We've no idea who Madam Sal is, but the picture looked semi-appetising so we thought we'd give it a try.

It's a 180g sachet of pre-cooked microwaveable rice costing £1.60 that takes 2 minutes to cook (you can stick it in pan of boiling water for 5 minutes instead if needed). It claims to contain birds' eye chillies and anchovies, which puzzled Mrs K - she thought perhaps it was just a substitute for terasi. Or it may simply be a Malaysian way of doing things.

Cut open the top, stick it in the microwave and....open the windows wide. This stuff stinks like there's no tomorrow - at least they weren't lying about the anchovies. Serving it on a plate reveals an unappetising pile of rice with no visible chillies, but plenty of bits of anchovy. The taste, unsurprisingly, is exceedingly salty and the anchovies completely overpower any other flavours. There is a bit of chilli hiding there, but not a lot.

We unanimously agreed that this is vile, expensive stuff and should be avoided. Sorry, Madam Sal, but it takes a lot to impress Mrs K.

Taste Test: Instant nasi goreng

2010-09-16T22:01:00.003+01:00

We heard that one of our readers, who shall remain nameless, was so inspired by Mrs K's nasi goreng recipe that they went out looking for an instant version in the shops. Sad, but true. But it did give us an idea - Taste Tests. These are where we take some off-the-shelf products and use Mrs K's culinary wizardry and Mr K's stomach to see what they taste like.

We hope these Taste Tests will be useful for those who come across Indonesian products in a shop but aren't sure what on earth they taste like, or whether they taste anything like the real thing. It's only a bit of fun, and gives us a chance to try out some different things - Mrs K isn't averse to ready-made stuff at all, in fact she has a cupboard full of ready-made sauces and mixes (don't tell her I told you, though).

Anyway, for our first attempt we're going to compare a couple of 'instant nasi goreng' products. Actually, one is sold as a 'kit' while the other is just bottled paste, but the intent is the same. It was fun trying them, and the results even surprised the unflappable Mrs K.

We bought both of the products from our local Tesco (as an aside, apologies if Tesco gets mentioned a lot here, not for any nefarious reason, but simply because our local one - a Tesco Metro - has a large 'World Food' section, no doubt catering for the large Chinese student contingent at the local university. We also now have a Chinese store that's sprung up for the same reason, but they tend to be best for fresh veg or smelly dried fishy things).

World Foods Indonesian Fried Rice "Nasi Goreng" Paste

This 220g bottle cost £1.59 and is made in Thailand for a Malaysian company before being imported by an outfit in Lancashire. It's supposed to feed 2-4 people and the recipe on the bottle requires 300g boiled rice, 200g of chicken meat, 100g of raw prawns and 2 eggs. Ingredients look fairly wholesome with no artificial preservatives, no GMO, no MSG and no gluten. Crucially, it does contain 9% chilli powder.

Go-Tan Nasi Goreng Meal Kit Indonesian Fried Rice

In a garishly-coloured 380g box costing £3.25, this hails from Singapore via Holland and, again, Lancashire (what is it with Lancashire?). It claims to feed 2-3 people and consists of four sachets: 225g of rather cheap looking boil-in-the-bag rice, 110g of nasi goreng paste, 25g of kecap manis (sweet soy sauce) and 20g of fried onion topping. In contrast to the World Foods paste, the ingredients include lots of preservatives, sugar and molasses, flavour enhancers (including MSG*), loads of assorted oils (sunflower, palm, rape) and zero chillies or tomatoes.Not a particularly appetising collection.

*We have no great qualms about MSG (monosodium glutamate), and Indonesians use tons of it, but Mrs K doesn't use it these days. It does make things taste great, but unfortunately it also tends to make things taste the same. We prefer to get our glutamates from the soy sauce.

Preparation

We prepared both products strictly according to the instructions on the packaging, which required monumental (and at times, physical) restraint from Mrs K. The Go-Tan product needed the most preparation as it calls for a chopped leek and a pepper. The method is to stir-fry the chicken for 5 minutes, add the vegetables, then the nasi goreng paste then finally add the boiled rice (the rice takes 10 minutes, but Mrs K said it was still raw so added a few more). When cooked, the kecap manis is added, and the fried onions added as a topping along with a shredded omelette (2 eggs).

The World Foods paste is simpler, although as it needs raw prawns it's a bit more expensive. The paste is fried in oil for a minute and then the meat and prawns added and cooked for 5 minutes. Then 300g of boiled rice is mixed in and cooked for a further 3 minutes. The dish is also served with a 2-egg shredded omelette.

Of the two, the World Foods paste was by far the easiest to make. We reckon either product will easily feed 2-3 people using the quantities on the packet.

Go-Tan on the left, World Foods on the right

The Taste Test

We both tried each dish. During the cooking Mrs K reckoned the Go-Tan smelled the best, but eating was a different matter. We both agreed it tasted smokey, salty and very sweet. The lack of chilli didn't help at all, and neither of us could eat more than a few spoonfuls. Mrs K said it 'sticks to the roof of your mouth', and attributed this to the palm oil. The use of vegetables makes the dish look a bit more attractive than the other one, however.

We agreed unanimously that the World Foods result tasted remarkably good, although not quite hot enough for our tastes. A dollop of sambal goreng tomat would easily fix that, and the addition of a few peas or mangetout would round it off nicely. It wasn't too salty, and certainly not sweet. Mr K polished off the entire plate.

So for our first Taste Test, the winner is World Foods Indonesian Fried Rice"Nasi Goreng Paste; if you fancy a quick plate of nasi goreng without too much hassle, this is the one to choose. And it's damned cheap, too.

Instant noodles

2010-09-15T21:36:00.005+01:00

Instant noodles are great. They're cheap, quick to cook and amazingly versatile, as we hope to prove with this recipe. It's hardly an Indonesian dish at all, but Indonesians eat vast quantities of the stuff (as does Mr K) so it definitely deserves a place here.

The great thing about this recipe is that it's not really a recipe at all - more of a guide to turning instant noodles from a snack into a substantial meal that takes well under 10 minutes to cook and probably costs under a quid.

You can use just about any vegetables you have to hand, and any kind of instant noodles (well, perhaps not Pot Noodles, but who knows..). We're lucky in that our local Tesco has a great variety of imported instant noodles, mostly from Japan, Thailand and Taiwan (they sometimes have the Indonesian 'Indomie' brand too - these are quite small packets, though).

Our current favourite is the Thai 'Mama' brand, mainly because the sauce is incredibly fiery - the Hot and Spicy variety we use here is top-of-the-range in that respect. But if you don't like things too hot, just ditch the sachet of chilli power. The 'Kimchi' flavour is not quite so hot.

These particular noodles come with a few small packets of stuff inside - some dried vegetables, soup base and chilli powder. Others will vary. Mrs K generally puts the lot in.

Although you can use whatever you have to hand, as an example we'll list what we used for the overflowing bowl above. This will feed one person the size of Mr K, or the population of a small village.

Ingredients

1 packet instant noodles (any flavour)
1 sausage (or you can use small meatballs if you prefer)
1 carrot
4 pods mangetout
2 spring onions
2 baby sweetcorn (tinned sweetcorn would work too)
Small piece of broccoli
Small floret of cauliflower
4 pak choi leaves
1 teaspoon tomato ketchup

Method

Chop the vegetables roughly - as a general rule, the harder the vegetable the smaller the pieces, the aim being for them all to take about the same time to cook. Use the photo below as a guide.

Put about 400ml of water into a small saucepan and bring it to the boil (note that you will a bit need more water than required by the instructions on the noodle packet). Pop in the sausage and boil it for 3 minutes. Take it out and peel off the skin, then cut the sausage into half-inch chunks. Put these back in the water.

Put in the carrots and simmer for a minute before putting in the sweetcorn, broccoli and cauliflower. After another minute, put in the noodles (break these into four first to make it easier). Simmer for about 3 minutes or until the carrots are tender.

Add whatever packet sof sauce and flavourings come with noodles and stir in well. Add the tomato ketchup and stir in (this just gives it a better colour). Finally put in the spring onion and pak choi, simmer for 30 seconds and it's ready.

As a final touch, Mrs K likes to sprinkle fried onions on the top when it's served - you can get these in most supermarkets, often labelled 'crunchy onion bits' or 'salad topping' or something like that. The huge packet below is from our local Chinese store and cost a couple of pounds.

Kari Ayam (chicken curry)

2010-09-13T22:32:00.005+01:00

There must be at least a gazillion types of curry (kari) in the world, so another one won't go amiss. This one is very mild and 'wet' - there's no thickening used. Without the chilli, our young grandkids love it. We introduce a yummy new ingredient too - coconut milk. Cooking time is about 30-40 minutes and the quantities below will easily feed four people. Or Mr K when he's dieting.

Note that you can use any kind of fresh or frozen chicken - we used four frozen chicken thighs, defrosting them and taking the meat off the bone (taste tip: Mrs K then boiled up the thigh bones for about 20 minutes, strained off the water and used it to boil the rice in).

Ingredients

250g chicken meat
Half an aubergine
2 spring onions
1 leek (yes, a leek)
6 pieces of okra (also called Lady's Fingers or bhindi)
1 Spanish onion
3 shallots
1 tomato
1 medium potato
2 cloves garlic
2 kaffir lime leaves
2 bay leaves
1 stick of lemon grass
1 teaspoon ground coriander
Half teaspoon ginger paste (or 1 inch of root ginger, chopped finely)
Half teaspoon turmeric
Quarter teaspoon chilli powder (more or less as you wish - this amount will give a very mild curry)
Half teaspoon ground cumin
1 chicken stock cube
1 teaspoon sugar
Half teaspoon salt
Sunflower oil
1 tin (250ml) coconut milk (or 3 dessert spoons instant coconut milk)

Coconut milk is widely used in Indonesian curries and stews, and luckily it's now easy to buy in most supermarkets - look in the Chinese section. It's normally sold in tins, something Mrs K loves, after years of laboriously making it from scratch using fresh coconuts (if you don't believe me, buy a coconut, grate the flesh and see how much liquid you can squeeze out of it). But even better, some Tesco stores sell Maggi brand powdered coconut milk (pictured), which Mrs K now swears by as it's cheaper and less wasteful. One £3 packet makes about enough milk to fill the Mediterranean.

Method

Coarsely chop the shallots, spring onions and garlic. Chop the tomato into eight pieces, the potato, leek, okra and aubergine into roughly half-inch chunks (see pic below for an idea of sizes). Cut the onion very coarsely. Dice the chicken into small pieces as shown.

In a large frying pan, gently fry the shallots in a little sunflower oil until they're soft and just starting to yellow a little. Add the garlic and stir fry it for half a minute or so. Mix in all the dry spices - cumin, turmeric, coriander, ginger, bay leaves, kaffir lime leaves and lemon grass, stirring until they're all blended in nicely, which should only take around 20-30 seconds.

Now put in the tomatoes and onions, mix in and add half a mug of hot water. Bring to the boil before adding the chicken and mixing it in well so it is covered with the sauce. Give it few seconds before adding the aubergine, leek and okra. Dissolve the chicken stock cube in half a mug of hot water and add it to the pan. Finally put in the spring onions, mix in and simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to stop any burning.

If you've followed Mrs K, the pan will now be close to overflowing, so use a bigger one next time. Mrs K always prepares the sauce in a frying pan first as she prefers it to a saucepan - the only disadvantage (as you can see in the video) is that she has to transfer the curry to a large saucepan before adding the coconut milk. Do it how you prefer, it's not important.

Add the coconut milk (if using powder, mix it first with warm water), add the salt and sugar, bring to the boil and then simmer for another 10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

Serve with boiled rice (or mashed potato if you fancy a change) and, optionally, some krupuk.

Krupuk (prawn crackers)

2010-09-10T12:22:00.005+01:00

If you're used to the tasteless prawn crackers usually served with takeway meals, be prepared for a shock. The Indonesians are masters at creating weird and wonderful variations on the theme, not all of them strictly prawn crackers, but crackers nonetheless, and they're all cooked in the same way - deep frying. They are universally eaten as an accompaniment to almost any meal, or simply as a crunchy snack.

The picture above shows a selection of Indonesian krupuk that Mrs K cooked last year after a friend in Holland sent her a selection. I have no idea what's in most of them, and the colours look a bit dodgy (the big round ones are rice-based), but they all taste great.

We actually got the krupuk for this recipe from our local small Chinese store - it's always been difficult to find Indonesian varieties, but the times seem to be changing. The small white ones we use are similar to the pre-cooked ones you may be familiar with, but when shopping try a few different varieties as they vary greatly - and most are awful. The large rectangular ones (on the right of the picture below) are branded Sidoarjo, an Indonesian company that actually has a krupuk blog, albeit abandoned.

The only ingredient you need is, unsurprisingly, cooking oil (Mrs K always uses sunflower oil). But Mrs K has another trick that she swears by (not that Mrs K ever swears. Ever). This involves kemiri, known here as candlenuts. These are ground and used as a thickener in many Indonesian recipes, but in this case Ms K just pops a whole one in the oil - she reckons it makes the krupuk retain their crispness for a couple of days longer. The Wai Hee Yong online store sometimes has these in stock, but we found some in a store in London's Chinatown. They're not essential for krupuk, though.

Kemiri (candlenuts)

Method

Pour about 1.5 litres of oil into a wok or large saucepan. Heat it on a high flame until a slight haze is visible, then reduce the flame a bit. The easiest way to tell whether it's hot enough is to pop in a small piece of krupuk - almost immediately it should expand.

Put in small quantities at a time and take care - remember these things expand massively. As soon as they stop expanding, they're ready. Take them out with a strainer and pop them on some kitchen paper to soak up excess oil. Store them in an airtight container and they should stay crisp for at least 4-5 days.

As you can tell from the video, Mrs K still enjoys cooking krupuk - there is always something magical about the transformation.

Nasi goreng kambing (fried rice with lamb)

2010-09-09T21:05:00.006+01:00

Nasi goreng (nasi = rice, goreng = fried) is another one of those dishes with almost infinite variations - every Indonesian cook has their own way of doing things, and Mrs K is no exception. It can be anything from a quick plain dish with a dollop of chilli sauce to hoover up leftover rice, or a star attraction on its own, with fried chicken or sate accompaniments.

Here's a typical quick recipe that Mrs K uses when she doesn't have too much time to faff about. It should only take about 10 minutes once you've prepared the ingredients. Although this uses lamb (kambing is actually Indonesian for goat but that's pretty rare in Western supermarkets!), if you hate that you can use minced beef or chicken.

Ingredients

Cooked rice (about 250g uncooked weight serves 3 easily, but it's an easy dish to store if you make too much)
3 shallots
3 cloves garlic
2 large spring onions
4 leaves pak choi (1 small head)
4 pods of mangetout peas
Red chillies to taste (we had none so we used a dollop of sambal goreng tomat)
3 lamb meatballs (or a big handful of lamb mince)
2 dessert spoons peas (fresh, frozen, tinned, synthesised...)
Sunflower oil (or chilli oil from the sambal goreng tomat)
1 teaspoon salt
1 dessert spoon dark soy sauce
1 dessert spoon sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
(Optional) Half teaspoon shrimp paste (terasi, belachan)
1 fresh egg per person
(Optional) Sliced tomato

Before we start, we'll explain the new 'exotic' ingredients, terasi, kecap manis, dark soy sauce and pak choi.

Terasi is widely available from oriental stores, and even some supermarkets. The Thais and Malaysians both make and use it, so it has many names - Thai tends to be labelled 'shrimp paste', Malay is 'belachan'. Be warned, it's evil-smelling stuff and you really don't want to know how it's made. But it's used a lot in Mrs K's kitchen. The dish tastes fine without it if you don't fancy it.

Kecap manis is sweet soy sauce, and is sold in our local Tesco and Sainsburys in the 'world foods' section - Conimex is a common Dutch brand, ABC is a popular Indonesian brand. Dark soy sauce is a staple ingredient - don't use the thin Kikkoman-type stuff for cooking.

Pak choi is a variety of brassica, also sometimes called Chinese cabbage, that is now inexpensive and often available in ordinary supermarkets. Mrs K uses it a lot in stir-fry cooking. Mr K actually even grew some once before he started messing around with PCs.

Method

Chop the spring onions, shallots and pak choi coarsely, plus the fresh chillies if you're using them. Chop the garlic fairly finely. Mrs K is using lamb meatballs, for reasons best know to herself, but lamb mince or even leftover roast lamb is just as good. Break the meatballs up a bit, so that everyone gets some.

Heat a small amount of oil in a saucepan or wok on a medium-low heat. Fry the shallots and garlic (plus the fresh chillies if you're using them) for a couple of minutes until they're soft. Put in the lamb and let it brown gently for a couple of minutes.

Put in the terasi, peas and mangetout, mix them in and continue to cook for a couple more minutes. Now put in the dark soy sauce and stir it in well for 30 seconds before mixing in the sambal goreng tomat. The meat should now be taking on the dark colour of the soy sauce.

Put in the salt, spring onions and pak choi then after after a few seconds start spooning in the cooked rice. Mix this in well, and then put in the kecap manis. Keep mixing the rice until it's all warmed through and an even pale brown colour - if the rice is freshly cooked, this won't take very long, but if it's cold rice it will be longer.

Now serve on a plate, put a fried egg on top if you wish (see the video for Mrs K's method), and cut a few slices of tomato and/or cucumber as a garnish. You might even want to top it with another dollop of sambal goreng tomat.

To store any excess, just use an airtight container or a freezer bag and stick it in the fridge or freezer. To heat it up, a few minutes in the microwave should do the trick - it's a good dish to keep for lazy evenings. Or even breakfast. Or lunch.

And now we even have HD videos! (apologies for the focus, my Kodak Zi8 seems to be allergic to fried shallots...)

An aside: Get free updates via email!

2010-09-09T15:16:00.001+01:00

We know you're all busy, we certainly are (well, Mrs K at least), and we don't have a Facebook or Twitter account (Mr K does, but he's a lazy old codger). And although RSS is our favourite way of subscribing to our favourite sites, most of the world seems to disagree. So we've added the ability to get email updates every time there's a new post added.

Click on the link below if this is of interest. Feedburner (which is owned by Google) will then send you a confirmation email, follow the instructions and you're done. You'll only be sent an email when there's a new post, and you can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the emails.

Subscribe to Cooking with Mrs K by Email

Tempeh? What's that?

2010-09-09T11:39:00.002+01:00

Tempeh is wonderful, but elusive stuff. We used to buy it frozen from the Holland & Barrett health food stores, but they've stopped stocking it. It seems like the only commercial UK supplier is Impulse Foods, and there are a few sites selling their frozen tempeh, such as Goodness Direct.

But what is it? It is actually very simple, consisting of fermented, cooked soybeans (the Tempeh.info site has everything you need to know) formed into a firm cake that can be sliced and fried, or mixed with other dishes. It's popular with vegetarians as an alternative to bacon or even hamburgers. We love it, but sadly haven't bought any for ages, so we were looking round the web thinking of ordering some (you can it get in London's Chinatown or Wembley Sunday Market fairly easily, but we haven't been to town for a while). Our friendly local Chinese store doesn't have any, but they're looking into it.

Then Mr K suggested trying to make it ourselves - by all accounts it's a simple process, and you can get a free sample of the starter culture from Tempeh.info. The main barrier is the incubator, as the tempeh needs to be kept at around 30°C for a couple of days. One blog suggested you can use an oven with just the light on, so we're experimenting at the moment to see how warm that gets. Mrs K isn't totally convinced, but she's happy to give it a go. Of course, then comes the problem of finding de-hulled soybeans - apparently de-hulling them yourself is a bit tedious.

If we go ahead, we'll let you know how we get on, but we're determined to get some tempeh soon one way or another because it's so delicious and very versatile for cooking.

Soto Ayam (chicken broth)

2010-09-05T17:39:00.005+01:00

Soto Ayam (soto = broth, ayam = chicken) is one of Mrs K's all-time favourites. It's quick, simple and perfect for a light meal. These quantities will easily feed four people. Or three hungry ones.

Ingedients

3 pieces of chicken (thighs, legs or breast - whichever you prefer)
3 shallots
1 small Spanish onion
2 tomatoes
2 garlic cloves
2 bay leaves
2 kaffir lime leaves
1 stick of lemon grass
2 large spring onions
150g beansprouts
1 heaped teaspoon ground coriander
1 pinch ground turmeric
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1 pinch ground black pepper
1 or 2 chicken stock cubes
1 teaspoon sugar
Sunflower oil

Method

Brown the chicken pieces gently in a frying pan with a little sunflower oil (or some of the chilli oil you made earlier) for about 10 minutes or so, until they are firm (the meat will be fully cooked later, don't worry..).

While they're cooking, coarsely chop the shallots, onion, spring onions, garlic and tomatoes. Wash the beansprouts (Mrs K likes to pinch the ends off the beansprouts, but she's a patient soul).

When the chicken is browned, remove it from the frying pan and let it cool for a few minutes. Then strip off all the meat from the bone and chop into small chunks. Put this to one side for the moment.

Using a medium heat, brown the shallots, onion and garlic (in the frying pan you just used for the chicken) for a couple of minutes until they're soft. Add the coriander, turmeric, nutmeg and pepper, stirring all the time. After 20 seconds or so, add the bay leaves, lime leaves and lemon grass.Stir in and then add the tomatoes,

Now add two glasses of boiling water, add the chicken pieces, stir and bring back to the boil. Crumble in the chicken stock cubes - notice we're not using any salt, the stock cubes are salty enough. Simmer vigorously for about 5 minutes or until the chicken chunks are cooked through. Taste the broth and add salt if you feel it needs it.

Finally, mix in the beansprouts and spring onions then cook for a further 20-30 seconds - we want them to stay crunchy. And that's it - ladle the broth over some rice in a bowl, then add a dollop of sambal goreng tomat. For the perfect flavour, cut a wedge of green lime and squeeze it over the soto. Yumm.

(An optional tasty addition is a hard-boiled egg sliced in half - just put it in the bowl with the rice before you pour the soto over it).

Perfect rice

2010-09-05T16:18:00.005+01:00

Cooking rice (nasi) is one of those things that drives most people nuts. A lot of this is self-inflicted; us British are certainly obsessed with having the rice grains separate, something I'm sure was promoted by Vesta back in the 70s to justify their chewy 'instant' curries.

To most Indonesians, this is half-cooked rice - as their favourite way of eating is with hands only, they prefer a stickier consistency that can easily be grabbed off a plate. Anyway, Mrs K has her own tips and tricks, as usual.

First she gives the rice a good wash - fill the pan three times under the tap, rinsing the rice well each time before discarding the water.

Getting the right amount of water is crucial to success, so Mrs K has her own patented method of estimation that works for any size of saucepan (or person). Fill the pan with rice up to level of the first joint on your index finger, then top up with water until it reaches the second joint. Simples!

Now for the secret ingredients. Mrs K adds a bay leaf, a knob of butter (or margarine) and couple of pinches of salt. Cover, bring to the boil and simmer on a medium heat until there's no water slopping around in the pan, but the rice isn't fully cooked. Give the rice a good stir, cover it again and put it on the smallest burner you have on the lowest heat for another 10 minutes or so.

You may well find that the bottom layers of rice stick to the pan, but don't worry as long as it's not burned (Mrs K like to take this rice 'crust' and fry it as a snack -but that's another post..). The rice will probably seem overcooked for most British tastes, but it's a perfect accompaniment for Mrs K's dishes.

Sambal Goreng Tomat (fried chilli & tomato relish)

2010-09-05T15:22:00.006+01:00

Everyone who has tried Mrs K's chilli sauces has fallen in love with them. Here's how she makes one variety, a quick and simple sauce that she calls sambal goreng tomat (sambal = chilli sauce, goreng = fried, tomat = take a wild guess).

There are endless varieties of sambal - we hope to cover some of these in future posts. There are also endless conflicting descriptions on the web about what sambal goreng actually is - but we don't care; this is Mrs K's blog, and what she says goes. So there.

All the ingredients should be readily available in any supermarket, but remember that none of the quantities are critical - experiment as you feel fit. These quantities will produce about 3-4 jam jars of sauce, and the cooking time's about 45 minutes. One added bonus of the dish is that it gives you a supply of delicious chilli-flavoured oil that you can use for cooking.

Ingredients

250g red chillies (as hot as you like)
100g small green chillies (ditto)
100g shallots
200g tomatoes (any kind)
6 large garlic cloves
Ginger (about 2cm of root)
1 large Spanish onion
2 bay leaves
2 kaffir lime leaves
1 stick of lemon grass
500ml sunflower oil
1 level dessert spoon salt
3 teaspoons sugar

Method

Cut the chillies, tomatoes, garlic, ginger, onion and shallots into coarse chunks. Put these in a blender and process them to a coarse paste - Mrs K only has a small Kenwood blender, so she does several batches. She's using cherry tomatoes in this case, simply because that's what was in the fridge, but any variety is fine. Don't over-blend, the paste should look something like this.

Pour the sunflower oil into a wok (or large saucepan) and put it on a medium heat. Put the paste into the oil with the bay leaves and kaffir lime leaves. Bruise the lemon grass and pop it whole into the wok (Mrs K likes to tear a strand off, use it to tie the lemon grass in half and bash it with a wooden spoon first. We all have our foibles).

Simmer the paste gently in the oil, stirring it fequently to stop it burning - if it does burn a bit, you'll see little black bits start to appear, don't worry these won't spoil it.

Here's a short low-res video of the sambal bubbling away. Pity you can't smell it...

As you can see in the video, after gently simmering for about 40 minutes, you'll notice the paste starts to darken a little, losing the bright redness of the chilli. This means it's ready. Take it off the heat and leave to cool for half an hour or so.

Now you can skim off the oil and put it into a separate container. This chilli oil is perfect for cooking almost anything - roast meat and roast potatoes taste great with a bit of it, as do sausages. You can strain the oil if you wish, but Mrs K just uses a small ladle to put it into bottles. Don't remove all the oil - leave the sambal wet but not swimming in oil. Mrs K usually manages to retrieve about half the original quantity of oil.

You can store the sambal in bottles (avoid plastic containers, it will probably stain them) - it should store for 3-4 weeks in a fridge. Remember when taking it out of the bottle to use a clean spoon - don't put one that you've licked back into the bottle. This will help it stay fresh longer.