KitchenVamp

Ayam Betutu / Chicken in Traditional Balinese Betutu Sauce

2011-12-13T19:58:00.000-08:00

Betutu is a Balinese famous chicken dish, almost all nasi campur Bali will have betutu in it. One of my favorite betutu in Bali is from Warung Adyana, that is also known as Nasi Pasar Burung, I always go there whenever I visit my hometown.
Now that I live far far away from my beloved hometown, I can't get this dish anywhere here...so I started my adventure to try finding the betutu recipe that tasted delicious, and would be comparable to my favorite betutu in Bali. I tried 3 different recipe and finally found this recipe that in my opinion, beat any other recipe that I had tried previously. It's very easy, I don't need to wrap the chicken with banana leaves, and I don't even need to bake it on the oven.
I cooked this dish for my mother who visits me from Bali, she was surprised that the betutu tasted very authentic, she said it tasted just like those betutu sold in Bali :)
This recipe was adapted from Kitchen Warrior's Ayam Betutu Express

Ingredients,
2 pack of sliced chicken
2 tbs coconut oil
500 ml water
one handful chopped lemongrass
salt

Sauce Ingredients ---> blend them all in food processor
20 cloves garlic
3 big shallot / 7 small shallot
2 thumbs ginger
2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp kutchery powder (kencur)
1 tsp galangal powder
2 tsp belachan
10 red jalapeno

Cooking Method,
1. Blend all the sauce ingredients in food processor, we want a coarse, not to fine result.

2. Heat 2 tbs coconut oil on a big pan

3. When the oil is hot, add on the blended sauce ingredients and the lemongrass, stir well and season it with salt

4. When the sauce is fragrant, add the chicken pieces and stir well

5. Add on water, let it boil, then simmer covered until the chicken is cook and tender and the water is reduced by half. The thicker the sauce the stronger the taste, adjust it to your own personal taste.

Mie Babi Jamur Bakso / Egg Noodle Soup with Pork, Mushroom and Meatball

2011-11-18T12:01:00.001-08:00

Mie ayam bakso / Egg noodle with chicken and meatball is a very famous dish in Indonesia. Most of the noodle shop own by Chinese immigrant, but other than that we have a lot of hawker style or cheaper version of this noodle too...you can find the noodle cart almost everywhere in Indonesia.
My mom used to have a noodle shop, she sold pork noodle and chicken noodle as well...she made her own noodle, it was a family recipe she got from her parents, my mom also made her home made wonton. I remember her deep fried wonton was crazy delicious!!

I was craving for that kind of noodle and trying to re-create the dish, this is my second attempt making this dish. Previously I made this dish with the dried wonton skin and fried meatball (look at picture below), too bad my fried meatball was too tough...lol...I have to try to make the fried meatball again, once I hit the perfection, I'll share the recipe here :)

So, they are 4 components of this dish that need to be cook separately: the meat, noodle, vegetable and the soup.

THE SOUP,

Ingredients,
8 cups of water
1 pack of pork bone
7 cloves garlic, crush and chop finely
a bunch of green onion (about 7 stalks), slice thinly
1/2 tsp white pepper
3 tsp sugar
3.5 tsp salt
1 pack of beef meatballs (I like to use meatball with tendon)

Cooking Method,
1. Wash the pork bone and soaked them in cold water for 20 minutes to drain the bloods.

2. Boil water on a big pot.

3. Put the pork bone into the boiling water, let it boil for 15 to 20 minutes. Then you'll see the foam rise to the water surface. We don't want those dirty stuff.

4. Throw out the dirty water, rinse the pork bone one more time, rinse the pot, and put new 8 cups water to the pot.

5. Use high temperature, it it boil then low the heat to simmer. Simmer the bone for at least 3 hours or until the meat fall apart from the bone and the broth turn milky. Add more water to retain the 8 cups amount of broth.

6. Take away all the bones, and meat until you got clean broth.

7. Add the green onions, garlic, white pepper, salt and sugar. Bring to boil one more time, then add the meatballs. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

THE MEAT,

Ingredients,
1.7 lbs ground pork
1 can string mushroom
1 handful garlic, smash and chop finely
3 tbs sweet soy sauce
1.5 tbs oyster sauce
2 tbs fish sauce
2 tbs soy sauce
1/2 tsp
salt, as needed.
Olive oil

Cooking Method,
1. Heat a pan, drizzle some olive oil on it.
2. When the oil is hot, add the garlic

3. Stir fry the garlic until fragrant and wilted, but not brown. Then add the meat

4. Stir the meat until it half cooked, then add all the seasoning. When the meat cooked thoroughly, add the mushroom and mix well

5. Set aside the cooked meat

THE GREEN VEGETABLE,
Ingredients,
one big bunch of green vegetable, cut into 4 lenghwise

Cooking Method,
1. Cut the green vegetable and rinse 3 times

2. Divide the green vegetable into 2 part, the leaves and the other bottom half (the leaves cook faster). Boil the quickly and then set aside.

THE NOODLE,

Ingredients,

Wonton noodle / thick egg noodle

sesame oil

sweet soy sauce

Cooking Method,

1. Open the noodle from the knot, then boil them on boiling water until cook (follow the instruction of the packaging).

2. Drain the noodle, then drizzle some sesame oil and sweet soy sauce on the bowl.

3. Add the individual potion into the bowl and mix the noodle with the sesame oil and the sweet soy sauce

SERVING,

place the boil vegetable and meat on top of the noodle. I like to have the meatballs and the soup on separate bowl, some people like to pour the soup into the noodle bowl...it's all up to one's personal preference :)

Slow Cooker Jambalaya

2011-11-02T00:20:00.000-07:00

Jambalaya is known as the most versatile Creole dish. I still remember my first jambalaya was from the chain restaurant Cheesecake Factory, it was chicken and shrimp jambalaya and it was served with rice. Some other place also serve it with pasta.

Couple days ago, I was really craving for jambalaya and found a really easy slow cooker jambalaya recipe. Delicious food that would cook on its own (on slow cooker)...perfect!! I love the idea of throwing all the ingredients on the slow cooker, then take a nap and woke up to delicious food...yumm!!

I gather the ingredients I have at home and improvise adding other ingredients to replace the stuff that I don't have. I use 2 different type of bell pepper just because I like more color on the food...I only have half of the canned dice tomato and have to chopped some fresh tomato and made some tomato paste using ketchup...I also replace the unknown red pepper sauce with red pepper flakes + cajun sauce.

After all, cooking is about creativity and fun...adding more ingredients, omit the ingredients that you don't like and so on. And I always double up the meat portion because my hubby is a big eater and he love meats!

The jambalaya was a big hit, hubby loved it, and even my 16 months son loved it too!

This recipe was adapted from Betty Crocker's Slow Cooker Jambalaya.

Ingredients,

1 large onion, chopped

1 medium green bell pepper, chopped

1 medium red bell pepper, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped crosswise

5 garlic, crush and finely chopped

1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained

1 fresh tomato, diced

1/3 can of water + 2 tbs tomato ketchup

2 pack (total 26 oz) of smoked sausage, sliced

1.5 tbs parsley flakes

1/2 tbs dried thyme leaves

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp red chili powder

1/2 tsp cajun powder

1 lb uncook prawn, peeled and deveined.

hot cooked rice

Cooking Method,

1. Mix all the ingredients EXEPT shrimp and rice.

2. Cook in high heat setting 3 to 4 hours. You can also opt for low heat setting for 7 to 8 hours.

3. After it finished cooking, add the shrimp, lower the heat setting, cover and cook for another one hour or until the shrimp turn red, firm and cook.

4. Serve the delicious jambalaya with white fluffy rice.

Bebe's dindin

Fragrant Pork Bone Soup with Winter Melon and Pandan Leaves

2011-11-01T23:34:00.000-07:00

Last month during the lunch time at Church, my friend, Yuth made this delicious pork bone soup. It was so light, yet very fragrant and flavorful, I ate 2 bowls of them...haha. I asked him what ingredients did he use for the soup? "secret" he said...later on he told me that his secret ingredients was the pandan leaves and also he didn't use ginger for the soup.
I always love winter melon, I think it's the best match for Chinese pork bone soup. Sadly, I almost chop off my finger one day while trying to cut the hard skin of winter melon...and I haven't cook winter melon again ever since. Yuth told me his tips to cut the winter melon, so instead of trying to cut the hard skin, he told me to use peeler to shave off the skin. I tried it and it was so easy!! I wish I knew this tips earlier, so I can enjoy my favorite winter melon more. So, here's my version of the soup. Yuth only used 1 pandan leaves and he used cilantro on his soup. I skip the cilantro and use more pandan leaves.

Ingredients,
1 pack of pork short rib, chopped
5 pandan leaves
1 bucket of cut winter melon
1 handful of garlic, crush.
salt & white pepper
3 pinch of sugar

Cooking Method,

1. Wash the pork bone and soaked them in cold water for 20 minutes to drain the bloods. If you are in hurry, you can omit this step.
2. Boil water on a big pot.
3. Put the pork bone into the boiling water, let it boil for 15 to 20 minutes. Then you'll see the foam rise to the water surface. We don't want those dirty stuff.
4. Throw out the dirty water, rinse the pork bone one more time, rinse the pot, and put new water to the pot.
5. Boil the water with the pork bone in it one more time. Use High temperature
6. Add the pandan leaves and garlic into the pot.

7. Season with salt, white pepper and sugar.

8. After the soup is boiling, turn down the heat to simmer. Cook with the lid close for 1 hour.

9. After 1 hour, add the winter melon, the continue to simmer for another 30 minutes.

10. The soup is ready when the short rib and winter melon turn soft. The pork meat should be easily fall from the bone when poke with fork.

Simple Japchae

2011-10-27T23:10:00.000-07:00

Japchae is Korean stir fry starch noodle with vegetable, seasoned with sesame oil and soy sauce. Usually it will have spinach, carrot, and mushroom as well, but today I'm making a very simple one. The japchae I cooked today only using onion, green onion and beef with the noodle, it's a lot more simple and easy to make compare to the original version. This japchae remind me of the Korean TV series, City Hunter, where the main character only eat japchae with beef and no vegetable at all.
The preparation of this noodle is rather unique, instead of frying all the ingredients together, we boil the noodle, then stir fry all the component separately.
This recipe was adapted from Maangchi's japchae recipe. She's the master of Korean food!

Ingredients,

1 lb (450gr) Korean starch noodle

1 big onion, slice thinly

7 green onion, slice crosswise

1 pack rib eye (around 0.8 lb) or sliced beef

1 handful of garlic, crush and chop finely

roasted sesame seed (optional)

3 pinch of sugar

soy sauce

sesame oil

olive oil

Cooking Method,

1. Boil water in a pot, then put the noodle and cook around 3 minutes or until it cooked.

2. Drain the noodle, then put the noodle into a big bowl and cut them with scissor.

3. Add 2 tbs of sesame oil and 5 tbs of light soy sauce.

4. Heat some olive oil on a pan, stir fry the onion until wilted and turn transparent, then put it on the big bowl with the noodle.

5. Heat some olive oil on the pan, stir fry the green onion for one minute, then add them to the big bowl.

6.Heat more olive oil on the pan, add the garlic, stir until fragrant

7. Add the beef, 3 tbs soy sauce and 2 pinch of sugar. Stir until the beef cooked, then transfer them into the big bowl.

8. Add some roasted sesame seeds if you like

9. Add another 2 tbs of sesame oil and soy sauce to season, mix them well. Somehow, whenever I season this type of noodle, I always end up using large amount of soy sauce...and no, they don't taste salty! :)

10. This dish best serve with kimchi <3

Bihun Kuah Ayam / Vermicelli Chicken Noodle Soup

2011-10-26T11:06:00.000-07:00

Chicken noodle soup is a very well known comfort food in a lot of places. In USA, the famous chicken noodle soup is made out of pasta, chicken, carrots, celery and potatoes. In Indonesia, we have different version of chicken noodle soup that is using bihun or vermicelli.
This dish is one of my mother's favorite food, also the go to food to order when any of us got sick. I remember that we always order this food from one of the oldest Chinese restaurant in Bali, Atom Baru. The light taste of this soup makes it easy for the sick people to chow down. I was craving for this bihun last Sunday and decided to cook it based on my memory of the taste. It's really fun to re'create my childhood dishes and introduce them to my new family, hubby and bebe. The soup turn out to be really good, light and tasty at the same time, my family loved it! :)

Ingredients,
Bihun / Rice Vermicelli / Starch Stick.
8 cups of home made chicken broth
1 pack of chicken tight with bone and skin
2 handful of garlic, crush. divide into 2 part
1 handful of shallot, slice thinly
2 thumb of ginger, slice crosswise
a bunch of green vegetable (I forgot it's name...) cut into 4
salt
white pepper
sugar

Cooking Method,

1. Put the chicken, ginger slices and half of the garlic into a pot.

2. Add 8 cups of water and 1/2 tbs salt, then bring them to boil.

3. Take the chicken out (don't throw the water), cut into small piece, set aside.

4. Steam the green vegetable, then set aside. The vegetables on the picture bellow may look like a lot, but once they are cooked, they'll shrink to around the 1/4 of what you see now.

5. Heat a new big pot, drizzle some sesame oil.

6. Add the shallot and garlic, stir fry until golden.

7. Add the chicken pieces, stir for 5 minutes.

8. Add the water from boiling the chicken earlier, use a fine tea strainer, then add the home made chicken stock. Season the soup with salt and pepper, also 2-3 pinch of sugar.

9. Cook your bihun / vermicelli on separate pan, then serve them in a bowl with the soup and vegetable.

Thai Crispy Fried Chicken Wings

2011-10-24T20:00:00.000-07:00

My friend, Ann Lee made such a delicious fried chicken, and I'm addicted to it! She shared me the surprisingly simple recipe and also got me the special batter mix for the fried chicken. She said that you can just use the flour mix, but usually she also added some oyster sauce, soy sauce, garlic and white pepper into the mix.
For me, I marinaded the chicken for at least 2 hours before I added the batter mix. My fried chicken got a deep brown color from the soy sauce.
I made this fried chicken for last week family care group, and everyone loved the super crispy fried chicken :)

Ingredients,

24 chicken wings

Fried chicken batter mix

2/3 cup garlic, crush & chop finely

3 tbs oyster sauce

4 tbs light soy sauce

2 pinch of sugar

dash of white pepper

Vegetable oil for frying

Cooking Method,

1. Mix the chicken wings with the garlic, oyster sauce, light soy sauce, sugar and pepper.

2. Cover the bowl and let it sit on the fridge for 2-3 hours.

3. Pour the batter mix and add a little bit amount of water to form a thick paste like the picture bellow.

4. Heat the oil, I always use 325F to fry my chicken. Fry the chicken until it turn brown & cooked through.

Nasi Ayam / Stir Fry Chicken with Vegetable on Rice

2011-10-19T21:34:00.000-07:00

Nasi ayam is one of our family favorite foods. My sister, my brother and I love this food a lot, and usually mami (our mother) will ordered this food from a small restaurant inside Bali's biggest traditional market. I believe the restaurant name is restaurant Honey, or more known as "Fong Sen" (the late owner of the restaurant), and they sell the most delicious nasi ayam ever!
I was so craving for their nasi ayam and attempted to make one myself. The result is delicious and it tasted similar to those that I always eat from "Fong Sen". Now, I'm proudly share this super simple, and easy recipe with you all :)

Ps. This is a big batch, and other than the sauce, I didn't measure the other ingredients, but you can see the amount of the foods from the picture.

Ingredients,
cooked white rice
1 pack of boneless chicken tight, sliced.
broccoli, cut into small pieces, then soaked in warm water with salt for 20 minutes.
nappa cabbage, sliced.
carrot, slice crosswise.
1 cup of water
Sesame oil

Sauce Ingredients,

2 handful of garlic, crush & chop. Divide into 2

1 thumb ginger, sliced thinly

4 tbs light soy sauce

1.5 tbs chicken stock powder

2 tbs cornstarch diluted in water for thickening the sauce

Cooking Method,

1. Heat the pan, drizzle generous amount of sesame oil then add half of the garlic and ginger, stir until fragrant.

2. Add the chicken, then the soy sauce. Stir fry until the chicken cooked, then set aside.

3. Wash the pan, then add sesame oil then add the garlic, stir until fragrant.

4. Add the broccoli and carrot, stir until they are half cook.

5. Add the nappa cabbage and chicken stock. Mix them well, add the water and cover the pan with lid.

6. Wait until the vegetable are wilted & soft.

7. Add the cooked chicken back to the pan, mix them well, taste them and adjust the seasoning, if necessary.

8. Add the diluted corn starch to thickening the sauce. You can skip this part if you prefer thinner sauce.

9. Pour it on top of white rice, it's ready to be enjoy with your family & friends :)

Braised Pork Belly with 梅乾菜

2011-10-10T21:54:00.000-07:00

This is another recipe that I learn from hubby's grandma. I still remember when the first time I ate it at hubby's grandparent house, Grandma said "you are Hakanese right? this is Haka people's food". In Indonesia, my family called this food "Babi Hong" in Chinese restaurant in Indonesia, usually they cut the pork belly very wide and thin. When hubby's grandparent cooked it, they cut it into cubed. The meat cut is really up to one's preference.
I still remember that Grandma was trying to telling me the recipe in Chinese, and I was't familiar with the Chinese term of the ingredients and she got frustrated and said "aiii...ni bu dong lah!" (ahh...you don't understand!). Later on, I learned that sheng jiang means ginger.
This dish is so delicious, you need to cook it for a long time to make the meat very tender. When you cook it long enough, the meat should just melt in your mouth...oh so good! Usually it required 3 hours to cook it to perfection. Constant checking on the pot is very important, we don't want it to get burn.
I burn a pot before when I leave at the apartment, and my apartment was filled with smoke...I still remember the noise of the smoke alarm!! sigh...that's why now I prefer to cook them in a slow cooker. It's the lazy way of cooking...hehe...I can put it on the slow cooker, and it would cook overnight. Then the next morning I'll wake up to the delicious tender meat.

Ps. This dish required to use fatty pork belly with skin attached.

Ingredients,
1 pack of pork belly, sliced. Because I'm using slow cooker, I sliced my meat thick, it's 2 fingers thick.
hard boiled eggs, peeled (optional)
mei gan chai / preserved Chinese vegetable (look at the picture above). Soaked in hot water for one hour, then rinse for 3 times.
Sesame oil

Sauce Ingredients,
1 handful of garlic, crushed
6 stalk of green onion, sliced medium length
4 thumb ginger, sliced medium thickness
3/4 cup Chinese cooking wine
1 cup light soy sauce
2/3 cup soy sauce paste / thick soy sauce
10 pinch of sugar

Cooking Method,

1. Heat a large pan, drizzle generous amount of sesame oil

2. When the oil is hot, add green onions, garlic and ginger. Using medium high heat, stir the ingredients until it fragrant.

3. Add the pork, stir fry until the pork half cooked and turn slightly brownish

4. Add the cooking rice wine, soy sauce, thick soy sauce and sugar

4. Mix the sauce and the meat well, then transfer them into a slow cooker and add 2 cups of water

5. Put the hard boiled eggs and mei gan chai on top of the meat, then close the slow cooker lid. I put it to cook on 10 hours low heat

6. After 2 hours, I flipped the eggs so it would be nicely browned, then pour some of the sauce on top of the mei gan chai again.

7. Let it cook overnight, then you will wake up to a delicious braised pork belly, ready to be enjoy with warm steam rice.

Masman Chicken Curry & Puff Paratha

2011-10-07T18:34:00.000-07:00

I like to stock up on "emergency foods" on my freezer.
What is emergency foods? for me, emergency foods are those easy convenient foods that I can reach whenever I don't have much stuff left to cook. My emergency foods usually are dumplings...and now I'm start stocking on puff paratha too.
Yesterday, I didn't have much stuff left on my fridge, and I have to prepare some foods for the care group at my house...then I decided to make thick curry & puff paratha, using anything I can find in my kitchen :D
It turn out so well and everyone loved it too!! Gotta make this combo again next time, with different type of curry!
This recipe is super easy because we going to use a shortcut here...a.k.a using ready to use spice...lol...but I still like to add more spices into it to make the food more fragrant :)

Ps. I didn't follow the cooking instruction from the curry box, I made the curry very thick so it suitable for dipping the paratha.

Ingredients,
10 tbs masman curry paste ---> almost the entire small jar of the paste.
1 pack of chicken wings
1 sweet potato, cubed.
1 onion, sliced.
1 handful kaffir lime leaf
1 handful chopped lemongrass
4 bird eye chilli
1 tsp sugar
3 tsp tamarind paste
1 can of coconut milk
4 cups of water
Olive oil

Cooking Method,
1. Heat the pan, drizzle some olive oil.
2. Add chicken, half of the onions, lime leaf and lemongrass. Stir until the onion wilted and the chicken turn a little bit brown.

3. Then add the curry paste & water. (In this picture I only put 5 tbs curry paste, later on I added 5 more)

4. Using medium-high heat, let the sauce boil. Then add the rest of the onion, sweet potato & chili. Let it boil for another 15 minutes, then lower and simmer covered for another 30 minutes. If your pan lid does not have the vent holes, place the lid slightly open like the picture bellow.

5. When the chicken is cooked and tender, add the coconut milk, sugar and tamarind. Then simmer for another 15 minutes. If the curry became too thick, add some more water.

6. It's ready to be served with the puff paratha.

Tips for crunchy paratha: flattened the edge of the paratha before put it on the frying pan. I'm using medium heat and some butter to cook the paratha.

Steamed Ginger Chicken with Black Fungus & Salted Fish

2011-10-02T01:01:00.000-07:00

I remember growing up eating my grandma's food on almost every weekend. When we were young, we would visit Popo (that's how we call her) after church and eat her delicious foods. Yesterday, I suddenly craving her food...I can's stop thinking about her delicious steam ribs. But since I don't have ribs at home, I alternate to chicken to cook the same dish, and it tasted equally great! :)
This dish is also one of the variation of the infamous ginger wine chicken, every household have their own style of ginger chicken. Ginger wine chicken is a type of "ciak po", that's how Indonesian Chinese referred to foods that have a lot of benefit to your health (usually will contain Chinese herb). People eat ciak po when they are sick, recovering from sickness, also for women in their confinement period -40 days after childbirth- I will post my very own special ginger chicken recipe soon :)

Ingredients,

1 pack of chicken legs, chopped and washed

2 medium size salted fish

1 handful of black fungus

Sauce Ingredients,

1 handful of garlic, crushed

4 shallots, thinly sliced

2 thumbs of ginger, thinly sliced

1/3 cup Chinese cooking wine

1/8 cup rice vinegar

1/2 cup light soy sauce

sesame oil

sugar

Cooking Method,

1. Put the garlic, shallots and gingers into the bowl

2. Put the chicken pieces into the bowl, then put the rest of the sauce ingredients into the bowl, Mix well, then cover the bowl. I used aluminium foil to cover the bowl.

3. Let the chicken sit on the fridge for 30 minutes - 2 hours, the longer the better. Today I was cooking late, so I only marinade it for 30 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, soaked the black fungus in warm water and deep fried the salted fish, then shredded it.

5. Take the chicken out of the fridge, sprinkle the sliced black fungus and the salted fish on top of the chicken. Ps. I change my bowl because it was too small.

6. Cover the bowl with aluminium foil, and poke some holes on the cover. Put the covered bowl into a steamer pan. Add 12 cups water into the steamer pan and steam it on high heat for 1 hour

7. To check if the chicken is cooked, sliced the chicken to the bone, when the chicken is cooked, there shouldn't be any blood.

8. As other Chinese dish, this dish is best served with a bowl ow rice. Today, I ate it with a bowl of thick plain congee (rice porridge).

Sai Krok / Fermented Thai Sausage with Rice & Vermicelli

2011-10-02T00:05:00.000-07:00

Don't mind the funny shape of the sausage...my hubby is a comedian...lol.
I want to tell you a story about this special Thai sausage. On August 2009, hubby and I was on our honeymoon at Thailand. We ate a lot of Thai foods before, but we never ate the Thai's hawker foods, and off course we won't miss the opportunity to try all those authentic food while we were in Thailand.
One of the food we tried was this sausage, it was amazingly delicious, it was something new to me. The sausage was sour, and had this rice and glass noodle inside it. Oh so amazing!! We had to went to the night market close to our hotel every single day to eat that sausage, and those crazy hawker rise the price everyday! But we were so addicted that we didn't care anymore...haha

Looks amazing, right! :D

In Seattle, I went to a Thai church, and last time, one of my Church friend, Keng -he's a chef here- gave me his homemade Thai sausage, and it was delicious! the taste of the sausage totally remind me to those sausage I ate at Thailand.

So I asked him if he willing to share me his secret recipe? Not only he shared me his recipe, he even came to my house to teach me to make the sausage, and alsooooooooo...let me share the recipe here, on my humble blog!

ok, so here's what you need to make the sausage!...I forgot to mention that this is a huge batch of sausage :)

Ingredients,

5 lbs fatty ground pork

2 cups garlic, finely grind

2 cups cooked white rice

2 cups rice vermicelli, finely chopped

1/8 cup salt

1/4 cup chicken stock powder

1/4 cup MSG ---> I asked him WHY do we need to use msg? he said that all Thai sausage use msg...also, it will help preserved the flavor when we put it in the freezer.

1 pack of sausage skin (pig intestines)

Method,

1. Mixed all the ingredients on a large bowl, then mix thoroughly. It will be a lot easier if you just put on gloves and mix it with your hands.

2. When you already mixed all the ingredients together, start proceeding with infusing the mixture into the sausage skin. There's a lot of way to do this, if you don't have the machine, you can use regular cone to infused the meat into the skin.

other option is, omit the skin and just make meatballs. Easy and fast! :)

3. This is the important step! after you finished wrapping the sausage, take a toothpick to poke some holes on the sausage's skin.

4. And then, put the sausage inside the oven (not heated) for 2 days for it to be fermented and creating the slight sour taste.

5. After 2 days, you can cook the sausage, or put it on the freezer.

We baked our sausage for 40 minutes today,

The sausages was delicious! last time we also made omelet using this sausages :)

I ate the hawker Thai sausage on 2009, but I can still remember how it tasted. And If I have to compare it with the sausage we made last week, they tasted quite close, but the different is that the hawker one is more sour (probably they put more garlic?) and also more fatty and greasier (because it was deep fried???)

Mi Goreng Kampung / Humble Fried Noodle

2011-09-30T23:35:00.000-07:00

This mi goreng kampung was truly inspired by those super simple & humble fried noodle inside Nasi Campur Bali.
This is my ultimate #1 favorite nasi Bali of all time, it's Nasi Wangaya (the name of the small restaurant that sells it). I can't even start to explain how delicious is this nasi campur, there's nothing fancy about it, yet every single thing is absolutely to die for! maybe they put some magic on it...?? haha

The picture above is that magical nasi Wangaya...ugh...posting this picture makes me drools... T_____T
Anyway, this is my original recipe for the mi goreng kampung, it best serve as the side dishes for other foods. This noodle won't be the star among the other dishes. If the other dishes is the bride / the groom, then this mi goreng kampung is the maid of honor / best man.
Remember, the key of this mie goreng kampung is simplicity, nothing fancy.

Ingredients,
1 pack of thick egg noodles. Boiled them, then drain the water.
carrot & cabbage, with 1:1 ratio. shredded.
cooking oil

Sauce Ingredients,
5 shallots, thinly sliced
5 garlic, chopped
salt & pepper

Cooking Method,
1. Heat the pan, add the cooking oil then pan fry the shallots and garlic until they turn brownish.
2. Add the carrot and cabbage, stir until they wilted.
3. Season with some salt & pepper
4. Add the cooked egg noodle into the pan, mix everything together.
5. Serve them with your other favorite dishes.

This is me attempted to prepare some nasi Bali...including the betutu, plecing kangkung, mie goreng kampung and tempe goreng :)

Pindang Iga / Sweet, Sour & Spicy Ribs Soup

2011-09-30T14:39:00.000-07:00

I remember that I cooked this food for my sister while she visited me in Seattle on December 2010, and I she loved it a lot! and hubby also loves this dish. It's the perfect dish to eat for a rainy cold weather.
Unlike Balinese fishy pindang, this Javanese pindang is very different in taste. This Javanese pindang is sweet, sour and spicy, the unique combination of flavors will make your tongue dancing and keep wanting this food more and more.
This recipe was adapted from Masakan Indonesia Untuk Jamuan

Ingredients,
3 lbs pork neck bone + pork ribs
Olive oil

Sauce Ingredients A ---> blend all the ingredients in food processor
1 tbs galangal powder
1 tsp turmetic powder
1 thumb of ginger
1 handful of garlic

Sauce Ingredients B,
4 lemongrass, smash it.
1 handful bay leaves
2 handful of shallot, thinly sliced.
2 tsp dark tamarind paste, dilute it in 1 cup of hot water
5 ripe tomatoes, sliced large chunk
10 red jalapeno, halves
4 bird eye chili (optional, if you want it more spicy)
3 tbs sweet soy sauce
2 tsp Javanese brown sugar
salt

Cooking Method,
1. Wash the pork bone and pork feet, then soaked them in cold water for 20 minutes to drain the bloods. If you are in hurry, you can omit this step, I did it too sometimes.
2. Boil water on a big pot.
3. Put the pork bone and pork feet into the boiling water, let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes. Then you'll see the foam rise to the water surface. We don't want those dirty stuff.
4. Throw out the dirty water, rinse the pork bone one more time, rinse the pot, and put new water to the pot.
5. Boil the water with the pork bone in it one more time. Use High temperature
6. Add salt, half of the tomatoes, lemongrass and bay leaves, simmer until the pork bone is soft. Approximately 2 hours.
7. Heat another pan, heat the olive oil on medium high heat.
8. Add the sliced shallot into the new pan, pan fry until it get brownish.
9. Add the sauce ingredient A and mix it with the shallot until fragrant.
10. Add the cooked mixture of shallots & sauce ingredients A into the soup.
11. Add the rest of the sauce ingredients B into the soup, simmer for another 30 minutes.
12. Keep tasting, the end result should be sweet, sour and spicy.
13. Serve it with warm steam rice, the authentic Indonesian style :)

Kangkung Hotplate with Beef & Quail Eggs

2011-09-28T22:14:00.000-07:00

We eat a lot of kangkung in Indonesia, in US, people call it "Morning Glory", you can find them at most of Asian grocery stores.
In Indonesia, kangkung hotplate is served on a hot stone plate. There's a lot of different style of kangkung hot plate, but most of them are stir fry kangkung topped with the gravy. Usually you can find them in Chinese restaurant in Indonesia, so I would put this dish under the Indonesian Chinese Food category :)
Today, I want to share with you all my very own style of kangkung hotplate, I use beef and quail eggs for this dish. It's very simple, slightly spicy and delicious!!
And no, you don't need to serve them on a hotplate if you don't have one. I serve mine on a regular plate.
This is one of the dish I cooked prior before I start my cooking blog, thus I don't use any measurement while cooking it. Remember, keep tasting it is the key of making a success dish.

Ingredients,
kangkung
1 pack of sliced beef
1 can of cooked quail eggs
Olive oil

Sauce Ingredients,
garlic, chopped
2 bird eye chili, sliced
oyster sauce & soy sauce...with ratio 1:1
salt & sugar
1 cup chicken stock (liquid)
corn starch, diluted it in water

Garnish,
Sunny side up Eggs
Fried Shallots

Cooking Method,
1. Wash clean the kangkung, then cut them into 4 lengthwise
2. Separate the stems from the leaves, as they required different cooking time.
3. Heat the pan, heat some oil, then pan fry the kangkung. The stems will require longer cooking time, while the leaves cooked a lot faster. Then set the cooked kangkung aside.
4. Heat a new pan, heat some oil, then pan fry the quail eggs in medium heat until it slightly brown, set them aside.
5. Heat a new pan, heat some oil, add the garlic and bird eye chili. Stir them until the garlic turn brown.
6. Add the beef, stir them until the beefs are half cook
7. Add the oyster sauce and soy sauce, then drizzle some salt and sugar
8. Once the beef are cook, add the quail eggs and chicken stock, mixed them well.
9. Add the diluted corn starch to thickened the sauce.

They are 2 way of serving this dish,
1. As a dish to share: Put the kangkung on a plate, then topped it with the sauce.
2. As individual dish like the picture above: Mix the kangkung into the sauce, then serve it with rice and sunny side up, garnish it with friend onion.

Butter Sauteed Clam in Pear Sake

2011-09-28T21:28:00.000-07:00

Butter sauteed clam featured in many many happy hours menus in fancy restaurants everywhere, and it got to be one of my favorite happy hour menu to choose.
Now that I'm a mom and I got no nanny, it seems impossible for me to go enjoying fancy happy hours anymore. Oh well, if I can't go to the happy hours, why don't I bring my favorite happy hours dish to my own kitchen :)
This dish is very easy and delicious, everyone can create their happy hours at home now!

Ps. I use the Asian Pear Sake because I had an open bottle already, you can use any sake that you like.

Ingredients,
1,5 lb clams
4 garlic
1 tbs salted butter
sake

Cooking Method,
1. Wash the clam clean, then put them in a bowl and steam them. This way, you'll get some clam broth.
2. Heat a pan, melt the butter.
3. Lower the heat to medium, add garlic, do not let them turn brown,
4. Add the steamed clam and the clam broth,
5. Drizzle some sake to the pan, close the lid for 3 minutes.
6. Enjoy your delicious butter sauteed clam, dip some bread to the delicious broth.

Potato and Leek Soup

2011-09-28T15:27:00.000-07:00

If you love a smooth, creamy, hearty and simply delicious soup, you should try this one!
It was a cold rainy day and I was hungry... I wanted to cook a delicious soup that won't take forever to cook, so it can't be a meaty soup that would required hours and hours of simmering. Then I decided to try cooking this potato and leek soup, an American classic.
This recipe was adapted from Emeril Lagasse's potato and leek soup recipe.

Ingredients,
2 large leeks
4 large russet potatoes, diced.
6 strips bacon, chopped.
2 tbs butter
3/4 cup dry white wine
6 cups chicken stock
3/4 cup heavy cream
salt & black pepper

Sauce Ingredients A ---> tie them inside a cheesecloth / put them inside a large tea bag
4 bay leaves
20 peppercorn
2 tsp dry thyme
2 green leaves from the leek

Garnish,
chive, chopped

Cooking Method,
1. Cut the Leek, separate the white part from the green part.
2. Halve the leek, rinse them clean, then sliced thinly crosswise, set aside.
3. Heat the large soup pot, using medium heat, melt the butter.
4. Add the chopped bacon, stir until it soft for 5-7 minutes.
5. Add the sliced leek, stir until it wilted for around 5 minutes.
6. Add the wine and bring to boil.
7. Add the chicken stock, diced potatoes, sauce ingredients A.
8. Season them with salt and black pepper.
9. Bring to boil one more time, then lower the heat and simmer for 45 minutes.
10. When the potato are falling apart, it's time to puree the soup.
11. Puree the soup in food processor
12. Add the heavy cream to the pureed soup, the adjust the seasoning.
13. Serve the soup with sprinkle chive and some freshly ground black pepper.

Spaghetti Aglio e Olio with Salmon

2011-09-28T14:14:00.000-07:00

There's so many different pasta style out there, but my favorite one got to be the very basic & simple one, Aglio e Olio. Aglio e Olio literally mean Garlic and Oil, which is the main ingredients for the pasta sauce here beside the salt and pepper.
Aglio e Olio is very delicious, without using a lot of different ingredient, it let every single ingredients shine on its own. You can add anything to this pasta style, and last time I was using salmon...just because that's what I had on my fridge at the moment. I love to cook this at any time, especially if I had friends came over and I don't have a lot of stuff on my fridge. It's easy, fast, delicious and really inexpensive!
This is one of the dish I cooked prior to writing this blog, I didn't use any measurement while cooking this dish. What important is : taste taste and taste, then keep adjusting the flavor to perfection.

Ps. I remember that I cooked this dish when my dear friend Vanessa visited me, and she made the Caesar salad...I miss her! :)

Ingredients,
spaghetti
garlic, chopped.
olive oil
salmon, cubed.
red bell pepper, cubed.
salt & black pepper
parsley flakes
parmesan cheese

Cooking Method,
1. Cook the spaghetti following the instruction on the box. I usually add some salt and olive oil into the boiling water.
Make sure that your pasta cooked al dente, and not too soft.
2. Meanwhile, heat a pan and drizzle the olive oil. Be generous.
3. Lower the heat to medium, add the garlic and red bell pepper...I like to use a lot of garlic!
4. Stir the garlic and red bell pepper, but don't let it turn brown.
5. Add the salmon, stir until the salmon is cooked.
6. Add the cooked spaghetti, season them with salt and black pepper.
7. Sprinkle some parsley flakes, mix well.
8. Served with with sprinkle of parmesan cheese

Sop Buntut / Oxtail Soup

2011-09-27T22:08:00.000-07:00

Oxtail soup always reminds me of my younger brother. I remember that oxtail soup is one of his favorite dish and he always ask mom to buy him oxtail soup from a restaurant not far from our house. So, if we had oxtail soup at home, most likely it's because my brother requested it.
My mom doesn't cook oxtail soup, and even my master-chef grandma told me "if you want to cook oxtail soup, just use that instant spice pack, it's taste so good and so easy!". So I always been using the instant spice pack ever since. I even remember the very first time I cook oxtail soup, I didn't have any idea that I had to cook the soup for a long to achieve the tasty soup with tender meat. I only cooked it for 30 minutes, and the meat was so rubbery like sandals...lol. It was on 2006 in Seattle while I live together with my brother.
Last month, my friend Tess invite me over for dinner, and she cooked me oxtail soup. I asked her if she made the soup from scratch (not using instant spice pack", and she said yes. She told me that she only seasoned the soup with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Nutmeg is the key ingredient here.
Inspired by her oxtail soup, I recreate my own version of oxtail soup. It's very easy and delicious <3

Ps. I usually don't use measurement while I'm cooking, but for the purpose of writing this recipe, I measure every spices and ingredients used to cooked this soup. Enjoy!

Ingredients,
2.9 lbs fresh oxtail
5 carrots, peeled & sliced
3 stalk celery
1 big thumb of ginger, sliced
1/2 cabbage, chopped big sliced
1 tbs butter
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
7 tsp nutmeg
1tsp sugar
1 tsp white pepper

Sauce Ingredients A ---> blend all the ingredients in food processor
1 big onion
1 handful of garlic
2 handful of shallot

Garnish,
tomatoes, sliced
green onion, chopped.
lime, sliced.
fried shallot (bawang goreng)

Cooking Method,
1. Wash clean the oxtail, the boil them in 12 cups of water for 20 minutes until it for the dirty foam. Remove the water, rinse the oxtail one more time.

2. Add 10 cup of cold water into the pan.
3. Add the oxtail and ginger, then bring to boil in high heat for 20 minutes.

4. Low the heat to simmer.
5. Add salt, pepper, sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon powder.
6. Simmer for 1 hour, close the lid.
7. After 1 hour, add the carrots, celery and cabbage (the cabbage wasn't in the picture).

8. Take another pan, heat the butter.

9. Pan fry the blended sauce ingredient A with the butter. Then add it into the soup.

10. Simmer for another 2-3 hours or until the meat is tender and easily falls off from the bone.
11. Put slices of fresh tomato on the bowl, then pour the oxtail soup.

12. Garnish the soup with some green onions, squeeze some lemon and sprinkle the fried shallot...bon apetit!!

Salmon Dumpling

2011-09-23T22:12:00.000-07:00

Salmon dumpling? a lot of people were surprised when I told them that I made salmon dumplings...why not, right? I was craving for dumplings, but I don't have any at home, and we haven't went for grocery shopping, so we don't have much stuff in the fridge...it's time to be creative!
This was my very first trial making salmon dumpling, using a few ingredients I could find in my fridge...I can't even remember the amount of the stuff I use because really, it was all like the last stuff I could find...haha.
anyway, here's the original recipe <3

Ps. They are endless possibilities of dumpling style, what is your favorite one?

Ingredients,
salmon belly
green onion, thinly slice.
some green vegetable I found at the fridge, chopped
light soy sauce
white pepper
wonton wraps

Cooking Method,
1. Put the salmon belly in microwave for 1 minutes, then you can easily flakes them.
2. Mix the salmon with green onion and the green vegetable.
3. Season them with light soy sauce and white pepper.
4. The way I taste it is to make a small ball (like meatball), and put them in boiling water. Keep tasting until you satisfied with the flavor. You want a mild flavor for dumplings

5. Put one teaspoon of meat into each wonton wrap, use water as the adhesive.

6. Boil the dumpling.
7. I love to eat my dumpling with my own sauce combo: chili garlic sauce + red vinegar + light soy sauce + sesame oil + Indonesian sweet soy sauce (ABC brand)

Korean Chicken & Eggplant Salad

2011-09-23T11:52:00.000-07:00

At my Church, after the service ended, we always have lunch together. We have 2 different cooking team that take turn to cook for everyone, and sometimes it's potluck too. One day, my friend Hiromi made this light and delicious chicken and eggplant salad, and this dish is inspired by her delicious dish.
She wrote me a recipe with the precise measurement, but I don't really use measurement for my salad, I keep tasting and season, tasting and season my food, until I satisfied with the taste. This dish is very easy, healthy and delicious <3

Ingredients,
1/2 pack of boneless skinless chicken tight. Trim the fat.
2 big eggplants, halves then and cut into 4.

Sauce Ingredients,
Aji-Mirin / sweet cooking rice wine
Korean red pepper powder
light soy sauce
sesame oil
roasted sesame seeds
black pepper & sugar
4 garlic, chopped.
5 green onion, chopped medium length

Cooking Method,
1. Boil the chicken meat, then chopped into smaller pieces. set aside.
2. Steam the eggplants, then set aside.
3. Mix the sauce ingredients in a large bowl. I like mine taste tangy / sour, so pretty much my comparison for the mirin : soy sauce : sesame oil = 2 : 2 : 1. You can adjust the sauce to your own personal taste.
4. Add the Korean redd pepper powder, roasted sesame seeds, chopped garlic, then dash some black pepper and sugar.
5. Taste Taste Taste!
6. When you already satisfied with the sauce, toss in the chicken, eggplants and green onion. Mix them well.
7. it's ready to eat.

Sop Kacang Merah / Pork Bone Soup with Kidney Beans

2011-09-23T11:16:00.000-07:00

I remember growing up eating a lot of this soup. My maternal grandma is the best cook in our family, she passed this recipe to my mom and my aunt, so our big family pretty much growing up eating this dish :)
This dish is one of those Indonesian Chinese type of food.
Indonesian Chinese foods are foods that is commonly cooked by Chinese immigrant who lived in Indonesia, so it's not traditional Indonesian food, nor it is authentic Chinese food, there's a lot of awesomely delicious Indonesian Chinese foods that I will share later. The though of Indonesian Chinese foods always reminds me of hometown and my childhood...and writing about them now makes me cry...hehe... :')
I got the original recipe from my aunt, Ikme, thank you for the recipe Ik <3
I edit the recipe according to my own personal taste.
My aunt use the same amount of the pork and the kidney beans, and she also uses carrot on her soup, other that that, it should taste the same :)
Note from my aunt: if you use the dry kidney beans, after you soaked it in the water for one hour, you can cook it together with the pork bones, but if you use the ready to use canned kidney beans, wait until the pork became tender before you put the kidney beans into the soup.

Ps. You can make this soup with pork bone / pork tail / pork feet, according to your own liking. I was using pork bone + pork feet for my soup. The skin from the pork feet is very soft and chewy (not in a bad way), it's so delicious!

Ingredients,
2 lbs pork bones + pork feet
1 pack of dry kidney beans. soaked in warm water for 1 hour prior to cooking.
2 large leeks, sliced thinly. American leek are huge, if you are using the smaller leek, you might need 4 or 5 of them.
green onion for garnish.
salt, pepper & sugar

Cooking Method,

1. Wash the pork bone and pork feet, then soaked them in cold water for 20 minutes to drain the bloods. If you are in hurry, you can omit this step, I did it too sometimes...haha
2. Boil water on a big pot.
3. Put the pork bone and pork feet into the boiling water, let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes. Then you'll see the foam rise to the water surface. We don't want those dirty stuff.
4. Throw out the dirty water, rinse the pork bone one more time, rinse the pot, and put new water to the pot.
5. Boil the water with the pork bone in it one more time. Use High temperature
6. Add the kidney beans.
7. Wait until the kidney beans became soft.
8. Add the leek.
9. When the kidney beans start to split open, season the soup with salt and pepper, and add couple pinch of sugar to elevate the taste.
10. Your soup is ready when the pork meat is tender, the kidney beans are soft & some of them are split open, and the soup get thickened.
11. Garnish the soup with green onion, it's ready to eat.

For me, I love to put a handful of chopped green onions for a small bowl of soup :D

Vanilla Crepes

2011-09-22T23:36:00.000-07:00

If you are a reader of my other blog, then you already saw this delicious crepes pictures on it. I love how fun this crepe are, this is more of the dessert / sweet crepe that is suitable with fresh fruits / ice cream toppings. Easy to make, fun and delicious, even my Bebe loves it too <3

Ingredients,

1 cup of milk

1 cup of AP flour

2 eggs

2 tbs unsalted butter

2 tsp vanilla extract (I sometimes substitute the vanilla with pandan...voila, it became pandan crepes!!)

salt & sugar

Cooking Method,

1. Melted the butter on the microwave.

2. Beat the eggs, then put in all other ingredients, a pinch of salt, and a dash of sugar and whisk it. You can also use food processor to mix them.

3. Heat the pan using medium-high heat

4. Spray the pan with cooking oil. I use Pam.

5. Pour 3/4 cup of the batter to the pan, it should be evenly nice and thin. Flip once.

6. Repeat until you used up the batter

7. Enjoy your delicious vanilla crepes with fresh fruit, honey, whipped cream, ice cream or any other toppings

Ayam Sambel Matah / Shredded Chicken in Balinese Sauce

2011-09-22T22:20:00.000-07:00

Ayam sambel matah, it's really hard to translate this one...but the direct translation is Chicken in Raw Chili Sauce...lol...sounds too funny!! but all the sauce in this dish is literally raw :D
Anyway, I would like to introduce to you, one of the most authentic Balinese food. Usually you will find this dish in Nasi Campur Bali, Balinese style rice topped with various toppings, my favorite food!! Nasi campur Bali that we like to call Nasi Bali, is super delicious, they have different types of toppings depending on where you bought them.
The funny thing is, while I live in Bali, I never ever like this dish. Whenever I order my nasi Bali, I always told them not to put this dish on it. Now that I think about it, I didn't like the dish because they were made out of chicken breast...and I don't like chicken breast, it's dry.
So why I love this dish now? the story began (and actually the same story also started my cooking journey) when I was on my 1st trimester of pregnancy around the end of 2009. The one and only food I craved was...guess what!! it was nasi Bali!! the only thing I couldn't find here in Seattle.
One of my Balinese good friend, Ira, was also pregnant at the same time, and she was also lived far away from home and also was craving for Balinese foods. So we began to try out recipe and shared recipe to each other...this recipe was given to me by her <3

Ps. Usually this dish is cooked using chicken breast, but since I don't like chicken breast, I always use chicken tight or chicken wings. You can use chicken breast if you want.
I like it with skin, if you don't like chicken skin, you don't have to use it, just make it according to your personal taste.

Ingredients,
1 pack of dark chicken meat with skin, you can use chicken tight or chicken wings.
salt
Vegetable Oil

Sauce Ingredients,
12 shallots, thinly sliced ---> I seriously never count, but you need a LOT of them
3 bird eye chilies, thinly sliced
salt
belachan (roasted shrimp paste / terasi)
Olive oil / vegetable oil

Cooking Method,
1. Rub the chicken with salt, then deep fried the chicken in vegetable oil. You can bake the chicken / boil them too, but I like to deep fried the chicken, it make them more tasty and the skin crunchy.
2. Let the chicken cool down, then shredded the chicken.
3. Mixed all the sauce ingredients, use the salt and belachan according to your own personal taste. If your chicken is salty enough, you can omit the salt.
4. Add on the shredded chicken, mixed well.
5. Enjoy it with warm rice, a true authentic Balinese style :)

I love to eat ayam sambel matah with plecing kangkung and steamy white rice, it's the authentic Balinese combo :D

Red Jalapeno

2011-09-22T21:51:00.000-07:00

This is the type of red jalapeno that I use a lot for cooking Indonesian foods.
In Indonesia, we use different type of large red chili (cabe besar / cabe merah / lombok besar...so many names!), they are longer and slender.In US, this is the closest to large red chili that I can find and use without compromising the authenticity of Indonesian food's taste.