Sweet Pork (Babi Ketjap....^^)

Babi Ketjap

Hai...
We meet again in my cooking blog.
After two week I haven't been writing anything for my blog, finally today, I can write a blog post again.... I have a lot of things to do, because we finally have a real summer.  Yes... It's very hot... hehehe...... How are you my friends? Are you enjoying your summer holiday too?

During the summer holiday, I also made couple of dishes.  But I choose Babi Ketjap for our topic today. Babi means pork and Ketjap means sweet soy sauce. The key ingredient to make this dish is star anise. For description about anise star you can check it here. As far as I know, star anise is commonly used in Chinese cuisine. And I usually use dried star anise in my food.

Everyone can make this food, because it is easy and doesn't take much time to cook. Let's start cooking.....

Ingredients:

• 1/2kg lean pork shoulder, cut into cube
• 15gr ginger, finely chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, finely chopped 
• 1 scallion, cut into 2cm length
• 2 tbs soy sauce
• 200gr sugar
• 300ml water
• 5 star anise
• 1tbs sweet soy sauce
• salt and pepper to taste 
• oil to stir fry

Method of Cooking:

1. We use three stoves at once. The first stove is for heating the water until it's boiled.  The second stove is for caramelizing the sugar. 
2. And the last stove is for heating the wok with oil over high heat. Add garlic into the wok, stir it until a little bit brown, then add soy sauce. Briefly stir it, then add pork and ginger. 
3. Add the boiled water then the caramelized sugar, star anise, sweet soy sauce, salt and pepper. Stir it, add scallion then wait until it's boiled. 
4. Finally, keep stirring until the water is reduced. 
5. Ready to serve... Enjoy your food ^^

Chicken Cashew... ^^

Chicken Cashew

Hiii... Everyone...

Look at the picture..... Hmm.... Delicious... 

Do you want it? hehehehe....

So, our topic today is also about chicken. Like I said yesterday, chicken is a simple ingredient to make various dishes. But in this recipe, we will mix the chicken with cashew. Cashew Chicken is a Chinese cuisine.  In Chinese cuisine,  you have to stir-fried the ingredients over HIGH heat to get the flavor from the food.

Yesterday, I also read some news about Chinese cuisine. They use Baking Soda to make any meat (chicken, beef or pork) tender. It is new for me. Because usually I use pressure cooker to tenderize the meat. But, we can always try it....

Ingredients to marinate the chicken:

• 500gr boneless and skinless chicken breast, cut into small cubes
• 1tsp baking soda
• 1tsp corn starch
• 1tbs soy sauce
• 1tsp pepper

Ingredients 

• 6 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 300gr unsalted cashew nuts,roasted
• 60gr onion, cut into small square pieces
• 100gr green bell pepper, cut into small square pieces
• 100gr red bell pepper, cut into small square pieces
• 3 bird's eye chili (optional)
• 1tbs soy sauce
• 3tbs oyster sauce
• 1tsp sesame oil
• 100ml water
• salt and pepper to taste
• oil to fry

Method of Cooking:

1. Marinate the chicken with the baking soda for 10 minutes, then wash the chicken thoroughly. Yesterday, I washed it 3 times to make sure that the chicken really clean.
2. Marinate the chicken with soy sauce, corn starch and pepper for 15 minutes. Then stir-fry the chicken until half-cooked.
3. Heat the wok with oil over high heat, add garlic into the wok, stir it until a little bit brown  then add soy sauce, keep stir it, then add onion, bird eye chili's and bell pepper.
4. Stir-fry  it until you smell the aroma from the bell peppers and add the chicken back in. 
5. Add water, the oyster sauce  and sesame oil, stir continuously until the chicken is cooked and well coated with the sauce.
6. Add the cashew nuts and do a few quick stirs. Serve it with steamed white rice.
7. Bon Apetite... ^^

Crunchy Fried Chicken or Ayam Kremes... (kres.. kres.. )

Welcome back...

Our topic today is about chicken. I like to cook chicken. Because, I think chicken is a simple ingredient to make various dishes. We can eat it as a side dish or mix it with another ingredients. There are many methods to cook chicken, such as boiled, fried, deep fried, sauteed, steamed, grilled, roasted and etc. I will tell you about the different method of cooking between Indonesian, Chinese and Western food. If I am not mistaken, Indonesian cuisine usually use boil or deep fried as common methods. Where Chinese cuisine use sauteed, fried or steamed methods. And Western cuisine use grilled or  roasted method. But I am open to any suggestion. Let me know!!!

Ayam kremes is a popular food in Indonesia, especially in the town where I was born, Surabaya. The most popular restaurant for Ayam Kremes in Surabaya is Ny. Suharti. I hope they also have Ny. Suharti in the Netherlands so I don't need to make this Ayam Kremes by myself. Hehehehehe...

In Indonesian cuisine, we often use coconut milk, candle nuts, bay leaves, lemongrass, kaffir leaves, galangal, ginger, turmeric, coriander and another herbs. So, don't be surprise if you have a lot herbs in your kitchen. Hehehhe...

I will explain you what is Ayam Kremes. Ayam means chicken and Kremes is that little brown flakes. And if you eat that flakes, your will hear that lovely, crispy sound. Kres...kres... That's why it's called Kremes.

Let's start cooking the Ayam Kremes

serves : 4 portions

Ingredients:

• 1,2kg chicken, cut into 6 pieces 
• 800 water
• 2 lime, squeeze to get the juice.
• 600ml coconut milk
• 8 bay leaves
• salt and sugar to taste
• oil to deep fry 

Spices Paste Ingredients:

• 10 cloves garlic
• 10 shallots
• 7 candlenuts
• 2tbs coriander seeds
• 2 cm galangal

For Kremes:

• 5tbs fried thinly sliced garlic
• 500ml chicken broth ( a left over from boiling chicken with spices), if the chicken broth is less than 500ml, you can add water.
• 1 egg, beaten
• 200gr rice flour
• salt and pepper to taste
• oil to deep fry

Kremes Liquid

Method of cooking the chicken:

1. First, wash the chicken. Then put it into a pot of water, add lime juice, bay leaves, and coconut milk. After that, simmer it.
2. Blend the spice paste ingredients with a food processor. Add some water if needed. (You can take the water from the first step). 
3. Add the spice paste ingredients into the pot and cook over medium heat about 20-30 minutes or until the liquid is about 500 milliliter left. 
4. Remove the chicken from the pot, set aside and deep fry it until the color changed a little bit brown.

 Method of cooking the kremes:

Kremesan

1. Blend the fried garlic, then mix it with rice flour, pepper, salt and beaten egg in a big bowl.
2. Add the leftover chicken broth, then mix them well. 
3. Using a ladle, pour 1 ladle of kremes mixture into a pan full of oil over high heat. When the color is turned brown, quickly strain it from the oil. Absorb the excess oil with kitchen paper. Repeat this until you finish your ingredient.
4. You can eat this Ayam Kremes with warm rice and sambal terasi. ENJOY YOUR DINNER. ^^

Your Dinner ^^

Jentik Manis, My Colorfull Dessert ^^

Hoi hoi...

How was your weekend? Was it good? I hope it was good. Because I had a great weekend. Hehehehe...  On Saturday, I went to Rotterdam and ate Japanese food. Then on Sunday, I spent my time (with my boyfriend) to make a dessert. We made Jentik Manis. For the name, I can understand if you feel strange. I can't translate it, but let me try. Jentik means Little Finger and Manis means pretty. Since it's strange to call it Pretty Little Finger, let's agree to keep calling it Jentik Manis. Ok?

So, what kinds of food is that? Jentik Manis is a dessert made from hung kwe flour, dried sago and coconut milk. But yesterday, I didn't use coconut milk, I use milk as a subtitute. Jentik Manis is a traditional cake from Indonesia and you can easily find it there. But as you know, in the Netherlands, I have to make it by myself.

I will share with you about how to make Jentik Manis. I think it is perfect to be served as a cold dessert. First, you can keep the Jentik Manis in the fridge and after you finish with your dinner, you can eat it with your family. I'm quite sure that your children will like it. Because it's sweet.... Hehehehe...

Now, let's make Jentik Manis together.....

Jentik Manis

Ingredients (serves 8):

• 130gram full cream milk powder
• 800ml water (for the milk powder)
• 1 tsp vanilla powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 100gr sugar
• 50 gr hung kwe flour
• 100gr dried sago
• 1 tsp green food coloring
• 1 tsp red food coloring
• 250ml water (for sago) 

Method of cooking:

1. Heat the milk powder with water, vanilla, sugar, and salt until boiled.
2. Boil 75gr sago with 150 ml water and add red food coloring until cooked. As soon as you see it bubbles stop cooking it. Quickly strain the water and put the sago under cold water to stop the cooking process. And you can strain it again from the cold water. Use the same method for the other sago but using different color.   
3. Boil half of the milk mixture from step 1 with 50gr red sago and 25gr hung kwe flour then wait until it bubbles. As soon as it bubbles, remove it from the heat
4. Put the cooked dessert in the mold and wait until it is cooled (if you have ice cube you can put the mold in ice water to cool it faster).
5. Repeat step 3-4 but use 25gr green sago and 25gr red sago.



Red Jentik Manis, Two clor Jentik Manis before cooling

6. When it is cooled, put it in the fridge for around 2 hours.

Two Color Jentik Manis

Yesterday, beside making Jentik Manis, I  also experimented  mixing the milk mixture with agar-agar (Jelly). I used white color agar-agar. From this experiment, I found that the texture of Jentik  Manis mixed with agar-agar is harder but the taste is not as good as the original ones. So, for covering the taste, I made vanilla sauce. Well at least,  this is how it looked like.

 Jentik Manis Pudding with Vanilla Sauce

To Soto... Sotoooooo Ayaaammm.... ^^

Hi everyone...
We meet again in "summer season". Yesterday and two days before the weather wasn't good. I was asking myself, are we actually in summer now? Why did I only feel cold and see the rain? Where was the sun? Was the sun just being embarrassed to shine? hehehehehe.. just kidding :p

So, I was thinking about making a warm dish. Hemm... Let me see, what about Soto Ayam (Chicken Soto)?  Chicken Soto is an Indonesian cuisine. It is a traditional food which consists of broth, meat and vegetables. For the meat, we can choose between chicken, beef or lamb.

But in this post, I want to talk about Chicken Soto. There are many names for Soto Ayam i.e. Soto Ayam Lamongan, Soto Ayam Banjar, Soto Ayam Medan, Soto Ayam Kudus, and etc. But why are there so many names for Soto Ayam in Indonesia? It is because each region in Indonesia has its own characteristic in its Soto Ayam. But still, they are using chicken for the meat.

We use turmeric to get the yellow colour in Soto Ayam. We can also choose to make a clear or a thick Soto Ayam. When coconut milk is used, by adding it to the broth, it makes the broth creamy and thicker. For choosing to make a clear or a thick soto ayam, it depends on your preference. Now let's start cooking Soto Ayam.

Serves: 4 portions

Soto Ayam

Ingredients:

• 600gr chicken
• 1,2lt water
• 2 scallions, cut into 1 cm length
• 2 lemongrass
• 3 kaffir lime leaves 
• salt to taste

Spice Paste:

• 6 cloves of garlic
• 3 candle nuts
• 2cm turmeric
• 1cm ginger
• 1tsp salt
• 1tsp pepper
• 1tbs fresh lime juice
• oil to fry

Spice Paste

Other ingredients:

• 100gr bean sprouts, cleaned, blanched and drained
• 100gr vermicelli / glass noddles, pre-soaked in another pot of boiling water and quickly transfer it into another bowl once it's cooked
• 100gr cabbages, thinly sliced
• 2 eggs, hard boiled
• 1 celery, thinly sliced
• 1tbs fried shallots 

Vermicelli

Complements:

• potato perkedel (perkedel kentang)
• 3 bird's eye chili, steamed then puree it
• 2 lime, cut into wedges
• sweet soy sauce

Method Of Cooking:

1. Wash the chicken and cook it in boiled water. Don't throw the water away.
2. Blend the spice paste ingredients in a food processor. Add some water if needed. (You can take the water from the first step). 
3. Heat up the pot with some oil and add the spice paste. Stir it and wait until the color turned a little bit brown. 
4. Add the water (from the first step), lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves into the pot then wait until it boiled. Afterwards, cook it on low heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Add salt to taste.
5. While waiting for the chicken being cooked, you can prepare the other ingredients such as the vermicelli, cabbages, and others.
6. After that, take the chicken out from the soup and slice it thinly. Then put the sliced chicken back into the pot and garnish with scallion.
7. Finally, let's start eating the Chicken Soto with rice and the complements. BON APETITE.

Chicken Soto and the Complements

Optional :
Perkedel Kentang (potato perkedel)

Potato Perkedel

Ingredients:

• 5 cloves of garlic
• 3 shallots
• 1 egg
• pepper and salt to taste
• oil to fry

 Paste Ingredients

Method :

1. Peel, wash then slice the potato into 1 cm thick.



Sliced potato

2. Heat up the pan, add some oil, then wait until the oil is hot. Add the sliced potato into the oil and wait until  it's cooked.



Fried sliced potato

3. Smash the fried potato.



Smashed potato

4. Add celery into the smashed potato. Mix them well.
5. Make the mixture into a round shape.
6. Dip the round shaped mixtures into the beaten egg then start frying them.
7. Keep frying them until they turned a little bit brown. Then you can start eating your Perkedel Potato :p