Rolade Tahu (Steamed Tofu Rolls)

After juggling from one errand to another, eventually I finished making this month menu and here I am gladly sitting in front of my computer to type the recipe to share with you my beloved readers....
Yes, it has been a hectic week for us, Bianca got itchiness since 3days ago due to cold allergic. The itch made her very uncomfortable and cranky and it influenced her little brother. I have been having sleeping deprivation for sure...But I thank God for giving me strength and good health so I am able to take care my precious.
So to participate in this monthly event held by Indonesian foodie bloggers, I am posting this steamed tofu rolls...

Ingredients:
- 4 blocks of medium firm tofu
- 12 shrimp, peel of the shells
- 8 baby carrots, dice it
- 10 harricot beans, slice it thinly
- 1 king oyster mushroom, dice it
- 2 cloves of small red onion
- 6 cloves of garlic
- 1tsp of ground nutmeg
- 1tsp of ground white pepper
- salt
- 2 eggs
- 2Tbsp of tapioca flour
- thinly made plain omelet

To make sauce:
- 1 clove of onion, chop thinly
- 4 cloves of garlic, chop thinly
- 1 tomato, cut into 12
- 2Tbsp of ketchup
- 4cm of ginger, cut into 3
- 2Tbsp of oyster sauce
- salt
- sugar
- 1tsp of ground white pepper
- 300ml water
- 1Tbsp of corn starch, dissolve in a little bit of water
- oil for saute



Directions:
In a chopper chop tofu, garlic, onion, and shrimp until smooth. Transfer it into a mixing bowl and then add diced carrot, mushroom and beans and mix it well. Add pepper, nutmeg, salt, egg and then tapioca flour and mix it well again. Place the thin omelet on a piece of aluminum foil and then put the mixing tofu in the middle and roll it into cylinder shape. Close the two end by folding the foil. Steam it for 45minutes.
To make sauce, saute onion, garlic and ginger until fragrant. Add tomato and cook for 5minutes. Add oyster sauce, salt, sugar, pepper and water. Cook until boiling. At last add corn starch solution and stir it instantly until thicken.

Burger Anyone?

After chit-chatting with Melanie the other day about what she's been doing these days, I felt like having burger to my comfort. To be honest, I wanted the ones from Harvey's, however somehow I'd never stopped by at any of its stall...either not having enough time nor never passing by nor forgetting when passing by...
Therefore the other day I just prepared it myself...4days in a row I ate these beef burgers in the morning...I think I am lengthening my waist line!
I do not think you need the recipe this time..so I'm just gonna share the pictures..let your creativity's gone wild with every thing you may like to add for your own burger! Cheers...

Bitterballen

My first encounter with bitterballen was back in year 2001 when one of my colleagues brought it for our office meeting. Then I tried to make it myself at my kitchen in Indonesia. Before we moved to Edmonton, our good friend in Montreal invited us for farewell dinner and she prepared these bitterballen for snacking. Her husband is from the Netherlands, as it is known bitterballen is a savoury Dutch snack, therefore the taste of it was so authentic. Christian loves it and been asking me to make it. This time, I copied the recipe from cie Ine's page. Thank you cie Ine for sharing the recipe...

Ingredients:
- 100gr margarine
- 1 clove of onion, chop thinly
- 150gr all purpose flour
- 350ml fresh milk
- 250gr ground beef
- 1Tbsp of Maggi seasoning (I replaced it with 1block of chicken broth)
- 100gr bread crumbs
- 2egg, whisk briefly
- salt
- ground nutmeg
- ground pepper
- sugar
- frying oil
I added: 2Tbsp of cheez-whiz spread



Directions:
In a wok, saute the ground beef until brown. Add chicken broth and stir it well. Keep it aside. Saute onion with margarine until fragrant. Add flour and stir well. Add milk and stir instantly. Add cheese, salt, pepper, nutmeg, sugar and then beef. Stir it well and turn off the stove.
Make small balls out of the dough and roll on bread crumbs. Then dip into whisked egg and again roll on bread crumbs. Deep fry it in hot oil under medium high heat until golden brown.
Serve it warm with mayo, mustard or hot sauce.

Double Trouble-King Oyster Mushroom with Oyster Sauce

We love to eat any kinds of mushroom, and king oyster is our favorite one. It has a thick meaty white stem and when it cooked it releases typical mushroom umami flavor (wikipedia).
I called it double trouble, since when it is cooked with oyster sauce (so double oyster) it gives fantastic taste and it goes so fast!

Ingredients:
- 3 big stalk of king oyster mushroom, slice it thick
- 5cloves of garlic, chop thinly
- 1Tbsp of sesame oil
- 3Tbsp of oyster sauce
- 2tsp of ground white pepper
- water



Directions:
In a wok saute garlic with sesame oil until fragrant. Add cut mushroom and stir it. Add some water (app. 150ml) and cook until boiling. Add oyster sauce and pepper, continue to cook and stir for another 4minutes. Serve it with steam rice and other dishes.

Don't Chuck Me into Garbage-Brownies Pudding

It was late at night when I was going to make brownies for my little girl and her dad. It's supposed to be baked for 45minutes, but I left it for a longer period of time whilst taking shower. The brownies turned out to be too hard and chewy and seems like no one would ever touch it nor eat it. Therefore the next day, I just prepared agar pudding and dipped the hard brownies into it while the agar was still hot so that the liquid immersed to the brownies and magically made it edible and soft...and it worked! I did not have to chuck it into garbage...

Ingredients:

To make brownies:
- 160gr of semi-sweetened cooking chocolate
- 75gr of margarine
- 2 eggs
- 200gr of sugar
- 1tsp vanilla essence
- 100gr of sliced almond
- 100gr of crushed peanut
- 150gr of choco chips
- 200gr of all purpose flour
- 1/2tsp baking powder
- salt

To make pudding:
- 1 package of clear/transparent agar powder
- 400ml fresh milk
- 350ml cold water
- 4Tbsp of sugar

Directions:
To make brownies:
Cook chocolate and margarine in a pot and stir it until melted. Turn off the stove and let it cool down. Mix egg, sugar and vanilla essence in a mixing bowl with a mixer under medium high speed until thick and fluffy. Add the cooked chocolate and mix it well. Add flour, baking powder and dash of salt, mix it well. And then add almond, peanuts and choco chips. Transfer it into a baking pan which was layered with margarine and flour before. Bake it for 45minutes at 350F.

To make pudding:
Mix well water, milk and the agar powder. Place it on top of stove and cook and stir until boiling. Add sugar, stir and turn of the stove.

To finish up:
Place the brownies in the center of mold and then pour the hot agar mix on it. Keep it in a fridge until it is harden.
Slice it as you like and serve it cold.

Our Thanksgiving Dinner

Last week end was a long week end for Canadian Thanksgiving's Day. Unlike American, we celebrate it in October, while they have it at end of November. My aunt who lives in California always says that it is better to have it in October since it is still ahead of December, not too close to Christmas, so that we would not be stuffed with good big portion foods twice in a row-or at a very close dates. And I agree with her.
This year we celebrated it at home all by ourselves, my husband, my two kids and me. My husband set up the dinner for us by preparing the main menu. By the time the food was ready, Bianca was too sleepy, so she went to bed for a nap, and we ended up having dinner without the kids (Jordan is too small for steak..hehehe..).



The main menu was sirloin steak (see the recipe here, just replace the ribs with sirloin) and cheez-whiz spread-baked potato. I prepared fresh salad consists of romaine lettuce, red and green bell pepper, cucumber and tomato with Italian dressing.



Not to forget some sauces to spice up the meal (cheez-whiz, Italian dressing, ketchup and Indonesian hot sauce). The drink was a glass of red wine (not in the picture), I only had a sip, considering I am still breastfeeding. We closed the course with a slice of marble cake (see the recipe here) and instead of having tea or coffee, we chose to have a cup of passion fruit (Indonesian-markisa) syrup with ice.

We thank you oh dear Lord for all the good and bad things that had happened, it really shows us your mercy and guidance in every day of our lives. Thank you for the countless blessing and thank you just for our little happy family....

Telor Bumbu Petis (Black Shrimp Paste Seasoned Eggs)

Bianca started becoming a picky eater and I have to think hard of what to prepare so that she would eat. It is hard to guess of what she likes. At one time she would take every thing with broth and soupy, but she refused it at other time and preferred "dry" meal like steam rice with shredded dried beef meat (Indonesian-abon sapi). Sometimes she likes Indonesian foods with sweet soy sauce (she must take it after her dad), other times she likes just potato with cheese-whiz (hm...it's really me style). So I just prepare something that is not spicy for her or if I cooked something for the entire family, I would take some portion and keep it aside for her before adding chili. This meal was prepared for her. It is supposed to be spicy, but I omitted the chili. Thank God, she loves it!



Ingredients:
- 10 boiled egg
- 600ml coconut milk
- 6cloves of garlic, chop thinly
- 3cloves of small red onion, chop thinly
- 4 lime leaves
- 4 Indonesian bay leaves
- 1 lemongrass, cut into 4cm in length then crack it with pestle
- 4cm of galangal
- 2Tbsp of black shrimp paste (Indonesian-petis udang)
- 1/2 block of palm sugar
- salt
- sugar
- frying oil



Directions:
In a wok, saute garlic and onion with some frying oil until fragrant. Add lime leaves, bay leaves, lemongrass, and galangal and continue to saute for 3minutes. Add black shrimp paste, salt, sugar, palm sugar and then coconut milk. Mix it well and cook until boiling. Add boiled eggs, stir and cook until the water reduced by 3/4 and the seasoning immersed.

Chinese Beef Stew

Our family like to buy this menu from a food counter at Asian supermarket in town. One of these days I decided to prepare it myself. I browsed around the recipe from the internet, mostly they used slow cooker to cook the stew. Since I do not have a slow cooker, I then came up with my own recipe.

Ingredients:
- 1kg of beef
- 4 potato, peel n cut into small chunk, deep fry until half cooked
- 150gr of mini carrot
- 3Tbsp of sesame oil
- 4Tbsp of soy sauce
- 4Tbsp of sweet cooking wine
- 6 cloves of garlic, crack it with pestle
- 1 star arnise
- 1tsp of Chinese five spices powder
- salt
- sugar
- water



Directions:
In a pot saute garlic with sesame oil until fragrant and then brown the meat. Add all of the seasoning, mix well and bring to boil. Continue to cook until the meat tender, do not forget to cover the pot with the lid. Add carrot and cook for 3minutes. At last add the fried potato and continue to cook for another 2minutes.

Pempek Palembang (Palembang Fish Dumpling with Sour Sauce)

I got some fish paste in the freezer and decided to make this traditional fish dumpling from Palembang. Found the recipe here. It turned out to be too liquidy when I followed exactly every thing in the recipe. It may because I used frozen fish paste which already been added with some other ingredients like potato starch and salt, whilst the original recipe uses fresh fish meat. Fortunately I still managed to safe the dough even though I was not able to form good shapes with hands, so I just used spoon. Anyway, next time I should consider to reduce the amount of water that I use to make it.

Ingredients:
- 50gr all purpose flour
- 500ml water
- 2 cloves of garlic, crush
- 500gr of fish meat/fish paste
- 3tsp of salt
- 2tsp of sugar
- 350gr of tapioca flour
- 2.5lt of water for boiling
- 1Tbsp of vegetable oil

To make sauce:
- 50gr tamarind
- 150gr of palm sugar
- 700ml of water
- chili paddy/bird's eye chili, crush (as much as you like)
- fermented cabbage/tongcai ( I skipped this one)
- 1clove of garlic, crush
- 3Tbsp of dried shrimp/ebi

Side dishes:
- egg noodle, boil and drain
- freshly cut cucumber

Directions:
Mix well flour, water and crush garlic in a pot and then bring it to boil and stir it constantly until thicken. Put it aside and let it cool. Add fish paste, salt, sugar and tapioca flour and mix it well until it does not stick. Form shapes as you like (cylinders, balls, etc.).
Prepare a pot filled with water for boiling the dough. Add the vegetable oil in the boiling water. Boil the dough which has been shaped in that pot. Once it is floating, take it out and place it in a container. Then deep fry the boiled dough with frying oil until golden brown.
To make the sauce, boil tamarind, water and palm sugar. Add crushed chili, garlic and dried shrimp. Continue to cook until boiling again.
To serve, cut the fried pempek and place it in a plate. Add noodle and cut cucumber at side and then pour the sauce over.

Modified Soto Banjar

I intended to join the "Masak Bareng" event for Indonesian foodie blogger which is held monthly and last month menu was Soto Banjar. Unfortunately due to my additional activity of taking care my two kids, I could not post it on time. It is supposed to be posted on the last Thursday of the month, which was on September 25.
Since I have cooked it for dinner, I just asked permission to post it without attaching any logo of the event as if I am not joining this event. Let say it is my update to post this menu.
Thank you to Deetha who had sent me the recipe, which I modified according to what I have left in my kitchen.

Ingredients:
- 4 chicken breast
- 2lt of water
- 1tsp of ground nutmeg
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 4 cloves (I skipped this, and replaced it with 1tsp of Chinese five spices)
- 3 cardamom (I skipped this)
- 3Tbsp of margarine
- 1 clove of small red onion
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 1.5 tsp of ground white pepper
- salt
- sugar

Side dishes:
- 3 boiled eggs, cut into half each
- 50gr of clear vermicelli, boiled and drained
- potato fritter
- fried onion
- lime juice
- 2 green onion, chop thinly
- sweet soy sauce
- crushed chili



Directions:
In a blender crush onion and garlic until smooth. Keep it aside.
In a pot, boil chicken breast in water with nutmeg, five spices and cinnamon stick until done. Take out the chicken and shred it and keep it aside. Discard the cinnamon stick. Saute crushed onion and garlic with margarine until fragrant and transfer it into the broth. Add pepper, salt and sugar to taste.
Serve it in a bowl by placing some steam rice on the bottom then top it up with clear vermicelli and shredded chicken meat, pour some broth over. Add the side dishes. Serve it hot.

Note: the recipe is good for 8 bowl of Soto.
Source: Tabloid Saji, modified by Lidia Sianturi

Putu Ayu (Steamed Cupcake with Shredded Coconut)

My husband loves these steamed cupcake and has asked me so many times to prepare it. But since I do not have the mold, I kept saying no. Then it came the time when I felt like making it for him, and I just used muffin tin for molding. The look was not as great though, but the taste was delicious.

Ingredients:
- 250gr of all purpose flour
- 225gr of sugar
- 4 eggs
- 130ml of coconut milk
- 1Tbsp of ovalet
- 2 drops of pandan paste
- 150gr of salted shredded coconut

Directions:
Using a mixer, whisk egg and sugar until thick. Add the ovalet and continue to mix it until white and fluffy. Alternately add coconut milk and flour while mixing it at a lower speed. Add pandan paste and mix it well. Prepare the muffin tin by spreading some vegetable oil. Place a Tbsp of salted shredded coconut in the bottom of the muffin tin and top it up with the dough. Steam it for 40minutes. Let it cool off and take it out of the mold.