Clear Vermicelli Omitted Kimlo Soup

Having some leftover of steamed tofu rolls and not sure of what to do with it, I just thought to add it into something soupy. But I was kinda bored with ordinary chicken soup. So this time I made kimlo soup without clear vermicelli. Here is my own simple recipe...

Ingredients:
- 3 chicken thighs
- 2 tofu rolls (see the recipe here)
- 15 mini carrots, cut into 3 each
- bunch of cauliflower
- a can of cooked quail eggs
- bunch of dried ear fungus, rehydrate it with hot water and cut into smaller pieces
- 4 chicken wieners sausages, cut into 1/2cm thickness
- 2 green onion, chop thinly
- 4cm of ginger, crack it with pestle
- 5cloves of garlic, chop thinly
- 3cloves of small red onion, chop thinly
- water
- salt
- sugar
- ground white pepper

- 2 Tbsp of sesame oil

Directions:
Boil chicken thighs in water until tender and then take out the chicken. Shred the meat and discard the bones. Keep it aside. Use the broth to cook carrot and then cauliflowers. Do not overcook, half cook is good since there will be sometimes to put the rest of the ingredients. After that, put in quail eggs, shredded chicken meat, rehydrated ear fungus, salt, sugar and pepper. Meanwhile, saute chopped garlic, onion and ginger with a little bit of sesame oil until fragrant. Add chicken wieners sausages and fry it for 2minutes. Transfer all of them into the pot which has broth and cooked ingredients. Continue to cook until boiling. Sprinkle some green onion before turning the stove off. Add the cut steamed tofu rolls in the serving bowl.

Pepes Ayam (Steamed Seasoned Chicken)

Here it comes again the monthly event of "Masak Bareng" held by Indonesian Foodie Bloggers. Steamed seasoned chicken is the theme for November. It is kinda strange for my husband's ears since he is more familiar with fish one. He never thought that chicken would be good cooked that way. Unfortunately I did not have any banana leaf, but it did not stop me to prepare this meal and join the event. So I steamed it with no banana leaf to wrap with. The taste was still good though...

Ingredients:
- 8 chicken drumsticks
- 8cloves of garlic
- 3cloves of small red onion
- 8 chili paddy or bird's eye chili
- 5 candle nuts
- 4cm of galangal
- 4cm of ginger
- 2 lemon grass, cut into 1cm in length for easy grinding
- 4 bilimbi, cut into 4 each
- 4 lime leaves
- 4 Indonesian bay leaves
- 1/2tsp of ground turmeric
- 1 tomato
- salt
- sugar
- 70ml water

Directions:
In a blender, grind all of the seasonings except the leaves and bilimbi, until smooth. Transfer it into a heat resistant container. Then put the chicken in together with the leaves and bilimbi and mix it well. Steam it for 45minutes. Serve it with warm steamed rice. You may add some more whole chili to give an extra spicyness.

Spicy Grilled Silver Pomfret (Ikan Bawal Bakar Pedas)

My husband and I really like silver pomfret fish, especially when it is grilled. Two weeks ago when doing some shopping at an Asian store I found these fish at good price. Thus I bought some and cooked them the next day. Here is my special recipe...

Ingredients:
- 6 silver pomfret fish, clean up the stomach cavity and make several cut on each side of the body
- 1 lime
- 5cloves of small red onion
- 8cloves of garlic
- 2 lemon grass, cut into 1cm in length for easy grinding
- 4cm of galangal
- 4cm of ginger
- 4 lime leaves
- 4 Indonesian bay leaves
- 6 chili paddy or bird's eye chili
- 1 tomato
- 5 candle nuts
- 100ml water
- salt
- sugar

Directions:
Clean up the fish and drizzle some lime juice all over it. Let it immersed for 10minutes. Then grind all of the remaining ingredients in a blender until smooth. Fill up the stomach cavity with the smooth seasoning and put some all over the body as well. Place the fish on an aluminum pan and grill them for 45minutes at 350F. Flip it over on the mid way.
Serve it with warm steamed rice and fresh vegetable such as cucumber, tomato or lettuce.

Chicken Laksa

On one of my lazy days..I prepared this chicken laksa using instant seasoning. Its hot soup was perfect for that early winter day...

Ingredients:
- 4 chicken thighs
- 1/2 jar of instant laksa seasoning (I used Cap Ibu/Mother Brand)
- 1lt water
- 1/2 can of coconut milk
- salt
- sugar

Side dishes:
- boiled rice vermicelli
- boiled egg --- I skipped this
- boiled bean sprout
- fried potato
- steamed rice or rice dumpling
- fried onion
- Indonesian crackers or gnetum gemon crackers (Indonesian-melinjo) --- I skipped this

- lime juice

Directions:
In a pot boil chicken with water and the instant seasoning until the chicken tender. Take the chicken out and shred the meat. Keep it aside. Add coconut milk to the broth and continue to cook until boiling. Adjust the taste with salt and sugar.
To serve, in a serving bowl arrange some steamed rice or rice dumpling at the bottom. Then top it up with fried potato, vermicelli, bean sprout and shredded chicken meat. Pour the soup over and sprinkle some fried onion. Drizzle some lime juice. Add crackers at the side.

Semur Tahu Tempe

There is one particular small stall in Pati, Central Java which sell this kind of menu. It only opens early morning for several hours and always packed with people and food is gone fast there. I remember if I wanted to buy the food I had to get up early around 6am to be able to do so. I like the semur and crispy fried tempeh there.

Since I missed it, I tried to figure the recipe out based on my memory and prepared it in my kitchen last month. Hm...not bad at all...

Ingredients:
- 4blocks of tofu, cut into triangle shape and deep fry it until half-cooked
- 2blocks of tempeh, cut into chunks and deep fry it until half-cooked
- 1fistfull of dried small shrimp, soak in water for 30min, drain
- 6cloves of garlic, chop thinly
- 3cloves of small red onion, chop thinly
- 4cm of galangal
- 4cm of ginger
- 4 Indonesian bay leaves
- 1/2 can of coconut milk
- 2Tbsp of sweet soy sauce
- salt
- sugar
- water
- oil for saute

Directions:
In a wok saute garlic, onion, ginger with a little bit of oil until fragrant. Add bay leaves and galangal and continue to stir for another 2min. Add soaked dried shrimp and cook for 2minutes. Add app. 350ml of water and cook until boiling. Add sweet soy sauce, salt and sugar to taste. Stir it well. Add coconut milk and stir until boiling again. At last add the fried tofu and tempeh and cook for another 2min. Serve it with steamed rice.

Raisin Cake To My Favorite...

Initially I wanted to make lapis surabaya, my forever favorite cake...However when browsing around the recipe on the internet, I found out it requires a big quantity of eggs and as a beginner in baking I do not dare to follow the recipe with a large amount of eggs. How if I fail? I do not want to waste the eggs that way..

So instead of making it layers, I just made it simple and added some raisin. This becomes my favorite...

Ingredients:
- 2 egg yolk
- 3 whole eggs
- 55g sugar
- 1tsp of ovalet
- 35g all purpose flour
- 15g of full cream milk powder (I used baby formula)
- 15g of corn starch
- 100 gr of melted margarine
- 1Tbsp of rhum
- 150gr of raisin

Directions:
Mix eggs and sugar with a mixer at high speed for 10minutes. Add ovalet and continue to mix until thick and fluffy. Add shifted flour, milk powder, corn starch and rhum, and mix it well with a spatula. Add melted margarine and mix it well again. Transfer it to a loaf tin which was layered with margarine and flour and then add the raisin. Bake at 350F for 40minutes.

Ayam Panggang (Grilled Chicken)

A sweet version of grilled chicken...my girl's favorite meal...

Ingredients:
- 12 pieces of chicken drumstick
- 1 lime
- 6cloves of garlic
- 3cloves of small red onion
- 4cm of galangal
- 5 candle nuts
- 2Tbsp of palm sugar
- 3Tbsp of sweet soy sauce
- 4 Indonesian bay leaves
- salt
- pepper
- water



Directions:
Drizzle lime juice over the drumstick and let it immersed for 5minutes. Crush the seasoning except soy sauce and bay leaves in a blender until smooth. Boil the chicken with smooth seasoning and water in a pot. Add bay leaves and soy sauce and stir it well. Continue to cook until the chicken tender and half of the liquid remains. Grill it in an oven at 350F for 25minutes. Serve it with warm steam rice, fresh vegetables and crushed chili.

Tahu Isi (Fried Veggie and Meat Stuffed Tofu)

Just want something to accompany our afternoon tea...

Ingredients:
- hard tofu, cut into triangle shapes and scoop out the center part
- 200gr of ground beef
- 2 carrots, dice it
- 2 green onion, chop thinly
- 4 cloves of garlic, chop thinly
- 1 clove of small red onion, chop thinly
- 1Tbsp of oyster sauce
- 1Tbsp of sesame oil
- 1tsp of ground white pepper
- salt
- sugar
- oil for frying

To make batter:
- 3 Tbsp of rice flour
- 2 Tbsp of maizena/corn flour
- 1 egg
- salt
- 1 tsp of ground coriander
- 1 tsp of garlic plus seasoning



Directions:
In a wok, saute garlic and onion with sesame oil until fragrant. Add ground beef a nd continue to cook and stir until change color. Add carrot, oyster sauce, and pepper, stir and cook for 4minutes. Adjust the taste with salt and sugar. At last add green onion. Let the temperature cool down. Take a spoon of it and stuff into the hole of tofu one by one until all is done. Put it aside.
Prepare the skin by mixing well all of the ingredients for batter and use it to dip the stuffed tofu before frying it (to get crunchy skin).
Deep fry stuffed tofu under medium heat until brownish. Serve while warm with some fresh chili and a cup of tea.

Soto Daging (Beef Soto)

This is the first time I made soto from scratch...usually I used instant seasoning - a time and energy saver...
I asked my friend Lucia for the recipe and add ground coriander to spice up. I ended up putting too much turmeric and turned my soto a bit bitter. Oh ya I had some side dishes to skip since I did not have them on stock...Enjoy my simplified recipe...

Ingredients:
- 1kg of beef
- 6cloves of garlic
- 4cloves of small red onion
- 1 lemongrass
- 4 lime leaves
- 1/2tsp of ground coriander
- 1tsp of ground turmeric
- salt
- pepper
- sugar
- water
- oil for saute

Side dish:
- bunch of bean sprouts (I skipped this one)
- clear vermicelli (I skipped this one)
- boiled eggs (I skipped this one too)
- fried onion
- green onion, chop thinly
- chili paste
- sweet soy sauce
- lime
- Indonesian crackers (kerupuk)



Directions:
Boil beef with water in a pot until tender. Crush garlic and onion until smooth and then saute it with a little bit of oil. Add it to the pot and stir it well. Add the rest of ingredients, stir it well and adjust the taste with salt and sugar.
To serve, in a bowl place steam rice on the bottom and arrange bean sprout, vermicelli and boiled egg on top of it. Pour the soto, sprinkle chopped green onion and fried onion. Add chili paste, soy sauce and drizzle lime juice. Add crackers at the side.

First Blog Anniversary and 200'th Post

I started blogging a year ago and I have been loving it. A year is considered new yet enough time to get to know other bloggers and learn a lot from them. There were times when I did not have enough time and energy to update my blog and blogger friends came to encourage in so many ways. There was once when I felt so small and not seen by particular person, but it was exactly a time for growing better, I was motivated to become better in photography.
My husband in this case definitely is my inspiration and best companion. Thank is never enough to say.
I want to take this opportunity to thank that particular person, who made me feel so small but motivated me to learn a lot of photography, to all of my dear blogger friends who have been such great friends even though most of you never know me in person, to all of my beloved readers thank you for always faithful in visiting my blog...This blog is for you!

On October 29 '2007 I posted my first writing on this food blog, so to commemorate that special day, I cooked complete yellow rice. Here is some of the pictures. Enjoy!

The menu consists of:
- Yellow rice (I'll post the recipe later)
- Grilled chicken (I'll post the recipe later)
- Sweet marinated tempeh and tofu (see the recipe here)
- Thin omelet
- Shredded beef meat (Indonesian-abon sapi)
- Spicy harricot beans, tempeh and shrimp (see the recipe here)
- Fried salted fish
- Freshly cut cucumber and tomato
- Fresh baby spinach