End of 2008 Greeting

I have been so bad in time management and in updating this blog (and even more neglecting my other blog and blog). So big apology for this late greeting.
At the end of this year I just want to wish you a peaceful Christmas and a prosperous New Year...have a happy holiday every ones!

Bakwan Malang (Malang Special Meatball Soup)

While chatting with Deetha, all of a sudden I was craving of this special soup called Bakwan Malang and so was her. Yes, it has been 3 years I am away from my home country...missing the people and foods as well. Since we wanted it badly, we agreed to prepare it in our own kitchen and then posted it at the same time. I made this soup more than a week ago but this afternoon I just realized that today is the due date to post it (of course after reading her message on my shoutbox). So here is my version...

Ingredients:
- beef meat balls (bought them from Asian store in town)
- boiled and fried beef and shrimp wonton (see the recipe here)
- steamed stuffed tofu (see the recipe here, instead of frying it, steam it)
- boiled egg noodle
- boiled rice vermicelli
- boiled caisim/mustard green
- preserved cabbage (tongcai)

Optional:
- fried onion
- chopped green onion
- chili sauce
- sweet soy sauce

To make soup:
- 1lb of beef bones
- 6cloves of garlic, crack it with pestle
- 4cm of ginger, crack it with pestle
- 2L of water
- 1 beef broth cube
- 1Tbsp of sesame oil
- 2tsp of ground white pepper
- salt
- sugar

Directions:
In a big pot, boil beef bones in 2L water until boiling. Add beef balls into the broth. Add beef broth cube, salt, sugar and pepper. Continue to cook for another 10min. Saute garlic and ginger with sesame oil and then add them all to the broth.
To serve in a bowl, place the noodles first, and then vegetable, wonton and tofu. Pour the soup and beef balls on top of it. Sprinkle some preserve cabbage and fried onion. Add some chili sauce if you like it spicy and sweet soy sauce to make it richer. Serve while it is hot.

Ayam Kecap Jahe (Ginger-Sweet Soy Sauce Seasoned Chicken)

I have stocked up some foods in fridge due to bad weather since last week. My husband loves chicken and beef, thus those are mainly what we have at home. This time I wanted to have something warming to balance the cold weather which we have been having, but not spicy/hot since my stomach has been so sensitive toward chili. So I put more ginger to the chicken and it worked wonderfully.

Ingredients:
- 10 chicken drumsticks, deep fry until brownish and crunchy
- 1 clove of onion, chop thinly
- 6 cloves of garlic, chop thinly
- 2x4cm of ginger, crack it with pestle
- 2Tbsp of fish sauce
- 4Tbsp of Indonesian sweet soy sauce or more
- 1tsp of ground white pepper
- water
- oil

Directions:

In a pan, saute chop onion and garlic until dry. Add ginger and continue to saute for 1minute. Add fish sauce, water (app. 150ml), pepper and soy sauce and stir it well. Put in fried chicken drumsticks. Stir it evenly and let the seasoning immerse for 5minutes.
Serve it warm with steamed rice.

Fresh Mixed Fruits Dessert (Manisan Buah Segar)

I had some good friends coming over late in the evening last week. And since I did not receive any notification about their visit ahead of time, I did not prepare some foods for nibbling. I only had some fruits in my fridge. But it was kinda boring just to serve whole fresh fruits, despite the fact that I did not have much fruits left. So I just made this dessert (they said they had have dinner already). Thought if I mixed them I would have enough for every body...

Ingredients:
- 3 Royal gala apple
- 3 tangerine orange
- half of cantaloupe
- bunch of green grapes
- 5Tbsp of sugar
- 80ml of water
- 1 lime

Directions:
Wash and cut apple and cantaloupe into bite size. Peel off the skin of orange. Wash the grapes. Place all of the fruits in a big bowl. Meanwhile, pour water and sugar in a microwaveable bowl and microwave it for 1minute. Stir it well until all the sugar dissolved. Drizzle the lime juice and mix it well again. Pour the solution into fruits and mix it. Keep it in the fridge for an hour or longer. Serve it cold. You may add other fruits as you like.

Tongseng Sapi (Beef Tongseng)

My husband bought a big chunk of meat, a-cut-it-yourself kinda sirloin steak two weeks ago. When he got home, I did not want to keep it frozen as whole, beside it would not be fit in my freezer. Thus, I cut it into four portions and place it separately in four freezing bags. I was able to separate the very lean meat from the fatty, two bags of cut lean meat and another two of fatty ones. I had cooked the very lean into beef rendang and Batavian beef semur.
Now for the fatty one, I decided to make tongseng. Normally in Indonesia, tongseng is made of goat meat. As for me using beef meat does not eliminate the yumminess though...

See the recipe here. This time, I added some freshly cut cabbage to the soup just before serving and some Indonesian crackers at the side.

Stir Fried Red Veggies - I am all about RED!

I am all about red...yes I so do like this color. For me it is bright and cheerful and when it comes to clothes, they look good on my skin tone. I own red color kitchen utensils, and when I opened my fridge I saw bottles of seasonings/sauces mostly in red color. Found a whole of spiral sliced ham wrapped in shiny red on my fridge shelf, and in the cupboard there were some snacks with red packaging and cooking ingredients in red boxes or containers as well. Apparently I have purchased or received gifts of red color clothes and winter apparels too.

I was into red-orangy color food too last week...this one is easy to prepare and healthy!

Ingredients:
- 1 red bell pepper, cut into small pieces
- bunch of baby carrot, cut into 3 each
- bunch of mushroom, cut into 4 each
- 2 green onion, chop thinly
- 6 cloves of garlic, chop thinly
- 2Tbsp of oyster sauce
- 1Tbsp of fish sauce
- 1tsp of ground white pepper
- water
- 1Tbsp of corn starch, dissolve it with a little bit of water
- 1Tbsp sesame oil

Directions:
In a wok saute chop garlic with a little bit of sesame oil until fragrant. Add carrot and then bell pepper and cook for 2minutes. Add app. 200ml of water and cook until boiling. Add fish sauce, oyster sauce and pepper and stir it well. Add mushroom and cook for 2minutes. Add green onion and corn starch solution and stir it instantly until thicken. Serve it with steamed rice and meat menu.

Wiener Winks (Roti Gulung Sosis)

Sometime I found it so hard when it comes to name foods in English. Simply because I do not know it or I can not differentiate it from other similar foods. Just like this one, I know how to name it in Indonesian, but had difficulty in finding the English name. Luckily I had Rita who was willing to discuss this matter and was happily answering my stupid questions (thanks Rit!) and of course thank to google and internet connection so that I found the name in English. Yes, it is called wiener winks, I wonder how it gets its name...maybe it looks a bit sassy...the wiener sausage is winking...again I wonder to whom?
Enough about the name, now about why I made these...Having some white sandwich bread in the fridge and hearing my husband complaining about it almost every day push me to get rid of it the soonest. So on that day, early morning two weeks ago, I just prepared it for breakfast. My Bianca loves it...

Ingredients:
- 4 sandwich bread
- 4 wiener chicken sausage, boil or microwave it until cooked
- 2 egg, lightly beaten
- 1Tbsp of margarine

Directions:
Dip the bread into the beaten egg until it is soaked and wet. While doing it, prepare a frying pan by greasing it with margarine and then heating it. Place one sausage in the center of bread lengthwise and then roll it. Fry the rolled bread under medium high heat until golden brown. While frying, press the bread with wooden spatula/turner so that it will stick.
To serve, cut the roll about 1.5cm in thickness.

note: We like to eat it with Indonesian hot sauce.

Korean BBQ Beef Ribs

We love to do bbq-ing, even during winter and Korean style is one of our favorites. This time I used short ribs and marinated it with Korean bbq sauce and grilled it in an oven. The aroma of burnt and the sweetness of the juice is a perfect combination.

Ingredients:
- 8 cut of short beef ribs
- 100ml of rice cooking wine
- 3Tbsp of granulated white sugar
- 250ml of Korean bbq marinating sauce

Directions:
Mix well sugar and cooking wine in a big container. And then add the marinating sauce and stir it well. Marinate the ribs in it for at least an hour in the fridge, the longer the better (I prefer to do it overnightly). Grill it in an oven at 350F for 30min, flip it over in the mid way.
Serve it hot with baked potato and salad.