Rolade Siomay (Siu May Rollade)

I was going through my pictures file and found these pictures from year 2009. Wow..it's been 2 years and I have not posted any recipe for it..(what a lazy blogger! oops...). And a former friend from my Uni year, asked me if I could share the recipe with him. So here I am typing the recipe for you all. For me this is a sinful snack, since I luvvv savory (moreover deep fried) snacks..I could not stop munching them when they are there on my table. Just gimme some hot sauce, and I just dip them in and eat them. The kids like to have it with some steamed rice too. It is a variation of siomay and wonton filling.

Ingredients:
Filling:
- 400g shrimp, deveined (you may use other meats too)
- chopped green onion
- 3cm of ginger
- 4 shallot
- 6 garlic
- 1 Tbsp of sugar
- 1 Tbsp of oyster sauce
- 1 Tbsp of fish sauce
- 1 tsp of ground white pepper
- 1 tsp of sesame oil
- 1-2 Tbsp of corn starch (depend on how wet your mixture)

Skin:
- bean curd sheets (I used the fresh/wet one, you may use the dried one and wet it with water)
- egg, lightly beaten
- bread crumbs (I used panko or Japanese bread crumbs)
- frying oil

Directions:
Process all of the ingredients except green onion and corn starch in a food processor until smooth. Place the mixture in a container/mixing bowl, add the green onion and corn starch, mix well. Then take one of the bean curd sheets, spread flat on the table or chopping board. Place 2 Tbsp of the filling along the center of it. And then roll the skin up to form a long cylinder, try to close the edge by pushing in the skin to the cylinder. Do it to all of the filling and skin. Dip the cylinder into beaten egg and then into the bread crumbs. You may do it twice for crunchier result. Deep fry it over medium low heat until crunchy and golden brown.

Mangut Ikan Bandeng Asap (Smoked Milk Fish in Coconut Sauce)

This was one of my childhood menus, which Mom used to cook for us. I really like the combination of smokey aroma and spiciness of it. Normally we used smoke stingray fish, but since it could not be found in Canada, I replaced it with this smoked deboned milk fish.

Ingredients:
- 1 smoked deboned Milk fish, cut into 4
- 1 block medium firm tofu, cut into triangle shapes, fry until half-cooked
- 1 block tempeh, cut into triangle shapes, fry until golden brown
- 3 bilimbi, cut into small pieces
- 3 Indonesian bay leaves
- 4cm of galangal, crack it with pestle
- 3 lime leaves
- 10 chili paddy or bird's eye chili
- 5 cloves of shallot
- 7 cloves of garlic
- 6 candle nuts
- 1 tsp of shrimp paste
- 1 tsp of ground turmeric
- 1 can of coconut milk
- salt
- sugar
- oil for frying and saute
- 700mL of water

In a chopper, chop chili, onion, garlic, candle nuts and shrimp paste until smooth. Saute it with a little bit of oil in a pan for 2minutes. Then transfer it into boiling water in a pot. Add bay leaves, lime leaves, galangal and ground turmeric. Continue to cook until boiling again. Add fried tofu, tempeh, and bilimbi. Add coconut milk and adjust the taste with salt and sugar. Stir it while cooking. At last add the smoked fish and continue to cook for another 2minutes.
Serve warm with steamed rice.

Easter 2011

Greeting from Calgary where we spend our Easter long weekend. Recently, I have been into cake decorating, fondant decorating to be exact. I do not take any courses, yet am far from perfection. I am still learning. Thanks to the internet where you may find a lot of tutorial in doing various fondant figurine.
Here is what I made for Easter 2011. A bunny with carrot, chick and eggs and flowers in a basket, all on choco rum cupcakes.

Happy Easter every one! Blessing to you and your love ones!

Soto Kudus

Kudus literally means holy in bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language), this also refer to a name of town in Central Java. And Soto Kudus is kinda chicken soup which originally came from that small town. The things which distinguish this soup from any other chicken soto are the use of a lot of fried garlic and the addition of cumin and nutmeg, which give specific aroma. You may find a lot of side dishes that served in the warung, where this soto is sold, including: sate kerang (cockle on skewer), sate telor puyuh (quail eggs on skewer), perkedel (potato fritter/mashed potato frikadel), tempe goreng (fried tempeh, with or without batter), krupuk rambak (cow's skin cracker), etc. I personally like the cockle on skewer and cow's skin cracker. But it's kinda hard to find those stuff here, so I just prepared some fried tofu and tempeh as side dish.

Ingredients:
- 3 whole chicken leg
- 8 cloves of small red onion/shallot
- 8 cloves of garlic
- 8 pcs candle nut (kemiri-Indonesian)
- 1 tsp ground white pepper
- 1 Tbsp ground coriander
- 1 Tbsp ground cumin
- 1.5 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp shrimp paste (terasi-Indonesian)
- 3cm ginger
- 2cm turmeric
- 3cm galangal
- 1/3 block/cylinder palm sugar
- salt
- 2.5lt water
- frying oil

Complementary dish:
- boiled bean sprout
- crushed chili with sweet soy sauce (sambal kecap)
- lime
- fried tofu
- fried tempeh

Garnish:
- Asian celery, finely chop
- fried garlic

Directions:
In a pot put the chicken, salt and water, bring it to boil. Continue cooking until the chicken tender. Drain the chicken and fry it until brownish. Shred the chicken meat.
Put aside the chicken and the broth as well.
In a blender, blend all the ingredients except galangal and palm sugar until smooth. Saute the blended smooth spices for 2minutes. Pour it into the broth which is put on low heat. Add the galangal and palm sugar. Continue to cook until boiling.
To serve, in a bowl put some steam rice. Then top it of with the shredded fried chicken and pour the hot soto (broth+spices). Add the complementary dish and garnish.

A bonus picture of the potato fritter.

Crispy Tofu with Dipping Sauce

Recently, my dear husband who is a well-known meat eater switches his eating habit. Well, he still loves to eat meat though, but he's been asking more for veggies, fish and tofu. The last one is his addiction now. I've tried to prepare it in various way, steaming, another steaming with some filling, frying and other variation of cooking. And I decided to make snack from tofu. Got the recipe from my former student, and ended up modified it. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients :
- 1-2 square firm tofu (this time I used traditional tofu but found out it's too watery/moist and hard to dry out)
- plain flour + seasoning + pepper --> mix well (I used: coriander powder, salt, garlic powder, no pepper since my J does not like pepper)
- beaten egg
- bread crumbs (I used panko)
- frying oil

Directions:
Cut the one square tofu into 4 pieces and let it dry (I tapped it with paper towel). Dip in the flour then egg, lastly bread crumb. Fry until golden brown. Dry up the excessed oil with paper towel.

Ingredients for dipping sauce :
- 1-2 cloves garlic (chopped)
- 2 cm of ginger (chopped)
- water
- 1tsp rice wine
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1tsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce

Directions:
Saute the garlic and ginger until fragrant, add bit water. Continue adding the rest of ingredients. Cook until boiling.

Kering Tempe (Sweet and Spicy Tempeh)

If you ask me, if there is some thing in this world I've never get tired of, my answer would've been tempe..Okay maybe too exaggerated..but to be honest, I really really love this protein source, that I am willing to make it on my own because it is so hard to get this one here in Edmonton. Normally I make tempe during summer, when the temperature is warm enough to allow the fermentation to take place. And it is not only labour consuming, it is time consuming too, need 3 days for the whole process. For you who are not familiar with tempe, here is a link to read.
Tempe can be served as a replacement of meat or other protein source. This time I would like to share one simple recipe, the sweet-savory-spicy one.

Ingredients:
2 blocks of tempe (app. 400g), julienne cut, deep fried until crispy
4 shallot, chopped
8 garlic, chopped
6 bird's eye chili, chopped
2 big red chili, chopped
4cm of galangal
3 Indonesian bay leaves
1tsp of tamarind, mixed with 80mL water, discard the pulp
1/2 block of palm sugar, shredded (app. 2 Tbsp)
1 Tbsp of granulated white sugar
salt
oil

Directions:
Saute shallot, garlic and chili with a little bit oil until dry. Keep it aside. In a wok, boil the tamarind juice, palm sugar, sugar and salt. Add galangal and bay leaves. Stir constantly until thickened. When the water is almost all gone, add the fried tempe and fried shallot+garlic+chili. Mix them well. Serve it with steamed rice.

Wonton Making - My Way

Since I took some pictures of meal making in the process, I feel like sharing this step-by-step post. Wonton is chosen here. As you may know, wonton is a dumpling which normally found in some Chinese cuisines. It could be various in fillings (minced pork, chicken, shrimp, or veggies), shapes and the way to serve (steam, boil, broil or deep/pan fry).
As for our home, we like the chicken and shrimp filling ones. And I'm gonna share this one.

Ingredients:

- 200g ground chicken thigh
- 200g shrimp, deveined
- chopped green onion
- 3cm of ginger
- 4 shallot
- 6 garlic
- 1 Tbsp of oyster sauce
- 1 Tbsp of fish sauce
- 1 tsp of ground white pepper
- 1 tsp of sesame oil
- 1-2 Tbsp of corn starch (depend on how wet your mixture)
- ready to used wonton skin
- all purpose flour (to keep the wonton does not stick to each other while in storage)

Directions:
Process all of the ingredients except green onion, corn starch, wonton skin and flour in a food processor until smooth. Place the mixture in a container/mixing bowl, add the green onion and corn starch, mix well. Keep it aside, you are done with the filling.
The next step is filling the wonton skin and folding them. There are different ways to fold, and I'm gonna share three different ways of folding.

First type: Chinese Gold Coins

1. Take one of the square skin.
2. Place a teaspoon of the filling in the center of the skin.
3. Wet half of the top square part with water.
4. Fold as shown at the above picture.

5. Fold down the empty top part.
6. Dap with a little water at the inner corner.
7. Glue the two corners
8. The result will look like Chinese gold coins and it's normally used in soup/boiling and steaming too.

Second Type: Potstickers/Gyoza shapes

1. Using the round shape skin, place a teaspoon of the filling in the center.
2. Wet half of the circle.
3. Neatly fold the dry side of the skin and glue it to the wet part.

4. Do it one fold by one other
5. until done
6. The result. This type is good for pan fried, broil, steam or boil too.

Third type: Round sea shells-liked shape

1. The same as the way before, place one teaspoon filling in the center of a round skin and wet half of the skin margin. Glue it together and press to seal.
2. Bring the two edges together
3. Wet one corner and glue it together.
4. The result will look like a round seashell. This type is good for soup/boiling.

If you want to keep it in fridge/freezer for longer use, sprinkle some flour over the wonton to keep them from sticking to each other. Then place them inside a ziploc plastic or a clean airtight container. You may keep them in fridge up to 4days or in freezer up to 5months.

Burger by Sianturi

One of my ex-colleague once complained when I posted Indonesian foods, she said I should post some Western foods since I am not residing in Indonesia. For her it's strange enough for me living in Canada, but always cook Indonesian/South East Asian foods. So this post is for her...a prove that I sometimes do cook Western foods or fast foods too. It happened last Sunday, Chris was craving for some burgers, so he decided to prepare it at home for our dinner. The first picture shows how it looked like...(well, just as you've expected, ordinary burger).

Here is the chef of that evening. And how skillful he is to stack the burger and all the ingredients in between the buns.

Want to know what he put in the burger? Some cucumber, onion, tomato, mozzarella cheese, and spinach (not in the picture).

The burger won't be tasty without sauces. Here were what he added, mayo, ketchup, habanero and hot pepper sauce. I did not dare to try the habanero one though.

And for my plate, I added some spinach and sweet gherkin pickles at the side...It was so yummy, coz it's served with love. Thank you daddy!

Ginseng Korean Restaurant Edmonton

I am here again for sorta restaurant review. We celebrated daddy's birthday last Saturday by dining in a Korean restaurant named Ginseng. It is situated in South side of the town. I'll give you the address and contact number in detail at the end of this post. We have been there before, and we love the foods there. For our first visit we felt it was a bit pricey, but did not feel it that way on our second visit though (no idea of what we ordered on our first visit that we ended up paying lot more than the second one). This restaurant have buffet-all you can eat- menu and a la carte too, but seems like most of the people coming for the buffet where you can choose the foods and cook them right on your table yourself.

It is a heaven for meat lovers, they have quite various meats to grill, such as marinated raw chicken, beef, pork and unmarinated seafoods (shrimp, squid, mussels). They have sweet and spicy marinating. Namely classic bbq beef (bulgogi), bbq beef short ribs (galbi gui), beef in sesame oil (jumulleok), spicy pork (daeji bulgogi), spicy chicken (dahk galbi) are there to pick. Personally Chris and I love the spicy chicken, the kids love the sweet chicken and shrimp (we did not try the pork at all, no particular reason, just not a big fan of it).
They also give us some condiments, soy sauce and hot sauce. And as you expected, each table has the grill in the middle, big exhaust fan on top of it (but seems was not functioning since you still can see smoke and haze all around you and you get out of the restaurant smell smokey..) and of course you are given some tongs and scissors to cut the meats. Oh yeah, they change the grill once it is burnt and too smokey.

Other than raw meats, you can find fresh sliced vegetable too. Too bad, we did not take any, so no picture here. You may also like to get some cooked foods on the buffet line there. While you are waiting for the raw meats to be cooked, you can enjoy sesame house salad (I found out that night it was too much sesame oil, which give strong taste-aroma), California rolls (Jordan loves them, for me it's just ordinary rolls), deep-fried dumplings (yummy and crispy, very good to go with the hot sauce), seaweed soup (in my opinion, it was no taste at all), spicy soup (we did not try this one), kim chi (just so so), bean sprout salad/sukju namul (good), fried rice (looks like Chinese style one, Chris tasted it and he said it's so so), steamed rice, and weirdly enough Shanghai noodles..we were not sure why this noodle was there so we did not try it.
For drinks, there are various soft drinks and green tea included in the buffet menu. Other than that you may order with extra charge. We chose ice tea and green tea with honey.

This was my plate..with kim chi, bean sprout salad, grilled shrimps and dumplings.

Jordan got to taste the shrimp first and he loves them.

The only thing left out in the buffet menu is dessert. You can not find any of it other than fresh cut fruits (orange and apple that night). This is how our table look like after that 1.5hour smokey battle. For 29$/person, it is worth to visit!

This post would not complete without the picture of our birthday hero..(with our spoilled Princess)

An extra picture of kiddos splashing water in front of our house before leaving to the restaurant. What a joy to welcome the spring!

Ginseng Sushi and BBQ Restaurant

Edmonton, Alberta

9261 34 Ave NW

780-450-3330

Ox Tongue Steak - Transforming Yuck into Yumm!

Is there anything in life that first you said iyuhhh..(read: yuck!!), but then you realized it tastes damn good? It is not a head turning thing, but at the end it makes your eyes balling as reaching excitement. This is one of a kind..the one to which once I got a strong gag, but when I dared to try it, I feel disappointment..yes, disappointment...why I did not have it long before? It tastes superb! Of course I did not own the recipe, got it from here with a little adjustment.
So here is the English version of the recipe, I know it is a bit long, but it is easy to follow

Ingredients:
- 1 ox tongue
- 1 Indonesian bay leaf
- 1.5 tsp ground pepper
- 5 cloves shallot, cut into half
- 1 Tbsp salt
- 75g butter/margarine

For sauce:
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 Tbsp tomato sauce
- 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 clove
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- 350cc beef broth
- 2 tsp corn starch, dissolve with a little bit of water

Potato puree/mashed: (I simply made it from store bought one/instant mashed potato)
- 750g potato, boiled, peeled and mashed
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 150cc milk
- 1/2 tsp ground pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Sauteed mushroom:
- 50g mushroom, cut in half
- 1 tsp butter

Sweet stewed carrot:
- 350g carrot, cut (I used mini carrot so no need to cut)
- 1 tsp granulated sugar
- 1 tsp butter
- 1 tsp parsley, chopped (I skipped this one)
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg

Directions:
Making steak:
Dip the tongue into boiling water, peel off and clean up the skin and rough/hairy part. Then put some water (app. 2L) in a big pot, add tongue, bay leaf, pepper, salt and shallot and cook until the tongue tender. Take it out and drain off. Heat up some butter, then fry the tongue until golden brown, cut it out (0.5cm thickness).

Making sauce:
Saute onion with some margarine until fragrant. Pour beef broth and bring it to boil. Add salt, pepper, clove, nutmeg, tomato sauce and Worcestershire sauce, mix well. Turn down the heat and bring it to boil again. Add the corn starch mixture, stir instantly until thickened. Keep it aside.

Making mashed potato:
Heat up the milk, add cooked potato, margarine/butter, pepper, salt, nutmeg and mix it well. Cook on the stove until thickened. You may use decorating bag and tip to make the serving fancy.

Making sauteed mushroom:
Put the mushroom in a small pot with a little water then cook until the water almost gone. Add butter, stir well and turn off the heat.

Making sweet stewed carrot:
Boil water, add carrot and sugar. Reboil until cooked. Drain off the water. Keep it aside. Heat up the butter, add cooked carrot, ground nutmeg, and stir well. Remove from the heat and sprinkle some parsley.

To serve:
Arrange in a plate, tongue steak with all the side dishes and pour the sauce over.