Black and White Wednesday - Week#7 - Rainbow Swirl Cupcake

Oops...almost missed this week BWW. Hopefully this post will manage to go on this week list (week#7). Just wanna share with you the beauty of Rainbow Swirl cupcakes in BW.

For more information to join this event, please check this out. I was using Red Velvet Cupcakes as base, the recipe will be posted later.

Es Sirsak Manado (Manadonese Style Soursop Shake) - Red and White Food Photo 2011

It has been more than 7years I had not had soursop (read: not seen it anywhere around me). So last week when I saw it in an Asian store, no more thinking twice, it was bought! When I got home, I just realized it was soooo expensive..it cost me more than 11$ for 2Lbs of it...what a rip-off! O well..I really want it, so 11$ got to be good then. One of my fellow food blogger suggested me to make this shake, to be honest, it was the first time for me to hear the name of it...never heard about it before and sure never had it before either. Thus I check her blog out, and found the recipe here (thank you mb Ria). A little modification was made and here is my version:

Ingredients:
- 1.5cup of soursop, discard the skin and seeds
- 1 cup of coconut juice

- 0.5 cup of shredded coconut meat

- 0.5 cup of nata de coco, discard the sugary water

- 0.5 cup of red palm seeds, discard the sugary water

- 1 cup of longan, discard the sugary water

- 1 cup of shaved ice

- 2Tbsp of sweet condensed milk

- 1Tbsp of cocopandan syrup (red color)

Directions:

Blend soursop, coconut juice and meat in a blender until smooth. Put some of nata de coco, palm seeds and longan into a serving glass. Add the soursop shake and top it up with shaved ice. Drizzle some sweet condensed milk and cocopandan syrup on top.

The recipe is good to make 3 tall glasses of shake. Serve immediately.

I would like to submit the first picture to the Red and White Food Photo 2011, in order to celebrate our National Independence Day. Happy 66th Independence Day Indonesia!

Black and White Wednesday - Week#6 - Banana Cake

This is the first time for me joining this wonderful event called Black and White Wednesday hosted by Susan from The Well-Seasoned Cook. As for me the reason to join this event is because it is so challenging to make bw food picture looks appetizing. Hopefully by joining this event regularly, I will be able to shoot beautiful and drool worthy pictures. For my first entry, I presented a picture of banana cake. It was taken as colored picture, then edited into black and white using picnik. Later you may find the original colored picture.

This cake has been famous and become chit-chatting object among my Indonesian food blogger friends (we'd been talking and sharing the recipe over messaging group), mainly because it is so easy to make, no need to use mixer and the result is so yummy.

Source: Simply Recipes

Ingredients:

- 3 0r 4 ripe bananas, mashed

- 1/3 cup melted butter

- 1 cup sugar (I reduced to 3/4cup)

- 1 egg, beaten

- 1tsp vanilla essence

- 1tsp baking soda

- pinch of salt

- 1.5 cups of all purpose flour

I added sliced almond for topping

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F (175C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix well. Pour mixture into a greased 4x8 inch loaf pan. Sprinkle the sliced almond on top. Bake for an hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

Deep Fried Shrimp ala Bie Fong Tong - CSN Giveaway and Indonesia Eats Cook-Up

I am pleased to be invited to join the event of CSN Giveaway and Indonesia Eats Cook-Up by its own wonderful host and dear friend Pepy. And I am lucky to be able to join this special event (many foodie bloggers do not reside in US and Canada thus not eligible to join). I admire her blog which is rich with information and knowledge of foods. And it is with a pleasant heart I follow one of her recipes. My choice went for deep fried shrimp ala Bie Fong Tong.
Enjoy this super duper garlicky deep fried shrimp..I sneezed a lot when stir-frying the chili, but it paid off when eating it...hmmm...yummm...
I also want to share this recipe and picture for the event of Masbar, the theme for this month is seafood. Oh..and..HAPPY FALL SEASON!


Ingredients:
1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined, but leave the tails on
ground white pepper
seasalt
1 egg, beat until peaks
100 g corn starch
3 bird eyes chillies, finely sliced
2 cloves garlic, bruised, to stir fry
vegetable oil

Sprinkle
200 g or 3-4 bulbs of garlic, chopped
1 green onion, finely sliced

Directions:
Bie Fong Tong style fried garlic for sprinkle
1. Clean and drain off the chopped garlic, sun-dried the garlic to reduce the moist (I used the oven to dry off).
2. Bake the garlic with a small amount of oil or deep fry until crispy and golden brown.
3. Garlic ready to use as Bie Fong Tong seasoning

Deep Fried Shrimp ala Bie Fong Tong
1. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the shrimp, combine.
2. Sprinkle with a small amount of corn starch, combine.
3. Add beaten egg, combine.
4. Coat the shrimp with the rest of cornstrach.
5. Deep-fry the shrimp until golden brown. Set aside.
6. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir fry the bruised garlic and bird eyes chillies until fragrant. Add the deep-fried shrimp, stir. Add fried chopped garlic, green onion, black pepper and salt, stir. Remove from heat and serve.

Chicken Soup ala Wedding Reception (Sup Pengantin)

There are various kinds of soup and we can find soup almost in any cultures or nations. One of many soups I remember dearly is the one which usually served during wedding reception in Indonesia. Since this kind of soup is identical to a wedding reception, it is called Sup Pengantin, literally means Bride Soup. It has many kind of ingredients, including meats and veggies and the taste is so refreshing. I would like to share this recipe to all my Indonesian foodie blogger in the event of Masbar February 2010 edition.

Ingredients:
- 3 whole chicken leg, cooked and cut the meat in cubes. Keep the broth aside
- 4 carrots, peeled and cut
- 3 potato, peeled and cut
- bunch of cauliflower, separate the florets
- bunch of snow peas, discard the hard parts
- 3 stalk of celery, cut
- 1 can of button mushroom or other mushroom as preferred
- 1 can of quail eggs
- 1/2 can of luncheon meat or chicken wiener, cut
- some cooked macaroni pasta as preferred
- 1/2 onion, chopped
- 6 cloves of shallot, chopped
- 1 Tbsp of margarine for sauteing
- water
- salt
- sugar
- ground white pepper
- ground nutmeg

Directions:

Put the broth in a pot and boil. Once it is boiling, add potato, carrot, mushroom, cooked chicken meat, and quail eggs consecutively. Meanwhile, saute chopped onion and shallot with margarine in a pan until fragrant and add luncheon meat or chicken wiener and continue to saute for 3minutes. Transfer all at once into the chicken broth in the pot. Add pepper, nutmeg, salt and sugar. Adjust the taste. Then saute cauliflower, celery and snow peas in a pan for 2-3minutes. Transfer it into a serving bowl to keep the crunchiness.
To serve: put some cauliflower, celery and snow peas in a bowl. Pour the chicken broth and soup over. Sprinkle some fried shallot.

Kue Pukis - One of Many Indonesian Street Vendor Snacks

Masbar event comes again this month with a very interesting theme: Food ala Street Vendor (Panganan Kaki Lima-Indonesian ). There are gazillion street vendor foods in Indonesia. They sell various items of food and open during different time of the day. And since I am living overseas, I have been missing some of those foods. Normally I try to prepare it myself with limited ingredients that I have in my kitchen. And they have been satisfied my feeling of missing home. This time I would like to share one of the street vendor snacks, called Kue Pukis. It is said that Kue Pukis is a modification of wafel (source: wikipedia).

Ingredients:
350g all purpose flour
150g corn starch
250g granulated sugar
500ml warm coconut milk
5 eggs
11g instant yeast
3Tbsp melted margarine
a pinch of salt
1sdt vanilla extract
Topping: chocolate sprinkles, raisin, cheese, peanuts

Directions:
Mix the eggs and sugar with a mixer at high speed until white and fluffy. Meanwhile mix the dry ingredients (flour, corn starch and yeast) in another bowl. Then add the coconut milk into the dry ingredients little by little and well mix it. Add the egg mixture into it little by little and continue to mix it. Add melted margarine and vanilla extract and mix it well again. Keep it aside and let it arise until the volume is twice as much as initial. Heat the moulding up on the stove. Pour the batter in it, fill it up until 3/4 of the hole. Put the lid on and cook it under medium heat for 2minutes. Open the lid and top it up with chocolate sprinkles or raisin or cheese or peanuts as preferred. Put the lid back and continue to cook until done (golden brown).

Recipe's source: Ine Elkaje

Beef Galantine - Our After New Year's Dish

We spent the New Year's eve at home, a simple dinner with family and some sips of ice wine was simply nice. I did not get a chance to take pictures of the foods nor the moment that nite. When Pepy posted her drool-worthy miso soup for the masbar event, I just realized I must have been missing this monthly event. But then she and Rurie told me that Jan 5 will be the last day to post. So I managed to cook something and take pictures of it. Beef galantine is one of my favorite dishes. I made it just today and served it as our after New Year's dish. Happy New Year every one!

Ingredients:
- 400gr ground beef
- 150gr bread crumbs
- 4 boiled egg
- 2 raw egg
- 4 cloves of shallot
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 2 tsp ground white pepper
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 Tbsp maizena/corn flour
- salt
- sugar
- oil for frying

Side dish:
- 3 carrot, cut into sticks and steam it for 8minutes
- 150gr harricot beans, discard the hard part and steam it for 8minutes

Crush shallot and garlic until smooth. In a mixing bowl, mix well all the above ingredients except boiled egg and corn flour. Mix it for sometime, until it is well mixed. Then add corn flour and mix it again. Place 1cm layer of this meat mix on aluminum foil and put the boiled egg in the middle (one for each). Wrap it as cylinder. Place all the cylinders inside a steamer and steam it for 45minutes. Cool it off and then fry it with enough oil under medium heat.

To make the sauce:
- 1 clove of onion (Indonesian-bawang bombay), chop thinly
- 1 tomato, cut into 12
- 3cm ginger, crack it with pestle
- 1 carrot, chop small and thinly
- 1 can of sweet green peas (I skipped it this time)
- 1 Tbsp tomato paste
- salt
- sugar
- ground white pepper
- water
- oil for saute
- 1 Tbsp maizena/corn flour

In a wok, saute the onion and ginger for 3minutes. Add tomato and continue to cook and stir. Add some water, app. 300ml. Add cut carrot and cook for 5minutes. Add tomato paste and adjust the taste with salt, sugar and pepper. Add green peas and lower the heat. Add the corn flour solution (which was mixed with some water beforehand) while stirring it until the sauce thicken.

To serve, cut the meat cylinder and place it on a plate. Arrange the side dish on the same plate as well and then pour the sauce on top.

PPN#128: Beef and Spinach Lasagna - My Heaven...

Thing that makes my husband and me so different is pasta...I love them to die...but he is not a big fan of them. Thus I rarely cooked pasta at home. However, since he's joined the health and fitness club, got his own trainer and nutritionist to monitor what he's eating, he started to consume more pasta, especially whole wheat ones. That's yeay for me...
The other day, I prepared this beef and spinach lasagna. Got the recipe from here. I omitted some of the ingredients to match what I had in my kitchen.
I would love to submit this writing to "Presto Pasta Nights". This month is hosted by Helen. It is my very first entry for this wonderful event and I am so excited!


Ingredients:
- 1kg ground beef
- 3 cloves onions, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 plum tomato, cut into small chunks
- 160ml tomato paste
- 250ml spaghetti sauce
- 2 tsp dried basil
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- salt and pepper
- 500g ricotta cheese
- 50g parmesan cheese
- dried parsley leaves
- 2tsp dried oregano
- 2 eggs, beaten with 1/2 cup milk
- bunch of spinach
- 750g of Mozzarella cheese, grated
- 50g parmesan cheese for topping
- 20 lasagna, cooked

Directions:
Cook ground beef with some olive oil, then add onions, garlic and continue to cook until browned. Drain off all fat. Add tomato and mix well. Stir in tomato paste and spaghetti sauce, oregano, basil, salt and pepper to taste and bring it to a boil. Stir occasionally and simmer on low heat for 45minutes uncovered until thick. Preheat oven to 180C. Mix ricotta, parmesan, dried parsley, and oregano in a bowl. Add egg and milk mixture and stir well. Keep it aside. In a lasagna pan, arrange noodles layered with some meat sauce, then mozzarella cheese, more noodles, spinach and then ricotta cheese mixture. Layer by layer, again and again and end it up with a layer of noodles. Toss some meat sauce over the top layer and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Bake uncovered for 45minutes. Allow to cool before serving.

Sate Udang (Prawn on Skewer)

As it is the last day of the month, I guess I should post my entry for the Masbar event. This month theme is "Aneka Sate Nusantara". There are whole range of satay in Indonesia using various meat/main ingredients and different spices. My pick goes to prawn on skewer.

Ingredients:
- Prawns
- 1 lemon
- 5cloves of small red onion/shallot
- 8cloves of garlic
- 2stalk of lemon grass, cut into 1cm in length for easy grinding
- 4cm of galangal
- 4cm of ginger
- 4 lime leaves
- 4 Indonesian bay leaves
- 5 candle nuts
- 1tsp of shrimp paste (Indonesian-terasi)
- 1/2 block of palm sugar
- 1Tbsp of granulated brown sugar
- 100ml water
- salt

Directions:
Drizzle some lemon juice all over the prawn. Let it immersed for 10minutes. Then grind all of the remaining ingredients in a blender until smooth. Marinate the prawn with the smooth seasoning for 20minutes. Arrange them on skewer, 4 prawns for each. Grilled it on bbq grilling until done for both sides. Serve it with warm steamed rice and fresh vegetable salad.

Putu Ayu (Indonesian Steamed Cupcake with Shredded Coconut)

I have been away from blogging world for a month or so. Kinda missing it, have to admit that I could hardly manage my time since we are trying to settling in our new place and adjusting living under one roof with my in laws. But I can not miss Click the Photo event...simply because I do not want to.
So the picture above is my entry for Click! This month's theme is Bi-Colour. The steamed cupcake has two colour, green and white on top. Check it out to join the fun!


For recipe, please click here.

Pecel Sederhana (Simple Indonesian Mixed Veggie Salad with Peanut Sauce/Dressing)

I have been busy with settling in our new house and my days are occupied with tidying, cleaning up and decorating this place. The weather has been so great too, that makes us doing more outdoor activities and almost every day we went home exhausting. I almost have no time to spend in front of my computer that I missed some of monthly event hold by foodie blogger, which I regret. Today is the last day to post our menu for Masak Bareng Yuuk event. I am so happy to be able to join this monthly event again this time, even though I only have old pictures from my file which matched to this month theme. I cooked this menu quite a while ago. So here is my way to prepare Pecel (Indonesian Mixed Veggie Salad with Peanut Sauce/Dressing).

Ingredients:

- bunch of long beans, cut into 6cm in length
- bunch of spinach, cut into 6cm in length
- bunch of bean sprout

For peanut sauce/dressing:
- bunch of peanut, oven roasted, dehulled
- 6 cloves of garlic
- 6 chili paddy or bird's eye chili
- 1tsp of tamarind
- 4 lime leaves
- 1 block of palm sugar
- 2tsp of ground kencur
- salt
- sugar
- water

Side dishes:
- tempe, tahu bacem
- krupuk aci (Indonesian crackers-see pictures)

Directions:
Steam all of the veggies until half-cooked.
To make dressing:
Grind peanut, chili, garlic and lime leaves until smooth. In a pot boil some water, when boiling add the smooth mixture and stir well. Add tamarind and palm sugar and stir well until all sugar dissolved. Add kencur and then salt and sugar to taste.
To serve, place all of the steamed veggies in a serving plate then pour some of the dressing on top of it. Add some Indonesian crackers, tempe and tahu bacem at the side. You may add some steamed rice too.

Colourful Treat - Click June 2009

It is time for Click! the Photo Event again. This month theme is Stacks.


I have a little one at home who loves to have surprises. She is not into something sweet, but once in a while is okay. This potato doughnut was a treat for her and by stacking it up on a bamboo skewer made it more interesting. Moreover, she could hold the skewer and did not get too messy. Not to mention the bright colour of the sprinkles...in short it was a nice and sweet surprise indeed!

For recipe, check this out.

What We Had For Father's Day Dinner

We have been busy with moving out and in from our old to new place since last week. Our daily activities were mostly sorting and cleaning things up and getting every thing settled. I was so in to it that I almost forgot that the last Sunday was Father's Day. Luckily we had celebration of it at church where we prayed for fathers and lunch were served after the service. Thus, it was kinda reminder for me. I did not have special preparation to celebrate it at home, or at least to greet my dear husband. When we got home and my husband slept, I just prepared this meal for our Father's Day dinner. He has mentioned several times about craving of this particular grilled chicken. So I browsed around on the internet to find the recipe. This one is from one of famous chef in Indonesia. It is good combination of many spices which give delicious flavour and taste.

Recipe by: Rudy Choiruddin, adapted by me

Ingredients:
- 1 whole chicken, cut into 4 (mine was cut into 8, plus I added 4 drumsticks)
- 1 cinnamon stick (mine was 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon)
- 3 cloves (mine was 5)
- 5 kaffir lime leaves
- 1/2 turmeric leaf (I skipped this one)
- 2 stalk lemon grass (I cut then included into the crushed spices)
- 3 Tbsp of frying oil
- 500ml of coconut milk
- 100ml of thick coconut milk
(I replaced them with 1 can of coconut milk)

To be crushed:
- 4 red chili (I skipped this one considering my Bianca does not eat hot food)
- 3 cloves of garlic (mine was 10)
- 4 cloves of shallot
- 1/2 tsp of coriander (mine was 1.5 tsp of ground coriander)
- 1/2 tsp of aniseed (I skipped this one)
- 1/2 tsp of cummin (mine was 1tsp of ground cummin)
- 1/2 tsp of pepper (mine was 1tsp of ground black pepper)
- 2cm of ginger (mine was 4cm)
- 2cm of galangal (mine was 4cm)
- 3cm of turmeric (mine was 1/2 tsp of ground turmeric)
- 3 candlenuts (mine was 5)

Directions:
Crush all of the second part of the ingredients and lemon grass too in a food processor/chopper until smooth. Saute it with a little bit of oil. Add cinnamon, cloves, and lime leaves and continue to saute until fragrant. Add the chicken and continue to cook until the chicken changed colour. Add the coconut milk and turn down the heat and cook until the liquid decreased to minimum. Cool it down. Then place it on a baking tray. Grill in an oven until dry and done. Serve it with warm steamed rice, chili paste-sambal terasi and some veggies.

My Two Lovers - Gaufrettes de Raisin et Collier

I always love this raisin wafers (or should I call it biscuit?). The crispiness of every layer of it and the chewiness of the raisin is a perfect combo. And the fact that it is available almost anywhere around the world (well at least where I've been living...in the southern and northern hemispheres) at an affordable price is just make it more lovable.

And when it comes to jewelry, I love necklaces, and this one black beads is my favorite. Aren't they both lovely?

I submitted this photo for Click! The Photo Event. This month theme is: Cookies.

Stirrings Cocktail Mixers Product Review and Giveaway - an Invitation!

I was so thrilled, when I read an invitation from The Gourmet Foodie to join an event called Stirrings Cocktail Mixers Product Review and Giveaway..on foodbuzz. So here is I am wanting to share this happy news to other foodies. Unfortunately this contest is for U.S. residents only. However, if you want to join and are from any other country, you may want to give a U.S. address to which the prize can be sent.

OK, hope to see you there!

Click! April 2009 - Spring/Autumn - Snack in a Sac

I feel like my blog is running from one event to another...and this time is Click! submission again. This month theme is Spring/Autumn, and since I am living in the Northern hemisphere, I guess I should pick Spring. And here is my entry:



Spring is always associated with cleaning, means working out and healthier life style as well. Therefore, I would like to present a healthy snack, edamame and it comes in a beautiful bright sac with some leaf buds - the sign of spring - at the background. Happy Spring every one!

Onde Onde (Glutinous Rice Balls with MungBeans Filling)

April theme for "Masak Bareng Yuuk!!!" event is traditional snacks with rice or glutinous rice ingredients. Firstly I thought I would not be able to join the event, since I was quite busy lately and did not have enough time to specifically prepare for this event. While I went through my photos file and found this "Onde-Onde" snack, I was so happy thinking that I will be joining the MBY again. Luckily I have not posted it before. So here is my entry...Thank you Rita and Rurie for sharing the recipe (source: Yasaboga).

Ingredients:
Skin:
- 250 grams glutinous rice flour
- 25 grams sago flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 175 cc warm coconut milk from ½ coconut
- 100 grams white sesame seeds, rinsed, drained and dried

Filling:
- 200 grams skinned mung beans (I just used the whole mung beans with skin on)
- 50 cc water
- 150 grams sugar (I replaced it with sweet condensed milk)
- 1 pandan leaf or vanilla (I chosed vanilla essence)
- oil, for deep frying

Directions:
• Filling:
Soak mung beans for about 1 hour, steam until done and mash while still hot. Mix with water, sugar and vanilla, cook on low heat and stir constantly until the mixture can be shaped. Cool and make balls with a diameter of 1 ½ cm. Set aside
• Skin:
Mix glutinous rice flour, sago flour and salt. Pour in warm coconut milk, a little at a time, kneading constantly until the dough can be shaped. Divide into 12 parts.
• To assemble:
Take 1 part of dough, shape into a ball and flatten to ½ cm thickness. Place 1 ball-shaped filling in the centre, close the dough around it and reshape into a ball. Roll ball into sesame seeds, pressing slightly to ensure that the seeds sticks to the dough. Or dip ball quickly into water to dampen the surface before rolling into the sesame seeds. Heat oil over medium fire and deep-fry the rolls until golden brown and done. Drain. Enjoy it with your afternoon tea/coffee.

Click! March 2009 - WOOD - The Star of Spices

As for me, year 2009 is year of learning. I started the year with a spirit to learn photography. I have been interested in it since my husband purchased a DSLR camera two years ago. However, I did not make time to really really learn how to use it. As long as I could operate the camera, basic operation, that's it, I was content! Then I am in love with blogging and it is like an eye opener for me. I've got to know many blogger who are so good in taking picture and styling as well. These make me want to know more about photography. Since I am a busy staying at home Mom with my two little busy bees, I am not able to learn it formally. So in January I pushed myself joining a group called SLF on Multiply with an aim to seriously learn photography escpecially still life. I try to keep up with all its challenges. Recently, I also join other events/community related to food or/and photography, such as fotofun, MFM, DMBLGIT. And now, with encouragements from friends, I am joining Click! The Photo Event.


This month theme is WOOD. When I was going through my files, I found some pictures with wood and food related. This picture below was taken 10 days ago, when I was doing the SLF #3 Challenge - Herbs and Spices. It is one of my favorites. For me, star anise is a star among other spices, and it is really good to go with wood to give natural nuance. Enjoy!

"Me Style" Indonesian Fried Rice (Nasi Goreng Ala-ku) - Accidentally Created

I always run to fried rice for hunger rescuing. Simply because it is easy and fast to prepare and every body loves it. One of those days, when I did not have any idea of what to cook and had limited time to prepare dishes, I accidentally created this recipe. I stil l had some leftover crushed chili for eating with Soto. The crushed chili mainly consists of chili, candle nut and Soto soup/broth. Amazingly it gave richness to the flavor, color and taste of the rice. I fall in love instantly!

For next, I do not have to make crushed chili for Soto first, I just put all of the ingredients from scratch and add them all to make the seasoning.
Since this is my very own recipe, I would like to submit it to the Original Recipe - Monthly Round-Up Event. Thank you Sefa, for suggesting!


Ingredients:
- 2 cups of cold cooked/leftover rice (I prefer Jasmine rice)
- 6 prawn balls, cut into 4 each
- 12 headless shrimp
- 1 cup of mix frozen veggie (corn, green peas, carrot)
- 3 cloves of shallot
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 4 chili paddy, thinly chopped
- 3 candle nuts
- 1tsp of ground turmeric
- 1 stalk of lemon grass, chopped
- 2Tbsp of fish sauce
- 1Tbsp of Indonesian sweet soy sauce
- 1Tbsp of ketchup
- sesame oil for sauteing

Side dishes:
- 3 eggs, scrambled
- cucumber and carrot pickles - Indonesian style (acar timun dan wortel-Indonesian)
- sliced tomato

Directions:
Crush garlic, shallot, candle nuts and chopped lemongrass in a chopper until smooth. Then sauteing it in a wok with a little bit of sesame oil until fragrant. Add turmeric and continue to saute for another minute. Add shrimp, prawn balls and mix veggie and stir it well. Cook until they are just done. Add fish sauce, sweet soy sauce, ketchup and then cold rice, mix them well. Adjust the taste with fish sauce and sweet soy sauce. (At this stage, I separate a little portion for Bianca). And then add the chopped chili. Mix them well again.
Serve it hot with scrambled egg, pickles and sliced tomato at the side.

To make Indonesian pickles:
Cut cucumber, carrot, shallot and garlic into small cubes (use only 2 shallot and 2 garlic, do not add too much of them). Chop some chili paddy to add spiciness. In a small pot, cook a cup of vinegar, half cup of water, half cup of sugar and a pinch of salt. When it is boiling, add shallot and garlic and cook for another minute. Pour it over the cucumber and carrot cubes. Add the chopped chili and mix it. Put the lid on and keep it refrigerated for at least an hour before consuming. It is good to keep in fridge for a month or so.

I also submitted this dish for Masak Bareng Yuuk event. Check it out for other fried rice creations!

Wedang Cemoe (Hot Ginger Drink with Young Coconut Meat)- An (Almost) Forgotten Indonesian Culinary Heritage

This is my entry for a great foodie event called (Almost) Forgotten Indonesian Culinary Heritage hosted by my dear friend Rurie...

Like some of my foodie blogger friends, I found it a bit hard to decide what the (almost) forgotten Indonesian culinary heritage is. The main reason is because geographically I have not resided in Indonesia for almost 5 years and I am not sure whether what I thought to be an (almost) forgotten is almost forgotten and that indeed it is hard to find there in its origin. Even though at heart I am still attached to Indonesia. Thus I just go with memory of my childhood.

I was born and raised in a small village in Pati, Central Java until finishing my high school and then moved to Yogyakarta to study. When I was studying in Yogyakarta, my family decided to moved to Solo, which is an hour away from Yogyakarta. Since I spent my life time longer in Pati than in Solo, I have more fond memories of my home and childhood in Pati. Even though Pati is at coast, it can get a bit cold and wet during rainy days. I remember my Mom used to make this hot ginger drink for us to keep us warm and to comfort us when we had cold or flu. It is called cemoe. It is not just a hot ginger drink, but the uniqueness is on the other ingredient/s added.
In Pati, normally young coconut meat is the only additional ingredient, whilst in Kediri it can be roasted peanut, sago pearls, bread, glutinous rice and coconut milk that are added.

Cemoe is mentioned in a literature and fiction book written by Umar Kayam "Para Priyayi" as a drink of Para Priyayi which has been hard to find. Therefore I believe, this hot drink is an (almost) forgotten Indonesian culinary heritage. The reason why it is (almost) forgotten may lay on practical things. As modernization comes along the way, people choose every thing instant and ready to use. They do not bother to cook/prepare it from scratch. There is instant ginger drink and people can just add some hot water and stir and drink it instantly, no need to peel, no need to boil water nor to add sugar...it all comes in one small package and it is widely available at stores. As for me, the one from real ginger is still the best. So let me share the recipe which used to be our family favorite drink during rainy days.

Ingredients:
- 150g ginger roots, peeled and bruised
- 500ml water
- 1 block of coconut sugar (Indonesian-gula jawa)
- 1/2 can of young coconut meat, cut into small squares
- 3Tbsp of sugar

Directions:
In a pot, bring water into boiling. Then add ginger and continue to cook for another 3minutes. Add coconut sugar and sugar and stir it well until all dissolved. Remove it from stove. To serve, place 2Tbsp full of cut young coconut meat in a cup/glass. Pour the ginger drink in it and serve immediately.

Source: Mom's recipe