Stir Fried Water Morning Glory with Fermented Soybean Paste (Kangkung Cah Taoco)

This is what we had for dinner last Saturday. We had it with the squid (I will post it later on) and warm steam rice. I made this and the squid while chatting with wonder-women (in alphabetical order-Ayin, Deetha, Judith and Mel). We surely had a good time...

Ingredients:
- a bunch of water morning glory (Indonesian-kangkung), wash and cut into 8cm in length
- 4 cloves of small red onion, chop thinly
- 4 cloves of garlic, chop thinly
- 8 dried chili paddy, cut into 3 each
- 3cm ginger, slice into 6
- 3cm of galangal, cut into 2
- 3 Indonesian bay leaves
- 1 tomato, cut into 8
- 3 Tbsp fermented soybean paste (Indonesian-taoco)
- 2 Tbsp sweet soy sauce
- salt
- sugar
- oil for saute
- water

In a wok, saute onion, garlic, ginger and galangal for 2 minutes. Add bay leaves and continue to saute for another minute. Add tomato and soybean paste, stir it well. Add sweet soy sauce and 200ml of water, and then stir and continue to cook until boiling. Adjust the taste with salt and sugar. At last put in the water morning glory and cook for 4minutes. Do not overcooked.

Chop Chop Fried Rice

It was snowing so hard on Saturday, therefore we did not go out anywhere. My husband chose to have instant noodle for breakfast and I wanted something more filling, so I decided to make fried rice. However, since I was very hungry, I made it on a very quick way, yes I just chopped all of the seasoning, instead of grinding it. It tasted good...or maybe coz I was really really hungry..

Ingredients:
- 1 plate of leftover steam rice
- 1 fistful of mix veggies
- 2 beef balls, slice into 4 each
- 2 prawn balls, slice into 4 each
- 1 egg
- 3 cloves of small red onion, chop thinly
- 3 cloves of garlic, chop thinly
- 4 chili paddy or bird's eye chili, chop thinly
- 1 Tbsp fish sauce
- 1 Tbsp sweet soy sauce
- salt
- oil

In a pan, make thin egg omelet, add a little bit of salt. When it is cool, cut thinly and put it aside.
In a wok, saute onion and garlic with a little bit of oil until brownish. Add chili and continue to saute for 2minutes. Add beef balls and prawn balls and cook and stir for another 5minutes. Add fish sauce and sweet soy sauce. Add the mix veggies and stir well. Add the steam rice and mix it well, until all of the seasoning distributed evenly. Adjust the taste with salt.
To serve, place the fried rice on a plate and then sprinkle cut omelet on top of it. Add some fresh tomato or cucumber as preferred.

Lamb Gulai (Gulai Kambing)

I've still got some lamb meat inside the freezer, so today I made lamb gulai. I copied the recipe from keseharian.com with a little modification. It is good to eat while the weather is cold outside. Speaking bout the weather, I've really got sick of winter this year. It is March and we still have snow storm coming up. On the television, there is poll asking people: Will we have summer this year or we go directly into next winter? sound so desperate...

Ingredients:
- 1kg lamb meat with bones
- 4 potato, peel off the skin and cut into small pieces
- 5 cloves of small red onion, chop thinly
- 1 lemon grass, cut into 4 cm in length
- 4 Indonesian bay leaves
- 4 cinnamon sticks
- 5 clovers
- 1 tomato, cut into 8
- 1/2 can of coconut milk
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- salt
- oil for saute
- 1.5lt water
- fried onion

To crush:
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 15 chili paddy or bird's eye chili
- 5 candle nuts
- 3cm of galangal
- 2cm of turmeric
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

In a pot boil water and lamb meat-bones until tender. Discard the surface foam. In a pan, saute chopped onion for 2minutes. Add the crushed mix, lemon grass, bay leaves, cinnamon sticks and clovers into the pan, and stir it well for 4minutes.
Transfer it into the pot which has tender lamb meat and water inside. Add coconut milk and stir it while it is boiled. Add potato and continue to cook for 7minutes. Add tomato, salt and sugar to taste. Serve it with warm steam rice. Sprinkle some fried onion as preferred.

Clear Spinach Soup (Sayur Bening Bayam)

Every time I made this soup, I always forgot to take picture of it, coz we normally eat it right away considering that spinach is only good to eat while it is freshly cooked . Two days ago when I made it again, my husband took the camera and placed it on our dining table so that I would not forget to take a picture. Thank hubby!

Ingredients:
- a bunch of spinach, wash and cut into 8cm in length
- 200gr of sweet corn-creamy and peaches
- 5 cloves of small red onion, chop thinly
- 5 cloves of garlic, chop thinly
- 1 block of chicken broth
- salt
- sugar
- water

In a pot boil some water, app. 1.5 lt. When it is boiled, add chopped onion, garlic and chicken broth. Stir it well. Add some salt and sugar to taste. Add corn and continue to cook for 6minutes. At last add the spinach and boil for another 2minutes (do not overcooked).

Note: I normally eat it with steam rice, fried steamed mackerel and belacan chili paste.

Tofu Salad with Peanut and Black Shrimp Paste Dressing (Tahu Tek)

Being bored of eating meat, I prepared this meal for our dinner last week. My husband likes it so much. I believe this meal is originally from East Java.

Ingredients:
- 2 blocks of medium firm tofu, deep fry and then cut into small pieces
- 2 eggs, boil, peel of the shell and cut into 8 each
- 2 potato, boil, peel of the skin and cut into small pieces
- 150gr of bean sprouts, boil and drain off the water
- 4 small packages of rice dumpling, boil, cool down and cut into 6 each
- fried onion
- oil for frying

To make dressing:
- 150gr of peanut, fry it without oil until brownish
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 8 chili paddy or bird's eye chili, add some more if you prefer spicy one
- 1 tsp of tamarind
- 2 Tbsp of black shrimp paste (Indonesian-petis udang)
- 1 block of palm sugar
- 2 Tbsp of sweet soy sauce
- salt
- water

Side dish:
- prawn crackers
- Gnetum Gnemon crackers (Indonesian-emping melinjo)

In a small glass, pour some hot water app. 100ml, then add tamarind. Stir it well until it form tamarind juice. Discard the stone and hard part of the tamarind. In a blender, put all ingredients to make dressing except sweet soy sauce and salt. Then add tamarind juice and blend until you get smooth mix, add some water as needed. Pour it into a small bowl. Add sweet soy sauce and salt to taste.
To serve, arrange cut rice dumpling, potato, egg and tofu on a plate. Then add bean sprouts on top of it. Pour the dressing over it (you may add some more sweet soy sauce). Add the crackers and sprinkle some fried onion.

Note: The ingredients is good to make 2-3 plates of this meal.

Javanese Spicy Vegetable Salad (Urap Sayur Pedas)

Again, mind the English title...I realized how hard it is to translate typical Indonesian food names into English. This salad is good to eat with yellow rice or savory one.

Ingredients:
- a bunch of water morning-glory (Indonesian-kangkung), wash and cut into 4cm in length
- a bunch of long beans, wash and cut into 4cm in length
- 150 gr of bean sprout
- 100 gr of grated coconut (available frozen in Asian store)
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 5 cloves of small red onion
- 10 chili paddy or bird's eye chili
- 1 tsp of shrimp paste
- 1 tsp of ground lesser galangal or sand ginger (Indonesian-kencur)
- 3 lime leaves, discard the hard part
- 1/2 block of palm sugar, grated with knife
- salt
- water

Boil some water in a pot and cook the water morning glory, long beans and bean sprout separately. Do not overcooked. Put it aside. Put frozen grated coconut in a microwavable bowl, add a little bit of water and microwave it for 1 or 2 minutes. Put it aside.
In a chopper, chop garlic, onion, chili, lime leaves, shrimp paste and palm sugar until smooth.
Mix it well with grated coconut and add some salt and ground lesser galangal.
To serve, mix the cooked vegetables with seasoned grated coconut.