Our Thanksgiving Dinner

Last week end was a long week end for Canadian Thanksgiving's Day. Unlike American, we celebrate it in October, while they have it at end of November. My aunt who lives in California always says that it is better to have it in October since it is still ahead of December, not too close to Christmas, so that we would not be stuffed with good big portion foods twice in a row-or at a very close dates. And I agree with her.
This year we celebrated it at home all by ourselves, my husband, my two kids and me. My husband set up the dinner for us by preparing the main menu. By the time the food was ready, Bianca was too sleepy, so she went to bed for a nap, and we ended up having dinner without the kids (Jordan is too small for steak..hehehe..).



The main menu was sirloin steak (see the recipe here, just replace the ribs with sirloin) and cheez-whiz spread-baked potato. I prepared fresh salad consists of romaine lettuce, red and green bell pepper, cucumber and tomato with Italian dressing.



Not to forget some sauces to spice up the meal (cheez-whiz, Italian dressing, ketchup and Indonesian hot sauce). The drink was a glass of red wine (not in the picture), I only had a sip, considering I am still breastfeeding. We closed the course with a slice of marble cake (see the recipe here) and instead of having tea or coffee, we chose to have a cup of passion fruit (Indonesian-markisa) syrup with ice.

We thank you oh dear Lord for all the good and bad things that had happened, it really shows us your mercy and guidance in every day of our lives. Thank you for the countless blessing and thank you just for our little happy family....

Telor Bumbu Petis (Black Shrimp Paste Seasoned Eggs)

Bianca started becoming a picky eater and I have to think hard of what to prepare so that she would eat. It is hard to guess of what she likes. At one time she would take every thing with broth and soupy, but she refused it at other time and preferred "dry" meal like steam rice with shredded dried beef meat (Indonesian-abon sapi). Sometimes she likes Indonesian foods with sweet soy sauce (she must take it after her dad), other times she likes just potato with cheese-whiz (hm...it's really me style). So I just prepare something that is not spicy for her or if I cooked something for the entire family, I would take some portion and keep it aside for her before adding chili. This meal was prepared for her. It is supposed to be spicy, but I omitted the chili. Thank God, she loves it!



Ingredients:
- 10 boiled egg
- 600ml coconut milk
- 6cloves of garlic, chop thinly
- 3cloves of small red onion, chop thinly
- 4 lime leaves
- 4 Indonesian bay leaves
- 1 lemongrass, cut into 4cm in length then crack it with pestle
- 4cm of galangal
- 2Tbsp of black shrimp paste (Indonesian-petis udang)
- 1/2 block of palm sugar
- salt
- sugar
- frying oil



Directions:
In a wok, saute garlic and onion with some frying oil until fragrant. Add lime leaves, bay leaves, lemongrass, and galangal and continue to saute for 3minutes. Add black shrimp paste, salt, sugar, palm sugar and then coconut milk. Mix it well and cook until boiling. Add boiled eggs, stir and cook until the water reduced by 3/4 and the seasoning immersed.

Chinese Beef Stew

Our family like to buy this menu from a food counter at Asian supermarket in town. One of these days I decided to prepare it myself. I browsed around the recipe from the internet, mostly they used slow cooker to cook the stew. Since I do not have a slow cooker, I then came up with my own recipe.

Ingredients:
- 1kg of beef
- 4 potato, peel n cut into small chunk, deep fry until half cooked
- 150gr of mini carrot
- 3Tbsp of sesame oil
- 4Tbsp of soy sauce
- 4Tbsp of sweet cooking wine
- 6 cloves of garlic, crack it with pestle
- 1 star arnise
- 1tsp of Chinese five spices powder
- salt
- sugar
- water



Directions:
In a pot saute garlic with sesame oil until fragrant and then brown the meat. Add all of the seasoning, mix well and bring to boil. Continue to cook until the meat tender, do not forget to cover the pot with the lid. Add carrot and cook for 3minutes. At last add the fried potato and continue to cook for another 2minutes.

Pempek Palembang (Palembang Fish Dumpling with Sour Sauce)

I got some fish paste in the freezer and decided to make this traditional fish dumpling from Palembang. Found the recipe here. It turned out to be too liquidy when I followed exactly every thing in the recipe. It may because I used frozen fish paste which already been added with some other ingredients like potato starch and salt, whilst the original recipe uses fresh fish meat. Fortunately I still managed to safe the dough even though I was not able to form good shapes with hands, so I just used spoon. Anyway, next time I should consider to reduce the amount of water that I use to make it.

Ingredients:
- 50gr all purpose flour
- 500ml water
- 2 cloves of garlic, crush
- 500gr of fish meat/fish paste
- 3tsp of salt
- 2tsp of sugar
- 350gr of tapioca flour
- 2.5lt of water for boiling
- 1Tbsp of vegetable oil

To make sauce:
- 50gr tamarind
- 150gr of palm sugar
- 700ml of water
- chili paddy/bird's eye chili, crush (as much as you like)
- fermented cabbage/tongcai ( I skipped this one)
- 1clove of garlic, crush
- 3Tbsp of dried shrimp/ebi

Side dishes:
- egg noodle, boil and drain
- freshly cut cucumber

Directions:
Mix well flour, water and crush garlic in a pot and then bring it to boil and stir it constantly until thicken. Put it aside and let it cool. Add fish paste, salt, sugar and tapioca flour and mix it well until it does not stick. Form shapes as you like (cylinders, balls, etc.).
Prepare a pot filled with water for boiling the dough. Add the vegetable oil in the boiling water. Boil the dough which has been shaped in that pot. Once it is floating, take it out and place it in a container. Then deep fry the boiled dough with frying oil until golden brown.
To make the sauce, boil tamarind, water and palm sugar. Add crushed chili, garlic and dried shrimp. Continue to cook until boiling again.
To serve, cut the fried pempek and place it in a plate. Add noodle and cut cucumber at side and then pour the sauce over.

Modified Soto Banjar

I intended to join the "Masak Bareng" event for Indonesian foodie blogger which is held monthly and last month menu was Soto Banjar. Unfortunately due to my additional activity of taking care my two kids, I could not post it on time. It is supposed to be posted on the last Thursday of the month, which was on September 25.
Since I have cooked it for dinner, I just asked permission to post it without attaching any logo of the event as if I am not joining this event. Let say it is my update to post this menu.
Thank you to Deetha who had sent me the recipe, which I modified according to what I have left in my kitchen.

Ingredients:
- 4 chicken breast
- 2lt of water
- 1tsp of ground nutmeg
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 4 cloves (I skipped this, and replaced it with 1tsp of Chinese five spices)
- 3 cardamom (I skipped this)
- 3Tbsp of margarine
- 1 clove of small red onion
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 1.5 tsp of ground white pepper
- salt
- sugar

Side dishes:
- 3 boiled eggs, cut into half each
- 50gr of clear vermicelli, boiled and drained
- potato fritter
- fried onion
- lime juice
- 2 green onion, chop thinly
- sweet soy sauce
- crushed chili



Directions:
In a blender crush onion and garlic until smooth. Keep it aside.
In a pot, boil chicken breast in water with nutmeg, five spices and cinnamon stick until done. Take out the chicken and shred it and keep it aside. Discard the cinnamon stick. Saute crushed onion and garlic with margarine until fragrant and transfer it into the broth. Add pepper, salt and sugar to taste.
Serve it in a bowl by placing some steam rice on the bottom then top it up with clear vermicelli and shredded chicken meat, pour some broth over. Add the side dishes. Serve it hot.

Note: the recipe is good for 8 bowl of Soto.
Source: Tabloid Saji, modified by Lidia Sianturi

Putu Ayu (Steamed Cupcake with Shredded Coconut)

My husband loves these steamed cupcake and has asked me so many times to prepare it. But since I do not have the mold, I kept saying no. Then it came the time when I felt like making it for him, and I just used muffin tin for molding. The look was not as great though, but the taste was delicious.

Ingredients:
- 250gr of all purpose flour
- 225gr of sugar
- 4 eggs
- 130ml of coconut milk
- 1Tbsp of ovalet
- 2 drops of pandan paste
- 150gr of salted shredded coconut

Directions:
Using a mixer, whisk egg and sugar until thick. Add the ovalet and continue to mix it until white and fluffy. Alternately add coconut milk and flour while mixing it at a lower speed. Add pandan paste and mix it well. Prepare the muffin tin by spreading some vegetable oil. Place a Tbsp of salted shredded coconut in the bottom of the muffin tin and top it up with the dough. Steam it for 40minutes. Let it cool off and take it out of the mold.