Baked Broccoli Cup

This is the menu of this month...our kunti family have got fever of making this broccoli cup, since Judith initiated it in the beginning of March. So last night while visiting one of our best friends, I asked her if it is alright to do the baking at her place. Quickly she said yes, and I came with my arm full of ingredients and tools needed to make this baked broccoli cup. The kids love it, so do we, but not my husband as he is not into snacking.

Here is the recipe I translated from Judith's page (with a little modification)...
Ingredients:
- 8 medium-sized potato, peel off the skin, boil with water until cooked
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melt it
- 2 carrot, cut into very small squares

- 80gr bacon bits, or 6 bacon slices cut into small pieces
- 150gr broccoli, wash and separate each of the flower heads

- 1 egg

- 3 Tbsp wheat flour
- 2 Tbsp maizena/corn flour

- 2 green onion, chop thinly

- shredded cheese (I used Italian mixed shredded cheese)

- 100ml milk

- margarine/frying oil for the cups

- 4 cloves of garlic

- 3 cloves of small red onion

- 1 tsp ground white pepper
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg

- salt

- 1 block of chicken broth, crush it until smooth or use the powder one

- oil for saute

In a mixing bowl, mash the potato with melted butter until smooth. Wait until it is cold enough to add egg so that it would not be harden. Add milk, egg, cut carrot, green onion and mix it well. Add wheat and corn flour and then mix it well again. Put it aside.

In a chopper, chop onion and garlic until smooth. Saute it with a little bit of oil until brownish. Add bacon bits or cut bacon and continue to saute for another 5minutes. Add it to the mixture in mixing bowl and mix it well. Add all the rest of seasoning and mix it again.
Prepare the muffin tin by swapping some margarine/frying oil so that it would not stick. Fill up the muffin tin with enough mixture (app. 2-3 Tbsp) one by one and place one flower head of broccoli on each of them. Sprinkle some shredded cheese on top. Bake it in an oven at 350F for about 30minutes or until it is brownish.
Serve it warm with mayonnaise or chili sauce.

Note: you may find it too soft to remove the broccoli cup from the tin while it is still hot. Wait until it is warm to easily remove it. I prefer to cook the whole potato (with skin and piercing it with forks to release the moisture) in a microwave for 15-20minutes, this way it will not add some extra water content to the potato and the mixture will not end up too soft/wet.

Prawn-Meat Balls Soup (Sup Bola-bola Udang dan Daging)

Seems like I had been serving tempeh to my family for the whole week for the past week. From simply deep-frying it to stir frying and making spicy sambal. Last Thursday I felt like giving my family anything but tempeh. Therefore I made this soup.

Ingredients:
To make prawn-meat balls:
- 200gr skinless prawn, grind with chopper
- 150gr ground meat (chicken, beef or pork)
- 4 cloves of garlic, chop thinly
- 3 cloves of small red onion, chop thinly
- 2 green onion, chop thinly
- 1 tsp ground white pepper
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 egg
- 2 Tbsp maizena/corn flour
- 1 Tbsp fish sauce
- oil for saute

To make soup:
- 4 chicken drumstick
- 4 cloves of small red onion
- a bunch of sweet peas, discard the hard part
- a bunch of cut carrot
- 2 green onion, chop thinly
- water
- margarine/oil for saute
- ground white pepper
- salt
- sugar

In a pan, saute garlic and onion with a little bit of oil for 2minutes. Move it to a mixing bowl and mix it well with ground prawn and meat and green onion. Add pepper, nutmeg, fish sauce and egg and mix it well. Add flour and mix it well again. Put it aside.
In a pot, boil chicken drumsticks with app. 1.5L water. When it is boiling, take a small amount of the prawn mix and make a small ball and then put it in the boiling water. Do it again and again for all the mix. Wait until it is cooked. The balls will come up on the surface when they are cooked. Add carrot and sweet peas and continue to cook for 3minutes. While waiting, saute onion with a little bit of margarine or oil in a pan for 2minutes and then pour it into the soup. Taste the soup with pepper, salt and sugar. At last add the green onion.
Serve it hot and sprinkle some fried onion.
This time, I add some Palembang fish crackers as side dish.

Stir Fried Tempeh-Tofu with Soybean Paste (Oseng Tempe-Tahu Bumbu Taoco)

Since I have tempeh in stock and drooled over bucil's Buto Ijo, last week I made this stir fried menu. It is simple yet delicious.

Ingredients:
- 1 package of tempeh, cut into small squares, fry until golden brown
- 1 block of medium hard tofu, cut into small squares, fry until half-cooked
- a bunch of haricot beans, slice
- 6 of big green chili, slice thinly
- 5 cloves of garlic, chop thinly
- 4 cloves of small red onion, chop thinly
- 8 chili paddy or bird's eye chili, slice thinly
- 4cm of galangal
- 2 Tbsp of soybean paste (Indonesian-taoco)
- 2 Tbsp of sweet soy sauce
- 1 tomato, cut into 12, you may replace it with tamarind juice
- water
- salt
- sugar
- oil for frying and saute

In a wok, saute garlic and onion with a little bit of oil for 2minutes. Add green chili, chili and galangal and continue to saute for another 2minutes. Add soybean paste, sweet soy sauce and app. 200ml water, mix it well and continue to cook until boiling. Add tomato and fried tempeh and tofu and mix it again. Adjust the taste with salt and sugar. Continue to cook until boiling again. Serve it with warm steam rice.

Fried Tempeh with Chili (Sambal Tempe)

My in laws were in town during Easter long-weekend, spending times with us and especially with their granddaughter. They also brought me some packages of tempeh-fermented soybean, which we ordered from their town..well I should say lots of it, it was like 100 packs and we intended to sell it to our friends in Montreal considering that it is kinda hard to find tempeh in Montreal. Moreover the taste of this tempeh is much better and the price is cheaper than what they have here.
Sunday morning, the last day they stayed in our place, was quite hectic for us...I did not have much time to prepare fancy meal for them, so I just made this sambal tempe before they were heading home. Everybody enjoyed the sambal..especially my husband who likes spicy food.

Ingredients:
- 2 packages of tempeh, cut into 12 pieces each
- 7 cloves of garlic (3 cloves for marinating and 4 cloves for making sambal)
- 4 cloves of small red onion
- 12 chili paddy or bird's eye chili
- 1 Tbsp of ground coriander
- 2 tsp of ground lesser galangal (Indonesian-kencur)
- oil for frying
- salt
- sugar
- water

Crush 3 cloves of garlic until smooth and then place it in marinating bowl. Add ground coriander, salt and water and mix it well. Immerse the cut tempeh in the bowl and let it marinated for 20minutes. Take it out, drip off the water and then deep fry it with oil under medium heat until golden brown.
In a stone/wood grinder (Indonesian-cobek), grind onion, garlic, chili, lesser galangal, salt and sugar. Add the fried tempeh and crush it and mix it well with the sambal (crushed chili and other ingredients). Pour a little bit of oil which has been used to fry tempeh and mix it well again. Serve it with warm steam rice, fresh cucumber and sweet peas or with sayur bening bayam.

Fried Stuffed Tofu with Peanut Dressing (Batagor)

Got some leftover fried meat-stuffed tofu, the next day I decided to make batagor-fried stuffed tofu with peanut dressing, originally were sold at street stalls in Bandung, West Java Indonesia. And since I still have some meat filling, I also made fried wonton.

Ingredients:
- Fried meat-stuffed tofu
- Fried wonton
- lime

To make peanut dressing:
- 200gr skinless peanut, roast in an oven or fry without oil until brownish
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 4 lime leaves
- 8 chili paddy or bird's eye chili
- 1 block of palm sugar, shred it
- salt
- sugar
- 1 tsp of ground lesser galangal (Indonesian-kencur bubuk)
- 2 Tbsp of sweet soy sauce
- water

In a blender, put all ingredients to make dressing except sweet soy sauce, salt and sugar. Blend it until you get smooth mix, add some water as needed. Pour it into a pot and boil it. Add sweet soy sauce, salt and sugar to taste.
To serve, arrange cut fried stuffed tofu and wonton in a plate. Then pour the dressing over it (you may add some more sweet soy sauce). Drizzle some lime juice if you like.

Fried Meat-Stuffed Tofu (Tahu Isi Daging)

Initially I wanted to make siomay Bandung, but changed my mind during the preparation. So I just made these fried meat-stuffed tofu. It is good to accompany a cup of tea during our afternoon family time.

Ingredients:
- oil for frying
- 4 blocks of firm tofu, each block is good for 8 triangle shaped cut, scoop out the middle part and use it for filling (see picture below)


To make filling:
- The crumb from middle part of tofu
- 200gr of ground meat (chicken/pork/beef/fish)
- 12 headless shrimp, peel of the skin and discard the tails
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 3 Tbsp of fish sauce
- 2 Tbsp of oyster sauce
- 3 Tbsp of maizena or corn flour
- 1 egg
- 2 green onion, chop thinly
- 2 tsp of ground white pepper
- sugar

In a chopper, chop shrimp, crumb tofu and garlic until smooth. Place it in a mixing bowl. Add fish and oyster sauce, egg, pepper and sugar. Mix it well. Add green onion and corn flour and mix it well. Take a spoon of it and stuff into the hole of tofu one by one until all is done. Put it aside.

To make skin:
- 3 Tbsp of rice flour
- 2 Tbsp of maizena/corn flour
- 1 egg
- salt
- 1 tsp of ground coriander
- 1 tsp of garlic plus seasoning

In a small bowl, mix well all of the ingredients and use it to dip the tofu before frying it (to get crunchy skin).
Deep fry stuffed tofu under medium heat until brownish. Serve while warm with some fresh chili and a cup of tea.