Chicken Laksa

On one of my lazy days..I prepared this chicken laksa using instant seasoning. Its hot soup was perfect for that early winter day...

Ingredients:
- 4 chicken thighs
- 1/2 jar of instant laksa seasoning (I used Cap Ibu/Mother Brand)
- 1lt water
- 1/2 can of coconut milk
- salt
- sugar

Side dishes:
- boiled rice vermicelli
- boiled egg --- I skipped this
- boiled bean sprout
- fried potato
- steamed rice or rice dumpling
- fried onion
- Indonesian crackers or gnetum gemon crackers (Indonesian-melinjo) --- I skipped this

- lime juice

Directions:
In a pot boil chicken with water and the instant seasoning until the chicken tender. Take the chicken out and shred the meat. Keep it aside. Add coconut milk to the broth and continue to cook until boiling. Adjust the taste with salt and sugar.
To serve, in a serving bowl arrange some steamed rice or rice dumpling at the bottom. Then top it up with fried potato, vermicelli, bean sprout and shredded chicken meat. Pour the soup over and sprinkle some fried onion. Drizzle some lime juice. Add crackers at the side.

Semur Tahu Tempe

There is one particular small stall in Pati, Central Java which sell this kind of menu. It only opens early morning for several hours and always packed with people and food is gone fast there. I remember if I wanted to buy the food I had to get up early around 6am to be able to do so. I like the semur and crispy fried tempeh there.

Since I missed it, I tried to figure the recipe out based on my memory and prepared it in my kitchen last month. Hm...not bad at all...

Ingredients:
- 4blocks of tofu, cut into triangle shape and deep fry it until half-cooked
- 2blocks of tempeh, cut into chunks and deep fry it until half-cooked
- 1fistfull of dried small shrimp, soak in water for 30min, drain
- 6cloves of garlic, chop thinly
- 3cloves of small red onion, chop thinly
- 4cm of galangal
- 4cm of ginger
- 4 Indonesian bay leaves
- 1/2 can of coconut milk
- 2Tbsp of sweet soy sauce
- salt
- sugar
- water
- oil for saute

Directions:
In a wok saute garlic, onion, ginger with a little bit of oil until fragrant. Add bay leaves and galangal and continue to stir for another 2min. Add soaked dried shrimp and cook for 2minutes. Add app. 350ml of water and cook until boiling. Add sweet soy sauce, salt and sugar to taste. Stir it well. Add coconut milk and stir until boiling again. At last add the fried tofu and tempeh and cook for another 2min. Serve it with steamed rice.

Raisin Cake To My Favorite...

Initially I wanted to make lapis surabaya, my forever favorite cake...However when browsing around the recipe on the internet, I found out it requires a big quantity of eggs and as a beginner in baking I do not dare to follow the recipe with a large amount of eggs. How if I fail? I do not want to waste the eggs that way..

So instead of making it layers, I just made it simple and added some raisin. This becomes my favorite...

Ingredients:
- 2 egg yolk
- 3 whole eggs
- 55g sugar
- 1tsp of ovalet
- 35g all purpose flour
- 15g of full cream milk powder (I used baby formula)
- 15g of corn starch
- 100 gr of melted margarine
- 1Tbsp of rhum
- 150gr of raisin

Directions:
Mix eggs and sugar with a mixer at high speed for 10minutes. Add ovalet and continue to mix until thick and fluffy. Add shifted flour, milk powder, corn starch and rhum, and mix it well with a spatula. Add melted margarine and mix it well again. Transfer it to a loaf tin which was layered with margarine and flour and then add the raisin. Bake at 350F for 40minutes.

Ayam Panggang (Grilled Chicken)

A sweet version of grilled chicken...my girl's favorite meal...

Ingredients:
- 12 pieces of chicken drumstick
- 1 lime
- 6cloves of garlic
- 3cloves of small red onion
- 4cm of galangal
- 5 candle nuts
- 2Tbsp of palm sugar
- 3Tbsp of sweet soy sauce
- 4 Indonesian bay leaves
- salt
- pepper
- water



Directions:
Drizzle lime juice over the drumstick and let it immersed for 5minutes. Crush the seasoning except soy sauce and bay leaves in a blender until smooth. Boil the chicken with smooth seasoning and water in a pot. Add bay leaves and soy sauce and stir it well. Continue to cook until the chicken tender and half of the liquid remains. Grill it in an oven at 350F for 25minutes. Serve it with warm steam rice, fresh vegetables and crushed chili.

Tahu Isi (Fried Veggie and Meat Stuffed Tofu)

Just want something to accompany our afternoon tea...

Ingredients:
- hard tofu, cut into triangle shapes and scoop out the center part
- 200gr of ground beef
- 2 carrots, dice it
- 2 green onion, chop thinly
- 4 cloves of garlic, chop thinly
- 1 clove of small red onion, chop thinly
- 1Tbsp of oyster sauce
- 1Tbsp of sesame oil
- 1tsp of ground white pepper
- salt
- sugar
- oil for frying

To make batter:
- 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



Directions:
In a wok, saute garlic and onion with sesame oil until fragrant. Add ground beef a nd continue to cook and stir until change color. Add carrot, oyster sauce, and pepper, stir and cook for 4minutes. Adjust the taste with salt and sugar. At last add green onion. Let the temperature cool down. Take a spoon of it and stuff into the hole of tofu one by one until all is done. Put it aside.
Prepare the skin by mixing well all of the ingredients for batter and use it to dip the stuffed 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.

Soto Daging (Beef Soto)

This is the first time I made soto from scratch...usually I used instant seasoning - a time and energy saver...
I asked my friend Lucia for the recipe and add ground coriander to spice up. I ended up putting too much turmeric and turned my soto a bit bitter. Oh ya I had some side dishes to skip since I did not have them on stock...Enjoy my simplified recipe...

Ingredients:
- 1kg of beef
- 6cloves of garlic
- 4cloves of small red onion
- 1 lemongrass
- 4 lime leaves
- 1/2tsp of ground coriander
- 1tsp of ground turmeric
- salt
- pepper
- sugar
- water
- oil for saute

Side dish:
- bunch of bean sprouts (I skipped this one)
- clear vermicelli (I skipped this one)
- boiled eggs (I skipped this one too)
- fried onion
- green onion, chop thinly
- chili paste
- sweet soy sauce
- lime
- Indonesian crackers (kerupuk)



Directions:
Boil beef with water in a pot until tender. Crush garlic and onion until smooth and then saute it with a little bit of oil. Add it to the pot and stir it well. Add the rest of ingredients, stir it well and adjust the taste with salt and sugar.
To serve, in a bowl place steam rice on the bottom and arrange bean sprout, vermicelli and boiled egg on top of it. Pour the soto, sprinkle chopped green onion and fried onion. Add chili paste, soy sauce and drizzle lime juice. Add crackers at the side.