Fried Chicken

You know that you are getting older when you feel relieved and actually happy that you are not going out on New Years. Porgy and I decided to take it easy this evening, but I thought that we should do something special to celebrate. So I decided to make some fried chicken using Kobe seasoning mix (just like what my Mom used to), drink some Champagne and watch Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window. Happy New Year 2011!


Ingredients:
1 chicken, cut into 8 pieces
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon white pepper
1 package of Kobe seasoning flour mix
canola/palm oil for frying

Directions:

• Wash and pat the chicken pieces dry.
• Season with salt, white pepper, paprika and a couple tablespoon of Kobe seasoning flour and marinade for an hour or so.
• Pour enough oil to come just 1/8-inch up the side of a heavy frying pan and heat over medium heat. I don't have any oil/candy thermometer but I think the preferred temperature is ~325F.
• Pour the rest of the seasoning flour on a plate and roll the chicken pieces in flour and shake off the excess.
• Fry the chicken pieces a few at a time so not to crowd the pan, place them skin side down.
• Cook until golden brown on each side, approximately 12 minutes per side.
• Drain the cooked chicken pieces on a rack over a sheet pan.

Stir Fried Green Beans

I bought a couple of types of green beans at the Farmers Market last week - the French-style haricot-vert and the Chinese long bean because I was in the mood to have a simple stir-fried green beans specially the Asian-style, with some chili sauce and shrimp paste. Porgy helped me cleaned up the green beans and snapping off the ends and cut them into 2-inch sections while we're enjoying our Manhattans.


Ingredients:
1 lb of haricot-vert (French green beans), cut into 2-inch sections
1 lb of Chinese long green bean, cut into 2-inch sections
4 shallots, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/2 inch of ginger, thinly sliced
3 dried red chili pepper
a small tip of shrimp paste (~1/16 teaspoon)
1 tablespoon of Sambal Oelek
vegetable oil
1/4 cup fried shallots (optional)

Directions:

• Heat up a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil in a large wok (or stir-fry pan) over medium heat for a 1-2 minutes until hot.
• Add in the green beans and stir fry for 5 minutes or so until they're just about to cook through. Set aside.
• Heat up another 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in the wok over medium heat and add in the shallot, garlic and ginger slices along with the red chili pepper and shrimp paste. Cook for 2-3 minutes until fragrant and then add in the Sambal Oelek.
  
• Add in the semi-cooked green beans, add 2 tablespoons of water, cover the wok and cook for 3 more minutes or until the green beans are all cooked through.
• Add in the fried shallots, stir and transfer to a serving plate.
  

Beef Tongseng

I'm back!!! Finally I'm not as crazy busy with work and Arthur. Yes... Arthur still has his moments from time to time but at least I don't have to keep worrying about him all the time because Porgy and I decided to put him in a doggie day care. We love this particular doggie day care because they also do trainings and long walks with their "customers".

Earlier this week, I met up with close family friends who were visiting from Indonesia. They brought an Indonesian cookbook for me from my sister and I've been going through the recipes in the past couple of days. Yesterday, I decided to make this Indonesian Beef in Spicy & Sweet Soy Sauce called Beef Tongseng. In Indonesia, you would make this dish with goat or lamb meat but I find that fatty beef meat can be a good substitute for them. I followed a recipe from Gramedia International's "Menu Sehari-hari" cookbook.


Ingredients:
1 lb beef eye roast, cut into 1-inch cube
6 shallots, thinly sliced
2 bay leaves
1 lemon grass stalk, bruised
1 tablespoon tamarind water
5 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
4 1/4 cups water
1/2 head of small cabbage, de-bone and roughly cut into thin strips
10 red chilli pepper, seeded and cut into strips
salt and sugar to taste
4 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon black peppercorn
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1/2 tablespoon minced galangal

Directions:

• Using mortar and pestle or food processor, grind the garlic, black peppercorns, coriander, ginger and galangal until they become a smooth paste.
• Stir fry the shallots with 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil over medium heat for 3 minutes or so until light yellow colored.
• Add seasoning paste, bay leaves and lemon grass and cook for another couple of minutes until fragrant.
• Add the meat, toss around and cook until the meat change color.
• Add in the water, soy sauce and tamarind water. When the water boils, lower the heat and continue cooking until the meat is soft.
• When the stock has reduced by half, add the chopped cabbage and chili pepper.
• Adjust seasoning with salt and sugar according to taste.
• Finish cooking when the stock/sauce boils again and serve over white rice.
  

Rawon

Geesh... I can't believe that it's almost end of May already, time definitely flies by quickly. Although I had been cooking plenty of interesting dishes, I didn't have the time to blog them because I had been pretty busy with other things. Since I kind of feel bad about neglecting this blog (don't ask why), I promise that I'll try to be more diligent.

I had been thinking about Rawon (an Indonesian black beef soup) since I had a small portion of it a my sister's place in Indonesia a few months ago. Here is my family's version of this dish courtesy of my Mom.


Ingredients:
2 lb beef stew meat
6 large garlic cloves
10 shallots
4 teaspoons coriander seeds
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
10 black nut (kluwek), rinsed and soaked in warm water
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
salt & pepper
1 teaspoon red chili flakes
1-inch galangal, peeled and bruised
4 kaffir lime leaves, bruised
1 stalk lemongrass
2 bay leaves, torn in half
2 tablespoons palm sugar
1 red chili, cut into strips
vegetable oil
3 green onions, chopped
hard boiled eggs
bean sprouts

Directions:

• Cook the beef stew meat cubes in a pressure cooker for 30 minutes to help the meat becomes tender quickly without having to simmer the soup for hours.
• Take out the meat cubes and save the strained beef broth.
• Using a mortar and pestle, grind the garlic, shallot and coriander seeds in batches with some salt and white pepper. Put the mashed-up mixture into a food processor, add in the turmeric powder, kluwek meat, grated ginger and red chili flakes and grind/puree until smooth.
• In a heavy bottom pan, heat 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil over a medium heat and stir fry the spice paste for a couple of minutes until fragrant.
• Add in the galangal, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass and torn bay leaves and stir fry some more for a couple of minutes or so.
• Add in the cooked meat cubes, mix well so the cubes are coated with the spice paste and cook for a minute or two.
• Add in enough strained beef stock (or water) to completely cover the meat plus an extra inch and cook until boil.
• When the soup is boiling, lower the heat to a simmer, cover the pan and let simmer for 30 minutes or so until the spice flavor is absorbed by the meat.
  
• In the mean time, you can make several hard boiled eggs and blanch the beansprouts (optional).
• Add the chopped green onions and red chili strips and adjust seasoning by adding salt, pepper or palm sugar accordingly.
• Serve over rice with halved hard boiled eggs, blanched beansprouts and shrimp crackers (if you have any).
  

Excelsior Bagelen Biscuit

When visiting my family a few weeks ago in Indonesia, I squealed for joy when I saw this turquoise-colored tin can. Although I have not had it in 20 plus years, somehow I still remember the name so I yelled out 'Bagelen!' and went on to grab a couple Bagelen Biscuit to munch on. Oh... these yummy butter spread biscuits are so airy and crunchy, full with some sweet and salty flavors.


According to the packaging, the company 'Excelsior' is located in Bandung (West Java). It's been around since 1919 and their biscuits only have wheat flour, eggs, sugar, butter, milk, vanilla powder and yeast as the ingredients. I don't know how they did it but the result is totally magic to me.

Indonesian Street Food

Here are some examples of Indonesian street food that I've had while in Indonesia. Our parents did not allow us to buy street foods when we were kids so it's definitely an exciting experience for me to have them now. Sometimes I wished that I was not such a picky eater growing up because I could have enjoyed all of these delicious food more often then especially since they are so cheap at US $ 1 for 10 of them. Oh well, I guess it's better late than never!

Bolang Baling in Semarang. I used to eat these donut-like fried dough about once every month or so growing up and, like the Western version, they're best when they just come out of the fryer. This one is located on Kampung Utri Road, near Dr.Cipto Road.


Kue Leker in Semarang. These are dry and crunchy crepes filled with either chocolate, caramel, banana, peanuts (for the sweet ones) or eggs, cheese, green onion, mini sausages (for the savory ones). Leker is loosely translated to 'delicious' and, boy..., they are indeed delicious! I love the sweet ones because eating them is just like eating light desserts. Kue Leker Pak Paimo is located in front of the Loyola high school on Karanganyar Road.


Putu Bumbung and Klepon in Jakarta. This gentleman pushes his cart passing through my sister's house in Permata Hijau almost every day. We can hear the cart's distinct steaming kettle-like sound from inside the house about 50 yards away so can rush outside to flag him and order these delicious Putu Bumbung (freshly made rice-flour with aren (palm) sugar and fresh coconut steamed inside 2-inch bamboo sections placed on top of a make-shift steamer - 3rd picture below) and Klepon (boiled sticky rice flour balls with aren sugar inside with fresh coconut shaving outside - foreground, 4th picture).

Fried Banana

If you enjoy Fried Banana at Thai or Indonesian restaurants, here is a simple recipe for you to try. I apologize for not knowing the exact measurement for this recipe because I only watched my Mom making them. Enjoy!


Ingredients:

• ripe but still firm bananas
• wheat flour
• rice flour
• a pinch of salt
• warm water
• peanut or canola oil for frying

Directions:

• Since the bananas that we used were already too ripe, we sliced it to smaller pieces so they cook better.
• Mix the 3 part of wheat flour to 1 part of rice flour with a pinch of salt and add the warm water a little bit at a time so that the mixture is not too thin.
• Put the banana slices in the flour mixture and mix slowly to make sure that each of them is coated with the flour mixture.
• Heat up oil in a frying pan or wok over low medium heat until hot.
• Fry a ladle of the banana and flour mixture a few at a time so not to crowd the pan for 4 to 5 minutes each sides until golden brown.
• Put the fried bananas over paper towel to soak the excess frying oil.

Tahu Campur - Tofu with Bean Sprouts and Peanut Sauce

In addition to making Mie Jawa, this morning my Mom and I also made Tahu Campur (Tofu with Bean Sprouts and Peanut Sauce). Although I love the simplicity of this tasty dish, I don't think I will be making it often back in San Francisco because I rarely deep-fry things there - maybe some day when I have a bigger kitchen with better ventilation. I'm glad that I was able to make this in Indonesia.

If you feel ambitious, you can also add hard-boiled eggs, cucumber, tomatoes, boiled vegetables (cabbage, green bean and potatoes) and shrimp crackers to make a full meal like Gado-gado.

Grinding the fried peanuts and garlic.


Putting everything together.


Ingredients:
1 packed of firm tofu
2 cup of fresh (soy) bean sprouts
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1.5 cup raw peanut
2 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup fried shallots
1 green chili (optional)
1 cup sweet soy sauce
1/4 cup of water
peanut or canola oil for frying

Directions:

• Put the tofu between two plates and put a heavy frying pan on top for 30 minutes or so to drain the liquid in the tofu.
• Cut the tofu to 8 equal slices.
• Heat up the frying oil in a wok over medium heat.
• Deep fry the tofu slices in the oil until golden.
• Drain the fried tofu and sprinkle with a little bit of salt.
  
• Blanch the bean sprouts in boiling water for a minute or so, drain and pour on top of the chopped parsley leaves.
  

For the peanut sauce:

• Deep fry the peanuts until golden in a wok over low medium heat for 10 minutes or so.
• Grind the fried peanuts, garlic, sugar and fried shallots in a food processor until roughly chopped. I used mortar and pestle to do this (see picture).
• In a medium bowl, mix the green chili (optional), soy sauce and water together with the peanut mixture.
• The sauce should be quite watery and peanut mixture chunks.

• Serve the tofu with a side of the bean sprouts with a drizzle of the peanut sauce.

Mie Jawa - Javanese Noodle

It's interesting that I have not been in the mood to blog although I have been eating really well in the past week since I'm on vacation back in Indonesia. I took food pictures left and right but somehow I just couldn't force myself to sit down and start writing about them. I felt like I needed to cook something to get motivated to blog. So this morning, I helped my Mom make Mie Jawa (Javanese-style stir fry noodle) and Tahu Campur (Tofu with Bean Sprouts and Peanut Sauce) - both are easy to made traditional Indonesian vegetarian dishes.


Ingredients:
2 tablespoon unsalted butter (or margarine)
10 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon white peppercorn, freshly ground
1/2 cabbage, cut into strips
3 green onions, roughly chopped
1 cup chopped parsley leaves
3 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 eggs
1 lb fresh egg noodle
1.5 cup fried shallots

Directions:

• Heat up the butter in a wok over medium heat.
• Stir fry the garlic, salt and pepper for 1-2 minutes until fragrant and the garlic cloves turn golden.
• Add the cabbage, green onion, parsley, sweet soy sauce and oyster sauce into the wok and cover for approximately 2 minutes until the vegetables begin to cook.
• In the mean time, blanch the fresh noodle for a couple of minutes in a separate pan. If you use dry noodles, cook them according to the package minus 3 minutes or so.
• Create a well in the center of the wok and add in the eggs, breaking the yolks in the process.
• Let the eggs cook for a minute or so until they begin to harden and then stir them to make some kind of scramble eggs.
• Add in the noodle and a cup of the fried shallots, continue cooking for 3 more minutes while mixing everything together.
• Serve the noodle with the rest of the fried shallots. Enjoy!
  

Galantine

One of my favorite dishes growing up in Indonesia was Galantine. The Indonesian version is different from the French version's of de-boned stuffed poultry meat poached and served cold, coated with aspic. Ours is more like a meat rolade with hard-boiled eggs inside. I made mine using a mix of ground pork, ground chicken and liver paste and, for extra kick, I added fried shallots into the mixture. It turned out well and as good as what I had back home.


Ingredients:
1 lb of ground pork
1 lb of ground chicken
1 can of liver paste (~120gr)
6 tablespoons of bread crumbs
4 tablespoons of sweet condensed milk
1/4 cup of fried shallots
3 eggs
1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons of salt
2 teaspoons of pepper
5 hard-boiled eggs
wax paper

Directions:

• Mix the ground meats, liver paste, bread crumbs, milk, shallots, eggs, nutmeg, salt and pepper well in a food processor.
• Lay out the wax paper on a table, put about a third of the meat mixture on the middle of it to cover about half of the wax paper.
• Arrange the hard-boiled eggs on top of the meat mixture and top the eggs with the rest of the meat mixture so it resembles a log.
• Roll the wax paper to enclose the meat & egg log.
• Steam the galantine for 25 minutes.
• After it cools off, open the wax paper and serve the galantine with the tomato sauce.

Tomato Sauce
Ingredients:
3 ripe tomatoes
5 tablespoons of tomato ketchup
5 shallots, finely diced
1 tablespoon of butter
2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon of corn starch
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Boil the tomatoes until they turn soft, drain saving 1 cup of the water used for boiling, cut the tomatoes into chunks.
• Fry the shallots using the butter over low medium heat in a medium pan.
• Increase the heat to medium and add tomato chunks, 1 cup of the tomato water, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Continue cooking until it boils.
• Remove the pan from the heat and let cool down a little bit before blending in a food processor into a smooth consistency.
• Strain the tomato mixture before returning to the pan.
  
• Cook over medium low heat.
• In a small bowl, dissolve the cornstarch using cold water.
• Add into the pan, stir and continue cooking until it boils again.

Spicy Eggplant Balado

This is my take on Egg Balado - an Indonesian dish of fried eggs with spicy chili sauce. Since I'm trying to be healthier, I decided to use eggplants instead of eggs. It turned out really well because the eggplants soak up the sauce.


Ingredients:
1 Eggplant, cut into medium-sized cubes
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped (OR 3 shallots, finely diced)
20 cherry tomatoes, halved (OR 3 tomatoes, chopped)
1 .5 tablespoons of Sambal Oelek
2 tablespoons of sweet soy sauce
3 teaspoons of sugar
2 teaspoons of salt

Directions:

• Mix the Sambal Oelek, sweet soy sauce, sugar and salt in a bowl.
• Stir fry the onion in a pan with olive oil.
• Add in the chili paste, stir.
• Add in the eggplant cubes and stir until eggplant is soft but not too soft (mushy).
• You can add fried eggs or hard boiled eggs on top when serving.
  

Indonesian Clear Spinach and Corn Soup

I bought some nice ears of corn at the Farmer's Market last week. They're so sweet so I decided to make this healthy Indonesian Clear Spinach and Corn Soup (Sup Bayam Jagung Bening). My Mom used to make us this soup growing up because it helped us to cool down during Indonesian summer.


Ingredients:
3 ears of corn, prepped and husked
1 big bowl of spinach
1-2 shallots, minced
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar

Directions:

• Cut corn into 2-3" sections
• In a large pot over medium heat (with enough water to cover the corn sections plus 1-2 inches), boil corn sections for 30 minutes
• Add in minced shallots and spinach
• Adjust seasoning accordingly
• Serve at room temperature

Beef Rendang

Last week, I went to Lime Tree, a South East Asian restaurant in San Francisco, with Mo-Fo and ShunBun. One of the dishes that we all enjoyed very much was Beef Rendang - which is a dish of beef cubes stewed in Indonesian spices and coconut milk. I remembered seeing a Beef Rendang recipe at Closet Cooking so I decided to make it yesterday. Since I couldn't find beef with good marbling, I used beef stew meats instead. The result was not as buttery as I wanted it to be although I had cooked it for three plus hours ... Fortunately, the taste was really good so I was still happy with it. I served it with fried shallots to add some crunch to it.

Indonesian Fried Noodle

Ingredients:
1 package of fresh noodle
5 beef meat balls - cut into quarters
5 fish meat balls - cut into quarters
10 shrimp - shelled, deveined and cut into half
chinese vegetables - cut into bite size
3 leeks (white parts only) - chopped
3 green onion - cut into 2 inch length pieces
3 candlenuts
4 cloves garlic
1 shallot
salt & pepper
2 tablespoon soy sauce
3 tablespoon sweet soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
fried shallots

Directions:

• Grind candlenuts, garlic, shallot, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper to a paste
• In a large work over a medium heat, stir fry the seasoning paste in a 3 tablespoons of oil for a few minutes until fragrant
• Add in the shrimp and meat ball pieces - cook for another 5 minutes
• Add in the vegetables, leeks and green onions - cook for 5 minutes
• Add the noodles and sauces, mix together until all is cooked
  
• Serve with fried shallots on top

Serundeng

Since I made the Chicken and Tofu in Spicy Green Curry Sauce yesterday, I decided to make Nasi Kuning (Indonesian style fragrant yellow rice) and Serundeng (fried spiced grated coconut) to accompany it.


Ingredients:
2 cup grated coconut
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoon palm sugar
1/4 teaspoon dried shrimp paste
1 teaspoon tamarind paste (dilute with 1 teaspoon hot water)
2 garlic cloves
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon grated galangal
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon coriander
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

• Make paste out of the sugar, shrimp paste, tamarind paste, garlic, galangal, cumin, coriander and salt, add a little bit of water if need to
• Stir fry the grated coconut over a medium heat until it turns yellow (for about 10 minutes)
• Take the fried grated coconut out
  
• Stir fry the paste and the bay leaf with 1 tablespoon of canola oil in the pan for 5-10 minutes until it thickens up
• Put the fried grated coconut back into the pan, mix well and cook for another 20-25 minutes stirring frequently until it crisps up but not burned

Chicken and Tofu in Spicy Green Curry Sauce

Tonight, I made another Indonesian inspired dish of Chicken and Tofu in Spicy Green Curry Sauce. It's somewhat similar to the Opor Ayam dish that I made few months ago but it has a little more kick and a bit more sour because I marinated the chicken in lime juice and salt first.


Ingredients:
4 whole chicken legs, cut in pieces
juice of 1/2 lime
1 package of yellow fried tofu, cut in half diagonally
4 hard boiled eggs
1/2 can of coconut milk
5 kaffir lime leaves
6 candle nuts, roughly chopped
1 lemon grass stalk, chopped (white part only)
5 garlic
6 shallots
1 tablespoon grated galangal
1 tablespoon grated tumeric
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1 tablespoon whole pepper, crushed
2 serrano pepper, seeded
4 thai bird eye chilies, 2 seeded (or more if you want)
1 tablespoon palm sugar
1 tablespoon raw sugar
1/2 teaspoon dried shrimp paste
2 tablespoon fish sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Heat the oven to 350F
• Marinate the chicken with the lime juice and salt for 15 minutes, wash thoroughly afterwards
• Sprinkle the chicken pieces with salt and pepper and bake in the oven for 15 minutes
  
• Grind the candle nuts, lemon grass, garlic, shallots, galangal, tumeric, ginger, pepper, serrano pepper, 2 of the thai chili, sugar, shrimp paste in a food processor until smooth, add some canola or olive oil if need to
• Heat up 3 tablespoon of oil in a large pot over medium heat and stir fry the spice paste and the kaffir lime leaves until fragrant
• Add in the fish sauce, half-cooked chicken and the tofu pieces and mix well
• Add the coconut milk and enough water until they're almost covered
• Cook over medium heat until it boils
• Lower the heat to a simmer, add in the hard boiled eggs and the other two thai chilies and cook for another 15-20 minutes until the chicken pieces are soft and the sauce thicken up
• Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper
• Serve over steam rice with some fried shallots
  

Chicken, Shrimp and Tofu in Soy Sauce

I was craving a Chinese Indonesian dish called Nasi Bakmoy - Rice with chicken, shrimp and tofu in soy sauce. However, since I was in a hurry and feeling a bit lazy, I decided to cut corners and this is my simplified version.


Ingredients:
2 chicken breast meat
2 chicken thigh meat
4 cup of water
1/4 lb of shrimp (de-shelled, de-veined and cut in half)
2 packages of medium firm tofu, cut into cubes
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoon soy sauce
3 tablespoon sweet soy sauce
1 teaspoon of white pepper
2 stalks green onion, chopped
salt

Directions:

• Boil the chicken until cooked, cut into cubes and save some of the chicken broth
• Stir fry the minced garlic until fragrant, add in the chicken, shrimp and tofu cubes
• Add in the rest of the ingredients except the green onion and mix well carefully
  
• Add in 2 cups of the chicken broth and cook all on medium heat until the liquid reduce by half
• Add the chopped green onion in the last minute of cooking
• Serve over rice and sprinkle fried shallots on top
  

Stir-Fried Yam Leaf

Today was a weird day for me because things did not go as smooth as usual. So when I got home, I decided to relax by cooking a relatively simple Indonesian dish, Stir-Fried Yam Leaf (or Kangkung Belacan as we know it in Indonesia since we used water spinach there). I never made this dish before but I ate plenty of it and I saw a great recipe at Rasa Malaysia that I knew I could improvise on. Here is my 'adjusted' recipe (see note below):


Ingredients:
1 bunch of yam leaf (or water spinach leaf)
1 can of quail eggs
1/4 teaspoon shrimp paste
2 red bird's eye chilies (I used dried red chillies, halved and seeded)
3 cloves garlic, smashed
1 shallot, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoons Oyster sauce
1 teaspoon sugar (optional)
white pepper

Directions:

• In a medium pan over medium high heat, stir fry the chilies, garlic, shallot and shrimp paste with the oil for 3-4 minutes until fragrant
• Add in the soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, Oyster sauce, and the quail eggs and cook for another 3 minutes
• Add in the yam leaves and stir thoroughly until the leaves started to wilt (cooked)
• Adjust seasoning using sugar and white pepper

Note: The cooking did not go as well either as I over-seasoned the dish. The original recipe used a lot more shrimp paste and double the seasoning sauces. Although it tasted good, it was a bit in the salty side for me. And to top it off, my apartment smelled really bad for the whole night (the curse of shrimp paste)!

Indonesian Soy-Braised Pork

In the past couple of weeks I have been thinking about an Indonesian dish called Babi Kecap (Soy-Braised Pork) so I decided to call my Mom to get the recipe.


Ingredients:
1 lb of pork with some fats (I used pork butts), cut into 1-inch cubed
6 garlic - smashed
1/2 tablespoon of white pepper powder
3-4 tablespoon of sweet soy sauce
4-5 tablespoon of soy sauce
Salt, pepper and sugar - to taste
Water
Fried yellow tofu
Hard-boiled eggs

Directions:

• In a medium or large pot, stir-fry the garlic and white pepper powder until fragrant (30 seconds or so) over a medium high heat with a bit of oil
• Stir in the pork cubes, cooked for another 2-3 minutes until the pork is not pink anymore
• Add in both soy sauce and sweet soy sauce
• Add in the enough water to cover the pork plus 1 or 2 more inches extra and cook until it boils
• Add in the cooked fried yellow tofu and hard boiled eggs
• Cook until it boils again, lower heat the down and simmer for 1 hour until the pork cubes are soft
  
• Adjust the taste with salt, white pepper, soy sauces and a bit of sugar

Chicken in Spiced Coconut Sauce and Chayotes Stew

Tonight I had Mo-Fo Duo, ShunBun, Danny and Craig over for an Indonesian dinner at my place. I made Chicken in Spiced Coconut Sauce (Opor Ayam) and Chayotes Stew (Sayur Labu Lodeh). I used to have them for Cap Go Meh (Chinese New Year Lantern Festival) growing up.


ShunBun brought a Chinese New Year Rice Cake (Nian Gao) which he deep-fried with some sugar, flour & water coating. It was my first time having it and I liked it. It reminded me of Japanese mochi cake.


I spent the afternoon making the spice paste for both main courses by grinding the spices using a mortar pestle and cutting up the chayotes into small toothpick-sized juliennes.


I used my Mom's family recipe for the Chicken in Spiced Coconut Sauce and Chayote Stew. To keep the recipe in the family (and close and trusted friends)... here's the NYTimes version.


End product: Chayote, egg, yellow tofu and chicken sprinkled with fried shallots.


Danny brought some French Macaroons and a couple of Chocolate Cakes from La Boulange Cafe & Bakery and I deep-fried some bananas for dessert - although the fried bananas tasted good, the texture was a bit too gooey for me. Next time, I will use plantains instead.


We washed down our dinner with these yummy wines.