Soto Betawi

...without minyak samin...*sigh*
I don't know how to explain what minyak samin is to the shopkeeper here in Leuven. So i decided to make a lighter vesion of soto betawi, without using minyak samin nor jeroan. :)))

Here the recipe goes:

1/2 kg beef meat or mutton
1/2 kg potato, peeled, diced, and half-boiled
2 rounds tomato, diced
500 ml thick coconut milk
250 ml fresh milk
750 ml water, bring to boil
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
half round fresh onion, sliced
2 bay leaves
a stick of lemongrass
coriander powder
1/4 teaspoonful ginger powder
a pinch of cumin powder
salt, pepper, sugar to taste.

for garnish:
spring onion, sliced
coriander leave, minced
fried onion

Bring water to boil and make broth out of 1/2 kg beef meat. Simmer until you have approximately 300 ml broth in the pan. Take meat out of the pan and cut into 3x3cm cube. On other stove, saute garlic, onion, bay leaves, and lemongrass until fragrant. Put them into broth. Add milk and coconut milk. Sprinkle coriander, ginger, and cumin powder. Add salt, pepper, and sugar into taste. Stir evenly. Bring all to boil. You will see that your broth become oily. Last, toss half-boiled potato in. Cook until tender.

In a bowl, serve your soto with fresh diced tomato, sliced spring onion, coriander leaves, and fried onion. You would be happy if you have emping (melinjo chips) too. Serve with steamed rice.

Smakelijk eten!

Shumay / Siomay

Pisang Aroma a la Leuven

This popular Bandung snack was made from wrapped banana slice. We normally use springroll paper to wrap the banana but in Leuven it is difficult to find that particular springroll paper, the one which used for Indonesian springroll. What makes it very special was the ingredients of the paper. Vietnamese or Thai springrolls use rice paper which is rather sticky, while most of Indonesian springrolls use a kind of egg paper. These springroll papers give different texture when fried or steamed.

And in the end i didn't use springroll paper, i used what was available in my fridge: wonton skin :)))

You know that it was really easy for you to make this snack (slice-wrap-fry all the bananas) so i would only give you tips.

1. Banana contains natural sugar. Without adding extra sugar you will have natural caramels. But if you want more sweetness, sprinkle sugar inside your wrapper to avoid melted sugar dropping inside your pan. If you want sugar texture on the skin, make sure that the frying oil has reached it's nearly boiling temperature.

2. Choose a nearly ripe banana, because it will get really soft when it's fried.

Voila, smakelijk eten!

Sweet Martabak :9

Risoles Chicken Ragout

What is risoles in English actually? Nevermind. This is one of my favorite snack ever! One day my husband got an afternoon tea invitation with his professor and he asked me to make an Indonesian specialty. A snack specialty. I chose risoles because the ragout filling tastes like some kind of chicken carbonara sauce. I guess ragout itself was a western food, no?

Although it took a little while to prepare this snack but i could say i was proud of this Holleberg made risoles. Here goes the recipe: for 15 pcs.

RAGOUT FILLING

1/2 kg chicken breast fillet

200 gr carrot, cut in small dice

200 gr sweet corn (i used canned sweet corn)

2 rounds onion, cut in dice

4 cloves of garlic, ground

50 gr cheddar blocks

750 ml milk

500 ml water

4 spoons of tapioca starch or corn starch, diluted in milk (this is gonna be the thickening agent. If you like to use wheat flour instead of cornstarch, make it 250 gr)

chicken stock blocks

salt, sugar, pepper

RISOLES WRAPPING

(Pardon my English. Still looking for any better translation for the Indonesian 'kulit risoles', hehehe)

250 gr wheat flour

3 eggs

500 ml milk

salt and a pinch of sugar

a bowl of fine bread crumbs
2 eggs, battered.

vegetable oil for deep frying

The best way to start making this snack is by preparing your wrappers first. If in the process you somewhat need to cancel finishing this, you can save your wrappers for another purpose. Probably for lumpia.

Mix 500 ml milk with 250 gr of wheat flour and whisk evenly. Put eggs in and season to taste. Heat a flat pan and pour the liquid to make a kind of thin crepe. Do this to all of the mixture and let it set.

Meanwhile, cut chicken breast fillet into a fist size chunk and bring it to boil with 500 ml water. This is gonna be your stock base. Add chicken stock blocks and let it cool down a bit. Take chicken out and cut them into dices.

In a large saucepan, saute sliced onion together with chopped garlic and make it a little caramelized. Don't make it too brown though. If you use wheat flour as thickening agent, pour the flour now and stir quickly. Add diced carrot, corn, cheddar blocks, and diced chicken breast. Stir evenly. Pour milk and chicken stock into the pan, and cook them together until it gets thick. If you use corn/tapioca starch as thickener, you might add them (diluted in milk) after the liquid mixture starts to boil. Let it set.

After ragout and wrappers are done, it's time to do the rollings.
Prepare your crepe. Put one two spoonful of ragout filling in the middle and wrap it like an envelope. Roll it into battered egg and cover it with breadcrumb. Do it until you finish all wrappers and fillings. You can put them in fridge for a night before frying, but it is also OK to fry it directly after you've done rolling. Prepare vegetable oil and heat it up a large cooking bowl. Deep fry your risoles until it gets a nice golden brown color.

Voila, smakelijk eten!

Shrimp with Sweet-sour Sauce

(this post was formerly titled Shrimp with Kekkian Sauce, until i realized that i meant to make a recipe for shrimps with sweet sour sauce. Kekkian itself means fishball. Haha)

1/2 kg peeled tiger shrimp
3 sticks red chili (slice two of them)
2 sticks spring onion, sliced
1 round tomato
4 spoonful tomato paste
250 ml water
1 spoonful tapioca starch, diluted in water
4 cloves of garlic
salt, sugar, and pepper

Prepare tomato paste by blending 1 round of tomato with tomato sauce and a stick of chili. Heat up your pan and pour 3 spoonful of vegetable oil. Wait until the oil heat up and toss garlic into the pan. Saute until fragrant. Stirfry 1/2 kg tiger shrimp until the color changes and pour tomato paste in. Toss sliced chili and sliced spring onion. Stir evenly. Add water. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and sugar to make them into taste. You have to make sure that you put enough sugar to make this sauce 'sweet'. Add diluted tapioca starch and wait until the liquid gets thick.

Serve with fried potato.
Smakelijk eten!

Panikki Egg Birthday Feast

Pilav Rice

Bangkok Style Salad

I forgot to take picture of the sauce while it was the thing which made this salad a 'bangkok style' salad. sorry :'(

But don't worry, i would write the recipe down anyway. Here it goes.

1 cup or 1 can of peanutbutter, approximately 300gr

3 spoonful chili sauce (make it 2 if you use sriracha sauce)

3 cloves of garlic

3 spoonful fresh lemon squash

Dilute peanut butter with 500ml hot water, put aside. Ground garlic and mix it with lemon squash. Mix them together with peanut butter. Heat a sauce pan. Heat your peanut butter and add chili sauce into the mixture. Sprinkle with sugar to make it a little bit sweet. Do not overheat it, do not boil it. You only need to warm the mixture.

 Make it a dressing for your fruit salad: tomato, cucumber, bean sprout, lettuce, apple, and boiled egg.

Smakelijk eten!

Gepuk Daging / Spicy Fried Beef

This fried beef is a typical Sundanese food (one of nation tribe in Indonesia). I made this with modification from the original recipe because i could not find galangal/lengkuas/laja/laos. But it still tasted good.

300 gr beef loin
5 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 shallot, sliced
2 lemongrass
3 bayleaves
250 ml coconut milk
50 gr dry grated coconut
1 teaspoon coriander powder
750 ml water to boil
1/2 teaspoonful tamarind paste diluted in 2 spoonful of water
1 spoonful palm sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Cook together beef loin and all other ingredients in one large pot. Once the meat got half-cooked (the color turns to grey), take it out from the water then slice about half centimeter each. This is the funniest part: smash meat until flat. Be careful don't make it crumble!

Cook again all of the cut meat for about 10 minute. Take it out of off fire.
Prepare frying oil and heat it up. Deep fry sliced meat until it turns brown. Serve with fried onion, sambal, and hot rice.

Smakelijk!

Vegetable Mild Curry

Martabak Telur

Batagor Komplit

After a loooong battle and a fierce hostility against the kitchen (haha), i got my power back :3
My best friend told me that she wanted to eat batagor, a kind of traditional snack from West Java. It is actually sliced tofu stuffed with fish dough, steamed, and then fried, served with spicy peanut sauce. The batagor itself is usually accompanied by fried pangsit or fried dumplings.

I thought that it would be good for a come back wasn't it? Hehe. Then there they were! Please welcome a bunch of happiness: Batagor Komplit :3

Batagor (top left picture) :
6 blocks of tofu (i used solid chinese tofu, @300gr. don't use japanese tofu, it's usually too smooth)
1 kg Pangasius Fish
15 sticks of young onion (junge ajuin, green onion, or leek)
8 cloves of garlic
400 gr tapioca flour
1 teaspoon chicken stock
salt, pepper, sugar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 eggs, whisk

for outer layer/coating before frying: 2 eggs, whisk together with salt and pepper

Cut tofu block into your desired size. Make a hole in crater shape, in the middle of your tofu blocks which would be cup for your fish dough. Put tofu cups aside and the remaining scraps will be used in the fish dough.
Blend fish, tofu scraps, and garlic in a food processor. While it's processing, chop young onion. Mix together all the ingredients with your processed fish until it's smooth and steady.

Put a spoonful of fish dough inside your tofu cups. Do this until your tofu cups are stuffed.
Steam your tofu cups for approximately 15 minutes. Take it out from steamer and let it cool.

Dip your steamed tofu into egg coating and deep-fry in preheated oil.

Fried Pangsit (top middle picture):
ready to fry dumpling skin
previous fish dough

You can make this fried pangsit in any shape, but i prefer to make it simple. Take a half spoonful of fish dough, wrap it with instant dumpling skin. Fry in preheated oil.

I made 50 pieces fried pangsit from the remaining fish dough, and still got bonus: Fried fish dough (bottom left picture). It's a big feast!! :)))

Batagor Soup (bottom middle picture) :
1 ltr water
half teaspoon chicken stock
4 cloves of garlic
salt, pepper, and sugar

Chop garlic and saute inside your saucepan. Add water and chicken stock, let it boil. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and sugar until it meets the taste. Serve with chopped young onion.

Peanut Sauce (far right picture):
300 gr peanut butter
6 cloves of garlic
6 sticks of red chili
4 sticks of cayenne/bird eye chili
50 gr solid palm sugar
4 teaspoon vinegar
salt and sugar

Saute red chili, bird eye chili, and garlic. Crush/cut them rough.
Boil on low heat: peanut butter, vinegar, palm sugar, and a glass of water. Stir in your sauteed chili. Sprinkle with salt and sugar until it meets your taste.

Serve with batagor, fried pangsit, steamed potato, boiled egg, and thick black soy sauce.
Smakelijk eten!

Cakue

Yeah! You know, when you're expecting a baby normally you have a constant craving for a particular food. Now my heavenly food was this cakue.

I can tell you that it was not easy to make. Especially to make the dough. It was painful to wait them rise.
But anyway. Here we go.

300 gr of wheat flour (use the medium-protein type, or the type that usually used for bread dough)
a spoonful of baking powder
a half spoonful of baking soda
a half spoonful of dry yeast
salt to taste
200 ml water

Cakue sauce:
2 spoonful of tomato sauce
1 spoonful of chili sauce
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
a little bit of water, maybe a spoonful
(it would be nice if you add slices of young mango or pineapple into it)

Make cakue dough by mixing all of the ingredients. Knead the dough until it's smooth and do not stick on your palm. Cover your bowl with plastic sheet and wait it to rise approximately for 6 hours. No i'm not kidding, it is 6 HOURS. That was why i called it painful to wait :)))

After six hours, beat the dough to push the air out, and make cakue shape out of it. I took a spoonful of dough then flat it down. Then I took another spoonful of it, flat it down, and stacked it on the previous flat dough. So a ready-to-fry cakue will have two flat dough stick to each other. Fry them in preheated oil. Make sure the oil is hot.

For cakue sauce:
Stir together all of your ingredients until it gets a nice consistency. I like thick sauce, so i just add a very little amount of water.

TIPS:
Before you put your cakue dough into oil, stretch it a little bit. It will give you softer and fluffier texture of cakue.

Smakelijk eten!

Egg Soup

I knoooowww, it looks ugly, jaaaa??

Believe me, this ugly looking soup is my mom's recipe and it is the best to overcome nausea and flatulence, and whenever you feel that you had no appetite. The key of this delicious soup are young onions and pepper. 

Oh, don't forget to eat it while it's hot.

Here goes the recipe!

3 glass of water

2 eggs, beat

a cup of oriental soybean noodle (bihun, if you know it)

2 cloves of garlic, crushed and minced. It'd be better if it comes in paste

2 sticks of young onion, minced

chicken stock powder

salt, pepper, and sugar

Heat your pot. Add a little oil.

Saute garlic for a moment until its fragrance comes out. Toss young onions in. 

Add water and let it boil, meanwhile, put your bihun in a bowl of hot water and let it tenders. When you have your water boiled, toss the bihun in.

Then here comes the most interesting part of this soup, that's gonna make this soup ugly :D
Pour your beaten eggs into your boiling water. The trick is, while you pouring the egg, keep on stirring the soup. It makes a kind of whirlpool in your pot and the egg will flow like thread following your vortex. 

Now add chicken stock, salt and sugar until it fits the taste. Don't forget to spice it with pepper, or chili powder if you like. 

Smakelijk eten!

Ebi Furai

Hi everyone!
Looks like i've abandoned this blog, eh? :D Sorry, been busy with my pregnancy and had no guts to fight the urge of avoiding my own kitchen :)))) Well since my pregnancy gives me a major turn off to the kitchen, turns out that my recipes now would be far simpler and lazier than before. Hehehehe. Please enjoy it anyway ;)

This time i'd share the survival recipe for ebi furai or fried shrimp. It's a little bit from ebi tempura since ebi furai use dry flour for the coating. Here goes the dos.

250 gr shrimp, peeled and cleansed
4 spoonful of dry wheat flour
5 spoonful of bread crumbs
2 battered eggs
salt and pepper
oil for frying

Marinate your shrimps with salt and pepper, roll it into dry flour then dip it into battered egg. Coat it with dry bread crumbs and immediately fry your shrimp in a preheated cooking oil.

Seems to be a joke, it's too simple, i know :)) Enjoy it with tartar sauce and drops of fresh lemon juice :9
Smakelijk eten!

Honey Apple in Bread Crumbs Pie

CILOK!!

Cilok is a traditional snack from Indonesia, originated from West Java. It is actually ball-shaped steamed tapioca starch, presented with spicy peanut sauce or sweet sour chili sauce. Some recipe adds fish, beef marrow, or shrimp into the dough, but i simply used only tapioca flour for the dough.

Here we go.

4 spoonful tapioca flour
a stick of young onion
salt
chicken stock powder
hot water

Mix in a bowl tapioca flour, minced young onion, chicken stock powder, and salt. Add hot water into the bowl while you're stirring the mixture. The dough should be thick and solid enough that you can make ball shape from the dough. If you add too much water, balance it by adding more tapioca flour.

You can steam the balls or boil them. You can tell that they're done in the steamer by pinning it with skewer, or when they've floated on the boiling water surface. Take them out and let it chill.
Smakelijk eten!

Shrimp Soup

This is gonna be a lot like tom yam but i couldn't say it is a tom yam. Anyway, here goes the recipe:

250 gr tiger shrimp
100 gr champignon mushroom
5 cloves of garlic
4 tomatoes
3 sticks of lemon grass
2 sheets of bayleaves
4 sheets of lemon leaves
750 ml water
3 spoonful of lemon juice
1 spoonful of vinegar
basil powder
salt, pepper, and sugar

Make tomato paste by blending tomatoes with garlic and a stick of lemon grass. Saute this paste inside a bowl pan together with a sheet of bayleave and 2 sheets of lemon leave then toss in your shrimp. Stir in until your shrimps get half-cooked and then add water. Mix together.

Put into the mixture: 2 sticks of lemon grass, bayleave, and lemon leaves. Add lemon juice and vinegar. Stir well. When your mixture gets nearly boiled, toss in your sliced mushroom then sprinkle it with basil powder and salt, pepper, and sugar into taste.

Voila! Smakelijk eten!

Nan Bread and Lamb Curry

Still having lamb meat in our fridge, i decided to make lamb curry :)
Here goes our survival version of lamb curry.

200 gr of lamb, cut in cubes shape

1 cloves of shallot
3 cloves of garlic
3 cups of coconut cream

2 spoonful of turmeric powder
2 sticks of lemongrass
2 leaves of laurelblatt or bayleaves
2 centimeters of galangal
salt and pepper

I know I should've had cumin seed and aniseed, but since i did not, i don't really put concern on it ;p

First, crush together shallot and garlic. Inside a bowl pan, saute them until fragrant and then toss your meat in. Stir in. Add 3 cups of water and let it boils into half. Add coconut cream, mix well. Add turmeric, and then toss the rest of spices in. Stir in until it boils.

Finish? Yeah, sure :) Smakelijk eten!

Lamb Satay

Satay is Indonesian word for meat on skewer. We usually eat this skewered meat with peanut sauce and sweet soy sauce. This time, i had soft lamb meat from nearby halal store and decided to grill some lamb satay. Here goes the recipe.

Lamb satay:
250 gr lamb meat, i used the sirloin part.
4 cloves of garlic
halfround of lemon
pepper
salt

Peanut sauce:
200 gr peanut
1 or 2 sticks chayenne pepper
4 cloves of garlic
2 spoonful of bumbu pecel (i used this bumbu pecel because i couldn't find any kencur or lesser  galangal here.)

Prepare your meat first. Cut it into cubes. Marinate your meat in liquid mixture of lemon juice, salt, pepper, and chopped garlic. Let it set for half an hour.

Next, prepare your sauce. Roast peanut until it's fully cooked. Crush it into powder by using food processor. Boil two cups of water and put your peanut powder into it. Stir in chopped garlic together with chopped chayenne pepper. Add bumbu pecel. Mix well.

Now it's time to grill your meat. First, set your meat into your skewers. Then dip it into boiling water to make it half-cooked. I used this technique because we don't want to grill it too long. Not because it'll get black but it'll turn our fire alarm on ;D Take it out from water, now roll your skewed meat into sweet soy sauce and grill until it's cooked.

Service your lamb satay with hot steamed rice and cucumber pickles.
Smakelijk eten!

Arancini Balls

It's actually fried rice balls. I'm on my 7 weeks pregnancy now, and i can barely eat rice. So one day my husband had too many rice leftover, i was inspired by my friend who posted arancinis photo on her Tumblr.
Here goes the recipe. (i will not write the measurement down, because it will depend on what fillings you make for your arancini)

For the rice balls and fillings:
Rice
Cube size sauteed chicken
Slice cheese
Parsley
Salt, pepper, and chicken powder.

For the skin:
Battered eggs. 2 eggs is enough for app.12 balls
Bread crumbs

Mix together all the ingredients for your rice balls. Make ball shape using your hand and make sure that it's tight and solid enough. You won't like it if your rice balls get scattered out when they're fried.

Roll your rice balls in egg and then roll it in bread crumbs. Repeat this process twice. Set aside, wait until the egg layer is still. Here, your arancini are ready to be fried.

Prepare your frying oil. Make sure that it stays on medium heat. Overheat will cause uneven color to your arancini. When your oil is ready, fry your arancini until it has golden brown color.

Voila, smakelijk eten!

Tips:

• If you don't have ready-to-use bread crumbs, make your own by processing dried bread. If you don't have dried bread, you can try to put your bread on heated pan, but make sure that they don't get burned.
• If you use brown bread like i did, your arancini will get black too soon, but don't worry. It doesn't mean that it's overcooked.

My Signature Dessert

It is apple porridge :) It's nice to have it while it's warm; still nice when it's freshly out from the fridge.
Here goes the recipe.

3 apples
3 cups of milk
4 spoonfuls corn starch
50 gr sugar
lemon

Cut apples into small cubes. Shower with lemon juice. Put aside.
Boil milk and sugar. Toss your marinated apples and stir in.
Add corn starch, diluted in 5 spoonful of cool milk. Stir in well.
Wait until your porridge gets thicken.
Voila, smakelijk eten! ;)

Tips: you can add cinnamon powder or cinnamon sugar into the mixture to add flavor.

My Signature Appetizer

...is garlic bread :))))

You don't have to be genius to make this crispy salty bread. You don't even have to HAVE an oven toaster.
Here goes the list:

bread, as many as you want
butter, better salted
parsley, if you use the fresh one, chop. if you use dried parsley, you cut half of the mess ;)
garlic powder
salt

I'm pretty sure you know how to apply butter, garlic powder, and last, to sprinkle parsley on top of your bread. So i'm just gonna write down my tips:

• It would be easier to apply garlic if you mix it first into the butter and salt. When you whisk them together, your butter would melt a bit and it would be softer. 
• You better use a non-stick pan, no additional oil is needed.
• Preserve your pan in a constant temperature. Low heat will make your bread have a nice golden brown colour but it takes longer time. Medium temperature will likely make your bread has deeper brown and a risk of burnt, so you need to pay attention.

Smakelijk eten!

Kung Pao Pasta

It was basically a kungpao seafood, but turned ou that we had leftover so i mashed the kungpao with a little touch of italian taste. A crossover, indeed ;)

Here goes the recipe.

Seafood kungpao:

150gr shrimp, cleansed, better use halfcooked shrimp if you don't like to chop heads and clean the mess.

2 sticks of leek, cut it rather big

2 cloves of garlic, sliced

2 spoonful of sesame oil

3 spoonful of roasted peanut

1 spoonful oyster sauce

2 spoonful of thick soy sauce

2 sticks of cayenne pepper

sunflower oil

salt and pepper

Heat your pan up on high heat and pour 2 spoonful of sunflower oil, wait until the oil heaten up. Toss sliced garlic and leek in, saute until it fragrant. Add cayenne pepper, stir in until you smell chilli aroma. Put your shrimp into the mixture, stir until the color turn pink. Pour in sesame oil, oyster sauce, soy sauce, and roasted peanut. Mix well. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste.

You can eat this kungpao with hot steamed rice or as i suggested, mix it with al dente pasta.

Smakelijk eten!

Meatball Fiesta

You know you're an indigenous Sundanese when you love this savory noodle and meatball soup. Yeah we simply call it: bakso. 

Here goes the recipe:

Meatballs:

250 gr minced beef

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

60 gr tapioca starch

salt and pepper

iced water

Blend minced beef and garlic in a food processor, make it tender. Season with salt and pepper. Add tapioca starch and mix them together by pouring a little amount of iced water. You have to make sure that this meatball dough is mixed in low temperature (that is why we use iced water). Mix well, make dough in ball shape. Boil the meatballs until they float. Take them out.

Basically, your meatballs are done here. You can further-do the meatballs with wheat noodle or rice noodle or mix it with fried rice. But if you want to have original Sundanese taste, i gotta write down the secret.

The key of Sundanese taste of bakso, or meatball soup, lies in its soup. The best soup is made from meat broth, a mixture consist of beef hard bones and marrow bones broth. But since i didn't have bones here, i used meat, beef lard, and a sprinkle of instant meat stock.

Soup:

50 gr beef lard

50 gr beef meat

1 block instant meat stock

1 liter water

1 stick leek, chopped

3 cloves or garlic, ground

salt and pepper

Boil all of the ingredients together, wait until the broth comes out. Remember, take out the broth foam, if you don't do it, it'll make your soup too easy to be musty. 

When your soup is ready, pour it into your favorite bowl. Add meatballs, noodle, bean sprouts, pok-choy, chopped celery, chopped coriander, chopped leek, and fried onion. Eat while it's warm.

Smakelijk eten!

A kind of Bulgogi

I'm not a fan of Korean culinaire. I can say, never. But one day Mas Dito's friend invited us to have a korean dinner at her house, and i thought i could enjoy the taste (except kimchi. no. really. i don't really like it i don't know why). My favourite was grilled meat and sesamed veggies, so the next week, we tried to make a duplication of the dish. Here we go:


250 gr of beef, sliced really thin
marinade your beef in a mixture of yakiniku sauce, sesame oil, and a little bit of thick soy sauce.


3 cups of spinach, blanched.
1 stick of green onion or leek, sliced
sesame seed
sesame oil

While waiting for your marinated beef (approximately 1 hour) you can prepare your spinach. Blanch your spinach in a pot of boiling water and shower it with cold water right after you take them out from the pot. Let them be cooled. After that, add sliced green onion and 3 spoonful of sesame oil (or as much as you want, just make sure that it doesn't turn to soup) then mix well. Sprinkle with sesame seed.

Grill your marinated beef and serve them with warm rice.
Smakelijk eten!

Nasi Liwet

Nasi Liwet, Belgian version :))

It was out of nowhere, i wanted to have nasi liwet really bad. Because there's no ikan asin here, i just went with coconut milk and another herbs to make it tasted like the real one. Here we go.

Prepare your rice, just as normal as you make your daily rice (for Indonesian, you haven't eat anything before you eat rice) or perhaps i can write:

2 cups of rice, cleansed.

i usually use 3 parts of water for every 2 cups of rice, so for this nasi liwet i used 2 part of water and 1 part of coconut milk. put them together in the rice cooker.

Before clicking it on, add 1 teaspoon of chickenstock powder (do not whine, i know it would be better using chicken bone, but don't sweat what you don't have, remember?), 3 cloves of smashed garlic, 1 leaf of laurelblatt or bay leaves, a little pinch of salt and pepper, and half stick of lemon grass. Mix them together , turn your rice cooker on aaaanddd wait until it's done.

Finish?

Yeah. Finish. You can eat nasi liwet with frid chicken, fish, beef stew, or simply like ia had: mixed veggies with peanut sauce, a.k.a pecel.

Smakelijk eten ;)

Pempek, Belgian version ;)

Pempek with pangasius dough

As a hardcore fan of pempek (or fishcake with sweet sour spicy soup), i always have attempt to make my own version of pempek whenever i'm abroad.

My first foreign-pempek was made in Erfurt, using potato starch and mackerel fish. It's nice in the beginning, moist dough and soft fish cake after it's fried. But turned out that it became really hard to bite as soon as it cooled down. FAIL :)) But the soup was nice although i had no gula jawa, and change it with palm sugar which was totally different. I had a clearer soup than a thick one.

My second attempt in making foreign-pempek was in Kitakyushu. I failed to find tapioca starch so i changed it with mochi flour and i used sawara (japanese mackerel) fish for the dough. It was too sticky and it was really difficult to fry because it never went crispy. I got black sugar which was made from sugar cane. It had different aroma with gula jawa but had similar thickness so the soup turned well. This time the fish cake was edible for longer time, but with a slight aroma of green bean in the dough :))

My third attempt was here in Leuven and it SUCCEED!!! *evil laugh*

Here goes the recipe:

Pempek/Fishcake dough:

900 gr pangasius fish (i know i use this fish a lot. this is the cheapest fish, i can't help it)

600 gr tapioca starch

5 cloves of garlic

salt 

Chop garlic and pangasius fillet. It would be easier if you use food processor. Make it soft and mix together well. Add tapioca starch little by little. Season with salt. Mix the dough thoroughly. Make balls from the dough. If you find the dough too sticky, add flour to your hand and shape your dough. Boil your dough until they float on the water surface. Take out from water, put aside.

Sweet-sour-spicy-soup:

300 gr of solid palm sugar. You can find it in Asian Store, some of them were made in Thailand.

2 stick of cayenne pepper. You can change it with cayenne powder.

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

3 spoonful vinegar

salt 

Blend together cayenne pepper and garlic in food processor. Chop palm sugar and boil it in 3/4 liter of water. Pour in pepper and garlic into the liquid right after palm sugar is fully diluted. Season with salt. Stir in vinegar and wait until the mixture boils. 

You can add chopped cucumber to your soup and enjoy it while it's warm.

Smakelijk eten!

Pangasius Steak with cream sauce and lemon sauce

This simple dinner is actually made from three dishes, that will consume a little longer of your time. Make sure you're not in a hurry when you decide to make this steak for dinner.

Mashed potato:

3 potatoes or 250 gr

1 spoonful butter

3 spoonful of milk 

salt, pepper, and chopped parsley

Peel potatoes and cut into cubes. Boil your cubes in water in 30 minutes, sprinkle with salt. Check your potato cubes by using fork. If it'd been soft enough, take it out from water then smash your cubes until it thoroughly fine. Mix it with butter. Add milk, stir in. Season with salt, pepper, and parsley. Put aside.

Caramelized Veggies:

Any veggies you have in your fridge. I found broccoli and carrot so that's what we're gonna use.

Cut your veggies into desired shape, saute on non-stick pan and medium heat. Sprinkle with sugar (yes, sugar) and salt. Make sure it caramelized.

Pangasius Steak: 

500gr Pangasius fillet. You can use salmon but make sure it is salmon fillet, not smoked sliced salmon.

Dry basil powder

Salt and pepper

First, prepare you fish by seasoning it with salt and pepper. Put aside (while waiting for this, you can do your other dishes). After you think that it's been marinated enough, sprinkle basil powder to you fillet.

Prepare your non-stick pan, coat the cooking surface with butter and heat it on medium heat. When it's hot enough, grill you fillet until it's done.

Cream sauce:

1/2 onion

2 cup/400 ml of milk

1 teaspoon butter

Salt, pepper

Dried basil powder

1 teaspoon maizena flour/ corn starch, dilute in 3 spoonful of water

Chopped onion, saute with melt butter in medium heat. Turn the heat to low, pour milk and stir in until it's half boiled. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add basil powder. Stir in. Pour the diluted corn starch in and stir in until it gets thicken. Done.

Orange sauce:

1/2 onion

2 cup/400 ml of orange juice, of course you can use instant orange juice.

1 teaspoon butter

1/2 lemon

Salt, pepper

1 teaspoon maizena flour/ corn starch, dilute in 3 spoonful of water

Chopped onion, saute with melt butter in medium heat. Turn the heat to low, pour orange juice and stir in until it's half boiled. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Squeeze lemon and add the juice into your mixture. Stir in. Pour the diluted corn starch in and stir in until it gets thicken. Done.

Prepare the steak on flat plate, and voila, smakelijk eten! :)

Handtossed Pizza

Handtossed Pizza

This is also my alltime favorite.

Use the same dough as i written in this post, the rest is about your fave topping. I won't write any recipe for the topping because it will be up to you ;)

Smakelijk eten!

Fried Donut

Roti Goreng

What do you want for a cold rainy day? True. A nice warm dishes. I made this roti goreng (it is literally translated as fried bread) for snacks before dinner. Check it out:

Prepare your dough first: 

6 spoonful of wheatflour

1/2 teaspoon of dried yeast

cool water

Mix wheat flour with yeast evenly, add water and knead the dough until it's smooth and it doesn't stick to your hand. Put your dough in a dry bowl and cover your bowl with damp fabric. Put aside, let it rise and expand for about 2 hours.

Meanwhile, cook the filling:

100 gram of lamb sausage, chopped

1/2 round of onion, chopped

1 stick of carrot, diced

chopped leeks or scallion or green onion

coriander powder

salt, pepper, and sugar

Saute all of the ingredients above, season until it fits your taste. Do not put too much coriander powder, it will make you faint because of the smell ;)

After your dough is ready, make it into 6 parts of smaller dough. Put aside, let is expand for 30 minutes. If they're ready, flatten your dough, fill with your sauteed lamb sausage, and make it into  nice ball/round shape. Actually, i made them triangles :)) 

Put aside, let it rest for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, heat your vegetable oil up.

Fry the dough when your oil is almost boiling. You need to make sure that the heat is not too hot that it will make your dough hard on the surface. 

Voila, smakelijk eten!

Healthy Brunch

Crispy Salad

It should not be 'brunch' if i have already had my breakfast before i chewed this salad. This was my in-between meal, when i feel hungry in the morning but didn't want to eat a second breakfast. This should be really easy to make. 

What you need are:

A cup of vegetable mix

2 spoonful of mayonnaise

One hard-boiled egg

One boiled egg yolk, other than the other egg

Savory crackers/biscuits

Salt and a little pepper

Mix mayonnaise with egg yolk until it you have smooth mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix this mixture with vegetables, put crackers and boiled egg on top of it. Ready to eat :)

Smakelijk eten!

 

Yolk, anyone?

Mushroom and Egg

 When you need proteins but feel bored with meat, try egg and mushroom. But this one will possibly make you fart a lot. A stinky ones ;) I know i cooked mushroom a lot. Hey, that's the cheapest protein i could afford this time. 

Anyway, here's the note:

2 eggs

50 gr champignon mushroom

1/2 round onion, chopped

1/2 round tomato, chopped

3 spoonful tomato paste

1 spoonful butter

1/2 teaspoon oregano

salt, sugar, and pepper

parsley

First, boil eggs until it's hard, peel the skin, cut into two parts, and put aside. 

On medium heat, melt butter and saute onion and tomato until it gets tender. Pour in tomato paste and add a little water. Stir well.

Stir in slice mushroom and cook until your mushroom shriveled. Add oregano, salt, and pepper into taste. Put in you eggs, stir in carefully so the yolks stay still and don't slop.Take it out of the pan, service in a dish, sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Voila, smakelijk eten!

Chicken Porridge

Chicken Porridge

Out of nowhere came a request from mas suami who wanted to have chicken porridge as breakfast. So i made this thick chicken porridge as he requested. Because this blog would be about our survival tips in cooking, so here goes our survival chicken porridge.

You need to prepare your porridge first:

Rice

Water

Bayleaves

Chicken stock (of course it would be far better if you use chicken bones for the stock, but well... hehe, when you don't have it, don't sweat it)

Salt and pepper

If you want to make a thick kind of porridge, make your mixture in 1 rice : 5 water ratio. Put them together inside a rice cooker, pour in chicken stock (liquid or powder, any kind of it), 1 leaf of bayleaves, and season them with salt and pepper. Wait until it's cooked. Checked your mixture. If you think it's too thick, you can add more water and cook it again.

If you want to make more liquid chicken porridge, make your mixture in 1 rice : 8 water ratio then follow the same steps.

After you get your porridge done, you can use any kind of topping. Our favorite was chicken and egg, but surely you can use any other meat.

Smakelijk eten!

 

Chicken Blackpepper

chicken blackpepper

This is one of our favorite dinner! We love the smell of sauteed mushroom. We love the sweetness of paprika. And of course, the tender meat :9

Here we share our recipe:

250gr of chicken breast fillet or any boneless chicken

1 round of red paprika

1 stick green chilli

50 gr of brown skin champignon (believe me, it taste thicker than the white one)

1/2 round of onion 

A spoonful butter

salt, blackpepper, and parsley

Cut your chicken into slices, sprinkle it with salt and pepper, mix evenly. Chop your paprika and slice your green chilli. Slice champignon and the put aside.

On a medium heat, heat up your butter until it melt. Saute onion until it gets translucent. Put in your chicken fillet and stir until it produces broth. Add paprika and green chilli, stir in. After the chicken gets a little golden, stir in champignon and cook this mixture until the mushroom gets tender. Don't cook too long that your mushroom will lose its freshness. Season with salt and of course ground blackpepper.

Service it on a dish and sprinkle it with chopped or dried parsley. Mix evenly.

Voila! Smakelijk eten!

The Classic Bolognaise

Macaroni and Tomato Meat Sauce :)

All time favorites, all time easy-to-make pasta sauce. Here goes my version:

3 rounds of tomatoes. If you use cherry tomatoes, make it triple.

1/2 round of onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 round of tomato, sliced

250 gr of minced beef

100 gr of champignon mushroom, use the white champignon. It tastes less "mushroom-y"

100 gr of parmesan cheese

1 stick of carrot, dice it small

300 gr of pasta, any kind of it

3 spoonful of ready-to-eat tomato sauce

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, chopped

water

salt, sugar, and pepper

a pot of grated cheddar cheese

a cup of parmesan cheese

dried parsley

First you need to make your own tomato paste. Blanch your 3 rounds of tomatoes by boiling it in hot water for 5 minute then put your cooked-tomato in ice water. Take it out from water, peel the skin, and the put your tomato in a jar. Store this tomato in fridge for two or three days before you use it.

Saute in medium heat: chopped onion, minced garlic, and sliced tomato until it's tender. Pour in your carrots and cook until the carrot gets translucent. Stir in 250 gr of minced meat until its broth comes out. Add 100 ml of water and cook until your meat is brown. 

Put in your tomato paste, stir in until it crumbles into sauce. Pour in additional tomato sauce. You can add more water if you think your mixture is getting too dry. Wait until your sauce is boiling. Meanwhile, slice mushroom and put it into your sauce. Then pour in parmesan cheese into the mixture. Set your heat into small heat. Stir well.

Season your sauce by adding oregano and black pepper. Stir well. Last, sprinkle salt and sugar to taste. 

You can cook your pasta for approximately 7 minutes until it gets al dente. After your pasta is ready, mix it with your meat sauce, and sprinkle it with cheese and parsley.

Voila, smakelijk eten! :)

Warming Winter

Beansprout Soto with Chicken Fillet

Unfinished Casserole

...now it became cheese soup :9

Prinzessbohnen and Leftovers

 

Prinzessbohnen ala Chine

 
Butter rice with Prinzessbohnen's leftovers