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!