Click beans n lentils

This is my first time participate the competition for the Click event, hosted by Jai and Bee, on the last day of deadline, im trying to get bold.
I know my picture is far from perfect, and only edited with picasa (still my hubby didn't install Adobe Photoshop for me yet).
This is red kidney bean on the glass with the sparkling water, i took the picture last night, im actually has some lentils and mung beans, but no time to take a nice picture for them, hope you like it.

Soto daging

In Indonesia many kind of Soto, perhaps each island have their own Soto, and this one similar to chicken Soto recipe that my Mom used to make. It taste so good and refreshing if you put some fresh lime juice and sambal on it, i can finish 2 bowls, hehehe....

But i didn't cook the meat long enough that time, so it a bit tough and i can't give it to my daughter, she only have a few teeth :). but i gave her the eggs instead, lucky that she doesn't have egg allergy.

Soto daging

• 500 gr diced beef
• 2500 ml water
• 2 cm galangal,brushed
• 2 lemongrass, brushed
• 6 lime leaves
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoon cooking oil

Grind Ingredients:

• 8 Escallot ( small brown onion)
• 4 clove garlic
• 3 cm turmeric
• 4 cm ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 3 candle nut

Condiment:

• 100 gr cabbage, sliced
• 100 gr bean shoot
• 2 small parsley/ shallot, sliced
• 3 boiled eggs, quartered
• Lime juice
• Sambal
• Rice cake

Method:

1. Boil water in a large pot, add diced beef, lemongrass,galangal,lime leave and salt. Cook for 45 minuter-1 hour or until the beef is tender.
2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a medium saucepan, add grind ingredients and cook for 2 minutes or until fragrant. Add it to the boil water, mix well and boil again.
3. Arrange the condiment on a bowl, then pour in the cooked Soto, Serve.

Ayam pedas masak tauco (spicy chicken with soya beans paste)

soya beans paste

I found this recipe from my Indonesian magazine that i bought 2 years ago. That time I'm not interested to cook any Indonesian food, because they are seems complicated to me, like grinding the ingredients or find the herbs for the dish, especially i got pregnant soon after i arrived here ^_^, So every time i bought magazine it went straight to the boxes after i read them.
Now that i started cooking Indonesian food and have more time, as well as the "gear", i feel ready to try any recipe, so i started to search and open my boxes of magazine, cut the recipe, arrange them on the file and tried them one by one.
2 years ago i never really talked about Indonesian food, or how to make them, because i don't know how and feel ashamed, but now I'm ready to experiment more and feel free to talk about my traditional food.
Since i have my blog, my cooking is more variety, I try to cook different food if i could, sometimes Asian sometimes Western food. And best of all i can share them to all my friends, i tried to make a good picture, so it doesn't look boring. So enjoy!!

Ayam pedas masak tauco

• 500 gr Chicken fillet ( i used drum stick and boil them first)
• 2 tablespoon Soya beans paste ( tauco)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoon veg oil

Sliced ingredients:

• 2 shallot
• 5 lime leaves
• 1 turmeric leave ( i skip this)

Grind ingredients:

• 4 red chillies
• 4 big red chillies
  
• 5 eschallot
• 1 cm ginger
• 1 stalk lemongrass
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Method:

1. Marinate chicken with soya beans paste, salt and 1 tablespoon veg oil.
   
2. Add sliced ingredients and grind ingredients, mix well and rub them on the chicken.
   
3. Heat oil in a large frying pan, add chicken mixture, cook for 15 minutes or until chicken cooked trough, season with sugar and salt.
4. Serve with warm rice.
   

Klepon

Yummy....!!


I really miss this traditional snack, i think the last time i ate this snack was 5-7 years ago, i can't remember exactly, (I actually miss most of Indonesian snack..).
When i told one of my Aussie friend about this snack ( Hi Kylie..), she know what it is, so I was a bit surprise, she told me that she used to eat them when she was staying in Malaysia, Oh.. its actually famous there too.
I must tell you that : this food originally come from Central Java, Indonesia. Sometimes people got confused if the food come from Indonesia or Malaysia.
This actually so easy to make, i never knew how to make this food, until i saw my friend's blog Lidia Sianturi, she lived in Montreal-Canada, so i guess she misses traditional snack too ^_^, am I right Mba Lidia?.
I'm so lucky to have some Indonesian friend via blog, and they not only live in Indonesia, but around the world!!, so we usually share our recipe. And the good thing about that is, sometimes they share the original recipe from where they live so we get to know more variety food around the globe.
We become very good friend, even thou we never meet each other, but we feel like we were know for very long, maybe because we're from the same country, same culture. We feel like a family that live far away, we miss our Indonesian food, snack and Families. Go Indonesia!!

Klepon

Ingredients:

• 200gr of glutinous rice flour
• 200ml lukewarm water
• 2 drops of pandan essence
• 200gr shredded coconut, mixed with ½ tsp salt and microwave it ( i add 1 tbsp water)
  
• 12 tsp grated palm sugar

Method:

1. In a mixing bowl, pour the flour in and add lukewarm water little by little while mixing it with spoon until forming a flexible-non sticky dough. Add pandan essence and mix it well again.
2. Keep it in a fridge for 15minutes to avoid cracking while boiling.
3. Take a teaspoonful of the dough and shape it into a small ball (app. 3-4cm in diameter) using both of palm hands.
   
4. Make a hole by pushing a finger in the middle of the ball and put 1/2 tsp of palm sugar in. Seal and roll it back to make the ball shape again.
   
5. Meanwhile, boil water in a pot. And then place the balls into the boiling water and cook until it is done. Once they float, it means they are cooked, take it out with a ladle and roll it in shredded coconut.
   

Note: the recipe is good to make 20-25 balls, depend on the size. Serve it warm or at room temperature.

Mushroom and chicken soup

Its morning again, a new day again, my house work is waiting to be handle again, but i feel much better today when i woke up, my spirit soaring... cos i had a good sleep last night, after struggling to sleep last few days, I'm just hopping that i didn't get insomnia :( .
Anyway,this kind of soup is very good for healing, after gave a birth or when someone got cold & flu.
I found this recipe from my Indonesian magazine, originally this soup came from china (like remedy soup), but many Chinese moved to Indonesia and bring their culture and recipe, we love Chinese food as well as our traditional Indonesian food.
I took this picture with my pocket camera, because it was a sunny day that day, i should have post this soup that time (about a month ago), but i totally forgot, until i have a look my albums today.
I can make this soup again today, because my daughter had a sniffle and cough, the ginger on this soup will make her nice and warm.

Mushroom and chicken soup

• 100 gr chicken fillet, cut into small cube
  
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 hioko mushroom, sliced
• 4 black fungus, sliced
• 1250 ml water
• 1 teaspoon salt, extra
• 1 teaspoon margarine
• 2 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 cm ginger, chopped
• 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon pepper ground
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar (cuka; INA)
• 1 egg,whisk
• 1 stalk shallot, sliced

Method:

1. Mix cubed chicken,cornstarch and 1/4 teaspoon salt, set aside.
2. Boil water in a large pot, add chicken, whisk gently.
3. Heat margarine in a small saucepan, add garlic and ginger, cook for 1 minute or until aromatic, add mushrooms.
4. Add the sauteed ingredients to the pot of boiling water,add soy sauce, salt and pepper, and vinegar, then pour in the egg, whisk again.
5. Sprinkle over the sliced shallot, Serve hot.
   

Oreg tempe ( Javanese style of tempeh)

Everyday cooking for me now, but not all the food end up here on my blog, sometimes I'm so lazy to take picture of my cooking, because I'm not mastering my new camera yet, but the good thing about my new camera is : i can take a my pictures whenever i want, day or night, bright or dark, situation, which is convenient for me, not like my previous pocket camera, that only allow me to take a picture when its a sunny day or outside only, otherwise it will be so dark or yellow result, not natural anymore. But i really like this pictures, maybe the best for me so far,haha...
However i will always try to take my food pictures as usual, another thing is, my hubby didn't install the adobe photoshop yet, to edit my pictures, so i use my Picasa at the moment, not bad though.
So this is quite famous ingredients nowadays, called " Tempeh/ Tempe" made from soy, you can find it in Asian grocery almost in every country (they usually make it in local area). I will post all facts about tempeh next time.
unfortunately i can't give this food to my daughter yet, because it had chili on it, it maybe not really good for her.
Btw, i feel a bit bored with my old template, so i give it a try my new template, hope you like it! go blue!!

Oreg tempe ( Javanese style of tempeh)

• 250 gr tempeh, cut into small and thin pieces
• 3 red chillies, seeded, sliced
• 2 escallot
• 2 clove garlic
• 2 tablespoon grated palm sugar (gula jawa)
• 3 tablespoon water
• 100 ml oil to fry
• salt to taste

1. Fried the tempeh, until golden brown, set aside.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon of remaining oil on the large saucepan, add escallot, garlic and chili, saute for 1-2 minutes or until fragrant.
3. Add tempeh, water and palm sugar, simmer until the water have absorbed, season with salt.
   
4. Serve as a side dish.
   

Semur Ayam Kentang ( Ti's Chicken & Potatoes Glazed with kecap manis)

This mouth watering dish is everyone favorite food in my family, and now i cook for my hubby and daughter, and they love it too as i thought, i can never sick or tired of this food, we usually eat them with warm rice, sometimes i add some honey when i cook this dish, its quite sweet, but delicious. I said it's my recipe because this is my style.
I took this pictures a few minutes before it start to rain,on my backyard, lucky me didn't get wet, haha.. Anyway We need rain here.
It started rainy a lot in Melbourne last 2 days, it makes me miss my family when its began to rain :( we used to stay inside the house, drink a cup of tea and some hot Indonesian nibbles or snack, such as fried cassava and banana fritters.
So i tried to do similar thing here too, making a hot chocolate and snack on something but the different here is the cold when its raining, it was 8 degrees Celsius on Sunday at 2pm, when i checked on weather channel, unbelievable!!.
I don't thing its become that cold when its rainy in Jakarta (never actually), maybe only 28-26 degrees, well enjoy the wet Autumn everyone.Bay the way this food also good when you eat them in cold weather, the aroma is amazing for me..

Semur Ayam Kentang ( Ti's Chicken & Potatoes Glazed with kecap manis)

• 500 gr chicken thigh or breast
• 100 gr potatoes, peeled, cut into cube
• 500 ml water/chicken stock
  
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 clove garlic, crushed
• 3 tablespoon oil
  
• 5-8 tablespoon kecap manis
  
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg ground
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon ground
• salt and pepper to season

1. Heat oil in deep-frying pan. Add garlic, onion and Sauté over medium heat until fragrant.
   
2. Add all seasoning ingredients and continue to sauté, Add stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 1 minute, then add chicken and potatoes, return to the boil. Add kecap manis.
3. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring continuously, until chicken and potatoes is tender.
4. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with warm rice.
   

Cheesecake brownies 2

Weekend treat that i love. I took the recipe from Donna hay book, i made another brownies cheesecake before this here, but this time the recipe says i need to put a spoon at a time and swirl them, but I'm in a hurry to do that so i pour the cheesecake mixture all at once onto the brownies base, so it doesn't look as good as the picture recipe,hehehe... i will write the recipe on Monday, along with my other cooking recipe, Have a good weekend all...

Chocolate cheesecake brownie (Donna hay style)

• 185 gr butter, melted
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup plain flour, sifted
  

Cheesecake:

• 285 gr cream cheese, softened, chopped ( i only have 250 gr)
• 4 1/2 tablespoon caster sugar
• 2 eggs

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C. Place the butter, cocoa, sugar, eggs and flour in a bowl and mix well until smooth. Spoon into a 20 cm square tin, lined with non stick baking paper.
To make the cheesecake, process the cream cheese, sugar and eggs in a food processor until smooth. Place large spoonfuls of the cheesecake mixture on top of the chocolate mixture and swirl with a butter knife. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until set.
Cool in the tin. Cut into 16 slices.

Orange Cake

Orange season at the moment here, we always got heaps of fruit from my mother in law, she always brought us every weekend, I'm lucky so that i don't have to do fruit shopping, but not only that, she's always very kind to me and my baby girl, maybe because she never had her daughter in her life.
When i told my hubby on the phone, that i made this orange cake, he is so happy to hear that, he said he never had that cake since he was a little boy, when his Mom used to make that cake for him, so its kind a special for him. I don't think that i ever make this cake before. And I never expect that is so special cake for him, and when he tested he said Yummy... so my hard work paid off ^_^. The next day he brought some to his work for coffee break, he love it so much...
I can always put orange butter cream or cheese frosting for topping, but i made it simple this time, we're not a big fan of butter cream, as usual my daughter tested a piece, she's smiling when she eat them, that means Yummy...


Orange Cake

• 2 cups self rising flour
• 1/3 cup custard powder
• 1 1/3 cups caster sugar
• 80 gr unsalted butter, chopped and softened
• 3 eggs
• 2 teaspoon finely grated orange rind
• 1 cup orange juice

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C, lightly grease the base of a 23cm round cake tin, and line the base with baking paper.
2. Sift the flour and custard powder into a large bowl and add the juice, orange rind, butter, egg and the sugar. Beat with electric mixer for 4 minutes, or until the mixture is smooth.
3. Spoon the mixture into the tin and smooth the surface. Bake for 50 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the cake.
4. Leave the cake in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
   

Scalloped Potatoes

I always love this side dish, very simple recipe for me, i served with BBQ steak (Now that my hubby got a new BBQ, he will make BBQ every 2nd day, hihihi...), this photo taken at night time, i wouldn't try to take a pic with my pocket camera, but i thought I'll try my new gadget (not bad for beginners isn't it?), with limited skill and lighting, next time i hope will be better, it still part of my learning and practice " practice makes perfect".
And that's why i wasn't post any food last week, I was busy experimenting with my new camera, and i don't want to post my photo if the result's disappointing. Anyway this recipe i took from Super Food Ideas - June 2004 , Page 52.

Scalloped Potatoes

Ingredients
(serves 4)

• 20g butter
• 1 onion, halved, thinly sliced
• 1kg Desiree potatoes
• 300ml carton pouring cream (see variation)
• pinch of ground nutmeg

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Lightly grease a 6cm deep, 15cm x 24cm (base) ovenproof dish.
2. Melt butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Add onion. Cook for 4 minutes or until soft. Remove from heat. Set aside. Slice potatoes into 5mm-thick rounds. Pour cream into a jug. Add nutmeg, and salt and pepper. Whisk with a fork to combine.
3. Arrange a layer of potatoes over base of prepared dish. Top with a layer of onion. Drizzle with a little cream mixture. Repeat layers until all ingredients have been used.
4. Cover dish tightly with foil. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until potatoes are just tender. Remove foil. Cook for a further 30 minutes or until top is golden.

Sundanese style of crispy fried fish (Ikan goreng renyah)

Fried process

I never cook this fish before, barramundi (i don't know how to spell it ) fish, but on Saturday i asked my hubby to buy a whole fish, and lucky that they already clean the fish for my hubby, because i don't know how to clean it :) . For me this is very special menu, so i cook it with traditional style and eat them with sambal, warm rice and raw veggies, Yumm... so delicious... here is the recipe:

Sundanese style of crispy fried fish (Ikan goreng renyah)

• 1 whole fish (i used barramundi)
• 1 table spoon lime juice
• oil to fry
  

Grind ingredients:

• 4 glove garlic
• 1 teaspoon coriander seed
• 1 cm turmeric
• 1 teaspoon salt

1. Clean the fish and marinated with lime juice, leave it for 15 minutes.
2. Wash the fish.
   
3. Rubbed and marinated again with the grind ingredients, leave it for 30 minutes or more.
4. Fried with the deep fried oil until golden brown.
5. Serve with warm rice and sambal.

Cup macaroni with mushroom chicken

A new modified recipe for my daughter, i took the original recipe from my pasta cooking book (Indonesian), this recipe originally used different kind of pasta, but i modified with macaroni, She love this dish right away, but she doesn't recognise the mushroom.

Cup macaroni with mushroom chicken

• 100 gr macaroni
  
• 3 small eggs
• 300 ml toddler milk
• 1/2 onion, small sliced
• 50 gr mince chicken
• 100 gr sliced mushroom
  
• 50 gr grated cheese
• pinch of salt & pepper to season
• 1 egg yolk for glaze

Method:

1. Heat the oven on medium 180 degrees C.
2. Boil water, cook macaroni until tender. Drain.
3. greased 4 ramekins with butter.
4. For topping: Beat the eggs, milk, and onion, add chicken, mushroom,salt & pepper and cheese.
5. Arrange the pasta on the ramekins, add the topping.
6. Put the ramekins on the the 23 cm square tin, fill with half of hot water, bake for 35 minutes, glaze with the egg yolk, bake again for 30 minutes.
   

Ayam goreng kuning ( Indonesian yellow fried chicken)

One more my favorite food, i can't make it as good as my mom thou, but not too bad for beginners like me, its very tasty and tender, i can even eat them before i fried them because i simmer the chicken first, but they become crispy when you fried them, my favorite part is the skin... Yummy!!, I usually eat this with warm rice, sambal and some raw veggies (simple salad with no dressing). I haven't got much time today to write the recipe, so I'll do it next time. Cheers!!

Ayam goreng kuning ( Indonesian yellow fried chicken)

• 1kg Chicken thigh / breast
• 500 ml water
• 2 salam leave
• 2 lemongrass, bruised
• 1 galangal, bruised
• 500ml Oil for frying
  

Grind ingredients:

• 4 cm ginger
  
• 1 teaspoon coriander seed
• 8 cloves garlic
• 5 cm turmeric
• 5 candle nut
  
• salt

Method:

1. Heat oil, stir grind ingredients (paste) in a large saucepan over medium heat for 1-2 minutes, salam leave, galangal, and lemongrass, cook for another 1 minutes until fragrant.
   
2. Add chicken and water, boil for 30 minutes.
3. Fried the chicken in a deep frying pan.
4. Serve.