baked fish in banana leaves

I decided to cook fish. I was planning to cook this meal from weeks ago, so this occasion was the right time to do it :)

I used whole catfish, no head though, I'm glad to see them enjoying the fish, bakwan jagung, sambal kentang udang, oh yeah..they love my homemade kimchi, and my sambal terasi as well..

Here is my fish recipe:
What we need:
- fish, whole or fillet, I prefer catfish or red snapper, season with lime juice, salt and pepper
- shallots, garlic, fresh tumeric, ginger, candle nuts, galangal
- tumeric leaves, lime leaves, basil, an inch of palm sugar
- 1 tbsp of coconut powder
- 1 tbsp of sambal inti

Method:

- Blend shallots, garlic, fresh tumeric, ginger, candle nuts and palm sugar in a FP, add sambal inti, coconut powder and a pinch of salt, mix well, rub the paste all over the fish, set it aside for a few hours

- clean and rinse a couple of banana leaves

- arrange the marinated fish on banana leaves, top with basil, tumeric leaves, smashed galangal 

- wrap neatly, seam with skewers

- set it on the pan

- bake for 1 hour on 350'F, then broil it for 10 minutes or steam it in a hot steamer until the fish cooked 

This is one of my most favorite way to cook fish, I could eat the whole fish if I allowed myself doing it, it tastes so good, a very good combination with hot steamed rice, in a traditional way which is eat with plain fingers and suck all the bones and fingers clean. 

TEMPEH

AZ weather today was nice, a touch of cool breeze since May, hopefully it will last till fall, I'm tired of the heat.

I started reading the book I borrowed from library yesterday, The Postcard Killer, it's good, I could not stop reading it, it's half done, I think the author gets his touch back, his last book I read The 9th Judgement was far from good (IMO), I was not excited to read his books anymore like I used to be :)

I'm glad today, I successfully made tempeh (again), it takes only 36 hours to reach the perfect fermentation, actually it's not too hard to make it, the only hard part is peeling and splitting soybean, but I begin to enjoy doing it, so there will be more tempeh making in the future..

this pan fried tempeh

those are recent made, I'm going to make tempe bacem for our Ied gathering on Sunday

Kimchi

A weird dream woke me up at 5 am this morning, I could not sleep well since, so I decided to go the daily mass with my husband, he has been going there every morning since July. The small chapel was filled with 11 parishioner, most of them are regular attenders of the 7 am mass. The mass was a short one, Fr.Jojo gave a short homily on the mass. It was too early to have breakfast after mass as we usually have late breakfast or brunch lately.. I could not go back to sleep, so I busied myself in my comfort zone, my kitchen.. I continued my half done kimchi, last night I brined my napa cabbage in a very salty water, now I finished making my kimchi, here is the recipe..

My husband likes eating kimchi, usually he bought it at our Asian Store, it's a bit pricey for me, for a 2 lbs jar we have to pay $5.-, after browsing around the recipes I decided to make it myself, combining the recipes I got on the net,  it only costs $2 for 5 lbs kimchi and for the taste, believe me, it tastes much better than the store bought one, my kimchi tastes sweet, sour, salty, the apple and fish sauce make a perfect combination

What we need:
- Napa cabbage, about 1 and 1/2 lbs, rinse and cut them, soak them in a big bowl or container with salty water, leave them over night in refrigerator, make sure all the cabbage is covered with water
- 1 small jicama, peel and julienne
- 1 carrot, peel and julienne
- 1 apple, peel, cut in cubes
- ginger,
- 1/2 onion, cubed
- 1 tbsp of minced garlic
- chili pepper
- 2 green onions, slice into thin strips
- 1 cup of vinegar
- 1/2 cup of fish sauce
- 1 cup of sugar

vinegar + fish sauce and sugar

Method:
- process apple, onion, ginger, garlic, chili pepper in a FP, add vinegar, fish sauce and sugar. put the puree in a big bowl
- drain the cabbage, rinse with clean water, I let the it soak in clean water for a while and drain it again
- put the cabbage into the puree, add jicama and carrot, mix well
- store them in a tight lid container or jar, let them sit for few days in the refrigerator before serving

Now my kimchi is done, I still have my soy bean soaking on my counter, I'm going to make soybean cake, hopefully there is a good show on tivi while I peel them...

note: still have no idea what's for dinner tonight, I was planning to cook eggplant with spaghetti sauce, but I'm not sure now

POTATO CAKES

Not much to do again, we went to the library, I found James Patterson new release, The Postcard Killer, and borrowed a book by Carol Higgins Clark for the first time. After 3 pm I still had no idea what to eat for dinner, after rummaging my freezer, I found some leftover rendang (seeing couple of my friends cooked rendang made me salivating for it, but in no mood to cook it) and today I decided to try to make potato cakes in my own way... it was a success, the potato turned out so tasty, crispy and crunchy, I'm glad that after trying my husband said he liked it.

So before I forget how I make it, I better write it down and share it here..

What we need:
- 4 gold potatoes, peeled and shredded, soaked in a bowl of salty water, or frozen store bought hash brown
- finely chopped green onions
- fresh grated nutmeg
- salt, pepper to taste
- 1 big egg
- 1 cup of plain breadcrumbs

How to do:
- Drain shredded potatoes, squeeze with paper towel if needed
- combine all the ingredients
- heat nonstick pan, add 1/2 inch of oil
- carefully spoon potato batter in the pan, one after another
- cook about 5 minute or until it turns brown, flip over and cook for another 5 minutes

So our dinner for today is Potato Cakes, leftover rendang and stir fry kangkung with sambal terasi