INDONESIAN SPICY BEEF RENDANG

Okay... now it's about my comfort food again :) INDONESIAN SPICY BEEF RENDANG.. it's one of an authentic foods from Indonesia, to be precise, it's from West Sumatera region, it's famous with it's heat, very hot and spicy, as some of them would use a half kg of Birdseye chili to cook 1 kg of meat, that is the specialty, hot and spicy, it says that those who eat it should be sweating while eating it because of the heat.

There are hundreds way to cook it, after trying some of them, I finally settle with this way:

INDONESIAN SPICY BEEF RENDANG 
Ingredients:
A:
 3/4 lbs shallots
 6 cloves garlic
 20 Thai chili or Birdseye peppers 
 1 inch fresh ginger root
 1 inch of turmeric
 2 candle nuts (can substitute with macadamia nut)

B:
 2 to 3 lbs beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes (I usually use chuck roast as I like fatty meat)

C
 1 stalk lemon grass, smash
 1 inch galangal, smash
 1 tbsp ground coriander 
 1 tbsp of ground cumin 
 1 tsp grated nutmeg
 2 tbsp of grated palm sugar or 1 tbsp of brown sugar
 5 whole cloves
 1 cinnamon stick
 4 kaffir lime leaves, if you can't find it, substitute with 1 tbsp of lemon zest 
 2 bay leaves 
 1 tsp of tamarind paste 
 3 packs of coconut powder  
 salt to taste
 1 cups shredded coconut, toast and finely blend 


Method:


1. Using a blender or a food processor, blend ingredients A until forming thick paste, set aside 
2. Heat a larger wok, add 1/2 cup of canola or vegetable oil, add the spice paste, kaffir lime leaves and bay leaves, sautee it until brown, fragrant and oily
3. add in ground coriander, cumin, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon stick, smashed galangal lemon grass , tamarind paste, salt and palm sugar, cook for few minutes, stir continuously, add beef, keep stirring until all the meats are well coated with the spices 
4. move meats to a slow cooker, let it cook for hours until the meats are  tender,almost as tender as you like, stir it occasionally, meanwhile do not wash the wok, we'll need it later 
5. dish out the meats with all the juice and put them back in the wok, using medium heat, add the 3 packs of coconut powder, keep stirring continuously until the sauce reduced and thickened (it takes some time :)), add in the toasted coconut, give it some last quick stirs 

I know it's time consuming but worth every minutes.. and I know it's not consider healthy food because of the fat  but who cares, I don't eat it everyday :) I usually cook a big pot, 5 to 6 lbs of beef, separate in few bags and freeze it, at any time I have company over for dinner, I'd take some out and heat it, my husband and some of our American friends love it too, so I cook it with moderate heat 


Serve it with warm steamed white or brown rice, or mash potatoes or even couscous 

and you can add hard boiled eggs or potato or carrot too 

here is the my coconut powder, my favorite brand, it's made in Indonesia, you can use other brands, mostly from Thailand

SALMON PASTA CASSEROLE

We love salmon, any way I cook it, we both love it.. the other day I saw a recipe on cooking.com, salmon cooked in casserole style, it caught my eyes and I was interested, so I tried it out, it tastes really good, a bit  different than regular casserole.. I rummaged my pantry and freezer and came up with this recipe..

Ingredient:
- 11/2 lbs of salmon fillet, boneless and scaled ( I let the skin on)
- 1/2 of lemon, juice it
- 1/2 cup of cooking wine or your favorite wine
- salt and pepper

For the casserole:
- 1 lbs of  Bow Tie pasta / Farfalle (you can use any kind of small pasta), cook following the instruction of the package, drain
- 1 small yellow onion, diced
- 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 2 stalks of celery, diced
- green and red bell pepper, diced
- 2 cans cream of mushroom soup
- 1 big tomato, coarsely chopped
- scallion or other herbs, finely chopped
- salt and pepper to taste
- variety of your favorite cheeses, I used mozzarella, Mexican blend
- panko breadcrumb and parmesan cheese for topping

Method:
- season salmon with lemon juice, bit of salt and pepper, pour in the wine, bake uncovered in a greased pan for 15 minutes, let it cool and coarsely flaked the salmon, set aside with all the juice in it
- sautee onion, garlic with 2 tbsp oil until fragrant, add celery, red and green bell peppers, stir until soft, add in mushroom soup, cook until it reduced a bit, add tomato, stir quickly, turn down the heat
- pour in pasta and salmon including the juice, add scallion and half of the cheese, blend well
Meanwhile, heat oven to 350'F, grease a casserole pan, pour the mixture in it, add more cheese on top, sprinkle with Panko Breadcrumb and Parmesan cheese
- bake for 40 to 60 minutes, broil for a few minutes at the end of cooking time

For 8 servings

It's good with some splash of Tabasco

EGG DROPS SOUP

Egg drops soup is a very popular soup in Chinese restaurants, there are many ways to cook it, but if we order it in the restaurants, usually more broth than the veggies, today I cooked it my way, I have many ways for this soup, depends on what I have in my freezer, mostly I used boiled chicken, crab meat, ham, even sausages...

These few days my husband picked a lot of snow peas from his garden, seeing them sitting on my counter reminded me of this soup, so I decided to cook it today.. it's my husband's favorite soup,  in Jakarta we call it CORN SOUP, because mostly using corn and crab meat only, the first time he came to Jakarta, he wanted Egg drops soup, we could not find it anywhere, then I suggested him to try corn soup, when he saw it, he said: this is EGG DROPS SOUP... so EGG DROPS SOUP it is.. and he likes it very much, anyway I cooked it, he'd give me his thumbs up

Today I used ham, I usually used boiled chicken, then shredded it

So the ingredients:
- ham or chicken, slow boiled with 1 liter of water
- onion, slice
- garlic, coarsely chopped
- ginger, chunk diced
- various veggies, frozen mix veggies (green peas, corns, green beans), snow peas, asparagus
- salt, black pepper, 1 tbsp sesame oil and 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 egg white, lightly beated

How to cook:
- boil chicken/ham with water and ginger, turn down the heat after the water boiling, then simmering with low heat for 2 hours, dice the ham or shred the chicken
- heat skillet, add 1 tbsp butter + 1 tbsp oil, add onion and garlic, cook until fragrant
- add all the veggies, season with salt, fish sauce, sesame oil and black pepper
- add in chicken/ham broth, cook until the broth boiled,
- thicken with cornstarch
- turn off the heat.. don't over cook
- slowly pour the egg white in the hot soup, swirl with fork

serve hot, it's good if serves over brown rice (so my hubby says)

EASY BREAKFAST

Cloudy and gloomy sky this morning, we decided to skip our morning walk and I went back to sleep.. I woke up with much better mood, the sun is still in and out but much brighter sky.. funny to say.. gloomy sky always comes together with gloomy mood.. I hate it

With not much to do, I decided to fix a good breakfast for my hubby... on my walking days he usually has very simple breakfast, toasts and lots of butter (that's why I always bake breads, for his easy breakfast, easy for both of us).. I remembered we bought 3 red bell peppers at Sprout's last weekend, so with the usual ingredients of breakfast, I fixed this stuffed bell pepper and he is a very happy guy for the day :)

- 1 big red pepper, cut in half
- 1/2 cup of cooked sausage (leftover)
- 2 eggs, beat well
- cheese and some herb
- olive oil for brushing

- brush bell pepper with OO
- mix all the remaining ingredients
- stuff the mixture in the pepper
- bake for 15 minutes on 350'F

ready to serve.. for 1 serving.. as for my breakfast, I prefer 1 slice of toast with PBJ (peanut butter jam) and 1 cup of kopi susu

VERTICAL ROASTED CHICKEN

I've always wanted a rotisserie roaster, when we bought our new portable oven, I tried to get the one with the skewer for it, but we could not find the one that matched our need.. so we had to get the regular one, and we are happy with it :)

I saw one of the member on the cooking forum using the vertical roaster, it was the first time I knew about this 'tool' and it interested me, I looked around the stores, could not find any... time passed by, my interest faded until one day when I and Vickie went to a thrift store owned by a church, I saw it standing on a shelf, the box was dusty and yellowed, but the 'tool' was still shiny, and looked brand new, no scratch at all, without second thought I grabbed it, total damage on my wallet was $2 and I was happy, almost did my happy dance :)

Yesterday I took it out and tried it for the first time, after washing it repeatedly, it was ready to be used.. we bought a whole fresh chicken at Sprout's the day before, about 2 to 3lbs, I washed the chicken, sprinkled it with lemon juice, salt and blackpepper, then I rubbed it with red curry paste (store bought), I added some coconut powder and my homemade chili sauce in the paste.. I inserted some of the paste under the chicken skin and inside the chicken, I let it sit for 1 hour before baking them.. I preheated oven on 400'F, I inserted my chicken on the vertical roaster and put it in a drip pan.. I baked my chicken for 30 minutes, then I rotated the pan 45 degree, baked again for 20 minutes, rotated every 10 minutes until the chicken is done, about 90 minutes, before I rotated it, I took it out and brushed with the remaining curry paste + the chicken fat/juice that dripped in the pan.. chicken turned out so good, tender and juicy..oh don't forget to wrap the whole chicken after taking it out form the oven for 10 minutes.. then we are done, ready to enjoy the tasty roasted chicken.. I matched it with warm rice and steamed asparagus, my husband was happy his with dinner roll..

this will be my favorite way for roasting chickens or other birds, actually there is another way to do it, with soda can, we can fill the soda can with any liquid we like, such as orange juice, insert the can filled with juice in the chicken, let it stand on a pan and bake it.. I ate it at Vickie's house and it was delicious, tender and juicy

curry paste chicken on vertical roaster 

tastylicious roast chicken 

SWEET AND SOUR PORK

I love this dish, but hardly made it, mostly ordered it when we dined at Chinese restaurants or take out. Today I decided to make it, I got the idea when I saw a member at cooking forum cooked it for their dinner, and it got on my mind, so today on my morning walk, we went to the store, got some pork chops, a family pack, so I got a good deal, and I saved some for later use..

I had almost everything I needed in my pantry except canned pineapple, so I just went without it...

- 4 thin pork chops, cut in small bite size, marinate with 1 tbsp of garlic oil (or cooking oil but add finely chopped garlic) + 1 tbsp of soysauce or fish sauce + 1 tbsp of cornstarch + 1 tbsp of rice wine, let it sit for few hours

- for the batter: 1/4 cup of flour + 1 tbsp of cornstarch + 1/2 tsp baking soda + 1 jumbo white egg + 1 tbsp of cooking oil + 1/2 tsp of salt + 1/2 cup of water

batter 

- for the sauce: - 1 inch of ginger, thinly sliced,
                        - 1/4 onion, finely chopped
                        - 1 cup of frozen vegetable, carrot and peas
                        - handful of snow peas
                        - colorful red and yellow peppers
                        - jicama or water chestnut, cut in small cubes
                        - small chunk of pineapple (optional)
                        - 1/2 cup of tomato ketchup
                        - 1/4 cup or 1/2 lemon juice
                        - 1 cup of pineapple juice (optional) or water
                        - salt, and sugar
                        - 1tsp of cornstarch to thicken

Method:
- batter: mix well all the ingredients, it should form thick batter
- heat 1 inch oil to 350'F, dip pork in the batter, shake off the excess batter, dip it in the hot oil, fry until golden brown, drain and set aside, fry in batches, not too crowded in the pan, after all done, put them in preheat oven, bake for few minutes while making the sauce (to make sure that all the pork are cooked)
- heat 2 tbsp of oil, sautee ginger and onion until fragrant
- add all the veggies and the rest of ingredients, salt and sugar to taste, lastly add cornstarch to thicken the sauce

To serve, arrange pork in a serving plate, pour sauce on top of it, serve with warm steamed rice

Serving 2 to 3 persons

The whole meal cost me about $5, it's a very good deal compares with 2 orders in Chinese restaurants, and I dare say... the taste is as good as what we can get in the restaurants...  the batter is so crunchy, even sometimes I got the hard batter at the restaurant :(

POTATO CRAB CAKES

I thought about making it for a while, I have canned crab meat, after seeing my friend put a status on her FB about her veggies crab cake, I decided to make it sooner rather than later.. so today, on Ash Wednesday, I put everything I needed together, I have made it before, but today I made it a bit different, I added some potato flakes, it helps to firm the patties and easier to handle when I pan fry it..

- 2 cans crab meat, drained
- 1/4 medium brown onion, finely chopped
- finely chopped green onions
- juice of half lemon
- 2 eggs
- 2 tbsp of potato flakes
- salt and black peppers
- 1 tsp tabasco
- 2 tbsp of panko and 4 tbsp more for dredging
- 2 egg white, slightly beaten for dipping

Method:
- mix all ingredients except the extra 4 tbsp panko and egg white
- form medium size patties, chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour
- dip patties in egg white
- roll in panko breadcrumb
- heat 1/2 inch oil in a non stick skillet, carefully put the crab patties down, pan fry for 3 to 4 minutes, flip it over and fry for another 3 minutes
- serve with chili sauce, mustard or horseradish

for 12 to 15 cakes