WALNUT SHRIMPS

Since I'm in my writing mood, today I'm going to share this recipe, another favorite of mine ( I know... I have so many favorite foods hihi). The first time I ate it was at a fine dining Chinese Restaurant, a few days after I got married, my father in law took us there, my mom was there too as she stayed a couple of weeks with us after attending our wedding reception. I fell in love with it, and every time we dined there I would order it, there were so many ways to cook it, every restaurants have their own ways, some are good some are not so good.


After browsing the recipes on the net, I found an easy way to cook it, my way and I like how it turns out.


WALNUT SHRIMPS

WALNUT SHRIMPS

-          1 cup of shopped roasted walnut

-          ½ cup sugar, boil in 1 cup of water until caramelized

-          16 (1lbs) large shrimps, peeled and deveined

-          2 egg whites, slightly beaten

-          1 cup of corn starch mix with 1 tsp of baking powder and 1 tsp of salt

for mayonnaise sauce:

-          ½  cup of mayo + 1 tbsp honey + 1 tbsp lemon juice + 1 tbsp condensed milk (optional) + 3 tbsp of milk, mix well

Method:

-          toss roasted walnut in the caramelized sugar, let it dry on a parchment paper, then roast it again for a few minutes only

-          dip shrimps in egg whites, then coat them with corn starch mixture, fry them in hot oil for a couple minutes, place them on a paper towel

-          toss the shrimps in the mayo mixture

To serve: arrange lettuce on a plate, add the shrimps and  sprinkle with roasted walnut 

Selamat makan 

Orange chickens

I hate deep frying, but love eating deep fried foods... I got a small deep fryer as my birthday gift this year, it's so convenient to fry a small batch of food. Next thing I know I fall in love with it.. ooops.. should not put it on my wish list :) I used it for frying krupuks, tempe and tahu bacem and more.


Today I used it to deep fry chickens, I cooked orange chicken, I remember there was a period of time I loved eating it, I liked to go to Panda Express to get it or ordered it in a sit down Chinese restaurant, now as I live far from a good Chinese restaurants I have to cook it myself, I thought about eating it for awhile and finally today I managed to cook it for us 

All we need are:
- 3 chicken thigh meat, boneless and skinless, cut in a mouth bite side
- 1 egg, slightly beaten + 1 tsp of salt
- 1 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of corn starch or rice flour
Dip chickens in the egg mixture, coat with the flour mixture, then rest them on a rack for 10 minutes. Heat 2 inches of oil, deep fry the floured coated chickens until golden brown, drain them in a strainer

for the sauce:
- 2 tbsp of butter
- 1 cup of orange juice
- 2 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tbsp of chili sauce
- 1/2 cup of sugar
- half lemon juice or 2 tbsp of tomato ketchup 
Heat a non stick pan, add butter, let it melt, add the rest of the remaining ingredients, bring it to boil, lower the heat, and simmer it until the sauce reduce and thicken 

Toss the fried chickens into the sauce, mix well 

Serve with warm steamed rice and salad

Happy cooking 

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

BAKED SALMON w PARMESAN CRUST

Description:
salmon is one of our favorite fishes, this is my favorite way in cooking it.... it's so yummy, can't wait to share this recipe with you all...my husband gave my 2 thumbs up (he would give more if he had more thumbs, :))

Ingredients:
- 2 salmon steaks, smear with lemon juice, lightly pat with paper towel, season with salt and pepper, set aside

- for the topping:
- 1 tbsp sour cream
- 1 tbsp mayonnaise
- dash of tabasco
- 1/3 cup of breadcrumb
- 1/3 cup of grated parmesan cheese
- 1 tsp of garlic powder



Directions:
- prepare a greased pan
- set salmon on it
- mix well all the remaining ingredients
- spread it on top of the salmons
- bake in a preheated oven 350'F for 12 to 15 minutes
- serve it with mashed potatoes and boiled veggies
- mmh yummy