Fried Nian Giao (Kue Keranjang Goreng)

Today is Chinese New Year and this year is the year of Ox according to the Chinese zodiac. One of the food during Chinese New Year is Nian Giao (Kue Keranjang in Indonesian language, some called it also Dodol) which is made from glutinous rice flour with brown sugar. It has a soft chewy sticky texture. Even though this Nian Gao can be found all year around, the best time to eat it is during Chinese New Year.

People usually will eat Nian Giao just as it is, but there are many ways to serve it. One of the best ways to serve Nian Giao is to fry it in eggs and sliced shallots which I made this morning for my breakfast. I had my fried Nian Giao with a cup of Chinese tea. 

Pesto - Basil Leaves

One of my favorite pasta sauces is Pesto. I just love the aroma from the Basil leaves mixed with fresh garlic. It's so difficult for me to find fresh Basil leaves here in Jakarta and since the Covid-19 pandemic, I cannot visit any restaurants serving pasta with Pesto sauce. Thus, at the end, I decided to find Basil seeds, so I could plant it by myself. 

So, about a month ago, I bought Basil seeds at an online shop in East Java. I was so excited and directly plant the Basil seeds in a small pot on my roof garden.

The Basil plants.

Age: about 1.5 week.

Age: about 2.5 weeks

Age: about 3.5 weeks.

The color of the leaves is not as dark as the usual Basil leaves that I know. I have no idea why it is so light, but anyway, the aroma of the Basil leaves is like the normal Basil leaves. I'm just so happy that finally, I can have fresh Basil leaves from my garden and make my own Pesto sauce. Yay! 

My Cooking and Baking during WFH in July

 July is a busy month. School already started from the beginning of July. I don't have much time now to cook and bake like the previous months. By the way, the working from home, most probably will be still going on until the end of December this year until further notice. 

My Cooking and Baking during School Holidays 2020

It is School Holidays right now. It started two weeks ago and school will start again on the 13th of June 2020, but the students will still do the "Home Learning" because of the Covid-19 pandemic. I have no idea whether the teachers will "Work From Home" or teach online from the school because there's no announcement until now. I still cook and bake almost everyday. Here are some of the pictures of my cooking and baking.

My Cooking & Baking during Working From Home

I have been working from home since the Covid-19 pandemic. It was quite stressful in the beginning but now, I'm already getting use to stay at home. So far, I heard that people will go back to work again as usual in June 2020. I'm crossing my fingers that the Covid-19 pandemic will stop soon. Anyway, below are my cooking and baking during the Work From Home:

How to Cook Gumbo

On my day-off, I visited the Lawson's family. It was really nice to visit their house. I had a chance to play with their dog - a dapple dachshund named Peanuts. Besides, I was also asked what kind of food I particularly wanted to eat for dinner that night. Without any doubt, my spontaneous answer was, "Gumbo!!!" :)

What is Gumbo? Gumbo is a dark, savory broth of tomatoes and roux simmered for a long time and containing either seafood or meat and thickened with either file or okra. It originated in the southern Louisiana during the 18th century. 

Mr. Lawson cooked  the Gumbo. 

I asked Mr. Lawson's Gumbo recipe and how to cook it. So, here was what I learned from him:

All measurements in gumbo are approximates. There are probably as many recipes as there are people who cook it. So it you want a little more of this at a little less of that -- do it. Second, this is chicken and sausage gumbo. You can use anything you want in gumbo -- seafood, fish, turtle, wild game, use what you have.

Also, gumbo is usually better the second day, so cook it in plenty of time to let it rest on a hot stove for awhile.

The ingredients:
1 tbs flour
1 tbs oil or fat
2-3 cloves garlic minced or crushed
1 onion chopped
2 stalks celery chopped
1 bell pepper
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 pound sausage
3 chicken breasts water or broth
3 boullion cubes
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2-3 tsps basil
2-3 tsps parsley
8 oz. chopped okra

First make the roux. Heat the oil in the pot you are using for the gumbo. I like olive oil, but you can use anything. Traditionalists used to fry bacon and use the bacon grease. Stir in the flour -- about the same amount of flour as oil. Keep stirring on high heat. When the flour gets the color you want -- some like a dark roux, I like a caramel color -- turn the heat down and add the onion, celery, bell pepper and garlic. Turn down the heat and cover until the celery is tender. Add water or broth slowly, stirring it in to the mixture. You have to be careful about adding liquid. You don't want your gumbo too thin, so add a little liquid at a time only as you need it. When everything has loosened a little and the seasonings and the meat. Cook at a simmer. Add more liquid and add tomatoes. Continue to simmer and let the liquid reduce, about 15 minutes. Add okra and simmer until the okra is fully cooked.

Gumbo.

Bread.

I ate the Gumbo with bread instead of rice. 

It's totally delicious!

The okra, tomato and prawn in Gumbo.

Koi Fish made from Agar-agar (seaweed jelly)

Today, I made Agar - agar that resembles to Koi fish (Japanese carp).

Agar - agar is jelly from seaweed extract. It's well known in Asia as one of the best sources of fiber because it contains 84% fiber.

It's very easy to make Agar-agar.

Direction:
1 sachet of Agar-agar mixed with 900cc of water and sugar (to taste) then mix until the solids dissolved and boil it slowly.

This is agar-agar without coloring or milk.

To make Koi fish agar-agar. I added 2 spoons of powder milk. As soon as it's boiled, I poured it into the fish mold and let it cool (about 1 - 2 hours) before I added the coloring.

Pretty Koi Fish :)

Pickled Chinese Mustard Greens with Tofu

I have always love everything that tasted sweet and sour :) I just think it's a very perfect combination of those two taste. I like sweet taste because it related to happiness - we do look for sweet food when we feel sad, right? And you know what, there's old german saying, "Sauer macht lustig" which means sour (acid food) makes (you) happy. Ah.... perfect!

A nice dish of sweet and sour taste, sweet from the sweet soybean sauce and sour from the pickled Chinese mustard greens.

Ingredients:
250 gr Pickled Chinese Mustard Greens (gai choy) - need to wash it first because cut into slices
300 gr white tofu - cut into dices, fried deep into hot oil, drain
2.5 cm ginger - sliced
1 onion - sliced
2 red chilies - sliced
2 tbsp sweet soybean sauce (or to taste)
1 tbsp vegetable oil for cooking

Preparations:
- Heat up the oil in a pan, sautee the onion until soft
- Add ginger and red chillies, stir a bit
- Add pickled mustard greens, sautee until soft
- Add sweet soy sauce, stir fry
- Add the fried tofu
- Ready to serve :)

Note:
- No need to add salt because the pickled Chinese mustard greens is very salty and sour.
- Make sure to wash the pickled Chinese mustard greens first especially if you but it at wet market because it's dirty and salty. By washing it a couple of times, it might reduce the saltiness.

Roast Pork and an award

So happy, when I heard that mom was going to make roast pork for lunch :)

What should I say after I finished a plate of mom's cooking beside yummy? Thank you, Mom! :)

This is how my mom made the roast pork served with red beets salad and boiled potatoes.

Roast Pork:
- 1.7 kg piece of pork from the shoulder.
- Make a cut every 3 centimeters or so on the meat.

- Rub the meat on all sides with 1/2 tsp ground caraway seed, 6 ground garlic, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp white pepper.
- Brush olive oil onto the meat.

- On the base of a shallow roasting pan, put first the sliced onions, follow with chopped carrots and celery, then put the pork bones along, on the top put the seasoned pork.

- Preheat the oven to 180°C for about 10 minutes
- As soon as the pork is put in the low rack of oven, turn the oven temperature up to 220°C for 20-25 minutes, then reduce to 180° for the rest of the cooking time (total of 120 to 130 minutes).
- Occasionally pour some broth (or dark beer) - total about 1/2 liter to the roast.

Boiled potatoes and red beets

Red beets salad:
- Cut the red beets into slices
- Put in the bowl
- Mix with sugar and white vinegar

See how my little Vincent was sniffing the yummy fragrance from the roast pork lunch while I took the picture of it :)


An Award

Helene and Bits of Taste have kindly passed the "Kreativ Blogger Award" to me.

Thank you very much, it's so kind and thoughtful of you two! :)

The rules:

1- Thank the person who awarded you.
2- Copy the logo and paste it on your blog
3- Link to the person who nominated you for the award
4- Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting
5- Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers
6- Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate
7- Leave a comment on each of the blogs to let them know they’ve been nominated

So here are 7 things about me:
1. I love cold and gloomy weather
2. I love history and culture
3. I love languages
4. I love chocolate
5. I love collecting post stamps
6. I love kungfu movies
7. I love learning new stuff

I'm passing to 7 kreativ bloggers:
1. Food-4Tots
2. Cake, Batter and Bowl
3. Duchess of Tea
4. ChezWhat?
5. Dustjacket Attic
6. ♥peachkins♥
7. the ungourmet

Happy Weekend!

Kolak with Banana & Pumpkin

Last week, I saw my mom was so busy in the kitchen. Curious, I sneaked into the kitchen and took a look what she's doing :)

Ah... I could tell from the ingredients that she's making Kolak, an authentic Indonesian dessert with the basic ingredients of palm/brown sugar (gula jawa), coconut milk and pandan leaf. She was preparing it because her friends were visiting her for tea time. No cookies and tea, but instead, it's kolak and tea ;)


The rest of the ingredients of kolak is depend on each person, but usually you can find either:
- tapioca
- pumpkin
- banana
- sweet potato
or all together as a complete kolak.

It's very easy to make kolak ;)

This how my mom made the kolak:

Ingredients:
1/2 pumpkin (medium size)
4 bananas (cut about 4 cm)
600 ml coconut milk
150 gr palm sugar (gula jawa)
4 pandan leaves
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
- Put all the ingredients together in the cooking pot.
- Cook until it boiled.
- It's ready to be served.

Banana & Pumpkin Kolak
(Kolak Pisang dan Labu)

Kolak has a wonderful fragrance from the pandan leaf. It tasted sweet and creamy. A good comfort for an afternoon tea time :)

Babi Rica - Rica (Pork Rica - Rica)

Today is Mother's Day and also a Sunday, so since I'm free, I decided to cook something simple special for my mom :)

I made Rica - rica dish which is an Indonesian dish from Manado - North Sulawesi. I used pork for the meat (well, so far, I'm not really scare of swine flu, hehehe...) but if you want to try to cook this dish but you don't want to use pork, then you can substitute it with other kind of meat like chicken, beef or even fish.

The ingredients of Rica - rica pork:
300 grams pork (cut into slices)
1 red chili (cut into slices)
3 garlic cloves (cut into slices)
1 tomato (cut into dice)
1 lemongrass (bash it)
5 kaffir lime leaves
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil for cooking


Before starting to cook, you need to grind the garlic and red chili together with the salt first. Fyi, make sure to take out the seeds of the red chili if you can not really stand for the hot taste of chili.

The directions to cook rica - rica pork:
- Heat the oil then put the ground salt chili and garlic in it, fry it until fragnant.
- Add pork, mix it.
- Add lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, and tomato.
- Cook until the juice from pork and tomato come out.
- It's ready to serve :)

Happy Mother's Day!
I love you, Mom!

Home cooked during holiday

It’s holiday… but then mom and I are just stuck at home so we have been doing some cooking for our breakfast and lunch as you can see the pictures below, oh....... except the Lapis Philippine cake, that's a gift from a friend ;)

Tahu Goreng Isi eaten with green padi chili
This fried tofu is filled with carrot and bean sprout.

Breakfast
A. Baked macaroni with eggs and cheese
B. Corn pancake with red chili and shallot
C. Bauern Frühstück/ Farmer Breakfast
(Potato, egg, ham, sausage and onion)
D. Lapis Philippine cake

Lunch
E. Honey pork ribs, olive oil potato, steamed carrots, fruit salad
F. Pork’s tail with cai sim pickle and ginger
G. Ice salad with mayonnaise, honey and lime juice
H. Fried fish and french fries with white sauce.

Dinner
Left over from lunch, hehehe… :D

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009

Homecooked: baked potato & pork

Yesterday, while browsing the internet, I found a recipe of baked potato with mustard. I love eating potato and also mustard, so I think it’s a good idea to give a try and eat it for today's lunch together with fried pork. But then, I forgot to write down the recipe and can’t remember in which website was the recipe.

Anyway, I tried my best to remember the ingredients but still I believe some ingredients are lacked. Well, this is how I made the baked potato with mustard. First, I boiled 4 potatoes for about 15 minutes; next, I cut them in cubes and added 1/2 of a granny smith apple which I already cut into small sizes. Then I mixed the potatoes and apple with a sauce that contains mustard, chopped garlic, oregano, salt and extra virgin olive oil. I put in the oven toaster for 15 minutes.

As soon as the potatoes went to the oven toaster, I moved to the pork. I wanted to make fried pork. I seasoned the pork with pepper, nutmeg and … oops… a big mistake! I added salt into the seasoning. I shouldn’t put the salt because it caused the juice from the meat came out as you can see in the picture. Still can fried the pork but it wouldn’t taste nice and tender, therefore, I made a little modification. I fried some onion with garlic, after that I put the seasoned pork into the frying pan.

Home cooked

I usually like to cook simple dishes during the weekends :)

Rawon

Last weekend, mom cooked Rawon. Rawon is meat soup using "klewek" spice. Originally, Rawon is an East Java dish, eaten with white rice, bean sprout, kerupuk and also telur asin (salty duck egg).

 The ingredients:

The cooking:

Rawon

Rendang

I'm on my leave today. Nothing really to do, so I cooked for lunch. What did I cook? Yup, I made beef rendang. Hardly to believe that it tasted delicious especially because this is the first time I cook beef rendang :) It's quite easy to cook it but it takes about 2 hours.

I'm not so sure whether Rendang is originally an Indonesian or Malaysian cuisine because both claimed that Rendang is their traditional cuisine.