Garlic Mussels

If you go to seafood restaurants here, you may find garlic mussel on the menu. Most restaurants will apply dry white wine. Another way of cooking this, it's by twisting with Asian style. Enhancing with the Japanese broth or dashi is not a bad idea. In which I used the ichiban dashi and diluted with rice vinegar. You may substitute for clam juice, chicken broth as well.

Some recipes call for chopped celery, diced seeded tomatoes, or red pepper flakes. Anyway, feel free to play around with this recipe and add other herbs if you like.

Garlic Mussels

Ingredients:

• 3-1/2 to 4 lb. mussels
• 3 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
• 6 medium cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 4 shallots, finely chopped
• 1 1/4 cups ichiban dashi diluted wih 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• green onions

Directions:

1. Rinse the mussels well under cold water. Pick them over, pulling off any beards and discarding any mussels that are broken or gaping open.
2. In a large pot with a lid, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and shallots, and cook until fragrant and soft but not colored, 3 to 5 minutes.
3. Add the mussels and dashi mixture. Increase the heat to high, and cover the pan. After 2 minutes, remove the lid and toss the mussels well with a large spoon. Cover the pot again and cook until the mussels have opened wide, another 3 to 4 minutes. Add chopped green onion, give the mussels a final toss, and divide the mussels and the broth among bowls.

Miso Soup with Mussel and Tofu

Oh yeah... I must admit that I have been crazy about Japanese food. Japanese food seems a good friend of my husband since he found out that he is allergic to wheat. Hence, eating out is not easy anymore for us, especially if you live on the wheat growers' land.

After I received Everyday Harumi cookbook from Serge Lescouarnec, I became more knowledgeable about this cuisine. I know how to make dashi from scratch. This dish was inspired by Miso Soup with Sesame and Tofu of Harumi too. With the Garlic Mussels that was posted previously, I twisted her recipe.

You may serve this soup for your appetizer at the New Year party as I submitted to the Masak Bareng Yuuk event December 2009 period with theme "Hidangan Pesta tahun Baru (English: New Year Party Dish).

There were some different ideas for the party as well that you may be interested.

Tteokochi - Korean Rice Cake with Spicy Sauce

Vietnamese Salad Rolls

Breaded Curried King Oyster Mushroom

Phoenix Talons

Lumpia Semarang - Semarang Style Spring Rolls

Spanakopita - Greek Spinach Pie

Miso Soup with Mussel and Tofu

Ingredients:

• 10 g soft/silken tofu, drained and cubed
• 8 garlic mussels
• 3 1/2 cups ichiban dashi stock
• 4-5 tbsp miso
• sliced green onions, for granish

Directions:

1. Heat dashi stock in a saucepan. before it comes a boil, add tofu.
2. Gradually add miso, stirring until compltely dissolved.
3. Bring almost to a boil, add garlic mussels to the soup and stir in well.
4. Remove from the heat. Sprinkle green onion over the soup and serve.

There were some dishes that I posted before

Gulai Manis Rajungan - West Sumatran Blue Crab Curry

After four years in the Great White North, I am brave enough to cook crabs. You may remember that I turned a Pacific dungeness crab into a crab with Padangese Chili Sauce. I used to have crabs in Indonesia, but never cooked them by myself. You can find live dungeness crabs at Superstore or any fish markets. Only once a while, I saw fresh blue crabs at one of Asian markets in Winnipeg.

After I left my home country, I felt how I was spoiled by warm weather to produce all year long tropical fresh fruits and vegetables for sure. Abundant street food availability had made me lazy to learn about cooking from my family. My maternal grandmother and mom was a great cook. I probably could call my mom, a chef. Ability to craft healthy and creative dishes for her own catering business was her passion.

It came a moment where I had to move out from my parents’ house. I had to live at a rent’s room close by the university where I went for school. The school that I went is in West Java province. It is about 734 kms from my hometown. Once a while, I tried to cook by myself just because I want to reduce the MSG came into my body, very simple stir fry veggies. Heck, I even didn’t know how to cook rice without a rice cooker.

Do you know who taught me how to cook rice without a rice cooker? My husband! Can you believe that? He knows how to cook rice on a stove and didn’t know how to cook it with a rice cooker. The opposite of me, eh!

Anyway, here I am cooking Indonesian food and try to be as authentic as I can from Manitoba’s kitchen after couple years learned from a lady who has worked for our family in Indonesia, online websites and Indonesian cookbooks. Furthermore, I never stop learning.

A tips on cooking whole and live crabs that I got from this website. Take advantage of their cold-bloodedness! Chilling the crabs in the fridge or freezer just before use will slow their metabolism down enough that you can handle them easily.

Please enjoy my second cooking of crabs, Gulai Manis Rajungan – West Sumatran Blue Crab Curry that I cooked on December 20, 2009.

Gulai Manis Rajungan -West Sumatran Blue Crab Curry

Ingredients:

• 5 - 6 blue crabs, brushed
• 1200 ml coconut milk (I combined 1000 ml coconut milk, 1/4 cup coconut cream, and 200 ml clam juice)
• 4 red/cayenne chilies, cut lengthwise
• 2 asam kandis (can be substituted for kokkam or gorakha, find this ingredient at Indian/Carribean stores)
• 2 lemongrasses, take the white parts and bruise
• oil for stir fry

Grind into spices (bumbu/rempah) a paste:

• 7 shallots
• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 cm long turmeric, roasted and peeled (can be used for turmeric powder instead)
• 2 cm long ginger, peeled
• 2 cm long galangal
• 1 tsp whitepeppercorn
• 1 tsp coroander seed
• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Directions

1. Steam the crabs until turn colour.
2. At medium - high, heat up the oil in a pot. Stir fry bumbu/rempah paste until fragrant. Add chilies and cook until wilted.
3. Reduce the heat. Add clam juice, coconut cream and coconut milk.
4. Stir occasionally in order to have a good mixture not bursted one unti it's boiled.
5. Add crabs and asam kandis, cook until the liquid thicken. Remove and serve with rice.

Smoked Duck Fried Rice

This smoked duck was leftover from our New Year's dinner. My uncle in law asked a help his colleague to smoke a whole duck. After the dinner, he then left the carcass, fat, skin and some meat for me to bring home. I baked the fat and skin to get the oil. With some vegetables, I boiled the carcass for the broth. Used the meat for this fried rice. Look! I used up almost everything...

I never have an exact recipe for fried rice since I have been making fried rice so many times.

Smoked Duck Fried Rice

Ingredients:

• overnight cold cooked rice
• smoked duck meat, sliced
• shrimp
• Chinese celery leaves, chopped

Grind into a paste:

• shallots
• red pepper
• bird eyes chilies
• dried shrimp paste(Indonesian: terasi)/fish sauce
• candlenuts
• white peppercorns

Directions:

• In a skillet, saute the paste for 1-2 minutes or until fragrant. Add shrimp, stir. Mix cold rice in the skillet, stir until all mixed. Add smoked duck meat and chopped celery leaves and stir.

Spring, Winter, Spring, Winter - Awards - Cauliflower Cheddar Soup

I am totally confused with the weather. It was been so nice the past weeks, almost like spring, then suddenly snow's storm this weekend. I didn't go back to Winnipeg since it is to dangerous for driving on highways, especially snow and the temperature just above 0 degrees Celsius.

As I came to this country, checking the weather network has been my habit. This is not included checking the highway's condition before traveling. Opps the weather watch has updated about "Winter Storm Warning : R.M. of Morton including Boissevain and Turtle Mtn Prov. Park." It was said, "A massive winter storm continues to envelop most of Southern Manitoba this evening. As of 10 PM snowfall amounts in general range from 10 to 20 cm." Damnnn.... I sound like a weather man woman.

C'mon. Stay positive and try not to waste your energy by being grumpy. Well, I almost forgot that I got two different awards from Lia Chen of Bentolicious and Tata of Bonito's Cooking Wonderland

Thank you Lia and Tata for the awards

I'm passing these awards to all my foodie buddies!

Here is a great treat for you! Creamy Cauliflower Cheddar Soup.

Pisang Bakar Coklat Keju (Grilled Bananas/Plantains Topped with Chocolate and Cheese)

Pisang Bakar Coklat Keju

Snack? I think lots people love to snack. During my university's time in Bogor, I used to snack around midnight. I went to bed very late due to the paper-works and snacked more than ever. As my foodie's friend, Rurie said, there are always 24/7 food street vendors in Indonesia. Never get worried to starve in the middle of the might. I often went to warkop (coffee street vendors) or warung tenda (food street vendors with tends) to buy Pisang Bakar Coklat Keju. I hopped in an angkot (public mini transportation which is numerous in Bogor) to go to Padjajaran boulevard to get this yummy snack. Along with this pisang bakar, I had a cup of cappuccino or wedang jahe (Indonesian ginger tea).

Well, making this snack isn't that hard. Easy peasy recipe! In this case, I applied unsalted butter instead of margarine that is used by the Indonesians to grill/bbq the bananas/plantains.

Despite the Western taste-buds are not used to this weird combination, I know two Canadians who fell in love with this snack. One is my husband, another one is a lady who owns the house that I stay whenever I'm in Boissevain.

Ingredients:

• saba bananas/plantains (Indonesian: pisang kepok/ pisang raja/tanduk)
• white mild cheddar cheese
• chocolate sprinkle "ceres" brand
• sweetened condensed milk
• unsalted butter

Directions:

1. Brush butter on bananas. Grill/bbq on charcoal is better or on stove with a grill pan until golden brown.
2. Plate the cooked bananas on a plate. Grate cheese and sprinkle chocolate over. Swirl the sweetened condensed milk on.

Roasted Red Peppers, Guacamole and Hummus Sandwich

Guacamole, Hummus and Roasted Peppers in Collage

Sandwich is always be my husband's favorite. I tried to make a different style of sandwich. The idea was come from Ina Garten which I have modified lots.

Garten's style sandwich:

1. has used balsamic vinegar to make roasted red peppers
2. has used goat cheese for spreading on
3. has used basil for assembling the sandwich

My style sandwich:

1. has used nypa vinegar (cuka nipah palm) to make roasted peppers
2. has used guacamole and hummus for spreading on
3. has used baby spinach for assembling the sandwich

Same things that we have used, ciabatta bread and red onion slices.

So I can say that my sandwich is fusion style which is mixed Italian for the bread and roasted red peppers, South-East Asian for nypa vinegar, Mexican for guacamole and Middle East for hummus.

Just so you know Nypa palm vinegar is from Nypa fruticans, known as the Attap Palm (Singapore), Mangrove Palm or Nipah palm (Indonesia, Malaysia), Nipa Palm (Philippines), D?a Nu?c (Vietnam), Gol Pata (Bangladesh), and Dani (Burma) is the only palm considered a mangrove.

Roasted Red Peppers Sandwich 2

Roasted Red Peppers, Guacamole and Hummus Sandwich. Recipe by Ina Garten, modified by me

Ingredients:

• 4 large red peppers
• 2 tbsp good olive oil
• 1 tbsp nypa vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp drained capers, chopped

Roasted Peppers

• 1 large ciabatta bread, halved horizontally
• guacamole as desired
• hummus as desired
• 10 baby spinach leaves
• 3 thin slices red onion
• freshly ground black pepper
• Roasted Red Peppers Sandwich

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.

2. Place the whole peppers on a sheet pan and place in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until the skins are completely wrinkled and the peppers are charred, turning them twice during roasting. Remove the pan from the oven and immediately cover it tightly with aluminum foil. Set aside for 30 minutes, or until the peppers are cool enough to handle.

3. Meanwhile, combine the olive oil, nypa vinegar, garlic, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Set aside.

4. Remove the stem from each pepper and cut them in quarters. Remove the peels and seeds and place the peppers in a bowl along with any juices that have collected. Discard the stems, peels, and seeds. Pour the oil and vinegar mixture over the peppers. Stir in the capers. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a few hours to allow the flavors to blend.

5. To assemble the sandwiches, spread the bottom half of the loaf with the guacamole and the top half of the loaf with hummus. Add a layer of peppers and then a layer of spinach. Separate the onions into rings and spread out on top. Sprinkle with pepper. Cover with the top half of the ciabatta and cut into individual servings.

Samba Lado Mudo

Samba Lado Mudo or Sambal Lado Mudo is one of popular condiments in Indonesia. It's originated from West Sumatra province, so if I have to translate the name, it can be Minangese Green Chilies Sambal. If you go to Minangese restaurants in Indonesia, you can ask for this condiment at no cost. Mostly, Indonesians always have sambals for their food, no wonder they have many style of sambals. Still got confused what sambal is? please do visit this link.

As I have posted on Samba Lado 2 before that I added bilimbis (Indonesian: Belimbing sayur, belimbing wuluh) instead of green unripe tomatoes. Now, I made a different substitute by adding tomatillos.

This recipe is my entry for Weeekend Herb Blogging #128, hosted by Jai and Bee of Jugalbandi. Samba Lado Mudo (Minangese Green Chilies Sambal) Modified by me.

Ingredients:

• 25 long green chillies
• 8 shallots (for smaller shallot like in Indonesia, use 16 shallots)
• 4 tomatillos (original recipe is supposed to add green unripe tomatoes)
• 100 g teri medan (dried tiny silver anchovies)
• 5 tbsp oil
• 2 tbsp fresh lime juice
• salt and sugar to season

Directions:

• 1. Steam long green chilies and shallots (some people like to steam the tomatoes as well) for about 5 minutes.
• 2. In a food processor or blender, place tomatillos, steamed green chillies and shallots. Do not process too smooth, just roughly blended. I myself processed too smooth.
• 2. In a skillet, place oil and heat it over medium-high. Fry dried anchovies until golden brown. Remove the anchovies.
• 3. Heat the remaining oil in same skillet, stir fry the blended ingredients until wilted. Add fried anchovies, stir evenly. Add lime juice, sugar and salt, stir evenly. Remove from the heat. Ready to eat as a condiment. I put mine in a sterilized jar, so I can keep it longer in the fridge.

Western Sumatran Style Green Chili Paste - Samba Lado Mudo

Two weeks ago, on Thursday afternoon after work, I was waiting for a bus, #17, at the bus stop that is closed to my work place. This bus was gonna take me to Notre Dame ave. Yupss I was going to go to my favourite oriental store. I just wanted to buy something small, such as vegetables and tofu. I didn't expect that I could find green chilies at that time. Finally I bought a pack of long green chillies, vegetables and Indian mackerel (Indonesian: ikan kembung) too.

Weeekend is a time for me to relax. Some people have a different way to get relax, my way is by cooking of my favourite food. I decided to make samba lado mudo and lalapan daun ubi. Daun ubi means yam leaves. It's not the same as Medan people's term. I used to hear daun ubi's term for cassava (Indonesian: singkong/ubi kayu) leaves in Medan. I was thinking that steamed or cooked daun ubi must be good with samba lado mudo.

Speaking about samba lado mudo, Samba Lado Mudo is Western Sumatran's dish which is very popular throughout Indonesia. This is another version of sambals and eat as a condiment as well.

According to wikipedia, Yam is a term and common name in Canada and the US for some species in the genus Dioscorea (family Dioscoreaceae). These are perennial herbaceous vines cultivated for the consumption of their starchy tubers in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania. They are used in a fashion similar to potatoes and sweet potatoes. There are hundreds of cultivars among the cultivated species.

One day, I was browsing on the internet and discovered several recipes (Tabloid Nova, Melroseflowers , Uni Imun’s Multiply) for Samba Lado. After examining all the different preparation methods and possible ingredients, I finally decided to create my own version. In Indonesia, people usually add green tomatoes, which I haven’t yet found in Winnipeg. Instead, I added bilimbis (Indonesian: belimbing sayur). Also, I don’t have the kind of anchovies (Teri Medan, which translated means tiny dried anchovies) that we usually use to make this version of Sambal. In my recipes, I cut dried anchovies into smaller pieces.

Category: Side Dishes and Condiments

Style: Indonesian

Special Consideration: Quick and Easy

Ingredients:

• 15 green chillies, steam for 5-6 minutes
• 10 shallots
• 3 bilimbis
• 30 g dried anchovies
• 5 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2-3 tsp fresh lime juice
• salt an sugar to season

Directions:

1. In a food processor or blender, place steamed green chillies, shallots, and bilimbis. Do not process too smooth, just roughly blended.

2. In a skillet, place oil and heat it over medium-high. Fry dried anchovies until cooked. Remove the anchovies.

3. Heat the remaining oil in same skillet, stir fry the blended ingredients until wilted. Add fried anchovied, stir evenly. Add lime juice, sugar and salt, stir evenly. Remove from the heat. Ready to eat as a condiment.

PS. I enjoyed this condiment with lalapan daun ubi (cooked yam leaves).

Indonesian Style Sour Spicy Tilapia - Nila Bumbu Acar

This recipe is adapted from Tabloid Nova, that I subtituted red chillies for sambal oelek. The original recipe uses Ikan Mas (literally translated as gold fish, but this one is actually translated as Carp)

Since I haven't found "Ikan Mas" here, I substituted for Tilapia (Indonesia: Ikan Nila). I thought it is the same because both of those fish are farmed in freshwater.

Category: Fish and Shellfish

Style: Indonesian

Ingredients:

• 1 whole tilapia (500 g)
• 1 tbsp fresh lime juice
• 350 cc water
• oil for frying

Spices:

• 2 cloves garlic
• 7 shallots
• 3 candlenuts, toasted
• 6 bird's eye chillies
• 2 tsp sambal oelek (Original recipe uses 4 red chillies)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp tamarind juice (Original recipe uses 1 tsp tamarind juice, to make tamarind juice from tamarind pulp, combine 1 tsp tamarind pulp with 3 tbsp very warm water, stir evenly)
• 1 tsp ground turmeric (Original recipe uses 3 cm fresh turmeric, peeled)
• 2 cm galangal, crushed

Directions:

1. Clean the fish by cleaning out the stomach cavity, removing the gills and surrounding tissue, and scaling them. I bought a cleaned whole tilpaia so no need to do this step, I just rinsed out.

2. Cut a whole tilapia into two pieces. Rub fish inside and out with lime juice. Let stand for 30 minutes.

3. Heat oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Deep fry the fish until golden brown.

4. Blend or grind garlic, 3 shallots and candlenuts. Mix ground spices with ground turmeric, sambal oelek and salt.

5. Stir fry mixture spices until fragrant. Add bird's eye chilies, 4 whole peeled shallots, sugar, tamarind juice, galangal, water, and salt(only if you need). Add fish, reduce medium-low heat. Simmer for a few minutes, allowing the fish to permeate the spices. Remove from heat and serve with steamed rice.

Lumpia Goreng Seafood - Fried Seafood Lumpia

Lumpia is a pastry that the Indonesian calls for spring roll. Lumpia's term derives from lunpia in the Hokien dialect of Chinese. In Netherlands, it's spelled as loempia which is the old Indonesian spelled for lumpia and also become the generic name for spring roll in Dutch. In the Phillipines, they also call lumpia as the Indonesian's called and spelled.

This recipe is adapted from Tabloid Nova which I changed in seafood filling. The original recipe only used shrimp and squids. I also created my own dipping sauce for this lumpia.

Category: Appetizers and Snacks

Style: Indonesian

Ingredients:

15-20 lumpia wrappers

Filling Mixture:

• 2 tbsp oil for sauteeing
• 2-3 cloves garlics, minced
• 400 g seafood medley (raw squids, raw octopus, raw shrimps, raw cuttle fish, cooked mussels, cooked clams)
• 1 tbsp oysters sauce
• 1/2 tsp ground white pepper
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp cornstarch, dissolve in a small amount of water
• oil for deep frying

Dipping Sauce:

• honey mustard (you can subtitute for regular mustard)
• mayonnaise
• relish
• hot chili sauce (I used Indonesian hot chili sauce)

Directions:

1. Chop shrimp, octopus, and cuttle fish. Dice squids into 1/2 x 1/2 cm cubes.

2. Sautee garlic at a medium-high heat in a pan until fragrant. Add raw seafood and stir fry until color changed. Add oysters sauce, salt, white pepper, sesame oil, and cooked seafood (mussels and clams); stir evenly. Thicken by adding cornstarch mixture, cook and stir for couple more minutes. Remove from the heat.

3. Take 1 lumpia wrapper and fill with 1 tbsp filling mixture. Wrap and shape.

4. Deep fry until golden brown. Mix all ingredients for dipping sauce. Serve lumpia with the dipping sauce

Rhubarb Fruit Fool

First time I knew this Fool dessert from Canadian Living magazine. In that edition, Canadian Living magazine had a wonderful dessert which I don't remember what the recipe's name is, I remember something Fool . I was wondering why a such tempting dessert and beautiful picture indeed was called something Fool.

Finally I knew it after reading one of the Joy of Baking's page. According to that website, dating as far back as the sixteenth century, this classic British dessert has seen its popularity ebb and flow. Today fruit fools consist of cooked or raw fruit that is puréed or mashed, then sweetened, chilled, and finally folded into stiffly beaten whipped cream (there should be streaks of the white cream showing where the fruit was not completely folded into the whipped cream). Traditionally fools were made with tart fruits such as raspberries, gooseberries, blackberries, loganberries, and rhubarb but today virtually any fruit can be used. It is best showcased when served in a long stemmed parfait or wine glass, garnished with fresh fruit. "Fool" is believed to have originated from the French word "fouler" which means "to mash" or "to press".

I was so curious what rhubarb was and how it tasted. One day, when we did grocery shopping I saw rhubarb stalks at fresh vegetables racks. This was my first time to make rhubarb fruit fool which I adapted this recipe from Joy of Baking.

Ingredients:

• 1 stalk fresh rhubarb (1/2 lb or 228 g) cut into 1 - 2 inch (2.54 - 5 cm) pieces
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• zest of one orange (optional)
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) strawberry puree*
• 3/4 cup (180 ml) whipping cream

* I made strawberry puree from 1/2 cup fresh strawberry slices by placing them into a hand blender. Process until the strawberries are puréed.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 C). Mix together the rhubarb, sugar, and orange zest and place in an ovenproof dish. Cover the dish with foil and bake for about 45 - 60 minutes or until the rhubarb is nice and soft. Check and stir the rhubarb after 30 minutes.

2. Once the rhubarb is soft, remove from oven and drain in a strainer suspended over a bowl. Press the rhubarb to force out the juice. There should be about 6 tbsp (90 ml) of juice. Place the juice into a small saucepan and boil the juice until reduced by half. Let cool.

3. Pureé the rhubarb in food processor or blender until smooth. It should have about 1/2 - 5/8 cup (120 - 150 ml) of pureé. Add the strawberry pureé and reduced rhubarb juice to the rhubarb pureé, taste and add more sugar if necessary. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled (overnight is best).

4. Whip the cream until soft peaks form. With a large rubber spatula gently fold in the rhubarb mixture. (You want the fruit fools to have streaks of the white cream showing where the pureé was not completely folded into the whipped cream). Place in three serving glasses. You can make the fruit fools several hours in advance of serving.

Hot Dark Chocolate Marmalade

I came home, it was pouring rain and I was wet. I felt I wanted something to warm me up. I decided to make this beverage which I got from Tabloid Nova.

By adding dark chocolate bar in ingredient, I omitted cocoa powder, I only used it for dusting. I also reduced the sugar, and added more orange marmalade jams.

In the original recipe, instead of grating the unsweetened chocolate bars, I ground the dark chocolate with a coffee grinder.

Ingredients:

50 g dark chocolate bars (99% cocoa), ground

3 tbsp orange marmalade jams

550 ml water

1 sdt sugar (it can be more or less added as desired)

1/4 tsp salt

50 ml sweetened condensed milk

Topping:

whipped cream

cocoa powder

maraschino cherry

Directions:

1. Bring 500 ml water and orange marmalade jams to a boil.

2. Add ground dark chocolate, sugar and salt; stirring until sugar dissolved. Add sweetened condensed milk and 50 ml water until mixed and dissloved.

3. Pour hot chocolate mixture to glass servings. Spray on the whipped cream dust with cocoa powder and put cherry on top.

Sambal Tempe Penyet - Indonesian Style Spicy Crushed Tempeh

Indonesians almost eat everything with sambal. Sambal is a condiment used in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka, made from a variety of peppers, although chilli peppers (red chilies, green chilies, bird's eye chilies) are the most common. Sambal is used as a condiment or as a side dish, and is sometimes substituted for fresh chillis; it can be very hot for the uninitiated. It is available at exotic food markets or gourmet departments in supermarkets in numerous countries.

When I was in Sidoarjo (a suburban city of Surabaya, East Java), Indonesia, it's easy to get Sambal Tempe Penyet at a kaki lima vendor or a warung around Sidoarjo-Surabaya. We eat this sambal penyet with warmed steamed rice. Since I have been in Canada, I have to make this by myself which I never did it while I was in Indonesia.

Ingredients:

300 grams tempeh, cut as desired

olive oil with fried garlics

4 red chilies

5 bird's eye chilies

3 cloves garlic

2 cm lesser galangal (it's called kencur in Indonesian's term)

1/2 tsp dried shrimp paste (it's called terasi in Indonesian's term), toasted or stir fry

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

Directions:

1. Toast tempe with a small amout of olive oi. Bake until brown or done. Alternative: you can grill or deep fry the tempeh.

2. Grind or blend red chilies, bird's eye chilies, garlic, lesser galangal, dried shrimp paste, salt and sugar. It will be better if you grind the sambal ingredients in a mortar with a pestle.

3. Place tempeh and sambal in a serving plate, crush tempeh and stir evenly with the sambal. Serve with warmed steamed rice.

A Taste Of Yellow - Bakwan Tuna

I read “Going Mellow Yellow” at mbak Arfi's blog. I was not aware of LIVESTRONG Day before. To learn more about it, I read “Taste Of Yellow-for Livestrong Day” at Barbara's blog.

After reading about Livestrong Day, it reminded me of my Mom, who didn’t survive from her breast cancer. She fought with the disease for a little less than a year after she was diagnosed. She is my ideal figure. She worked as a biology teacher at a high school in Sidoarjo (a suburban city of Surabaya, East Java), but she still had time to take care of her family. She was an awesome wife, mom, and teacher. She is one of the most patient women I've ever known. She was also a good baker. She loved to bake and cook.

As I recall, she really cared about healthy food. However, there is always a outside chance of getting the disease no matter how healthy we are. It might be the family history or many other factors.

My contribution for A Taste Of Yellow is Bakwan Tuna. Bakwan is a Indonesian style fritter. We usually add vegetables such as carrots, bean sprouts and corns, as well as eggs, flour and rice flour. In this recipe, I tried a different approach. I added tuna and corn flour instead of adding vegetables, flour, rice flour and corn. I suggested using light tuna for a healthier choice as support to Livestrong Day.

Ingredients:

• 1 can (120 g) tuna
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp ground coriander seed
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp finelly chopped parsley (Actually In Indonesian recipe, we add Chinese celery leaves and I myself prefer add Chinese celery leaves as well as cilantro)
• 1 green onion, finely sliced
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 2 tbsp corn flour*, divided
• salt as desired
• 1 tsp butter
• 1 tsp olive oil with fried garlic (it's known as Spanish olive oil)

* Don't get confused between corn flour and corn starch. Corn flour is finely ground cornmeal obtained from kernels from which the germ has been removed in order to improve the storage life of the flour. Corn flour is used for breading and in combination with other flours in baked goods. Be aware that in British recipes the term "corn flour" means cornstarch, and the two cannot be substituted for each other.

Directions:

1. Place tuna in a bowl with next 7 ingredients and 1 tbsp a corn flour. Mix until well combined and form into 4 patties. Dredge patties in remaining 1 tbsp corn flour.

2. In a frying pan (I used crepe pan), melt butter and olive oil together over medium high heat until bubbling. Turn heat down to medium and place patties in the pan. Use spatula to flaten the patties a bit. Cook for 3-5 minutes on each side. Bakwan Tuna should be nicely browned and cooked throughly.