Eggplant Pizza

Unlike in Indonesia or Singapore, eggplants are not always available everyday or every season in Germany supermarket. This week they were available in supermarket, so I bought one piece of it. At that time I still could not figure out what to cook with this eggplant.

Prawn Pesto Pasta

Do you feel like eating italian pasta, but tomato-based pasta sounds too mainstream?
This week I bought some items out of our normal shopping list, like fresh basil leaves, olives pickle, pesto and eggplant. So I decided to cook my own version of prawn pesto pasta.

Apple Cinnamon Cake with Almond and Raisins

If you're looking for a failproof cake recipe, I think apple cinnamon cake is one of them. I can consider myself successfully made the cake in first try. It is yummy, moist, and easy to make. Apple cinnamon cake is perfect for breakfast or tea time, or maybe for hungry time in odd hour.

Dark Choco Puding with Fla

“Anything is good if it's made of chocolate.” ― Jo Brand

I love puding in any form or flavour. It's yummy and kills some guilty feeling in me that I've eaten some fibres after a meal.

Indonesian version of puding are mostly made of agar powder instead of gelatin powder or sheet. It is very difficult to find agar powder in Munich. I bought one 2 sachets of agar powder at an indonesian store here. The transparent (written as white) color one costs around Euro 1,-. I was crying inside knowing that in Indonesia it costs much less than that. But the price was worthed, my husband love it and I love it too.

Hainanese Chicken Rice

Chicken Rice is one of the wellknown dish in Singapore. It is sold in almost all of the food courts in Singapore. I remember, with only S$ 2.50 I can buy a plate of chicken rice set in my school canteen. But this dish may cost more in other proper chicken rice Restaurant.

I admit that I didn't eat chicken rice often in Singapore. This is not my favourite dish, mostly because it can be found everywhere. But few days ago, I saw a blog of a friend posting about chicken rice and since then I am challenged to make one here.

This is not a authentic way to make a real chicken rice, but at least this can remind of my time in Singapore. I try to combine recipes from internet with the limited ingredients and tools in my kitchen. Dedicated for friends who have leave Singapore for a some time or for good and want to make their own home made chicken rice.

I don't know how the best chicken rice supposed to taste, but here I present you my first ever try of making chicken rice (white) complete with its garlic sauce, soup and eggs.

Hainanese Chicken Rice

Chicken :
4 pcs chicken legs
2 stalks spring onion
6 slices ginger
4 bulbs garlic lightly cracked
2 bulbs onion diced
1 tbsp coriander powder
1000 ml water
2 tbsp salt

Rice:
2 tbsp vegetable oil
500 grams rice
1 big shallot / 3 small size shallots thinly sliced
2 tbsp grated ginger
4 bulbs grated garlic
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp salt

Garlic Sauce:
1 tbsp grated ginger
3 bulbs garlic
2 padi chili (optional)
1 big red long paprika / 4 red chili
2 tbsp lime / lemon juice
salt to taste
sugar to taste
3 tbsp chicken stock

Eggs:
100 ml Water
6 hard boiled eggs
4 tbsp dark soy sauce
small container

Additional:
2 tbsp sesame oil
cucumber

Step 1 (Chicken):

1. Put spring onion, ginger, garlic, onion, coriander powder, and water in a big pot and brig to rolling boil.
2. Put chicken legs in the boiling water. Make sure the water is enough to cover all of the chicken parts. Cover the pot and boil for 5 minutes.
3. Turn off the heat, and do not lift the cover. Let the chicken to be cooked for 30 minutes with the remaining heat and steam. (In my case I'm using pressure cooker because it has a tight lid. Rice cooker pot might be used in this process)
4. Once the chicken throughly cooked, take out all of the chicken legs from the pot and rinse them with running water or iced water bath.
5. Deboned the chicken legs and set the meat aside. Brush the sesame oil on the chicken and set the meat aside.
6. Keep the remaining chicken bones for making chicken stock.

Step 2 (Chicken Stock):

1. Add chicken bones to the earlier pot and boil it for around 20 minutes.
2. Drain off the stock and set aside.

Step 3 (rice):

1. Wash rice, and strain it. Set aside.
2. Add vegetable oil on the heated pan.
3. Add shallot, garlic, and ginger. Saute until fragrant.
4. Add the earlier strained rice and salt, and stir until fragrant.
5. Move all the rice mixtures into rice cooker. Add half of the chicken stock to it and adjust the liquid volume with water if the water level is not enough. (Follow a normal rice cooking water level)
6. Cook it until the fragrance of the rice fill your room/house. I love this part.. hehe

Step 4 (sauce);

1. Mashed chili, garlic, and ginger with mortar and pestle, or simply blend it with food processor until they reach a paste consistency.
2. Add in chicken stock, lime juice, sugar, and salt.

Step 5 (eggs):

1. Peeled hard boiled eggs and dip it in a mixture of water and soya souce.
2. Put in a small water tight container. Leave them for a while. Turn the container upside down each 5 minutes just to get the color of egg evenly brown.

Step 6 (soup):

1. Reheat the left stock
2. Add salt, white pepper and sliced spring onion.

Combine every element except soup in one plate and add sliced cucumber as garnish. Serve it with hot chicken stock soup.

Portion: 6 person

Self note:

1. My first rice need more salt
2. The amount of garlic chili sauce is too much for 6 person portion. It is still not perfect for me, but I'm not sure how to improve it. Maybe the garlic or ginger was too strong, or I just need to try another recipe for garlich chili sauce.
3. Next try: etter chicken deboning skill for better presentation.
4. More improvements needed for the eggs. Maybe new recipe. This time I just use the easiest one.

Simple Chicken Satay ~ Sate Ayam

Satee~ Satee~
It's an easy dish to prepare and surely a favorite dish to serve when you miss home (Indonesia). This time I used instant sate sauce that I bought in Indonesia.

Sate Ayam

Ingredients:
500 g chicken breast cubed
1 tsp salt
1 tsp white pepper
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp garlic powder
3 tbsp tamarin (disolved in water)
4 tbsp Indonesian sweet soy sauce

Margarine (keep it later for grilling)
Bamboo skewers (soak in water for one hour to avoid burning)

Instant peanut sate souce (prepare according to instructions in packaging)

You'll need:
Grilling pan/plate

Grilling Satay

Steps:
1. Marinate chicken breast in all ingredients (except margarine) for 4 hours in fridge.
2. Thread the chicken cubes onto bamboo skewers and grill for 2-3 minutes each side.
3. Serve with rice, peanut sauce, sweet soy sauce, slices of shallots and cucumber.

Enjoy!

Resep Martabak (Kulit+Isi+Acar+Saos)

Rindu makan martabak telur bersama keluarga tapi gak ada yang jualan karena sekarang kamu sedang tinggal jauh dari indonesia? Tidak punya skill melebarkan kulit martabak seperti yang sering kita lihat dilakukan oleh abang-abang penjual martabak dengan gerobak?

Martabak Telur

Simple baked rice

Whoever loves cheesy and creamy food will love this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp butter

1/2 bulb onion sliced

3 clove garlic

200 ml heavy cream

250 gr Brocolli (boiled)

1 cup Mushroom 

Sousages/meat

Salt and pepper

Cheese

4 portion of cooked rice

You'll need:

Oven

Baking Tray/any ovenproof bowl

Pan

Baked Rice

Steps:

1. Preheat Oven 200 deg Celcius
2. Heat butter in pan, sautee sliced onion and garlic.
3. Stir sousages or other type of meat. Stir until the meat cooked.
4. Add mushrooms and stir for a few seconds.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste. Make sure it is slightly over salty. Remember that we need to combine it with some rice later.
6. Add cliced boiled brocolli, turn of the heat.
7. Prepare cooked rice in a baking tray.
8. Strain meat, mushrooms and vegetables and arrange them on top of rice. 
9. Reheat the cream and melt some part of cheese to the cream mixture.
10. Pour the mixture in the topped rice pan and finish it with cheese on top.
11. Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes until the cheese melt and turn into golden color.
12. Serve with tomato ketchup.

I love this dish because it's easy to prepare and basically can clear my leftover ingredients in fridge.

Share with me your idea to improve this dish or your favourite topping for this type of baked rice.

Enjoy! ^_^

Resep Bakso Sapi

Bakso adalah salah satu makanan yang dijual di mana-mana di Indonesia. Mulai dari kantin sekolah, gerobak keliling, food court mall, sampai restoran menyediakan menu ini.

Lain cerita jika tinggal di luar Indonesia. Ketika masih tinggal negara tetangga, menu ini masih tersedia di food court stall atau restoran khusus makanan Indonesia. Supermarket pun masih menjual bakso beku dengan harga ramah kantong. 

Tapi sejak pindah ke Jerman menikmati bakso tidak lagi terjangkau. Harganya bisa setara atau lebih mahal dengan harga udang ataupun salmon. 

Semoga resep berikut bisa memuaskan keinginan teman-teman yang jauh dari indonesia tapi ingin makan bakso sepuasnya dengan harga terjangkau, atau mungkin juga untuk mereka yang suka bakso tapi ingin memastikan bahwa bahan yang ada di dalam bakso yang dimakan aman dari bahan berbahaya.

Bahan:

500gr daging sapi cincang

500gr daging kalkun/ayam cincang

2 butir telur

6 sendok tepung tapioka/kentang

1 sdt garam

1 sdt bawang putih bubuk/fresh (dihaluskan)

1 sdt bawang bombay/merah

1 sdt merica

2 sdt baking powder

2 sdt gula pasir

2 sdm minyak sayur

Alat:

Panci besar

Mangkok besar

Sendok

Cara:

1. Campurkan semua bahan hingga rata. Urutan tidaklah penting dalam tahap ini. Saya menggunakan tangan untuk mencampurnya.

2. Didihkan 2 Liter air

3. Bentuk adonan bakso menggunakan tangan dan bantuan sendok untuk memindahlan bakso dari tangan ke air mendidih.

4. Bakso yang sudah matang akan mengapung. Tiriskan sebagian jika panci sudah terlalu penuh.

5. Bakso yang sudah jadi bisa di simpan dan tahan di dalam lemari es selama 3 hari. Bakso beku bisa tahan lebih lama.

Bakso bisa dinikmati hangat dengan kuah rebusan bakso yang dibumbui garam, merica dan daun bawang. Bisa juga dicampur ke dalam dalam nasi goreng, mi goreng, cap cay, atau hidangan lainnya. 

Selamat menikmati.

Dabu-Dabu

Dabu-dabu, a well known term of sambal in my home town, Manado and Ternate. We eat sambal almost for every thing, for fried fish, boiled cassava, fried tofu and tempe, soup (for more hot and spicy taste), fried banana, and many more.

Now I just throw to you the basic ingredients, with no amount. You might freely do experiment with it.

Ingredients and cooking order:
1. Oil (generous, depend on amount of other ingredients)
2. Chopped/sliced shallots
3. Chopped chili (both big or small)
4. Chopped ripe tomatoes
5. Salt
6. Sugar

In certain occasion, I added crashed dried/smoked fish in it to create a unique texture and taste into the sambal. Enjoy!

*CAUTION: combining hot chili into hot oil may create gas that may irritate you eyes and nose. Please keep the kitchen well ventilated.

Chicken Veggie Soup

Soup time! It's the simplest type of meal that people can cook. Now I want to make it more complicated. Read to the end, try, and you'll know why. ^_^

Tools:
Frying pan or wok
Spatula

Ingredients:
Chicken breast - 1 pc
Carrot - 1 pc
Lettuce - 1/2 pc
chopped/cliced Shallot - 3 clove
chopped/sliced Garlic - 3 Clove
Salt & pepper
Cooking Oil - 2 tsp
Chopped coriander - optional (* daun sup)
fried shallot - optional (* bawang goreng)
water

Steps:

1. Cut All vegetables and chicken into desirable size.
2. Heat oil, saute garlic and shallot until change color to light yellow.
3. Put chicken and stir until cooked, add 1 pinch of salt and stir again.
4. Put carrot and stir until it change color into lighter yellow. Remember, smaller carrot size means lesser time to cook.
5. Put water as many as you want and cook until it boil. Do not over flooding your pan, sice the water need space to boil as well.
6. Mix Lettuce together with the earlier mixture until it slightly soft.
7. Add salt and pepper according to your taste. You need to taste the saltiness of spiciness of the soup to know.
8. Put last ingredients: coriander leaf or fried shallot.

Note:

1. Chicken breast might be replace by other part of chicken. But you have to take note, chicken breast is healthier than other. I prefer chicken breast because it has more meat and less bones and skin (yes, i dont like skin).
2. The purpose of sauteing meat with garlic and shallot is to enhance the soup aroma and create a firmer outer side texture of meat.
3. Actually the easiest way to make soup is to throw all ingredients inside the boiled water, but i prefer to do this way because of the better aroma of soup and the whole cooking experience =)

Please share with me, what type of soup you normally cook?
do you saute the ingredients first or you do the steam boat type of soup? which one do you prefer?

Cooking Nasi Goreng : Basic

A simple menu that I'll miss when away from home and away from Indonesia is Nasi Goreng (Fried Rice). Some chinese or malay or even indian food stall in Singapore may serve fried rice as well, but It's just different from what I normally have at home.

Cooking Fried Rice is a tricky yet fun for me. I can cook with 101 possibilities, mix and match the ingredients we have in fridge, I can cook left over rice, and it's a meal that you can eat without any additional dish.

You may find the ingredients are too many or maybe you don't have all in your fridge. Dont worry, it's just a basic recipe and you may modify it. However, some ingredients may be significant in creating a homy taste Nasi Goreng.

Here we go!

Tools:

1. Wok or non-sticky pan
2. Cooking Spatula
3. Knife
4. Chopping Board

Ingredients:

1. Cooking oil -- 7 tbsp
2. Chopped Garlic -- 2 tbsp or more
3. Chopped Shallot -- 2 tbsp or more
4. Meat: Frozen chicken sausage -- 4 pcs
5. Vege.: Carrot -- a half carrot
6. Light soy sauce -- 3 tbsp
7. Sweet soy sauce -- 2 tbsp
8. Tomato sauce -- 2 tbsp
9. Salt -- 2 pinch
10. Left over rice -- 1 full plate
11. Egg beaten-- 2 pcs
12. Chopped spring onion -- 2 stalk

Steps:

1. Prepare pan/wok on stove and turn on fire. Make sure there is no water drop on pan before pour the cooking oil. Water an oil only in a hot pan is not a good combination for cooking.
2. Heat oil, then put shallot and garlic as soon as you think that the oil is hot. Do not let the oil produce smoke, it means you will burn the shallot and garlic immediately.
3. Put chopped carrot and sausage. If you prepare raw meat, cook it first before combine them with carrot.
4. Stir until carrot change color into slightly lighter color. Put light soya sauce, rice, sweet soy sauce and tomato sauce. Stirr well until the rice mix evenly with all souce.
5. In this stage try to put a small fire, since rice will get burnt easily. Do not tempted to add any water if they do not blend easily. Keep stirring, take your time. Turn off the fire if needed.
6. Put salt and pepper. Stir again for a while.
7. Pour beaten eggs on the outer line of fried rice (as shown in picture). In this moment, stop stirring the rice, an observe until the eggs slightly cooked and solid, then start to mix again.
8. Taste your fried rice, if it's not salty, you may add salt or light soy sauce accordingly.
9. After everything is done, put spring onion on last step. Some of you may hate spring onion and think that it's not significant. But believe me it does contribute to the fried rice perfection. Stir again until the spring onion mix well in the rice.

Tips:

1. Try you best to use left over rice. If you only have just cooked rice, cool it first before using. Do you know what is the effect? :)
2. Do not use too little oil, it will give you problem in mixing all the ingredients. If you're a health conscious people and want to avoid oil, do not eat fried rice. Btw oil is good to dilute vitamin A in carrot :)
3. I think the main difference between indonesian style fried rice and others are the amount of shallot, garlic and the sweet soy sauce. Please have these ingredients to make a nice nasi goreng.
4. Amount of ingredient is important for balance of fried rice, but the most important thing in cooking fried rice is the sequence. The best sequence that i know in cooking fried rice so far is this one. Some prefer to put eggs in earlier stage, but i prefer to put later.
5. Keep cooking and you'll know which sequence or amount of ingredient is suitable or which ingredient you may omit.
6. Mixing rice and those ingredients are sometimes frustrating for beginners. So I suggest to start with 1-2 portion only. Btw my recipe is enough for 2 persons or 3/4 small portions. Use loose rice and put wok in low heat to make stirring easier.

The Fried Rice fail? Dont worry, I was there before.. :)
It wont taste that bad because self cooked food will taste better ^^

Please share to me you experience or experiment in cooking fried rice. I'll be happy to hear from you.

First timer and have any problem? Please share, me or any of reader may help you to solve the problem.

Happy Cooking..!