Grilled Red Snapper

It's summer time...
We will not pass this season without going to lake, barbecuing and hanging out with friends.
Last month, we went to Pawtuckaway Lake (...again..and again..last year we went there for 3 times..)
It's not too far from our house. It has play ground, 'beach sand'  and picnic area. We can rent a canoe or kayak. The water is quite warm too. In New England area, though it's summer, not all lake or sea water can be as warm as we think.

I decided to bring fish for our barbecue potluck. My friends suggested me to buy fresh fish at a seafood store near my area. I thought I would see 'fish market' over there. It's more like an office with big refrigerator  at the waiting area. In the refrigerator we can see frozen sea food, such as fish fillet, shrimp, scallop,etc. How about fresh fish... I asked the man who is busy on his desk. He asked me if i knew what kind of fish I would buy. Honestly, I don't have enough knowledge about fish. He pointed to a picture that has the name and the picture of the fish. I still had no idea.  Finally, I remember red fish. I just asked him that kind of fish. I tell him I wanted whole fish not fillet.  He understood, and went inside, after about 5 minutes waiting, he came back with plastic bag with red fish and tons of ice cube.  Red snapper is the name of the fish. I already prepared cool box, so I could place all the fish inside the car without worrying to spread the smell.

This is my first attempt to clean the whole fish... Usually in Indonesia, I can asked the vendor to clean it for me. I marinated the fish with ground seasoning ( garlic, shallot, lemon grass, ginger, salt, pepper, lemon juice). I also made sambel ijo (green chilly sauce) as a condiment to eat this fish.

It is always great to be with friends and family. We gather together, the kids are playing, the men are busy grilling food. The aroma was so good... we all enjoyed the atmosphere.

My son was very happy too... He loves to play with the sand. He was excited to climb, slide with his friends at the play ground. I changed his clothes for 3 times...he loved to get dirty and wet.  He also enjoyed the food, he ate satay and corn.

Tumpeng Ulang Tahun

It is my first attempt to make TUMPENG ( cone shape made by yellow/white rice). It is a symbol of celebration and thanksgiving in most place in Java island.
I don't have cone mold to form a good shape of cone. So I made 4 layers of rice to make it a tall enough rice  'mountain'  :) . The entree were ayam kalasan (sweet sour chicken), telur bumbu bali (hard boiled eggs with Balinese seasoning), perkedel ( fried mashed potato). The condiments were sambal manis (sweet chilli sauce) and the edible garnish were sliced cucumber & tomato.
I made it last week, on my birthday. We enjoyed these food with some of my friends. I'm glad they like it. 

Just to make my son happy, I made effortless jelly bday ( i don't have bday cake). Jev loves to blow birthday candle. I made konyaku jelly with chocolate flavor and added fresh strawberries on top of it by using toothpick. Jev was so glad. Strawberry is his favorite fruit. He almost finished all strawberries.  

Above all food prepared that night, my birthday celebration was complete with my lovely family close to me.

Dawet/Cendol Jelly (Pandan Jelly drink)

I took time to arrange my pantry. I've left them for 3 months as I stayed in Indonesia previous months. 
I found 'konyaku powder' . I have Nutrijell brand which is one of the leading brand for konyaku powder in Indonesia.  Konyaku powder is starch that is processed from tuberous root from the devils tongue plant was traditionally used in Japan to produce jelly like substance used in food. It is also one of source of fiber for our daily intake.  


I tried to browse the recipe using this jelly powder, I still have the plain one. 
Finally I got a lists of recipe from Nutrijell website. If you want to take a look, just click HERE. It's in Indonesian language. 
I decided to try Dawet/Cendol Jelly (Jelly drink) recipe with some adjustment. 
I don't have 'Suji leaves'. So I change this ingredient to just Pandan paste I got from Asian grocery store here. I ran out of  coconut milk so I used coffee mate. And instead of palm sugar I used brown sugar. 


The original version of Dawet/Cendol is made from rice flour and/or mung bean flour mix with Suji and Pandan leaves extract. It is more complicated to make. Here is the video how to make the original one. The video is from Nova tabloid Indonesia. Click HERE to watch. 


Here is the recipe with my modification :

For the Jelly:
1 Plain Nutrijell
700 cc water
2 tsp of Pandan Paste

For the drink:
700 cc cocounut milk ---- my version : I'm using coffee mate + water
200 g palm sugar ---- my version  :  brown sugar
50 g sugar
Pandan leaves 
A pinch of salt

Method : 

For the jelly, mix the powder with the water, heat it (medium heat), stir until it is boiled. Pour the jelly mix into a container/pyrex.  Let it cool. Shred the jelly. 

For the  drink, mix coconut milk, palm sugar and sugar.  Cook with medium heat until boiled.  

Prepare a tall glass,put some cube ice, put some shredded jelly and pour out the drink. It is ready for us  to enjoy....

Bandung Visit Highlight

Being in my home town is such a joy.

Sundanese 'taste bud' has attached to my preference. 

Here are some highlight..

1. Nasi Liwet & Martabak Telur Bi Aca
 (slow cooked rice & fried eggs crepes  made by Bi Aca)

Bi Aca is my mom's helper, especially when my mom had a big feast.  She will help to cook. 

Her fried chicken, nasi liwet, martabak telur, sayur asem (sour soup), sambal terasi ( shrimp paste chilli sauce) are phenomenal. 

I think she has 'cooking gift' in her hands. Though she only used just simple seasoning and herbs, she could nail many kind of food.  One day, she cooked for us, nasi liwet ikan asin (salted fish slow cooked rice) and martabak telur (fried eggs crepes).  Her fried eggs crepes is so delicious, I got one of her secret, she added small amount of ground candle nuts into it. 

Nasi Liwet with tempeh, sambal terasi, and cucumber ..."please forgive me for this blurry pictures"

Martabak Telur

2. Batagor Yunus ( Fried fish dumpling & tofu)

Bandung is the original place of this kind of food. Many people recognizes Bandung as a creative town in term of food and fashion. Many kind of unique food has been born from this city.  I remember around 1980 when I was still in elementary school, my dad bought this kind of food. It is a fried fish dumpling with tofu, we enjoy Batagor with peanut sauce and sweet soy sauce sprinkled by 'jerut purut' ( kaffir lime). 

Batagor & Kaffir Lime

There are varieties of Batagor from the gourmet one to the street vendor one. For me Batagor Yunus is in the middle of these two categories. It has reasonable price with delicious taste. Their simple place now is getting larger. Last time it only had about 4 big tables, now it has more then 10 tables.  Batagor Yunus located on Jl. Kopo, near Jl. Panjunan, before Imannuel Hospital. 

3. Buah Naga (Dragon Fruit)

I've seen the pictures in the Internet. It was my first time to hold, cut and taste this exotic fruit. It is not too sweet, smooth and it has 'cooling' effect to my tummy. Definitively  I will eat this again. 

TAMPAH JAJAN PASAR

I arrived in the USA 4 days before my husband's birthday.

I want to make something special on his birthday celebration. 

I made these.... a bamboo woven tray is filled with Indonesian traditional dessert.  

I've posted the recipes (two of them) HERE (kue talam & kelepon).

The layer cake is called 'Getuk', it's  a kind of cassava cake.

The ingredient are steam cassava, sugar, and melted margarine/butter. 

I got many compliment on this cake. So happy when people can enjoy what I cooked.

It's been a while

Since January 2012, I've not updated my blog.
I was so busy with many things that came  up into my life.
At the beginning of January, I got sad news from Bandung.
My mom had to be hospitalized for her serious illness.
At the end of January, I got short message from my sister. "Please come to Bandung, or else you will regret."
My husband and I made a quick decision, booking the tickets.
I flew to Bandung with my 2 years old son, Jev.

I must be so thankful, I could spend my time with my mom for about two months there.
Until she has to leave us to the eternity.
Now I'm still in grief, reminiscing my childhood, my good time with her.
I realized when I'm loosing her, I'm not just loosing one isolated person. But there are many facets of her that I lost. I only can pray, that God will fulfill my needs about her according to His riches.

One of kitchen memories my mom gave me is Manadonesse bread/cake, "Brudel".
I never thought that exactly 1 year after I posted her recipe on this blog, she passed away.

Her love will always be in my heart.
Her love that she's been sharing in the kitchen will always be sweet memories for us.

KUE DADAR GULUNG (ROLL CREPES WITH PALM SUGAR & GRATED COCONUT FILLING)

It's been a long time I have no company in the kitchen.

Last week, one of my friend asked me to cook one of 'kue jajan pasar' (traditional market dessert).

This dessert is really similar to the crepes. The batter is green because we added pandan extract and suji leaves extract into it. Since it's not easy to find the fresh ingredients, so we use a shortcut using only pandan paste for giving color and aroma.

The filling is grated coconut that we cook with melted palm sugar until it is saturated.

Last touch is we fill the crepes with the filling and roll it.

For the first 2-3 crepes we were still figuring out the thickness of our batter, until finally we came up with the right texture.

Ingredients :

Crepes :

250 grams flour

3 eggs

500-525 mL ( coconut milk : we mix about 200 mL thick coconut with water)

Pandan Paste

Salt 1/2 tsp

Filling :

1 pound of frozen grated coconut (thawed before using it)

250 grams palm sugar

125 mL water

Salt 1/2 tsp

Cinnamon powder 1/4 sdt

Method:

Filling : Melt the palm sugar with the water, salt. Add grated coconut into boiling sugar mixture, mix and stir until it mix well. Cook until all the sugar mixture is absorbed. Season with cinnamon powder.

Crepes : Beat the eggs with whisker, add the coconut milk. Pour out this wet ingredient into the dry ingredient, mix until well blended.

Heat the crepes pan or non stick pan about 15cm (diameter). Put little amount of margarine, pour out 1/4 cup of the batter, spread it evenly to all the pan surface. Wait until it is done.

Fill the crepes with the filling and roll it.

Jajanan Pasar : Kue Talam & Kelepon

Jajanan Pasar : Kue Talam & Kelepon

(Traditional Market Dessert :

Steam cake with coconut milk & Glutinous rice ball with palm sugar filling)

Kue Talam (Steam Cake with coconut milk)

Commonly this kind of cake will use yam (sweet potato as the base), but in this recipe I'll try pumpkin puree instead of sweet potato puree. Maybe because starting October is the time for pumpkin to shine in American baking.

I copied the recipe from Rumah Gemintang with my modification.

A :
200 gram canned pumpkin puree
70 gram tapioca flour

30 gram rice flour
170 ml coconut milk
100 gram sugar

1/2 tsp salt

B:
25 gram tapioca flour
2 tbsp rice flour
25 ml warm water

150 ml coconut milk
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Directions:
-Mix A ingredients until well mixed, shifted if needed
-Mix B ingredients until smooth also.
-Prepare hot steam pot and also kue talam mold, grease with some oil.
-Pour A mixture about 2 tbsp to the mold, steam for 10 minutes.
-Pour B mixture on top of cooked A mixture, steam again for 5 minutes.

- If you like you can put raisin as the garnish and steam for another 10 minutes ( but I skipped the garnish, so after pouring B mixture I added 15 minutes steaming time)
- Cool them and take the cake out from the mold. (size of this cake is abot 2 inches (diameter) and 1.5 inches (height) )

KELEPON

I really like to use mba Ienas Tsuroiya recipe. I just use my cup to measure the ingredients. I've been using her recipe for several times, it turns out good. Might be because she is using the same brand of flour that we found here ^_^.

Ingredients:
2 cup rice glutinous flour
1/2 cup rice flour
2 cup thin coconut milk
1/2 tsp salt
5-6 drops of Pandan Pasta
Palm sugar thinly sliced

Grated Coconut (I use the frozen one)
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
1. Mix rice glutinous, rice flour, Pandan Pasta and salt, add water small amount at a time, until the we get non sticky dough (it's like play doh consistency)

2. Take 1 tbsp of the dough, flatten it, fill the center with palm sugar, form it like a ball.

3. Boil some water in the pan, add the balls into boiling water. Wait until the ball floating, set aside.
4. Cover the ball with grated coconut that has been cooked (microwave)

CAUTION : IT'S GOOD TO HAVE ONE BITE BALL, IF WE ARE NOT CAREFULL, WE EAT JUST HALF OF THE BALL, THE MELTED SUGAR WILL SPRAY THE EATER ^_^