Balado Udang dan Tahu (Prawns and Tofu Balado)

Hmm.. I want to eat something hot and spicy. So, I'm going to make balado dish today. What is balado? What kind of dish is it? Let me introduce you. Balado is one of Indonesian dish which is originally from Minangkabau. It is very popular in Indonesia especially around West Sumatra or Aceh Province. Balado means with / using chili. The chili will be blended together with garlic and shallot, and then sauteed with oil. This sauteed chili will be mixed with any kind of ingredients such as boiled egg, chicken, dried meat, and many thing else. We can use balado as condiment as well. We call it sambal balado. Is it spicy? Of course. It's chili. :)

My mother in law taught me how to make prawns balado. She learned it from her mother in law who is originally from Aceh Province. So i can proudly tell this is an original family recipe. Well... not really original because i add fried tofu into the balado for economic reason.

Ingredients :

• 10-12 Chili peppers
• 3 medium shallot (or 8 Indonesian shallot)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• vegetable oil
• 1 tbs sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbs lime juice
• 500 grams prawns
• 1 block of tofu
• 9 quail egg

Preparation :

1. Peel and clean the prawns including the tails and the veins.
2. Rinse them with water few times and dry them up with kitchen paper.
3. Cut the tofu into small cubes (about 3x3x3 cm for each cube. No need precise cut)
4. Put quail eggs into a boiling water and boil them for about 5-6 min. Remove the eggs from the hot water, rinse them with cold water, and peel the eggs. 
5. In a pan, heat about 1 cup of oil. Fry all tofu until the tofu become golden brown. Remove them from the heat and set aside. 
6. In the same pan, fry all the prawns until they are cooked and their color become pink. Remove them from the heat and set aside. Do not overcook the prawns otherwise they will become too tough.
7. Remove all chili pepper's seeds.
8. Blend all chili peppers together with shallots and garlic. (Add some water if needed)
   
9. In a big pan, heat about 5 tbs oil. Saute the blended spices with low medium heat until fragrant and its color become red. At this point, about 50% of the water are evaporated already.  
   
   

   

   This is blended spices before sauteed. 

   
   

   

   And this is blended spices after sauteed for few minutes. Most of the water are evaporated already and the color become darker then before.

     
10. Add sugar, salt, pepper, and lime juice.
11. Add fried prawns, fried tofu, and quail eggs into the pan.
12. Stir well for about 5 min until all prawns, tofu and eggs are covered with the spices. 
13. Serve it hot with steamed rice, sliced cucumber and starch cracker. 

Read More

Lumpia (Spring roll)

Spring roll is one of Chinese dish which is very popular all around the world. It taste great and can be served as an appetizer or a snack. There are so many type and variety of spring roll.  I was born and raised in Indonesia. So, I will make an Indonesian style.

In Indonesia we call it Lumpia. Dutch people call it Loempia. Indonesian lumpia is commonly filled with chopped bamboo shoots with minced chicken or prawn, served with fresh leeks and sweet tauco (fermented soy) and garlic sauce.

This week, I'm going to make some spring rolls for my family. I still have some prawn and spring roll pastry skin on my fridge. I only need to buy some vegetables, do some magic, and I can't wait to see my daughter's smile when she sees spring rolls served on the table with some sweet chili sauce (I do not have any tauco available on my kitchen at this moment). Yum!! She loves it. And so do I. :-)

First I need to make the filling.

Ingredients :

• 2 shallots, cut stripes
• 1 clove of  garlic
• 1 Egg, whisk
• 20 grams Chicken, cut stripes 
• 20 grams Prawn, roughly chopped 
• 200 grams Carrot, cut thin stripes
• 1 can (340 grams net) Bamboo shoots, cut thin stripes
• 100 grams Bean sprouts
• 3 sticks Spring onion, choped 
• 2 tbs Sweet soy sauce
• 1 tbs Soy sauce
• 1 tbs Tomato sauce
• about 1/4 cup (70 ml) Water
• 1/4 tsp Ginger powder (or grated fresh ginger)
• 1 tsp + 1 tbs Sesame oil
• 1.5 tsp Sugar
• Salt and pepper (white pepper)

Tip : If you want to make a vegetarian version, you can skip adding chicken, shrimp, or egg in the filling. It will be just fine.

Tip : For the bamboo shoot, if you're using fresh bamboo shoot, before cut it into stripes, boil the bamboo first for a few times to reduce its sour smell. In Netherlands, where I'm living now, it is hard to find fresh bamboo shoot. That's why, i use canned striped bamboo shoot.

  

I bought it in Asian grocery store. Before usage, drain and rinse them with water. 

Preparation :

1. In a big pan, preheat about 3 tbs vegetable oil
2. Pour whisked egg into the pan and scramble it. Set it aside
3. In the same pan, preheat again 3-4 tbs vegetable oil and 1 tbs sesame oil
4. Put shallot and garlic into the pan and saute them until translucent
5. (Add grated ginger IF you're using fresh ginger. If not, go to step 6)
6. Add chicken and prawn, stir until they're cooked.
7. Add stripped carrot, bamboo shoot, and bean sprout into the pan.
8. Stir fry vegetables until they become tender
9. Add water, both soy sauce, tomato sauce, ginger powder, sesame oil, and sugar
10. Keep stirring until the vegetables are cooked, tender, and seasoned well
11. Add scrambled egg, spring onion, salt, and pepper, stir well
12. Adjust the taste if needed
13. Transfer them into a big plate or bowl

Sometimes i just stop the process until this step. I will eat this stir fry vegetable just with hot steamed rice and store bought szechuan chili. It's delicious. But now, my topic is spring roll. So, let's make a spring roll.

For making spring roll, let the filling cooled for a while before wrap them up with the skin. I use store bought skins. They are called spring roll pastry. They are available at various size. I'm using approximately 21,5 x 21,5 cm skin, but you can use any size you want.

Ingredients :

• Spring roll filling
• 1 pack Spring roll pastry for skin
• 1 egg, beaten
• Vegetable oil 

Preparation :

1. Put about 1-2 tbs filling on spring roll pastry
2. Wrap them up
3. Use egg wash as a glue to seam the end of the skin
4. Deep fry the spring roll (at 175 C or 350 F preheated oil)
5. Once they become golden brown, remove them from the oil, and drain well the oil.
6. Remove the excess oil from the spring rolls using kitchen paper.
7. Serve them hot with sweet chili sauce, or tauco and garlic sauce.

Tip : If you don't have deep fry thermometer, you can always use a traditional way. Put wooden spatula or wooden chop stick into preheated oil. If there're a lot of  bubbles appears around that wooden spatula or chop stick it means that the oil is hot enough. Or you can always drop a piece of bread into the oil to check if the oil is hot enough. 

How to wrap spring roll?

This is the pictures how to wrap spring roll. It's easier to explain it using pictures than words. 

Done! Spring rolls are ready to be fried :)

Tip : If you have some leftover or unused skins, wrap them all using aluminium foil before put them back into the package or plastic bag. Don't forget to seal them tightly using sticky tape. This will prevent the skin's edge become too dry. 

Read More

Summer vacation project : Sugar cookies

My daughter has summer vacation this month. It's time to make some summer vacation project. We decided that our 1st project is sugar cookies. We will use my cute cookie cutter that I bought last month. (I really want to buy another ones. They are so cute!!).

I found this recipe from  Joy of Baking. So far, this is the best sugar cookies recipe that I've ever made. It's easy to make, not too sweet, soft but crunchy.

Ingredients :

• 195 grams (1.5 cups) All Purpose Flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 114 grams (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, soft and room temperature
• 100 grams (1/2 cup) granulated white sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation :

1. In a bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt together
2. In a seprate large bowl, whisk butter and sugar until creamy, nice and smooth
3. Add egg and vanilla extract
4. Beat again
5. Add mixed flour into mixed butter
6. Mix them well until smooth dough is formed
7. Divide dough into half, wrap each dough with plastic wrap
8. Put it in the fridge for about 1 hour (or overnight)
9. After the dough is firm enough, take it out from the fridge, let it sit in room temperature for about 10 minutes.
10. Meanwhile, preheat the oven 180 C (350 F) and line the baking sheet with baking paper
11. Lightly flour the counter and the dough and roll out the dough until about 1/5 cm thick 
12. Cut it using cookie cutter and transfer it into baking sheet. 
13. Put all cookies in the baking sheet into preheated oven and bake them for about 10 min or until the edges of cookies are starting to brown
14. Remove cookies from the oven and let them cool.

Tip :  If the unbaked cookies are too soft, put them in the refrigerator for about 10-15 min before starting the baking process. This will prevent the cookies spread out and losing their shape while baking.

My cookies are ready to bake. They are so cute, aren't they? ^^

My cookies are fresh from the oven. Just 10 minutes after baking my daughter and my son already "stole" some cookies from the sheet. I couldn't blame them. They smell so good. Who could resist? Neither could I. 

After making few batch, my daughter wanted to make another shape of cookies. So we made this heart shape cookies, and she sprinkled some colored crystal sugar on the top of them. She made four cookies and she said one for mama, one for papa, one for her little brother,and one for herself. Aaawww.. how adorable she is. :-)

Read More

Es Campur (Indonesian cold beverages)

Extra Hot!! It's 31 degree Celsius outside. I really want to make something cold today. I found this frozen young coconut juice on Asian grocery store. I couldn't say no. I bought one pack, and some other canned fruit. I'm going to make es campur. What is it?

Es Campur is one of the most popular Indonesian cold beverage. Es means Ice, and campur means mixed. Mixed? Yes. We call it mixed because this beverages contained of many mixed fruit with coconut syrup, sweet condensed milk, and shaved ice block. We can use any kind of fruit, such as young coconut, papaya, longan, avocado, watermelon, jackfruit, etc. There's no exact rule how to make this beverage. Some people will add cut jelly or agar, cendol (green rice jelly), black cincau (grass jelly), tapioca pearl, fermented cassava, and many other things.

Ingredients :

• 1 pack Frozen young coconut 
• 1 can longan
• 1 can papaya
• 1 can palm fruit
• pineapple
• frozen mango
• Any kind of other fruit/jelly that you have in hand. (I didn't have any jelly available, so i skiped it)
• coconut syrup
• Sweet condense milk
• Ice block, crushed 
• Cold water

Preparation :

1. In a large bowl, mix all the fruits. Do not discard coconut water from frozen young coconut juice. Mix it together with the fruits
   
2. In a small glass or bowl, pour about 3 tbs coconut syrup
3. Add some mixed fruit, water, and crushed ice block into the glass
4. Add some sweet condensed milk on the top of crushed ice.
5. Ready to serve. 

Well..... It should be like this. Or at least this is what i usually eat in restaurant back than in my hometown.

It looks delicious, doesn't it? Too bad i couldn't replicate it at my home. Instead, mine was turned out like this.

I didn't have coconut syrup. So i was using raspberry syrup. It was not bad, but coconut would be better. The syrup was too light. No jelly either. I didn't have ice shaver, so i put my ice block in plastic bag and crushed it. Not as good as shaved ice, but good enough to make this cold beverage. Well, it's not that bad. It has all requirement for es campur. Sweet, cold, and refreshing. :)

Read More

Sweet and Spicy Chicken Wings

It's time to cook for dinner. After staring at my fridge for a while, I decided to make a chicken wings dish. I want to eat something sweet and spicy today. So I try to create my own chicken wings recipe. The result turns out not so bad. Well, not spicy enough for me. But still good. This recipe goes very well with hot steamed rice. Yum!

Ingredients :

• 10 Chicken wings
• 1/2 medium onion, minced
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1 tbs tomato sauce
• 1 tbs sweet soy sauce
• 1 tbs worcester sauce
• 1 tsp paprika powder
• 1/4 tsp ginger powder
• 3 tbs sweet chili sauce (or more)
• 1/2 cup (125 ml) water
• Salt and pepper
• 3 tbs honey + 2 tbs sweet chili sauce, mixed 

Preparation :

1. In a pan, heat 3 tbs vegetable oil
2. Add minced onion and garlic into preheated oil, saute until the onion become translucent.
3. Add water, tomato sauce, soy sauce, worcester sauce, paprika powder, ginger powder, and sweet chili sauce into the pan. Stir them together.
4. Add chicken wings into the pan. Stir them together until they are coated with the sauce.
5. Meanwhile, preheat the oven 200 C  (400 F) and prepare an ovenproof dish.
6. Let them cooked at low-medium heat for about 10 min. Turn them over. 
    
   
   
7. Continue to cook them until almost all of the water are evaporated. (it will take about 10 more minutes)
8. Turn off the heat and place the chicken wings into an ovenproof dish. 
9. Coat all of them with mixed honey and sweet chili sauce using a pastry brush.
10. Put them into preheated oven for about 10 minutes
11. Take the chicken wings out, and coat them again with honey mixture.
12. Put them back into the oven for about 10 minutes.
13. Serve them hot with sliced cucumber and tomato.

I didn't only serve the chicken wings with sliced cucumber and tomato, but with leftover onion from the pan. When i transfer the wings into the oven, i left all the onion and all the spices in the pan. I continue to cook them for 1-2 minutes, and transfer them into a small bowl.

When i eat my dinner, i took a little bit of this onion and mix them up with my hot steamed rice. It tasted great. It was sweet, a little bit spicy, and made my chicken wing tasted even better. I'm definitely going to make this dish again next time. 

Read More