Singapore Noodles

If you're googling looking for this dish, you'll find many recipes circling on the air. They all look so delicious but sometimes I find the ingredients are a little bit too complicated. In my opinion cooking doesn't have to be so difficult, the simple the ingredients are, the most tasty and great result you'll achieve, otherwise the taste is just too overwhelming especially with herbs and spices. But yeah, who the hell I am, telling people what to do...:o))... (**please don't get offended, just ignore what I just said.. yeah I'm an annoying person).

Then I found a cooking book from library and saw this recipe, so I went to try making it. The result was really great, it tasted just like I wanted it i.e. not too spicy and mild taste from the spices. You can really taste the mixture of Chinese and Indian food in this dish.

Singapore Noodles
adapted from 'Het Complete Wok Kookboek"

Ingredients:
400 gr dry ricenoodles, soak in hot water until become soft, drained
250 Boneless chicken, cut in thin slices
Carrot, cut in thin slices
Chinese cabbage
Leek, cut in thin slices
2 garlics, crushed
2 cm ginger, grated
4 tablespoons oyster sauce
4 tablespoons soya sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder

Methods:
1. Heat the oil in the wok.
2. Fry the garlic and ginger until fragrant.
3. Add the chicken in the wok and stir fry until the chicken colored.
4. Add the carrot and leek in the wok, stir fry until the vegetables become softer.
5. Add the curry powder, oyster sauce and soya sauce, if too dry, add with a bit water. Stir fry all together.
6. Add the drained-ricenoodles in the wok, mix all thoroughly. Ready to serve.

Chocolate Cookies Filled With Marzipan

Still don't find any perfect season cookies? Try this one. Recipe taken from a book titled "Chocola" from Christine McFadden and Christine France. They are very easy to make, filled with marzipan which is loved by the children and the appearance looks really good for any occasions especially forthcoming christmas.


Ingredients:
200 gr soft unsalted butter
200 gr light brownsugar
1 egg
300 gr flour, sifted
4 tablespoons cacao powder, sifted
200 gr white marzipan

Topping:
White sugar glaze or
melting white chocolate

Methods:
1. Pre-heat the oven at 190°C.
2. Whisk the butter and sugar, add the egg in the mixture. Whisk all thoroughly.
3. Add the flour and cacao powder. Mix well using the wooden-spoon until the dough can be kneaded.
4. On a floured surface roll half of the dough until 5 mm thick by using rolling-pin.
5. Cut the cookies using cookies cutter, filled with small balls of marzipan then cover with another layer of flower-shapes dough.
6. Bake for about 12-15 minutes. Leave them to cool on the wire rack.
7. Decorate with melting white chocolate or white sugar glaze.

ooooooOOOoooooo

I'm sending over this to Susan at Food Blogga for her Christmas Cookie event. Just click on the logo below that will take you to her round-up.

Indonesian Mixed Vegetables In Coconut Milk

Simple dish with a great result, this is what I'd like to say about this dish. It's a kind of soup but with coconut milk. You can always combine the vegetables according to the season. Delicious to be served with steamed rice and fried chicken or fried fish.

Ingredients:
Tempeh, cut in small cubes, fried
1 tablespoon sambal ulek
1 big red onions
2 garlics
2 salam leafs
3 cm laos / galanga
2 carrots, thick sliced
1 cup brussels sprouts, cut in two
1 cup green beans
1 cup red paprika
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
2 cups water
1 cube vegetable broth
salt and pepper


Methods:
1. Cut the vegetables in cubes.
2. Heat the oil in the deep pan. Fry the red onions and garlics until soft and fragrant.
3. Add the sambal ulek, stir thoroughly.
4. Add the carrots, salam leafs and laos in the pan. Stir together then pour the water in.
5. Let it boiled then add the green beans and vegetable broth.
6. Cook until the vegetables half-cooked, then add the brussels sprouts and paprika. Season with salt and pepper.
7. When the vegetables are cooked, add the coconut milk and tempeh in the soup, stirring well then let it boiled. Ready to be served.

Mango Chutney

Last week my friend Baz from England had posted his mom "Apple Tomatoes" chutney recipe. Because I like more manggo chutney, I asked him to pass the recipe too, and he did. How great!

I tried his recipe (I think he got it from his mom too...), and it went well. How happy I am now that I can make chutney myself instead of buying it which you know since economical problems everywhere, the price of goods are so expensive including the price of chutney.

He gave me two kinds of mango chutney recipes. Here are those two recipes:

Mango chutney #1

1.5kg (3lb) mango flesh, diced
500g (1lb) onions, chopped
750g (1½ lbs) sugar
500ml (1 pint) vinegar
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 scant teaspoon nutmeg
2 scant dessertspoons salt

MANGO CHUTNEY #2

1.5kg (3lb)mangoes, peeled and diced
2 large red chillis, de-seeded and chopped
60g (2oz) fresh ginger root, peeled and finely grated
juice and finely grated rind of 1 lemon
500ml (1 pint) white wine or cider vinegar
750g (1½ lbs) brown sugar
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 tablespoon salt
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon allspice powder
1 teaspoon turmeric (optional)

Method:
Place all ingredients in a pot and bring to the boil, stirring often. Cook for 1 hour or until mixture is thick. Bottle and seal.


The chutney I made was based on his mango chutney #1. But I adjusted the amounts of the ingredients because I only had 2 mango's at home. So this is what I put together in my manggo chutney:

My Mango Chutney

Ingredients:
2 mangoes, diced
1 onion, chopped
250 gr sugar
150 ml vinegar
1/3 teaspoon mixed spice
6 ground cloves
1/3 teaspoon curry powder
a pinch of nutmeg powder
1 teaspoon salt

Methods:
1. Use a blender to get fine diced of mangoes and onion.
2. Place all ingredients in a pot and bring to the boil, stirring often.
3. Cook for 1 hour or until mixture is thick. Bottle and seal.

Chicken Panang Curry With Noodles

Recently my friend gave me a curry paste product I should try. At first I wasn't really convinced because I had few bad experiences using instant products, but if someone gave you something it's impolite to refuse, right?. Ok, I took her gift. Few days later, my curiousity won, so I tried the paste into my dish. The result was amazing, it was a mild and sweet curry dish and was done in 20 minutes. An absolute must try product for lazy person like me who don't really like blending the curry paste from fresh ingredients. The product itself is quite wellknown and easy to find in any Asian shops. If you want to make fresh panang curry paste yourself, you can try the recipe from Real Thai Recipes.

I think once you have the curry paste, you can create any curry dish you want and combine with any vegetables or ingredients you like.

Ingredients:
1 double boneless chicken, cut in cubes
1 onion, slices
2 carrots, slices
2 boiled potatoes, cut in big cubes
2 tablespoons panang curry paste
Coriander leafs
1 cube chicken broth
250 ml coconut milk
100 ml water
Noodles, soak in hot water, drained


Methods:
1. Heat the oil in the pan. Add the onions, fry until onions soft then added with panang curry. Stir fry until all blended.
2. Add the chicken in the pan, stir fry until the chicken colored.
3. Add the carrots, water and chicken broth. Let it boiled until the chicken and carrots cooked.
4. Add the coconut milk, stir thoroughly and leave it boiled. Once a while stirring.
5. Last one, add the potatoes cubes in the pan then garnish with coriander leafs.
6. Serve with noodles but off-course the curry dish fits perfectly with steamed rice too.

Chocolate Almond Cookies

Cookies are the most eaten things in my house. My children can't live without them. As snacks for school, as snacks for after school, as snacks in front of TV, as snacks when they're reading or studying. In results I must have them always available in cupboard otherwise they become mad. But with my pleasure I always put them in my shopping lists or sometimes I just make them myself. Like this time, as weekend baking, I made for them chocolate almond cookies. These cookies are very light, no need eggs, good for the line and the most important my daughter loves them.
The recipe is taken from book "De Bak Encyclopedie".


Ingredients:

300 gr flour, sifted
20 gr cacao powder, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder, sifted
75 gr sugar
1 package vanilla sugar (8 - 10 gr)
3 drops almond essence
3 tablespoons milk
175 gr cold butter

Finishing:
Milk
50 gr sugar
200 gr almond flakes


Methods:

1. Mix the flour, cacao and baking powder in the mixing bowl.
2. Add with sugar, vanilla, almond essence and milk. Mix the mixture through then add with butter.
3. Knead the dough until smooth and not sticky. If it's too sticky, put the dough in the fridge for a while.
4. Make a big roll then flat it. Make the cookies into the shapes you prefer.
5. Brush the cookies with milk, then sprankle with sugar and almond flakes.
6. Put them in pre-heated oven on 175°c and bake for about 15-25 minutes.

ooooooOOOoooooo

I'm sending my cookies over to Susan at Food Blogga for her Christmas Cookie event. Just click on the logo below that will take you to her round-up.

Semur Betawi (Batavian Beef Stew)

The Betawi (Orang Betawi, or "people of Batavia") are the descendants of the people living around Batavia (the colonial name for Jakarta) from around the 17th century. The Betawis are mostly descended from various Southeast Asian ethnic groups brought to or attracted to Batavia to meet labour needs, including people from various parts of Indonesia. They have a culture and language distinct from the Sundanese and Javanese. The Betawis are known for their piety towards Islam. (text adapted from wikipedia).

Semur Betawi (Batavian beef stew), is a beef dish which is cooked slowly using mix ground spices. Since I live in Belgium in the area of dutch speaking, I found out that the word "semur" is actually coming from dutch word "smoor or smoren" which means slow cooking. The method to make semur is the same as making "gesmoord/gestoofd rund" (Engl. translated "beef stew"), only the ingredients are different. So during colonial time, there were mixtures of foods culture between Dutch and Indonesian. According to a dutch book I found out that this semur betawi is one of old recipes from before the war. So fascinating to know about this.

Anyway I love semur betawi. This traditional dish is not easy to find when you visit Jakarta. Even you might find one in some restaurants it's not always the same as the original made by the batavians themselves. I used to live in batavians area where many original batavians lived. Everytime they celebrated such as wedding, during Ramadhan or end of Ramadhan, they always brought some foods to be given to their neighbours. It was always a joy for us everytime they came to bring us some of their traditional foods, such as kue pepe, kue satu, kue bakar, dodol, tape uli, nasi uduk, nasi ulam, semur betawi and many others. Perhaps someday I'll put all those batavian recipes here as rememberance for my children and grandchildren.

Semur Betawi (Batavian Beef Stew)

Ingredients:
250 gr beef
5 red onions, thin slices
3 garlics, thin slices
2 cloves
2 salam leafs
1 tomato, cut in cubes
2 cm galanga / laos
2 cm ginger / jahe
1 lemongrass / sereh
6 tablespoons sweet soy sauce / kecap manis
Water as needed
salt & pepper
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg powder

Methods:
1. Cut the beef in thin slices.
2. Heat the butter in the pan, add with red onions and garlics. Cook until fragrant.
3. Then add the beef together with salam leafs, galanga, ginger, lemongrass, tomato and cloves. Stir all together and add water as much as needed.
4. Then add the kecap manis and stir well. Cover the pan and simmer until the meat is tender. Add water again if it's too dry.

**You can also add with slices baked potatoes at the end of the cooking.

Acar Kuning (Indonesian Vegetable Pickle)

Acar is a type of salad made in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. It is made from different vegetables such as yardlong beans, carrots and cabbage which are pickled in vinegar.

There are many varieties of acar such acar ramping, acar kuning, acar ketimun, acar segar etc. Acar is commonly served as a condiment to be eaten with a main course.

The one I have here is Acar Kuning. The vegetables are tossed (half-cooked) and mixed with ground spices.

Ingredients:
200 gr carrots
1 cucumber
200 gr green beans
250 ml water
3 tablespoon vinegar
5 kemiri nuts
3 garlics
3 cm curcuma / kunyit
3 cm ginger / jahe
2 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon ground pepper
salt

Directions:

1. Crush into a paste: garlics, kemiri, curcuma, ginger, ground pepper and salt.
2. Heat the oil in the wok, add the spices paste and stir until fragrant.
3. Add with carrots and green beans, stir well then add water. Cook until the vegetalbes half cooked.
4. Add with sugar and vinegar, stir well.
5. Last one add the cucumber. Stir well and remove from the fire.

Choco Orange Cookies

Weekend time, baking time. As usual my baking is based on "Easy, Simple but Delicious". This time I took recipe from book "De Bak Encyclopedie", where there are many delicious recipes to be tried out. My choice went to Choco Orange Cookies (Sinaasappel Chocoladekoekjes, dutch translated). These cookies were very easy to make and they are absolutely delicioius, so crunchy... so fragrant... and have incredible taste. The combinations of the sweetness from orange and chocolate chips are just perfect. I will certainly make these cookies again... again.. and again.

Ingredients:
200 gr flour
60 gr maizena
1 teaspoon baking powder, sifted
100 gr sugar
1 package vanilla sugar/vanilla powder
Grated peel of 1 orange
1 egg
125 soft butter
100 gr chocolate bar, cut in small pieces

Directions:
1. Put in the bowl the flour, maizena, sifted baking powder, egg, sugar, vanilla sugar, grated peel and butter. Mix together, first using low speed afterwards using highest speed.
2. Add the chocolate pieces, and mix using medium speed. Knead the dough and make 3 rolls. Flatten the dough and create an oval form with circa 5 cm width and 1 cm thick. Leave it to rest in the fridge until the dough becomes hard.
3. Cut the dough per 1/2 cm thick and lay them on the baking pan. Make sure enough spaces between the dough because the cookies will expand.
4. Bake in the pre-heated oven with temperature between 175 - 200°c for about 15 minutes (depends on the thickness).

**I was using 175°c and baked it for about 25 minutes until the colour became brown. Don't be surprised when you remove the cookies from the oven they are still soft. This is the trick, as soon as you take the baking pan out of the oven, remove all the cookies on to other surface, the cookies will become harder straight away.

**You can make any shapes you like if you want to. You don't have to refrigerate it in advance. Just make sure you give enough spaces between the cookies before you bake it.

**If you don't have chocolate bars, you can use choco chips or chocolate sprinkles. I think it's easier and less work.

Fried Tofu With Pineapple Sauce

Tofu or bean curd is a food of Chinese origin, made by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into blocks. Tofu has very little flavor or smell on its own, so it can be used either in savory or sweet dishes, and is often seasoned or marinated to suit the dish. Tofu is low in calories, contains beneficial amounts of iron and has no saturated fat or cholesterol.

The recipe below is one of simple ways to prepare tofu into a dish.

Ingredients:
Tofu, fry, cut in small pieces
250 gr bean sprouts (taoge), soak in hot water, drained
1 cumcumer, thin slices
Slices pineapple (I used one from the can)

Sauce:
5 red chillies, fine-crushed
1 tablespoon dried shrimps/ebi, soak in hot water, fine-crushed
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons vinegar
salt
2 tablespoons peanut butter
200 ml water
3 tablespoons Indonesian sweet soy (kecap manis)
3-5 slices pineapples, chopped



Directions:
1. Put all the ingredients of the sauce in a pan. Let it boiled and keep stiring until the sauce becoming thickened. Put aside.
2. Prepare the bean sprouts, slices of cumcumer, slices of tofu and small slices of pineapple on the plate, then pour the sauce over it. Serve with krupuk.

Pempek (Indonesian Fish Cake)

Pempek or Empek-Empek is a delicacy from Palembang which is made of fish and sago. Pempek is eaten together with a dark sauce called cuka or cuko. Cuko is produced from adding brown sugar, chili pepper, garlic, vinegar, and salt into hot boiling water.

There are many variety of pempeks. Each form of pempeks have different names. I made three kinds of them, pempek model or pempek tahu, that is actually tofu, wrapped together with the pempek dough and being deep fried, then with left over dough I made pempek lenjer (the form is long and oval) and pempek adaan (the form is as small balls).

There are many ways to make pempek. The recipe I have here is originally adapted from my friend Yeni's Family Blog and I adjusted here and there to match with frozen fish I had.

Pempek:
350 gr fish, defrosted
salt

25o ml water
25 gr flour
4 garlics
salt
broth powder

Tapioca powder as needed
Tofu, cut into small slices, steamed

Directions:
1. Blend the fish and salt finely, put aside.
2. Cook water, flour, garlics and broth powder until boiled. Stir well until smooth and thickened.
3. Add the fish paste into the flour mix and stir well until all blended together.
4. Add tapioca powder gradually until the fish mix becoming smooth and can be kneaded.
5. Take 1 tabelspoon of the dough and make a small ball, make it flat and fill in with a piece of tofu. Do the same until the tofu finished. If the tofu finished and you still have left over dough, you can make fish balls and it's called "Pempek Adaan".
6. After all dough been filled, put them in boiling water and let them cooked until they're floating. Then you can deep fry the pempek.

To serve, put noodles, slices cumcumer, slices pempek in the deep plate and pour with dark cuko sauce.


Dark cuko sauce:
25 gr Indonesian tamarind paste or 4 tablespoons vinegar
100 gr palm sugar
1 eatspoon sugar
1/2 ltr water
4 bird's eye chili pepper
3 garlics
15 gr ebi (dried shrimp), soak in hot water, drained
1 teaspoons salts

Directions:
1. Crush dried shrimp, garlics and chillies finely.

2. Cook water and add with sugar, palm sugar, salt, tamarind paste and crushed ingredients. Let them boiled then the sauce is ready to use.

Ayam Panggang Klaten (Indoesian Grilled Chicken)

Our favorite chicken dish. It's slightly complicated with the ingredients, but once you know all the ingredients, you'll love this dish and repeatedly making it for the whole family.
You can already prepare the chicken in advance and grill it short before dining time.

Ingredients:
1 chicken, cut in pieces
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon jinten / cumin
8 small red onions/ 4 big red onions
2 garlics
5 kemiri nuts
1 cm ginger
2 cm curcuma
2 cm laos / galanga
1 tbsp palm sugar
1 tsp tamarind
salt
2 salam leafs
2 lime leafs
1 lemon grass
500 ml santan

Directions:
1. Crush all together into paste: ground coriander, ground pepper, cumin, onions, garlics, kemiri nuts, ginger, curcuma, galanga, palm sugar, tamarind and salt.

2. Heat vegetable oil in the pan, then add the spices paste, lemon grass, salam- and lime leafs, keep stiring until fragrant.

3. Add the chicken in the pan, cook until the chicken starts to colour.

4. Add the santan, and cook until the santan boiled then lower the fire. Cook until the sauce thickened.

5. Remove the chicken, pour with the sauce then grill in the oven grill or barbeque.

Stir-fry Green Beans With Dried Anchovies

This dish is very simple to make yet very healthy. In the ingredients I added dried anchovies, but you can substitute with boneless chicken or beef or shrimp which is cut in slices, it would be delicious too. I like it if the beans are half-cooked, not too soft, not too hard.. when you're biting them, they are still crunchy. Ready-used sambal from the store you can substitute with crushed fresh chillies and tomatoes.


Ingredients:
500 gr green beans
250 gr button mushrooms
50 gr dried anchovies, soak in hot water, drained
1 onion, slices
5 garlics, slices
2 tbsps ready-used sambal
salt & peper
3 cm laos /galanga
2 salam leafs / Indonesian laurier leafs
1 teaspoon broth powder
3-4 tbsps kecap manis / Indonesian Sweet Soy Sauce


Directions:
1. Heat the oil in the pan, add with onion and garlic. Stir until soft, then add sambal. Stir well.
2. Add the green beans, laos and salam leafs in the pan. Regularly stiring until the beans are half-cooked. If too dry, add a little bit water.
3. Add the mushrooms, and season with salt, pepper and broth powder. Stir well.
4. Add the dried anchovis, stir well.
5. Last one, add kecap manis, stir thoroughly, remove from the pan.

Weekend Baking: Apple Cake

We always have apples, pears and bananas at home. 3 times per week Naomi has to eat fruit at school instead of eating cookies. That is one of the rules from school. Fine for me, she likes fruits and the most important thing, she needs natural vitamines and she can find it from fresh fruits. In the weekend I always have leftover fruit which then I always process it as a cake. Last week I made banana cake, this time I have too many apples so it becomes apple cake then.

When I browsed in internet, I found many recipes about apple cakes. The recipe followed I found it from All Recipes. It's very simple recipe, you don't need any mixer, everything using spatula and hand beater. Very handy if you don't feel want to make more mess in the kitchen but still able to make cake for the family. At first I though the dough will be dry and hard, but when it was cooked it turned moist and soft. Since I'm allergic to walnuts, I didn't use it. Perhaps the amount of baking soda had to be reduced too because it made the cake a little bit bitter. But after all it's a very simple recipe with delicious result.

Ingredients:
250 g white sugar
250 g all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 eggs
120 ml vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
120 g chopped walnuts
4 apples, chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 165°C.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and baking soda.

3. Add the eggs, oil and vanilla, mix well.

4. Add the nuts and apple, mix until all of the apples are evenly coated. Pour into a 9x9 inch pan.

5. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Serve warm or cool.