Uli Bakar (Indonesian glutinous rice grill)

Uli bakar is Indonesian glutinous rice kneaded grill. It sounds complicated but trust me it's just a simple snack. This uli bakar is eaten with serundeng (roasted grated coconut). Instead of grilling, you can also deep fry this uli and will be called jadah and after frying and add to melted gula jawa, it will be called gemblong.

Uli Bakar

Ingredients:
1/2 kg glutinous rice
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup dried grated coconut (soak in hot water)

Directions:
1. Soak the glutinous rice for 3 hours then rinse. Put in a heat-resistant brass, steam half-cooked for about 15 minutes, remove.

2. Mix the half cooked glutinous rice with grated coconut, stir well, then steam again for about 30 minutes until well done, then remove.

3. Put the cooked glutinous rice in a plastic bag, pound with a wooden pestle or a mortar.

4. Transfer the rice to a container, flatten the surface and press down firmly until solid, let it cool before cutting. You can also wrapped the rice cakes in banana leaf and served in forms cut according to your taste.

5. Cut the firm rice in slices, then grill both side and serve with serundeng.

Serundeng

Ingredients:
100 gr dry desiccated coconut
3 citrus leaves, fine sliced

Spices:
1-2 pcs red chilies
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar

Directions:
1. Blend the spices finely.
2. Mix with dried desiccated coconut and citrus leaves.
3. Then dry stir fry until cooked and become golden brown.

Fried Rice With Red Curry

Another lesson to cook economically..:o))
Leftover food.. hmmm. I don't know why, maybe I cook too much or my family eats so little... I always have leftover, not in big amounts, but not enough to be eaten for 4 people and too much for 1 persoon. So here I have another idea to create something else and slightly different than classic nasi goreng. This time instead of using sambal I add with red curry. It really tastes special and rich... and my hubby loves it... :o)

This is also my entry for event Masak Bareng Yuk!!! (Let's Cook Together!!!).

See the ingredients I got here:
Steamed rice
Leftover fried chicken, shredded
Leak
2 cloves garlic
2 kemiri nuts
Salt, pepper & chicken stock powder
Red curry paste (it's more spicy than sambal, use wisely..)
Kecap manis (Indonesian dark sweet soysauce)


Directions:
1. Heat the oil in the wok. Stir fry crushed garlic and kemiri nuts until fragrant.

2. Add the leak and a teaspoon red curry. Stir fry until leak soft.

3. Add shredded chicken, stir fry thoroughly.

4. Add the rice, few spoons kecap manis and if necessary add a bit water to moist, stir fry until all ingredients blend together. Ready to serve.

Curry Spring Rolls

Spring rolls or also called lumpia.. such a classic snack.. but I'm never bored to make and eat it. I never really plan to make lumpia in advance, in fact I always make the filling from leftover raw vegetables which I can find in the fridge.
So, no need any fancy or expensive things in the spring rolls, in fact it can be called economical spring rolls made from leftover veggies... :o))

Ingredients:
1 red onion
2 cloves garlic
3 kemiri nuts, fine crushed
carrots
button mushrooms
leaks
dried oyster mushrooms
rice vermicelli
2 teasps curry powder
1/2 teasp salt
1/2 teasp pepper
2 teasps chicken stock powder
Spring rolls wrappers


Directions:
1. Heat the oil in the pan. Stir fry the red onion, garlic and kemiri nuts until fragrant.

2. Add the carrots, stir fry until carrots half cooked.

3. Then add the rest of the vegetables (mushrooms and leaks).

4. Add the curry powder, salt, pepper and chicken stock, mix all thoroughly until the vegetables cooked.

5. Add the rice vermicelli and if necessary add a bit water. Keep stiring until all ingredients blended in rice vermicelli and done. Remove from the fire, put aside to cool.

6. Lay a spring roll wrapper in front of you so that it forms a diamond shape. Use your index finger to wet all the edges with the beaten egg or cornstarch/water paste. Place approximately 2 teapoons of filling near the bottom. Roll over once, tuck in the sides, and then continue rolling. Seal the top.

7. Deep-fry the spring rolls in 3 to 4 batches, cooking until they are golden brown and crispy (about 3 minutes). Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
Serve with hot chilli sauce if you like.

Light Tutti Frutti Cake

I find this recipe from book called "Gezond eten met soja" (translate: The soy for health Cookbook). Since I'm busy to reduce (or to stop) consuming red meat, I try to find proteins, fibres, minerals and vitamines by consuming more soy products. I'm not sick or turning becoming vegetarian, but what I'm trying to do for me and my family is to eat healthy as much as I can. We still eat chicken and fish, but also tofu and tempeh. I'm glad that my family doesn't have any problems with food, they eat everything I serve on table. The most important is diversifications on daily food to avoid boringness.

By the way this cake is so delicious and if it's decorated with marzipan or a icing sugar this cake will be perfect and ideal for birthday cake.

350 gr selfraising flour
1 teasp baking powder
1 teasp ** pumpkin pie spice (blend of powdered cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and sometimes allspice)
175 gr tutti frutti
175 gr soymargarine
175 gr brown sugar
3 eggs
3 tablesps milk

Directions:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 150°c.

2. Sift the flour, baking powder and pumpkin pie spice in a bowl. Put the tutti frutti in the mixture and mix well.

3. Beat the margarine together with sugar. Add gradually eggs and blend all together. Pour the milk and stir well.

4. Add the flour mixture gradually in the margarine mixture, mix all together thoroughly. Pour the mixture in a bakingform 20cm and bake the cake for about 1-11/2 hour. Insert a knife to see wether the cake is done.

5. Leave the cake to cool in the bakingform, then remove.

**I don't know where to find pumpkin pie spices in my place, so I replace it with spekoek/speculaas spices.

Ayam Panggang Opor (Grilled Chicken)

Basically this grilled chicken is the leftover I have from opor ayam (translated: chicken in coconut gravy). Because me and the family don't really like to eat twice the same, so the leftover chicken I grill it in the oven or if it's summer at the barbeque grill... so safe the planet, nothing to be thrown away... and it's delicious too.. :o))

Opor Ayam (Chicken in coconut gravy)
Ingredients:
1 chicken, cut in pieces
250 ml coconut milk
250 ml water
2 tablesps sugar

Bumbu:
5 red onions
2 cloves garlic
2 teasps coriander
1/2 teasp jinten (cumin seeds)
3 kemiri nuts
1 teasp kunyit (turmeric)
1/2 teasp asam jawa (tamarind pulp mix with a little bit water)
salt

Directions:
1. Blend all the "bumbu" ingredients in a blender to became a thick paste.

2. Heat the oil in the pan/wok and stir fry the paste in hot oil until fragrant.

3. Add with pieces of chicken and cook until colored. Add sugar, salt and water. Simmer until the chicken half cooked.

4. Add the coconut milk, stir well and let it cook again until chicken done and the gravy is a bit thick. Until here, the chicken can be served as opor ayam.

5. Grilled ayam opor.
Put pieces of chicken on the tray, pour with a bit gravy, then grill both sides until dry and brown. Serve with salads.

Curry Fried Rice // Nasi Goreng Kari Teri Asin

Bored with regular fried rice with sambal? You should try this one, Curry Fried Rice. It's fragrant and so tasteful... I bet you'll love it too, just like me..:o))

What fun is, you can add anything you like in it according to your taste, such as fried egg, omelet, slices of fried chicken, slices of tofu, thin slices of vegetables and my nasi goreng here is added with fried dried fish. So yummieeee...!!!

Ingredients:
2 cloves garlics, fine sliced
2 red chillies, fine sliced
2 kemiri(candle) nuts, crushed
2 teasp curry powder
1 teasp salt
1/2 teasp pepper
2 tsps chicken broth powder
1 stem green onion (sliced)
125 gr steamed rice

Directions:
1. Fry the garlic slices, chillies and candlenut,curry powder, salt and pepper.
2. Add green onion and cook for 2 minutes.
3. Add steam rice and mix well. Cook for 5 more minutes and stir well.
4. I added some dried fried fish in this.

Raisin Bread

I love raisin bread eventhough I know it's in the category of calorie rich foods. I think once a while I may break the rules by eating high carbs foods as comfort... and then burn it out again by doing some exercises. My motto is "Life is only once so enjoy it while you still can" :o)

My ambition is to make my own raisin bread. But right now it's easier and faster to buy it (pics below) from the local bakery. What I can do now is to keep this recipe in my blog just in case I feel want to bake it myself.

The recipe is originally taken from here.

This is also my entry for Jugalbandi Click event for the month March 2009 with the theme Wood.

Ingredients:
1 package active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 cup raisins
1/4 cup soft butter
1/4 cup sugar
>1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup scalded milk
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 eggs, beaten

Preparation:
1. Dissolve yeast in warm water.

2. In a large bowl, combine raisins, butter, sugar, salt, and hot milk; stir to dissolve the sugar. Let mixture cool to lukewarm.

3. Stir in 1 1/2 cups of the flour; beat well. Add yeast mixture and the beaten eggs; mix to blend well.

4. Add enough of the remaining flour to make a soft but stiff dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes, until dough is smooth and elastic.

5. Place dough in a lightly buttered bowl, turning once to grease the surface. Cover with a clean dish cloth; let stand in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours.

6. Punch dough down and divide into 2 portions. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.

7. Shape into 2 loaves; place in 2 greased 8x4x3-inch loaf pans. Cover and let rise again for about 45 to 60 minutes, until almost double.

8. Bake at 375° for 25 minutes, placing foil over loaves the last 10 minutes, if loaves are getting too brown. Remove loaves from pans and let cool on racks.