~Elra's Cooking~

Khoresh-e Ghormeh Sabzi. Iranian Beef Stew With Aromatic Herbs

2012-01-27T00:01:00.000-08:00

I love this Iranian stew, it is so aromatic and delicious, and pretty versatile as well. It can be made with almost any choice of meat your are fond of, lamb, veal, or even poultry. Although I haven't tried to make this with poultry, I heard that it is equally delicious as well, and of course it is healthier too. My brother in law's mother told me once, that she start to turn it into a vegetarian meal by omitting the meat or poultry, and increasing the amount of bean.

Khoresh-e Ghormeh Sabzi

Recipe adapted from Najmieh Batmanglij's book: New Food Of Life

Serve 6

2 pounds beef shoulder, or boneless beef shank

1 large onion, chopped

2 tsp turmeric

1/3 cup Azuki bean

2 whole dried Limu Omani (Persian limes)

3 to 4 cups chicken stock, or beef stock

3 tbs olive oil

4 cups chopped fresh parsley

1 cup chopped fresh fenugreek leaves (if using dried fenugreek, use 1/2 cup)

1 cup chopped fresh cilantro

2 cups chopped fresh scallion

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

In a heavy casserole pan, add 1 tbs olive oil. Leave a few second to heat the oil, then add the chopped onion. Fry onion until soft and translucent. Add turmeric, beef shoulder, or shank, Azuki bean, and limu omani - stir to mix. Add water, and bring to a boil. Once it start to boil, turn the heat down and let it simmer.

In another shallow pan set over medium low heat, add the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add parsley, fenugreek cilantro, and scallion. Stirring continuously for about 20 minutes until the aroma of the herbs fill the air (-_-). It is important to keep stirring during the process, the least you want is having the herb burned, resulting a bitter taste of the stew. Remove from the heat, add it on to casserole pan. season with salt and pepper, and stir to mix. Now turn the heat to the lowest setting, cover the pan, and let it simmer for 2 hours until the meat is fork tender.

Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Serve with delicious Persian Rice. Which, I make very often using either lavash (as in the NYTimes recipe), or using potato (see the photo in the middle) which I like better. Delicious!

Ayam Goreng. Indonesian Fried Chicken With Coconut Water, Turmeric, and Coriander

2012-01-20T00:01:00.000-08:00

This, I must say is my favorite fried chicken! It has the sweetness from the fresh coconut juice, and fragrant lemongrass, turmeric, and coriander. This ayam goreng is quite popular in Indonesia. My mother would make this for us very often and we never seem bored eating it. The technique of cooking this ayam goreng is rather unusual as well. First you braised the hens with coconut water and fragrant spices until it is cooked, then frying it in oil to get that nicely brown and slightly crispy skin.

*To make this ayam goreng, you will need the water from fresh coconut, do not confuse coconut water or juice with coconut milk, which come from the process of milking the flesh. When you buy fresh coconut, look for the one that feel heavy for its size, then try to gently shake it to make sure it still has water in it. The more water it contains the freshest the coconut. If there is no water in it, don't buy it! It is probably moldy even worse, rotten inside.

Ayam Goreng. Indonesian Fried Chicken With Coconut Water, Turmeric, and Coriander
Serve 4

2 (weigh less then 3 lbs total) cornish hens, cut in half
5 cloves garlic
1 - 2 tsp kosher salt
2 tbs coriander seeds
1 tsp turmeric powder
4 cups coconut water or juice from 2 fresh coconuts *
1 lemongrass, cut into pieces then smashed
1 sliced fresh galangal
2 -3 Indonesian bay leaf
canola oil for frying

Pound together garlic, coriander, and kosher salt into a smooth paste. Rub the hen pieces all over with this paste.

In a shallow pan large enough to accomodate all hens add coconut water, turmeric lemongrass, galangal, and bay leaves, then arrange hen pieces in a single layer. Cook on medium heat about 35 to 45 minutes. Stir from time to time to ensure even cooking. Remove from the heat, transfer the hens onto a plate to cool completely.

When ready to serve, heat a skillet (iron skillet works best for me) over medium heat. Add about 3 to 4 tbs canola oil. When the oil is hot enough, carefully add the hen pieces. Since the hens are quite small, all four pieces will fit in a 12 inch skillet. Fry on both side until golden brown, about a minute or so depending on heat. Remove from the heat, place them on a cooling rack to drain all excess oil. Serve with steam rice, and simple saute vegetable. The addition of sambal (Indonesian chili sauce) is always delicious too.

Steam Bao With Chicken and Mushroom Filling

2012-01-13T00:01:00.000-08:00

I almost always can't stand it when I see my son comes home with savory buns he got from Chinese store. In my opinion they are pretty bad taste wise and the texture is too soft, almost like white bread. So, I promise him that anytime he wants to eat savory Chinese bun, he just need to let me know, and I'll make it! Plus, I'd feel good about giving him something he likes, and not to worry about how many he'll eat since I know exactly what ingredients in it.

I've made other version of Chinese bun using beef filling, so I tried to use chicken this time. My bao was a little bit dimply, but the texture was exactly the way I like it, a bit chewy, and the best part, it tasted delicious. My son was pretty happy to eat a few of them, so did my husband. Hope you do too!

Steam Bao With Chicken & Mushroom Filling
makes 12 buns

Bao dough, recipe follows
3 boneless and skinless chicken thigh, chopped
1 cup chopped button mushroom
1/2 cup chopped water chestnuts
1 tbs reduce sodium tamari, or soy sauce
2 tbs Shaoxing rice wine
1/4 cup chopped scallions
1/4 tsp white pepper
2 tbs canola oil

Preheat a large frying pan over high heat, add canola oil and swirl it around. Now, add the chopped chicken, and stir fry until the chicken is no longer pink. Add mushroom and the rest of the ingredients. Cook for another 5 minutes until the chicken is cooked thoroughly. Taste and adjust seasoning according to your liking. Remove from the heat, and cool completely.

Knock out the risen dough to to let the air out, then leave it to rise again, about 15 to 30 minutes. After it is risen for the second time, turn it onto work surface. Lightly knead the dough for about a minute or so. Shape into a log, then cut the dough into 64 grams each.

Working with a piece of dough at a time, and coverung the rest with clean kitchen towel, roll it out into circle. Place about 1 - 2 tbs filling in the center. Enclose the filling completely. PLace it on top of parchment paper, cover with kitchen towel. Repeat with the ramaining dough. Let the buns rest for another 15 to 30 minutes.

Prepare the steamer over high heat, and make sure that the water is rolling boiling before you add the buns. Arrange the bao on a steamer, leave enough space in between (about 2 inches). Steam the bao for 15 to 20 minutes. Enjoy!

Bao Dough

Recipe adapted from Fushia Dunlop's Land Of Plenty

Yield 764 grams

3 cups all-purposed flour

1 tbs dried yeast

2 tbs sugar (her recipe use only 1 tbs)

2 tbs canola oil

In a small bowl, dissolved the sugar and yeast with 1 cup lukewarm water. Set aside for 15 minutes until the yeast is bloomed.

Place the flour in a mixing bowl, make a well in the center, and pour the yeast mixture. Add about 1/4 cup of water, mix well. Turn the dough onto kitchen counter top, knead for 5 to 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. Form into round ball, and place it in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with damp kitchen towel, and leave it a in a warm, draft - free place until double in size, about 1 to 2 hours.

For YeastSpotting!

Spicy Lobster With chinese Chives Kaffir Lime

2012-01-04T16:04:00.000-08:00

How's everyone doing? Hope you all had a nice holiday season, and wishing you all for the best year 2012. I was busy cooking and baking during the holiday, enjoying my time with my family, and met couple of friends to share the holiday as well. It was truly my favorite time of the year, and I am sure it was yours as well.

Today, I am sharing with you my simple spicy lobster recipe, I hope you'll like it.

So, if someone offer me to choose between crab or lobster, I must say that I prefer lobster. It is my favorite seafood, and I can eat it in anyway, let it be plain, or spicy, simply steamed, boiled or grilled, I love them all. Unfortunately my family pretty much prefer crab, that doesn't mean they'll reject it though, they just eat less, and you what that mean, I am the lucky one to eat the rest.

Anyway, I am still not that brave enough of killing any live crustaceans, so I always take ask the fish guy to do the job for me.

Spicy Lobster With Chinese Chives and Kaffir Lime
serve 2 - 4

1 large fresh live lobster (about 4 - 5 pounds), I asked the fish guy to kill it first, if you afraid of killing it.
1/4 cup chopped shallots
1 cup roughly chopped Chinese chives
2 Roma tomatoes, chopped
5 - 10 fresh cayenne pepper
2 kaffir lime, juiced but do not discard the limes
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
canola oil

Bring a lare pot of water to boil, drop the lobster, then cook for about 10 minutes. Remove from the boiling water, let it cool a little bit, then separate the from the head, cut the tail in half. Remove the claws, smash a little bit (using hammer), just enough to crack the shell in few places, this will help the sauce penetrate the meat.

Process shallots, tomatoes, and cayenne pepper in a food processor until smooth (paste consistency).

Heat a large wok over high heat, add canola oil. Add the paste, fry until fragrant, about a minute. Add chopped chives, and the juice of kaffir lime, including the limes. Stir for a few seconds, now add the lobster pieces, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, cook, stirring from time to time about 5 - 10 minutes until lobster is cooked. Remove from the heat. Serve immediately with hot steam rice.

Kuih Seri Muka (Layer Savory Sticky Rice and Sweet Custard)

2011-12-02T12:18:00.000-08:00

If you are not familiar with this kuih, it is actually quite a pleasant to bite to it. The bottom layer is savory, chewy, while the top layer is sweet and custardy. You kind of get both world sweet and savory in one bite. I think I like that. I have to mention though, unless you like egg custard, I found the top layer is a little bit too eggy for my palate. Perhaps, it's a good idea for me to try different version next time, which I happen to found the recipe at Kristy's blog.

This recipe is from Wendy, which I am pretty happy with the result, and came out perfect and beautiful.

Kuih Seri Muka (Layer Savory Sticky Rice and Sweet Custard)

Recipe adapted from Wendy's Kuih Seri Muka

makes one 8-inch round kuih

For bottom layer:

300 g glutinous rice. Washed, soaked at least 2 hours, or overnight - drain well

50 ml coconut milk

200 ml water

1 tsp salt

For top layer:
150 ml medium size eggs (about 3)

150 ml coconut milk

150 ml pandan juice

180 g sugar

15 g cornstarch

30 g all-purposed flour

Preparation: lightly oiled an 8-inch round cake pan. Set aside. Add plenty of water to the steamer, place it on high heat, let the water to become boil.

Put the rice and all ingredients for bottom layer in a pan. Cook over moderate heat until all liquid has evaporated. Stir from time to time to prevent the rice from sticking on the bottom of the pan. Remove from the heat. Transfer the rice onto prepared cake pan. Press the rice to make it level and compact, then place it to steamer. lower the heat to medium.

Now, make the custard layer.

Place all ingredients for top layer in a sauce pan. Place the pan over moderate heat, cook and stir until the mixture just slightly thicken. Remove from the heat, then slowly pour this mixture directly on top of sticky rice. Turn the heat to low, and continue to steam until custard layer is firm, about 25 minutes. Remove, and cool completely before cutting it into portion.

Laksa With Ground Bison

2011-11-11T09:55:00.000-08:00

It is pretty cold out there, so a bowl of spicy laksa is really good for dinner. It is one pot meal kind of thing, so no need to think about side dishes.

Today, I want to share laksa recipe that I made using ground bison (American buffalo) instead of a big chunks of meat. It was one of those day that I wanted to cook a meal that won't required a long time to cook it. You could use regular beef chuck or beef shoulder for this laksa, or you can also use poultry such as chicken, or duck. If you do, obviously you will need to adjust the cooking time as well.

Laksa With Ground Bison
Serve 4 - 6

1 lb ground bison, or ground beef
1/4 cup chopped shallots
1/2 tbs chopped garlic
2 candle nuts, chopped (use cashew nuts if you can't find candle nuts)
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
1/2 tsp grated fresh galangal, or 1/4 tsp powder
1 tbs coriander seeds, grind
3 red jalapeno chilies ( as much as you can take), chopped
4 Roma tomatoes, chopped two of the Roma tomatoes, and quartered the remaining two.
3 - 5 kaffir lime leaves
1 lemongrass stalk, discrad the outer leaves, cut into 3 -inch, then smash to release its aroma
2 tbs canola oil
5 to 6 cup water, beef, or chicken stock
1 cup coconut milk
8 button mushroom, sliced
250 g fresh egg noodles
Brocoli florets, or other vegetable of your choice
salt and pepper, according to your taste

To serve:
2 to 4 boiled eggs, cut each egg in half
1/4 cup roughly chopped cilantro
1/4 cup chopped green onion (scallions)
fried shallots, optional

Place chopped shallots, garlic, candle nuts, grated ginger, grated galangal, ground coriander, red jalapeno, and chopped tomatoes in a food processor. Process to make a smooth paste.

Heat canola oil large soup pot set over medium heat. Add laksa paste, kaffir lime leaves, and lemongrass, fry until fragrant. Add ground bison, break up the lumps using large fork, or the back of wooden spatula. Cook for about 5 minutes, pour in water, bring to a boil, season with salt and pepper, then simmer for 20 - 30 minutes until the meat is cook. Add mushrooms, cook for one minute, add brocoli florets, remaining tomatoes, and coconut milk. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Bring the laksa back to a simmer for about 3 - 5 minutes.

In another large pot, bring water to a boil. Cook noodle according to package direction, drain, divide among 4 - 6 bowls. Add laksa, garnish with boiled egg, chopped cilantro, green onion, and fried shallots. Serve as a main dish.

Talam Ubi (Steamed Sweet Potato Cake With Coconut Milk, Lemongrass and Kaffir Lime Leaves)

2011-11-01T11:49:00.000-07:00

Ever since I got a Asian style steamer, I have been trying out so many Asian treat, especially kue from Indonesia and Malaysia. They are many kue that I haven't tried to make, but first thing first I really wanted to make kue Talam Ubi (sweet potato). I was quite pleased when I found Belzy's recipe. Only one trial, and I found myself already made a second batch, it was that delicious. Thanks Belzy!

Belzy's recipe is pretty straight forward and easy to follow. The recipe is in Indonesian language, so if you really like to make it, you can either find someone to translate it, use google translation, or you can use my adaptation. Don't worry, I used the exact measurement given in the recipe, but added a few touch of my own. For example, she uses plain coconut milk in her recipe, but mine is flavored with lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves. Another unintentionally changes I made was, rice flour, and sago flour. For rice flour I substituted with sweet rice flour, and tapioca flour for sago flour. Resulting a slightly chewier then using regular rice flour. So here is my adaptation from Belzy's Talam Ubi.

Talam Ubi (Steamed Sweet Potato Cake With Coconut Milk, Lemongrass and Kaffir Lime Leaves)
Recipe adapted from Belzy's Talam Ubi
Makes 1 - 9-inch kue

Bottom Layer
300 g sweet potato, steamed-cooled, then mashed
225 g sugar
300 cc (about 1 1/4 cups) coconut milk
70 g tapioca flour
35 g sweet rice flour (I used Michiko brand)
1/2 tsp salt

Top Layer
300 cc coconut milk
100 g tapioca flour
20 g sweet rice flour
1/2 tsp salt, or according to your taste

Additional ingredients:
2 lemongrass, discard the outer layer, cut into pieces - bruised
5 kaffir lime leaves

Heat 600 cc coconut milk with lemongrass, and kaffir lime leave until you see bubbles just start to appear around the edge. Remove from the heat. Let steep until coconut milk is cool completely. Strain, and discard lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves.

Place the steamer on top of the stove set over medium high heat. Place a 9-inch cake pan that has been lightly coated with oil inside the steamer, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix together mashed sweet potato, sugar, tapioka, sweet rice flour, salt, and 300 cc cooled coconut milk. Pour into a cake pan, steam on a medium heat for 10 to 20 minutes, or until set.

In a separate bowl, mix the remaining 300 cc coconut milk, tapioka flour, sweet rice flour, and salt. Pour this mixture directly on top of the sweet potato layer. Steam for 10 to 15 minutes until top layer is set. Remove from the heat, and cool completely before cutting.

Tauge Goreng

2011-10-21T15:00:00.000-07:00

Humble, yet delicious, easy and quick to make. No wonder is popular in Indonesia and SE Asian country. Every household seems to have their own version. Some recipe add prawns, some add tofu and tempe, or simply nothing other then mung bean sprouts itself as a star. This is my version of tauge goreng, I always serve it with hot steaming Japanese, or Jasmine rice, no other side dish needed. If you want to make this dish completely vegetarian, omit the fish sauce. As simple as that, and I hope you will like this as much as I do.

You don't really need the exact amount for each of this ingredients listed on my recipe, so, just use the amount given on this recipe as a guidance.

Tauge Goreng
serve 4 to 6

10 cups Mung bean sprouts
8 pieces fried tofu (available at most Asian store), or 1 package regular firm tofu, cut into 2-inch pieces
3 cloves garlic, smashed
3 cups Chinese chives, roughly chopped into 2-inch long
3 to 5 whole fresh red chilies, optional
1 tbs fish sauce
2 tbs canola oil

salt and freshly ground black peper, to taste

Heat a large wok over high heat. Add canola oil, immediately add mashed garlic. Stir fry for 2 seconds, add Chinese chives, and whole chilies. Stir for 5 seconds, now add tofu and bean sprouts. Continue to stir fry for about 30 seconds to a minute, or until the sprouts are just begin to wilt. Season with fish sauce, salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Remove from the heat and serve immediately.

Holishkes With Ground Bison

2011-10-21T00:01:00.000-07:00

Holishkes (Stuffed Cabbage With Ground Bison)
makes 12 pieces

Basic tomato sauce, recipe follows
12 extra large cabbage leaves
1 pound ground bison
1 small onion, diced
1 large clove of garlic, minced
1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
1 extra large egg
2 tbs finely chopped Italian parsley
freshly ground nutmeg, to taste
freshly ground black pepper
salt

Blanch the leaves under boiling water for a few second just until pliable. You might need to do it in batches. Set aside to cool. If necessary, thin out or remove the thick stalk of each cabbage.

Place all ingredients for the stuffing in a large bowl, mix well.

Preheat oven to 275F.

Pour the tomato sauce on a braiser.

Lay a piece of blanched cabbage leave on a kitchen working surface, add the filling, roll up the meat, tucking in the leave on both side as you go to completely enclose the filling (like you would roll an egg roll). Arrange on top of tomato sauce with seam side down. Bake for 3 to 4 hours, or until the meat is cooked. Remove from oven, serve with nice rustic country bread.

Basic Tomato Sauce

7 large Roma tomatoes, diced

1/2 small size onion, diced

1 large garlic cloves, minced

freshly grated nutmeg, to taste

freshly ground black pepper to taste

olive oil

salt

Fry the onion with olive oil until translucent, add garlic, fry another few second until it is fragrant. Add tomatoes, freshly ground nutmeg, black pepper, and salt. Cook for 10 minutes, then remove from the heat.

Rustic country bread is perfect for this Holishkes :)
Photo taken by Beatrice Hom

Chinese Steam Buns With Beef Filling

2011-10-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

Chinese Steam Buns With Beef Filling
Recipe based on Fushia Dunlop's Dou Ya Bao Zi from her book Land Of Plenty
makes 20 buns

For the buns:
3 cups all-purposed flour
1 tbs dried yeast
1 tbs sugar (I used 2)
2 tbs canola oil

For beef filling:
14 oz ground beef
1/2 cup chopped scallion
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs shaoxing rice wine
freshly ground black pepper
2 tbs vegetable oil

To make the bun: in a small bowl, dissolved the sugar and yeast with 1 cup lukewarm water. Set aside for 15 minutes until the yeast is bloomed.

Meanwhile make the filling. Heat vegetable oil over medium high heat. Add ground beef, stir fry for about 5 minutes. Add the rest of ingredients, continue to stir fry until the meat is cooked. Remove from the heat, and let cool.

Turn the risen dough onto work surface, knock out the air, then knead lightly for a few minutes. Divide the dough into 4 pieces, roll each pieces into a 1-inch sausage, and cut the sausage into 2-ounce pieces. Flatten each pieces with palm of your hand, fill the center with 1 - 2 teaspoon of stuffing. Pinch around the edge of the circle to enclose the filling.

Preheat the steamer over high heat.

Lightly oiled the steamer tray. Place the finished bun in the steamer, don't forget to leave enough room in between the buns. Steam over high heat for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and serve immediately while it is still piping hot.

For YeastSpotting!

Fesenjān With Chicken

2011-08-28T13:25:00.000-07:00

Fesenjān is one of those many great Iranian dishes that becoming so popular among my family. The deliciousness, nutty, fruity, sweet and slightly tangy flavor is tantalizing. One might think that this dish require times to prepare. It just the oposite, and though it sounds exotic, ingredient such as pomegranate molases, or pomegranate syrup are readily available in most grocery store. You can use any poultry for this dish, I suppose any meat will be delicious as well. Serve with any style Iranian rice, plain basmati rice, or just a simple flat bread.

The original recipe in her book does not include prunes and ground coriander. I think adding this two ingredients, making the dish more delicious (can't help it, I just need to include one or two spices in my cooking). The recipe also uses pomegranate paste instead of pomegranate molases, which I found a little bit challenging to find in my area. If you can find pomegranate paste, use the same amount, then dissolve with 1 1/2 cup of water. If you can not find both pomegranate paste and pomegranate molases, substitute with 2 1/2 cup freshly squeezed pomegranate juice. If you still can not find all of them, I suppose you can use pomegranate juice from the store, although I can not guarantee how it will taste, since I never tried it before.

Fesenjān

Recipe adapted from Najmieh Batmanglij's book, "New Food of Life"

serve 4

2 cup walnuts

2 pounds chicken legs, rinse under cold running water - pat dry.

2 large onion, finely chopped

1/4 tsp ground saffron, dissolved in 1 tbs hot water

1 tsp ground coriander

3/4 cup pomegranate molases

10 dried prunes
3 tbs olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Finely grind the walnuts using a food processor, or coffee grinder. If desire, before grinding the whole thing, you can set aside a 1/2 cup of walnuts, then chop it coarsely to add texture and crunch to the sauce.

Heat one tablespoon of oil in a braiser, or heavy bottom pan set over medium heat. Add chicken legs, and brown on all side. Remove chicken legs from the pan, and discard the oil. Return the pan to the stove, pour in the remaining oil, add onion, cook until the onion is soft and translucent. Add saffron water and ground coriander, stir. Add ground walnuts, stir back and forth to prevent sticking. Continue to cook until the walnut begin to releases its oil, about a minute or so. Now add pomegranate molases, and a cup or more water (if the sauce seem to thick, add some more), salt and papper. Bring to a simmer. Return chicken pieces to the pan, add the prunes, then give it another stir or two. Lower the heat, simmer for about 45 minutes to an hour, or until the chicken is cooked and the sauce is thicken. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

Ayam Betutu, Balinese Chicken Wrapped In Banana Leaves

2011-08-04T16:18:00.000-07:00

The Betutu I had when I was growing up, was the one made with duck stuffed with star fruit leaves and spicy spice mix. I don't remember that this dish was part of an everyday dish, this was, always been a special dish served only on a special occasion related to Balinese Hindu religious festivals. Back then, I don't remember that I was thrilled and looked forward to this particular dish. I think, Babi Guling (suckling pig) was the only dish that kids like me were always waiting for. As I grow older, and live far away from Bali, I started to miss certain dish such as Betutu. The only way I can satisfy my craving is by making it in my own kitchen. Of course I can not find star fruit leaves, but it is always an easy choice to choose other green such as kale, swiss chard, or collard green as substitute. I also like to use cornish hens, and safe the duck for a special occasion.

This betutu can easily serve up to 8 people, of course it all depends on how much each person will eat. Since a cornish hen is quite small, it might only enough to serve 2 people per hen in your family.

Ayam Betutu, Balinese Chicken Wrapped In Banana Leaves
Serve 4 - 8

2 cornish hens

Ground spices:

4 Balinese long chili pepper

1 tbs coriander seeds, lightly toasted

1/2 tsp black peppercorns

5 - 10 white peppercorns, optional

Spice paste mix:
1 tbs minced garlic
1/2 cup roughly chopped shallots
3 kaffir lime leaves
2 tbs freshly grated ginger
1/3 cup or more chopped fresh lemongrass
1/2 tbs chopped fresh galangal
1 large Roma tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 tsp dry roasted shrimp paste (terasi, or belachan)
5 - 10 Thai chili, or 10 dried Californian chili
2 tsp kencur powder
2 tsp turmeric powder
4 kemiri nuts, roughly chopped

Additional ingredients:
1 tbs fish sauce
salt to taste
1/4 cup or less, vegetable oil for frying
2 kaffir lime leaves

Rinse cornish hens under cold running water, pat dry with paper towel. Set aside.

To make ground spices, place all ingredients for ground spices in a coffee grinder and grind to fine powder. If using dry red chili, grind them as well. Transfer to a food processor, add all ingredients for spice paste mix, process to make a smooth paste. Add a bit of water if necessary to keep blade running.

Heat oil in a frying pan, fry spice mix until fragrant, about 5 to 7 minutes on a medium low heat. Add fish sauce and salt. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Cool completely.

Divide spice paste mix into two portions. Each portion will be for each hen.

Place several layer of banana leaves on a flat surface. Working with one hen at a time, spread about two tablespoons or more of spice paste mix on banana leaves, lay one cornish hen on top. With your index finger, loosen up the skin around the breast and the legs, then fill with spice paste, do it gently so you will not tear the skin. Rub more spice mix all over the hen, finally stuff in all remaining paste into the cavity. Lay one kaffir lime leave on hen's breast, enclose and secure both end with tooth picks. Take 2 layers of aluminum foils, and wrap the entire parcel with it. Repeat with the other hen in the same manner.

Grill on medium low for an hour (depending on your grill temperature), or until the hens is cooked thoroughly. When ready to serve, open the parcel and place them directly on the grill to get the char and smoky flavor, about 2 minutes, or put them under the broiler for 2 to 5 minutes. Serve with plain steam rice, and simple saute green vegetable, or if you interested in keeping the Balinese theme, serve with Balinese mix vegetable.

Zucchinis and Tomatoes Stuffed With Ground Lamb

2011-07-19T16:37:00.000-07:00

Zucchinis and Tomatoes Stuffed With Ground Lamb
serve 6 - 8

8 medium zucchinis, cored
8 medium tomatoes, pulp and seeds removed
1 pound ground lamb

1/2 cup pine nuts

1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbs grated ginger
1 - 2 tbs olive oil

20 dried apricots

1 cup chicken stock

salt and pepper to taste

Mix ground lamb, pine nuts, ground cumin, cinnamons, onion, garlic, and ginger. Loosely stuff the zucchinis and tomatoes with lamb filling.

Pour olive oil into oven proof pan. Arrange the stuffed zucchinis and tomatoes inside it, scatter the dried apricots on top. Place the pan over medium heat, cook for about 10 minutes until they releases their juices. Pour about 1 cup of chicken stock, bring it to boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pan, simmer for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Transfer the pot to oven, bake fo additional 40 minutes to thicken the sauce, and caramelized the vegetables.

46

2011-07-10T00:01:00.000-07:00

Sticky Rice and Mango

2011-07-02T14:11:00.000-07:00

Something as simple as sticky sweet rice (glutinous rice) and mango can be incredibly satisfying and delicious to serve alone as a mid afternoon snack, or as dessert after a nice and light Asian style dinner. Here I make it a little bit richer by adding more coconut sauce, and palm sugar sauce on top. I steam the rice using my Asian style bamboo steamer, but you can use rice cooker, or regular steamer, or even just a regular pot would work as well.

Sticky Rice and Mango
serve 4

2/3 cup glutinous rice
3/4 cup thick coconut milk
2 fresh pandan leafs
pinch of salt
100 g palm sugar, chopped
1/4 cup water
2 ripe mangoes

Wash rice in several changes of cold water, then soak overnight with cold clean water. Then drain the next day.

Boil some water in a pan that you are going to steam the rice. Line bamboo steamer with damp cheese cloth, or banana leave if available. Spread the drained rice on top. Cut one of pandan leave into two or three pieces, scatter them on top of the rice, pressing them lightly into the rice. Cover, and steam for about 20 to 30 minutes, or until the rice is soft and done.

Meanwhile, heat coconut milk, pandan leave, and pinch of salt over medium low heat until very hot but don't let it to boil. Remove from the heat - cool completely.

In another small sauce pan, add chopped palm sugar and water, boil until it becomes thickened and sirupy. Remove from the heat - cool completely.

Peel and slice mangos using a sharp knife. Cut the flesh out away from the pits, then slice the flesh into thin slices

To serve, use a small bowl as a mold to form dome shape rice, invert onto individual serving plate. Drizzle a few table spoon of coconut milk and palm sugar syrup on top, add mango slices and serve.

Tajine of Fish M'chermel

2011-06-21T17:45:00.000-07:00

Tajine of Fish M'chermel
Recipe adapted from Meera Freeeman's book, A Season in Morroco

2 lb (about 2) whole white Bass
1 red bell pepper

1 preserved lemon, cut into strips

1/4 cup green olives

2 Roma tomatoes, chopped
3 tbs chopped parsley
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

For chermoula
1/2 cup cilantro
1/2 cup parsley
1 tsp ground cumin
Juice from 1 lemon
1 tsp salt
harissa to taste, optional

Place fish in a large ceramic dish.

Finely pound cilantro, parsley, and cumin using mortar and pestle. If you don't have mortar and pestle, you can use mezzaluna, or use food processor. Add lemon juice, salt and harissa if using. Mix well. Pour chermoula on top of the fish. Marinate the fish for at least 2 hours.

Meanwhile grill bell pepper until well charred, transfer into a small container and cover. Let sit for about 5 minutes to cool a little bit, then peel off the skin, and seeded. Cut into 6 to 8 pieces.

Transfer the fish into tajine pot including the marinade. Scatter bell pepper, preserved lemon, olives, and chopped tomatoes on top, season with salt and pepper. Cook with the lid on for about 5 minutes, add chopped parsley, stir, taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Cook further until fish is done, about 5 minutes more. Serve with plain couscous, or flat bread.

Baby Squids Stuffed With Ground Beef, Chili, and Lemongrass

2011-06-10T07:10:00.000-07:00

This baby squids are delicious serve are very versatile. They can be serve as appetizer, or main dish. The stuffing can be made with ground pork, or any kind of meat you are in the mood of. I personally like to serve this as main dish with steam jasmine rice, and simple saute vegetable. Hope you like it.

Baby Squids Stuffed With Ground Beef, Chili, and Lemongrass

Serve 6

12 baby squids
1 lime

1 lb ground beef

3 shallots, minced

1/2 cup minced lemongrass

2 red jalapeno, seeded - finely diced

2 cloves garlic, grated

1 tbs freshly grated ginger

1 tbs + 1 tsp fish sauce

Salt and freshly grind black pepper to taste

For chili sauce

2 tbs sambal oelek

1/4 cup water

2 tbs distile white vinegar

3 tbs sugar

2 tbs fish sauce

Clean the squids as shown on the video here. When you are done, transfer to a bowl, sprinkle with lime juice. Refrigerate while you are making the stuffing.

In a large bowl, mix ground beef, minced shallots, 1/4 cup minced lemongrass, half of diced red jalapeno, grated garlic, grated ginger, 1 tablespoon fish sauce, salt and black pepper.

Heat 1 tbs oil in a skillet set over medium heat, add ground beef mixture. Use a large fork or the back of wooden spatula, to separate and break up any lumps, while stir frying at the same time until the meat is done, about 10 minutes. Season with freshly grind black pepper, taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Transfer onto a clean bowl - cool down a little bit. Wash the skillet, wipe with clean kitchen towel. Once the beef is cooled, stuffed each squid, pack them tightly, then secure the end with tooth pick.

Return the skillet to the stove. Turn the heat to medium. Add 1 - 2 tbs oil. Fry 4 squids on each batch until brown on all side, about 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer onto large serving plate. When you are done frying all squids, add another tablespoon of oil to skillet, stir fry squid tentacles for about 3 minutes, add the remaining 1/4 cup of lemongrass, and the remaining diced red jalapeno, stir fry for another minute or so. season fish 1 teaspoon fish sauce, salt, and freshly grind black pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Transfer directly on top of squids. Serve with chili sauce and sliced cucumber on the side for appetizer, or with steam jasmine rice, simple saute green vegetable, and chili sauce as a main dish.

Padd Thai, Stir Fried Noodles Thai - Style

2011-05-31T15:44:00.000-07:00

Padd Thai is easy and quick to make at home. Pretty versatile as you can customize the ingredients according to your liking. The only disadvantage about making it for a large crowd is that you might never get a chance to sit down with your guest, as you must continue making it one batch at a time, or two serving at the most. One last thing, use this ingredients as a guideline. If you like it sweeter add more palm sugar, if you like it tangier, add more tamarin ... and so on ... Hope you like it!

Padd Thai, Stir Fry Noodle Thai - Style
make 1 generous serving

The sauce:
1/2 cup chopped palm sugar
1/4 cup seedless tamarin pulp, soaked in 1/2 cup hot water for 15 minutes
1/4 cup fish sauce
1 cups water

For the noodle:
3 oz flat wide rice noodle
2 tbs canola, or peanut oil
1/2 cup chopped scallions
1/2 cup sliced baked firm tofu

1 cup sliced fresh shitake mushrooms

1 red jalapeno chili, seeded - sliced, optional
1/4 cup Padd Thai sauce
1 cup fresh mung bean sprouts
1 tbs dry roasted unsalted peanuts
salt as needed

Soak rice noodle in lukewarm water for 10 to 15 minutes until pliable, drain in a colander. Set aside.

Using your hand, squeeze tamarin pulp to milk it. Strain into sauce pan, add chopped palm sugar, fish sauce, and water. Boil until the sugar is well dissolved. Remove from the heat. let Cool completely. Refrigerate until ready to use. The sauce will keep up to a week in the refrigerator.

Heat your wok over medium high heat until very hot, add oil. You will see that the oil will be smoky as soon as it touch the wok, immediately add scallions, tofu, and shitake mushroom. Stir fry for about 30 seconds. Now add the soaked noodle, chili, if using, and the sauce. Stir continuously for about 45 seconds, add bean sprouts continue to stir fry for 10 seconds. Taste to see if need more salt. Transfer to a plate, sprinkle in roasted peanuts. Serve immediately along with fresh bean sprouts, and chili powder on the side if you wish.

Sambal Goreng Manisah, Indonesian Chayote Squash Sambal

2011-05-20T06:35:00.000-07:00

Simply delicious sambal with Chayote squash, which is pretty common everyday meal in Indonesia, especially in the island of Java. Each family would have their own version. Some will add prawns, beef, or chicken, while other will simply add fried tempe and tofu. Very often, and whenever in season, some family will also add delicious petai bean (Satow). Unfortunately, I never seen petai bean (Satow) where I live. Perhaps, I should try to check it out at the Chinese grocery next time.

Sambal Goreng Manisah, Indonesian Chayote Squash Sambal

serve 4 - 6

1 lb beef shoulder, cut into chunks

2 large size Chayote squash, peeled, cut in half and discard the seed - julienne

3 cups coconut milk

2 tbs fish sauce

1/2 cup roughly chopped Chinese chices

2 tbs canola oil

salt as needed

sambal paste

For sambal paste:

3 large shallots, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

5 red jalapeno, seeded - chopped

1 Roma tomato, chopped

6 candlenuts, chopped

1 tsp dry roasted shrimp paste

Put all ingredients for sambal paste in a food processor. Process until smooth.

Heat canola oil in a large pot set over medium heat, add sambal paste. Fry until raw smell disappear, and the spice is a little bit dry. Add beef chunks, stir to coat. Add more or less about 4 cups of water and bring to a boil. Continue to cook beef is tender.

Meanwhile, place julienne Chayote squash in a colander, sprinkle in about 1 tablespoon of Kosher salt. Let it sit for 15 minutes, which help the Chayote squash become pliable.

Rinse Chayote squash under cold running water to get rid the excess salt. Add it to the pot, along with coconut milk, fish sauce, and salt if needed. Stir, taste, and adjust seasoning as needed. Turn the heat to low, cook for 5 to 8 minutes until Chayote squash are cooked, but still a little bit crunchy. Add Chinese chives, about a minute before turning off the stove. Serve with plain steam Jasmine, or Japanese rice.

Tagine of Cornish Hens With Saffron, Preserved lemon, Olives, and Dried Apricot

2011-05-11T07:53:00.000-07:00

Tagine of Cornish Hens With Saffron, preserved lemon, Olives, and Dried Apricot
Serve 6 - 8

2 cornish hens (3 - 3.5 lbs), quartered
1 small onion, chopped
1 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbs grated fresh ginger
1 preserve lemon, skin only - chopped
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
2 cups chicken stock
pinch of saffron threads + 2 tbs hot water, let it soak
6 ounces whole dried apricots
3/4 cup green olives
salt and pepper, to taste
2 tbs olive oil

Place tagine pot directly on the stove set over medium heat. Add olive oil, and chopped onion. Fry until onion is soft and translucent. Add garlic, ginger, and preserved lemon, stir and fry another few seconds until fragrant. Add cinnamon, cumin, coriander, stir to mix. Now add cornish hen pieces, coat on all side with spices. Add chicken stock, saffron water, dried apricot, and olives. Cover with its lid. Cook on low heat for 40 - 45 minutes, or until the hens is cooked. Serve with plain couscous, or plain rice.

Simple and Delicious Idea For Mother's Day Lunch, Or Dinner

2011-05-07T09:39:00.000-07:00

To all of you who are looking for a simple recipe to celebrate mother's day. This menu is pretty simple and and easy to make. Cornish hen is very tasty enough when you simply roasted in the oven with just a simple seasoning like salt and pepper. But, if you want to make it even more delicious, you can always be more creative by stuffing the hen with some fruit, or vegetable. For this special occasion, why not stuffed the hen with something sweet like dried fig for example. Make it even sweeter with pomegranate molasses, and add more crunch with healthy walnuts. For side dish, is easy. Since this roasted hens is pretty mild, I think it is also delicious serve with Imam Bayildi. For those who never tried this eggplant dish, I can assure you that you will be swooning and perhaps even fainted just like the story behind this moreish eggplant dish. The Imam (the head of moslem leader) was fainted after tasting it, although no one sure wether the Imam fainted after knew how much olive oil was in the dish, or it was just plain delicious. And you must have carb to go with this meal right? I, personally like rice, but you can always serve Couscous (plain, or pilaf), Manoushi bread will be good too, or any other flat bread of your choice.

Don't forget to save some room for dessert. Because, having a delicious meal wouldn't be prefect without dessert. You can make it as simple as you like, but I like to be a bit more special, after all, this is a special day for the most wonderful caring person on earth right? Spare a little time of making delicious, sweet and fragrant chocolate layer cake. Riviera is one of this example. It's so pretty to look at, and your mom will be swooning and full of bliss on how delicious this Riviera is. The lemon cream and chocolate mousse are delicate, velvety sweet and tangy, and not to forget the ganache is almost always everyone's favorite. I hope you like this menu idea.

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there. May your heart fill with joy and happiness!.

Roasted Cornish Hens Stuffed With Dried Figs, Walnuts, and Sumac

Imam Bayildi

Tomato Rice Pilaf

Riviera

Sambal Ayam and Sambal Mangga. Indonesian Chili Chicken Serve With Spicy Mango Relish

2011-04-30T20:19:00.000-07:00

Very tasty Indonesian chili chicken. Red jalapeno is perfect for this dish, because you get the right amount of spiciness without burning your tongue, it also gives vibrant color that will make it even more appetizing. If you are still unsure about the level of spiciness of this red jalapeno, or afraid that it might be still a bit too spicy for your family, especially for your young one, you can always deseeded the red jalapeno, and reduce the amount needed according to your taste, and perhaps add one or two Roma tomatoes instead.

Sambal Ayam (Chili Chicken)
Serve 6

3 whole chicken legs
3 whole chicken breasts
4 red jalapeno, roughly chopped
1/4 cup chopped shallots
1 tbs chopped garlic
1 tsp toasted shrimp paste (Belacan)
1 tbs fish sauce
2 tbs gula merah (palm sugar), or brown sugar if unavailable
sea salt, as needed

Arrange chicken pieces in a large braising pot. Set aside.

Put chopped red jalapeno, shallots, garlic, and shrimp paste in a food processor or a blender. process to make smooth paste. Add water if necessary to keep the blade running. Pour directly on top of chicken, add about 1 cup of water, fish sauce, and gula merah. Stir to mix. Transfer the pot to the stove. Cook the chicken over medium high heat until it starts to boil, then turn the heat to low. Simmer until the chicken is cooked thoroughly, about 35 to 45 minutes depending the size and type of chicken you are using. Transfer chili chicken onto serving bowl. Serve with plain jasmine rice, simple saute vegetable, and a little bit of mango sambal on the side.

Spicy Mango Relish (Sambal Mangga)

2 cups shredded raw green mango (about 1 medium size)
4 - 5 red jalapeno
2 tsp toasted shrimp paste (Belacan)
2 tsp fish sauce
sea salt, as needed

Add red jalapenno, toasted shrimp paste, salt to a food processor. Process to make a smooth paste. Alternately, pound ingredients together to make smooth paste. Pour this chili sauce on top of shredded mango, add fish sauce, and pinch of salt. Mix well, taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Transfer to a serving bowl.

Manti. Turkish Dumpling Serve With Yogurt Sauce and Paprika Mint Oil

2011-04-22T08:55:00.000-07:00

Manti is Turkish specialty dumpling normally filled with ground lamb (for a vegetarian version check here), not really heavily spiced, but tastes devine. It is labor intensive as everything is made from scratch, unless, you can find ready made Manti dough in your local grocery store. You must willing to set aside plenty of time if you are intent on achieving your own satisfactory meal to present to your family. The ingredients is short and simple, the making is straight forward and uncomplicated, but the process is long. Especially, if you don't have pasta machine to help you. You must roll the dough into thin strips, then cut them into squares. Next, each square is fill and shape with minced lamb, or beef. To shape manti into pretty little parcel, abviously need practice, especially if you never done this before. Having said that, make this Manti only if you are in a good mood :) Or, invite your friends, sisters, or someone to make it with you, that way you will be chatting, rolling, and shaping the same time, you'll be finish sooner then you realize. Good luck!

Manti. Turkish Dumpling Serve With Yogurt Sauce and Paprika Mint Oil
Recipe adapted from TURQUOISE, by Greg and Lucy Malouf
serve 4

For manti wrapper:
14 oz bread flour
2 - 3 free-range eggs
1 tsp sea salt

For lamb filling:

7 oz minced lamb

1 small onion, grated

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For yogurt sauce:

14 oz Greek-style yogurt

3 cloves garlic, grated or minced

2 oz unsalted butter

1 tsp Hungarian paprika

2 tbs minced fresh mint, or 1 tsp dried mint

Place bread flour and salt in a mixer bowl. Lightly beat 2 eggs in a small bowl, add this to mixer bowl. Knead using dough hook attachment on a low speed just enough to mix the ingredients and to see if the dough is too dry to work on. If too dry, add the remaining 1 egg (lightly beaten). Increase the speed to medium speed and continue to knead for another 5 minutes.

Turn the dough onto kitchen counter top, continue to knead by hand for about 5 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rest for an hour. While the dough is resting, you can make the lamb filling.

Mix all ingredients together. Set aside until ready to use. If you are not going to use it immediately, refrigerate.

Roll the dough into a very thin (1/16-inch) strips. Cut the strips into 2-inch squares.

Working with one square of dough at a time (cover the rest with clean kitchen towel to prevent drying), place about 1/2 tsp lamb filling in the center. Moisten the edges with a little bit water, gather each corner in the center to make a star-like shape. Place it onto a lightly floured baking sheet, cover with a clean kitchen towel. Repeat with the rest of the dough until all filling has been used.

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Carefully drop in about half of the manti. After about 1 to 2 minutes, they will rise to the surface, which most likely they are cooked. If you are unsure, take one manti, and open it. Then, adjust the cooking time according to your preference of meat doneness. Using a large slotted spoon, transfer manti onto a large serving plate. Repeat with remaining manti.

Combine garlic, and yogurt in a bowl. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Set aside.

In a small skillet set over medium low heat, melt the butter. Add mint, and paprika. Stir for a few seconds, then remove from the heat. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Spoon yogurt sauce over manti, drizzle with paprika and mint sauce. Serve immediately.

Eggplant Pahi. Sri Lankan Eggplant Curry With Fragrant Pickling Spices

2011-04-20T11:07:00.000-07:00

Unusual eggplant curry, with very little gravy in it, hence it is also called eggplant dry curry. The eggplant slices, are first rub with saffron, which I skipped, as saffron is expensive, and I like to save it for other dishes like Risotto, Paella, some Moroccan, or Iranian dishes with less spices. When I use saffron in my cooking, I like the saffron taste tobe dominant and present. Of course, you don't need to skip this process. If you do this process, then rub the eggplant with combination of crumbled saffron and salt before frying them. The other thing that intrigued me about this curry is the uses of pickling spices such as mustard seeds, coriander, cumin, and fennel seeds. In addition to those spices, lemongrass, and pandan leaves, which just in case if you never knew, it is extremely fragrant, are both added to the recipe. In Indonesia, pandan leaf is mainly used for sweet dessert and cake alike. Therefore, when I saw this recipe in my cookbook, it made me curious abut the end result.

Just a little note, I found that this ginger grater will make your life easier, it is extremely useful if you do a lot of grating ginger, onion, I even grate my garlic with this grater. It is inexpensive, quick and very easy to use.

Eggplant Pahi. Sri Lankan Dry Eggplant Curry With Fragrant Pickling Spices
Recipe adapted from Alexandra Greely's Asian Soups, Stews, & Curries
serve 4 - 6

6 medium size Japanese or 4 medium size Chinese eggplants, cut into thick long (about 2 - inces) strips

onion, or red onion, sliced

2 pandan leaves, cut into 2 inches long

2 lemongrass stalks, white part only, sliced

10 - 15 curry leaves

1 cinnamon stick

enough vegetable oil to fry the eggplants

1 cup coconut milk

1 tbs freshly grated ginger

2 tsp freshly grated garlic

2 - 3 Thai chilies, thickly sliced (optional)
1/2 tsp turmeric powder

salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Pickling spices:

1 tbs corriander seeds

1½ tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp fennel seeds

1 tbs mustard seeds

Fry eggplant slices in a batch unti soft. Set aside.
Meanwhile, roast the pickling spices on a small skillet set over medium low heat, stirring continuously until fragrant, about a minute. Set aside to cool, then grind them in a spice grinder or coffee grinder.

In a large pan set over medium heat, fry onion with 1 - 2 tablespoon vegetable until a little bit brown. Add pandan leaves, lemongrass, curry leaves, and cinnamon stick. Stir and continue to fry until fragrant. Add ginger, garlic, Thai chili if using, turmeric powder, and ground spices, stir to coat. Add half a cup of the coconut milk, stir and let it boil for a minute, then add the fried eggplant. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper, carefully stir, you don't want to break apart the eggplant. Pour in the remaining coconut milk, stir to mix. Lower the heat to low, continue to cook until the coconut milk is hot, but don't let it to becomes boil. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Serve with simple steam Basmati rice.

Cochin (Malabar) Jew's Fish Curry With Cilantro and Coconut For Passover

2011-04-15T08:01:00.000-07:00

From all Jewish holidays, Pesach is perhaps my most favorite holiday gathering, I enjoy long ritual reading the Haggadah, before we get into tasting the actual the food. As usual, I will be assigned to bring fish dish, with a little reminder, that I should not include any wheat in it. Because I am a Shiksa (non Jewish woman) ha .. ha.. ha.. I need a little reminder, kidding! Of course that's okay. I do like to be reminded anyway. So each year, I try to bring different kind of fish dish from different country. I think I'll bring Indian flavor to the table this time. I hope they will be pleased.

I adapted this recipe from Maya Kaimal's Savoring The Spice Coast of India , Fresh Flavor From Kerala. This particular recipe comes from The Cochin Jews community, which were presence in Kerala dates back to the King of Solomon (שְׁלֹמֹה). Most have left Kerala for Israel and other part of the world, only small number still stay, which unfortunately faces extinction.

Have A Happy And Healthy Pesach to all who celebrate it!

Cochin (Malabar) Jew's Fish Curry With Cilantro and Coconut For Passover
recipe adapted from Maya Kaimal's Savoring The Spice Coast of India
serve 4 - 6

1 to 2 pounds skinned firm white fish fillet (cod, halibut)
3/4 cup grated unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup loosely packed cilantro
1 tbs cumin
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp turmeric
2 tbs vegetable oil
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1/2 tbs minced garlic
2 cups or more water
salt and pepper to taste
1 - 2 tbs peanut oil

In a bowl of food processor add coconut, cilantro, cumin, cayenne pepper, turmeric, and 3/4 cup of water. Process to make smooth paste.

Heat oil in a shallow pan set over medium heat. Add onion, fry until the onion is slightly brown. Add garlic, stir for a few seconds, then add coconut paste and 3/4 water. Season with salt and pepper, stir to mix. Bring to a boil, as soon as it boils, turn the heat to low. Continue to cook until the mixture is thicken.

Pour in another 1/2 cup of water, add fish fillet. Turn the heat to medium, and bring it back to a boil. As soon as it boils, lower the heat. Partly cover the pan, gently simmer and basting the fish with sauce from time to time. Cook for about 10 to 12 minutes (depending on the thickness of the fish) until the fish is cooked and flaky.

Pacri Nenas. Indonesian Pineapple Curry With Ground Beef Kofta.

2011-04-13T11:13:00.000-07:00

Pacri Nenas. Indonesian Pineapple Curry With Ground Beef Kofta.
serve 6- 8

For Beef Kofta:
1 pound ground beef
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tbs freshly grated ginger
salt and pepper to taste

For the curry:
1/4 cup minced shallots
1 tbs minced garlic
3 candlenuts, chopped
2 - 3 red jalapeno pepper, seeded - roughly chopped
1 very ripe tomato, roughly chopped
1/4 tsp roasted shrimp paste
1 tbs palm sugar, optional
1 medium size pineapple, peeled and cubed
1 whole star anise
1 stick cinnamon
2 whole cloves
1 lemongrass stalk, white part only - bruised
1 slice (about an inch) fresh galangal
1/2 tsp turmeric powder (if fresh turmeric is available, use about 1/4 inch slice)
freshly grated nutmeg, jus a tad
1 tbs fish sauce
3 cups coconut milk
1 cup or more water (depending how thick you want you curry is)
salt and pepper, to taste
2 tbs vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Mix to combine ground beef, minced garlic, freshly grated ginger, season with salt and pepper. Shape into bite-size meatballs. Arrange neatly on a baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, turning them halfway, so they are brown evenly.

meanwhile, make the spice paste. Into a bowl of food processor, add minced shallots, minced garlic, candlenuts, chopped red jalapeno pepper, tomatoes, roasted shrimp paste, and palm sugar if using. Process to make smooth paste, add water if necessary to keep the blade running.

Heat vegetable oil in a large soup pot set over medium heat. Fry whole star anise, cinnamon, cloves, lemongrass, and fresh galangal for a few seconds, just enough to make the oil smell good. Add spice paste, turmeric powder, and a tad of freshly grated nutmeg. Stirring continuously for few more seconds until fragrant. Pour in half of the coconut milk, and water, add pineapple chunks, and fish sauce. Stir to mix, then turn the heat to medium low, simmer for about 5 minutes. Now, add kofta, continue to simmer for another 5 minutes. Lastly add the remaining coconut milk, bring back to a low simmer so that the milk won't break a part, about 2 to 3 more minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Serve with plain steam rice.

Grilled Tilapia With Balinese Lemongrass Sambal

2011-04-11T11:19:00.000-07:00

Healthy, delicious, exotic, fragrant, quick and easy to make. I shall say no more .....

Grilled Tilapia With Balinese Lemongrass Sambal
serve 2 to 4

2 (about 1.5 pounds total) Tilapia fillets

The marinade:
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbs lightly toasted coriander seeds - ground
2 tbs lemon juice
1 tbs olive oil, or vegetable oil (coconut oil if available would be better)
salt and paper, to taste

The sambal:
2 lemongrass stalks, white part only - thinly sliced
2 shallots, thinly sliced
2 Thai chiles, or red jalapeno, sliced
1 lime, juiced
2 tbs mild olive oil, or vegetable oil (coconut oil if available would be better)
1/4 tsp roasted shrimp paste
2 tsp fish sauce

Combine all ingredients for marinade in a small bowl, season with salt and paper. Pour on top of tilapias, and marinate for an hour.

To make sambal sere, place all ingredients in a bowl, using your hand (use gloves if you wish) mix and lightly squeeze the ingredients together. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, set aside or refrigerate if not planning to use it immediately.

Brush the grill with a little bit of oil. Grill tilapias until well charred on both side, about one minute on each side. Transfer to a plate, add sambal on top. Serve with simple saute green vegetable, and steam rice.

Imam Bayildi

2011-04-06T00:04:00.001-07:00

Imam Bayildi is one of those dish that is not only simple and easy to make, but also very versatile. It can be serve hot, or cold, serve as appetizer or entree. I personally like to serve it as vegetarian entree accompany with plain rice, rice pilaf, or plain couscous. If you like, you can squeeze in some lemon juice, then garnish it with fresh dill. Hope you like it!

Imam Bayildi, Baby Italian Eggplant Stuffed With Simple Tomato Sauce
serve 3

6 (about 1½ pounds) baby Italian eggplants
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 Roma tomatoes, chopped
1/4 chopped Italian parsley
1/4 cup water or chicken broth
4 tbs olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Heat 2 tbs olive oil in a medium pot, add diced onion, saute until soft, add garlic, stir and cook for a few seconds. Add chopped tomatoes, and water or chicken broth, stir, cook for 10 minutes until tomatoes are soft. Stir in chopped parsley, season with salt and pepper. Remove from the heat.

Meanwhile, cut the ends of baby eggplants, fry with remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil until they are lightly soft on all side. Transfer to a baking casserole.

Slit each eggplant lengthwise to create pockets, spoon tomato sauce into each pocket. Fill in as much as you can, so you will used up all of it. Cover casserole with aluminum foil, then bake for 20 minutes.

Calabaza Squash and Broccoli Tart

2011-04-02T09:53:00.000-07:00

I love this Calabaza squash, it's so delicious, really really sweet, and buttery. But, the skin is extremely tough, never mind about peeling with regular knife. I use my clever and borrow my husband hammer to cut it into half or large chunks, then roast it in the oven. When its done, I just eat the whole thing including the skin, so far I haven't had any problem with my stomach, so I assume it is save to eat.

Calabaza Squash and broccoli Tart

makes 1 (11-inch) tart

1 recipe of simple pastry dough

3/4 cup diced sweet onion

4 oz broccoli floret

6 oz roasted calabaza squash, sliced

3 eggs

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup milk

3 oz grated gruyere cheese

3 oz grated parmesan cheese

freshly grated nutmeg, to taste

freshly grated black pepper, to taste

salt, to taste

1 tbs olive oil

Butter generously an 11 - inch round tart. Set aside.

Roll out the pastry dough into 1/8 - inch thickness. Transfer onto tart pan, trimm off the excess. Prick all over with fork, refrigerate at least 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat oil on a skillet set over medium heat. Fry the onion until lightly golden, add broccoli floret, stir and cook for about one minutes. Remove from the heat, and cool completely.

Preheat oven to 375 F

Take pastry dough from refrigerator, line with aluminum foil. Add beans on top of the foil. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and the beans, continue to bake for another 10 minutes. Remove pastry dough from the oven - cool slightly, then add broccoli - onion mixture, and scatter calabaza slices here and there.

Crack the eggs in a medium bowl, add heavy cream, milk, gruyere cheese, parmesan cheese, nutmeg, black pepper, and salt. Pour into pastry shell.

Bake for 25 - 30 minutes until it is set, but still slightly jiggle in the middle when the pan is shake gently. Remove from the oven, serve warm, or at room temperature.

Crab Panang Curry

2011-03-25T00:01:00.000-07:00

I like all Thai curries, but Panang curry is the one that I favor the most. I just love everything about it. It spicy, of course, but also has sweet flavor from the coconut milk and palm sugar. Fragrant? Yes! Thanks to aromatic kaffir lime leafs and the lemongrass, they really add beguiling sweet-citrusy to this curry. Food that is delicious, and has good aroma, will help me to sleep better and have a beautiful dream.

About the ingredients, I know cilantro root is nowhere to be found here in my neighborhood. This is why I always plant cilantro in a pot. It is such an easy thing to do, spread the seed, water if needed, let it grow, then if you need a few roots, just pluck them. Same thing with lemongrass and kaffir lime, I just grow them in a pot. For other ingredients, Asian store will be the best destination.

Crab Panang Curry

serve 4 to 6

2 fresh crabs (about 4 pounds)

2 red pepper jalapeno, seeded, thinly sliced

2 cups coconut milk

3 tbs fish sauce (this brand has less acrid smell compare to other)

3 tbs palm sugar

10 kaffir lime leafs, thinly sliced

1/2 cup Panang chili paste, recipe follows

3 tbs canola oil, or any vegetable oil

Discard the main shell of the crabs including the grey gills and the soft insides. Cut the body into quarter, then crack the claws and the legs lightly with the back of a knife. Set aside. You can also check this article on how to prepare your crab before cooking.

Heat the oil in a large pan set over medium heat. Add Panang Chili paste, stir constantly until fragrant and the raw smell disappear. Add the crabs, thinly sliced red jalapeno pepper, fish sauce, palm sugar, and kaffir lime. Stir continuously to ensure that the crab coated nicely with spices. Add coconut milk, stir. Turn the heat to low, gently simmer, stirring often to prevent the coconut milk from separating, and to ensure even cooking. Cook until the crab is done, about 5 to 10 minutes. Serve with simple steam Jasmine rice.

Panang Chili Paste

makes 1/2 cup

6 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbs minced cilantro roots (see my note above)

10 red pepper jalapeno-seeded

1/2 tsp white peppercorn

1 tsp minced fresh galangal

1/4 cup minced fresh lemongrass from white part only

5 fresh kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped

zest from 1 kaffir lime

2 shallot, minced

1 tsp shrimp paste

3 tbs dry roasted unsalted peanut, finely ground
1 tbs fish sauce

Using a large mortar and pestle, pound all ingredients to make a smooth paste. Or, use food processor to do the job, add a little water to keep the blade running. If not ready to use that day, transfer into a jar, and refrigerate. It should stay fresh up to a week.

Spicy Tri-tip Salad With Lime and Lemongrass Dressing

2011-03-19T11:16:00.000-07:00

A truly wonderful salad, that doesn't need to wait until summer to enjoy it. Tri-tip is especially perfect for this kind of salad, you could however, choose more expensive cut if you prefer. But, Tri-tip, beside being such an economical choice to feed a large number of crowds, it is also quite flavorful, especially after long marination process. Ingredients such as lime juice, not only acidify and adding fragrant flavor, but somewhat tenderizing the meat, and making it more succulent. The end result is refreshing salad with crunchy, fragrant, sweet, and tangy, in one plate. Each ingredient perform sort of balancing act, rather then competing against each other.

Spicy Tri-tip Salad With Lime and Lemongrass Dressing
serve 6

1½ lbs Tri-tip (most likely the one that you buy from supermarket has already trimmed, otherwise ask the guy behind the counter to trim the fat for you)
1 tbs minced garlic
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tbs fish sauce
1 tbs reduced sodium soy sauce
1 tbs kecap manis
Juice and zest from 1 lime (or use 2 kaffir limes if you have in hand would be ideal)
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

For the salad:
2 cups bean sprouts, washed - drained - gently pat dry with paper towel
1 English cucumber, thinly sliced
2 - 3 cups sliced (lengthwise) snap peas
10 small radishes, thinly sliced
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup roughy chopped cilantro
1/4 cup chopped scallion, green part only

For the dressing:
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/2 to 1 tbs fish sauce, depending on your taste
1 tbs minced lemongrass (taken from white stalk only)
1 tbs (or less, if you don't like spicy) sambal oelek
1/4 cup canola oil
salt as needed according to your taste
freshly ground black pepper to taste

In a small bowl, combine minced garlic, grated fresh ginger, fish sauce, reduced sodium soy sauce, kecap manis, lime juice, and freshly ground black pepper. Marinate Tri-tip with this mixture over night. Don't forget to turn it over half way. When ready to be serve, grill Tri-tip to your perfect standard of doneness. As a guidance, internal temperature should read 135 degrees F for medium rare, and 145 degrees F for medium. Transfer to a serving plate, cover loosely with aluminum foil, let rest for 10 minutes before carving (which, at this stage, the meat temperature will rise 5 to 10 degrees).

Place all ingredients for salad in a large bowl. Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine all ingredients for salad dressing, mix well, taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Pour into salad bowl, mix well. Divide among prepared plate, and serve with sliced Tri-trip on top.

Quick and Easy Fried Rice With Sweet Chinese Style Sausage

2011-03-16T08:33:00.000-07:00

When you have leftover rice, and plan to make fried rice, here is a trick that save your time of trying to break up the lumps. Before putting the rice in the fridge, make sure that the rice is completely cool, once cooled, place the rice in a ziplock back, then refrigerate. When you are ready to make fried rice, take the bag from the fridge, using both hand simply crumble it by squeezing the ziplock bag lightly. You'll notice that the rice will crumble and separate easily.

Quick and Easy Fried Rice With Sweet Chinese Style Sausage

Serve 2 - 4

450 g cooked (cooled) Jasmine rice

2 sweet Chinese style sausages (Lap Cheong), sliced

1 tbs minced garlic

1 tbs sambal oelek (available in most supermarket, look for it at the Asian isle)

1 tbs fish sauce (I always use "Three Crabs" brand, it is the best one, and less fishy)

1 tbs kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce)

2 tsp less-sodium soy sauce

a pinch of ground white pepper

3 tbs thinly sliced spring onion

3 tbs canola, or any vegetable oil

Heat oil in a wok st over medium high heat. Add Chinese sausage, fry for a few seconds. Add garlic, and fry another 5 seconds. Now add the rice, sambal oelek, fish sauce, kecap manis, less-sodium soy sauce, and ground white pepper. Stir continuously, about 5 minutes. Add spring onion, mix. Remove from the heat, serve at once.

Fried Tofu And Cucumber With Spicy Preserved Black Bean

2011-03-14T00:01:00.000-07:00

All my life, I've only known one type of Chinese blackbean paste. It was one of those glass jar salty black bean paste with garlic and some other flavoring, the one that has almost an acrid smell when you open the jar. Until one day, a good friend of mine introduced preserved black beans. As soon as I open the package, I can smell delicious, smoky and somewhat gingery flavor. This is a good stuff! It is far more superior, and only rely on salt and vinegar as a preservative. There are some ginger slices in it, but that's mainly for flavoring. I don't think I will buy glass jar black bean paste again.

I asked her how do I use this blackbeans, she explained that she would normally make black bean sauce with garlic, ginger, Shao Xing cooking wine, soy sauce, and sugar. So based on what she told me, I created this tofu dish that turned out to be really delicious. I hope you like it.

Fried Tofu And Cucumber With Spicy Preserved Black Bean
Recipe verbally given to me by Beatrice Hom
Serve 4

12 oz fried tofu*
1 (10 oz) cucumber, peeled, sliced
1/4 cup preserved black beans, washed - drained
1 tbs minced garlic
1½ tsp minced fresh ginger
3 tbs less-sodium soy sauce
3 tbs Shao Xing cooking wine
1/2 tbs sugar
2 tbs water
3 dried chilies, chopped (optional)
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 tbs vegetable oil

* Any Asian grocery store will carry this lightly fried tofu, it is sold in a 12 oz packages. If you can't find them, buy firm tofu instead, drain it on a colander for about an hour. Cut into desire sizes, then fry in small batches on a medium to medium high heat until brown on all side. Make sure that your skillet is really hot before adding oil, so your tofu won't stick. Transfer to a plate, and set aside.

Heat 2 tablespoon oil in a wok set over medium heat. Add minced garlic and minced ginger, fry for a few seconds until fragrant. Add cucumber, turn the heat to medium high, stir fry for about 30 seconds. Add fried tofu, soy sauce, Shao Xing cooking wine, sugar, water, dried chilies, and freshly ground black pepper. Stir continuously for about a minute or so, until the sauce reduce in half. Transfer to a serving plate. Serve with simple steam Jasmine rice.

Thai Spicy Red Curry (Keang Pet Daeng) With Chicken, And Fresh Pea Pods

2011-03-11T00:01:00.001-08:00

This red curry is suppose to be quite spicy, but I've been hearing a lot of complaint from my family lately that, my food is getting spicier then ever, so I try to go mild on this one. It is a good karma to keep your family happy :). Of course, if you want your curry spicier, use the exact amount of chili given for this recipe. Otherwise, you can do what I did by scraping the seeds from the red jalapeno, and omitted the red bird chilies, or serrano chili completely.

Thai Red Curry With Chicken, Shitake Musroom Fresh Sugar Peas, and Snap Peas

Serve 6

6 boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite size

1 small onion, sliced

1/4 cup (or more depending on your taste) red curry paste, recipe follows

5 kaffir lime leafs

1 stalk lemongrass, white part only, cut - bruised lightly with the back of kitchen knife

4 cups water or chicken stock

1 tbs sugar (don't skip the sugar, it really impart the end result)

19 fl oz coconut milk

2 cups fresh sugar peas, trim ends off

2 cups fresh snap peas, trim ends off

1 red jalapeno, thinly sliced (optional)

2 spring onions, chopped

2 tbs roughly chopped cilantro

2 tbs fish sauce

salt and pepper to taste

2 tbs vegetable oil

Heat 2 tablespoon oil in a large pan, add onion, fry until translucent. Add curry paste, kaffir lime leafs, and lemongrass, stir for a few seconds until fragrant. Add chicken, and water or chicken broth, bring to a boil, then turn the heat to low. Simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked and tender. Pour the coconut milk, and sugar, stir, cook just until bubble start to appear at the edge of the pot. Add sugar peas, snap peas, thinly sliced jalapeno, fish sauce, salt and pepper. Taste to see if need more seasoning. Cook for another minute or two until vegetable are tender but still crunchy, turn off the heat. Serve with plain steam jasmine rice.

Thai Red Curry Paste (Keang Pet Daeng)

adapted from Su-Mei Yu's Crackling The Coconut

makes 1/2 cup

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp caraway seeds

1/2 tsp white peppercorn

1 tbs coriander seeds

1 tsp salt

7 cloves garlic, minced

15 dried de arbol or jalapeno chilies, soften in hot wate, seeded, minced (I used 5 seeded red jalapeno)

7 - 8 fresh red bird chiles, or 4 - 5 serrano chilies, minced (I omitted this)

1/4 tsp grated nutmeg

1 tsp minced fresh galangal

1 stalk fresh lemongrass, white part only

3 - 4 kaffir lime, zested

2 shallots, minced

1 tsp shrimp paste

Toast lightly cumin seeds, caraway seeds, and white peppercorn. Cool, then grind using coffee grinder to make a fine powder.

Using a mortar and pestle, or a food processor place all ingredients including the ground spices. Process to make a smooth paste. Add water if necessary to keep the blade running smoothly. If not planning to use that day, transfer to a jar with a tight-fitting lid. Refrigerate until ready to use. According to this book, it will keep for a month in the refrigerator. I never keep mind that long though.

Tyler Florence's Chicken Pot Pie

2011-03-08T11:30:00.000-08:00

You can't go wrong with classic, humble, and very homey dish like this delicious chicken pot pie. The pastry is deliciously flaky and crumbly, the filling is so fragrant, smooth and silky, like it should be. This recipe comes from Tyler florence's Family Style Chicken Pot pie, which I think is the best one to suit my taste. The other thing I like about his recipe is, he doesn't need to add any buillion to it, instead he relies on fresh herbs, such as rosemary, thyme, and bay leaves. In addition to this, I added marjoram, orageno, leftover Italian parsley (you know, the end part that you would normally throw in the garbage). You might think that the flavor will be over powering right? Actually not really, it gives more fragrant broth, just the way I like it. Dare to say, I am pretty satisfied with this recipe, like I always do with all Tyler's recipes I've tried.

Chicken Pot Pie

recipe adapted from Tyler Florence's Family Style Chicken Pot Pie

serve 8 - 10

For the pastry:

41/2 cups flour

2 cups (4 sticks/16 oz) cold unsalted butter, cut into large pieces

salt

3/4 ice cold water, as needed

Place flour, butter, and salt in a food processor. Pulse a few seconds until the mixture resemble coarse crumbs. Add ice cold water, pulse again until the mixture almost comes together. To test if the pastry is ready, squeeze small amount of dough, if its stick together, the pastry is ready. If its still crumbly, add more water a tablespoon at a time. Gather the dough, flatten into a disk, wrap with plastic, refrigerate.

The Chicken Broth:

1 (4 - 5 pounds) chicken. I used 3 cornish hens weight about 1.25 pounds each

3 carrots, cut into 2-inch long

3 celery ribs, cut into 2-inch long

1 onion, peeled - halved

1 head of garlic, halved - horizontally

1 turnips, halved

4 sprigs of fresh thyme

2 sprigs of rosemary

2 sprigs of marjoram

1 sprigs of oregano

1 bay leave

handfull of Italian parsley

For the pot pie:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1/2 cup all-purposed flour

3 carrots, chopped

3 celery, chopped (Tyler's recipe use pearl onions)

1 cup green peas

1 clove garlic, minced

8 sprigs of thymes

1 sprig rosemary, scrape

1 bay leave

zest of 1 lemon

For egg wash :

1 egg yolk + 2 tbs water = mix well

To make chicken broth: Place all ingredients for chicken broth in a soup or stock pot, add 3 quarts of water to cover the chicken, bring to a boil. As soon as its boil, turn the heat down to low, and simmer for 1 hour. Skim the yucky stuff that float on the surface as often as possible. Take out the chicken and place it on a plate, strain the broth and discard the solid. You should end up with 2 quarts of broth. Cool at room temperature. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, separate the meat from the bone, and discard skin as well. Cut the meat into pieces. Set aside.

To make the roux: melt the butter over medium low heat, add flour, stirring constantly using a hand whisk until it changes color to a light brown. Gradually add the chicken broth, keep whisking while you do this to prevent any lumps. Simmer for about 5 to 10 minutes until the raw smell of the flour disappear. Add chopped carrots, celery, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, lemon zest. Stir to combine. Continue to simmer for 10 minutes. Then add chicken pieces, season with salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Remove from the heat, discard rosemary, thyme, and bay leaf if desire. Cool at room temperature. This sauce will be quite thick as it cools down.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Butter an individual oven proof bowl. Depending on the size of bowl you have, you might end up with 8 to 10 individual bowls. Set aside.

Sprinkle a little bit of flour on kitchen counter top. Roll out the pastry to about 1/8 - inch thick. Cut a few circles as needed, a little bit large then the size of your individual bowl. Fill each bowl about 3/4 of the way with the chicken filling. Top with pastry circle, press the edge around the rim to seal. Repeat.

Brush the pastry with egg wash. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden.

Duck B'stilla

2011-03-05T08:28:00.000-08:00

B'stila is a Moroccan sweet and savory pie filled with either meat, poultry, or sometimes fish. It is one of my favorite savory pastry to enjoy for lunch during the weekend, or for a relaxing supper while watching new movies that we rented that night. This pastry originally made using warka, a very thin pastry similar to phyllo pastry. Since I couldn't find it in my neighborhood grocery, I used Phyllo pastry as a substitute. I would love to attempt making my own warka one day, especially after I saw an encouraging recipe including step by step photos from Paula Wolfert's blog.

I made B'stilla pretty often, but this time, duck legs were baked in the oven instead of braising them like I would generally do. The onion were Caramelized to bring its subtle sweetness, then I added mint and cinnamon, to add delicious aroma to this pastry. I hope you like it.

Duck B'stilla
makes one 9 - inch pastry

4 duck legs
1 large onion, sliced
1 cup chopped parsley
1/2 cup chopped spearmints
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 eggs
1/2 cup pistachios
handful slivered almonds
1 tbs duck fat (or olive oil)
salt and pepper to taste
5 to 7 sheets phyllo pastry
more olive oil, as needed for brushing

To serve:
confectioner's sugar for sprinkling
ground cinnamon for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Prepare a baking sheet, and place a piece of parchment paper on top.

Using a sharp knife, score duck legs lightly, lay them on a baking sheets. Sprinkle with a teaspoon of cumin, a teaspoon of cinnamon, pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Bake for an hour. Remove - cool slightly at room temperature. When the duck legs are cooled enough to handle, remove the skin if desire, then chop the meat. Transfer the chopped duck into a large bowl. Set aside.

Take about one tablespoon of duck fat from the roasting pan and pour into a large skillet set over medium heat. Add onion, cook until the onion is caramelized, stirring often to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the skillet. add cumin and keep stirring for a few second just enough to get rid of the raw smell. Remove from the heat.

Mix caramelized onion, chopped duck, add remaining 1 teaspoon cinnamon, chopped parsley, and mints. Taste to see if need more salt and pepper, then mix in eggs and pistachios.

Place a sheet of phyllo pastry directly on a prepared baking sheet, brush the pastry with olive oil, lay another sheet of phyllo pastry, brush with another oil, continue the process of layering and brushing until you have about 5 or 7 layers of phyllo. Pile the filling in the center, then flattening it out to make a 9 - inch round shape. Scatter slivered almonds on top, enclose the filling by bringing up the overlap pastry in the middle. Brush the top with more oil. Bake B'stilla until golden, about 45 to 55 minutes. Just before serving dust with confectioner's sugar and cinnamon. Serve while still hot.

Devil's Cornish Hens À la Aditya

2011-02-28T09:30:00.000-08:00

Delicious, flavorful, and well balance baked cornish hen, it really wins our heart. We love how paprika and chipotle give smokiness, honey and lemon give the dish lightly sweet and tangy flavor, and of course the addition of mustard always delicious on any poultry. All of this ingredients that my son used to create his baked hen not only complement each other, but also gave more depth to the dish without being overpowering.

Devil's Cornish Hens à la Aditya

recipe by Aditya Davar

2 (about 3 pounds total) cornish hens

3 cloves garlic, minced

1½ tbs mustard

1/4 cup finely chopped parsley

1 tbs smoked mild paprika

1 tbs sweet paprika

2 tbs honey

1 tbs smoked chipotle flakes

1 meyer lemon, juiced

3 tbs olive oil

salt

freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Clean and rinse the hens under cold running water, pat dry with paper towel. With a sharp kitchen scissors, butterfly the hen by cutting a long each side of the back bones to split open.You can discard the bone, or save it to make chicken stock. Using the palm of your hand, gently press the breast to flatten it. Loosen the underneath skin a little bit, by running your finger under it, doing it gently so you won't tear up the skin. Place it on a roasting pan. Repeat this step with the other hen.

Please check the video here on how to butterfly a chicken, if you are unfamiliar on how to.

In a mall bowl, mix garlic, mustard, parsley, mild paprika and sweet paprika, honey, smoked chipotle flakes, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Rub mixture all over the hens including under the skins. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, until the hens is cooked.

Soto Daging. Indonesian Style Beef Soup With Turmeric, Ginger, Lemongrass, and Kaffir Lime Leaves.

2011-02-26T11:40:00.000-08:00

The cold freezing weather is perfect for this Indonesian style beef soup. Serve this with a bowl of hot steaming jasmine rice like the Indonesian do. You will be rewarded with very satisfying and delicious meal of the day.

For some reason, I love to use beef shank for all of my stew and soup recipe, if unavailable at your grocery store, you can use precut beef stew instead.

Soto Daging

recipe adapted from Ratnasoe's

serve 6 to 8

3 pounds beef shanks

5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

2 large shallots, roughly chopped

5 candlenuts, roughly chopped (available at Asian grocery store)

1 teaspoon roughly chopped fresh turmeric root (same amount if using powder)

1 tablespoon roughly chopped fresh ginger root

1 tablespoons lightly toasted coriander seeds

10 white peppercorns

3 - 5 fresh kaffir lime leaves

1 stalk fresh lemongrass

2 teaspoon fish sauce, to taste (optional)

canola oil or any vegetable oil

12 cups water

To serve

Steam jasmine rice

lime

tomato, cut into wedges

fresh bean sprouts

roughly chopped cilantro

roughly chopped scallions

fried shallots, optional

Make the spice paste: place garlic, shallots, candlenuts, turmeric, ginger, coriander seeds, and white peppercorn in food processor, process to make a smooth paste. You might want to add a little bit of water to keep the blade running. Alternately, use a large mortar and pestle if you own one.

Discard the green outer layer of the lemongrass, cut into 3 inch long, then lightly bruised with the back of knife.

Set a large soup pot over medium heat, when the pot is hot, add about 2 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil, throw in kaffir lime and lemongrass, fry for a few seconds to infused the oil. Now, add the paste, stirring often to prevent the paste from sticking to the bottom of the pan, which will happen to any paste that contain candlenuts. So be patient, and stir often. When the paste is fragrant and the raw smell disappear, add beef shanks, season with salt and fish sauce, give it couple of stir, then add water. Turn the heat to high, bring the soup to a boil. As soon as it boils, turn the heat to low, let it simmer for about 2 to 2 ½ hours, or until the beef is tender.

When the soup is ready, take out the beef shanks, and separate the beef from the bone (save the bones for your pooch), return to the beef to the soup. If desire, you can strain the broth, and discard the rough paste, then return the broth to the pan. In general I can't be bother with this step, as I wouldn't mind to bite in few pieces of spices. It's what make this soup rustic and homey, I think. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

To serve:
scoop out about half a cup of steaming hot jasmin rice, place it in a deep soup bowl, top with handful of bean sprouts, Ladle some beef soup with generous amount of beef in it (don't be stingy), scatter some tomatoes, scallions, cilantro, and fried shallots, lastly squeeze a little bit of lime. Serve at once.

Skinless Chicken Thigh With Rosemary, Lemon, and Tomato

2011-02-25T00:01:00.000-08:00

As simple as it sounds, this chicken dish that my son cooked for our dinner the other night was really delicious. This recipe will be perfect for my sister who live overseas, since she only like to cook simple and easy dish. Thank you for the recipe sayang!

Skinless Chicken Thigh With Rosemary, Lemon, and Tomato

Recipe by Aditya Davar

serve 2 to 4

4 skinless chicken thigh

2 coves garlic, minced

1 sprig rosemary, finely chopped

2 small size Roma tomatoes, diced

1 large Meyer lemon

2 tbs olive oil

salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Rinse chicken thigh under cold running water, pat dry with paper towel, arrange nicely in a small roasting pan.

Cut lemon in half, squeeze the juice of half of lemon, and slice the other half.

In a small bowl, combine minced garlic, finely chopped rosemary, diced tomatoes, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix using a small whisk or a fork. Pour on top of chicken thigh, scatter lemon slices around chicken thighs. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked.

Mee Siam. Singaporean Vermicelli Noodle With Tofu, Bean Sprouts, and Peanut Sauce

2011-02-23T08:30:00.000-08:00

Mee Siam is tasty and easy to make, making it ideal to serve as a light lunch. I used red jalapeno in this recipe, as it is milder then the South East Asian chili, which is work very well as most of my friends can not handle the spiciness. The other thing I like about red jalapeno is the color it gives to the dish, it can achieves such a beautiful bright red/orange color especially for dish like curry or sambal. As any of my recipe, you can always reduce the amount of chili according to your own taste. Hope you like it.

Mee Siam. Singaporean Vermicelli Noodle With Tofu, Bean Sprouts, and Peanut Sauce

serve 4

5 oz rice vermicelli noodle

2 cups bean sprouts, soaked in hot water for 5 - 10 minutes

1 package ( oz) extra firm tofu, cubed

2 hard boiled eggs

1/4 cup chopped scallions for serving

The sauce:

4 cloves garlic

5 - 10 red jalapeno chili, seeded - roughly chopped

1/2 tbs - 1 tbs depending on your taste dried shrimps, soaked in hot water to soften

1/2 tsp toasted dry shrimp paste

1/2 cup fried peanuts, ground

1 tbs tau cheo (available at Asian grocery store)

1 tbs sugar

1 tbs tamarin pulp

1 lemongrass, white part only - cut into pieces, lightly bruised with the back of the knife

3 cups (more or less) water

salt and ground white pepper to taste

canola oil for frying

Preheat a medium size frying pan over medium high heat. Add about 3 tbs oil, add cubed tofu and fry until brown on all side. You might want to do this in batches. Set aside.

Meanwhile, make the chili paste. In a large mortar and pestle, pound together garlic, red jalapeno, soaked dried shrimps, and the shrimp paste until smooth. Alternatively, use a food processor instead of mortar and pestle, add a little bit of water to keep the blade running.

Set a medium size sauce pan over medium heat, add about a tablespoon or two canola oil, and fry the paste gently until fragrant, about a minute or so. Add ground peanut, tau cheo, sugar, tamarin pulp, and lemongrass. Stir fry for one minute. Add 3 cups (more or less, depending how thick you want the sauce to be) of water, and bring to a gentle boil, turn the heat down to low, simmer the sauce for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, taste and adjust seasoning to your liking. Remove from the heat.

Meanwhile, in another pan, boil some water. Add vermicelli rice and cook according to package direction. When it is done, immediately plunge into a cold water to prevent from cooking it further.

Divide vermicelli among 4 individual bowls, top with each bean sprouts, fried tofu, and halved egg. Pour the sauce on top, sprinkle in some chopped scallions. Serve immediately.

Singaporean Chilli CRAB

2011-02-18T23:09:00.000-08:00

I went to Chinese market and planned to buy some red snapper, but I changed my mind when I saw a young lady next to me bought quite a large amount of alive crabs. I asked her what was she going to do with it, she said she would make "Chili Crab". I thought it was a good idea, so I bought 3 alive crabs and excited about making my own Chili Crab. Here it is, hope you like it.

Singaporean Chili Crab
serve 6

3 fresh crabs (about 6 pounds)
2 tbs minced garlic
1 - 2 tbs minced ginger
10 red jalapeno, seeded - roughly chopped
1/2 cup roughly chopped shallots
3 large very ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 tsp toasted shrimp paste
2 tbs tomato paste
1 tbs sugar
1 tbs reduced sodium tamari or soy sauce
1 tbs seedless tamarin (soak with 1/4 cup hot water, squeeze out the pulp)
2 cup water
2 - 3 tbs oil
salt and pepper

Additional ingredients:

2 tsp corn starch + 3 tbs water, mix
1 egg lightly beaten
1/4 cup chopped scallions

Put shallots, red jalapeno, tomatoes, and shrimp paste in a food processor process to make a smooth paste. You can also pound them in a large mortar and pestle, I personally think, it tastes better this way.

Heat oil in a large wok set over medium heat, add garlic and ginger, saute for a few seconds until fragrant. Add the paste, and saute until all liquid has evaporated, and the raw smell is disappear, add tomato paste, sugar, tamari or soy sauce, and tamarin. Pour the water, season with salt and pepper. Turn the heat to medium high, bring to a boil, then add crab pieces, continue to cook, stirring often to make sure that the crab pieces absorb the sauce, about 7 - 10 minutes. Add chopped scallions, cornstarch-water mix, and the lightly beaten egg, stirring constantly a few seconds until the sauce is thicken, taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Serve immediately.

Beef Boregi With Fresh Herb and Pine Nuts

2011-02-09T08:27:00.000-08:00

You can serve this delicious pastry as a main dish with simple salad, or as an appetizer. It is also can be made into individual size, which is perfect if you are planning to have a large crowd to feed. I love how the cinnamon and spearmint give the pastry slightly sweet and fragrant flavor. Although, I just found out that pine nuts is becoming more and more pricy here, it is always become a nice addition to any Middle Eastern pastry. Use as much or as little as you can afford to buy, it is worth it, even if you add only couple of tablespoons. In the past, I have made boregi using lamb filling instead of beef, which I must admit that my family and friends quite fond of it. Having said that, meat is not the only filling that goes into this pastry, any kind of vegetable filling will be equally delicious as well. If you want to make a vegetarian version, you can check one recipe that this girl made couple days ago. If you want this pastry to be kosher, omit the yogurt for brushing, use combination of couple of eggs and olive oil instead.

Beef Boregi With Fresh Heb and Pine Nuts

make one 13-inch boregi

1 pound lean ground beef

1 large onion, peeled, cut in half, sliced

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

freshly grated black pepper

salt, to taste

1/2 cup chopped parsley

1/2 cup chopped scallion

1/4 cup chopped spearmint

1 - 2 tbs olive oil

handful or two pine nuts

1 package phyllo dough (18 sheets - 13 x 17 inch), thaw according to package direction

For brushing the phyllo

1 cup yogurt

1/4 cup olive oil

pinch of salt

Heat 1 to 2 tablespoon of olive oil in a medium pan set over medium heat, add onion and cook until brown, add ground beef, using a large fork, crushing and stirring the meat to break up the lumps. Keep stirring back and forth until the meat is no longer pink. Add cinnamon, ginger, freshly ground black pepper, and salt, stir for a few second, and continue to cook for another 5 minutes. Lastly add parsley, scallion, and the mint, stir to mix. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Remove from the heat and let cool before adding the pine nuts.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Brush a 13-inch in diameter round baking pan with oil. Set aside

In a small bowl, mix yogurt, olive oil and salt. Set aside.

Take out the phyllo pastry from the package, place it close to you, cover phyllo with clean kitchen towel to prevent them from drying. You might not use the whole package, but always nice to have extra just in case you tear some.

Take a sheet of filo dough, brush with yogurt mixture, cover with another sheet of filo, brush it again with yogurt mixture. Take about a few tablespoon of meat and scatter it on top of filo dough. Starting at then end closest to you, roll into a log, carefully lift up the log with both hand and place it in the middle of the pan. Very gently, curve the log into a snail like shape. Repeat the process of brushing the filo dough, scatter the meat, rolling, and curving, until all filling is used up.

Brush the top with remaining yogurt mixture. Bake for 40 minutes until golden.

Cheese, Sucuk, and Olive Pide

2011-02-04T00:01:00.000-08:00

For YeastSpotting.

Sucuk is spicy Turkish sausage normally made from ground meat, spices and red hot pepper. I was pretty thrill when I found sucuk (sujouk) in the Iranian store close by neighborhood. If finding sucuk in your area is no avail, I suppose you could substitute it with spicy Calabresse sausage, or Spanish chorizo. I hope you like it.

Cheese, Sucuk and Olive Pide Pies

Recipe adapted from Greg and Lucy Malouf, "Torqouise"

makes 6

1 quantity Pide dough, recipe follows

9 oz Haloumi, washed - finely sliced

5 oz mozarrella, finely sliced

18 pitted Kalamata olives

1 long green pepper, seeded - chopped (I didn't use any)

2 tbs extra virgin olive oil

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

4 ounces sucuk, sliced

1 egg yolk

3 tbs milk

Cut the dough into 6 equal portions, cover, let rest for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 450 F, place the pizza stone at the lowest rack.

Mix cheeses, olives, and green pepper in a bowl, season with salt and pepper.

Roll each dough into long 14 x 4 inches rectangle. Scatter 1/6 of the topping down the Pide, leaving about 1 inch border around the edge. Lay some Sucuk down the center, then fold up the two long sides of the dough, bringing them up and over the topping, but without meeting in the middle. Squeeze the side together at each end, twisting them together slightly to make a long "canoe" shape. Repeat with the rest of the dough.

To make an egg wash, mix together the yolk and the milk. brush each Pide with egg wash.

Bake 2 Pides at a time for 7 minutes. Serve right hot from the oven, sprinkle with a little sea salt if you wish.

Pide - Turkish Flat Bread

1 tbs dry yeast

pinch of superfine sugar

1 1/2 cup warm water

15 oz bread flour

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

In a medium bowl, dissolve yeast, sugar in 1/2 cup of warm water, set aside in warm place for 10 minutes. Sprinkle in 3 oz of flour, work with your hand to make a paste. Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel, let rest for 30 minutes in a warm place.

Place the remaining flour, and salt in a mixer bowl, make a well in the center, add the sponge in the middle. Add the remaining 1 cup water, and olive oil. Using a dough hook attachment, knead on low speed until very smooth and springy, about for 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer to lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic, and let rest until double in size, about 1 to 2 hours.

Alsatian “Flammenküche”

2011-01-31T09:43:00.000-08:00

There are only two type of pizza I like and won't mind eating them a lot, this Alsatian specialty called Flammenküche, and the Italian simple and classic Pizza Margherita. I like them both for their simplicity , mild taste, and the thin crust. I am lucky that I am not alone to enjoy them, because all my family love them as well. If you never made Flammenküche before, I encourage you to try it, it might becoming your favorite as well.

For YeastSpotting!

Recipe from: Country Cooking Of FRANCE
By: Anne Willan
Serve: 4- 6

For Pate À Pain:
1⅔ cups/200 gr flour, more as needed
½ tsp dry yeast
½ tsp salt
6 tbs/90 ml lukewarm water
1 egg
1 tbs olive oil

For Topping:

1 tbs vegetable oil

1 cup/250 ml Crème Fraîche

2 onions, very thinly sliced (I only used 1 onion)

6-ounces/170 g piece lean smoked Bacon, or Turkey Bacon, cut into thin lardons

freshly ground black pepper

Place flour and salt in a mixer bowl, make a well in the center, pour water into the well, sprinkle the yeast on top, and leave for 5 minutes, or until the yeast is dissolved.

Meanwhile, mix the egg, and oil with fork, add them to the water/well. Knead using dough attachment on a lowest setting until the dough is very elastic, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a large lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic warp. Let rest at room temperature for 45 minutes to an hour.

Preheat the oven to 450⁰F. Set the pizza stones on a lowest rack in your oven.

When the dough has risen, knead lightly to knock out the air. Roll out pâte à pain into a thin rectangle (12"x15"), or any shape, transfer into baking or pizza peel that has been sprinkled with cornmeal. Spread the crème fraîche almost to the edge of the dough. Scatter with the onion, top with the bacon or turkey lardons, sprinkle in black pepper. Slide directly on top of pizza stones, and bake for 15 - 20 minutes. Transfer tart to a wooden board, cut and serve immediately while it is hot.

Schlutzkrapfen Stuffed With Spinach And Quark

2011-01-09T20:29:00.000-08:00

Schlutzkrapfen, German Ravioli ?
Why not ? I just bought quark the other day, I better use before it turns bad. Spinach, parmesan are always in my fridge, so, I was set, and ready.

Note on the recipe :

The recipe ask for rye flour, but I substituted it with buckwheat, just because I love it and curious. If you do use buckwheat, somehow the dough will be a bit dry, so add water a tablespoon at a time (I ended up to use 2 tablespoons) until you can make a smooth dough.

I rolled the dough using my good old hand crank pasta machine, with setting #1, so it was on the thicker side, I think I'd probably try to use setting #2 or even #3 next time. Also, you need to adjust the cooking time when you decide to use buckwheat. I try to boil it for 2 minutes ask the recipe as for, it was way to raw, so I boiled for 5 minutes, I still felt like the texture was not right, so I decided to boil for 10 minutes. I finally got the texture the way I like. I think this is due to the thickness of my dough. The best think for you is, use your own judgement base on how thick and what kind of flour you use for the recipe.

To make brown butter, I know that most of you are already know how to make it, but I doubt that my sisters really know how, so this is for my sisters. To make brown butter, melt the butter over medium heat and heat up slowly until it is golden brown and has nutty aroma. Then, remove form theat, pour through a sieve that has been lined with cheese cloth. Pour into a jar, close tightly with its lid, refrigerate until needed.

The taste was not disappoint, I think it probably much better if I had not substitute the rye with buckwheat, but it was worth trying. I am curious to try it with rye flour, so I'll be making this again.

Schlutzkrapfen Stuffed With Spinach And Quark

Recipe adapted from : Alfons Schuhbeck's My Bavarian Cookbook

serve 4

For the dough :

3.5 oz (100) g unbleached all purpose flour

3.5 (100 g) rye flour

2 large eggs

1 tbs olive oil

salt

For the stuffing :

12 oz (350 g) spinach leaves

1/2 onion, diced

pinch of minced garlic

1 tbs butter or olive oil

5 oz (150 g) quark

1.4 oz (40 g) grated Alpine cheese, or Monterey jack

1 tbs brown butter (see note above)

freshly ground black pepper

freshly grated nutmeg

Additional ingredients :

Flour for dusting

1 lightly whisked egg white

3.5 oz (100 g) brown butter (see note above)

2 cloves garlic, sliced

freshly ground black pepper

1 tbs finely chopped chives, parsley, or scallions

1 tbs grated parmesan or pecorino cheese

For the dough : mix all ingredients with hand, knead until smooth. Gather the dough into a ball, wrap with plastic, refrigerate for 30 minutes.

For the stuffing : wash and drain the spincah leaves, blanch for 1 minutes in salted boiling water. Strain, then immediately plunge into ice water. Strain again, squeeze out as much water as possible, then finely chopped. Place the chopped spinach in a bowl, set aside.

In another bowl, combine quark, cheese, brown butter, freshly ground black pepper, and freshly grated nutmeg. Add this to the spinach bowl.

Saute the onion with butter or olive oil until soft, add garlic, saute for a few second, until fragrant. Cooled. When it is cool enough, add this to spinach-quark mixture. Mix well, set aside.

For the Schlutzkrapfen : roll out the dough into a very thin 2.4 inch (6 cm) strips wide. Working with one strip at a time (cover the other with plastic wrap so they won't dry out), brush the strip with egg white. Place about 1 teaspoon of filling in the middle living gap of 1.2 to 1.6 inches (3 to 4 cm) in between. Place another pasta strip on top, and press firmly around the filling. Cut with cookie cutter into 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter (as you can see, I shape mine into crescent), press the edge firmly to seal and smoothing out any air bubble. Or, the way I did it was, make the strips wider, and position the filling little bit off center (see picture below) then enclose it.

To serve : heat brown butter and garlic in a skillet. Cook Schlutzkrapfen in salted boiling water for 2 minutes (firm to bite) see my note above if you are using buckwheat, remove with slotted spoon, add to skillet, season with salt and pepper, toss well. Place it into 4 serving plate, sprinkle with grated parmesan or pecorino cheese and finely chopped chives or parsley.

Happy New Year To You All !

2011-01-01T22:41:00.001-08:00

Photo courtesy my son AD

Vietnamese Tiger Prawns

2010-12-16T15:40:00.000-08:00

Photo above was taken by good friend of mine, Béa. If you are into photography, check out her breathtaking images on her flikr.

I found this beautiful prawn at the Chinese market, I was pretty much mesmerized by their beautiful blue claws. I bought just a few (my husband doesn't really eat shell fish, other then crab) and thought of making something simple and uncomplicated. Voilà, I turned this beautiful blue claw creatures into crispy, orangey, delicious Luke's Tiger Prawn. I am sure you heard of Luke Nguyen right? I really like his show. He is cool, unpretentious, and so down to earth. So, if you happen to have Tiger Prawn right now, do try this recipe. It's Delicious !

Chicken Marbella

2010-12-13T16:05:00.000-08:00

For those of you who live in The States, you might be already familiar with this famous and delicious chicken dish created by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins. For those who doesn't, this recipe is a perfect recipe to entertain a large crowd, it can be serve straight from the oven or at room temperature. And, it is really delicious !

Chicken Marbella
adapted from The Silver Palate Cookbook
serve 10 or more

4 chickens, 2½ pounds each, quartered (I used Cornish hens)
1 head garlic, peeled and finely pureed
1/4 cup dried oregano
1/2 red wine vinegar (Thank you Naomi for your correction)
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup pitted prunes
1/2 cup pitted green Spanish olives
1/2 cup capers
6 bay leaves
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white wine
1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

In a large bowl, combine chicken pieces, garlic, oregano, red wine vinegar, olive oil, prunes, olives, capers, and bay leave. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let the chicken marinate overnight in a refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Arrange the chicken in a single layer in a shallow baking pan, pour the marinade over it. Sprinkle the chicken with brown sugar, and pour white wine around them.

Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, basting frequently with the pan juices. Serve hot or room temperature.

Epok Epok, Malaysian Style Curry Puff

2010-12-10T10:28:00.000-08:00

The disadvantage of frying any treat is that you left with so many cooking oil that if you don't use it it become a waste. I don't particularly want to waste my leftover oil that I used couple days ago to fry my Sufganiyot, so I made another fried snack. This time, I used the opportunity to make Epok - Epok or Malaysian Style Curry Puff. I actually bookmarked the recipe for quite sometimes, but never had the time to really put it into realization. I must say that I really like this snack, it reminds me of Indonesian snack called, Pastel Goreng. Unlike Epok Epok, Pastel Goreng is much simpler to make, doesn't require rolling and folding the dough. The filling is also differ, the most common is the combination of chicken, carrots, and mung bean noodle. So today, I marry them together, the pastry is Malaysian and filling is Indonesian. Hope you like it :)

If you like the potato filling, go straight to Samantha's blog. But, if you want to try my filling, you are welcome too. Use the measurement as a guidelines, and any leftover filling delicious eaten with steam plain rice.

Epok - Epok, Malaysian Style Curry Puff
Recipe from Samantha Tan's

1 recipe for Epok Epok Pastry

1 recipe for filling, recipe follows

enough vegetable oil to fry the pastry (I used canolla oil)

Follow the recipe on how to make the pastry as directed here.

For The Filling

2 cups minced skinless chicken thigh

1/4 cup chopped shallots

1 tsp minced garlic

1 cup diced carrots

freshly grated nutmeg, to taste

1/4 tsp ground white pepper

salt, to taste

2 cups mung bean spouts

1/2 cup chopped scallions

1 - 2 tbs vegetable oil

1/2 tbs cornstarch mix with 2 tbs water

Fry shallots with 1 or 2 tbs oil over medium heat until translucent . Add minced chicken and garlic to the pan, break up any lumps with fork. Cook for 5 minutes, add carrots, season with nutmeg, white pepper, and salt. Cook for further 10 minutes, or until chicken is cooked thoroughly. Add mung bean sprouts, scallions, stir for 1 minute. Add cornstarch about a minute before finish. Cool completely.

When the filling is cooled, follow the direction to assemble the pastry here. Fry until golden brown.

Ma'aloubeh. Rice Layered With Chicken and Vegetables

2010-12-06T10:23:00.000-08:00

This surely is not the best good looking Ma'aloubeh you've seen, but I can assure you that this Arabic rice dish tastes really good. It is one pot meal that has everything from vegetables to meat in it. For more festive celebration, I like to use lamb, but for everyday meal, I am just happy with chicken, and sometimes, I go completely vegetarian by using whatever vegetables I have in hand.

Note : as you can see from the picture above, mine was falling apart when I inverted, and the onions were sticking to the pot, so I had to re-arrange it. Put aside the appearance, it was really delicious !

Ma'aloubeh

Recipe adapted from : Sherry Ansky, The Food Of Israel

3 (720 g) cup rice

2 tsp salt

4 lb (2 kg) boneless - skinless chicken legs

4 tbs vegetable oil, or more as needed

6 cup boiling water

1 tsp crushed saffron

1/4 tsp ground cardamom

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground all spice

1/4 tsp ground ginger

3 carrots, cut into large chunks

1 large onion, thickly sliced

3 Japanese eggplant, cut lengthwise

1 tbs butter

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Soak rice in water for an hour, rinse, and drain. Add salt - stir.

Heat 2 tablespoon oil oil in a heavy pot, add chicken legs and brown on all side. Add 6 cups of boiling water, saffron, cardamom, cinnamon, all spice, and ginger. Season with a little bit of salt and pepper. Cook for 20 minutes. Remove the chicken legs , but retain the cooking water.

In a skillet, add the remaining 2 tablespoon vegetable oil, working in a batch, fry the onion slices and the eggplants until brown on all side, add more oil to the skillet if necessary. Set aside.

Grease a heavy pot (make sure the pot has a lid) with butter. Arrange the onion on the bottom of the pot, follow by carrots, chicken legs and eggplants. Season with more salt and pepper. Spread the rice in an even layer, then pour over the cooking water that you save earlier. Cover the pot with a its lid, cook on high until the rice has absorbed the water, about 5 to 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to low, continue to cook (with the lid still on) for another 10 to 15 minutes.

To serve, place a large plate over the top of the pot, and invert quickly - serve.

Baked Chicken With Onion, Honey, and Paprika

2010-12-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

This recipe was given to me by a friend of mine who invited us for dinner at her house one day. It's one those effortless dish, and easily pleased the very young and adult alike. I guess the sweetness and smoky flavor from the paprika are the magic ingredients in this recipe. I altered the recipe just a little bit since I am not quite fond of the raw onion taste. That just a personal preference, if you want to go the easy way, skip the process of frying the onion, just put everything in a baking dish and bake. And, you are done !

Baked Chicken With Onion, Honey, and Paprika

Recipe courtesy : Barchi G

8 chicken drumstick, boneless and skinless

2 large onion, sliced

6 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tbs soup powder (I couldn't find it, so I didn't use any)

2 tbs sweet paprika (I used Smoked pimenton)

1 tsp hot paprika

3 tbs honey

1/2 cup white wine
2 tbs olive oil, or canola oil

salt and pepper, to taste

In a large bowl, add garlic, sweet paprika, hot paprika, honey and white wine, mix well. Add chicken drumsticks, cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat, add olive oil, or canola oil, add sliced onion, and fry until the onion is translucent, and the smell of the raw onion is completely gone. Set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 350⁰F.

Transfer the drumsticks and the marinate including the juice to a baking dish. Scatter the fried onion on top. Bake for 1 hour. If you find the onion brown too quickly, cover loosely with aluminum foil. Serve with simple rice or bread.

Shrimps With Sumac. Quick, Simple and Delicious

2010-11-21T10:31:00.000-08:00

We all need to save our energy for the big Thanksgiving cooking, which will be here in no time. In the meantime, we also (still) have to feed our family right ? So, here is a quick, simple and delicious recipe that take no time to prepare, I mean, a part from cleaning and deveining the shrimps. You can always buy shrimps that are already cleaned and ready to use.

Shrimps With Sumac

serve about 4

20 - 25 large Shrimps or prawns

1 large sweet onion, sliced

1 tbs minced garlic

3 tbs sumac

2 tbs smoked pimento

1/2 chopped parsley

juice of 1 lemon

1/2 tbs fish sauce

salt and pepper

olive oil

To Clean the shrimp, pull off the head and the legs, then peel the outer layer shell but leave out the end (tail) still attach. Devein using a small knife along the back of the shrimp, discard the vein, then rinse under cold running water, pat dry with paper towel.

Set a large shallow pan over medium high heat, add 2 to 3 tbs olive oil. Add the sliced onion, cook until it caramelized a little about 2 minutes, add garlic and the shrimps. Saute for one minute, then add the rest of ingredients. Continue to cook until the shrimps are pink and no longer translucent, about 5 minutes. Lastly add lemon juice, fish sauce, a little bit of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Stir, taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Transfer to a serving dish, serve with any kind of bread, or rice.

Baked Curried Chicken With sweet Potato and Mix Vegetables

2010-11-15T22:20:00.000-08:00

When I saw this post by Stacey, I couldn't resist of not making it in my own kitchen. I never made any roast or baked curried chicken before, so it's a good reason to make it. However, I did not have curry powder in hand, so, I used my own garam masala instead. I also decided to use up all left over vegetables from my refrigerator. To really perfumed the curry, I sprinkled a little bit of my favorite methi or fenugreek leaves. The result was scrumptious, fragrant and smoky curried chicken.

Baked Curried Chicken With Mix Vegetables

Inspired by Stacey's Vegetable and Curried Chicken Pan Roast

Serve 8

4 lbs skinless, boneless Chicken thigh

1 cup Greek style yogurt

2 tbs garam masala

1 tbs grated ginger

1/2 tbs minced garlic

1 tsp (more or less) chili pepper or cayenne pepper

2 tbs smoked paprika

salt and pepper to taste

1 lb sweet potato, cut into large chunks

2 large red onion, sliced thickly

3 green bell pepper, cut into large chunks

3 zucchini, sliced thickly

5 small Roma tomatoes, cut in half

3 tbs canola oil

1 tbs methi (fenugreek) leaves, optional
salt and pepper to taste

In a large bowl, mix yogurt, garam masala, 3/4 tbs ginger, 1/4 tbs minced garlic, chili pepper or cayenne pepper, smoked paprika, salt and pepper. Add the chicken thigh, mix well to coat them. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, refrigerate at least an hour or for better flavor, overnight.

Preheat oven to 425F.

Place all of the vegetables in a large bowl, add the remaining 1/4 tbs ginger, and 1/4 tbs minced garlic, drizzle with 2 tablespoons canola oil, season with salt and pepper, mix well. Transfer into a roasting pan, or ceramic baking dish, but leave out the tomatoes. Arrange the chicken on top of the vegetables, tuck in the tomatoes here and there, season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with methi leaves if using, then drizzle with the remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Baked for 45 minutes, until chicken is cooked throughly. Serve with steam Basmati rice. Delicious!

Thank's for the inspiring recipe Stacey :)

Chicken Kalas. Balinese Chicken Curry aka Bé Siap Mebase Kalas In Balinese Language

2010-11-10T11:49:00.000-08:00

This chicken dish is known as "Bé Siap Mebase Kalas". It is kind of confusing really, because "Bé" in Balinese language means fish. Not sure why the Balinese always add the word "be" each time there is meat or poultry involve, regardless how they cook them. For example, Bé Siap always mean cooked chicken; Bé Sampi means Cooked beef; Bé Celeng means cooked pork; Bé Pasih means any cooked Fish. Anyway, Unlike the Javanese cooking or other island in Indonesia that use a ot of coconut milk in their dish, Balinese very rarely use coconut milk, they do use coconut for their cooking, just very rare milking the coconut, and one of those dish that is famous using coconut milk is this chicken kalas. Hope you like it.

Bé Siap Mebase Kalas

3 - 3½ lbs chicken legs, wash under cold running water - pat dry with paper towel

1½ cups thick coconut milk

2/3 cup water

1 stalk white part only lemongrass, lightly bruised

1 sliced (1/8 - inch thick) fresh galangga, lightly bruised

salt, to taste

Spice mix:

2 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 tsp kencur powder

1/2 tbs freshly grated ginger

1/4 cup chopped shallots

2 tbs chopped garlic

1 tsp, or more chopped red chilli pepper

2 Balinese long pepper

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp toasted shrimp paste

1/4 cup water

Place all ingredients for spice mix in a blender, add about 1/4 cup of water, process until smooth. Pour this spice mix into the braising pan, add chicken legs, coconut milk, water, lemongrass, and the fresh galangga. Turn the heat to medium high, cook until the sauce start to boil, reduce the heat to low, braise until the chicken is cooked throughly, the sauce is reduced and thickened, about 35 to 45 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Serve with plain steam rice and simple saute green vegetables.

Spinach and Feta Cheese Böreği (IIspanakli Peynirli Tepsi Böreği)

2010-11-08T13:00:00.000-08:00

Delicious, light and easy to prepare. It is also good to serve for a large number of people, it making it perfect no stress entertaining idea. If you want to serve this as an appetizer, you can cut it into smaller pieces, up to 24.

Spinach and Feta Cheese Böreği
serve 12

For The Pastry:

1 lb filo dough (20 to 22 sheets)

1 cup yogurt

1/4 olive oil

1 egg

salt and pepper to taste

For Spinach Filling:

3 pounds frozen chopped spinach, thaw at room temperature

1 bunch scallion (Spring onion), finely chopped

12 oz feta cheese, soak with fresh water for couple hours to leach out the extra salt, drained - crumbled

1 cup chopped Italian parsley

2 eggs

handful toasted pine nuts

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375⁰F.

Grease a 13 x 18-inch baking pan or oven proof ceramic dish.

In a small bowl, mix yogurt, olive oil, egg, salt and pepper.

Squeeze out as much water as possible from the spinach. Place the spinach in a large bowl, add chopped scallions, parsley, crumbled feta cheese, eggs, pine nuts, salt and pepper. Mix everything just enough to combine the ingredients. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

Unroll the filo dough and place it next to you, Cover with slightly damp clean kitchen towel to prevent the dough from drying out. Take one sheet of filo dough (cover the rest with kitchen towel), place it on the prepared baking pan, brush all over with yogurt mixture, take another layer of filo dough, brush with yogurt, continue layering and brushing until you have 10 layers of filo. Spread the spinach on top of the filo layers, cover with another sheet of filo dough, brush with yogurt mixture. Repeat the layering and brushing each layer with yogurt mixture until all of the filo dough is used. Finish by brushing the top layer with yogurt mixture, sprinkle with sesame seeds if desire. Bake for 35 minutes until the top is golden brown.

My friend took this photo above, Thanks Bea :)

Balinese Mixed Vegetables With Coconut (Jukut Meurab)

2010-11-06T08:49:00.000-07:00

For Balinese, jukut meurab always means mixed vegetable with fresh or toasted grated coconut. The vegetable varies from what is in season at the time. Sometimes, they will use only one kind of vegetable, such as chinese long bean, sometimes mix of a few different kind. The most unique and exotic sounding jukut urab is the one made from star fruit leaves (jukut don blimbing). Yes, Balinese love to eat not just the star fruit, but the leaves as well. The taste and texture of the leaves are quite similar to kale, or collard green. My personal favorite and the most memorable jukut urab was the fresh sea weed or bulung in Balinese language. Bulung, or fresh seaweed has oceananic - fresh, crunchy and juicy texture, when you bite to it, all of the juice is bursting in your mouth. We used to go the beach, and bought this urab bulung fresh. I mean really, really, fresh, uncooked sea weed, mix with toasted grated coconut, chili and galangga. This was the best treat for me. Sadly, this urab bulung seems to disappeared, no one selling or even make it anymore?. So, if you happen to know where to buy urab bulung in Bali, please let me know. Because I have been bragging to my husband how delicious, and really want to introduce the taste to him next time we go to visit.

So, back home in California, I made this jukut meurab pretty often. I used different kind of mix vegetables including carrots, which they almost never used it in Bali. The level of spiciness is really up to you. The more sambal you mix in the spicier it becomes. You can also use steam kale or steam collard green for this salad. Sometimes, I omit the coconut completely, since my son prefer without it.

For the recipe, I will only give you the sambal Bali recipe. You can literally use anykind of vegetable you like. Just steam them, not too overly soft though, then mix in the sambal, about 1 tablespoon per 1 cup of steam vegetables, add fresh or toasted grated coconut if desire. Any leftover sambal can be refrigerated up to 5 days. It also can be serve as condiment to any of your Asian dish. I like to eat it just like that with steaming hot jasmine rice, and it just delicious.

Sambel Bawang

1 cup sliced shallots

2 tbs sliced garlic

3 tablespoon Thai chilies, you can add more or less, it all depends how spicy you want it

1 tsp dried toasted shrimp paste, finely crumbled

salt to taste

3 tbs vegetable oil or coconut oil

Place a large frying pan over medium heat. Add oil and shallots, fry until the shallots is soften. Add garlic, chilies, and the shrimp paste, fry until all ingredients are soft, about 3 to 5 minutes. Season with salt. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.

Roti Paratha Stuffed With Butternut Squash

2010-11-01T17:37:00.000-07:00

Delicious Indian flat bread stuffed with spiced butternut squash. This time I go easy with the spices, so it will suit everyone taste, even the most picky eater, hopefully. Cumin seeds and mustard seeds, are the usual and easy to find ingredients, perhaps the only ingredients that is not familiar to you is methi leaves (Funegreek Leaves). This leaves will add sweetness to any of your dish, but if its hard to come by in your area, you can simply omit it, or use any of your favorite herb.

Roti Paratha Stuffed With Butternut Squash
make about 4 - 5

For the Paratha:
2 cups bread flour
3/4 to 1 cup water
1 tsp salt

For the Filling:
2 cup small cubed butternut squash
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 tbs cumin seeds
1/2 tbs mustard seeds
handful dry methi leaves (funegreek leaves)
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbs olive oil

Set a medium size shallow pan over medium heat, add 2 tbs oil, when the oil is starting to get very hot, add cumin and mustard seeds. When mustard seeds begin to pop, add butternut squash and chopped onion, cook until butternut squash is soft about 10 minutes, stirring often to prevent burn. Add methi leaves, season with salt and pepper. Take it out from the heat. Cool completely - mashed with potato masher.

In a large bowl, mix flour and salt, add about 3/4 cup water, mix and knead a little bit to make a smooth dough. Add more water only if necessary. Divide the dough into 8 to 10 portions.

Take one dough and place it on lightly floured counter top. Using rolling pin, roll the dough into a thin round tortilla like bread. Spread about 1/4 cup (or more) butternut squash filling, living about 1/2 inch from the edge. Take another dough, roll it out as you would the first one. Make sure the size is as big as the first dough. Now place this dough directly on top of the filling to cover it, then pinch the edge to seal. Give it another gentle roll, just to make it even and nicely round. Repeat with the rest of the dough in the same manner. Save any leftover filling for other uses.

Preheat a heavy cast iron over medium heat, When it is hot enough, add the paratha and cook until few brown spot appear on the bottom, this should not take more then 2 to 3 minutes. Flip it over, cook another 2 to 3 minutes. Serve immediately. If you are not serving them immediately, you can wrap the paratha in aluminum foil until ready to use. Just before serving, reheat it in the 350F oven for about 5 to 10 minutes.

Creamy Vadouvan Chicken Breast With Caramelized Fennel Bulb and Asparagus

2010-10-28T07:45:00.000-07:00

Healthy food doesn't have to bland, boring, and unappealing. There are few recipe that I would make over and over again just for that reason alone. One example is this creamy luscious chicken using Vadouvan spice mix that I posted earlier. For a special occasions, you can splurge a little by using more expensive cut of meat, but for light everyday meal you can use chicken breast, you can even simplify it further by using tofu, paneer (Indian hard cheese), or just using different kind vegetables you desire. I hope you like it !

Creamy Vadouvan Chicken Breast With caramelized Fennel Bulb and Asparagus
serve 4 to 6

2 pounds boneless and skinless chicken breast, cubed
1 Fennel bulb, halfed - sliced
10 asparagus, cut into 2-inch long
1 to 2 tbs vegetable oil
2 tsp brown mustard seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 dried bay leave
3 fresh curry leaves
3 tomatoes, cut into chunks
1 cup vadouvan spice mix
1/4 cup (or more) water or chicken stock
1/2 cup plain yogurt
salt, as needed

Heat oil in a medium size shallow pan, add sliced fennel, saute until until soft and caramelized a little. Add brown mustard seeds, cumin seeds, dried bay leave, and fresh curry leaves, saute until fragrant, about one minute. Now add the tomato chunks, follow by vadouvan spice mix, and the chicken breast, pour about 1/4 cup of water or chicken stock, stir. Cook and stir often for about 8 minutes (depending how big your chicken cubes are), replenish another 1/4 cup of water or chicken stock if necessary. Add asparagus to the pan, cook for a minute, stir in yogurt, taste and adjust the seasoning as needed. Cook another one minute, just enough to heat the yogurt. Transfer to a serving dish, serve with steam basmati rice, or Indian flat bread.

ARANCINE (Stuffed Rice Balls)

2010-10-25T07:10:00.000-07:00

It is very easy to pigging out of yourself on delicious little morsel like this arancine, especially when you are talking and munching at the same time, sometimes you just don't realize how filling this can be. So make sure that you remind your guests there will be another dish coming. I, very rarely to serve this as an appetizer, instead, I like to serve my Arancine with vegetable salad as a main dish for weekend brunch or lunch. This recipe can be easily become a vegetarian dish, instead of beef filling, only put a few small cubed of mozarella inside.

For The Risotto:

1 onion, finely chopped

2 tbs olive oil

1 lb Arborio rice

4 cups chicken stock, keep hot

1/2 tsp saffron, dissolve with 1 tablespoon hot stock

parmesan cheese (as much or as little as you wish)

salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Saute the onion with olive oil in sauce pan over medium heat until translucent, add the rice and fry for a minutes. Add the hot chicken stock a ladleful at a time, as soon as the liquid is almost absorbed, add another ladleful of hot chicken stock, keep stirring and adding the stock until you use the whole 4 cup of the stock. Which by then the rice will be soft and creamy but the grain is still firm when you bite to it. It may take about 25 to 30 minutes. Add saffron liquid and parmesan cheese, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Stir, and let cool completely.

For the Filling:

1 lb beef shoulder cut into small cubed

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 tsp minced garlic

1-16oz canned chopped tomato

pinch of nutmeg

2 tbs olive oil

2 tsp finely chopped parsley

salt and pepper to taste

In a medium sauce pan set over medium heat, saute onion in olive oil until soft, add the beef, and the garlic. Stir, add canned tomatoes, and nutmeg. Continue to cook until the meat is tender on low heat for about 45 minutes. Add chopped parsley, season with salt and pepper. Cool completely.

Arancine

make about 8 - 10

Cooled risotto

Cooled beef filling

3 oz fresh mozarella cheese, cubed

2 egg whites, lightly whisk with a fork

2 cups dried plain bread crumbs

enough vegetable oil for frying

Dampen your hand with cold water, take about 2 tablespoon (depending how large you want you want it to be) of cooled risotto, flatten it, add about half tablespoon of filling, enclose, and form into a ball. Dip arancine in the egg white, then rool it in the bread crumb, shake off the excess. Place the ball in a baking sheet, continue this step until you use up all of the rice. Place the baking sheet in the Refrigerator for 30 minutes. Reserve any leftover filling for other use.

Heat the oil in a large deep frying pan, set the heat to medium high. Fry the arancine in batches until golden on all side. To achieve the almost perfectly round and golden brown arancine, turning them often. Remove and drain the excess oil on a wire rack. Serve immediately, or for the shake of photo on your blog, do it now, so you will get a nice melted mozarelle that look very appetizing. If you wait too long or worse, cold, then you will get that hard mozarella look (like mine here).

Beef Sambal With Lemongrass

2010-10-20T00:01:00.001-07:00

I know that some of you will be concerned about the amount of red jalapeno use in this recipe. Don't worry, it will be mild enough if you seeded and discard the white membrane where the seed is attached to it. As always, you are welcome to substitute it with red bell pepper, just make sure that you saute the paste long enough to get rid of the extra liquid from the red bell pepper. The important thing is that this dish has to be red. Hope you will like it.

Beef Sambal With Lemongrass

1 pound boneless beef shank, chop into small pieces
10 cloves garlic

10 red jalapeno, seeded - discard white the membranes

2 medium size Roma tomatoes

½ cup chopped fresh lemongrass

1 tsp toasted shrimp paste

1 tbs fish sauce

salt and pepper, to taste

handful fresh lemon basil
handful fresh green chilies, optional

1 - 2 tbs vegetable oil
1 small can (5.6 fluid oz) coconut milk

Place garlic, red jalapeno pepper, tomatoes, lemongrass, and shrimp paste in a food processor, process to make a smooth paste.

Fry the paste with oil on medium heat for 5 minutes, add the meat, and 1 cup of water. Cook for 45 minutes to an hour on medium heat until the meat is soft, add fish sauce, fresh lemon basil, green chilies if using, and coconut milk, stir and let cook for another 2 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning as needed. Transfer to a serving bowl, serve with plain steam jasmine rice and simple saute vegetables.

Vadouvan Spice Mix

2010-10-18T00:01:00.001-07:00

I am so glad to discover this delicious spice mix on Gourmet website, apparently, this is how the French interpret The Indian masala. So, I heard!

Vadouvan is one of those versatile spice mix, that not too hard to make, and can be added to anything from meat dishes, seafood, or even vegetarian dishes. I like to make it in a big batch, then divide it into individual freezer ziplock bag about 1 cup per bag, then store them in the freezer up to a month. Each time I run out an idea of what to make that day, I simply grab one from my freezer, and toss it into my cooking.

This is my version of Vadouvan Spice Mix, it makes about 3½ cups. The time of cooking is much faster then the oven roasted version, which will take about 1 to 1½ hours. It's up to you which recipe you use, the result is delicious nonetheless.

Ingredients:

1 tbs brown mustard seed
1 tbs cumin seed
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 lb shallots, finely chopped
1½ lb onions, finely chopped
2 bulbs garlic, sliced
2 tbs fresh minced ginger
1 tbs cumin powder
½ tsp funegreek
5 cloves
3 cardamoms
1 tbs coriander seeds
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tbs cayenne pepper
a bunch fresh curry leaves
salt to taste

Heat oil in a medium to a large size frying pan over medium heat, add brown mustard and cumin seed, as soon as you hear the brown mustard starting to crackle, add shallots, onions, and a pinch of salt, fry until the onions are translucent, add garlic, ginger, and cumin powder, stir.

Meanwhile, grind together funegreek, cloves, cardamoms, and coriander seeds. Add this powder mix to the frying pan along with nutmeg, turmeric powder, cayenne pepper, and curry leaves, stir to coat the ingredients together. Season with more salt if needed. Lower the heat to medium low, continue to fry for about 10 or until it releases its fragrant, and the onion and shallots are soft. Taste, and adjust the amount of salt according to your liking. The vadouvan is now ready to use for your favorite dish.

Mushroom Monyet (Wild Mushroom En Croute)

2010-10-11T00:01:00.000-07:00

I never entered any contest before, so when I found out the announcement at Marxfoods about this mushroom contest, I didn't think twice about joining in. I commented to his blog to let him know that I was interested. The next thing I knew was this precious little package arrived at my house. Of course I was happy and excited to try them. The package consisted all of the ingredients needed for this recipe, they were perfect. I am very familiar with all of this mushroom with exception of black trumpet and matsutake, so I was glad that this two were included in the package. Whenever in season, I always try to buy fresh porcini, chanterelle, or morel, which is easily available in my grocery store. They are pricey, but worth every penny. When I cook with such a precious mushroom like this, I never really interested in adding too many herbs and spices that I would normally do in my cooking. I always worry that the fragrant and spiciness will compete with the earthy flavor of this mushrooms. As for the pink peppercorn, you don't have to worry, the flavor is delicate, not too peppery spicy and has a tad of sweetness to it, so is not overpowering.

So here is my entry that I adapted from my own recipe created for my husband and my son so many years ago. This recipe has become a family recipe that I make from time to time, a recipe that I passed down to my sisters, brother, and to my son who is very much interested and likes to cook. And by the way, he can do a good job on braiding the pastry too :).

All mushrooms listed in this recipe can be purchase here.

Mushroom Monyet (Wild Mushroom En Croute)
Serve 8 as an appetizer or 4 as a main dish
~elra~

Ingredients:

1 sheet (about 8 to 9 oz) homemade or store-bought puff pastry
1/2 oz dried matsutake
1/2 oz dried lobster
1/2 oz dried porcini
1/2 oz dried black trumpet
1/2 oz dried chanterelle
7½ oz fresh shitake, discard the stems - sliced
1½ medium size onions, chopped
2 - 3 tbs olive oil
1/4 cup chopped parsley
4½ oz grated French gruyere
4 tbs crème fraîche
salt to taste
½ tsp pink peppercorns, lightly crushed

1 egg yolk
1 tsp milk

Reconstitute the dried mushrooms by soaking them in hot boiling water until soft, about an hour or two. Drain, squeeze the excess water, then roughly chop. If you wish, you can reserve the water for other use, such as to make stock.

Caramelized the chopped onion with 2 tablespoon olive oil about 10 minutes on a medium high heat. Once caramelized add all mushrooms including shitakes, lower the heat to medium and saute for 10 minutes, if looks a little dry add another tablespoon of olive oil. Season with salt and crushed pink peppercorns. Set aside to cool. When the mushroom is cool enough add crème fraîche and the cheese, mix well. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

Roll out the puff pastry to 14 by 14-inch square, transfer to a piece of parchment paper, then place it on a baking sheet. Transfer the mushroom in the middle of the pastry, make a series of 1-inch slanting cuts on both side (between the mushroom filling). Start braiding the pastry by over lapping each of the slice on top of the filling to enclose it. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes up to 24 hours. Check this video on how to braid the puff pastry.

Preheat oven to 375⁰F.

In a small bowl, combine the yolk and the milk together. Brush pastry with this egg wash mixture. Bake mushroom monyet in the middle rack for 35 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve hot with simple green salad as a main dish, or cold as an appetizer.

Sweet and Sour Tofu

2010-10-06T14:40:00.000-07:00

Can't get any more simpler then this. This tofu dish can be serve as an appetizer, combine with green salad, or serve as a main dish with plain rice and saute vegetable. For a completely vegetarian dish, simply omit the fish sauce and increase the amount of salt to your liking.

24 oz tofu

oil for frying

1/2 cup white vinegar
1 cup sugar

5 to 10 red jalapeno, seeded

1/2 tbs finely chopped cilantro roots

5 cloves garlic

1/4 water

1 tbs fish sauce
salt to taste, optional

Cut tofu into triangle, place them on a colander and let drain for an hour. After an hour, pat dry with clean kitchen towel, or paper towel. Heat 2 to 3 tablespoon oil in a frying pan until a little bit smoky. Carefully add tofu, about 4 or 5 pieces, fry for about one minute on each side. Transfer to wire rack to drain the excess oil. Repeat with the rest of the tofu.

Grind together the garlic, red jalapeno, and cilantro roots to make a smooth paste. Transfer to a sauce pan, add vinegar, sugar and water. Cook until it becomes sirupy.

Return the tofu to frying pan, add the sauce and toss for a minute or so. Transfer to serving dish, serve as is, or as a main dish accompany with saute vegetable and plain rice.

Lubia Polow, Rice with Green Beans

2010-10-04T07:01:00.000-07:00

My brother in law's father make the best Lubia Polow imaginable, actually he make the best Iranian Rice period. He likes to send a big pot of Iranian rice to my family, as you can imagine it always dessapear pretty quickly. The best part is, it is so good that we don't even seem to need a side dish, other then some fresh herbs. Thank you Mr. AE :)

Makes 6 servings

3 cups basmati rice, wash - soaked in salted water for an hour or two, then drained

1 onion, diced

1 clove garlic, sliced

1 stick cinnamon

1½ tsp advieh (Persian spice mix)

1 lb ground lamb or meat

2 lbs green beans, cut into ½-inch long

½ tsp limu-omani powder (Persian dried lime powder)

3 tbs canola oil

salt and pepper

2 tsp ground saffron, dissolved in 2 tbs hot water

4 tbs butter, melted

In a large sauce pan, cook the onion with canola oil until soft and translucent. Add garlic, cinnamon, advieh, limu-omani, and the ground lamb or meat. Stir, cover the sauce pan and cook for 20 minutes on low heat. Uncover the pan, add green beans and limu-omani powder, season with salt and pepper. Cook another 10 minutes on medium heat.

In a large pot set over high heat, bring about 8 to 10 cups of water to a boil. Add drained rice, boil briskly for about 10 minutes, gently stiring once or twice with wooden spoon to loosen the grains that might stuck in the bottom. Drain the rice in a large fine-mesh colander.

Place about 2 ladles of rice in the bottom of a large nonstick pan, add a layer of meat-green bean mixture, repeat alternating layer and make a shape of pyramid. Drizzle with saffron water. Wrap the lid with a clean kitchen towel, then cover the pot with this lid to prevent the steam to escape. Make sure that your towel is securely tied, and no piece of this towel is hanging lose that might catch a fire. Cook for 30 to 40 minutes on the lowest heat.

Open the pot, drizzle the rice with melted butter, gently mix and fluff the rice. Transfer to a large serving plate. Serve at once. If you like you can serve this with fresh herbs, such as lemon basil, spear mints, cilantro and parsley.

Crispy Fried Pork Hock With Chilli Caramel, Steam Rice And Spicy Thai Salad

2010-09-29T00:01:00.000-07:00

We went for a casual dinner at our good friend's house one day, he made this sinfully delicious caramelized pork, served with equally delicious, fragrant (thanks to lots lots of fresh lemongrass and herbs), sweet and tangy cucumber salad. Another meal that quite memorable among his friends, including me, and it is also the second most frequently ask dish, after his famous crab curry. I must warned you if you are planning to make it, the cooking is slow and long, so many steps and process, it practically takes two days in the making, but the end result is really rewarding. Tempted? The recipe can be found here. Thank you dear, you know who you are :)

Quick Stir-Fry Tofu With Bean Sprouts and Green Beans

2010-09-27T00:01:00.001-07:00

Everybody knows that tofu is pretty bland on its own, but when combine with other ingredients can make a delightful and light side dish. If you want this dish to be completely vegetarian, omit the fish sauce. Serve as is, or as side dish to accompany plain steam jasmine rice. Serving size varies from 4 to 6 people, but it all depends on your family.

Ingredients:

3 cloves garlic, peeled - crushed with the back of the knife

5 - 10 whole dried red chili pepper, optional

6 oz green beans, cut into 2 inches long

1 slice, about ¼-inch thick fresh galangga

1 stalk lemongrass, white part only - bruised lightly

2 - 3 kaffir lime leaves

1 red bell pepper, seeded - sliced

a bunch (about 5 - 7) scallions, cut into 1-inch long

12 oz lightly fried tofu

16 oz mung bean sprouts, rinsed - drained

salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
1 tablespoon fish sauce

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Set a large wok, or a large shallow pan over medium high heat, when it is hot enough, add vegetable oil, wait until the oil is a little bit smoky, add garlic to the wok, saute for about 5 to 10 seconds or until the garlic is fragrant, then add dried chilies, fry for another 5 seconds, just enough to char the chilies, being careful not to burn them. Add green bean, galangga, lemongrass, kaffir limes, saute for 2 to 3 minutes. Add bell pepper, scallions and tofu, stir to mix, saute for 1 minutes just enough to soften the bell pepper. Lastly add tofu and the bean sprouts, season with salt , white pepper, and fish sauce. Taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking. Transfer to a large serving dish, serve at once.

Japanese Beef Curry, Not Too Spicy and Highly Addictive

2010-09-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

I was thrilled when I saw a video of Mark making this curry, so I decided to give it a try. For the first time I conjured up the most delicious homemade Japanese curry. I used beef shanks for this recipe, but like what he said, you can use any type of meat, poultry, or you can even turn this curry into a completely vegetarian meal. I also cooked the roux a little longer, resulting a much darker curry. One little obstacle was that I had trouble of finding tonkatsu sauce, I did find a bottle of katsu sauce, which I am not entirely sure what the different between tonkatsu and katsu. The recipe only need 1 tablespoon of this sauce, that leave me with a whole bottle of katsu sauce, I don't even know what I am going to use it for. I better e-mail him and ask for advice what to cook next with this sauce. Thank you to Mark for sharing the recipe, and show us how to make the authentic Japanese curry.

For Joanne, and her regional recipe hope she will like it !

Ethiopian Chicken Stew

2010-09-20T12:01:00.001-07:00

I always like to make any kind of spice-paste in a big batch, including this berbere spice paste. I keep it in an airtight jar, then store it in my refrigerator. It will keep up to a month as long as you put enough oil to cover the paste. The spice-paste is quite versatile, another reason why I like it, I can just add a tablespoon or two of this spice-paste to any kind of my favorite meat and vegetables, voila it become a quick and instance meal ready to serve for for dinner during busy week schedule.

2 (3 lbs total) cornish hen, cut into pieces

1 small onion, diced

1 cup diced Roma tomatoes

3 cloves garlic, sliced

3 tbs or more (depending on your taste) berbere spice-paste

1 tbs vegetable oil

½ cup unsalted chicken stock, or water

salt and pepper, to taste

Fry the onion until soft over medium heat, at garlic, fry another minute. Add the chicken pieces into the pan, along with tomatoes, berbere spice-paste, and chicken stock or water, season with salt and pepper. Stir to mix the ingredients, continue to cook until it starts to boil, then turn the heat to low. Cook for about 40 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked thoroughly, and the liquid is reduced and thicken slightly. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Serve with flat bread, pita bread, rice, or couscous.

Sambusak With lamb Filling

2010-09-17T00:01:00.000-07:00

For this Sambusak, I used pastry dough recipe that I found from Martha Stewart website. I was pretty satisfied with the result, it was buttery, crumbly, a little bit crunchy from the addition of semolina flour. I also found out that there are many different variety of sambusak. Some, using pastry dough like what I have here, and some using some kind of pizza or bread dough. You can also put some cheese filling if you wish, but, I like mine with meat or poultry.

Sambusak With lamb Filling

~elra~

I forgot to count how many sambusak yield for this recipe, it was a lot, probably about 25 to 30 sambusak.

1 recipe for sambusak pastry dough

1 lb ground lamb

1 onion, diced

2 tsp cumin

1 tsp ginger

1 tbs olive oil

salt and pepper

handful of pine nuts, lightly toasted

1 egg yolk

1 tbs milk

sesame seeds

Prepare the pastry as directed in the recipe. Set aside.
Fry the onion until browned, add the lamb, cumin , and ginger. Cook for about 10 to 15 minutes, season with salt and pepper. Set aside to cool, then mix in the pine nuts.
Preheat oven to 350F.
Roll out the pastry to about ¹⁄₈-inch thick, then cut into 3 inches circle. Fill the middle of each circle with 1 to 2 tbs lamb, fold the pastry to enclose the filling, press the edges and form into a half moon shape. Arrange on a baking sheet.
Make the egg wash: mix the yolk and milk in small bowl. Brush sambusak with eggwash, sprinkle the top of each sambusak with sesame seeds. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, or until golden brown.

note:

I didn't have any pine nuts at the time I made this sambusak, but I include it in the recipe because it really give a nice texture and more delicious flavor.

Pineapple Fried Rice

2010-09-12T14:11:00.001-07:00

Quick and easy to prepare, delicious and perfect for a light lunch. I love the addition of pineapple, it really give a little bit sweet and tangy.

4 cups cooked Jasmine rice (make sure that the rice is cold), see note.
2 large shallots, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minched
½ to 1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp ginger powder (ground ginger)
2 stalks lemongrass, white part only-lightly bruised
1 cup fresh pineapple chunks
1 tbs fish sauce

¼ tsp freshly ground white pepper
pinch of salt, if necessary
vegetable oil

Fry shallot in vegetable oil until caramelized a little, add garlic, chili powder, turmeric, ginger, lemongrass, and the fresh pineapple chunks, saute for one minute. Add the cold rice, fish sauce, and ground white pepper, stir continuously for 5 to 10 minutes until the rice is really really hot hot. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Serve immediately.

Note:

if you have leftover rice, store the rice in a ziplock bag and refrigerate. When you are ready to make fried rice, take it out from refrigerator, then crumble the rice (without opening the bag) until the kernel is separate. It is much easier this way, then try to break them in a wok with the spoon.

L'shanah Tovah

2010-09-08T00:01:00.001-07:00

Photo courtesy of my son AD

Red Snapper Wrapped in Banana Leaves With Balinese Spice Paste (Be Pesan)

2010-09-05T00:01:00.000-07:00

The banana leaves add unique and fragrant flavor to this Balinese style fish, if you don't know where Bali is, check here. You probably think it is a spicy dish, it is only appear that way, the bumbu is pretty mild, but being me, I like to add whole, or chili slices to it. When you add whole chili as a garnish, the result won't be spicy at all, only if you bite to it, then you'll be in trouble. The most common way to make this fish is to steam it, then grilled quickly over hot glowing charcoal. Since I don't really have steamer large enough to accommodate the fish, I bake them in the oven, then lightly grilled. You can use steamer if you wish, also you can omit the grilling process as well.

Red Snapper Wrapped In Banana Leaves (Be Pesan)

~elra~

2 whole (about 3 pounds) red snapper

lime juice from 1 lime

3 large shallots

5 cloves garlic

2 tbs roughly chopped ginger

1 tbs coriander seeds

5 candlenuts, roughly chopped

2 tomatoes, chopped

2 stalks lemongrass, white part only, chopped

1 tsp toasted shrimp paste

2 tbs oil, just enough for frying the paste

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 tsp kencur powder (zedoary powder)

10 fresh kaffir lime leaves

1 or 2 slices fresh galangga (about ¼ inch thick)

salt

1/2 tbs fish sauce

banana leaves

1 or 2 whole mild green chilies, for each fish (optional)

bamboo tooth picks

Clean - gutted, then rinse the fish under cold running water, pat dry with paper towel. Cut a few slashes on both side, then lay them on a ceramic dish, drizzle both sides with lime juice. Cover with plastic, let sit in the refrigerator while you are making the bumbu (spice paste)

Place shallots, garlic, chopped ginger, coriander seeds, chopped candlenuts, chopped tomatoes, chopped lemongrass, and toasted shrimp paste in to a food processor, process into smooth spice paste or bumbu. Fry with oil over medium heat, add turmeric powder, kencur powder, kaffir lime leaves and fresh galangga, fry until it releases its fragrance, about 3 to 5 minutes. Season with salt and fish sauce. Stir and fry for a few second more. Take it out from the heat, cool completely.

Preheat oven to 375⁰F.

Lay 2 layers of banana leaves on a kitchen counter top, spread a little bit of bumbu, then place one fish on top, spread another bumbu directly on the fish, lay a whole green chilies or chili slices if using. Wrap and secure both end with tooth picks. Do the same process with the other fish. Transfer the wrapped fishes on the baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, or until both fish are done. If you wish, you can grill them still wrapped over hot glowing charcoal, or on your gas grill over medium high for about 3 minutes on each side. Serve with steam rice and simple saute vegetable, fresh lemon basil and tomato sambal if you wish.

Vegetables and Tofu Curry, Javanese Style (Sayur Lodeh)

2010-09-01T14:44:00.001-07:00

When I was in college, my sister and stayed in a rented house with a bunch of other students from many different islands in Indonesia. The house had communal large kitchen with several stoves in it. Don't even imagine a stove like what we have now days, it was one of those kerosine stove ha ... ha ... ha. They might still use this kind of stove in the remote villages, not sure though, because most my family in Bali has portable propane stove (look like these), when the propane tank empty, you either call the store to deliver or just go and buy it your self. That's quite an upgrade huh?. Anyway, we took turn to cook, always got excited to taste food from other island. One thing that was very often appearing at the kitchen table was this "sayur lodeh". Sayur means vegetable, but I had no idea what lodeh means. In Java, they called this dish "Jangan Lodeh", Jangan simply means vegetable. Each household has their own version of this dish, for most, tempeh and tofu are almost always included, along with eggplant and Chinese longbean. Carrots and zucchini are never used to make this dish. Of course there is no rule on how to make it, basically you can add any kind of your favorite vegetables. If you have Chinese or Japanese eggplant, you can just simply add it to the recipe.

Note that I put 5 red jalapeno in this recipe, please don't worry, the dish won't be spicy. But, you really need to take out the seeds and the white membrane that the seeds attach to it. Just make sure that no trace of the white membrane still visible. The pepper will give the curry more delicious red looking without the spiciness, and making it more appetizing.

Vegetables and Tofu Curry, Javanese Style (Sayur Lodeh)

3 cups Chinese long bean, or green bean
3 large carrots, sliced
2 large zucchinis, sliced
4 cubed (1 package) lightly fried tofu, cubed *
2 large shallots
4 cloves garlic
5 red jalapeno, seeded and discard the white membranes
5 ripe roma tomato, chopped
2 stalks fresh lemongrass, white part only, chopped
3 whole kemiri nuts, chopped
1 tsp dry-toasted shrimp paste
1 slice (about ¼ inch thick) galangga, lightly bruised
2 tbs vegetable oil
2 cup coconut milk
½ cup water, optional (depending how thick you want your curry)
2 tbs fish sauce
1 tsp salt, optional

Using a food processor make a smooth spice paste by grinding together the shallots, garlic, jalapeno, tomatoes, lemongrass, kemiri nuts, and toasted shrimp paste. Transfer to a large pot, add the galangga, and vegetable oil, fry on a medium heat for 3 minutes or until the raw smell disappear. Add the Chinese long bean, and the carrots, cook until the carrots are softer a litlle. Add the zucchinis and the tofu, stir well. Pour in the coconut milk, water if using, fish sauce, turn the heat to low. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes until all vegetable are soft to your liking. Taste and add more salt if needed. Serve with simple steam Jasmine rice.

* Available in Asian market, otherwise you can use regular tofu that available widely in most supermarket.

Grilled Tilapia With Balinese Kencur Sambal

2010-08-27T12:58:00.001-07:00

Balinese people has so many unique sambal, I have a few to name as my favorite, sambel bawang, the everyday sambal that Balinese enjoy on a regular basis, sambel sere or lemongrass sambal, I hope to share the recipe one day, sambel limo, which is extremely fragrant and delicious. I really hope that I can plan the tree of this special Citrus Amblycarpa (Nasnaran Mandarin) one day.
As for this sambel cekuh in Balinese language or sambal kencur, in Indonesian language (Bahasa), is uniquely Balinese, it is quite an acquired taste. People from other island might wonder why would one want kencur sambal? But Balinese love it, they even add this fresh pungent root, it looks like the skinnier version of ginger, see photo here for nasi goreng (fried rice).

Grilled Tilapia With Balinese Kencur Sambal
~elra~

5 (about 1 ½ pounds) Tilapia fillet

1 tbs coriander seeds

1 tsp turmeric powder

5 cloves garlic

1 tbs vegetable oil

1 tbs fish sauce
Juice of 1 (or 2) lime, or lemon

Kencur sambal, recipe follows

handful fresh lemon basil or Thai basil, to serve

Pound together coriander seeds, turmeric and garlic to make a smooth paste or bumbu. Add vegetable oil, fish sauce and lime or lemon juice, mix well. Rub the tilapia fillets with this mixture, let marinate in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to an hour.

Grilled until cooked through. Transfer onto serving dish, spoon the Kencur sambal directly on top. Scatter the lemon basil or Thai basil if using. Serve with steam Jasmine rice, and simple saute green vegetable.

Kencur Sambal:

3 large shallots, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

4 red jalapeno pepper

5 Thai chili pepper, optional

2 large Roma tomatoes. quartered
3 whole kemiri nuts*

1 tsp roasted shrimp paste*
1 tsp kencur powder (I hope I can find the fresh kencur one day)*

1 tbs fish sauce*

2 tbs vegetable oil

handful cherry tomatoes, quartered (optional)
salt and pepper, to taste

* Available in Asian market

Using about 1 ½ tablespoon vegetable oil, fry the shallots, garlic, red jalapeno pepper, Thai chili pepper (if using), and Roma tomatoes until the soft. Transfer to a food processor. Return the frying pan to the stove, fry kemiri nuts with the remaining ½ tbs oil until slightly golden. add this nuts to a food processor, add roasted shrimp paste, process to make a smooth bumbu (spice paste). Return this bumbu to frying pan, add kencur powder, saute until fragrant, add the cherry tomato pieces (if using), fish sauce, salt and pepper, taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

Imam Bayildi, Eggplant Stuffed Tomatoes For Friday Lunch With Our Multi-Culture Friends

2010-08-21T09:30:00.000-07:00

Haven't tried Imam Bayildi yet? you are missing something here. I made this for my multi culture guests that came for lunch on Friday. B originally from Beijing, C from Italy, M is mix between Italy, French, and Germany, J (my husband) South African - Israel, and I (Balinese). Everyone liked it, except I forgot that M dislike eggplant. Thank goodness that he could eat the tomato sauce with his rice. What do we have in common? For sure, we all love wine, food and travel, plus B and C are actually live in the neighborhood. C has vineyard, her husband make delicious merlot, B is in the process of making her own vineyard, and M own an exclusive wine store in Manhattan. My husband and I own nothing, but, we love to enjoy good food, good company, and of course good wine. So all of us sat at the table, talked about food, wine, and really enjoying our conversation and learned about each other culture.

So, what is Imam Bayildi? Since I am not Turkish, I can only tell you what I know about this dish. It is a delicious specialty of Turkish dish, it means the fainted imam. It is said that the eggplant is so delicious, it makes the imam fainted after eating it. It must be that delicious, right? The dish is uncomplicated, mild, versatile, and of course delicious. Although it is serve as cold meze dish in its original country, I like to serve hot as vegetarian main dish with rice pilaf. This recipe make quite large portion, making it perfect for huge family and friend casual gathering. As always, you can adjust the recipe to fit your budget and number of people you are going to serve.

Imam Bayildi
serve 10-12
~elra~

4 pounds baby italian eggplant, or japanese eggplant

olive oil, for frying eggplant

1 large onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 large canned (28 oz) fire roasted whole tomato, or any other canned tomato

5 large Roma tomato, peeled - chopped

1 tablespoon tomato paste

a handful chopped parsley

salt and pepper to taste

Fry eggplant with a few tablespoon olive oil on a medium heat on all side to soften a little, don't over fry because it will be cook for a second time with the sauce. Drain on a paper towel, when they cool enough to handle, make an opening in the middle to stuffed to sauce.

In a large pot, fry the onion with 2 tablespoon olive oil until soft and translucent, add garlic, fry for a few seconds. Squeeze the whole fire roasted tomatoes with your hand into small pieces, add this to the pot along with roma tomatoes, and tomato paste. Stir, season with salt and pepper. Cover the pot, turn the heat to low, let the sauce cook for 30 minutes, taste and adjust seasoning as needed - cool slightly.

Stuff each eggplant with tomato sauce, arrange them on a single layer in a large braiser and pack them as neatly as possible, sprinkle with parsley. Pour all remaining sauce on top, place the lid on top. Cook on low for 1 to 1½ hour until the eggplant is tender. Serve cold as meze dish or hot as main vegetarian dish.

KIBBEH Mahshiyeh

2010-08-16T00:01:00.000-07:00

The first kibbeh I made was the Kubbeh Hamustah which I made a lot during the winter month last year. It was the kind of perfect meal for the cold weather, very hearty, and satisfying. I have been wanting to make kibbeh that can be enjoyed during the hot summer as well. To me, this kibbeh is perfect and very versatile as it can be serve hot, at room temperature, or even cold. I adapted the recipe from Joumana's Kibbé Hamees, but using ground American bison instead of regular ground beef.

The Filling:

1 lb ground lamb

½ cup diced onion

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 tablespoon seven spices, recipe follows

1 tablespoon smoked pimento (smoked paprika)

¼ cup finely chopped parsley

a few handful lightly toasted pine nuts

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the skillet over medium high heat, add ground lamb, stir and break up the lump with wooden spoon, add onion, lower the heat to medium. Cook until the onion is translucent, add garlic, seven spices, and smoked pimento, stir to mix, cook until fragrant and the raw smell disappear. Add, parsley, season with salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Cool completely, then stir in toasted pine nuts. Set aside or refrigerate.

The Kibbeh Dough:

1 cup fine bulghur (#2), soak with water for 15 minutes*

1 pound ground bison

½ cup diced onion

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 tablespoon seven spices, recipe follows

salt and pepper to taste

canola or vegetable oil for frying

* I couldn't find Bulghur #1, so I added more time to soak the bulghur. If you are using bulghur #1, soak for 5 minutes.

Drain the bulghur, squeeze excess water, place it into food processor, add the rest of the ingredients. Pulse couple of time until well mix. Refrigerate couple of hours or overnight.

Take a lump of kibbeh dough with wetted hands, form into a ball about the size of apricot, make a deep hole in the center using your index finger, fill with lamb filling as much as you can fit in, close the opening by pressing the dough back together to cover the filling. Roll into oval shape, then press each end into pointy shape. To make your life easier, and less headache to read my instruction, follow this link on how to shape the kibbeh.

Fry in hot oil until golden brown. Serve with pomegranate sauce as she suggested, green tahini sauce, zhoug, or any condiment you desire.

Seven Spices:

½ tablespoon ground all spice

½ tablespoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon ground ginger

¼ tablespoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

5 kernels funegreek, grind

Mix all ingredients together, store in an airtight container.

Grilled Red Snapper Wrap In Banana Leaves Serve With Lemongrass Sambal (Ikan Bakar Sambal Sere)

2010-08-13T08:45:00.000-07:00

This is how Indonesian marinate their fish, in fact it is so good that they also use it to marinate poultry, meat, as well as tofu and tempe. Normally, the marinating process is quick, in some cases you don't even let it sit at all, just rub it all over the fish, or other ingredients, then grill or fry immediately. I personally like to let it sit in the refrigerator at least for 15 minutes before proceeding to the next step. But the best flavor is when you marinate it for overnight.

Grilled Red Snapper Wrap In Banana Leaves Serve With lemongrass Sambal.
~elra~

For Marinate:

5 cloves garlic

1 tbs coriander seeds

½ tsp turmeric powder (if you have fresh turmeric, you should really use it now. About ½ teaspoon to 1 tsp, grated, should be sufficient)

salt

lime juice from 1 lime

2 tbs vegetable oil

Pound everything but the lime juice and oil to make a smooth paste, transfer to a bowl, add lime juice and vegetable oil. Mix well. Rub all over fish, let marinate in the refrigerator for 15 minutes if desire.

For The Grilled Fish:

2 whole red snapper (more or less about 3 pounds)
banana leaves
tooth picks
2 lemongrass stalks, white part only
2 shallots
red or green chili pepper to your liking
2 tomatoes
salt
lime wedges

1 tbs vegetable oil

Lay 2 layers of banana leaves on a kitchen counter top, place marinated fish directly on top og banana leaves. Wrap and secure both end with tooth picks. Do the same with the other fish. Grilled on a medium heat until the fish is done, about 5 to 10 minutes on each side. Meanwhile make the lemongrass sambal.

Thinly slice the lemongrass and shallots, finely chop the chilies and the tomatoes. Place everything in a bowl, add salt and oil. Mix well. Add the sambal directly on top of the grilled fish, and add the lime wedges. Serve with steam rice and simple green vegetable.

My coriander plant.
To see how their seed turn from beautiful chartreuse to stunning burgundy, then eventually to an earthy color that ready to be harvest?, come and visit my garden.

Crab Xacuti, Goan Crab Curry

2010-08-06T09:28:00.001-07:00

Can you actually believe that I always try plan my food accordingly? For example, the garbage collection in my neighborhood is every Friday, so if I want to eat durian, or serve shelled sea food, or whole fish for dinner, I would actually do it on Thursday. When we are finish eating it, I'd wrap tightly the shells, skins, bones, head, or whatever inedible leftover into plastic, then throw it out in my garbage bin. The next morning, the garbage man will come and collect the whole thing, and I don't have that fishy smell around the property. It is kind of silly me, because if I want to serve this to, say, my guests on the weekend, I'd be so stress out to think about how smelly it would be. That is just me. Now, how about fish sauce, and terasi (belachan) which can be very fishy as well? Ok, with fish sauce I always make sure that the bottle close properly then store and hide it well in my pantry, as for the terasi (belachan), I always stre it in airtight jar , you know, one those canning jar. How about chicken bones, or meat bones? For meat bone is easy, I just give it to my pretty dog. Chicken bones, I am not sure why, but somehow this things don't bother me that much. Pretty odd, isn't it?

This crab xacuti is another crab curry that becoming so popular in my family. The other favorite is the Srilankan style that I make on a regular basis. The one I posted today is a little milder then the Srilankan crab curry. Don't worry about the amount of red jalapeno listed on the ingredients. This is a mild chili compare to Thai chili that I would normally use. If you still think it would be too spicy for your palate, seeded and discard the white membranes, then proceed to next step. Also, if you worry about burning your hand, coat your hand with a little vegetable oil before you do this, or wear a surgical gloves.

Crab Xacuti, Goan Crab Curry

Adapted from Charmaine Solomon's Encyclopedia of Asian Food

In my family this curry serve 4

2½ pounds King crab (just the legs and the claws)

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

10 fungreek seeds

10 whole black peppercorn

4 whole cloves

4 whole cardamom pods

1 tablespoon white poppy seeds

½ cup freshly grated coconut*

2 large onion, diced, divided

1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic

1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger

6 large red jalapeno, roughly chopped

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

a bunch of curry leaves

5 - 10 small green chilies

1 cinnamon stick

2 tbs vegetable oil

tamarin juice**

13.5 fl oz coconut milk

½ - 1 cup water (depending how thick you want your curry)

salt, to taste

Prepare the crabs by braking the shell gently in random places with the back of your knife. This will ensure that the curry sauce penetrate the meat, and also making it easier to eat or open the shell.

Set a skillet over low heat, add coriander seeds, cumin seeds, funegreek seeds, whole black peppercorns, whole cloves, and whole cardamom pods. Keep stirring and roast until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a food processor. Return the skillet to the stove, add white poppy seeds, stirring continuously until golden. Transfer to a food processor. Return the skillet back to the stove, add grated coconut, keep stirring until the coconut is golden brown, transfer to a food processor. Return the skillet back to the stove, turn the heat to medium, add 1 tablespoon oil, saute half of the onion until soft, add garlic, ginger, roughly chopped jalapeno. Stir and saute until fragrant. Transfer to a food processor. Process the whole thing to make a smooth coconut - spice paste mixture, add a little water if necessary to make it easier to process.

Set a large pot over medium heat, add the remaining oil. Add the remaining diced onion, to the pot, fry until the onion is soft and the raw smell is gone, add the coconut-spiced paste mixture, turmeric powder, curry leaves, green chilies, and the cinnamon stick, fry while keep stirring continuously for about a minute or two. Add the crabs, tamarin juice, and water, season with salt, give it another stir, then cover the pot, let it cook for 10 minutes. Uncover the pot, add coconut milk, stir and taste to see if need more salt. Turn the heat to low, continue to cook for 5 minute more. Serve with steam basmati rice.

* you can also use frozen grated coconut, available at Asian store. Thaw according to package direction

** to make tamarin juice, mix well 1 tbs fresh tamarin and ¼ cup water, strain the juice and discard the solid.

Tumis Kangkung Bumbu Pedas (Spicy Stir Fry Kangkung/Water Spinach With Toasted Shrimp Paste)

2010-07-30T07:30:00.000-07:00

I bet you never had this delicious vegetable !.

It is amazing to me that I can get almost everything here in California. I don't even know where they coming from, considering that this plant really need a lot of water to be able to grow, hence the name, water spinach. I remember when I was growing up in Bali, sometimes my grand mother would sent my sister, and I, with a bunch of other cousins to the rice field to collect this water spinach. Even back then, I really love it, especially when our grand mother made this Balinese kangkung dish called "Pelecing Kangkung" (I'll share the recipe one day), it was really delicious, spicy, and fragrant at the same time. It has the juice of special lime (juwuk limo) that Balinese love to use literally in every dish. I am hoping that one day this special lime will be able in California as well. For now, I just use kaffir lime as substitute, it's pretty close.

Today, I am sharing this common Indonesian everyday dish called "Tumis kangkung". I believe that Malaysian also has similar dish called "kangkung Belachan". It is very easy to make, and delicious to serve as a side dish. I personally like eat it with plain rice and simple ikan bakar (grilled striped bass), or with other grilled fish like this one.

Tumis Kangkung Bumbu Pedas

~elra~

1 lb (more or less) kangkung (available at the Asian market)

4 shallots, roughly chopped

5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

5 red jalapeno, or Thai pepper (use less if using Thai pepper), roughly chopped

1 tsp toasted terasi (shrimp paste)*

2 Roma tomatoes, roughly chopped

handful cherry tomatoes (optional)

½ tbs fish sauce (choose this brand, it's less fishy then any other brand)

salt, as needed

2 - 3 tbs vegetable oil

* you can get terasi (shrimp paste) at the Asian market, choose Indonesian shrimp paste that has been toasted, which is dry and less pungent then the one from Singapore.

Place shallots, garlic, red jalapeno, toasted shrimp paste, and Roma tomatoes in a food processor. Process to make smooth bumbu (spice paste).

Cut the kangkung into small pieces. Wash and drain in a colander.

Preheat the wok over medium high heat, when its hot enough, turn the heat to medium, add oil, and the bumbu, fry until the raw smell is disappear, and the water evaporated. Add the kangkung, fish sauce, and cherry tomatoes. Turn the heat back to medium high, keep stirring and cook just until kangkung is wilted, about 3 minutes (do not overcook). Taste to adjust seasoning, transfer to a serving dish and serve with steam jasmine rice.

Ethiopian Spicy Beef Stew with Berbere and Nitter Kibbeh

2010-07-26T18:04:00.001-07:00

As I promise Joanne to participate on her regional recipe event, I made an Ethiopian dinner for my family last night. The dinner was delicious, the only thing missing from our table was the injeera, somehow I couldn't manage to make it. Here are what I made, lentil spiced with nitter kibbeh and turmeric, spicy mix vegetable stew, and beef stew with berbere and nitter kibbeh. Hope you like them.

Beef Stew with berbere and nitter kibbeh

3 lbs beef shoulder, cut into chunks
1 large onion, diced
1 tsp ground cumin
2 whole cardamom
1 cinnamon
1 star anise
2 tbs nitter kibbeh, recipe follows
¼ cup tbs berbere paste, recipe follows
1 tbs red paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
½ cup chicken stock
1 canned (15 oz) tomato
½ cup red wine
1 tbs vegetable oil
salt and pepper to taste

Brown the meat on all side with 1 tablespoon oil. Set aside.
On a medium heat, cook the onion with nitter kibbeh until soft, add cumin, cardamoms, cinnamon, star anise, berbere paste, paprika, cayenne pepper, fry for another minute until fragrant. add the browned meat, chicken stock, tomatoes, and the red wine, season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, continue to cook for an hour to an hour and half until the meat is tender. Taste to adjust the seasoning.

Nitter Kibeh:
8 tbs (1 stick) butter
1 stick cinnamon
3 whole cardamom
3 whole cloves
1 - 2 slices fresh ginger
3 cloves of garlic

Cook everything in a skillet over low heat until the butter is a bit brown and fragrant, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a jar.

Berbere Spice Paste

1 tbs coriander seeds
1 tbs cumin seeds
2 cardamom
3 cloves
1/2 tsp allspice
6 funegrek
1/2 tsp black pepper seeds
1/2 cup diced onion
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tbs grated fresh ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
2 tsp paprika
1 tbs hot red pepper
1/4 cup dry red wine
¼ cup water
1 tbs vegetable oil + more for preserving the paste
salt

Lightly toast coriander seeds, cumin seeds, cardamom, cloves, allspice, funegrek and black pepper seeds on a medium heat to release the fragrance. Set aside to cool. Grind in a mortar and pestle, or a coffee grinder to fine powder. Set aside

Fry the onion with 1 tbs oil until soft, add garlic, and ginger. Continue to cook until the ginger releases its fragrance. Transfer to a blender along with the the rest of the ingredients including the spice powder that you've just grind, add water, process until smooth and no lump left. Return the smooth paste back to the pan add paprika, hot red pepper, and the red wine. Cook and stirring constantly for about 10 minutes on a low heat.

Transfer to a jar, cool completely before adding enough oil to preserve the paste, about 1/4" above the paste.

Refrigerated until needed. The paste can be kept for 2 weeks in the refrigerator.

Ayam Bakar Bumbu Rujak, Broiled Cornish Hen With Spicy Tomato-Ginger Sauce

2010-07-15T13:01:00.000-07:00

This is a classic Indonesian Chicken dish that almost every household in Java (where this dish originally from), make it on a regular basis. Some family will make the dish by braising the chicken in spiced coconut milk until all of the liquid is almost gone, then grilled the chicken in a charcoal (bakar or panggang means grilled) just before serving it. Some are just happy to serve it without grilling them, and called it "ayam bumbu rujak". Both techniques are equally good, but if enjoy the smoky flavor, then I'd suggest that you grill or broil the chicken just for a few minutes before serving.

Ayam Bakar Bumbu Rujak, Broiled Cornish Hen With Spicy Tomato-Ginger sauce

~elra~

2 Cornish hens (total weight about 3 pounds)

The bumbu or spiced paste:

½ cup roughly chopped shallots

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 tablespoon fresh ginger paste*

1 lemongrass, white part only, cut into small pieces

4 large red jalapeno pepper, roughly chopped

5 red Thai pepper (optional)

4 large red tomatoes, roughly chopped

1 teaspoon roasted shrimp paste

5 whole kemiri nuts, roughly chopped

2 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 small canned ( 5.6 fl oz) coconut milk

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 teaspoon salt

handful of lemon basil, or Thai basil

Rinse the hen under cold running water, pat dry with paper towel, cut each hen into half. Set aside while you are preparing the bumbu (spice paste).

Place all ingredients except coconut milk, fish sauce, salt and basil, in a food processor, add about a quarter cup water, process until very smooth.

Heat oil in large braising pan on a medium heat, add the bumbu (spice paste), fry until fragrant, and most of the liquid is evaporated and the raw smell is disappear, about 10 minutes. Add the hens to the pan, coat them all over with the bumbu. Cover the pan. Let it braise slowly for 30 to 40 minutes on a low heat. Check from time to time to make sure that there is sufficient liquid or juice in the pan, if not, add a bit of water.

Uncover the pot, at this point, if you are not going to broil the hen, add the coconut milk let cook (still on low heat) another 10 minutes. If you are going to broil them, hold the coconut milk. Transfer the hens into shallow baking sheet, add little bit of bumbu on top of each hens, broil just until the skin is charred, about 3 to 5 minutes. In the meantime, add the coconut milk to the sauce, stir, let the sauce cook on low for 10 minutes just enough to heat the coconut milk, add the basil. Pour into serving bowl.

Transfer the hens into serving dish, serve with rice, simple saute green, and the sauce.

* Fresh ginger paste:
peel the ginger, and grated, or pound it on a mortar and pestle until smooth.

Tian de Légumes With Middle Eastern Flavor

2010-07-12T00:01:00.000-07:00

I twisted this classic Provencal layer vegetable using Middle Eastern herbs "za'atar" and add a little tanginess by adding sumac. I actually like it, it is a perfect companion for any grilled kebabs and even taste good with just regular Middle Eastern flat bread. Very simple recipe with delicious result, and look pretty too.

Tian de Legumes With Middle Eastern Flavor

~elra~

2 large Chinese or Japanese eggplant

10 tomatoes

2 large zucchinis

2 tbs za'atar

2 tbs sumac

4 tbs olive oli

⅔ cup water, or chicken stock for a non vegetarian

salt and pepper to taste

Slice all of the vegetables, then arrange them tightly and neatly on a baking dish, start with tomato, eggplant, tomato, zucchini, and again with tomato. Repeat the layer until finish with all vegetables. Sprinkle with za'atar and sumac, then drizzle with olive oil. Pour the water or chicken stock into the dish, season with salt and pepper. Bake for 40 minutes at 425⁰F oven.

45

2010-07-10T10:19:00.000-07:00

Bliss!
Having all my family came over to celebrate my birthday was the best birthday gift ever. Thank you ....
and love you all ...