Ikan belado

Today while making this ikan belado, I thought why not post it to this blog. Ikan belado is one of the dish served at any Padang restaurant. It's very simple to make.

Here is the ingredients:

Fried fish:

• 2 bonito medium sizes
• lime juice (of 1 lime)
• salt 
• oil to fry

Belado sambal:

• fresh red chili coarsely ground (approx 8-10 tbs)
• 5 shallots (coarsely ground)
• salt

Directions:

1. Cut the fish into 4 parts
2. Add salt and lime juice
3. Let it rest for at least 10 minutes to marinate
4. Heat oil in the frying pan and fry the fish then set aside
5. Reduce the oil and then fry the shallots and then add the fresh chilli
6. Taste the chili paste and add salt if necessary, allow the fry for a while until the raw smells of chili or shallots gone. Set aside and let it cool.
7. Top the fish with chili paste
8. Ready to serve.

Sambal Teri Kacang (anchovies and peanut with chilies sauce)

Sambal teri kacang is quite popular in North Sumatera Indonesia, this is sounds a bit like the specialty of Batak dishes. I cannot recalled if I have ever found this in any fancy restaurants there, but if I go to a small food stall where they sell lontong sayur or nasi lemak, this dish come as condiment.

Ingredients:

1 small pack of dried anchovies (1 cup)
1 cup of peanut
3 shallots
2 garlics
1 tomatoes; chopped coarsely
1/4 tsp salt (anchovies are salted sometimes)
3 tbs sambal oeloek
vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Fried the peanut till the color slightly change (4 mins approx), set aside
2. Fried the anchovies and stir around for approx 3-5 mins
3. Ground the shallots and garlics, then stir fry in 5 tbs vegetable oil.
4. Add the sambal oleok, the tomatoes and salt.
5. Mix the peanut, anchovies and sambal
6. Serve with rice.

Tempeh and mussels with green chillies

Today is the world cup final. And I'm a bit nervous watching my favorite "oranje" team played against Spain. I made a quick lunch before watching the game. Here we go:

1. one pack of cleaned mussels (2 cups)
2. 1 block of tempeh sliced into cubes
3. 1/5 cup of vegetable oil to fry

4. 2 cm ginger; sliced thinly
5. 3 cm galangal; sliced thinly
6. 3 cloves of onions; cut into 4 parts
7. 5 cloves of garlic; sliced thinly
8. 5 cm lemon grass; crushed
7. 10 small Thai chilles; crushed coarsely
8. 8 long green Thai chillies: sliced thinly
9. 2 tbs chillies paste
10. 2 tbs soy bean preserved (tauco)
11. 1 tomato; sliced into 8 parts.
12. 1 scallion; sliced thinly.
13. Black pepper (a bit)

Direction:

1. Heat the vegetable oil then stir fry the tempeh, 2 minutes at each side
2. Put the tempeh to the side of the pan then put stir fry the shallots, garlic, ginger, lemon grass and galangal till fragrant.
3. Add the mussles and stir for 3-4 minutes
4. Then add the chillies, and the soy bean preserved, continue to stir for another 3 minutes then add the scallion
5. Add the black pepper and serve with steamed rice.
6. Selamat makan!

Fried Tillapia with green chilles tauco

It was great to be back home again after traveling for a while. Love the food in Italy, they are just fantastic. But when I flew home and had this rice with ayam pedis on my flight then I realize my Indo tummy has been missing eating rice and sambal.

I called my sister and she mentioned about her fish of the day. I found that I have the whole tillapia in the freezer and decide to copy her recipe. This is very simple recipe yet taste quite delicious.

Ingredients:

1 whole medium size tillapia
1 lime (take the juice out)
salt and pepper
oil to deep fry

Green Chilles tauco sauce:

3 big shallots; chopped
2 clove or garlic; chopped
1 tomatoes; chopped
2 cm of ginger; sliced thinly
10 pcs of long green chillies; sliced thinly
3 pcs ofscallions; chopped
2 tbs of tauco (fermented soy beans)

Directions:

1. Clean the fish and add some salt, lime juice and pepper
2. Deep fried the fish till the side a bit brownish
3. Heat 5 tablespoon of frying oil then add the ginger, shallots, garlic and chilles, then add the tomato and some salt.
4. Stir for about 5-7 minutes, taste the salt and then add the tauco and scallions.
5. Serve the fish on a plate and then top the sauce.

Ikan pepes ala Bali (Steamed fish ala Bali)

I bought a spanish mackerel fish last weekend. I thought of making ikan pepes or steamed fish in banana leaves. I have my own recipe which I will post later on but this time would like to try different style. I have got the link on youtube showing the Bali chef makes ikan pepes ala Bali. The aromatic spices blend with the banana leaves just make this taste good. I had a big grin when I smelled the kitchen afterwards, oh it does feel like being back home in Indonesia :)

So here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

1.5 pounds whole spanish mackerel, bone off and cut into pieces
1 lime key; take the juice

1 lemon grass (take 5 cm closest to the roots and chopped thinly)
5 shallots
5 garlics
2.5 cm ginger
1.5 cm galangal slice thinly
2 tablespoon ground chillies (sambal oeloek)
5 candle nuts (kemiri)
1 teaspoon tamarind paste
3 tablespoon brown palm sugar
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon salt (add more if you like)
5 keffir lime leaves
3 bay leaves
1 tomatoes chopped coarsely

Banana leaves to wrap

Direction:

1. Mix the lime juice and the fish; set aside
2. Put the following ingredients to food processor: shallots,garlic, ginger, galangal, and candle nut.
3. Take the mix out to a bowl and then add the fish and the whole other ingredients, don't forget to taste the mix, add more salt or sugar if necessary.
4. Wrap the mix in banana leaves, use toothpick to stitch the leaves
5. Steam for 20 minutes, or check if the fish already turned to white.
6. Selamat makan!

Sweet and Sour Red Snapper (Ikan kakap asam manis)

Ikan kakap or red snapper are easily found in any markets in Indonesia. This fish is easily cooked into different styles, grilled, fried, soups and steam. This time I will make the red snapper with sweet n' sour sauces. This sweet n sour fish is quite popular. It served in the restaurants or even wedding reception. For my family back home this has been regular menu for family gathering. So let's cook!

Ingredients:

1 medium size of whole red snapper, cleaned. Make 3 strips on each side, (otherwise makes it into fillet)
1 lime and salt
1 canned diced tomatoes or chopped 3 big size fresh tomatoes
1 medium size onions; sliced in rings
4 garlic; sliced thinly
2 cm ginger; crushed
1 cm galangal; sliced thinly
2 tbs sambal oeloek
1/3 cup water
2 tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
1 piece of chicken/vegetable cube
1tsp white pepper powder
Vegetable oil.

Directions:

1. Mix the fish with the lime juice and sugar, set aside for 15 minutes (alternatively, this can also mixed with flour to get a crispy texture)
2. Heat the wok, put the vegetable oil to deep fry the fish.
3. Fry the fish 5 minutes on each side then set aside.
4. Heat 5 tbs vegetable oil in the wok then add the onion, let it cooked till it gets transparant.
5. Add garlic, ginger and galangal and sambal uluk, stir in the tomatoes sauce and the water
6. Add the salt, chicken/vegetable cube and then add the sugar.
7. Let it cooked for a while then add the sugar.
8. Mix the sauces with the fish.
9. It's good to served with steamed rice and boiled veggies.
juice of a lime

Stir Fry shrimps and egg plants in soy sauces

Finally, the spring is here. It has been few days actually. For few days the sky was cloudy and the sun was somewhere else, but today it's completely sunny and the weather is very nice out side. What a bless!

Since I started this food blog, I realized that I cooked more Indonesian food recently and less western food at home, which I usually do, once or twice a week. And not only that, the kitchen mostly belongs to my hubby during the weekend and he confessed yesterday that he had not been cooking as mush as he did in the past.

Yes, that meant I mush have taken his schedule and practicing with the recipes more and more. Bad girl! Well, I probably will slow down a bit and of course give chance to my hubby,too :).

So now I'll post what we had for dinner last nite.

Here is the ingredients:

1 pound of shrimps peeled the skin
1 big size of asian egg plants cut vertical into 4 parts and then cut them into 4 cm long.
1 medium size onion; chopped
4 garlics: chopped
2 cm of ginger; crushed
2 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)
3 tbs Thai sweet chillies
2 tbs rice vinegar
2 tbs sambal oeloek (chillies paste)
Oil to fry

Direction:

1. Heat the wok and then deep fried the egg plants for 4-5 minutes
2. Put the egg plants aside
3. Heat the wok again with 5 tbs of oil, add the onion, stir till the color transparant then add the garlic and ginger in, stir till fragrant.
4. Add the shrimp in and wait 3-4 minutes till the color changed. Add the rest of the ingredients (soy sauce, vinegar, sambal oeloek, vinegar, etc)
5. Stir for another 5 minutes, then add the fried egg plants
6. Served with rice and sayur lodeh.
7. Bon Appetite!

Tempeh and shrimp in chillies sauce

I served the dish last month when we had a small gathering at home. The dish is a bit spicy due to the hot chilles but also kind of sweet and sour. It was one of the favourite that night. I don't know why, perhaps my Indonesian guests really missed that taste of pedas (hot n spicy) as we said it in bahasa.

The dish usually served as side dish, yes we like that term of campur (mixed). For example we have nasi rames or nasi campur (which is a food platter with rice, chicken curry or beef rendang, a bit of eggs, veggies and sambal and not to forget the crunchy "krupuk" or shrimp crackers).

I find it funny sometimes when my hubby and I ate Indonesian food. The way he ate the platter is really steps by step, I mean he will finish either the eggs, then the meat and the veggies and lastly the rice. So I try to educate him a bit by explaining that the way we eat the Indonesian food is to scoop bit of the rice and something else on the plate. This way will maximized the taste. Thus if he eats the sambal (chillies paste) the hot from the chillies will reduce a bit when it is mixed with the rice. So he is learning now :)

Allright, so let's do this tempeh and shrimp in chillies sauce!

Ingredients:

1 pounds of peeled shrimp

1 block of tempeh; sliced thinly or diced, add a bit salt.

4 shallots sliced thinly

4 garlics finely minced

1 medium sized of tomatoes; sliced thinly

2 cm ginger finely minced

2 scallions chopped 

2 tbs soy sauce

2 tbs rice vinegar or juice from 1/2 lime will do

6 thai chilles coarsely grind

Vegetable oil to fry

Direction

Heat the pan and add 10 tbs vegetable oil. Fry the tempe till it cooked then put onto a plat and discard all excess oil, then add 5 tbs of vegetable oil (if necessary) add the shrimp in till it turned pink and done. Set aside.

Heat 5 Tbsp oil in wok. Then add the garlic, shallots, ginger, and the chilles, stir it till fragrant. Add the diced tomatoes then the soy sauce and rice vinegars, sprinkle the scallions slices. When it's done turn off the heat and put the fried tempeh and shrimp in. Mix them well and serve.

Veggies and seafood curry with fermented soy bean (Sayur tauco)

Today, I was thinking what to cook. So I went to the fridge and check what is available. Apparently I have some scallops, lima beans in the freezer, some broccoli and quails eggs in the fridge. And a little bit of fermented soy bean (salted soy bean) was also showed up in the bottle.

So I decided to do the sayur tauco. Well honestly I don't understand why we called the dish sayur tauco, because it is not only the vegetables (sayur) in the dish but also some shrimps or even chicken, too. My mum always make the dish for big family dine gathering, it's good to go with other meaty dishes like rendang or fried chicken and sometimes on any lazy weekend this will be good with lontong (rice cakes). This lontong sayur is a famous breakfast dish in my hometown. Originally the vegetables in this dish are green egg plants, peteh (stinky beans), green beans, green chilles and string beans. In addition you can also add fried tofu. In this recipe I only use what is available in my freezer :)

A friend of mine, a South African whose grandparent was Turkish and Javanese  liked this dish a lot. I made this last time we had students gathering in my university.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

1.5 cups or scallops or shrimp (clean and peeled) or chicken cubes

12 pcs of quails eggs (boiled and peeled)

1 cup mushroom (any kind)

5 thai chilles; slices

1/2 onion; chopped

5 cloves garlic; slices

2 cm ginger; crushed

2 cm galangal; slices

2 keffir lime leaves

2 bay leaves

5 cm lemon grass; crushed

1.5-2 cups of water

1/2 can coconut milk

5 tbs vegetable oil

2 tbs tauco (fermented soy bean)

1 cube of chicken stock (optional)

Direction:

1. Wash and cut the broccoli and mushroom, set aside

2. Heat the vegetable oil and then put the onion, cook it till transparent then add the garlic, ginger, chillies, lemon grass, galangal and the leaves. Stir till fragrant.

3. Add the broccoli, lima beans and mushroom, then put the fermented soy bean in stir for 3-5 minutes, then add the scallops or shrimps.

4. Add the water and coconut milk then the quails eggs, continue till the whole ingredients boiled, reduced the heat and continue cooking for another 5-7 minutes.

5. Served with rice or lontong.