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!

Pergedel kentang (potatoes fricadel)

 I have been quite busy with thesis writing lately, well it felt a bit like a never ending business for a while. I sent it out and it came back with lot of questions, I addressed those questions and more questions were coming in. And when there were no more questions , I creatively created them and fixed it and fixed it. So wish me luck folks! I can't wait to graduate :)

And my in laws were visiting these past two weeks. I called them the Vikings, and they fond of potatoes or potatis in Swedish. I served this with salad and fried salmon at home. This food seemed to be one of Dutch influence in Indonesian kitchen. So let's cook!

Ingredients:

6 medium size gold potatoes
2 shallots, sliced thinly
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
1.5 tsp salt (add more if necessary)
Water to boil the potatoes
2 stalks Chinese celery; chopped thinly
1 egg yolk
2 eggs white; stir till it make form.
Vegetable oil to fry

Directions:

1. Peel the potatoes and cut in halves
2. Bring the potatoes to boil about 20 minutes
3. Takes the potatoes out and mash them.
4. Heat 5 tsp of vegetable oil then fry the onions till the smell is out.
5. Mixed the mashed potatoes, the fried onion, Chinese celery and egg yolk
6. Add the ground white pepper and salt
7. Form the mix into round shape or balls
8. Heat the oil to fry the potatoes balls
9. Dip the balls into the white eggas foam before fry them
10. Deep fry the potatoes ball till the skin is brown and crispy (more or less 2 minutes)
11. You can serve it with fried salmon or even mix it into soto.

Tempeh Mendoan

Tempeh mendoan is thinly sliced fried tempeh battered in flour and spices. It is good to go with rice or eaten as snack with tea. Dont forget to eat this with cabe rawit (thai green small chilles).

Here is the recipe:

1 block of tempeh cut into two and then sliced each thinly
1 scallion thinly sliced
1 cup all purpose flower
1/2 cup white rice flour
3/4-1 cup water
vegetable oil to fry

Ground these spices:

3 cloves garlic
3 candle nuts
1 table spoon corriander
1.5 teaspoon salt

Direction:

1. Mixed the flour with water then add the spices and scallion
2. Add the thinly sliced tempeh in
3. Heat the wok with lot of vegetable oil when it hot enough fry the tempeh
4. Pick the tempeh before it becomes dry and crispy
5 Serve with small thai chilles or chopped of chilles with sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)

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.

Sauteed tempeh with green beans (tumis tempe dan buncis)

Half a year ago when I went shopping at whole food, my eyes spotted a white long medium package of tempeh. First, I did not believe that it was indeed tempeh, but then it is written clearly as tempeh, not only one kinds but there are few variations natural soy bean only like most you find in Indonesian market, with few grains, with carrots and etc. Since that day whole food has been a tempeh heaven to me.

Tempeh is a good source of protein, dietary fiber and protein, the amount of these nutrient in tempeh is higher than than found in tofu. And tempeh is originally come from Indonesia. I think the best place to eat tempeh and also tofu is probably in Java. During school, I was told by a teacher that both tempeh and tofu is a good substitute to meat. So if you are a vegetarian, this dishes might be appeal to you.

This time, all the ingredients is done very simple, clean, cut and stir and that's it, sounds so easy, don't you think so? So let's start cooking!

Ingredients:

1 block of tempeh (you can buy it at whole food in US)
2 cups of sliced green beans
1/2 cup portobello mushroom; sliced
4 cloves of onions; sliced
3 cloves of garlic; sliced
2 long fresh chilles, deseed then slices
3 tbs tauco (preserved black beans; available at asian market)
1 teaspoon ground corriander
1/2 stem lemon grass
3 keffir lime leaves
2 cm ginger
3 cm galangal
2 bay leaves
olive oil/ vegetable oil (more or less 10-15 tbs)
salt

Direction:

1. Heat the wok add olive oil and then stir fry the tempeh (4 minutes at each side or till it turn brownish), set aside
2. Add the oil again and this time add the onion, garlic, chilles, ginger, galangal and keffir lime and bay leaves, lemon grass, till that nice smell appear, then add the green beans and mushrooms, sauteed for 5 minutes then add the fried tempeh and ground corriander.
3. Add the tauco (preserved black beans) and sauteed for 2-3 minutes, taste the saltiness, add salt if necessary.
4. Turn of the heat and the dish is ready to go as side dish.

ps; You can also add chicken or shrimps into the mix. Cut the boneless chicken, add some salt, ground corriander and pepper, stir fry till bit brownish, for shrimps you can simply add it the same time when you put the tempeh into the mix.