Sate Ampet Sasak with Sambal Kecap and simple Lotek (Indonesian) Lombok-Style Beef Satay with Sweet Soy Sauce Sambal and Steamed Veggies with Peanut Dressing

I love making a whole meal of the same cuisine since the flavours go well together and create THE experience.  I made this Indonesian menu and it was awesome, even though I'm not sure if Indonesians would serve them together...  who cares!?  Not me.  So this plate has beef satay with sambal, boiled vegetables with peanut sauce and fragrant rice (I'll post the recipe for this rice very soon).

The satay are a little different from most satay.  Instead of marinating the meat cubes in a paste, you fry the paste, simmer it with coconut milk, reduce, cool down, and then you mix it with the meat and marinate.  The result was awesome, most satay don't use coconut, some use grated coconut, but coconut milk is one of my favourite tastes/ingredients so I guess this makes these Lombok-style satay one of my favourite satay.  Did I use the word satay enough yet?  Oh, and the sambal/dipping sauce served with the SATAY is simple and simply tastes delicious and addictive.

The lotek is a quick vegetable side dish to whip out, especially if you made the dressing ahead.  If you do make it ahead, you can restore the sauce to its original consistency by adding a little bit of warm water and mixing.  This fragrant dressing makes boiled vegetables taste like the fanciest salad ever!

So I present to you the recipes for Lombok-style marinated satay, sambal kecap and lotek, all 3 from the book Authentic Recipes from Indonesia by Heinz Von Holzen and Lother Asarna.

(serves 4-6)

-2lbs/1kg beef cubes

-lime wedges to serve

-2 recipes sambal kecap to serve (recipe follows)

-skewers (soaked in water for an hour if baking in the oven or grilling on charcoal)

Marinade:

-4 candlenuts/kemiri nuts (replace by cashews or boiled almonds)

-1 inch ginger, peeled and roughly sliced

-2 red lombok chillies (replace by one or two bird's eye chillies without the seeds)

-2-3 bird's eye chillies, without seeds

-5 garlic cloves

-1/2tsp terassi (dried shrimp paste), roasted in a piece of aluminum foil in a hot oven for 5-10 minutes

-1tsp salt

-2tbsp oil

-1cup coconut milk (thick if you can find it)

Grind all the marinade ingredients together in a paste with a food processor or mortar and pestle.  In a non-stick pan over medium heat, heat up the oil then add the paste and stir-fry for 5 minutes or until fragrant.  Add coconut milk, lower the heat to medium-low, and simmer for about ten minutes or until the marinade has thicken.  Let it cool then mix it well with the beef cubes and marinate in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Skewer the meat and cook in a pan, in an oven or on a bbq, turning often and basting with the leftover marinade.  Serve with 2 recipes of sambal kecap.

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And the recipe for sambal kecap, a really simple, easy to prepare and tasty sauce/condiment!

-3-4 shallots, thinly sliced

-1 lombok chilli thinly sliced (or 1 or 2 bird's eye chillies, deseeded if desired)*

-2tbsp kecap manis (thick sweet soy sauce)

Mix everything together!

*Indonesian cuisine uses mainly red lombok chillies, which are about finger-length and less spicy than bird's eye chillies, but I have a really hard time finding them, especially the red ones that i might have seen only once in Indiatown last summer, so I usually use a smaller amount of bird's eye chillies.  You can deseed them if you want but we like a good amount of spice.  Also, even when bird's eye chillies are used, it's almost always the red ones, but I like the taste of the green ones, so I take the liberty to mix them, especially in this sambal kecap, it adds a little wow!

And to finish, a recipe for lotek. Lotek is a salad of blanched vegetables with a peanut dressing. From what I understood, Lotek's dressing is similar to gado-gado's, but with less ingredients.  For example, in many recipes that I saw (I mean like websites and books that contain recipes for both lotek and gado-gado), gado-gado's dressing has kaffir lime leaves but lotek's doesn't. Anyhow, except the selection of vegetables and toppings, I'm not very sure about the differences between these two salads.  I like both!

Dressing (grind all ingredients in a food processor or mortar):

-1/2cup roasted peanuts

-2cm kencur root, peeled (lesser galangal, probably can be substituted for galangal since it's such a small amount)

-2-3 bird's eye chillies, without seeds

-1/2tsp roasted terassi

-1tsp palm sugar

-1tsp salt

-2tbsp water (or more if it is too thick)

You can serve the dressing on a mix of these suggested vegetables:

-blanched water spinach, spinach, or any kind of greens

-blanched or steamed pumpkin, kabocha, sweet potato, or any kind of squash

-green beans or snake beans

-potatoes

-carrots

-bean sprouts

I guess you can inspire yourself from this recipe and do anything you want.  I also added kaffir lime leaves in my dressing because I love them.  You can make it simple like on these pictures, or make it really diverse and fancy!  You'll be surprised how good boiled potatoes and peanut sauce go well together!

Ayam Masak Bugis (Indonesian) Buginese Chicken Stew

As a non-Asian, when I started cooking Asian food, it was hard for me to eat plain white rice.  I guess it's still not my favourite, so I usually eat my rice with pickles.  Another way to eat plain rice, probably my favourite, is with curry.  Indian people call "curry" mostly any dish in gravy or sauce, and plenty, PLENTY of sauce on my rice is the way to go, I usually even take a second serving of rice to finish the sauce!

This Indonesian curry might look like nothing, but it impressed me so much, I know I'm bound to cook it again!  Also I'm starting to enjoy a lot the taste of terassi/belachan (dried fermented shrimp paste sold in block, used in Indonesia and Malaysia too I think).

This curry is sooo easy to prepare! The dish itself was only chicken and sauce, but I was kind of too lazy to prepare a vegetable side dish so I added green beans, carrots and white mushrooms to it, and it was delicious.  I served it with some sambal oelek of course.  So here is the recipe for Buginese Chicken Stew from the book Authentic Recipes from Indonesia by Heinz von Holzen and Lother Arsana.

-a chicken, about 1kg/2lbs, cut in 4 or 6  (i used the same weight in legs only)
-4 cups chicken stock from chicken bones of chicken powder
-2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
-12 shallots, thinly sliced
-1tbsp terassi (Indonesian dried shrimp paste), roasted in a piece of aluminum foil in the oven for 5-10 minutes at 400F3200C
-2tbsp tamarind juice (see this post for a how to: http://sunnysdelights.blogspot.ca/2014/06/asem-udang-bakar-sambar-telur-and.html)
-1tsp white pepper
-2 salam leaves (also called Indonesian bay leaves, but if you can't find them like me, use curry leaves which are a closer substitute than bay leaves)
-a cinnamon stick
-4 cloves
-1/4tsp nutmeg
-1tsp salt
-1tsp palm sugar or brown sugar
-1tbsp white vinegar
-1 cup coconut milk (thick if you can find it)
-fried shallots to top if desired (I desired it, I just forgot to put it!)
-some vegetables if you want to make this a whole meal 

Bring the stock to a boil over medium, then add all the ingredients except the chicken, coconut milk and vegetables if using, bring to a boil again and simmer for 5 minutes.  Add the chicken and coconut milk and bring to a boil again, then simmer for 20 minutes, turning the chicken every once in a while.

After 20 minutes, remove the chicken and place in a deep serving plate, (add veggies to the sauce if using) and simmer until (the veggies are cooked and) the sauce is reduced by half, about 10 minutes.  Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve with white rice!

Mie Ongklok Udang and Homemade Asian Egg Noodles (Indonesian, Chinese influence)

Here's a dish I tried for the picture, Mie Ongklok!  When you'll see the picture on the blog where I took the recipe from, you'll understand!  Actually, even my pictures look really good!

So how to describe this dish...  It's most likely Chinese inspired.  Fresh egg noodles and pulled chicken, topped with a glossy translucid gravy (flavoured with the chicken and shrimp heads) full of shrimps and celery, and topped with hard-boiled eggs and green onions.  Up to now it still tastes Chinese.  But then you serve it with Sambal Oelek, Kecap Manis (thick sweet soy sauce) and a lot of limes and it becomes Indonesian tasting!  It was a really interesting dish and it looks really festive to me!  You can find the recipe here:  

http://bonitofood.blogspot.ca/2012/01/ifp-mie-ongklok-udang.html

When I made this dish, I realized the quantities of noodles were wrong, the recipe makes way too much gravy, shrimps and toppings, so I doubled the amount of noodles!  I made my own fresh egg noodles Asian style, the recipe follows!

Here's the recipe for Asian style egg noodles.  I don't remember if I wrote it based on someone else's recipe or I just copied it, and I'm not sure where I took it from (I wrote down only the ingredients in a book long before I even thought of making a blog). If you see the recipe somewhere, send me the link so I can credit the author, even though I might be the author!

(makes 4 portions)

-2cups flour

-1/2cup tapioca starch

-1tsp salt

-1tsp baking soda

-2eggs

-a little water, as needed

Mix the flour and the starch with the salt and baking soda (I like to use a whisk to mix dry ingredients well).  Add the eggs and mix well with a fork, then your hands.  Use a little water if there's not enough liquid to hold the dough together.  Flatten the dough to about maybe 2-3mm thin.  I used a pasta machine to flatten the dough and cut the noodles like at the store, but you can use a rolling pin then fold the dough and flour well with starch each fold so it doesn't stick together, and cut really thin noodles (but that requires patience and skills!).

If you have to much noodles or you want to make them ahead, I think they should keep in the fridge more or less a week.  Mix the noodles with starch so they don't stick together, and cook in plenty of boiling water because the starch tends to thicken the water and if there's not enough water, it gets so thick that the noodles won't cook.  If you use the noodles with broth, gravy or a lot of sauce (like the previous dish), I think it's better to make just enough (no leftovers) because these fresh noodles absorb the liquid overnight and become kinda gross :(.

Good cooking!

Pizzaghetti with Cheese and Sambal Oelek Stuffed Crust (Italian-ish, Junk Food) Pizza with Spaghetti and Meat Sauce ON IT

Today's post is for my mom, so exceptionally this post will be in French and English.

Depuis de nombreuses années, ma mère commande cette pizza spéciale qu'on ne trouve qu'à Longueuil, ville sur la Rive-Sud de Montreal.  Cette pizza nommée "pizzaghetti", contrairement aux autres pizzaghettis, n'est pas simplement une pizza coupée en deux avec du spaghetti au milieu.  Quand vous appelez chez Miss Italia, on s'assure que vous savez que le spaghetti est SUR la pizza, sous le fromage.

La dernière fois que nous avons mangé de la pizzaghetti, ils n'ont pas été très généreux avec le bacon, alors quand j'ai fait ma propre pizzaghetti, je me suis assurée qu'il y en avait assez.  Pour moi, j'ai ajouté une croûte farcie au fromage et au sambal oelek!

Cette recette est pour une pizza de 12pouces/30cm, et c'est assez pour 3 ou 4 personnes, très bourrant avec le spaghetti!  C'est facile, mais il y a plusieurs étapes, alors commençons!

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My mom orders this pizza from my home city of Longueuil, on the south shore of Montreal.  It's called pizzaghetti, but it's not a small pizza cut in two with spaghetti in the middle.  When you call for a pizzaghetti at Miss Italia, they make sure you know that the spaghetti is ON the pizza, under the cheese.

Last time we went to visit my parents in Longueuil and they ordered a pizzaghetti, there was barely any bacon on it!  So when I made my own pizzaghetti, I made sure there was enough bacon!  And just for fun, I added a cheese and sambal oelek stuffed crust!

This recipe will make a 12inches/30cm pizza, enough for 3-4 person, remember there's also spaghetti on the pizza!  It's simple to make pizza from scratch, but there's many steps involved, so let's start!

J'ai pris les quantités pour la pâte d'une recette par SortedFood.com, une bande d'anglais trop drôles.  Par contre, j'ai changé complètement l'ordre des ingrédients car j'utilise toujours la levure de la même façon, je me sens plus sécure!

Pâte à pizza:

-1/2c. à thé de levure

-170mL d'eau chaude, à 100F (l'eau très chaude du robinet fonctionne pour moi)

-300g de farine pour pain de préférence, mais tout-usage fera l'affaire

-1c. à thé de sel

-optionnel : 1c. à thé de poudre d'ail

Dissolvez la levure dans l'eau chaude et réservez.

Dans un bol pour mélanger, avec un fouet, combinez bien la farine, le sel, et la poudre d'ail si utilisée. Peu à peu, incorporez le mélange de levure et d'eau à la farine, en mélangeant avec l'autre main, jusqu'à l'obtention d'une boule (pas belle). Transférez la pâte sur un comptoir légèrement fariné et travaillez-la pendant 2 minutes.  Arrosez la pâte avec la moitié de l'huile, et continuez de travaillez la pâte pendant 2 minutes de plus, jusqu'à ce que l'huile soit bien incorporée.  

Dans le bol à mélanger nettoyé, versez le reste de l'huile, puis roulez la boule de pâte dans l'huile pour qu'elle soit totalement couverte.  Recouvrez le tout avec du film plastique et laissez gonfler dans un endroit chaud pour une heure (j'allume mon four au minimum pendant que je fais la pâte, et quand elle est prête, j'éteinds le four et y met le bol avec ma pâte).

Après une heure, la pâte devrait être deux fois sa taille initiale.  Transférez la pâte sur un comptoir et la pétrir pendant 30 secondes pour enlever le gaz.  Ensuite, vous pouvez utiliser la pâte immédiatement, la mettre au frigo jusqu'au souper, ou la storer au congélateur pour plusieurs mois.

Pour faire la pizza, il faut une plaque de 12pouces (30cm) de diamètre.  Fairiner légèrement la plaque avec de la farine de maïs (polenta, pas fécule de maïs) ou de la farine régulière.  Sur le comptoir, roulez la pâte avec un rouleau à pâte jusqu'à ce que votre cercle de pâte mesure environ 14pouces (15-16pouces si vous faites une croûte farcie) pour qu'il y ait du jeu pour la croûte.  Transférez la pizza sur la plaque.  Si vous faites une croûte farcie, faites un cercle de fromage tout autour (et ajoutez de la sauce chili, du sambal oelek, de la bruschetta si vous voulez) environ où la plaque se termine.  Fromage ou non, repliez la croûte tout autour, utilisez un doigt humide si ça ne colle pas bien.  Voilà!  Optionellement, vous pouvez légèrement mouiller la croûte et la parsemer de sésame, de graines graines de pavot, de ce qui vous plaît!  Les garnitures suivent.

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I took the quantities for the dough from SortedFood.com, but I changed the order you add the ingredients in to fit the way I always use yeast, so I feel safer!  Please visit the SortedFood channel on YouTube, these guys are super funny!

Pizza dough:

-1/2tsp yeast

-170mL warm water (100F), my hot tap water is good...

-300g bread flour preferably, but this time I only had all-purpose and it was good

-1tsp salt

-optional: 1/2tsp garlic powder (took the idea from another Sorted pizza)

-1tbsp olive oil

Mix the water and yeast and set aside.  In a medium mixing bowl and using a whisk, thoroughly mix the flour, salt, and garlic powder if using.  Add a little bit of the yeast water at a time and mix with your other hand until the dough has gathered into a rough ball.  Knead three minutes on a floured surface, then fold in half the olive oil and knead for another 2 minutes.  Shape into a ball, put into the cleaned mixing bowl, add the oil and roll the ball in it until it's all covered in oil (prevents from drying).  Cover everything with plastic wrap and leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour (I turn on my oven to minimum while I'm making the dough, then turn it off and leave the dough to rest there).

After an hour, it should have doubled in size.  Knead the dough a little to remove the gaz.  You can now use your dough or wrap it and keep it in the fridge until supper time or store it in the freezer.

To make the pizza, you'll need a 12inches (30cm) baking sheet, floured with corn flour (polenta, not cornstarch) or regular wheat flour. Roll out your dough on a floured surface.  You want it to measure about 14inches wide, so it has an extra inch all around for the crust.  If you're doing a stuffed crust, you can even roll it to 15-16inches wide.  Lay the dough on the baking sheet, centered. Fold the dough all around the pizza to make a crust.  If making a stuffed crust, make a ring of cheese around the pizza leaving an inch or so free.  Add some chili or hot sauce or bruschetta if you'd like, then fold the dough around the cheese to make the crust.  You can run you wet fingers on the dough before folding to make it stick better.  To finish the crust, if you desire, you can wet the crust lightly and sprinkle it with sesame or poppy seeds, or any seeds you like.  Toppings follow.

Voici comment je fais une toute petite quantité de sauce à la viande, rapidement, juste assez pour cette pizzaghetti.  Vous serez surpris combien cette sauce simple est délicieuse.  Quand vous n'avez pas 4 heures pour faire une sauce spaghetti, celle-ci est très bien.  Par contre, si vous avez déjà de la sauce à la viande maison au frigo ou au congélateur, n'hésitez pas à utiliser celle-ci!  Je ne conseille pas les sauces en jarres ou en cannes, aucune ne me plaît vraiment...

Spaghetti:

-1/2 ou 1 portion complète de spaghetti pour une personne (sur la photo j'ai utilisé des nouilles aux oeufs car je croyais que j'avais du spaghetti mais finalement non, mais je conseille fortement les spaghetti en boîte pour la texture)

-un bonne poignée de boeuf ou de porc haché

-2 gousses d'ail

-une poignée de basilic frais, haché

-sel et poivre

Pour la sauce, hachez les tomates et l'ail (j'utilise un robot cullinaire pour aller vite).

Faites cuire complètement la viande hachée dans une poêle anti-adhésive.  Ensuite, ajoutez les tomates et l'ail et faites mijoter vigoureusement et mélangez de temps à autre jusqu'à ce qu'il n'y ait plus trop de liquide.  Ajoutez le basilic, et salez et poivrez (ce devrait être légèrement trop salé pour que le goût de la sauce se démarque de tous les autres ingrédients sur la pizza).

Faites cuire le spaghetti, égouttez-le bien et mélangez-le avec la sauce dans un bol.

Étendez le spaghetti sur la pizza en premier, avant les autres garnitures.

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Here's how I prepare a small quantity of meat sauce really fast just for one pizza.  It is really good though, you could use this recipe for a simple quick meal with pastas, when you don't have 4 hours to simmer a proper sauce. If you've got some of your own spaghetti/meat sauce in the fridge or freezer, don't hesitate to use it instead, but I wouldn't recommend jarred or canned meat sauces, I don't like any of them.

Spaghetti:

-1/2 to 1 portion of boxed dried spaghetti or spaghettini (I used egg flat noodles because I thought I had spaghetti but I didn't, but the spaghetti's texture is way better for this pizza)

-1 handful of ground beef or pork

-2 cloves garlic

-a handful of basil leaves, chopped

-salt and pepper

For the sauce, start by chopping the tomatoes and garlic cloves really fine (I used a food processor). Stir-fry the ground meat in a non-stick pan.  Once it's cooked, add the tomatoes and garlic and simmer on high while mixing every once in a while until there's not too much liquid left.  Toss in the basil, then salt and pepper to taste, or a little saltier than to your taste should be perfect.

Cook spaghetti and drain them properly.  Toss them in a bowl with the sauce, then distribute evenly on the pizza dough before your other toppings.

Pour la garniture, la pizzaghetti Miss Italia utilise:

-quelques champignons blancs, tranchés

-du bacon, j'ai utilisé 4 tranches coupées en deux (faites cuire le bacon dans un poêle adhésive deux minutes de chaque côté pour le faire suer un peu, ensuite égouttez-le bien sur du pauper absorbant, de cette façon le bacon sera parfaitement cuit et il n'y aura pas trop d'huile sur le fromage)

-je crois qu'il y a du poivron vert?  je n'aime pas alors j'ai mis des tranches de chili

-beaucoup de mozzarella râpé, et plus encore si vous faites une croûte farcie!

Vous pouvez tout de même garnir votre pizza comme vous voulez.  Souvenez-vous seulement que certains ingrédients, comme le bacon, doivent être précuit ou blanchit, de façon à ce qu'ils cuisent complètement en 10 à 15 minutes au four.

Dispersez vos ingrédients (gardez-en quelques morceaux pour décorer sur le fromage) sur le spaghetti.  Recouvrez de fromage et décorez votre pizza avec ce qu'il reste.  Le bacon doit être placé SUR le fromage pour qu'il grille.

Faites cuire votre pizzaghetti à 400F/200C pendant 12 minutes, et ensuite sous le grill (broil) pour 2-4 minutes, jusqu'à ce que le fromage et le bacon soient jolis et bien grillés. Laissez reposer 5 minutes sur le comptoir, et voilà!

J'espère que Maman et tout le monde aimera!

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The Miss Italia pizzaghetti has:

-a couple white mushrooms, sliced

-bacon, I used 4 slices cut in two (make the bacon sweat just a minute or two on each side in a non-stick pan, then drain on paper towels, this way the bacon will be perfectly cooked and there won't be a lot of oil on top of the cheese)

-I think green bellpeppers, I can't remember, I don't like them so I put green long hot peppers, sliced

-a lot of grated mozzarella, and even more if you make a stuffed crust!

You can still put anything you'd like.  Just remember some ingredients might need to be blanched or precooked like bacon so they cook properly within 15 minutes in the oven.

Just lay your toppings on top of the spaghetti (you can keep some to decorate).  Cover with cheese, then add remaining ingredients.  Bacon should be placed on top so it crisps up.

Put the pizza in the oven at 400F/200C for 12 minutes, then broil for 2-4 minutes (keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn).  Let the cheese set on the counter for 5 minutes, then enjoy!

Cream Cheese Barfi (Indian)

When I had an Indian cooking phase, every week I'd go on this street to get ingredients for my cooking and I would always stop by this little Indian sweets shop and get some really cheap, really delicious treats.  My boyfriend used to prefer gulab jamun, but now I think he likes barfi as much, if not more than gulab jamun, which is a good thing since barfi takes 10-15 minutes to make and gulab jamun requires you to make homemade paneer, also deep-frying, it's a long process.

So my mister has been requesting barfi for some time now, and we had everything to make some except cream (and we're broke lately).  All I could find in the fridge was cream cheese. I melted the cream cheese with some water and used it instead of cream.  It's as simple as that and it worked fine.  It's a little different from regular barfi though, it tastes a little of cream cheese, it's really thick, slightly more salty and it feels less powdery/melty.  It's kind of a similar dessert to barfi, but different.

So here I share with you the regular nut barfi basic recipe I always use, and I included the cream cheese variation if you're curious or you have no cream too!  I tried being more precise than the book in my instructions.  The said book is Cuisine Indienne by Manju Malhi.

(makes 9 pieces, or enough for 3-4 persons)

-50g nuts: pistachios, cashews and/or almonds are the most common nuts used in Indian cooking, but you can use whatever you want, mix nuts, I used pecan on the pictures

-1tbsp unsalted butter

-50g powdered sugar

-100mL water + 50g cream cheese, melted and combined together in a double boiler (I use a bowl that fits over a pot of boiling water)

-125g powdered milk

-the seeds of 5 cardamom pods, crushed 

-other flavours? *

Roast your nuts in a pan on low/medium then coarsely crush them in mortar or chop them with a sharp knife.

Prepare a small container (one that shouldn't hold more than 2 cups).  I used a 9x9cm (3.5x3.5 inches) small plastic container.  Line it nicely with cling film.

Warm up a non-stick pan (medium/small if you have), get a silicon spatula and get ready for a workout!  Melt the butter first, then add the powdered sugar and mix for 3 minutes, incorporating the butter to the sugar by smudging them together against the bottom of the pan.  Add the cream or the cream cheese solution, and mix for 3 minutes.  Add the powdered milk and mix thoroughly and constantly for about 3 minutes again, then add the cardamom and nuts.  Mix well for a minute or two, then transfer to your prepared container.  Pack the mixture and flatten the top nicely with the wet back of a spoon.  Cover with cling film, flatten further with your fingers through the film if you want, and let the fudge rest for a couple hours to firm it up before cutting in small pieces.

*Other Indian dessert flavours you could use include rose water and saffron strands (from Iran or Spain, the good kind).  If you skip the cardamom, you could make a non-Indian barfi and use vanilla extract or seeds, orange blossom water, substitute some nuts by desiccated coconut... Experiment!

Satay Babi (Indonesian)

Here's a short post to tell you that I finally found the complex flavours I was looking for in Indonesian cooking!  I tried these Satay Babi from DailyCookingQuest, Anita's blog, who specializes in Indonesian, Thai, Japanese and Chinese food I think.  These satays are really flavourful (kaffir lime leaves, galangal, a bunch of aromatics AND dried spices).  They're SO good!  You should really check her website.  I will probably try and post about a lot of her recipes in the future, there's many interesting ones to choose from, and of course, the pictures are gorgeous and appetizing! You can find the recipe for Satay Babi here!:

http://dailycookingquest.com/by-cuisine/indonesian/sate-babi-indonesian-pork-satay

I served the satays with the dipping sauce included in the Satay Babi recipe, white rice and a lalapan (veggie platter with a sambal dip) with a peanut sambal.  As I mentioned in the previous post, Gyoza in Peanut Sauce with String Beans Mushrooms and Basil, I found a peanut sauce I really enjoy.  It's spicy, a little sweet, and aromatic.  I didn't expect the satays to be that sweet (way sweeter than the peanut sauce), I should have served the lalapan with a savoury sambal to balance everything.  It still was delicious!  About the recipe for the peanut sauce, it's actually a salad dressing, so to make peanut sambal/dip, just use half the amount of water suggested when diluting the peanut paste.  It keeps good in the fridge for about a week probably, so if you want to use some as a salad dressing or a sauce, you can always dilute a portion later.  I diluted it with coconut milk instead of water for my Gyoza in Peanut Sauce and it was really good!  Here's the link to the recipe:

http://dailycookingquest.com/by-cuisine/indonesian/pecel-madiun-vegetables-in-peanut-sauce

Goodnight people!

Gyoza in Peanut Sauce with String Beans, Mushrooms and Basil (Japanese-Indonesian) My go-to recipes for Gyoza and Peanut Sauce!

Hello!  Yesterday, my boyfriend didn't have lunch because he was finishing work early, so we kind of ate a full lunch at 4.  By 8-9PM, we still weren't hungry but I needed some food (not junk snack) to take with my pills so I came up with this recipe, which is not really a recipe but more of an idea, using elements that are recipes from other talented people.  Nonetheless, it was super good, like good enough to post about it and cook it again many times in the future.  Here's what you need:

-some frozen dumplings of your choice, homemade or store-bought* (for this light meal, I used 6 dumplings per plate)

-some peanut sauce**

-coconut milk, optional

-vegetables (I used white mushrooms and green beans that I steamed in the microwave in a bowl with a little water covered with cling film, but leave a small opening for the steam to escape, and cook for a minute or two for al dente vegetables.  You could also use other vegetables, I thought of tossing some raw spinach at the same time as you add the peanut sauce at the end for example...)

-loads of basil if you like it (it really goes well with the peanut sauce, after I took the pictures, I dumped a bunch of leaves on my plate!)  I used Thai and Magic Mountain basils, try different mixes if you too grow basil!

*I used Japanese gyoza, I make 2-3 times the recipe and keep them in the freezer for months!  My go-to recipe is from Chef of Cooking with Dog, here's the video!: http://youtu.be/r8MBX-SXnmg

**I finally found a really good Indonesian peanut sauce.  The recipe makes a good amount that keeps for a week. It says to dilute the paste with 2cups of water, but since I wanted to use it as a dip too, I used only one cup of water.  To make the peanut sauce, I used some of the dip and diluted it with coconut milk until the consistency was to my taste. I took the recipe here, the salad looks good too!: http://dailycookingquest.com/by-cuisine/indonesian/pecel-madiun-vegetables-in-peanut-sauce

Cook the dumplings in a potsticker fashion. If you don't know what that means: pour some oil (don't use sesame oil, it will overpower the peanut sauce) in a non-stick pan and place the dumplings standing.  Let their bottoms get golden-brown, then add water up to a quarter of the dumplings height and cover.  Let steam for about 8 minutes or until they're cooked and the water mostly evaporated (if there's still a lot of water after 8 minutes, put the cover on the pan with a little crack open and pour out some water, it happens sometimes, even to me).  Uncover and let the water totally evaporate and the dumplings' bottoms get brown and crisp again.  With a paper towel, wipe any excess water and oil or burnt pieces off the pan, then add your veggies and peanut sauce, and stir 30 seconds until warmed through.  Plate and top with a generous amount of basil leaves!