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!

Nasi Lemak (Indonesian) Coconut Rice Platter

When I saw this recipe in the book Indonesian Cooking by Dina Yuen, it reminded me of Com Tam Suon Nuong, a Vietnamese platter with broken rice, sliced cucumbers and tomatoes, a special meatloaf and a pork chop marinated with lemongrass, which is one of our favorite breakfast/brunch meal on the weekend (I even marinate pork chops and keep them in the freezer).  (You can see my post about it with a link to Helen's recipe here: http://sunnysdelights.blogspot.ca/2014/04/com-tam-suon-nuong-vietnamese.html) So yeah, this Coconut Rice Platter seems like an Indonesian version of Com Tam Suon Nuong, even though all items except the cucumber are different. The platter comes with a deep-fried dry-rubbed chicken thigh, candied dried anchovies, rice cooked with coconut milk, cucumber, shrimp crackers and sambal oelek.  I only had big dried anchovies to make stock, and even though I sometimes cook Korean-style candied dried anchovies as a side for my boyfriend who loves them, I admit I'm not that big of a fan, so I substituted the anchovies for medium-sized shrimps with the shells on (to make it a little crispy like the anchovies), but I included instructions for anchovies AND shrimps for you to try the ones you prefer.  So here is my simplified version of Nasi Lemak, Coconut Rice Platter, from the book Indonesian Cooking by Dina Yuen.  Since the platter has many different elements, I thought it would be clearer to separate each element into one recipe.  Hope this helps!

(serves 4)

THE COCONUT RICE:

Wash 2cups of white, long-grain rice then cook as usual, but replace 3/4cup of the water by 3/4cup of coconut milk and a pinch or two of salt.

THE CHICKEN:

For 4 chicken thighs, with skin and bones on:

-3/4tsp salt

-1/4tsp turmeric powder

-1/2tsp garlic powder (CAN'T be replaced by fresh garlic)

-1/4tsp ground black pepper

Wash and dry really well with paper towels so the spices adhere well and the oil doesn't splash when deep-frying.  Rub the spices on the chicken pieces, don't forget to rub some under the skin too.  Let marinate while the deep-fryer (or oil in a wok) comes to the right temperate (somewhere between...  320F and 370F if you want to be exact?).  Deep-fry on both sides for about 10 minutes, drain on paper towels.

THE DRIED ANCHOVIES (or shrimps):

-1cup of TINY dried anchovies, or substitute with a cup of raw small/medium shrimps, without the head and deveined but keep the tails and shells on

-1tbsp sweet soy sauce/kecap manis

-1tbsp sambal oelek

In a pan, add a little oil and for a couple minutes only, roast the anchovies until lightly golden, or the shrimps until pink.  Add the sweet soy sauce and sambal oelek and stir for 30 seconds until well mixed and the sauce gets absorbed a little.

THE SHRIMP CRACKERS:

You can use whatever shrimp crackers you want.  In my book, on the picture, it's these colourful ones that are used.  If you're not familiar with this product, it's available at all Asian markets in a box for about a dollar.  You need to deep-fry them at a REALLY high temperature (380-400F).  To know if your oil is ready, throw a translucid tiny cracker in the oil, and in only a couple seconds, it should float and puff up like crazy.  If this doesn't work, wait for your oil to get warmer.  Drain on paper towels.  For this Coconut Rice Platter, right after the chicken is done frying, get the temperature of your oil higher and you can make the crackers really quickly before the chicken cools down.

To assemble, pass a small bowl fast under water and empty it. It prevents the rice from sticking to the bowl (but most of you most likely knew that already!). Fill the bowl with 1/4 of the coconut rice (half a cup), press the rice in the bowl and flip on a plate.  Quickly rinse the bowl and repeat for each plate.  Also place a piece of chicken and a quarter of the anchovies or shrimps nicely on each plate.  Garnish with slices or sticks of cucumber, and serve with sambal oelek and shrimp crackers!

Asem Udang Bakar, Sambar Telur and Lalapan with Sambal Terasi (Indonesian) Tamarind Shrimps, Chilied Eggs and Vegetable Platter with Shrimp Paste and Chillies Dip + How to use semi-dried tamarind!

A big post today, yaaay!  Today, I'll share three recipes from the book Indonesian Cooking by Dina Yuen, and my technique to make tamarind concentrate from semi-dried tamarind (it's MY technique, but if you know the real way to do this, please let me know in the comments or on Facebook!).  In that order, there's Tamarind Shrimps, How to make Tamarind Concentrate, Deep-Fried Eggs in Chilli Sauce and Shrimp Paste and Chilli Sambal.  As usual, I adapted and simplified the recipe for your convenience.  I wrote intros for each recipe under each picture so it's clearer which recipe is which...  Enjoy!

About tamarind...  Well, my boyfriend's mom use to date an Indian guy and she would always have candied tamarind.  My boyfriend hates it.  I tried it and hated it.  We both thought we hated tamarind, but turns out if you use it like lime juice, it works with a lot of dishes, and instead of being citrusy like limes, it lends a really fruity aroma.  Please, love tamarind.  We loved tamarind in Indian dishes, we both LOVED these really simple delicious Indonesian-style shrimps!

(serves 4 as a side with rice and veggies or soup)

Marinate (for 2 hours to overnight) 16 tiger prawns or 32 smaller shrimps like the ones I used, with:

-6 cloves garlic, finely chopped

-1/2cup tamarind concentrate (I use semi-dried tamarind instead, instructions follow if you don't know how to)

-3tbsp soy sauce

-1 1/2tbsp sugar

-some melted butter to bake

To bake, you can skewer the shrimps like I did (it's more convenient) or spread them loose on a baking sheet.  Cover the baking tray with aluminum foil to reduce cleaning, with a paintbrush spread some melted butter on the baking tray, then lay the shrimps on it and paint them with butter too.  Broil in the oven or even a toaster-oven for 2-4 minutes on each side, depending on the size of your shrimps.  Voilà!

This is the tamarind I use.  The first time I needed tamarind was to cook Indian food, so I went to this tiny tiny Indian market on Jean-Talon (I call this area on Jean-Talon "Indiatown") and asked for tamarind concentrate like the recipe called for.  The super nice shop owner (the same one that went to buy me spices he didn't have from a nearby shop, if you follow my posts!) had tamarind concentrate, but he said not to buy that, to buy the semi-dried one which apparently tastes much better (but I never bought the ready concentrate so I can't really say). He said to dilute it in water...  So I don't really know how Indian/Asian people use this form of tamarind, but this is the technique I developed which works quite good for me. You need:

-a small bowl

-a small strainer that fits in the bowl

-a small whisk (if you don't have one, feel free to use whatever utensil you have, but it's really easier with a tiny whisk, I bought them at the dollar store 2 for a buck -thanks to my man who told me how to spell utensil in English haha)

-water and semi-dried tamarind

Put some tamarind in the strainer in the bowl, and add some warm water.  Use the whisk to mash and rub against the strainer.  At the end you can straight up whisk roughly in the strainer. Add water if needed, but don't put too much: the tamarind concentrate should have a thick consistency like the picture of the prepared store-bought one.  You can always add more tamarind if it's too liquid!  Discard skins and seeds.

Replace lime juice with tamarind concentrate in recipes, experiment with it.  I didn't know about it a year or two ago, it's really "da shit"!

Last weekend, we invited a couple friends over for our friend Mark's and my birthday.  Everyone brought drinks, snacks, dessert, and I made tasty maki sushi, oyaki (which are delicious and easy, I should post about it soon) and these deep-fried eggs you see on the picture up here.  People loved them, even our difficult friend who said he didn't really like eggs.  This sauce is also really tasty!

(for 4 eggs)

Combine to make the sauce:

-1/8tsp salt

-2tbsp sweet soy sauce/kecap manis

-1tbsp sambal oelek

-4 hard-boiled eggs

-fried shallots for topping, optional (I forgot to put some on the picture, but when I made it for my birthday, I used them and it really adds something!)

Deep-fry the eggs until brown and a little crispy.  Drain on paper towels, then mix with the sauce and slice in two.  I pour the leftover sauce on top, it doesn't look as good as in the book but that sauce is super addictive!

(the book says this recipe makes 1 1/2cup, haha it only makes that super small amount you see in the picture, which is enough because the dip is REALLY spicy and pungent and it doesn't keep well overnight)

Grind together in a food processor or mortar:

-1/2tbsp dried shrimp paste, roasted*

-4 garlic cloves

-1/4tsp salt

-1/2tsp sugar

-8 red bird's eye chillies, without their hats

You can serve this like any sambal, as a condiment, or as a dip for lalapan, plate of raw and blanched veggies.  Really intense crazy Indonesian flavours!

*I'm never sure what kind of shrimp paste, dried shrimp paste, etc, to use when cooking Asian.  I use the shrimp paste in oil that sells in tiny glass jar, enclose the amount needed in a small piece of parchment paper and bake it for 5 minutes at 400F/200C.  Maybe an Indonesian person could tell I'm not using the right shrimp paste, maybe I am using the right one.  It's so pungent, it's always used in really small quantities, so I don't think it makes that much of a difference...

Kwee Tiauw, and my first Lalapan (Chinese, Indonesian)

Still in my Indonesian phase of course!  I like the book I bought, but I feel like there's not enough hard recipes, and if you know me you know I like to make food, condiments, sauces, broths from scratch.  I like complex recipes that teach you new techniques you ever saw before.  I need challenge.  This Indonesian Cooking book is good to introduce someone to basic, simple and quick Indonesian cooking, but I'll need a better (more expensive) book on the subject and I also should explore the blogs available on (praise them) internets!

I like noodles, and my boyfriend probably likes them even more than me.  This recipe is apparently a Chinese dish (even kept its Chinese name) that's so popular in Indonesia that it became a classic.  It's a really easy dish with simple flavours, but if you add some (a lot for me) sambal oelek on top, the flavours all combine together to create an amazing new taste, so if you like sambal oelek, don't skip it! 

Here's my simplified, slightly adapted version of Kwee Tiauw, from the book Indonesian Cooking by Dina Yuen!

(serves 4-6)

-1lb dried flat wide rice noodles, soaked in warm water for 30-45 minutes, then drained

-2 chicken breasts cut into small bite-size cubes

-13 garlic cloves

-3 shallots

-5tbsp kecap manis or thick sweet soy sauce

-2tbsp soy sauce

-3tbsp oyster sauce

-1/4tsp white pepper

-1/2cup water

-2-4 green onions, cut into 1inch lengths

-1cup bean sprouts or soybean sprouts

-some sambal oelek to serve with

In a big wok or big non-stick pan, add 3tbsp of oil and stir the garlic and shallots for 2-3 minutes.  Add the chicken and stir-fry until mostly cooked.

Add the noodles and toss while trying to avoid breaking the noodles (they'll still break, you can't make a miracle like this one happen).

Add the 2 soy sauces, and the oyster sauce, white pepper and water.  Mix well.  Add the bean sprouts and green onions, toss for a minute and it's ready!

Here is a picture of my first lalapan, plate of vegetables accompanied by a sambal and served with Indonesian food as a side dish.  I used cucumber, tomatoes, and blanched string beans and cabbage. It was good but I wasn't impressed by this peanut sauce sambal recipe from the same book as the noodles. The quantities were wrong, I had to add double the peanuts, and it still tasted more of coconut milk and lemongrass...  I feel like I improvised better peanut sauce without measuring in the past.  So I'll come back to you with other sambals and a better peanut one.  It's still nice to have a plate of fresh veggies to munch on throughout the meal :).

Rendang (Indonesian)

On June 5th I turned 25!  I had good times even though my boyfriend and I were broke...  The previous weekend, we went to my mom and had T-bones on the barbecue, got some money and a food processor from mom and dad!  On the 5th, I met my boyfriend downtown after his job and we went light shopping (we had $30-40!), had cheap delicious Banh Mi in Chinatown, found a plant of Vietnamese mint!, then I chose this Indonesian cooking book (I'll elaborate later)!  Then on the weekend, we had a couple friends over, our apartment is small, our balcony is kind of spacious and the weather was really nice!  We ended up chilling on the balcony most of the day.  A friend brought drinks, chips and candies, another friend bought everything to assemble a sponge, whip cream and fruits cake, and I made maki sushi, oyaki with soboro pork and some crazy indonesian eggs that I'll have to make again just to share the recipe with the world.  I really should have taken pictures of the feast.  It made me really happy because everyone kept on saying with their mouth full how good it was, or eating and just nodding with the "this is good!" eyes!  It makes me so happy to cook for others!

So back to this Indonesian book!  We went to the bookstore and I had $20 and some change left from our bithday date budget to buy a book.  I cooked enough Vietnamese food lately and I wanted to try some new flavours!  When I check a book about a type of cooking I never tried before, I mostly look at the ingredients.  Indonesian food, of which I know almost nothing of, is full of garlic, chillies, sambal oelek, kecap manis (sweet soy sauce with the texture of oyster sauce), coconut milk, lemongrass, galangal, palm sugar...  Everything I like!  And no cilantro anywhere (poor cilantro, I hate him)!

The said book is called Indonesian Cooking by Dina Yuen.  It's a book of mostly easy but really tasty dishes and also a couple different sambals (really intense condiments served with satays, lalapan, everything really).  I didn't know until I checked on the internet, but a proper Indonesian meal is served with a lalapan, which is an assortment of fresh and blanched vegetables accompanied by any kind of sambal from what I understood.  The vegetables can be tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuces and herbs, blanched green beans, any type of vegetable that ends with choy (blanched), any type of cabbage (blanched), any greens...  That's what I've seen around the internet, but I guess you can put whatever you want or have in the fridge.  Tonight I'm making a noodle stir-fry that doesn't have that many veggies, so I'll try making lalapan to balance things out (and for fun!).

You'll hear a lot about this book, Indonesian Cooking by Dina Yuen, from where today's recipe comes from.  I present to you Rendang, some kind of very fragrant beef curry, from the book, simplified by me and including some of my tips!

(serves 4)

Grind everything into a paste (with mortar or food processor):

-14 garlic cloves, peeled

-2inches of peeled ginger, sliced

-1inch galangal, peeled and sliced

-white parts of 2 lemongrass stalks, roughly chopped

-1 1/2lb beef, cubed (for short time stewing)

-2tsp sambal oelek

-3/4tsp salt

-2cups coconut milk

-1tsp or more black pepper

-1/2tsp sugar

-1/4tsp turmeric powder

-10 kaffir lime leaves

In a medium sized NON-STICK (learn from my experience) pot or high pan, warm up 2tbsp of oil.  Add the paste, sambal oelek and salt and stir 2 minutes until fragrant.  Mix in the beef cubes for a minute, then add the coconut milk, black pepper, sugar, turmeric powder and lime leaves and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to medium/medium-high, and simmer for 45 to 90 minutes (depending on the cut of beef) until the beef is soft enough. If it needs more liquid, add a little hot water.  To test this I poke one big chunk of beef with a fork, and if it's too hard to pull the fork out easily, it's not ready yet.  Serve with rice and a salad or veggies or lalapan!

Basics to Ramen, compose your own Ramen! (Japanese) Also Soboro Meat, Teriyaki Sauce and more!

You probably know me for trying other people's recipes, but I can cook too!  It's hard for a white girl from Haitian descendant to cook Vietnamese food the first times without a recipe.  You can't reproduce what you've never eaten.  After one year of eating packaged noodles and cheap restaurant every day in our first common apartment, I knew I had to start cooking more.  We used to live in a tiny studio apartment Downtown, with crackheads in the entrance at all hours of the day/night.  I could mostly only cook easy québécois food and French salads and sandwiches (it was my job at a French Café-Bakery-Chocolatier). So we decided to move in a 3 1/2 cheaper and bigger apartment since it was away from Downtown.  I'm really good at reusing furnitures and making up with what we have, my kitchen is like a giant colourful lab, all equipped for Japanese, Indian, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Thai cooking.

So back to the "I'm gonna start cooking" decision.  I'm not sure exactly how it started.  I think I wanted to make onigiri then I started watching Cooking with Dog on YouTube.  After that, I was obsessed that when I have a little spare money, I would buy a Japanese cookbook.  And I did, it was a book from the French-Japanese Laure Kié called "La cuisine japonaise : les bases".  Later on I also bought the other books of that serie, one about noodles and the other about izakaya.  I got Momofuku's book.  I started hanging out at the Korean-Japanese grocery stores and I even found a Japanese (expensive) grocery store where I could find specialized Japanese ingredients and fermentation products (Koji, Nuka bran). I cooked only Japanese and nothing else for about two years!

One of our first dates, my boyfriend brought me to Sumo Ramen, a small really hip Japanese place in Montreal's 4x4 blocks tiny Chinatown.  It was my first time having non-packaged ramen, which should be considered a totally different food.  After cooking Japanese for some time, I remembered this delicious miso-ramen I had and decided to make my own.  Of course, that first ramen I had at Sumo Ramen stayed on my mind, and the garnishes are a reflection of it.  After exploring different recipes and topping, I don't need a recipe anymore.  So here I give you a guide for homemade ramen, with different broths, seasoning, noodles, eggs, garnishes and main toppings (protein) so your can choose and compose your own ramen!

HOW TO COOK A RAMEN:------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's how you assemble a ramen.  I'll give instructions for the preparations of the different elements in details following this.

(serves 2)

-4 cups of broth

-ginger and/or garlic

-veggies (I usually use carrot strips, shredded cabbage and bean sprouts)

-shoyu or usu-Kuchi shoyu or soy sauce

-mirin

-toasted sesame oil

-optional: miso, if you're making miso-ramen

-2 portions of noodles

-protein topping(see later)

-garnishes (see garnishes later)

-2 eggs (precision later in this article)

Boil the noodles until cooked, then rinse under cold water.

In a non-stick high pan, wok or big pot, add a little oil on medium high.  Cook your ginger and/or garlic a minute, then add your veggies. Cook and toss until wilted.  Add the broth and bring to a boil.  Season (to your taste or the quantities are there later in the seasonings section) with soy sauce and mirin.  Reduce the heat to low and dissolve the miso through a small strainer if using.  Then just remove from the stove and add sesame oil, mix.

To assemble, put the noodles at the bottom of two big soup bowls.  Add the soup, top with your protein, garnishes and egg.

THE BROTH:-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ramen restaurants have that reputation of putting a lot of love and time and passion into their ramen broth.  The best ramen broth I tried was David Chang's in his Momofuku book.  The problem with that broth is that you HAVE to make a lot, otherwise it's not worth it.  Also, it's really expensive since on top of the usual veggies, kombu seaweed and dried mushrooms, he uses a ton of pork bones, and bacon, AND A WHOLE CHICKEN.  It's starting to be expensive...  When I think ramen, I think of a cheap filling meal.  Also it's summer so we're not gonna eat soup everyday, and we're just two so I like to make small amounts of broth.  You have three options now: bones (pork bones being the most authentic traditional one), or I guess you could use dashi, or if you have unseasoned broth in your fridge or freezer, it would probably work.  So you can make your own broth, but if you don't know how, here's how I do my broths.

PORK BROTH:

-Pork bones

-a piece of kombu seaweed

-a couple dried shiitake mushrooms

-vegetables for flavour, I suggest using some of these commonly used in Japanese cooking ingredients: leek, green onions, onions, carrots, ginger (if the broth isn't for ramen, I'd add lemongrass)

-plenty of water

In a big pot, cover the bones with water, bring to a vigorous boil, then drain and rinse the bones well.  This reduces the amount of scum to skim afterwards a lot, plus if your bones were frozen, no problem!

Put the washed bones back into the cleaned pot and cover with water, maybe an inch or two over the bones.  Bring to a boil, then remove from the stove, add the kombu and dried mushrooms and let it steep for 30 minutes.  Remove only the kombu and bring the broth back to a boil, then reduce heat and let is simmer from 2-6 hours, the more the better.  The 45 last minutes, add all your veggies.  Strain and discard everything, then strain again through a fine mesh strainer for a perfect broth!

DASHI:

Dashi is a really quick broth/condiment that is in almost every Japanese food.  Using it for ramen would make it really unauthentic, but still lend a Japanese taste. The soup would also be lighter.  But it is perfect for vegetarians and this is home style ramen so who cares?  Experiment!

-4 cups water

-a piece of kombu

-one handful of katsuobushi (if you eat fish, they're flakes of whole dried smoke fermented bonito fish) AND/OR a couple dried shiitake if you're vegetarian

Combine all ingredients in a medium pot.  Cover and let steep at room temperature for a minimum of 2 hours to maybe 6 hours.

Put the pot on the stove and warm up slowly.  Before it boils, remove from the stove and strain through a fine mesh strainer.  Discard everything. The before boiling temperature is perfect for the kombu and katsuobushi to release their flavour, and the broth should stay clear too if you don't boil it!

ANY BROTH:

Any broth, like leftover pork or chicken broth, preferably unseasoned so we can season it with Japanese ingredients for that Japanese taste, but you can also experiement!

THE BROTH'S SEASONINGS:---------------------------------------------------------------------

For two people, I use 4 cups of broth.  Here is how I season it!  Each ingredient has its best moment to be added, so please follow the "how to cook a ramen" section at the beginning of this post!

-1tbsp mirin

-1tbsp miso

-1/2tbsp soy sauce

-a splash of sesame oil or to taste

This will make a slightly misoed soup.  If you add more miso, you'll probably need less or none of the soy sauce.  Adjust to taste.  Mirin is a little sweet, miso and shoyu are salty.  Sesame oil is nutty.  Your best friend is your tastebuds!

NOODLES:-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ramen are generally served with fresh ramen noodles (find them at the Asian market) or sometimes udon.  I also tried homemade pasta (my post on homemade pasta/egg noodles here: http://sunnysdelights.blogspot.ca/2014/04/homemade-egg-noodlespastas-basics.html), thin dried Chinese egg noodles, Korean udon and black rice noodle.  It might not be a traditional ramen but please make this your own and try different noodles!

GARNISHES:------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Inspired by Sumo Ramen, here are the garnishes I can't skip on my ramen!  They're all replaceable or optional.

-sesame seeds

-fresh or canned corn kernels

-nori seaweed, a piece or in thin strips

-enoki mushrooms, sometimes I put shimeji too

-sliced green onions

-an egg, precisions following

You could also use any kind of blanched greens, I've seen that before.  If you're doing a modern-experiemental dish, throw some eggplants (gross!) or something, the ramen is your canvas!

THE EGG:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The egg is a REALLY important element of the ramen.  The usual is a hard-boiled egg cut into 2.  You could also top the ramen with a sunny side-up fried egg, why not?  You could use a poached egg (I'm not really good at making them), or like me, an Onsen Tamago or hot spring slow poached egg.  I tried so many different instructions for Onsen Tamago and even though on the pictures and in the videos it works, it never worked for me, until I found David Chang's tips and I make the perfect Onsen Tamago every time! You can also top asparagus and donburi with these eggs.  They're like a poached egg, with the yolk all runny.  

Onsen Tamago:

-as many eggs as you want.  They'll keep in their shell in the fridge for a day of two.

-a big pot

-little sauce plates, one for each egg to rest on, they must not touch the bottom of the pot

-a thermometer

In the big pot while carefully monitoring the temperate, bring plenty of water to 140F.  Drop the sauce plates at the bottom and with tongs place an egg on each plate.  Put a timer for 40 minutes and check on your thermometer often to make sure the temperature stays as close to 140F the whole cooking time.  After 40 minutes, transfer the eggs to a bowl of water and ice or under running cold water.  Keep in the fridge.  When ready to use, place the eggs in a bowl of warm water for one minute, then crack open on top of your ramen or other dish.

DIFFERENT MAIN TOPPINGS:---------------------------------------------------------------------

You can use anything you want, here are some of my favorite!:

-Kanikuni (fake crab sticks) pulled appart

-Slices of Chinese BBQ pork

-gyoza or dumplings

-shrimps

-a teriyaki chicken leg, sliced in a couple pieces.  (Teriyaki marinade: 2/3cup mirin, 1/3cup shoyu, 2tbsp saké, 2tbsp sugar, some ginger juice, without the pulp)

For volcano ramen like on the picture under, I used this recipe from JustBento/Just hungry for Soboro meat and modified it to make spicy meat, it tastes soooo Japanese! Even though exceptionally I'm almost copying her recipe here, please go see the recipe on her website for a bunch of suggestions on how to use Soboro meat, here: http://justbento.com/handbook/johbisai/basic-meat-soboro

Volcano meat:

-1lb ground beef

-1 to 2tbsp sesame oil

-2 stalks finely chopped green onions

-1 chopped garlic clove

-2tbsp chopped ginger

-2tbsp sugar

-2tbsp saké

-3tbsp oyster sauce

-1tbsp soy sauce

-3tbsp gochujang (korean fermented chili paste)

To a pan, add sesame oil and stir-fry all the veggies until softened.  Add the meat until well cooked.

Add the sugar until melted.

Add saké and stir for a minute to evaporate.

Add everything else and let it cook until most of the sauce is absorbed, mixing frequently.

CONCLUSION:---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Home style ramen can be made any way.  If you read all this article, I hope your learnt something and might try it someday.  Please send me images if you do, either here on the blog or on my Facebook page, Sunny García.  Have fun!