Thank you to Margot of Coffee and Vanilla for hosting a blog event "Vegetarian Awareness Month". For this event, my entry wasn't a vegetarian recipe, I would like to share some informations regarding vegetarianism and some pictures of my strawberry tomatoes.

Vegetarian Informations
Some people think becoming a vegetarian is hard, they have to eat tofu, but don't like the tofu taste. It's totally wrong, there is no rule in vegetarian that you have to eat tofu while you don't eat meat. I myself live with a semi-vegetarian, I meant my husband still eat fish and seafood, but no other meats. In this case, I still eat meat but I'm the cook, do you think I don�t get confused what I'm going to cook for him? The first time, I admitted that I did get confused, even my husband loves tofu and tempeh as well. We found out that so many vegetarian products are out there, such as smoked wheat which is taste like a real smoked beef, roast wheat which is taste like a real roast beef, veggie ground chicken and many other choices for the vegetarian. I have a picture of vegetarian products that I have in my pantry and freezer.

One of my favourites is a can of vegetable broth which tastes really like chicken broth and it�s perfect for soups, such as a wonton soup.

There is a good information from veggie123.com about types of vegetarians. According to that website, my husband can be called as a pesco vegetarian. I promise I will post mie ayam jamur pangsit (literally: chicken and mushroom noodle with wonton soup in a pesco vegetarian version) next time.


Strawberry Tomatoes
I saw strawberry tomatoes for sale at the first time at Dong Thai, the oriental store that I�m used to go for Indonesian and Asian groceries as well. With a good smell of tomato and rich red color, I was tempting to try. I went home with a pack of strawberry tomatoes. I�m not a big fan of tomatoes, but I do love these tomatoes.

They are slightly different from cherry tomatoes, which is bigger than cherry tomatoes. I couldn�t resist stopping eating them. It�s too good to add them in my cooking, I prefer eat them raw for my snack. After trying one pack, the juiciness, sweetness and tenderness were made me to buy again. They haven�t been very popular at the stores, but I�m pretty sure you will find them while they are on season.

Read more information about strawberry tomatoes here.

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I do love eggplants, either raw or cook. Back then while I was in my home country, I used to dip my raw terong gelatik putih (English: thai eggplants) into sambal terasi (dried shrimp paste and chili sambal) or roasted the terong ungu (Japanese/Chinese eggplants) and ate them with sambal terasi and warmed rice or steamed them and served with spicy coconut milk what we call "Pecel Terong Surabaya". Ahhhh I forgot to mention another kind of eggplant that I used to have, we call that eggplant as rimbang or tekokak in English is known as tiny eggplants, which the Sumatrans love to add them in their gulai.

It's different with my husband, he loves cooked eggplants, but he does love other raw vegetables. One time, he told me a story on how he knew eggplants for the first time. When he was young, he went to try an eggplant dish at a Italian restaurant. He didn't like it until he tried another eggplant dish at a Chinese restaurant. He fell in love and until now, every time we go to the Chinese restaurants eggplants will be the first pick :)

A week ago, we went to Huang Pu River, a Chinese restaurant on Pembina Highway. We usually ordered Eggplants Casserole or Szechuan Eggplants. That restaurant offer two kind of eggplants dishes. One is the Cantonese style and another one is the Szechuan style. The Cantonese was cooked with salty fish and the Szechuan is the spicy choice. As I grew up with salty fish and I love salty fish, I was scared that he would not like salty fish, I told him to pick the Szechuan one. He said, "I think I want to try the salty fish, let me pick the Cantonese one."

The orders came and he tried the eggplants dish, he said, "I like the salty fish." I just smiled and felt glad that he likes it.

I bought eggplants couple days ago and since he loves cooked eggplants and I still hadn't used my hot bean sauce in the pantry. I tried to make Szechuan Eggplants, got the recipe from the internet. This recipe is slightly different from the internet's recipes. I used kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce) instead of combining soy sauce and sugar.

Some people saute or bake the eggplants with a small amount of oil or deep fry to make them softer before they combine and cook with other ingredients. I myself sauted them with water.

Ingredients:
4 Japanese/Chinese eggplants
1 tsp chopped fresh ginger
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp hot bean sauce
1 tbsp kecap manis "Bango" brand (Indonesian sweet soy sauce "Bango" brand)
1 tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce
1/2 cup stock (I used shrimp stock from Knorr)
2 green onions, finely sliced
2 tsp sesame oil
sesame seed for garnish
1 tsp corn starch dissolves in 2 tsp water

Directions:

1. Cut eggplant smaller pieces as desired.
2. Saute with some water in a non-stick pan/wok, until soft. When soft, remove from pan.
3. In a pan, at low heat, cook garlic, ginger, and hot bean sauce for a minute
4. Add kecap manis, soy sauce and stock/water.
   
5. Return eggplant to the pan and cook for about five minutes until garlic is soft and a sauce forms.
   
6. If you like thicker sauce, you can add the corn starch mixture.
   

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Sustainable seafood? Is it a kind of seafood? What about Ocean Wise?

Visiting Vancouver last summer probably was the week which I learned about a new thing that is related to environmental friendly. Back then, I was learning about 3R and sustainable development things which was a part of my university�s subject.

It was our second day in Vancouver, we decided to go to Stanley Park but we were starving, we hadn't had any breakfast yet it was too late for breakfast and too early for lunch. We decided to have something quick for our brunch at The Fish House in Stanley Park. At that time I ordered Steamed Mussels with coconut milk, lime, jalapeno and cilantro. It came with fries and aioli. I didn�t realize that my order has an ocean wise logo on until I was waiting for my food coming and read back the menu. I also saw some other menus have ocean wise�s logo on. I was wondering and kept asking to myself what it is. I looked up on the internet about that logo. I found the answer through the restaurant�s website.

Ocean Wise is a conservation program of Vancouver Aquarium which was created to help restaurants and their customers make environmentally friendly seafood choices. Following a menu assessment, restaurants can join the initial phase of the program by removing one unsustainable item from their menu and highlighting at least one sustainable seafood item with an Ocean Wise logo.

Sustainable seafood choices are those species that are abundant and resilient to fishing pressures, well managed with a comprehensive management plan, and harvested using a method that ensures limited by catch and minimal habitat destruction. Read more about sustainable seafood here.

This October is a national seafood month in the US. Thanks to Jacqueline of Leather District Gourmet who had such a brilliant idea to host a Sustainable Seafood Blog Event "Teach a Man to Fish".

Since my blog is a named after Indonesia, I decided to participate with the traditional dish of Banjarese, Kerang Hijau Masak Habang which literally translated as Banjarese Cooked Mussels in Red Sauce. Habang means Red. Banjarese itself is a group of people who live mainly around the city of Banjarmasin in southern Kalimantan.

In this recipe. I used combination of dried red chillies and dried new Mexico chillies, and also added strawberry tomatoes which have a sweet taste.

Tips
According to mbak Riama of Dekap, to get brighter red color of the sauce, use dried red chillies instead of fresh red chillies .

Ingredients:
700 g mussels
6 shallots, thinly sliced
2 tbsp tamarind juice
2 tbsp ground lemongrass (optional)
3 strawberry tomatoes (optional), cut
� -1 tsp coconut sugar

Grind into a paste
12 - 15 dried red chillies (I combined dried red chillies and dried new Mexico chilies)
6 shallots
4 cloves garlic
4 candlenuts, toasted
1 � tsp dried shrimp paste (Indonesian: terasi)
4 � cm kencur (it is also known as kaempferia galangal), you can substitute for ground or dried kencur
3 cm ginger

Directions:

1. Stir fry sliced shallot until fragrant, add a spiced paste, ground lemongrass and coconut sugar, and keep stirring until cooked.
   
2. Add mussels, stir evenly. Add tamarind juice and water. Cook until thickened. Serve.

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As mbak Rita replied on my multiply, salad is the best choice after all those Indonesian style eid-ul fitr dishes' which are usually heavy and high in cholesterol due to the use of coconut milk.

Being inspired by Michael Smith on Chef at Home show. I made two versions of tuna avocado salad. First version, pretty much different between my version and his. While Smith added parsley, lemon juice and olive oil, I didn't add those 3 ingredients. I added sweet onion mustard instead. I wish I had cilantro in my fridge two days ago when I made this. For sure, this tuna salad is healthier than regular tuna salad which is added mayo in. Instead of mayo, he added avocado to get creamier taste. I had this salad in spinach pesto wrap.

The second version I made was today. After work, I went to Superstore to buy a bunch of cilantro and a bag of key lime. I substituted for cilantro instead of parsley, substituted for key lime instead of lemon and also I reduced the use of olive oil.

Tips
Since I found out that my husband didn't seal back the plastic package of tortilla wraps that I bought couple days ago, so it was opened since yesterday. I know it will make my tortilla wraps dry, coz one time my coworker didn't close the lid of wrap's container properly.

What did I do? Put the wrap into a microwave and heat it up for 20 seconds or less, depend on how dry it is.

Another tips for tortilla, if you have broken tortillas, don't throw away. You can cut them into smaller pieces and mix with any dry seasoning such as cajun or others whichever you like. Bake them in the oven and you will get tortilla chips.

Ingredients:
Version # 1
1 can chunk light tuna in water
1 x avocado, pitted and peeled
2 -3 tsp sweet onion mustard
2 green onions, sliced
salt and pepper as desired
you can add cilantro if you like
spinach pesto tortilla wraps

Version # 2
1 can chunk light tuna in water
1 x avocado, pitted and peeled
2 tbsp key lime
1 tbsp EVVO
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 green onion, sliced
salt and pepper as desired

Directions:
Version # 1

1. Drain and place tuna into a bowl.
2. Chop avocado and add along with the rest of the ingredients.
3. Toss well, place in spinach pesto tortilla wraps and wrap them up.

Version # 2

1. Place tuna and water into a bowl.
2. Chop avocado and add along with the rest of the ingredients.
3. Toss well and serve. I served with pita bread

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It's been more than a year that I didn't touch my digital scrapbooking. I had to look up my scrapbooking files in our external hard drive to find some scrapbook kits that I made with Adobe PS. With those kits, we would like to say Happy Eid-ul Fitr to all muslims. All scrapbook kits were created by myself, but the poem is courtesy of Undil of Cerita Pendek Warna Warni Dunia Shinichi at duniashinichi.blogspot.com/2005/11/puisi-idul-fitri-2.html .

I tried my best to translate what it's said above, since I'm not a good poet.

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I love kopi tubruk as well as kopi susu from Warkop (Warung Kopi) Kaki Lima in Indonesia or it can be literally translated as coffee street vendors/hawkers . Kopi tubruk is the Indonesian style coffee which is served in a glass by putting the ground coffee and sugar as desired, pour hot water over, stir in with a spoon, then let stand to cool and allow the grounds to sink on the bottom. You should not drink this to the end unless you want to "eat" the ground coffee. The simplest method to serve coffee but you have to have just right temperature for the water to make it perfect. Kopi susu itself is literally translated as milk coffee, how to make it? Simple... Follow the direction for kopi tubruk, but don't add sugar in a glass. Instead of sugar, add condensed milk.

Inspired by kopi susu, I made Kopi Susu Kedelai (literally: Soy Milk Coffee). I sprinkled ground cinnamon over right before serving.

Ingredients:
250 ml soy milk
1 tsp instant ground coffee
sugar as much as desired
ground cinnamon

Directions:
Bring soy milk to a boil, add coffee and sugar. Let simmer for couple minutes. Transfer into a glass and sprinkle ground cinnamon over.

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Still cooking blue in the air. I found two pictures which were taken few months ago, and one of them was posted on my multiply. Just sharing two pictures and this ingredient's information that is widely used in Indonesian culinary, Gula Jawa or gula merah or gula Bali (literally: coconut sugar).

Some people get confused what the difference between palm sugar (Indonesian: gula aren or gula palem) and coconut sugar. Take a look to this link. You will know the difference between those two sugars.  Beside the plant sources, these two sugars are looked different by the colour.  Gula aren or palm sugar has a darker colour compare to gula Jawa (coconut sugar).  Both sugars have a lower GI (glycemic index)as well.

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