I didn't expect that bakso turned good. In Indonesia, people usually make bakso from king mackerel fish (Indonesian: tenggiri), but so far I have tried two different fish to make bakso, mullet (Indonesian: belanak) and this basa hypophtalmus (Indonesian: patin siam; scientific name: Pangasius hypophtalmus).

Especially for this basa, I have a different preparation by drizzling the fillet over with lime juice or calamansi juice and let stand for 15 minutes. From 500 g basa fillets, yield 30 fishballs.

Anyway, let's talk a bit about basa. Basa is what the Indonesians are called for Patin. Here are some species of Basa/Patin that are found in Indonesia (according to http://www.bi.go.id/sipuk/id/lm/syariah/ikan_patin/pendahuluan.asp):

1. Indonesian Local Patin with a scientific name Pangasius spp. One of popular exported comodities is patin jambal (Pangasius djambal Bleeker), live in the big rivers in Indonesia. Patin Kunyit is another kind of basa that lives in the Riau's big rivers.O
2. Pangasius polyuranodo (ikan juaro), Pangasius macronema (ikan rios, riu, lancang), Pangasius micronemus (wakal, rius caring), Pangasius nasutus (pedado) dan Pangasius nieuwenbuissii (ikan lawang) only live in the East Kalimantan's rivers.
3. Patin bocourti (Pangasius bocourti) lives in the rivers in Vietnam, and exported comodity to North America, Europe and several Asian countries.
4. Patin siam (Pangasius hypopthalmus) can be called for patin bangkok or lele bangkok in bahasa Indonesia.

Ingredients:
500 basa fillets, drizzle with lime juice and calamansi juice over, let stand for 15 menit, then rinse off with tub water
200 g arrowroot starch (Indonesian: tepung garut); can be substituted for sago starch or tapioca starch as well
3 cloves garlic
2 tbsp ready to use fried shallot
1 1/4 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp ground white pepper
salt and sugar to season as desired
150 ml cold water (you can use ice cube)
ready to use broth (I used canned of vegetable broth that is sold at Asian markets)

Directions:
1. Heat up the broth to 80 degrees C, never get broth boiled and keep the temperature at 80 degrees C.

2. Process all ingredients, except broth in a food processor until smooth and well-blended.

3. Take a tablespoon of fishball dough and shape into ball. Put the ball into simmering broth and do this method until all mixture done. Cook the fishballs until floating.

4. Angkat bakso dan letakkan dalam mangkok berisi es batu dan air dingin

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I bought a whole cabbage for making siomay bandung (Bandung style fish steamed dumpling), had lots leftover since I didn't need too much cabbage for that. I browsed a recipe of Holubtsi. I see this dish every special day or season at my husband's family house, we didn't eat them until uncle George realized that both of us don't consume pork. Lately, he always makes vegetarian version Holubtsi so all can eat, including us.

According to wikipedia, there are several variations of cabbage rolls; Golubtsy - Russia, Golabki (little pigeons) - Poland, Halubcy - Belarus, Holishkes - Ashkenazi Jewish, Holubki - Czech Republic and Slovakia, Holubtsi - Ukraine, K�ldolmar - Sweden, Kaalik��ryle - Finland, Kohlroulade and krautwickel - Austria and Germany, Lahana dolmasi - Turkey, Rouru kyabetsu (???????) - Japan, Sarma - the Balkans, Sarmale - Romania, T�lt�tt k�poszta - Hungary, Malfoof - Jordan (Middle East).

For some reasons, I came up with an idea by adding dashi no moto (Japanese instant fish stock base) and also used tomato paste instead of tomato juice that my husband's family usually use. Cheating method of mine, cook the rice with a rice cooker!

Ingredients:
1 medium head cabbage
1 1/2 cups uncooked long-grain white rice
2 onion, chopped
1/2 package dashi no moto
salt and pepper to taste
1 can tomato paste, mix with 1.5 - 2 liter water

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease a 2 quart casserole dish.
2. Steam the whole head of cabbage until soften. Meanwhile, cook rice in 3 cups of water in a rice cooker.
3. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute onion until translucent, and add dashi no moto; stir and remove from heat. Add cooked rice, combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Cut the leaves off of the cabbage and cut the larger leaves in half. Spoon 1 tablespoon of rice into a leaf and roll tightly. Place rolls in prepared casserole dish, stacking in layers. Pour tomato paste mixture over the rolls, using enough just to cover.
5. Cover and bake for 2 hours.

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My... my... my... this is one of my soulfood. I had been tempted to make it long time ago, but I kept delaying. Finally, I made this by adapting mbak Emi's recipe. According mbak Emi, she didn't add any shallot, but I did add a shallot in, but don't add to much or you will ruin the taste. She was right not to add shallot in.

While I was trying to translate this recipe's name into English, it looks such a long name, while in bahasa Indonesia itself has a more simple name.

Back then, my family used to add boiled eggs as well. Anyway, this recipe was posted on my multiply on November 20, 2007.

Ingredients:
150 g Asian eggplants
175 g tempe
300 ml coconut milk (not too thick not too thin)
salt and sugar to season

Grind into a paste
3 cloves garlic
1 shallot (better skip this)
3 candlenuts, toasted
1/2 tsp terasi (dried shrimp paste), toasted
2 red chillies
3 bird's eye chillies (add more if you like spicy)
2 cm kencur (also known as kaempferia galangal)
3 kaffir lime leaves


Directions:
Steam tempe and eggplants.

In a pot, add coconut milk, spiced paste, salt and sugar. Simmer for couple minutes until thicken and well mixed.

Place eggplants and tempe on a serving plate. Pour the coconut milk mixture over. Depress eggplants and tempe a bit, so they will be mixed with the sauce.

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Folks, I haven't been busy lately. Sorry if you didn't see me around lately. However, I still try to keep updating my post.

Actually, I made these dishes on November 30, 2007. I just kept delaying on post these. All these were containes baby spinach, one is a fusion Asian style and another one is an European style.



Baby Spinach Salad with Sweet Chili Dressing

Ingredients:
baby spinach, rinse off and drain
sweet chili sauce
calamansi
yellow onion, chopped
olive oil

Directions:
Mix all ingredients, except baby spinach. Place baby spinach on serving plates, drizzle sweet chili mixture over.




Smoked Wheat and Lingonberry Sandwich

Ingredients:
bread (I used Rye bread)
smoked wheat, boiled, cooled down and ready to use
baby spinach
lingonberry sauce
margarine/butter

Directions:
Spread margarine on bottom part of bread and lingonberry sauce on top part. Add baby spinach and smoked wheat on.

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As I mentioned on my old posts, I was born and grew up in Java island of Indonesia. Most of the Javanese use lime, kaffir lime, jeruk limo (Citrus amblycarpa Hassk., nasnaranan mandarin, leprous lime) for making sambal or reducing the smell of fish before cooking. So, I didn't really know until my friends on multiply who are from North Sulawesi province told me about lemon cui long time ago. The first time, I wasn't aware that Calamansi is what the North Sulawesi call for Lemon Cui or Lemon Cina while other parts of Indonesia call for jeruk keturi or jeruk kasturi until mbak Ima's post. She posted a recipe of Ikan Asap Sambal Matah. After reading her recipe, I had a suspicion that calamansi, lemon cui and jeruk kesturi are the same citrus. I have been using calamansi lots for substituting jeruk limo and jeruk purut (Citrus hystrix, Englsih: kaffir lime), such as making Pelecing Kangkung or just making es lemon cui (literally calamansi iced).

This citrus has been using in Filipino's culinary as well as in North Sulawesi and East Kalimantan culinary. Two provinces of Indonesia where is close to the Phillippines.

Acording to http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/calamondin.html . The calamansi/ calamondin is believed native to China and thought to have been taken in early times to Indonesia and the Philippines. It became the most important Citrus juice source in the Philippine Islands and is widely grown in India and throughout southern Asia and Malaysia. It is a common ornamental dooryard tree in Hawaii, the Bahamas, some islands of the West Indies, and parts of Central America.

After reading all about calamansi, now it's my turn to share a simple Manadonese's recipe using calamansi; Grilled Ikan Tude with Dabu-Dabu. Ikan Tude is what the Manadonese called for Ikan Kembung while in English it's called as Indian Mackerel. Don't get confused one I say Manado and another one I say North Sulawesi. Manado is the capital city of North Sulawesi.

Thank you to mbak Rieke of Sexy Chef for the recipe. A different style of grilled ikan tude that I made, I just inserted sliced shallot in the fish. I found the different between using calamansi and lime for marinating fish. No fishy smell after marinating and cooking the fish with calamansi.

I'm sending calamansi and this recipe for my entry at WHB (Weekend Herb Blogging) # 112, hosted by Simona of Briciole. In Winnpeg, you can find fresh calamansi at Young market on Mc. Phillips.



Grilled Ikan Tude with Dabu-Dabu

Ingredients:
375 g Indian mackerel (Manadonese: Ikan Tude; Indonesian: Ikan Kembung)
1 shallots, finely sliced
1 tbsp fresh calamansi
salt as desired

Sambal Dabu-Dabu (Dabu-Dabu Sambal)
6 shallots, finely sliced
6 bird's eye chillies, finely sliced
100 g tomato, diced
2 fresh calamansi, squeezed
sugar and salt as desired to season



Directions:

Grilled Ikan Tude
Preheat a grill pan.

Clean fish by cleaning out the stomach cavity, removing the gills and surrounding tissue, then clean well with tap water.

Cut several deep cuts on both sides of fish. Rub fish inside and over with salt and calamansi juice. Insert finely sliced shallots into deep cuts. Let stand for 15 minutes.

Grill fish until the skin lightly golden brown.

Sambal Dabu-Dabu (Dabu-Dabu Sambal)
Combine all ingredients for sambal.

Enjoy this fish with dabu-dabu and warmed rice

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If you go to Dimsum restaurants, you will see chicken feet on the menu. They usually add angkak (also known as Beni-koji, Hong Qu, Hung-chu, Monascus; Red Koji, Red Leaven, Red Rice, Red Yeast Rice, Xue Zhi Kang, Zhitai) to get red effect in the sauce. I made a different style by using black bean sauce (Indonesian: taosi/tausi) and omitting angkak.

Ingredients A:
500 gchicken feet, cleaned, rinsed off, and halvedpotong jadi dua
1 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp mushroom soy sauce
1 sdm rice vinegar (can be substituted for regular vinegar)
2 star anises
500 ml broth (I used ready to use seafood broth)*

Ingredients B:
3 Chinese chives (Indonesian/Chinese: kucai, Vietnamese: he)
2 red chillies, sliced
3 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
2 tbsp black bean suace
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
1 tbsp mushroom soy sauce
1 tsp corn starch, dissolved in a small amount of water
2 tbsp oil for sauteing

* If your broth doen't contain any salt, you can add salt into ingredients B as well. Be very careful to add salt, due to the saltiness of black bean sauce.

Directions:
1. Combine ingredients A together, except star anise and broth. Marinate for 30 minutes. Deep fry chicken feet until cooked/done.
2. Prepare a presurre cooker, add chicken feet, star anise and broth. Cook for 15 minutes. If you don't have a pressure cooker, just use a pot, but it will takes more time than 15 minutes.
3. Heat up a skillet at medium-high. Add garlic and stir fry until fragrant. Add chili and remain ingredients, except corn satrch mixture.
4. Transfer chicken feet mixture into the skillet. Bring to a boil and cook until done. Add corn satrch mixture to thickened.

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As I noted on my post here, tempe is very popular and traditional food in Indonesia, especially in Java island where I was born and grew up. Tempe always brings my memory back to Indonesia, where I can find tempe easily, either fresh or cooked. Back then, when my mom had a home-based catering business, she always had lots idea what she was going to make for traditional party. One of her favorite's ingredients was tempe.

At this time, I'm sending my childhood appetizer/snack for my entry at this November's Monthly Mingle, hosted by Meeta of What's For Lunch Honey? with a theme Traditional Feast.

Mendoan Tempe
A word mendoan is from Banyumas dialect, one of some dialects in Javanese. It means under-cooked or not hard or limp. That is why to make this mendoan need lots hot oil and quick-cooked technique. We eat this by dipping mendoan tempe into sambal kecap. Every person has a different kind of flours to make mendoan tempe, some use mixture rice flour with all purpose flour, some use all purpose flour, some use self-raising flour, and I myself use cake and pastry flour.

Ingredients:
500 grams tempeh, cut into 1/2 cm thick
oil for deep frying

Batter
1 1/4 cup cake and pastry flour
230 ml cold water
4 Chinese chives (Indonesian: kucai, Chinese: he), finely sliced

Grind into spice
1 1/2 tsp corriander seed
3 candlenuts
5 cloves garlic
7 cm kencur (also known as kaempferia galangal)
salt as desired

Sambal Kecap
1/4 cup kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce)
2 tsp fresh lime juice*
bird's eye chillies (as many as you desire), sliced

*some people don't add lime juice, I preferably add due to the sweetness and thickness of kecap manis bango's brand.



Directions:

• Combine cold water with ground spices. Add flour and whisk quickly. Dip gently the tempeh slices into batter. Deep fried in hot oil until it turn golden brown and cooked through.

Sambal Kecap

• Combine all ingredients
  

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One time, Anh of Food Lover's Journey asked me regarding bilimbi, one of ingredients that I use lots in Indonesian culinary, especially Acehnese. As one of my friends through multiply told me that bilimbi also use lots in Moluccas culinary as well.

Bilimbi has a scientific name Averrhoa bilimbi and belimbing wuluh or belimbing sayur is other names in bahasa Indonesia. A close relative of the carambola, of genus Averrhoa, family Oxalidaceae. Carambola itself is known as starfruit or belimbing in bahasa Indonesia.

Nowdays, bilimbi is cultivated or found semi-wild throughout Indonesia, the Phillipines, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar. It's also common found in other Southeast Asian countries. In India, it's found in gardens, has gone wild in the warmest of the country. Bilimbi's information is courtesy of wikipedia.

Cumi Tumis Aceh (literally translated Acehnese Spicy Squids) is a version of Cumi Teutumeh (literally Acehnese Squids in Spiced Coconut Milk) without coconut milk added. In this recipe, I added bilimbi as well as asam sunti (sun-dried bilimbi). As other Acehnese recipes, do not forget daun temurui or daun salam koja, which also known as curry leaves.

Bilimbi and this recipe are my entry for WHB (Weekend Herb Blogging) # 111, hosted by Kalyn. Since I can't find any fresh bilimbi for purchased, I have been using frozen bilimbi. You might find them in vegetable freezer at Asian groceries. If you notice on my bilimbi package's label, it is said kamias, that is in bilimbi's name in Tagalog.

Ingredients:
500 g cleaned squids, cut as desired
1 lime
salt as desired
8 curry leaves
3 kaffir lime leaves
1 lemongrass, bruised
2 shallots, finely sliced
125 ml water
salt and sugar as desired to season

Grind into a paste
4 shallots
2 cloves garlic
5 dried red chillies
5 bird's eye chillies
10 asam sunti (sun-dried bilimbi)
3 bilimbis (Indonesian: belimbing sayur, belimbing wuluh)
3/8 - 1/2 tsp ground cumin
3/8 - 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp ground white pepper

Directions:
1. Squeeze and drizzle lime over squid and sprinkle with salt. Add 1 - 2 tbsp spices paste, mix and let stand for 30 minutes.
2. Stir fry shallot slices, the remain spices paste, curry leaves, kaffir lime leaves, and lemongrass until fragrant.
3. Add squids mixture. Season with salt and sugar.
4. Add water; cook at medium heat until spices absorb and the water evaporates.

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ou're so sweet, Little Corner of Mine. I feel like getting a huge warmed hug from you in these cold days. Yeahh, Winnipeg has been snowing, but these past two days are worse. Yesterday was -17C, with the windchill -28C, it was snowing all day. This morning I woke up it was -23C without windchill. Thank you so much. HUGSSSSS.

"Do you know the relationship between your 2 eyes? They blink together, move together, cry together, see things together and sleep together. Even though they never see each other, friendship should be just like that! Life is like Hell without FRIENDS. Its �World Best Friend Week�. Send this to your best friends to let them know you appreciate them.

Your Love is Ur Heart,
Your heart is Ur Spouse,
Your spouse is Ur Future,
Your future is Ur Destiny,
Your destiny is Ur Ambition,
Your ambition is Ur Aspiration,
Your aspiration is Ur Motivation,
Your motivation is Ur Belief,
Your belief is Ur Peace,
Your peace is Ur Target,
Your target is Heaven,
Heaven is no fun without FRIENDS.

I would love to pass this on one of my best friends through multiply, Sefa. I'm really sorry we didn't communicate as much as before since I have been busy with my work.

Also to other fellow blogging friends who inspired me in cooking as well as photography:

The Adventure of My Cooking Diary

Gifts from The Kitchen

Homemades

Food Lover's Journey

Rasa Malaysia

Dapur Gue

Thank You. Hugs and Kisses from the Peg.

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After reading the 2nd Onion day invitation on IMBB, I sent an email to Zorra regarding on that event. Thanks to Zorra for hosting this event. With my consideration of being an Indonesian, tempeh or tempe has a cake form, made from soybean by a natural culturing and controlled fermentation process. It is originated from Indonesia and invented by the Javanese. It's also popular in other parts of Indonesia as well as other parts of Southeast Asia, introduced by migrated Javanese. Known as a staple source of protein in Java island of Indonesia.

Diced Tempe

I joined this event with Tempe Bawang Bumbu Kecap (literally tempeh and onion with sweet soy sauce. This recipe is adapted from ayam bumbu kecap's recipe, literally in English, Chicken with Sweet Soy Sauce.

Indonesians (especially the Javanese) love to use kecap manis. This is a different soy sauce, it's sweet (because it's added in palm sugar), thicker and also has a different flavor with regular soy sauce. Mostly in abroad, people use ABC's brand, for this recipe I used Bango�s brand which is not all Asian stores have it and to be honest I only use ABC�s brand if I can't find Bango or Cap Sate's brand.

Ingredients:
225 g tempe, cut 1 cm diced, marinate for 30 minutes, deep fry until lightly browned
1 medium (200 g) onion, wedged
2 Indonesian bay (salam) leaves
2 cm galangal
2 green chillies, angle cut
2 tbsp Indonesian sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
1 tbsp oyster sauce
200 ml water

Grind into a paste
3 cloves garlic
5 shallots
ground white pepper as desired
salt as desired

Marinade
garlic powder
ground corriander seed
water

Directions:
1. Heat up oil in a skillet at medium-high. Stir fry a spiced paste, wedged onion until fragrant. Add salam leaves and galangal until wilted.
2. Add tempe and green chillies, stir evenly. Add kecap manis, oyster sauce, white pepper, and salt, stir.
3. Add water and cook until the water evaporates and the spices is absorbed. Remove from the heat. Serve with warmed rice.

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Modified recipe from Sedap Sekejap, Brownies Kentang, by substituting dark chocolate cooking for unsweetened chocolate, omitting cocoa powder and adding palm sugar to get South-East Asian flavor.

Shaped a pan of brownie by cutting with a biscuit cutter. This idea was got from Mocha Brownies by Trish Magwood on Party Dish

Potato Brownies is my entry for MFM 9, with a theme potato, hosted by Nana.

Ingredients:
100 g unsweetened chocolate
175 g unsalted butter
100 g palm sugar
200 g white sugar*
1 tsp vanilla powder
4 large eggs
75 g all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
100 g roughly grated/chopped potato
100 g cashew nuts, toasted and chopped

* If you use a kind of sugar that a bit brown or in Canada it's called for raw sugar, you can reduce the amount of sugar, raw sugar is sweeter than white sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (180 Celsius). Line a 13 x 9-inch (3.5L) baking pan with parchment, or grease and flour.

2. In a heatproof bowl over simmering water, melt chocolate, palm sugar, and butter together. Remove from heat, add sugar and vanilla, mixing until smooth. Stir in eggs, one at a time until incorporated. Add in flour and baking powder, stir. Fold in potato and a half portion of cashew nuts

3. Spread in prepared pan. Sprinkle remaining cashew nuts over. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until set. A few crumbs should stick to tester when inserted. Remove to rack and let cool.

4. Shape with a biscuit cutter.

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Still continuing my housewarming party's recipe. Now it's time for a recipe of Sambal Goreng Cirebon (Cirebonese Fried Sambal). It's not really like a chili paste, a term for sambal. This sambal goreng's recipe was adpated from Nining's recipe, in which original recipe uses beef as well as innards. As I mentioned on previous posts, my husband doesn't eat red meat, so I used tempeh, tofu and shrimp. Instead of fresh red chillies, I used dried new Mexico chilies to get brighter red color.

Please get right back, I still have another recipe of my housewarming party left on my next post.

Ingredients:
3 tofus, cut 1x1x2 cm and fried
200 g tempe, cut 1x1x2 cm and fried
150 peeled and tail intact shrimp
10 dried new Mexico chillies, discard the seed and soak in warm water, angle sliced
6 shallots, finely sliced
3 kaffir lime leaves
1 Indonesian bay (salam) leaves
3 cm galangal, bruised
1 lemongrass, bruised
150 ml water
35 g coconut cream powder
salt sugar as desired to season
oil for stir frying

Grind into a paste
5 dried new Mexico chillies
7 shallots
4 cloves garlic
3 candlenuts
1/2 cm ginger
1/4 tsp ground turmeric

Directions:
1. Stir fry slices of shallots until fragrant.
2. Add a ground paste, kaffir lime leaves, salam leaves, galangal and lemongrass; Stir occasionally until all spices are cooked.
3, Add fried tempe and tofu, shrimp, and dried chillies
4. Add coconut cream powder and water. Cook until coconut milk dissolved and thicken.

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After getting confused and posted few of my chosen pictures on my multiply. I finally took other pictures and decided black macaroni is my chosen for CLICK the photo event.

Camera: Canon Digital Rebel XTi with lens kit 18-55 mm
Setting: ISO 100, speed 1/2 s, f/5.6


I like the color's gradation of this picture.

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We've been moved since a month ago. On Saturday night (November 3rd 2007), we were hosting a housewarming party, some friends came over and also introduced the Indonesian food to Aaron, his brother and girlfriend. Don't ask me where the people's photos who were coming over to my party. They already asked me not to put their pictures on internet. As my respect, I don't put your pictures guys.

I was confused what I wanted to make. I would love to have the Eastern Javanese Pecel, but didn't feel to make side dishes like the Eastern Javanese do, such as ayam bumbu rujak, tahu tempe bumbu bali, tempe tahu bacem etc. I would love to combine the Eastern Javanese style, the province where my mom was from and the Northern Sumatran style, the province where my dad was from.

After asking some suggestions from mbak Emi of Warung Si-Mbok Emi and Sulis of To Love and To Be Loved, I finally decided what I was going to cook. Lis, I hadn't read your reply when I decided not to make cumi teutumeh, we had the same thought that cumi teutumeh is too soupy for pecel :D.

My Style of Nasi Campur (Mixed Rice) on Merah Putih

One dish meal is a common food for a housewarming party in Indonesia. I served warmed rice with Pecel (Eastern Javanese Salad with Spicy Peanut Sauce), Cumi Panggang Pacak (Northeren Sumatran BBQ Squids), Sambal Goreng Cirebon (Cirebonese Fried Sambal), Bakmi Goreng Jawa (Javanese Fried Noodle) and last but not least kerupuk aci (tapioca flour crackers). The recipe of Pecel, Cumi Panggang Pacak, and Sambal Goreng Cirebon will be posted next time.

Ohh, I forgot to mention that I served Brownies Kukus Pandan Mocha (Steamed Pandan Mocha Brownies) for dessert which I didn't take the picture. The steamed brownies recipe was adapted from Sulis' Brownies Kukus Special Pandan Cokelat Keju (Sulis' Steamed Special Brownies with Pandan Chocolate Cheese).

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This avocado blended is just common beverage in Indonesia, you can find at beverage street hawkers/vendors that sell fruits blended. Every family or person has their own recipes, which my family used to add coffee instant and chocolate sweetened condensed milk or mocha syrup; we chose Marjan Bourdain's brand for the syrup. Sprinkled with chocolate sprinkle which the Indonesians are used to call meisis. Some people serve this with ice cream on top and it's called avocado float.

Since there is no chocolate sweetened condensed milk for purchased in Winnipeg, I just used the regular sweetened condensed milk.

Ingredients:
2 riped avocados
1/2 tsp instant coffee
4- 5 tbsp sweetened condensed milk
300 ml water
ice crushed as much as desired
mocha syrup
chocolate sprinkle


Directions:
Blend all ingredients, except chocolate sprinkle until smooth. In the serving glasses, add mocha syrup, transfer the avocado mixture and sprinkle with chocolate sprinkle over before serving.

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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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