Two weeks ago, on Thursday afternoon after work, I was waiting for a bus, #17, at the bus stop that is closed to my work place. This bus was gonna take me to Notre Dame ave. Yupss I was going to go to my favourite oriental store. I just wanted to buy something small, such as vegetables and tofu. I didn't expect that I could find green chilies at that time. Finally I bought a pack of long green chillies, vegetables and Indian mackerel (Indonesian: ikan kembung) too.


Weeekend is a time for me to relax. Some people have a different way to get relax, my way is by cooking of my favourite food. I decided to make samba lado mudo and lalapan daun ubi. Daun ubi means yam leaves. It's not the same as Medan people's term. I used to hear daun ubi's term for cassava (Indonesian: singkong/ubi kayu) leaves in Medan. I was thinking that steamed or cooked daun ubi must be good with samba lado mudo.

Speaking about samba lado mudo, Samba Lado Mudo is Western Sumatran's dish which is very popular throughout Indonesia. This is another version of sambals and eat as a condiment as well.

According to wikipedia, Yam is a term and common name in Canada and the US for some species in the genus Dioscorea (family Dioscoreaceae). These are perennial herbaceous vines cultivated for the consumption of their starchy tubers in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania. They are used in a fashion similar to potatoes and sweet potatoes. There are hundreds of cultivars among the cultivated species.

One day, I was browsing on the internet and discovered several recipes (Tabloid Nova, Melroseflowers , Uni Imun�s Multiply) for Samba Lado. After examining all the different preparation methods and possible ingredients, I finally decided to create my own version. In Indonesia, people usually add green tomatoes, which I haven�t yet found in Winnipeg. Instead, I added bilimbis (Indonesian: belimbing sayur). Also, I don�t have the kind of anchovies (Teri Medan, which translated means dried tiny anchovies or silver anchovies) that we usually use to make this version of Sambal. In my recipes, I cut dried anchovies into smaller pieces.

Category:		Side Dishes and Condiments
Style:		Indonesian
Special Consideration:		Quick and Easy

Ingredients:
15 green chillies, steam for 5-6 minutes
10 shallots
3 bilimbis
30 g dried anchovies
5 tbsp vegetable oil
2-3 tsp fresh lime juice
salt an sugar to season

Directions:
1. In a food processor or blender, place steamed green chillies, shallots, and bilimbis. Do not process too smooth, just roughly blended.
2. In a skillet, place oil and heat it over medium-high. Fry dried anchovies until cooked. Remove the anchovies.
3. Heat the remaining oil in same skillet, stir fry the blended ingredients until wilted. Add fried anchovied, stir evenly. Add lime juice, sugar and salt, stir evenly. Remove from the heat. Ready to eat as a condiment.

PS. I enjoyed this condiment with lalapan daun ubi (cooked yam leaves).

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This recipe is adapted from Tabloid Nova, that I subtituted red chillies for sambal oelek. The original recipe uses Ikan Mas (literally translated as gold fish, but this one is actually translated as Carp)

Since I haven't found "Ikan Mas" here, I substituted for Tilapia (Indonesia: Ikan Nila). I thought it is the same because both of those fish are farmed in freshwater.

Category:		Fish and Shellfish
Style:		Indonesian

Ingredients:
1 whole tilapia (500 g)
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
350 cc water
oil for frying

Spices:
2 cloves garlic
7 shallots
3 candlenuts, toasted
6 bird's eye chillies
2 tsp sambal oelek (Original recipe uses 4 red chillies)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tsp tamarind juice (Original recipe uses 1 tsp tamarind juice, to make tamarind juice from tamarind pulp, combine 1 tsp tamarind pulp with 3 tbsp very warm water, stir evenly)
1 tsp ground turmeric (Original recipe uses 3 cm fresh turmeric, peeled)
2 cm galangal, crushed

Directions:
1. Clean the fish by cleaning out the stomach cavity, removing the gills and surrounding tissue, and scaling them. I bought a cleaned whole tilpaia so no need to do this step, I just rinsed out.
2. Cut a whole tilapia into two pieces. Rub fish inside and out with lime juice. Let stand for 30 minutes.
3. Heat oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Deep fry the fish until golden brown.
4. Blend or grind garlic, 3 shallots and candlenuts. Mix ground spices with ground turmeric, sambal oelek and salt.
5. Stir fry mixture spices until fragrant. Add bird's eye chilies, 4 whole peeled shallots, sugar, tamarind juice, galangal, water, and salt(only if you need). Add fish, reduce medium-low heat. Simmer for a few minutes, allowing the fish to permeate the spices. Remove from heat and serve with steamed rice.

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Lumpia is a pastry that the Indonesian calls for spring roll. Lumpia's term derives from lunpia in the Hokien dialect of Chinese. In Netherlands, it's spelled as loempia which is the old Indonesian spelled for lumpia and also become the generic name for spring roll in Dutch. In the Phillipines, they also call lumpia as the Indonesian's called and spelled.

This recipe is adapted from Tabloid Nova which I changed in seafood filling. The original recipe only used shrimp and squids. I also created my own dipping sauce for this lumpia.

Category:		Appetizers and Snacks
Style:		Indonesian

Ingredients:
15-20 lumpia wrappers

Filling Mixture
2 tbsp oil for sauteeing
2-3 cloves garlics, minced
400 g seafood medley (raw squids, raw octopus, raw shrimps, raw cuttle fish, cooked mussels, cooked clams)
1 tbsp oysters sauce
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp cornstarch, dissolve in a small amount of water
oil for deep frying

Dipping Sauce
honey mustard (you can subtitute for regular mustard)
mayonnaise
relish
hot chili sauce (I used Indonesian hot chili sauce)

Directions:
1. Chop shrimp, octopus, and cuttle fish. Dice squids into 1/2 x 1/2 cm cubes.

2. Sautee garlic at a medium-high heat in a pan until fragrant. Add raw seafood and stir fry until color changed. Add oysters sauce, salt, white pepper, sesame oil, and cooked seafood (mussels and clams); stir evenly. Thicken by adding cornstarch mixture, cook and stir for couple more minutes. Remove from the heat.

3. Take 1 lumpia wrapper and fill with 1 tbsp filling mixture. Wrap and shape.

4. Deep fry until golden brown. Mix all ingredients for dipping sauce. Serve lumpia with the dipping sauce

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First time I knew this Fool dessert from Canadian Living magazine. In that edition, Canadian Living magazine had a wonderful dessert which I don't remember what the recipe's name is, I remember something Fool . I was wondering why a such tempting dessert and beautiful picture indeed was called something Fool.

Finally I knew it after reading one of the Joy of Baking's page. According to that website, dating as far back as the sixteenth century, this classic British dessert has seen its popularity ebb and flow. Today fruit fools consist of cooked or raw fruit that is pur�ed or mashed, then sweetened, chilled, and finally folded into stiffly beaten whipped cream (there should be streaks of the white cream showing where the fruit was not completely folded into the whipped cream). Traditionally fools were made with tart fruits such as raspberries, gooseberries, blackberries, loganberries, and rhubarb but today virtually any fruit can be used. It is best showcased when served in a long stemmed parfait or wine glass, garnished with fresh fruit. "Fool" is believed to have originated from the French word "fouler" which means "to mash" or "to press".

I was so curious what rhubarb was and how it tasted. One day, when we did grocery shopping I saw rhubarb stalks at fresh vegetables racks. This was my first time to make rhubarb fruit fool which I adapted this recipe from Joy of Baking.

Ingredients:
1 stalk fresh rhubarb (1/2 lb or 228 g) cut into 1 - 2 inch (2.54 - 5 cm) pieces
1/4 cup light brown sugar
zest of one orange (optional)
1/4 cup (60 ml) strawberry puree*
3/4 cup (180 ml) whipping cream

* I made strawberry puree from 1/2 cup fresh strawberry slices by placing them into a hand blender. Process until the strawberries are pur�ed.

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 C). Mix together the rhubarb, sugar, and orange zest and place in an ovenproof dish. Cover the dish with foil and bake for about 45 - 60 minutes or until the rhubarb is nice and soft. Check and stir the rhubarb after 30 minutes.

2. Once the rhubarb is soft, remove from oven and drain in a strainer suspended over a bowl. Press the rhubarb to force out the juice. There should be about 6 tbsp (90 ml) of juice. Place the juice into a small saucepan and boil the juice until reduced by half. Let cool.

3. Pure� the rhubarb in food processor or blender until smooth. It should have about 1/2 - 5/8 cup (120 - 150 ml) of pure�. Add the strawberry pure� and reduced rhubarb juice to the rhubarb pure�, taste and add more sugar if necessary. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled (overnight is best).

4. Whip the cream until soft peaks form. With a large rubber spatula gently fold in the rhubarb mixture. (You want the fruit fools to have streaks of the white cream showing where the pure� was not completely folded into the whipped cream). Place in three serving glasses. You can make the fruit fools several hours in advance of serving.

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I came home, it was pouring rain and I was wet. I felt I wanted something to warm me up. I decided to make this beverage which I got from Tabloid Nova.

By adding dark chocolate bar in ingredient, I omitted cocoa powder, I only used it for dusting. I also reduced the sugar, and added more orange marmalade jams.

In the original recipe, instead of grating the unsweetened chocolate bars, I ground the dark chocolate with a coffee grinder.


Ingredients:
50 g dark chocolate bars (99% cocoa), ground
3 tbsp orange marmalade jams
550 ml water
1 sdt sugar (it can be more or less added as desired)
1/4 tsp salt
50 ml sweetened condensed milk

Topping:
whipped cream
cocoa powder
maraschino cherry


Directions:
1. Bring 500 ml water and orange marmalade jams to a boil.
2. Add ground dark chocolate, sugar and salt; stirring until sugar dissolved. Add sweetened condensed milk and 50 ml water until mixed and dissloved.
3. Pour hot chocolate mixture to glass servings. Spray on the whipped cream dust with cocoa powder and put cherry on top.

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