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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