Bubur Ayam or Chicken Rice Porridge is a breakfast style of people who live in western part of Java island in Indonesia. I used to consume this once I moved to Bogor.

To get the sense of street food hawkers in Indonesia, I purposely looked for the specific bowl. A bowl with cock's pattern which is widely used for the food hawkers to serve bakso (meatballs soup), bubur (rice porridge) and mie ayam (a noodle dish with savoury ground chicken. I was so happy to see this bowl for purchased at one of Asian grocers in Winnipeg.

I care less about chicken innards sate that is complement for bubur ayam, so my choice was yellow chicken sate as the substitute here. The recipe was adapted from Bubur Ayam Sukabumi - Sukabumi Style Chicken Rice Porridge. Somehow, I played around and not really followed the directions.

Bubur Ayam
-Chicken Rice Porridge-
modified by me

Ingredients:
Rice Porridge
200 g rice
1 L water
2 L homemade chicken stock (I used leftover chicken carcass and veggies to make stock)
1 pandan leaf
2 Indonesian bay leaves

Yellow Chicken Sate:
300 g chicken chunks
skewers

Grind rempah (spices) into a paste:
5 shallots
3 cloves garlic
2 cm length turmeric, roasted and peeled
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tbsp ground coriander seed
3 candlenuts
ground white pepper and salt as desired

Complements:
sambal
emping nut crackers.
tapioca crackers
cakwe (Chinese long donut), sliced => for people who live in western Canada, it can be found at Superstore (bulk bakery section). Also, sold frozen at Asian grocers.
fried soybeans
fried shallots
Chinese celery leaves, chopped
green onions, sliced


Directions:
Rice Porridge
1. Wash and drain the rice. In a pot, mix water and rice. Bring to a boil and cook until soft.
2. Add chicken stock and the leaves. Reduce the heat and continue simmering until porridge is ready. No separation between liquid and rice is the sign that porridge ready. Add salt and ground white pepper to taste and mix.

Yellow Chicken Sate
1. Stir fry rempah until fragrant. Add a small amount of water and chicken chunks. Cook until the liquid evaporates.
2. Thread the wooden skewers onto chicken chunks. Grilled until done.


How to fry soybeans to perfection: (courtesy of Mariena of Resto Mariena)
Soak soybeans in hot boiled water. When the water's temperature is low or colder, drain soybeans. Place on paper surface to speed up the drying process. Fry until golden brown. Drain and store in an air tight container.

Plating the bubur ayam:
Place bubur (rice porridge) in a bowl. Sprinkle fried soybeans and shallots, green onions, chopped celery leaves, tapioca and emping nut crackers. Put sambal on the spoon.

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While people in the US celebrated Thanksgiving on November 26, in Indonesia and all Muslims around the world celebrate the holy sacrifice day, Eid ul Adha or Hajj Eid on November 27. No special dishes that I made or am going to make as I'm staying in Boissevain. Pretty jealous with my brother's girl friend who put her status "I'm eating Iyuk's opor". Opor is a Javanese braised chicken in coconut milk.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrate it.

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Padang seems familiar to you, doesn't it? About a month ago, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck off the city of Padang, killing at least 75 people and trapping thousands under rubble. Padang is the capital city of West Sumatra province, it is a home to the Minangkabau ethnic group, whose traders spread its traditions - including their famed spicy food - as they settled across the country.

Culturally, it is known for the unusual matrilineal system of the Minangkabau, whereby inheritance passes from mother to daughter. Padang women are seen as being particularly forthright and powerful. The region also has strong literary and musical traditions, though it is Padang's spicy cuisine that has perhaps won most renown as the city's traders set up restaurants across Indonesia.

Kepiting Saus Padang is similar to Singaporean Chili Crab. In fact, kepiting saus padang is not sold at Padangese resturants, but it's available at most seafood restaurants in the country, especially street food hawkers.


Kepiting Saus Padang
(Crab in Padangese Sauce or Crab in Spicy Chili Sauce)
modified by me

Ingredients:
2 dungeness crabs (about 1.5 kgs)
water for boiling the mussels
6 tbsp vegetable oil
6 cm length gingerroot, minced
1 fresh pineapple, peeled and blended/grated
3 tbsp fresh key lime juice
3/4 cup ketchup
3 tbsp Indonesian hot sauce (or put as much as desired), I used sambal cap jempol
3/4 cup clam juice
water to boil (you will need more ginger and garlic) or oil for deep frying
sugar and salt as desired

Spices to grind
5 bird chilies (you can put as less/much as desired)
2 red pepper, roasted (for giving red bright color to food)
15 shallots
9 garlic
1 1/2 tsp terasi (dried shrimp paste)
3 candlenuts

Directions:
1. You can do two ways, either place the crabs into hot boiling water that consists ginger and garlic or deep fry the crabs until golden brown

2. In a large skillet or saucepan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the ginger and ground spice and saute over moderate heat, stirring often until fragrant. Add ketchup, hot sauce, and sugar (if you need it, I don't add any).

3. Add clam juice and crabs. Put salt as desired in also (I don't add any, since I used terasi), cook until bubbling. Add pineapple and lime juice; stir. Bring to a boil and let the sauce thicken.

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It was the day when we had to look for goat feta cheese. We went to one of cheese specialty store on Corydon avenue. That store doesn't have it. I told to my husband, we should check Greek Market which is located on Corydon ave too. I used to this store to get my tiramisu on a cup. Love tiramisu, but I don't want to make it by myself since my tempation is only for a small piece.

Yes!! I am right this store has 3 kinds of feta cheese, cow, goat and sheep. I felt like bringing my husband to toy's store. It has most everything he likes, not many meat products are sold.

See what we got beside feta cheese.

Greek Market
1440 Corydon Ave
Winnipeg, MB
Canada R3N 0J3
Phone: 1-204-488-6161
E-mail: info@greekmarket.ca

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(These pictures are also old stocks, so you will find 2008 as the year)

This recipe is not the Indonesian's classic sate variants. I myself like to use a word sate rather than satay. However, we can make sate with whatever you feel like, including tofu and tempe. Yupss make it vegetarian. Literally, sate means sate, cumi (pronounced: chu mee) means squid and kecap (pronounced: ketchup) means sweet soy sauce. Sate Cumi Kecap can be translated as Squid Sate with Sweet Soy Sauce.

Rustle up something that you have been yearned for so long, is not that easy, for I have been hectic. Particularly, provided your squids are frozen :D.

As I glanced through several pages on the internet, I stumbled on mbak Ima's multiply and this link which have the same recipe; hence, I settled on those recipe by adapting them. Mine is slightly different with theirs.

I enhanced with candlenuts, lemon grass, coriander seed, and calamansi. However, kecap manis and peanuts are still used, just like the classic Indonesian sate.

I chose organic peanut butter rather than the regular one. Based on my experience, putting regular peanut butter will change the taste after the sauce simmered. Organic peanut butter usually only contains peanuts and seasalt or sometimes just ground peanuts. You also can go to some stores that provide peanuts with the grinder; thus, grind them by yourself there, and you will get fresh peanut butter.


Sate Cumi Kecap
(Squid Sate with Sweet Soy Sauce)
adapted from mbak Ima, modified by me

Ingredients:
2 lbs squids
1/2 cup Indonesian kecap manis
2 tbsp crunchy peanut butter (preferably organic peanut butter)
1/4 cup margarine, melted
1 tbsp ground frozen lemongrass
small skewers as many as you need

Ground Spices
8 shallots (in case you use smaller size as I had while I was in Indonesia, you may require 16 shallots)
7 cloves garlic
3 candlenuts
1 cm ginger
1/4 tsp ground star anise
1 tsp ground coriander seed

Additional:
some more shallots, sliced
chillies, sliced
calamansi

Directions:
1. Rinse off squids and marinate with ground spice, kecap manis, peanut butter, ground lemongrass and melted margarine for an hour.

2. Soak skewers in water for about 20 minutes so skewers don't burn over heat.

3. Place a squids on a skewer, do until all squid finished.

4. Grill or broil until cooked through. Brush squid with leftover marinade while cooking. I used a pan grill.

Peanut Sauce:
Place leftover marinade in a saucepan and simmer until bubbling. Combine with sliced shallots and sliced chilies. Squeeze calamansi over and mix. Serve this with squid sate and warmed rice.

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