July 26, 2010 Update: This post was featured on FoodBuzz Top 9 today

Pickerel is actually a name for Walleye (Sander vitreus, formerly Stizostedion vitreum).  In wikipedia, it's explained that Walleye (Yellow Pickerel) is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the northern United States. It is a North American close relative of the European pikeperch.

Damn for sure I had no idea what perciform was until I followed through the link from wikipedia. Perciformes means perch-like.

This dish is the fruit of my love to Canadian and Indonesian ingredients, pickerel and lemon basil (Indonesian: kemangi). The cheeks of pickerel are large enough to use. They are boneless, skinless and considered a delicacy in this province.

Speaking about lemon basil, it is an Indonesian favourite of basil. We often eat it raw with sambal. It's also flavouring the pepes (steamed/grilled fish or chicken wrapped in banana leaves), gulai (curry) and stir fry.

Since lemon basils are not common to be purchased at groceries, I have to grow them. Luckily, most of nurseries in Manitoba sell the plants of lemon basil.

In this recipe, I substituted the buttermilk and flour for almond milk and rice flour. Instead of butter for pan frying, I used mix EV coconut and olive oil.

Wait! Did I say recipe? Honestly, no exact measurement of ingredients will be written. It will be just ingredients and how to make it.

Pan Fried Pickerel Cheeks with Lemon Basils 
recipe by me

Ingredients:
pickerel cheeks
lemon basils, finely chopped
chili flakes
salt
ground black pepper
rice flour
almond milk
mix EV coconut and olive oil

Directions:
Combine rice flour, chili flakes, lemon basil salt and pepper. Dip pickerel cheeks into almond milk and dredge in flour mixture. Put a shallow skillet over medium-high heat, add oil and get the skillet hot. Add the cheeks and cook until browned on 1 side, 1 to 2 minutes. Flip the fish and continue to cook until desired doneness, about 2 minutes more. Be careful, it's very easy to overcook.

Enjoy with your favourite sauce. This time, I dipped them into sweet chili sauce.

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Yummy Gravlax

The Stella's Cafe and Bakery serves all day breakfast menu.   I never ordered the same food whenever I went there.

The first time I felt in love with this cafe was about 3 years ago. I adored their homemade jam. With a perfect sweetness, I meant for a person who doesn't like too much sweet things like me; their jam is so perfect. Also, I still could find the strawberry chunks in it. You can dunk your toast into the jam.

Last Wednesday, my husband (PB) and I went there for the sixth time. I saw the cafe has new choices. While PB ordered a fish burger with a cup of carrot coriander soup, I chose an Open Face Gravlax Salmon with the same soup as he had.

Surely, he loved the fish burger which was made from pickerel. As Stella's style, it always had a sprinkle of fried shallots inside the burger. What about me? It was my first time to have Gravlax. I do love it. I am a sashimi lover, so I didn't refuse Gravlax at all. Gravlax is a Nordic dish consisting of raw salmon, cured in salt, sugar, and dill. If you still wonder about Gravlax, here is a good link to inform you more.

My Canadian husband has a very little mix with Icelandic.  However, he didn't know about Gravlax before.:)

He also enjoyed the bottled tea that we only found at Stella's so far. Perfect sweetness and acidity! Not too sweet nor too sour.  To wake me up, I needed a bit caffeine for my beverage. I picked a cup of Caff� Latte.





The ambient is very relax, even though most of the time are busy.

I'm doing this review not because I get paid.  Hence, this is my personal opinion. When you are in Winnipeg, try to visit this local cafe.  The Stella's has 3 locations in town.  The one that I used to go is at 166 Osborne Street.

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This smoked duck was leftover from our New Year's dinner. My uncle in law asked a help his colleague to smoke a whole duck. After the dinner, he then left the carcass, fat, skin and some meat for me to bring home. I baked the fat and skin to get the oil. With some vegetables, I boiled the carcass for the broth. Used the meat for this fried rice. Look! I used up almost everything...

I never have an exact recipe for fried rice since I have been making fried rice so many times.


Smoked Duck Fried Rice
recipe by me

Ingredients:
overnight cold cooked rice
smoked duck meat, sliced
shrimp
Chinese celery leaves, chopped

Grind into a paste:
shallots
red pepper
bird eyes chilies
dried shrimp paste(Indonesian: terasi)/fish sauce
candlenuts
white peppercorns

Directions:
In a skillet, saute the paste for 1-2 minutes or until fragrant. Add shrimp, stir. Mix cold rice in the skillet, stir until all mixed. Add smoked duck meat and chopped celery leaves and stir.

Serving suggestion: transfer into a plate, and ready to eat with fried egg and blanched vegetables.

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Terribly forgetful to post this recipe!!! I had photos' project about a year ago for Natural Kiwifruit Del Mi�o based in Portugal. To create five dishes with kiwi as one of the main ingredients as well as the picture.s The photos should represent its logo colour, green and red, but the red should not overpower the green.

Since I was a full time student and part-time commercial kitchen staff at that time, I did that project for few months. I was glad that my client could understand my situation.

Me know Spanish? Big No! I had to figure out how to name this recipe in Spanish words. I asked Luciano, the one who works for the company and contacted me to do this project.

I still remember how hard I tried to make a fusion flan since I never made the classic one either. Played around with the measurement as this recipe was my own creation. I twisted the classic flan recipe with greenish sweet sour fruit from New Zealand, Kiwi and pandan flavour, one of Asian favourites in cooking or dessert stuff.

It would be a perfect treat for you who celebrate Christmas...

Flan de Kiwi y Pandan
- Kiwi Flan with Pandan -
recipe of Spain Recipes, modified by me

Ingredients:
3 - 4 kiwis (depend how big they are), peeled
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 can (14 oz) can condensed milk
6 eggs
1/4 tsp pandan paste (it can be found at Asian markets)

Caramelized Sugar Topping
1/2 cup granulated Sugar
pomegranate for garnish

Directions:
Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Caramelize the Sugar for Topping
1. Put a heavy skillet or saucepan over medium heat for 30 seconds.
2. Add 1/2 cup granulated sugar.
3. With the back of a wooden spoon, keep sugar moving constantly in skillet until sugar is completely melted, and of a rich medium brown color (caramelized).
4. Pour caramelized sugar into each of the ramekins. Set aside.

Prepare Flan
1. Place the kiwis, sugar eggs and condensed milk in to a food processor or blender and blend until kiwis are minced and all ingredients are mixed thoroughly.
2. Ladle the kiwi mixture into each ramekin. Cover each ramekin with aluminum foil.
3. Place Ramekins in a Water Bath
4. Place each ramekin into a large open, oven-proof pan, such as a broiler pan.
5. Add very hot water to the pan. The ramekins should be submerged approximately 3/4 in the water.
6. Carefully place the pan on to the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, carefully remove each ramekin from the water, uncover and to allow to cool.
7. Once cool, place in refrigerator to chill.
8. Whenever you are ready to serve, run a paring knife around the outside of each ramekin to loosen the flan.
9. Place the serving plate on top of each one and flip it over. It may be necessary to tap the ramekin to force the flan to fall out onto the plate.
10. Garnish with fresh poemgranate. Serve.

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Matcha or green tea powder in Japanese has become popular ingredient all over the world. You can name a number of different bakery or coffee shops which are selling their goodies/beverages with matcha included. Not only the good taste but the healthy effect of green tea is the reason why green tea is so famous.

I was so tempting to make this dessert for so long and I didn't remember anymore until the CAM Boga case. CAM Boga is a publisher who published few cookbooks by using Indonesian foodie bloggers' pictures without permission. This publisher used green tea pudding picture of Indonesian women magazine, Femina.

The original recipe was posted at Femina-Online. Due to the lack of ingredients, such milk and heavy cream in my pantry and too lazy to go out, I substituted for sweetened condensed milk and skipped the sugar. I also didn't make the sauce as directed

Please see the recipe by clicking read more.

Matcha Pudding
recipe by Femina, modified by me

Ingredients:
1 L water
7 g green tea powder (I used the organic green tea powder)*
1 package (7 g) of agar powder
1 cup (250 ml) sweetened condesed milk

Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients, except green tea powder.
2. Separate two mixture into two small pots.
3. Add green tea powder into pot 1 and bring to a boil at medium heat, stir occasionally.
4. Prepare moulds by rinse off with cold water, then add the boiling mixture into the moulds. Set aside.
5. Meanwhile, bring pot 2 into a boil and stir occasionally. When the green mixture has set, add the white mixture into the moulds. Fridge them until ready to serve. You can serve with almond cream sauce as well.

*If you don't have matcha or green tea powder just use sencha (green tea leaves) then grind.

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For some reason, it happens if you were born as an Indonesian, you would not need any recipe to make your own Nasi Goreng. Nasi means rice and Goreng means fried, so it is literally translated as Fried Rice. We grew up with it as we often have it for breakfast or supper. Ample versions of Nasi Goreng were developed. My family used to make Nasi Goreng from Sambal Terasi (Terasi/Belachan Sambal), shrimp and left over cold rice from the night before. We enjoyed it with fried egg or omelet, acar (pickled cucumber, shallot and chili), emping melinjo (melinjo nut crackers) and/or kerupuk udang (shrimp crackers).

I came up with Nasi Goreng Pedas, pedas can be translated as spicy/hot and it means we use chili either red chilies, bird eye's chilies or green chilies. In this version, I combined Indonesian chili paste, sambal oelek and Thai chili paste, nam prik-pao. My own preference, I don't really relish store-bought sambal ulek/oelek as it is too salty and vinegary, so I used a homemade sambal oelek that I keep in the freezer. If I want the store-bought version, I will buy Kokita sambal terasi.

Nasi Goreng

recipe by me

Ingredients

left over cold rice

shallot, sliced
homemade sambal ulek/oelek
nam prik-pao
Thai basil, chopped

eggs

ground white pepper

olive oil

Directions:

1. Put a half portion of sambal ulek/oelek and nam prik-pao on top the cold rice.

2. Beat the egg with nam prik-pao and ground white pepper. In a skillet, add a small amount of oil and heat it up to medium-high. Add beaten egg and make into scramble. Cook until done and set aside.

3. Use the same skillet, add another small amount of oil, saute shallot for a minute, add the other half portions of sambal ulek and nam prik-pao; stir. Place mixed cold rice and scrambled egg in the skillet, combine and stir until all mixed. Add chopped basil and stir. Serving suggestion: transfer into a plate, put fried shallot over and ready to eat with kerupuk udang.

Don't forget to join (Almost) Forgotten Indonesian Culinary Herritage

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First food that I made on January 1, 2009. Seeing King Oyster Mushroom many times at Asian stores, but I hadn't tried yet. I wondered how King Oyster Mushroom tasted like, did King Oyster Mushroom have the same taste as Oyster Mushroom? So far, in Winnipeg, King Oyster Mushroom can only be found for purchased in Asian stores. I haven't seen yet at any retail grocers, such as Superstore and Safeway.

According to recipetips.com, King Oyster Mushroom with a scientific name, Pleurotus eryngii, is a variety of mushroom that grows in clusters developing a trumpet-like shape and appearance as a wild or cultivated mushroom. With a blunt cap above and a stout stem beneath, the King Oyster mushroom develops a thick, white flesh that is firm-textured and meaty from the base to the cap. Also referred to as the King Eryngii, Eringii or Royal Trumpet and a trademarked variety known as Trumpet Royale, this mushroom receives some of its names from its shape. The King Oyster is typically harvested when the stems reach a length of several inches, but can grow to a size of 6 to 8 inches in length. As the mushrooms age for several days and depending on the storage provided, the flesh may darken or turn slightly tan to brown in color, but the quality of the mushrooms should be unaffected.




King Oyster Mushroom can be braised, breaded, broiled, grilled, saut�ed, or stewed to be added to soups, stews, sauces, pasta, vegetable dishes, meats, and seafood. If prepared whole, allow a longer cooking time for this meaty mushroom, cooking it until it is nicely browned. When storing, place in a paper bag and refrigerate for use within 10 days. If necessary, Matsutake mushrooms can be used as a substitute.


Since the original recipe was used bacon, I skipped it. I added more seasoning, curry powder garlic powder, and ground white pepper


Breaded Curried Oyster Mushroom
Recipe by Golden Gourmet Mushroom, Modified by me

Ingredients:
6 large King Oyster Mushrooms
Vegetable oil for deep fry
Flour batter (rice flour will be better)

Egg wash
Jamaican curry powder
garlic powder
ground white pepper
2 eggs, beaten

Bread Crumb batter
panko (Japanese bread crumb)




Directions:
Cut mushrooms in half lengthwise with a paring knife. Mix ingredients for egg wash. In 3 steps, flour, eggwash and bread crumb batter the mushroom
Deep fry at 340�F in a pan. Add any favorite sauce/condiment to your taste, I used Indonesian sambal sauce.

Suggestion:
If you like, you can add grated candlenuts into the egg was mixture.

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Due to my busy days, I barely posted each recipes that I have tried, created or modified the past two months. However, laziness is still with me.

I still had 2 small BBQ potatoes from Father's day at my laws family. I had fresh ground salmon that I bought at superstore, might as well I made salmon burger. I always like adding curry powder to make any burger patties.


Salmon Burger Patties
recipe by me

Ingredients:
100 g fresh ground salmon
1/2 tsp Jamaican curry powder
1/2 tsp freshly ground coriander
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 onion, chopped
2 small BBQ potatoes, peeled and mashed
1 egg white
salt and pepper as desired
1 tbsp Italian seasoning bread crumbs

Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients, shape into patties and grill them until done.

2. Serve with buns, lettuce, tomato and other condiments. I served these patties with with crispy baked sweet potatoes fries, instead of french fries.

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Sandwich is always be my husband's favorite. I tried to make a different style of sandwich. The idea was come from Ina Garten which I have modified lots.

Garten's style sandwich:
1. has used balsamic vinegar to make roasted red peppers
2. has used goat cheese for spreading on
3. has used basil for assembling the sandwich

My style sandwich
1. has used nypa vinegar (cuka nipah palm) to make roasted peppers
2. has used guacamole and hummus for spreading on
3. has used baby spinach for assembling the sandwich

Same things that we have used, ciabatta bread and red onion slices.

So I can say that my sandwich is fusion style which is mixed Italian for the bread and roasted red peppers, South-East Asian for nypa vinegar, Mexican for guacamole and Middle East for hummus.

Just so you know Nypa palm vinegar is from Nypa fruticans, known as the Attap Palm (Singapore), Mangrove Palm or Nipah palm (Indonesia, Malaysia), Nipa Palm (Philippines), D?a Nu?c (Vietnam), Gol Pata (Bangladesh), and Dani (Burma) is the only palm considered a mangrove.

Roasted Red Peppers, Guacamole and Hummus Sandwich
Recipe by Ina Garten, modified by me

Ingredients:
4 large red peppers
2 tbsp good olive oil
1 tbsp nypa vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp drained capers, chopped





For assembling:
1 large ciabatta bread, halved horizontally
guacamole as desired
hummus as desired
10 baby spinach leaves
3 thin slices red onion
freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.

2. Place the whole peppers on a sheet pan and place in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until the skins are completely wrinkled and the peppers are charred, turning them twice during roasting. Remove the pan from the oven and immediately cover it tightly with aluminum foil. Set aside for 30 minutes, or until the peppers are cool enough to handle.

3. Meanwhile, combine the olive oil, nypa vinegar, garlic, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Set aside.

4. Remove the stem from each pepper and cut them in quarters. Remove the peels and seeds and place the peppers in a bowl along with any juices that have collected. Discard the stems, peels, and seeds. Pour the oil and vinegar mixture over the peppers. Stir in the capers. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a few hours to allow the flavors to blend.

5. To assemble the sandwiches, spread the bottom half of the loaf with the guacamole and the top half of the loaf with hummus. Add a layer of peppers and then a layer of spinach. Separate the onions into rings and spread out on top. Sprinkle with pepper. Cover with the top half of the ciabatta and cut into individual servings.

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Making grilled eggplants is very easy. I don't have any Italian dressing or balsamic vinegar, I just used olive oil and minced garlic. They still turned out good. I'd rather use Japanese/Chinese eggplants than regular eggplants here, since the Japanese/Chinese ones have a shorter time to cook. This recipe is my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging #127, hosted by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen, the creator of WHB.

Grilled Eggplants

Ingredients:
300 g Japanese/Chinese eggplants, rinsed off and angle cut with 1 cm thick
2 - 3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
salt and fresh ground pepper
crushed chili

Directions:
1. Soak eggplants in salty water for 10 minutes. Drain and pat dry.

2. Combine olive oil and minced garlic. Rub eggplants with olive oil mixture, coating each well. Sprinkle eggplants with salt and pepper.

3. Grill and close with lid. Turn several times during cooking. Eggplant should be done in about 5 to 6 minutes. Before serving sprinkle with crushed chili.

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Potsticker is a term for kind of dumpling in North America, for Gyoza in Japanese, Mandu in Korean, Guotie in Chinese. Whatever you call, these potstickers were served in red sauce. The red sauce was made by mixing sesame teriyaki ginger sauce and gochujang (Korean chili paste).

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Have you ever heard about konyaku, shirataki or iles-iles before?  Konyaku is a traditional Japanese jelly-like health food made from a kind of potato called "Konnyaku potato" and calcium hydroxide or oxide calcium extracted from eggshells.  I my self didn't know that konyaku potato and iles-iles were the same plant, which I heard about iles-iles before when I was in school. The konnyaku potato (Amorphophallus sp.) is native to Indonesia.  Amorphophallus sp goes by several unflattering names in English (Devil�s tongue, Voodoo lily). In Japan , this plant is cultivated for food purpose only, but wild forms grow naturally in Southeast Asia and China.

Many of our modern foods are acid foods.  Konnyaku, on the other hand, is a uniquely alkaline food. It is said that modern people had better eat more alkaline food in order to keep healthy. Therefore, Konnyaku is an ideal health food for us.

Through this website, I found so many benefits in konyaku.  Konnyaku is a marvellous health food and an ideal food for weight control and prevention of obesity because low in calories, no fat, rich in mineral and full of dietary fibre.  It means it helps maintain our health and ultimately, it prevents against bowel cancer and haemorrhoids.  I also found in this website, that iles-iles a.k.a konyaku potato is also added for smoothing skin looking in cosmetic industry.   If you want to see the plant's picture, please go visit http://www.humanflowerproject.com/index.php/weblog/comments/563/ , http://food.3yen.com/2007-09-04/konnyaku-jelly/ .

I had been craving for mango pudding since I saw Pippi�s post.  It reminds me of mango pudding at dim sum restaurants which is served by pouring evaporated milk on top.  I remember I still have several package of unflavoured and flavoured konyaku powder, also unflavoured agar-agar powder that I bought when I was on vacation to Vancouver.  While I was looking for my konyaku powder in my pantry, yayyy I had the mango flavoured one .

Mango Flavoured Konyaku Jelly Powder

Asian pudding is slightly different with Western pudding. In Indonesia, pudding�s recipes is used unflavoured or flavoured agar-agar powder or konyaku powder, which has similar texture to gelatin.

Agar-Agar Powder

I prefer use the fresh mango than canned mango. Good thing! I saw fresh mangoes were on sale at the store. I still had 3 fresh oranges, might as well combined those fruits together. Recipe was modified from Pippi's recipe. Thank you, Pi!

Konyaku's information and mango orange pudding is my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging this week, hosted by Ulrike of Kuchenlatein.


Mango Orange Pudding
modified from Cerita Pippi's recipes

Ingredients:
1 1/2 fresh ripe mangoes, peeled, discard the pit and chopped; yield about 500 g.
3 fresh oranges, grate the skin, squeeze, you will get about 1/4 cup of combining orange juice with pulp and orange zest
1 package mango flavoured konyaku powder ( I used Indonesian brand �Nutrijell�), this package will come with fruity acid powder*
1 package unflavoured agar-agar powder (I used Indonesian brand �Bola Dunia�)
� cup sugar (you can add more sugar if you like sweet taste)
1200 ml water

evaporated milk for the sauce

Directions:
1. Blend mangoes, orange juice and pulp, orange zest and sugar together until smooth in a blender.
2. In a medium pot, add water, blended fruit mixture, unflavoured agar-agar powder, mango flavoured konyaku powder. Bring to boil and stir ocassionally until done. Remove from heat. Let stand for 3 minutes, add fruity acid powder, and stir until dissolved.
3. Wet jelly molds with water before using. Pour into prepared jelly molds. Cool down until set, unmold puddings, place on dessert plates and pour evaporated milk on top.

*Fruity acid powder is optional, you can add into or just omit it.

Source of Konyaku's information
- http://www.shakespeare-w.com/english/konnyaku/whatis.html
- http://iptek.apjii.or.id/artikel/pangan/IPB/Iles-iles.pdf

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Last Wednesday was so cold, windy, -47 degrees Celcius. The good part, I was off as my schedule so I didn't have to go work. That kind of temperature makes me always crave for Asian style hot and spicy soupy noodles. I picked to try Sutah Ramen, another favorite of Korean instant noodle. I used to have Neoguri seafood or kimchi udon. The biggest reason why I love Korean instant noodles? It's spicy hot without adding more hot sauce, but for me I still add more chili powder not Indonesian hot sauce, I just don't want to ruin my soup taste.

I enjoyed this noodle with pangsit goreng (known as fried wonton in English). I made these pangsit goreng a month ago with homemade basa fish paste as filling then kept them in freezer.

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I came home early, opened up the door I smelled something good. My husband planned to surprise me with supper, the supper wasn't ready yet, but I was already at the front door . He prepared tuna steaks, spinach salad and blached asparagus. He marinated yellow fin tuna steaks with sesame, teriyaki and ginger sauce ready to use for few minutes, then seared each side for two minutes. He topped the spinach salad with garlic croutons, almonds, banana chips and raisin. Remain teriyaki marinade mixture was heated up in a microwave, then drizzled over blanched asparagus. The asparagus was also perfect with that sauce.








He screwed up with the tuna, he was supposed to drizzle enough oil over the hot grilled pan. So when he seared the tuna and tried to flip them, he had a hard time to flip, some of them were stuck on the pan and fell apart. He wanted to sear tuna all over until golden brown yest still cold and rare inside. Overall he did it, he made rare inside perfectly.









I love those tuna steaks, the rare part reminds me of sashimi tuna taste :) Thank you, Pung.







Spinach Salad with Garlic Croutons, Almonds, Banana Chips and Raisins

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