From the name siomay, you can tell this food had an influence from the Chinese who immigrated to Indonesia long time ago.  A word of siomay itself is derived from shaomai (also spelled shui mai, shu mai, sui mai, sui maai, shui mei, siu mai, shao mai, siew mai or siomai), the traditional Chinese dumpling.  Siomay (or Somay) has an ice cream cone shape, except the bottom is flat.

This kind of dim sum is a popular meal in Indonesia as a street/hawker food.  The difference between Chinese traditional dimsum with the Indonesian is the sauce.  We enjoy siomay with peanut sauce that has a kick from chili and drizzle with citrus juice (usually from jeruk limo (aka nasnaran mandarin or leprous lime) or jeruk purut (aka kaffir lime).

Most Indonesians use king mackerel fish (ikan tenggiri) meat for the filling.  But, you can find other filling variants such as shrimp or chicken or different type of fish.  For my recipe, I used featherback fish (ikan belida) paste.  Ikan belida was traditionally used by Palembangese (South Sumatrans) for making kerupuk (crackers), pempek (fish cake with tamarind sauce) and otak-otak (grilled fish cake wrapped in banana leaves).   I'm attaching the picture of ikan belida paste below.

Other complements to siomay bandung are hard boiling eggs, afilled cabbage, potatoes, bitter melon, and tofu.

As some of you know that I'm not a big fan of hard boiled eggs, I never add them to my plate.  In this case, I totally forgot to buy fresh tofu and potato, so I used tofu puffs and skipped the potato.

Note: I slightly change the NCC's recipe to my liking.  I used almost all roasted ingredients.   Find the tips for making easier sambal kacang below the recipe.

Siomay Bandung
-Bandung Style Steamed Dumplings with Peanut Sambal-
recipe by NCC (Natural Cooking Club), modified and translated by me
Ingredients:
500 g featherback fish (ikan belida) paste -> can be substituted for other white fish or shrimp or chicken
2 tsbp shallots, grated
1 tbsp mashed roasted garlic -> NCC: grated garlic
2 tsp ground white pepper
1 tsp dried shrimp (ebi), ground -> NCC: chicken bouillon
1 tsp fish sauce -> my idea
2 1/2 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1 tsbp sesame oil
3 eggs
400 g chayotte or jicama, shredded
450 g tapioca starch

round wonton skins
bittermelon
cabbage
tofu puffs







Featherback Fish (Ikan Belida) Paste

Sambal Kacang (Peanut Sambal)
400 g garlicky roasted peanuts
100 g garlicky roasted cashew nuts
150 g red cayenne pepper (reduce the amount to your liking), roasted
3 cloves roasted garlic, mash with a spoon
2 tbsp canesugar vinegar
2 tbsp salt
7 tbsp coconut sugar (gula jawa, gula merah)
500 g baked sweet potato (about 2 regular size sweet potatoes), peeled
1.5 L water

Methods:
1. In a big bowl, combine fish paste with shallot, garlic, white pepper, dried shrimp, fish sauce, sugar, salt and sesame seed oil.  Then add egg and mix well.

2 Add chayotte or jicama, mix well. Add tapioca starch and mix well again. Set aside.

3. Steam all of these below for about 20-30 minutes. Grease the steamer with very small amount of oil if you need, so the dumplings won't be sticky.

--> Siomay:
Take one piece of the wonton skin, scoop 1 tbsp of filling on the centre of the skin. Shape the siomay using hands and leave the top open. Repeat the step until all wonton skin are used up. Steam for 20-30 minutes.

--> Tofu and Potato Soybean Cake & Potato:
Cut in half and scrape a portion of tofu & potato side and fill it in with the filling. Do the same step if you use tofu puffs.

--> Bitter Melon
Cut in 3 to 4 pieces. I cut up to 5 pieces since the bittermelon size is quite bigger here. Scrape the seed portion and fill it in with the base filling.

--> Cabbage:
Many recipes suggested to dip the leaves in to hot water for a few seconds since they don't fill the cabbage leaves with fish paste mixture. I prefer using the Ukrainian way of making holubtsi (cabagge roll). Steam the whole head of cabbage until soften. Cut the leaves off of the cabbage and cut the larger leaves in half. Spoon 1 tablespoon of filling into a leaf and roll tightly. Place rolls in a prepared casserole dish. Ready for steaming.

--> Egg
Hard boiled eggs split in half, paste on a mixture of fish.

Sambal Kacang (Peanut Sambal)
1. Process peanuts and cashew nuts in a food processor until smooth (I like a bit crunchy, everyone who loves smoother texture can process a bit longer). Transfer into a bowl. Set aside.

2. Process red cayenne pepper and garlic until smooth. Add sweet potato and process again. Add ground nuts; process. Add salt, vinegar, sugar and combine again. Do a taste test, if it's perfect for your tastebuds then it's ready to serve.

Seving suggestions: place all dumpling on a plate, cut to bite sizes if you like. Add peanut sambal and drizzle over the juice of leprous lime or kaffir lime, kecap manis and ketchup. I usually serve another side of chili sambal if people want to have more heat.

Tips:
* Use ready to use natural peanut and cashew butter from a store.  I like using the natural ones since there is no other additions beside the nuts and salt.  Some natural health stores in Winnipeg offer a service for us to grind the unsalted roasted peanuts that we buy there.

*In this recipe, I made my own garlicky roasted peanuts and cashew nuts.  Soak the nuts in warm water with lots of mashed garlics, add a bit of salt if you like.  Leave them overnight.  The next morning, drain them and roast in a pan with extra virgin coconut oil (add just enough, don't put too much).  Before the nuts turn golden brown (about a half of roasting time), add garlic slices.

* You can always roast the cayenne pepper with the whole head of garlics.  If you have a left over roasted garlic, you can apply for your toast or spice up others foods.

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Tempe or tempeh is an Indonesian soybean cake. In order making sambal tumpang, you need tempe semangit. Semangit is derived from a word "sangit" which is meant less pleasant odour. A word "semangit" usually is followed after a word "tempe", and known as Tempe semangit. What is tempe semangit and is it different from tempe?

Tempe semangit can be categorized as an old or rotten tempe. What did I mean by old or rotten tempe? First of all, I will explain briefly the process on making tempe. You will need cooked soybeans, then add Rhizopus, a mold that helps soybeans to ferment for 24 hours. When the fermentation process is done, it binds the soybeans into a compact white cake. According my internet research, it will take more than 24 hours to ferment cooked soybeans into tempe in North America; it's about 36-48 hours.

Tempe is a protein alternative resource for vegetarians or vegans. Back when I was in Indonesia, tempe is a cheap protein resource and totally different since I moved to Canada; tempe becomes an expensive protein choice. Tempe is not only rich in essential amino acids, it is also high in vitamin B12.

When the tempe has undergone the fermentation more than a day and untreated, it will be overly ripe or rotten and known as tempe busuk or semangit because the smell is dreadful. But it doesn't make the tempe become useless. The Javanese seeks and uses it for cooking sambal or adding to a vegetable dish. Please see closely the different profile of tempe and tempe semangit.


The one on the right hand corner of each photo is tempe semangit

There are two places in Java that claimed Sambal Tumpang as their dish, Kediri (East Java) and Solo (Central Java). However, both places have a slightly different way in the recipe and serving. In Central Java, sambal tumpang is added with other protein resources such as beef, tofu as well as vegetables ("it tastes better with petai - stinky beans" said my friend Haley) while in East Java this sambal is pure made from a combination of 75% old tempe and 25% fresh/frozen good tempe. In this post, I will include the Eastern Javanese way for sambal tumpang.

In East Java, sambal tumpang is drizzled over pecel (Java style salad with peanut sauce). On the other hand, in Central Java, sambal tumpang is a side dish that is eaten with warmed cooked rice and boiled vegetables; no pecel to company.

Sambal Tumpang
- Java Style Old Tempe Sambal -

Ingredients:
200 g tempe semangit (use fresh or frozen tempe if you can't find tempe semangit)
1 cm galangal, bruised
2 Indonesian bay (salam) leaves
200 ml coconut milk
1 cup (250 mL) water

Spices to be ground:
45 g peeled shallots
5 g peeled garlics
1 cm peeled kencur/kaempeferia galangal (substitute for 1/2 tsp kencur powder)
6 kaffir lime leaves, chopped
1 tsp toasted coriander seed
1/2 tsp terasi/dried shrimp paste (optional)
1 candlenut (substitute for macadamia nut)
3 red cayenne peppers (Indonesian: cabe merah keriting)
1 bird eye chili
seasalt

Methods:
1. Pound or chop tempe semangit with a pestle or a chopper.

2. In a pot, add pounded tempe, ground spices, salam leaves, galangal and water. Cook until a boil. Then turn the heat to low and simmer for 5 -10 more minutes or until the spices absorb.

3. Add coconut milk, stir occasionally and bring to re-boil. Remove from the heat. Serve with pecel and warm cooked rice.

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Tahu Bacem is perfect for summer BBQ. Instead of buying tofu or vegetarian burger at the stores for your vegetarian guests, why you don't try to make this Tahu Bacem. Many recipes of this sweet marinated tofu apply frying process. However, some people like to BBQ them on top of the charcoal.

People on the other part of the planet might think Java is something related to coffee. The reason why I translated Tahu Bacem as Java Marinated Tofu was, this recipe is popular among the Javanese. Javanese especially the ones who are from Central Java tend to cook sweeter food compare to the ones who live in East Java.

One day, I saw there are marinated tofu packages ready to grill/bbq for sale at a health product store. I bought a package of them. When I tried, it did taste like this tahu bacem.

Since then, I always say it's better to make my own tahu bacems in a big batch then grill them whenever I need. Plus, it costs me cheaper. In this recipe, I will broil them.

How do the Indonesians eat them? Enjoy them as a snack along with biting small pieces of bird eye chilies.

Once again, I approved that it will be easier to be a vegetarian if you are Asian! Many Indonesian recipes that I know are vegetarian and gluten free friendly. I'm not a vegetarian, but I used to be when I was at university for almost 2 years.

Tahu Bacem
Java Marinated Tofu

Ingredients:
2 packages (800 g) extra firm tofu (choose Asian style one), cut into smaller bite pieces*
1 L (2.5 cans) young coconut water (substitute for any broth or water if you don't have)
200 g palm or coconut sugar, shaved or microwaved
4 Indonesian bay leaves (salam leaves)
2 tsp tamarind pulp
a small amount oil for broiling

Spices to be ground:
4 shallots (if you use the small size as the one in Indonesia, take 7 shallots)
3 cloves garlic
3 cm long galangal (can be substituted for ground one)
3 toasted candlenuts (use macadamia nuts if you don't have it)
1 tbsp ground coriander, toasted
seasalt as desired




Directions:
1. In a dutch oven, place ground spices, cut tofus, palm or coconut sugars, salam leaves, tamarind pulp and young coconut water.

2. On the stove, at high heat temperature, bring the mixture to a boil. Once, the mixture bubbling, reduce to low-medium heat.


3. Stir occasionally and cook until the liquid dissolves. Remove from heat.


After Braising Process

4. Move the rack in your oven to the top-most setting. Select high broil mode on the oven. Grease the baking pan with a very small amount cooking oil. Place the braised tofus on the broiler pan and put the pan on top of the rack. Broil about 2-3 minutes for each side of tofus. Every oven has a different heat, so you can adjust the time for broiling. You may barbecue them instead of broiling. The result is supposed to be dark brown and crispy on the edges.

Tips:
* You can cut tofus into bigger size as the size of your burger buns. But, keep the thickness about 1 cm.

*To braise the tofu, you can use your slow cooker.

* After this braising process, you can keep them in a container and put it in the fridge. When you ready for bbq, just take whatever you need.

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Do you see the small bowl on the picture? That bowl has water and a slice of lime to rinse off your hand before and after eating. Yes! Traditionally, we use a right hand to eat, no cutlery.

Turmeric and saffron are two ingredients that I know giving yellow colour into the food. Turmeric is more popular among countries that have influenced from India; one of them is Indonesia. I have a package of saffron that I haven't used it at all. I may think to make a Spanish paella one time.

In my kitchen, I have fresh and powdered turmeric. I also have turmeric plants in my balcony to produce the leaves. Whenever the leaves are ready to harvest, I will keep them in the freezer. In Minang/Padang or also known as West Sumatra culinary, the leaves have a big role in its curry base cooking. It's just like curry leaves in Indian and Acehnese food.

In a recipe that I'm going to post here, I will use the rhizome not leaves. About a year ago, Cynthia of Taste Like Home emailed and asked me a recipe of Indonesian Yellow Fried Chicken. She fell in love with this yellow fried chicken after Tuty of Scent of Spice served this dish while Cynthia visited the U.S and Tuty's house.

Tuty and I have different style for the yellow fried chicken. I don't use flour to batter the chicken, but all other methods are the same; we boil the chicken with spices and water until cooked and deep fry afterward.

Deep fry is not the only technique you can use here. I sometimes bake then broil it to give brown nice colour look of the surface at the end. Remember, you still need to boil it with spices until cooked first before you bake and broil it. By baking and broiling it, you will use less oil too.


Ayam Goreng Kuning
- Indonesian Yellow Fried Chicken -
Modified from Lisa of Indonesian Woman in Indian Kitchen

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken, cut into 4 or 6 pieces
2 pieces of lemongrass, take only the white part, and crush it.
2 salam leaves (Indonesian bay leaves)
salt
1 cup of water
oil for deep frying

Grind to:
8 cloves garlic
5 candlenuts (Indonesian: kemiri*)
1 tsp coriander seeds
2 inches (5 cm) long fresh turmeric (1/2 tsp turmeric powder), roasted and peeled
3 inches (7-8 cm) long galangal
2 inches (5 cm) long ginger
1 tsp white pepper

Directions:
1. Grind all the ground spices into a paste.
2. Rub and marinate chicken pieces with the spice paste for about 1-2 hours.
3. In a pot, at medium heat, add marinated chicken pieces along with the paste, salt, lemon grass, salam leaves and water; bring to a boil.
4. Cover the pot with the lid, turn the heat to low and continue cooking until all the water has evaporated .
5. Remove from stove and let it cool.
6. At medium-high heat, add oil in to a wok. Deep fry the cooked chicken until golden yellow.
7. Remove from the wok and pat dry them with a kitchen towel or paper towel to absorb the oil excess.

Traditionally, it is served with fresh vegetables (we call lalapan), sambal terasi (chili relish/paste) and warmed cooked rice.

Note:
- If you can't find any candlenuts, they can be substituted for macadamia nuts.
- If you don't have any salam leaves, don't substitutes for regular leaves, just leave them out.
- You may substitute galangal for powder one as well.

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I have been making this snack so many times. Since I love spring rolls but sometimes when I bought them, I didn't get the appropriate flavour for my taste buds.

This snack is one of my favourite street foods in Indonesia. For the people who live in North America,  lumpia is related with Filipino's cuisine.  However, lumpia is also a word for spring roll in Indonesian, lumpia's term derives from lunpia in the Hokien dialect of Chinese.

Since Indonesia and the Phillipines are neighborhood country, we have some similarity in words, although we speak different language.

The same name doesn't mean the same filling.  Lumpia semarang is enhanced by shredded bamboo shoot and Indonesian favourite sweet soy sauce, kecap manis.

Some people that I gave a taste of lumpia semarang asked me, how I cooked the bamboo shoot without the nasty smell. The key is boil bamboo shoot in water with a small amount of sugar to kick the stink away.


Lumpia Semarang
Ingredients:
15 sheets spring roll warpper (size 215 mm x 215 mm)
500 g shredded fresh bamboo shoot
500 g peeled shrimp, chopped
2 tbsp ground dried shrimp (Indonesian: ebi)
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ground white pepper
1 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp Indonesian sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
100 ml homemade shrimp broth (can be substituted for water and dried shrimp)
3 tbsp oil for stir frying

Brown sauce
250 ml water
6 cloves garlic, minced
85 g coconut sugar, shredded (Indonesian: gula merah; original recipe called for 100 g coconut sugar)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp corn starch or tapioca flour dissolve in a small amount of water
bird eyes chilies, chopped

Directions:
Brown Sauce:
In a saucepan, bring water, coconut sugar, salt and garlic to a boil. Thicken with tapioca flour mixture, stir until mixed. Remove from heat and set aside.

Lumpia1. Cook bambo shoot with water and 1 tbsp sugar until boiled, drain. Stir fry garlic until fragrant, add shrimp, bamboo shoot, ground dried shrimp, oyster sauce, kecap manis, white pepper and salt. Add broth, cook until water evaporates.

2. Place 2- 3 tbsp filling on the wrapper. Fold over the corner that faces away from us. Brush brown sauce onto this corner for gluing. Fold over the left-facing and right-facing corners. Roll the lumpia toward us, onto the remaining corner of the wrapper. Examine the wrapper to ensure that it is fully sealed. Do until all filling and wrappers done.

3. Deep fry until golden brown.

» Read More...

Don't get bored if I'm posting another soup today. A week ago, it still felt like fall, but as of three days ago, snow has made everywhere white. I guess Manitoba will have a white Christmas this year.

A short cut to make this soto babat was a yellow broth that I kept frozen. However, I will post the correct way to prepare soto babat.

What is soto babat? I keep saying it, but haven't explained it clearly. Soto means any meat/chicken broth soup. It can be with or without coconut milk. Babat is the Indonesian word for beef tripe.

Let's see how good my memory is to name varieties of soto in Indonesia...
Soto Ayam (Chicken Soto)
Soto Daging (Beef Soto)
Soto Lamongan (Lamongan style Soto)
Soto Betawi (Jakarta style Soto)
Sroto (Pekalongan style Soto)
Soto Medan (Medan syle Soto)
Oppsss too many, I can't remember all.

I am glad that I didn't have to scrub the hell out of the tripe before cooking it, since it is sold clean at the stores here. Some recipes for soto babat call for coconut milk. For me, there is already too much cholesterol in the tripe, so no coconut milk this time.

Feel free to substitute tripe for beef or chicken chunks, if you don't like tripe.


Soto Babat
- Beef Tripe Soup -

Ingredients:
500 g beef tripes
1/2 L water
4 Indonesian bay leaves
4 kaffir lime leaves, tear
2 lemon grass, take the white parts and bruise
1/4 tsp corriander seed
1/2 leek, take the white parts and slice
2 tbsp oil
1 1/4 L homemade broth (you can use either beef or chicken)
ground white pepper as desired
salt and sugar to season

Spices (Rempah) to grind:
3 shallots
2 garlics
3 candlenuts
2 cm length ginger, peeled
1 tsp turmeric powder

Complements:
1 cup bean sprouts, blanched
200 g potato, peeled, thin sliced and deep-fried => to make chips
1 bulb garlic, thin sliced and fried
Chinese celery leaves, chopped
lime
sambal rawit (bird's eye chili sambal)

Directions:
1. Bring water to boil. Add tripe,2 Indonesian bay leaves, 2 kaffir lime leaves, corriander seed and 1 lemongrass. Cook for 30 minutes. Drain and cut as desired.

2. Stir fry rempah, 2 Indonesian bay leaves, 2 kaffir lime leaves, 1 lemongrass and leek until fragrant.

3. Add sliced tripe, stir until mixed. Add broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Season with salt, sugar and white pepper.

Serving:
In a bowl, add bean sprouts and tripe with the broth. Sprinkle over chips, fried garlic and Chinese celery leaves. Serve with sambal rawit and lime.

» Read More...

Although nutmeg is native to Indonesia, it is not often used in cooking, except in beef, oxtail, or oxtongue soups or stews such as this semur lidah. Added by potato cubes into semur lidah, you can tell this dish was influenced by the Dutch.

Seeing a pack of fresh veal tongue at a halal store on Maryland street, made me happy. I finally could make semur lidah. This store supplies fresh meat (goat, lamb, beef, veal) every Thursday, I'm not too sure when the halal fresh chicken is coming to the store, but the store does have the frozen ones.

In the recipe, I supposed to use oxtongue, but I was curious how the veal tongue tasted. I browsed semur lidah recipe on internet and I chose to adapt Astri's recipe of Keluarga Nugraha. The semur lidah turned really great, the same tasted as what I recalled when I was in my family's house. Thanks, Astri! I just had to adjust a small numbers of some ingredients. Few recipes call for cinnamon, but I didn't add any as I prefer had a combination cloves and nutmeg fragrant.

To eliminate my guilty feeling, I had this semur lidah with steamed brown rice, not white rice :D

Semur Lidah
Recipe by Astri Nugraha, Adapted and translated by me

Ingredients:
2 L (8 cups) water
600 g (1 � lb) ox tongue (I used veal tongue), washed well
3 ea Indonesian bay leaves (salam leaves)
3 tbsp butter/margarine
1 tbsp olive oil
6 shallots, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 whole nutmeg, cracked or 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
7 ea cloves
5 cherry tomatoes (tomat sambal), halved
500 mL (2 cup) homemade beef stock
1/4 cup Indonesian sweet soy sauce (I use kecap manis sedang/medium sweet)
1 mushroom soy sauce
2 medium size potatoes , peeled and 2 cm cubed
1 large carrot, peeled and cut as desired
ground white pepper to taste
fried shallots and other green stuff to garnish

Methods:
1. In a heavy stockpot, bring to a boil water, veal tongue and salam leaves, reduce heat and simmer for approximately 1.5 -2 hours or until tongue is cooked and very tender. Ox-tongue will take a longer time to cook. If you use a pressure cooker, this process will be faster, around 20 minutes.
2. Plunge veal tongue into ice water and cool for 5 minutes. Peel skin off with a sharp knife. Slice veal tongue into 1 cm thick.
3. In a skillet/wok, combine butter and oilive oil, stir fry shallot, garlic, cloves, and nutmeg for 1 minute at medium-high temperature.
4. Add veal tongue slices, stir for 30 second.
5. Add beef stock/water, kecap manis, and mushroom soy sauce, stir.
6. Bring to boil, add potato and tomatoes reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
7. Add carrot and season with ground white pepper as desired; continue to simmer until all is cooked.
8. Garnish with fried shallots or green onion.

Note: if you like salty taste, add salt as desired. In this case, I didn't add any, since mushroom soy sauce was pretty thick

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Born and raised close to the sea, I used to consume saltwater fish every day. For the first time, it was hard for me not to eat saltwater fish daily while I had to move to another city in Java island that has more freshwater fish. However, after a year, I was getting used to.

Moved to Winnipeg, which has limitation in fish supply, I sometimes have to stock in the freezer. Plenty of typical tropical saltwater fish can be purchased in Asian stores or fish markets in frozen. Indian mackerels are ones of them, that also known as short body mackerels or the Indonesians call for ikan kembung.

Mangut is a Javanese style fish cooked in coconut milk. Back home, smoked stingray (Indonesian:ikan pari; Javanese: iwak pe) is commonly used for making mangut. To alter, stingray is also grilled and served with terasi sambal.

I had no idea that Indian macakrel can be cooked for mangut until I saw this recipe. As usual, I modified the recipe by using coconut cream powder, and adding terasi (dried shrimp paste). In addition, I did not deep fry the fish, but I pan-seared them. Thanks, Mommy Dian for the recipe.

Mackerel in Coconut Milk/Mangut Ikan Kembung
recipe by Yardian, modified by me

Ingredients:
3 cleaned and scaled whole Indian (short body) mackerel

Spices to grind for marinating fish:
2 cm long (with1 cm diamter) fresh turmeric, toasted or roased, and peeled
3 cloves garlic
salt as desired

Mangut spices to grind
1-2 tbsps ground red chillies (I usually grind fresh red chilies once a while, put in a jar, and store in the freezer)
3 candlenuts
2 cm long fresh turmeric, peeled
1.5 cm long (2 cm diamter) fresh kencur, peeled
4 shallots (in Indonesia, you might need 6 shallots)
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp terasi (dried shrimp paste)

Others:
3 Indonesian bay leaves
500 ml waterl
1 package coconut cream powder (santan powder)
salt and sugar as desired to season
4 bilimbis (Indonesian: belimbing sayur), angle cut
green bird's eye chilies as desired

Directions:
1. Using a sharp knife, cut 4 diagonal 1-inch deep slits on each side of the fish. Cut slightly deeper toward the back fin of the fish. The slits will allows the seasoning to penetrate better and help fish to cook more evenly throughout.

2. Marinate fish for 20 minutes with the spices. Pan sear on both sides until done. Remove from the heat.

3. In a skillet, add 75 ml water, and ground mangut spices. Stir and bring them to a boil.

4. Add bilimbis, bird's eye chilies, Indonesian bay leaves, the rest of the water, salt, sugar, and coconut cream powder. Add fish and cook until thickened. Remove from the heat. Serve with warmed rice.

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Lumpia Semarang is known as a street hawker food in Indonesia that you can get everywhere and cheap. It is served with brown sauce and cucumber shallot pickle. This recipe was modified from an Indonesian cookbook "Seri Menu dan Resep Menu Istimewa 2" by Yasaboga.

There are several version of Lumpia in Indonesia. Lumpia Semarang is one of the popular lumpia in the country. Semarang itself is a name after the capital city of Central Java province. In addition, lumpia's term derives from lunpia in the Hokien dialect of Chinese.

Bamboo shoots are always known as the filling of this lumpia, and my alteration version has been augmented by abalone sauce.

Lumpia Semarang
recipe by yasaboga team
modified by me

Ingredients:
15 sheets spring roll warpper (size 215 mm x 215 mm)
500 g shredded/chopped fresh bamboo shoot
500 g peeled shrimp, chopped
2 tbsp ground dried shrimp (Indonesian: ebi)
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ground white pepper
2 tbsp abalone sauce*
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp mushroom soy sauce (original recipe called for soy sauce)
1 tbsp Indonesian sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
400 ml homemade shrimp broth
3 tbsp oil for stir frying

Brown sauce
250 ml water
6 cloves garlic, minced
85 g coconut sugar, shredded (Indonesian: gula merah; original recipe called for 100 g coconut sugar)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp tapioca flour dissolve in a small amount of water


Directions:
Brown Sauce
In a saucepan, bring water, coconut sugar, salt and garlic to a boil. Thicken with tapioca flour mixture, stir until mixed. Remove from heat and set aside.

Lumpia
1. Cook bambo shoot with water and 1 tbsp sugar until boiled, drain. Stir fry garlic until fragrant, add shrimp, bamboo shoot, ground dried shrimp, abalone sauce, oyster sauce, mushroom soy sauce, kecap manis, white pepper and salt. Add broth, cook until water evaporates.

2. Place 2- 3 tbsp filling on the wrapper. Fold over the corner that faces away from us. Brush brown sauce onto this corner for gluing. Fold over the left-facing and right-facing corners. Roll the lumpia toward us, onto the remaining corner of the wrapper. Examine the wrapper to ensure that it is fully sealed. Do until all filling and wrappers done.

3. Deep fry until golden brown.

* Abalone sauce is a high-grade seasoning extracted from abalone. It is an indispensable seasoning for various abalone-taste cuisines. It can also be used to dip, fry and cold dress vegetable, seafood or meat.




Lumpia Semarang - Semarang (Indonesian) Spring Rolls

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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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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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I had been craving for bihun goreng jawa since mbak Winda (one of my contacts on multiply) posted the pictures. Bihun or the Javanese call as Mihun is also known as rice vermicelli, rice noodles, or rice sticks.

It just reminded me of buying bihun goreng or bihun kuah from street food hawkers/vendors in Indonesia. In Jakarta and West Java areas, they usually have bihun goreng with pouring peanut sauce over before they eat. However, in East Java areas, they usually have this with biting bird's eye chilies.

As I posted on my multiply in bahasa Indonesia, everybody who lives in abroad, keeps asking me where I got those cute kerupuk tersanjung. Believe me, I didn't get those from any oriental store in Winnipeg, but two of my multiply's contacts who live in Indonesia, sent me a package, including fresh spices such as andaliman, asam gelugur, kencur etc.


Ingredients:
200 g dried rice vermicelli
150 g peeled shrimps, chopped
2 green onions, finely sliced
100 g yuey choi (sawi hijau in Indonesian), cut as desired
100 g sliced cabbage
1 tomato, diced
125 ml homemade shrimp broth (you can substitute for any kind of broth or water)
3 tbsp olive oil
kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce), as desired
2 eggs, beaten

Ground Spices :
3 shallots
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp dried shrmp paste (terasi in Indonesian, belacan in Malay)
1/2 tsp ground corriander seed
3 toasted candlenuts
sambal ulek as desired
salt as desired


Condiments:
Thin omelette
Fried shallots
Onion crackers (kerupuk bawang in Indonesian, I used kerupuk tersanjung, don't ask me why they gave a name kerupuk tersanjung)
Cucumber, shallot, and bird's eye chili pickled (Acar Timun Bawang Cabe)



Directions:
Acar timun bawang cabe:
1. Cut cucumber into julienned, add salt as desired; let stand for couple minutes.
2. After cucumber a bit soften, add shallots and bird eye's chilies. Add sugar and vinegar as desired. Toast until mixed evenly.

Bihun Goreng Jawa
1. Soak dried rice vermiceli with very hot water or as directed on the pacakge. Drain.
2. Make a thin omelette from 2 beaten eggs. Slice an omelette into length strips.
3. Stir fry ground spices until fragrant, add diced tomato, continue to stir fry untill all spices is cooked.
4. Add cabbage and shrimp, stir until shrimp has changed into pink color.
5. Add 125 ml shrimp broth and kecap manis; stir evenly. Add rice vermicelli, yuey choy, and green onion. Stir until all mixed and cooked
6. Transfer into a serving plate, add omelette strips on top and sprinkle fried shallot over. Serve with kerupuk bawang and acar timun bawang cabe. Selamat Makan!!!

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Don't have to go to work. Woke up late and turned on my computer. One email that was really bother me from one of my girl friends who lives in Eden. It's about 2 hours 35 minutes from Winnipeg. She told me that somebody used a food picture of mine that I was taken in 2006, and put on his blog without any permission. I don't mind if somebody want to use my pictures (which are very amateur) as long as they ask me first. It was a recipe of Sop Konro and Grilled Konro (literally Makasar Style Beef Ribs Soup and Grilled Beef Ribs) which I posted on my multiply. The recipe was also translated by me from an Indonesian cookbook that I brought from Indonesia.

Ohh well, sometimes people just don't care about that. They think it's not a big deal, it's just a blog. My first step was leaving comments on his blog and now just wait for his respond.

Anyway, back to my lazy Saturday. Little bit chill this morning, I went to Van Loi on Mc. Phillips st, and Dong Thai on Notre Dame ave. At Van Loi, you can buy South East Asian fruits, such as Rambutan, Mangosteen, Duku etc. Sometimes I saw those fruits are sold at Dong Thai too. Van Loi is a bigger Asian grocery store than Dong Thai, but still I like going to Dong Thai more, due to variety of Indonesian stuffs and also I make a good friend with the owner.

After browsing around and bought some stuffs at those two Asian grocery stores, I went back home and prepared this semur which I didn't have it for so long. It's just an ordinary semur for me.

Ingredients:
350 g white pomfret fish
1 lime, squeeze to get the juice
garlic powder
ground turmeric
salt

2 tofus, cut each tofu into four same size pieces
2 potatoes, cut into bite-size chunks
50 g bean threads (also known as soun or suun in Indonesian, cellophane noodles, Chinese vermicelli, bean thread noodles, or glass noodles), soak in hot water for couple minutes and drain
1 tomato, cubed
2-3 tbsp kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce)
600 ml water
oil for deep fry and stir fry

Ground Spices:
4 shallots
3 cloves garlic
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground white pepper
salt as desired

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

2. Rub fish with lime juice, garlic powder, turmeris and salt. Marinate for 15 minutes. Deep fry until golden brown. Set aside.

3. Deep fry tofus and potatoes until lightly golden brown. Set aside.

4. Stir fry ground spices until fragrant. Add tomato and kecap manis, stir evenly.

5. Add fish, tofus, potatoes and water. Let them simmer for 15 minutes.

6. Add cooked bean threads, stir evenly. Remove from heat and transfer into a serving plate.

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It is such a long name for recipe, while it's just shorter in bahasa indonesia. Back to my homecity, Sidoarjo (a suburban city of Surabaya, the capital city of East Java province) which we can call for a home of petis udang (shrimp paste) and petis kupang (a kind of tiny clam paste). People there love to eat almost every savoury fritters, appetizers or snacks with sambal petis, such as fried tempeh, fried tofu, bakwan (vegetables fritters) or ote-ote (oyster fritters), sate kerang (clam sate/satay). We also add petis as ingredients to some Eastern Javanese dishes, such as krengsengan, lontong kupang (tiny clams soup with rice cake), rujak cingur (cow lips and vegetables in spicy peanut and petis sauce), tahu tek (bean Sprouts, fried tofu and potatoes in petis sauce), bandeng asap (smoked milkfish) with shrimp paste and soy sauce sambal, lontong balap (bean sprouts and tofu in beef broth soup) etc. if I have to translate lontong balap literally, lontong means rice cake and balap means race, it literally translates as race rice cake :-P.

Back then, at home, iyuk loved to barbecue fresh milkfish on charcoal with a very simple marinade. Sidoarjo is also a milkfish producer city, we always had fresh milkfish not frozen one which fresh milkfish tastes better. We enjoyed barbecuing milkfish with sambal kecap petis (shrimp paste and sweet soy sauce sambal) for the dipping sauce.

Pacific mackerel is still a family of tenggiri (Indonesian) aka Narrow-barred spanish mackerel ( Scomberomorus commerson), tenggiri papan/bunga (Indonesian) aka spotted mackerel (Scomberomorus guttatus), tenggiri batang aka mackerel spanyol aka Atlantic Spanish mackerel (Scombremorus maculatus) and mackerel raja aka kingfish (Scomberomorus Cavalla). I still had a pacific mackerel in my freezer and being inspired by mbak Retno of Kedai Hamburg, I decided to make grilled mackerel, I decided to grill mackerel. The different between my recipe and mbak Retno, I inserted finely sliced of shallots into deep cuts on both sides of fish to give more flavour and also I used the Eastern Javanese style sweet soy sauce sambal (shrimp paste and sweet soy sauce sambal) while mbak Retno used sweet soy sauce sambal for dipping.

When I cleaned up the fish, I found fish eggs inside. Hmm I love them, I just added lime and salt, then fried. Enak bangetttt! (slang Indonesian's term for so yummy).

Category:		Barbecue & Grilling
Style:		Indonesian

Ingredients:
400 g pacific mackerel (it can be substituted for any kind of fish) (bisa diganti ikan lain)
2 shallots, finely sliced
1 lime
salt as desired

sambal kecap petis
2 tbsp black shrimp paste (Indonesian: petis udang)
2 tbsp Indonesian sweet soy sauce
1 tsp ready to use frieid garlic, crushed
finely sliced fresh shallots
finely sliced fresh bird's eye chilies
fresh calamansi (Indonesian: jeruk kestur / lemon cui),
hot water


Directions:
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 lime juice and salt. Insert finely sliced shallots into deep cuts. Let stand for 15 minutes.

Grill fish until the skin lightly golden brown.
Combine ground ingredients with spice ingredients, oil and coconut milk, and marinate the fish in it. Set aside in the refrigerator for a minimum of two hours.

Sambal Kecap Petis
Combine all ingredients for sambal, except calamansi and hot water. Squeeze calamansi, add the juice and hot water into sambal mixture, stir evenly.

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I'm just lazy to make it from scratch since I have been busy at work and today I'm going to volunteer at Folklorama 2007 for Korean Pavilion for the second time.

Folks, with this instant seasoning, all you need are freshwater fish which the original recipe suggested to use carp (in this recipe I used tilapia), Indonesian instant seasoning "Munik" for Pepes Ikan, Banana Leaves (actually other leaves are acceptable but you will get the different flavor), and daun kemangi literally translates for lemon basil in English.

I enjoyed this dish with warmed rice, raw terong gelatik putih (literally translate: Thai eggplant) and sambal terasi.

Ingredients:
500 g tilapia
1 package instant seasoning "Munik" for pepes ikan
1 lime
1 small bunch of kemangi (lemon basil)
5 or 6 bird's eye chillies (optional)

Condiments:
raw terong gelatik putih (Thai eggplant) and other raw vegetables such as long beans, lettuce, daun poh-pohan (it's a Sundanese name for a kind of leaves that I haven't found the name in English nor Indonesian. I wish I can find these leaves here)
warmed rice
sambal terasi

Directions:
1. Clean the stomach cavity, remove the gills and surrounding tissue, and scale them. I bought a cleaned whole tilpaia so no need to do this step, I just rinsed out.
2. Drizzle lime over fish and rub fish inside and out with lime juice. Let stand for 30 minutes.
3. Prepare 3 pieces banana leaves so you will have enough space for a half part of the seasoning and lemon basil. Wrap them up in banana leaves and tie them with a string or pin with wood tooth picks
4. Steam for 45 minutes. If you want to get softer bones of the fish, just keep steaming for 5 hours.

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Indonesians almost eat everything with sambal. Sambal is a condiment used in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka, made from a variety of peppers, although chilli peppers (red chilies, green chilies, bird's eye chilies) are the most common. Sambal is used as a condiment or as a side dish, and is sometimes substituted for fresh chillis; it can be very hot for the uninitiated. It is available at exotic food markets or gourmet departments in supermarkets in numerous countries.

When I was in Sidoarjo (a suburban city of Surabaya, East Java), Indonesia, it's easy to get Sambal Tempe Penyet at a kaki lima vendor or a warung around Sidoarjo-Surabaya. We eat this sambal penyet with warmed steamed rice. Since I have been in Canada, I have to make this by myself which I never did it while I was in Indonesia.



Ingredients:
300 grams tempe, cut as desired
olive oil with fried garlics
4 red chilies
5 bird's eye chilies
3 cloves garlic
2 cm kencur root (some people may name this as lesser galangal , but it is totally different another proper name is kaepferia galangal)
1/2 tsp dried shrimp paste (it's called terasi in Indonesian's term), toasted or stir fry
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar


Directions:
1. Toast tempe with a small amout of olive oi. Bake until brown or done. Alternative: you can grill or deep fry the tempeh.
2. Grind or blend red chilies, bird's eye chilies, garlic, kencur, dried shrimp paste, salt and sugar. It will be better if you grind the sambal ingredients in a mortar with a pestle.
3. Place tempe and sambal in a serving plate, crush tempe and stir evenly with the sambal. Serve with warmed steamed rice.

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This dish is named after the island of Bali, which some pople do not realize is part of Indonesia. This lack of knowledge often upsets me.

This is one of my comfort food. Absolutely spicy!!!

Category:		Fish and Shellfish
Style:		Indonesian

Ingredients:
� 500 grams fish (you can use red snapper, mackerel, pomfret, milkfish, grouper, cod or seabass; I myself added seabass fillets)
� 1 lemongrass, bruised
� 1 cm galangal, bruised
� 2 salam (Indonesian bay) leaves
� 3 kaffir lime leaves
� 1 lime, squeeze to get the juice
� 1 tbsp Indonesian sweet soy sauce
� 1 tsp water
� 200 ml water
� oil, to stir sry

Spices to grind/puree:
� 5 red chilies, disacard the seed (I subtituted for sambal ulek)
� 8 shallots
� 4 gloves garlics
� 4 candlenuts
� 1 cm ginger
� salt as desired

Directions:
� Drizzle lime juice over and rub salt on the fillets. Set aside and let stand for 30 minutes. Clean with tap water and drain.
� Stir fry pureed/ground spices until fragrant, add galangal, lemongrass, salam leaves and kaffir lime leaves; stir evenly. Add water and Indonesian sweet soy sauce.
� Add the fillet, cook until fish broth comes out, the spices arbsorbs and thicken. Remove from heat.
� Serve with warm rice or nasi kuning

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Another recipe of tempeh and tofu. This recipe is adapted from Tempeh Bumbu Petis of Tabloid Nova. Since I had tofu and tempeh, so I combined both those soy products. Petis Udang is literally translated as shrimp paste, which has strong flavour and dark color.


Ingredients:
300 grams tempeh, cut into 4 x2 cm squares
2 tofus, cut each tofu into 8 small cubes

For Marinating
2 gloves garlic, grated
1 tsp salt
150 ml water

Ground/Pureed Spices:
3 bird's eye chilies
2 gloves garlic
5 shallots

1 tsp shrimp paste
1 tbsp Indonesian sweet soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt
200 ml air
oil to deep fry tofus and tempehs
2 tbsp fried shallots for sprinkle

Directions:
1. Combine tempeh and tofu with marinating ingredients. Marinate for 30 minutes. Deep fry tofu and tempe until golden brown.
2. Stir fry the pureed/ground ingredients until fragrant. Add tempeh and tofu, stir evenly.
3. Add shrimp paste, sweet soy sauce, salt and water. Cook until the spices dissolve.
4 Serve by sprinkling freid shallots over.

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This food can be called as Javanese style coconut chicken curry. One of my dad favourites' food. Instead of adding coconut milk, I added combination of coconut powder and balkan style plain yougurt.

We're used to serve this on celebrating Eid-ul Fitr or Eid-ul Adha. We're used to eat this with lontong (rice cake) and sprinkle with koyah kedelai (Spiced Ground Soy). The recipe of koya kedelai will be posted later.

Ingredients:
600 gram chicken pieces
2 tofus, cut into 4 small cubes
2 peeled potatoes, cut into bite sizes
800 ml coconut milk (I subtituted for water, coconut cream powder and balkan style plain yogurt)
2 lemon grasses, bruised
2 salam (Indonesian bay) leaves
2 kaffir lime leaves
2 cm galangal, bruised
1 tsp salt
sugar to season
2 tbsp oil to stir fry

Pureed/Ground Spices:
5 shallots
3 cloves garlic
5 roasted candlenuts
1 tsp ground white pepper
1 1 /4 tsp ground corriander seed
1/4 tsp ground cumin
salt as desired

Directions:
1. Stir fry pureed spices, lemongrass, salam leaves, kaffir lime leaves and galangal untl fragrant.
2. Add chicken and potatoes, cook until all tender, then add tofu, stir evenly.
3. Add coconut milk, reduce the heat and bring to boil and cook until done and the liquid evaporates. Remove from heat and serve.

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This is one of Javanese snacks. I saw this recipe on my friend's multiply, but unfortunately that recipe is in metric standard measurement, so I have to convert to US standard measurement, since I don't have any kitchen scale.

Ketawa means laugh. I guessed it was given that name because it's chapped and looks like a person that laugh :D.

Category:		Appetizers and Snacks
Style:		Indonesian

Ingredients:
2 � cup cake and pastry flour
1 � tbsp margarine
5/8 cup = 10 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
sesame seed to cover all over the balls
oil to deep fry

Directions:
� Place margarine and sugar in a bowl and beat until sugar dissolves. Add eggs and rebeat until thicken.
� Add flour and baking powder, whisk until well-blended.
� Shape into 3-3.5 cm balls. Dip in water and roll into sesame seed until it's covered by sesame seed.
� Deep fry in warm oil until the balls start to chap, turn up the heat and continue to fry until golden brown.

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