My beloved mom used to tell story on how I grew up, "when you were a baby and your teeth would grow, just like other babies, you loved to bite everything as you had an itchy gum. Instead of seeing you biting the toys, I gave you boiled chicken feet. At least, there is calcium in them." Added chicken feet into regular vegetable soup and sayur asam (Indonesian sour vegetable soup) is also my family's tradition.

What do I look for whenever I go to dim sum restaurants, either in Canada or in Indonesia? Phoenix Talons a.k.a Fenghuang Claws or the Indonesians call "Angsio Cakar Ayam".

Snow has come about a week ago. It is getting cold and colder each day. Dim sum dish is one of my perfect food for the cold days. Since I have a package of red yeast rice that I bought about a month ago from one of the Asian stores in Winnipeg, I was tempting to try chicken feet with dim sum style.

The mistake that I made I didn't follow mbak Ruri's recipe by not soaking the chicken feet in icy cold water after deep frying. Thus, my chicken feet were not puffy enough as the dim sum style. However, I put down mbak Ruri's recipe so you can follow it.


Phoenix Talons // Angsio Cakar Ayam
recipe by Kueh Ruri and Rossy of Rossy Kitchen, modified by me




Ingredients:
1 kg chicken feet, discard the nails

Ingredients A. :
5 cloves garlic, bruised
3 star anises
4 cm length ginger, thinly sliced
3 green onions, take the white part only and cut into 2 cm length
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp mushroom soy sauce
3 tsbp raw sugar
� tsp ground white pepper
1.5 liter water
1 tbsp red yeast rice (Indonesian: angkak)

Ingredients B:
1 tbsp minced garlic
3 long red chilies, angle cut
3 tbsp black bean sauce (Indonesian: tausi)
2 tbsp rice wine (I don�t use this)
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp cornstarch, dissolved in a small amount of water
the green parts of green onions from ingredients A

Directions:
Deep fry chicken feet until done, remove from the fryer and transfer into a big bowl fill with icy cold water. Soak for 3 hours or so.

Steps A.
1. Stir fry garlic until fragrant, add water and the rest of ingredients A.
2. Bring into a boil. Add chicken feet, cook until the chicken feet soft, the spice permeates and the water evaporates.
3. Remove from the heat.
Steps A will be faster if you use a pressure cooker.

Steps B.
1. Stir fry garlic until fragrant, add black bean sauce and long red chilies; stir evenly.
2. Transfer the cook chicken feet, rice wine and add cornstarch mixture; stir evenly.
3. Add sesame oil and green part of green onions, stir and remove from the heat.

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Frozen rain has finally come today, so that means snow is in the mail pretty soon. I have been busy for a while, taking some time off from multiply as well as blogspot. On those days, I tried to sneak a little time to capture beautiful fall leaves. See more pictures below.

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One very general idea: always try to think of a story behind the photo (e.g. table setting, sunny mood, comfort food, stylish food), which impression do you want.

- Thorsten Kraska -


Dita of Yummy, the founder of Home Food Photography event, has invited me to participate since the very beginning of this episode. Eventually, I ended up running out of time and idea. Yeah, I wish I could take a part from the first event, but I won't miss the 4th series.

About three weeks ago, I sent a message via flickr to Thorsten Kraska (TK), one of my favourite photographers. The purpose of that message was to give myself enlighten about my food-photography. It is a perfect match to share his opinion about concept while the 4th series� theme of the event is �konsep� or concept in English. Here are the messages that really got into my brain.


�For a warm feeling you could use warmer background colors. You could use contrasting colors, if you want the colors of the dish to stand out.

The idea of "what the message is" is important. Browse through photos in journals of flickr. Stop at every photo you like on first sight and you will see these photos tell you a very short story, they get your imagination working. That is the main idea. Make the viewer stop by telling a story.�

This time, �Teri�s Party� is my contribution to the 4th Home Food Photography. Teri is not a person�s name; it is a call for silver anchovy in Indonesian which I barely see the fresh one in Winnipeg. Happiness and homey are the feelings that I long to illustrate with my childhood dish, Dadar Teri Medan (fried tiny silver anchovies in egg batters) as I can find Teri Medan for purchased at one of Asian markets here. Colourful polka-dots background and pink tissue sheet remind me of a little girl party. Reveling in my homey kiddo party is the shots' message.

Last but not least, thanks to TK for the permission to publish his words on this blog.

Dadar Teri Medan // Fried Tiny Silver Anchovies in Egg Batter

recipe by my beloved mom and iyuk, modified by me

Ingredients:
1 cup fresh or frozen* tiny silver anchovies
2 fresh calamansis (can be substituted for lime/lemon), squeezed
1 egg, beaten
1 cloves garlic, grated
2 candlenuts, grated
� package no-MSG added shrimp bouillon cube or 1/4 tsp terasi (English: dried shrimp paste)
Oil for deep-fry or pan-sear

*Thaw frozen anchovies, then measure 1 cup.

Directions:

1. Squeeze calamansis over anchovies, mix and let stand for 15 minutes. Rinse off.
2. Combine garlic, bouillon or terasi, candlenuts to beaten egg.
3. Add anchovies into egg mixture.
4. Place a frying pan/skillet over high heat and add oil. By using, a soup spoon, spoon anchovies mixtures onto the pan. Fry them until golden brown and enjoy with hot sauce.

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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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This picture was taken on September 20, 2008, while we had a day tour to Elie, Portage La Prairie, and Warren.

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The majority of people in the North and South America continents know this spread or dipping as guacamole, but for people who grew up in Indonesia, avocado is used to make a sweet blended shake for a beverage or a dessert. No wonder, a number of my multiply readers were asking; how does the savoury avocado taste like?

Mayoness is a condiment that ample people use for their sandwich, but I barely apply it. For the health purpose, we have been reducing mayo's utilization on sandwiches. Avocado gives the creamy texture as mayo does. Easy and fast to make. I suggest to use Hass Avocado, also known as Guacamole Avocado or Alpukat Mentega in Indonesia. Hass avocado or alpukat mentega is perfect for Indonesian avocado shake (Indonesian: jus alpukat) as well.

You can add any kind of herbs as you desire and green onion or red onion. In this case, cilantro and chopped red onion were added, do not forget lemon squeezed; for, it is reduced the browning that is a result of the oxidation process.

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Pursuing what I studied in Indonesia, and trying to go back to my old career are my concentration right now. Since Canada has a different system is not that easy. However, food is still my obsession. In order to focus on my school, away from multiply and blogspot for a moment as the school started may be the choice; nevertheless, I will still post once a while. I apologize to my readers for this reason.

On my busy days between class and work, I sometimes crave for one of my comfort food. Spaghetti is one of them, ever since I know arrabiata sauce, I don't really relish marinara sauce anymore. Arrabiata is perfect for a person who loves hot spicy, like me.

You will not need a recipe for this one, for I just added minced garlic and sliced onion to cooked spaghetti and mixed with the sauce. It will be good if you prefer enhance with ground beef, mushroom, and other vegetables.

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