As of June 15th, I moved to a small cattle producer town in Manitoba, Boissevain due to my current job. I still go back to Winnipeg once every two weeks.

The little small town has caught my intention with flowers around the area. I was so happy I finally found lemon basil (Indonesian: kemangi) plants for purchased here, at the greenhouse where I bought them. Lemon basil is a fragrant herb that is commonly used in Indonesian cuisine.

The warmness and friendliness feeling that I enjoy the most from people in this town. The most important I don't need to see lots traffic like in Winnipeg! :) Absolutely, I enjoy driving here.

A cozy coffee area in the giftware shop is also part of my morning coffee break. It's only one block away from my office with magnificent things that foodies love. Care to see the history of The Station, please visit the website at http://www.the-station.ca/. Thanks to Audrey Hicks to let me taking pics of the store. If you go to the US border or enter Canada through highway 10 please do visit Boissevain and The Station.

The Station
406 South Railway Street
Boissevain, MB
Canada R0K 0E0

The Front Look and The Black and White Corner...

The Red Lovers...

The Blue Lovers...

The Eco and Antique Lovers...

There, you go, my spot for coffee break...

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Have you ever had berries cheese snack before? The product was pretty innovative by combining mozzarella cheese and Saskatoon berries. To create a packaging for the product, my friend asked me a favour to take few shots of the product as his team group who were developed for their class project. Shots were taken a place at the Food Science's kitchen of my university.

For those who are interested to develop this product, you may contact my friend by sending me an email.

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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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The smoothie plus picture is my contribution for CLICK!, a photo event is hosted by Jugalbandi. With "Spring/Autumn" as the theme I decided to participate at this event with Smoothie Plus. Spring has sprung, in which bring all the fresh ingredients together in the kitchen. Luscious fresh fruits are becoming more available and less expensive.

Smoothie Plus! Why? Let's see. There were strawberries, blackberries and mangosteen. Did you know that mangosteen is one of the hottest new superfoods? For people who grew up in Indonesia or other South East Asian countries, mangosteen was not a new food. I grew up with mangosteens and enjoyed them as my fruit snack.

Smoothie Plus (1 portion)
recipe by me

Ingredients
strawberries
blackberries
mangosteen
banana
soy milk

Directions:
Blend together until smooth and serve.

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Disclaimer: Asam padeh tongkol comes with medium amount of reddish mixture liquid. Don't do what I have done, mine was too dry. I left the kitchen and almost forgot with my cooking. :)

A whole of skipjack tuna (Indonesian: ikan tongkol) had been sitting in the fridge for a day. First time, before thawing it, I was thinking to make balado tongkol, the easy peasy food that I used to make if I don't have lots time to cook. I came home from work and I changed my plan, but still didin't know what to do. I made fish with rica (the Manado style) spices and another style with sambal dabu-dabu before. Googling is one of ways to get an idea and ended up at Uni Dewi Anwar's blog, Kitchen Craft with Asam Padeh Tongkol.

With the richness of spice and bright red colour, asam padeh is one of typical Western Sumatran (Minangese) dishes that I relish. Thanks Uni. The recipe has the same taste as I had the last time while I was still at my parent's house.

Asam kandis (Garcinia xanthochymus) and turmeric leaves are types of spices in Minangese dish. Due to the lack of ingredients, I modified this recipe by using kokum or kokam (Garcinia indica) which is popular in Western India culinary. For some people who familiar with South India culinary such as Kerala, kodampuli (Garcinia gummi-gutta) can be used as substitution. Asam kandis, kokum/kokam, kodampuli Kokum or kokam Kokum are belong to the same family of Garcinia or mangoosteen family, so they can be used interchangeably.

Asam Padeh Tongkol
recipe by Dewi Anwar, modified by me

Ingredients
a whole skipjack tuna (about 500 g) ==> this had been scaled
3 tbsp squeezed calamansi juice*original recipe used lime juice
olive oil for stir frying
water

Spices (non-grinding)
3 pieces kokam/kokum *original recipe used asam kandis
2 bilimbi (Indonesian: belimbing sayur) *original recipe didn't add ones
5 cm long galangal, bruised
2 lemongrasses, take the white parts and bruised
3 Indonesian bay (salam) leaves
3 kaffir lime leaves, teared
1 turmeric leaf, teared ==> can be substituted for curry leaves (Indonesian: daun salam koja or daun kari)
2 cardamom

Spices grind into a paste:
300 g ground red chili peppers ==> can be substituted for sambal ulek
8 shallots
5 cloves garlic
5 cm long ginger
2 candlenuts
salt as desired


Directions:
1. Clean the stomach cavity, remove the gills and surrounding tissue. Cut into pieces. Drizzle calamnsi over and set aside.

2. In a medium-hight heat, stir fry non-grinding ingredients and paste spices until fragrant. Add water and cool until boiling and the liquid thicken.

3. Add skipjack tuna, reduce the heat to low and cook until fish done and the liquid has evaporated. Taste to perfection and remove from heat.

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Lontong sayur was one of the breakfast routine dishes when I lived in Bogor. A kind of breakfast that we can get from street food vendors with less price where you can add a protein choice such as boiled egg, beef or chicken. Due to the geographic area where I live now, it is impossible to get lontong sayur from street food vendors. Hence, it took me a while to make it.

In Indonesia, most vegetables that people use for lontong sayur are chayote, green long bean, green bean, young jackfruit, green pepaya, bamboo shoot and etc. In this recipe, I enhanced with bamboo shoot strips, petai (stink beans), shrimps, pieces of tempe and tofu.

Lontong is an Indonesian style of rice cake with log form. It is usually served at room temperature as an accompaniment sauce or curry-based dishes such as sate, gado-gado, opor ayam (braised chicken in coconut milk) or cooked vegetables in coconut milk. It very popular carbohydrate source for breakfast and usually accompany with cooked vegetables/meat in coconut milk. Do not be confused with ketupat. Though, it is made from rice but ketupat has a different form and wrapping materials. While lontong is wrapped in banana leaves, ketupat is wrapped in woven palm leaf pouches.

Traditionally, lontong is made by partly cooking or soaking raw rice, draining and packing tightly into a rolled-up banana leaf. The leaf packaging is fastened with bamboo picks and cooked in boiling water about 90 minutes or so. Once, lontong is cooled and solid, you can cut lontong into bite-sized pieces.

Ingredients:
500 g bamboo shoot strips
10 petai, sliced
250 g shrimps, peeled
1 tofus, cut each into 20 smaller pieces
1 block tempe, cut into small bite-sized pieces
2 lemongrass, bruised
3 cm galangal, bruised
2 Indonesian bay leaves
1 tsp ground dried shrimp (Indonesian: ebi)
2 pkgs cream coconut powder
1.5 L homemade shrimp stock*
lontongs, cut into bite-sized pieces
oil to stir fry

Spices to grind into a paste
6 shallots
3 cloves garlics
3 red chillies
3 candlenuts (Indonesian: kemiri)
1 tsp dried shrimp paste (Indonesian: terasi, Malay: belachan), roasted

Directions:
Preparation
*Homemade shrimp stock can be made ahead from shrimp heads and skins
1. In a pot, combine water, 1 tbsp sugar and bamboo shoots, cook until boiling, and drain.
2. Deep fry or bake tempe and tofu until done.
3. Combine shrimp stock and 1 package of coconut cream powder; stir occasionally. Bring to a boil and set aside.

Cooking
1. Stir fry spices paste/ground ingredients in a large saucepan over medium heat for 1-2 minutes, add salam leaves, galangals, and lemongrasses, cook for another 1 minutes until fragrant.

2. Add stink beans, bamboo shoot, tempe, tofu and another package of coconut cream powder, stir until mixed.

3. Add shrimp stock and shrimp, stir and boil for another 5-10 minutes or until the shrimps are done.

4. Serve with lontong, sambal and kerupuks (any kind of kerupuks, either tapioca or shrimp ones).

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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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