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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For people who grew up with Sumatran culinary, fiddlehead ferns might not be extraneous. They are what the Indonesians call for pakis or paku. I grew up with several kinds of Sumatran gulais (curries), one of them was gulai pakis or gulai paku. Some people also make them for anyang (Acehnese/Minangese salad with spiced grated coconut).

I just knew from one of my foodie fellow on multiply that people who grew up in Kalimantan, also familiar with fiddlehead ferns, since the plant grow wild in the forest. In Pontianak (the capital of West Kalimantan province), people eat them as salad with peanut and fish/shrimp paste (Indonesian: petis) sauce, and also stir fry with dried shrimp paste (Indonesian: terasi, Malaysian: belachan).

I was so exciting to find fiddlehead ferns for purchased in Winnipeg, since I heard from the news that wild fiddlehead ferns are sold in several stores. According wikipedia, fiddlehead ferns have several varieties depend on where they grow. The ones that I had here, grew local and wild. They are different with I used to have when I was in Indonesia.

Fiddlehead ferns refers to the unfurled fronds of a young fern harvested for food consumption. The fiddlehead, or circinate vernation, unrolls as the fern matures and grows due to more growth in the inside of the curl.

If you notice, there is no pepy's name on this picture, due to the height issue, I couldn't take a picture of fiddlehead in the basket at the natural food store. Here is a picture of Manitoban Wild Fiddlehead Ferns, that was taken by my husband.

Last night, I didn't feel to process/grind some spices to make gulai pakis, so I decided to make an easy one. I was thinking to make fiddlehead ferns omelette as I saw the recipe on the Food TV Canada website, but it was happened I changed my mind to make stir fry.

This post is also my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging (WHB) this week, hosted by Joanna of Joanna's Food.

Indonesian Stir Fry Fiddleheads with Scrambled Eggs
recipe by me

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. (225 g) fiddleheads, well washed and drained, tail base trimmed
2 cloves garlic, minced
Half onion, thinly sliced
1 tbsp kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce)
1 tbsp oysters sauce
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp olive oil
salt if you need

Scrambled Eggs
3 eggs, beaten
3 tbsp unsweetened natural soy milk (this one tastes similar to coconut milk)
1 - 2 sprigs parsley ( it can be substituted for Chinese celery or cilantro), chopped
1/2 tsp garlic powder
3 tbsp vegetable oil

Directions:
Scrambled Eggs
1. Mix beaten egg, soy milk, parsley and garlic powder. Heat a pan and oil over medium heat, pour in egg mixture and immediately reduce heat to medium-low.

2. As mixture begins to set, gently move spatula across bottom and sides of skillet to form large, soft curds. Cook until eggs are thickened and no visible liquid egg remains, but they are still moist. Set aside.

Stir Fry Fiddleheads
1. In a saucepan of boiling salted water, blanch the fiddleheads for 2 minutes. Drain and rinse in cold water. Set aside.

2. Heat a skillet and olive oil over high heat, add sesame oil. Saute onion and garlic until fragrant.

3. Add fiddleheads, oysters sauce, Indonesian sweet soy sauce and white pepper, and scrambled eggs. Stir evenly until done (about cooking for 1 to 2 minutes). Transfer into a serving plate.

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This recipe was inspired by Deetha of Mlebu Pawon, my foodie fellow, who shares the same passion with me; we love Acehnese food. I have differences in cooking method and some ingredients. I marinated the fish with calamansi and baked it while Deetha used lime and deep fried the fish. I added curry leaves as well.

I categorized this into a thick soup, since it is added by coconut milk. Asam sunti (English: sun-dried bilimbi) and curry leaves are widely used in Acehnese culinary, but it seemed I have modified this recipe by adding calamansi which is widely used in Manadonese culinary.


Acehnese Mackerel Curry // Gulai Ikan Kembung Khas Aceh
Recipe by Dita, modified by me

Ingredients:
300 g Indian mackerel (Indonesian: ikan kembung)
3 kaffir lime leaves
8 curry leaves (Indonesian: daun salam koja, daun temurui)
1 stalk lemon grass, white part only, bruised
400 ml coconut milk
sea salt
2 asam sunti (sun-dried bilimbi)
1 calamansi (Indonesian: jeruk kesturi, lemon cui)
oil

Spices to Grind:
5 shallots
2 cloves garlic
3 fresh red chilies
1 fresh green chili
1 cm turmeric, toasted
2 candlenuts, toasted

For Marinating:
1 teaspoon calamansi juice by squeezing fresh calamansi
sea salt as desired

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven at 350F.
2. Marinate fish for 30 minutes with salt & calamansi juice.
3. Bake fish in a oven for 10-15 minutes.
3. Heat oil in a wok and saut� ground spices, kaffir lime leaves, curry leaves and lemon grass until fragrant.
5. Add coconut milk, asam sunti and let to a boil.
6. Add the baked fish and cook until thickened.
7. Add calamansi juice and salt, stir evenly, and remove the heat. Serve with warmed cooked rice.

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Water spinach or the Indonesians call "Kangkung" is another leaf vegetable that I love, but it is a bit pricey in Winnipeg. The good part, it has been at most of Asian stores in Winnipeg. Whenever, I miss kangkung, I can buy it.

Water spinach has a scientific name Ipomoea aquatica, it is most commonly grown in East and Southeast Asia. Because it flourishes naturally in waterways and does not require much if any care. Do not be confused with watercress, which often grows similar.

Other names of Water Spinach, according to wikipedia.

• swamp cabbage
• water convolvulus
• water morning-glory
• kangkung (Indonesian, Malay)
• kangkong (Tagalog)
• eng chai (Hokkian)
• tangkong (Cebuano)
• kang kung (Sinhalese)
• trawkoon ( Khmer: ??????)
• pak boong (in Thai: ???????) (Thai)
• rau mu?ng (Vietnamese)
• kongxincai (Chinese: ???; pinyin: kongxinc�i; literally "hollow heart vegetable")
• home sum choy ( Hakka)
• ong choy or tung choi (Cantonese pronunciation of ??, ng�nkc�i; pinyin: w�ngc�i).

Let's talk what kind of tomato that I used here. I used campari tomatoes which is noted for its juiciness, high sugar level, low acidity, and lack of mealiness. Camparis are deep red and larger than a cherry tomato, but smaller and rounder than a plum tomato. Cherry tomato is known as tomat rampai and very popular for making sambal in Indonesia, but since I know campari tomatoes I love to use this tomato to make sambal.

Some Indonesians might think, this recipe is similar to Pelecing Kangkung of Lombok. You're right! The differences are, Pelecing Kangkung uses limo citrus (a kind of citrus that is closed to kaffir lime) and candlenuts, this recipe uses tomato and garlic.

Indonesian Blanched Water Spinach with Terasi
sourced from http://keseharian.com and modified by me

Ingredients:
550 g kangkung or water spinach, rinse under cold running water and cut
3 campari tomatoes
5 shallots, sliced
3 tbsp oil

Terasi mixture (roughly grind the ingredients)
3 campari tomatoes
3 garlic
5 bird eye's chilies
1 tsp terasi (dried shrimp paste)
1/2 tsp coconut sugar
salt as desired

Directions:
1. Blanch water spinach in boiling water, drain and quickly cooling them in icy cold water. Drain.

2. Stir fry shallots until fragrant. Add roughly ground spices and stir until done.

3. Add tomatoes, stir until wilted or smooth.

4. Place water spinach on a serving plate, pour terasi mixture over and serve.

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It's a vegetarian treat who still consume cheese or dairy products. Most of the Greek restaurants that I have been to, have a triangle shape for spanakopita. I kept delaying to make this, because I was thinking we just can't be such in a rush while we work with fillo pastry and have to be gentle. I bought the fillo pastry at the special store due to the L-cysteine issue.

I had 3 different shape of spanakopita, two shapes were round just different in size, another shape was triangle. To be honest it was easy to make the the round one, just put the fillo into several layers, add filling and put on several layers again.


Spanakopita
Recipe by several sources on the internet

Ingredients:
1 pkg phyllo/fillo pastry, cut into the pan size
Melted butter or olive oil (to brush on the phyllo/fillo)

For the Filling:
400 g frozen spinach
1 onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
8 green onions, including green stems, finely chopped
4 tbsp finely chopped fresh dill
300 g feta cheese, crumbled
2 eggs, beaten
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp Olive oil

Directions:
Preheat the oven at 350F

Filling:
1. Thaw frozen spinach thoroughly, drain really well by pressing down /squeezing the water from it. Place in large mixing bowl.

2. Place frying pan on stove at over medium to high heat, add the olive oil. Add onion, stir and cook until translucent; add green onion,and garlic, stir and cook until soft. Just before they are ready, add dill. Toss the pan and do a quick mixing with a wooden spoon. Remove from the heat and let it cool.

3. Combine dill mixture with spinach, add egg and feta cheese, season with freshly ground black pepper and salt. In this case, I didn't add salt since feta cheese is already salty enough.

Assembling
1. Take a muffin pan, brush the bottom with a small amount of melted butter. Separate a sheet of fillo from under damp tea towel and place it into the pan. Fillo pastry must be covered at all times with a damp tea towel or it will dry out. Brush a layer with butter, place another sheet of pastry on top. Brush with butter as well. Continue layering until you have used 4 sheets of filo. But do not add the butter to the top sheet.

2. Pour in the spinach mix over the top of the pastry layers. Push down and spread it evenly around the pan using your spoon. Carefully top it with 4 more layers of the fillo with the same steps as we do for the bottom layers. The different is, you need to brush on the very top layer with butter.

Finishing
Transfer the dish into the centre of the preheated oven. Bake for 30 minutes or until it is crispy and a light golden brown then remove.

These steps above are applied for mini round shape of spanakopita. For the triangle one, it will be different on assembling parts and baking time. Please do refer to this link to have more explanation regarding the triangle one.

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Last week, there was an event at my work, open house. We had lots fruit leftover. I brought a bag of them and make them for Rujak Manis. Too bad, I made the sauce too thick, that was not supposed to be. It's still good and spicy (hot).

There are several versions of rujak in Indonesia. As a person who grew up in East Java, I know rujak manis, rujak madura, rujak cingur are difference in sauce. No wonder for traditional Eastern Javanese recipes, I like using the recipes of mbak Lia (Dapurgue).

In Indonesia, it is usually served with tropical fruits, such as, medium riped papaya, unripe mango, pineapple, jicama (Indonesian: bengkuang), starfruit (Indonesian: belimbing), rose apple/water apple (Indonesian: jambu air), guava (Indonesian: jambu), ambarella (Indonesian: kedondong) and also add sliced of fried tofu.


Rujak Manis
Recipe by Lia of Dapurgue, translated by me

Ingredients:
Fruits:
I used the fruits that I had
Strawberry, sliced
Cantaloupe (In Australia and New Zealand, it's known as rock melon)
Melon, sliced
Pineapple, sliced

Spicy Peanut Sauce for Rujak Manis
100 g fried/roasted peanuts
250 g coconut sugar, warmed up in a microwave for couple seconds to soften
3 tbsp fried garlic
2 tbsp tamarind juice
bird eye's chilies ( as many as you like)
1/4 tsp dried shrimp paste (Indonesian: terasi)
salt as desired
water

Directions:
1. Combine bird eye's chllies, dried shrimp paste, salt and tamarind juice. Process with a food processor until smooth.

2. Add coconut sugar, add a small amount of water at time and increase until reach the desired consistency.

3. Add garlic and peanut, process until done (do not process the peanut to smooth, but some people might like the smoother version). If the sauce is too thick, add water.

4. Serve with sliced fruits.

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I guess spring has sprung. The frozen river near my place has melted. Yupss I live near by the Assiniboine River. The Assiniboine River is a 1,070 kilometers (665 mi) long river that runs through the prairies of Western Canada in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. A name of this river is taken from the Assiniboine First Nation.

It flows south-east from Saskatchewan and then mainly east to "The Forks" in Winnipeg, Manitoba where it flows into the Red River. The Red River is a North American that flows through several major urban areas along its path including Fargo-Moorhead and Greater Grand Forks in the United States and Winnipeg in Canada. All the information about the rivers is courtesy of wikipedia.

I have four pictures that were taken on different day. All pictures were taken from 9th floor of my apartment. Picture #1 was taken on April 13, 2008.

Three other pictures were taken April 16, 2008. In picture #2, #3 and #4, you can see small pieces of ice floating on the river, most of the ice has melted and they were flowing to The Forks then flowed into the Red River.

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