Upsss... I didn't bring anything, but I had something share about. As I was inspired by Penne in Vegetable Marinara Sauce of Bellissimo Restaurant which we had on Sunday (July 13, 2008) at Winnipeg Folk Festival, I tried to make my own at home two days ago. At the festival, some restaurants had their booth to serve people who came to enjoy the music.

On the next picture, you will see a red long pepper. Whilst I was doing my grocery shopping at Superstore, I was curious with those red peppers. On the package, it was said "very sweet red pepper". They were really sweet and taste just like bell pepper, sweeter that red bell pepper and have less seed.

In this recipe, I used roasted garlic marinara sauce ready to use; in addition, I put garlic, basil, spinach and the new variant of red pepper. Please enjoy the photoset of Penne in Vegetable Marinara Sauce.

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Tempura for the craveness! Have you ever get bored of of this Japanese crunchy deep-fried? I never ever get tired of them; furthermore, you will perceive another post of tempura next time. that I have kept since I have been busy with my routine. Eventually, I will post them.

Red Pepper Tempura
Modified by me

Ingredients:
2 red peppers
1/2 pkg tempura mixed flour ready to use
3/8 cup cold water (4C or 40 F)
1 - 2 tbsp coconut cream powder

Directions:
1. Remove the stem and seeds from each pepper, cut them in quarters, then cut them a half.

2. Combine flour, coconut cream powder and water; whisk quickly. Dip gently red pepper slices into batter. Deep fried in hot oil until it turn golden brown and cooked through. Serve with tentsuya.

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Received some message from Dwiana of The Adventure of My Cooking Diary, my Foodie fellow. Together with Fitri and Dhi, she has coordinated Foodie Photography Event "Red & White". Red and White is the colors of Republic of Indonesia flag. The Red and White or known as Sang Saka Merah Putih is the national flag of Indonesia. Red represents bravery, while white represents the spiritual element.

The flag itself is based on the flag of the 13th century of Majapahit empire. This empire was an Indianized kingdom based in eastern Java from 1293 to around 1500, which was the last major Hindu realm in the Malay archipelago. It is considered as one of the greatest states in Indonesian history. The successful era of this empire was from 1350 to 1389 when it dominated other kingdoms in the southern Malay Archipelago, Borneo, Sumatra, Bali, and the Philippines.

The month of August is getting closed now. People who live in the North part, are familiar with the warm feelings of this month bring. This also means mid summer for some........ vacations to others.... or sitting on a beach watching sunset with a glass of margarita in hand for a few.

However, do you know that in August, some years ago, a couple had their parachute wedding for the first time in the world, a man name Priestly discovered oxygen and Galileo demonstrated his first telescope to the Venetian lawmakers. Therefore, it was also the day when Indonesia declared independence from the Dutch Colonial, August 17, 1945.

In the spirit of celebrating the Independence Day, the freedom in every aspect of life hopefully, we would like to see the creative spirit within YOU. If you have a talent in cooking or baking, food styling or food photography, show it to us, flaunt it.

Even if you don't think you have a talent, just send it anyway. We would like to see it! The theme is "Red and White" but it may be stretched as far as you can think of. Anything red and white, visual or concept wise, taste wise... anything. You don't have to be an Indonesian to participate this event.

Be creative as much as you can. There are some cool door prizes waiting for you. Remember, winning isn't everything, but having fun is. So let's have fun and let that creativity spilling over. One participant can only send one entry.


Just don't forget to send in your entry to redwhiteevent@gmail.com by August 15, 2008 by midnight GMT+7

Ensure that you submit all details below

Name/Nickname :
Blog/Site Name :
Blog/Site URL :
Entry Title :
Entry URL :

Please attach a 200 pixels width image of the entry

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Thank you to Margot of Coffee and Vanilla for nominating my blog on her food photography blog event, Inspiring Food Photography. Thank you to everyone who voted for me. Here is the trophy that I received.

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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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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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