July 26, 2010 Update: This post was featured on FoodBuzz Top 9 today

Pickerel is actually a name for Walleye (Sander vitreus, formerly Stizostedion vitreum).  In wikipedia, it's explained that Walleye (Yellow Pickerel) is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the northern United States. It is a North American close relative of the European pikeperch.

Damn for sure I had no idea what perciform was until I followed through the link from wikipedia. Perciformes means perch-like.

This dish is the fruit of my love to Canadian and Indonesian ingredients, pickerel and lemon basil (Indonesian: kemangi). The cheeks of pickerel are large enough to use. They are boneless, skinless and considered a delicacy in this province.

Speaking about lemon basil, it is an Indonesian favourite of basil. We often eat it raw with sambal. It's also flavouring the pepes (steamed/grilled fish or chicken wrapped in banana leaves), gulai (curry) and stir fry.

Since lemon basils are not common to be purchased at groceries, I have to grow them. Luckily, most of nurseries in Manitoba sell the plants of lemon basil.

In this recipe, I substituted the buttermilk and flour for almond milk and rice flour. Instead of butter for pan frying, I used mix EV coconut and olive oil.

Wait! Did I say recipe? Honestly, no exact measurement of ingredients will be written. It will be just ingredients and how to make it.

Pan Fried Pickerel Cheeks with Lemon Basils 
recipe by me

Ingredients:
pickerel cheeks
lemon basils, finely chopped
chili flakes
salt
ground black pepper
rice flour
almond milk
mix EV coconut and olive oil

Directions:
Combine rice flour, chili flakes, lemon basil salt and pepper. Dip pickerel cheeks into almond milk and dredge in flour mixture. Put a shallow skillet over medium-high heat, add oil and get the skillet hot. Add the cheeks and cook until browned on 1 side, 1 to 2 minutes. Flip the fish and continue to cook until desired doneness, about 2 minutes more. Be careful, it's very easy to overcook.

Enjoy with your favourite sauce. This time, I dipped them into sweet chili sauce.

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Poutine (Quebec French pronunciation: puts?n) is a diner staple which originated in rural Quebec, in the late 1950s. According to wikipedia, several Quebecois communities claim to be the birthplace of poutine. Now, this savoury dish can be found across Canada.

Poutine has become staple menu at the national fast food chains such as New York Fries, and Harvey's as well as in small "greasy spoon" type diners. International chains like McDonald's, A&W, KFC and Burger King also sell mass-produced poutine in Canada. It is also very common dish sold and eaten in high school cafeterias in various parts of Canada along with fries and pizza.

Originally, it consists french fries, fresh cheese curd and gravy. Since I live on the Prairie land, the poutine has been altered. Instead of fresh cheese curd, they add shredded cheese.

As of July 13, officially I have stayed in Canada for 5 years. It doesn't mean I consume it almost every week :-P. In my 5 years of staying, I have only eaten about 2 or 3 times.

The poutine above was bought from Daly Burgers. Daly burgers was famous of its burger with chili in it. I have been knowing that the place is on Corydon and this year they open up the second branch on Pembina.

My impression of Daly's poutine was pretty good compare to the New York Fries one. The one that I had from New York Fries was too salty.

As you can see below the picture of Daly burgers with chili in it and I ordered the chili on the side as well. The burger patty was fresh made daily. I ordered them for take out and was able to manage eating the chili the next day. :)




619 Corydon Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3L 0P3
Phone: (204) 284-4944

1151 Pembina Highway, Winnipeg, MB R3T2A3
Phone: (204) 452-2807

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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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Happy Canada Day to All Canadians, including New Canadians!

I decided to call my friend last minute before we were heading to the Forks. Since my place is very closed to where the Osborne Street Festival was, I had to go a longer way to pick up my friend. Then, I parked the car at home and we walked to the Forks.

It was fun! We enjoyed the music from the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and other bands. At 11 PM, the fireworks started. I don't know how many shots I took, but I had to hold my camera up for 15 minutes.

Here are some photos that I shot. They are still and will to come at my flickr page.


People stood up when they heard the Canada National Anthem "O Canada"

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Since we barely pass by this area, we never knew this new sushi restaurant, Sushi King. From St. Vital Centre, we decided to eat at Sushi King. I felt in love with the interior design. It's very Easter colour and modern.

When I saw the chef, I was quite surprised. I noticed it was the same guy who worked at Sushi Train on Pembina.

After posting the photos on my Facebook, a friend who used to work close to this area told me that he was the one who worked at Sushi Train. Now, he owns this Sushi King.

Most of Sushi restaurants in town have similarity in menu. Sushi King has one menu that I haven't seen before, Umecchi (above picture). Umecchi is a sushi roll with Umeboshi and Spinach.

Umeboshi is a pickled ume fruits common in Japan. Ume (Prunus mume) is a species of fruit-bearing tree in the genus Prunus, which is often called a plum but is actually more closely related to the apricot.

From my opinion, the miso soup isn't as good as other Japanese restaurants serve. It's too watery. Other foods are ok, but it's not the best I've ever had. Overall, this place has unique design with their special menu that keeps changing. I was a bit disappointed that Sushi King doesn't have takoyaki, but I was happy with their Sunomono Salad with choices of crabmeat, shrimp, octopus. I picked crabmeat for my salad.




Sunomono salad consists harusame noodles, English cucumber, choice of seafood. Harusame Noodles are thin, translucent Japanese noodles, slightly thicker than glass noodles but still almost as thin as hair.



To see more menu, you can visit Sushi King website.

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I realized some of my Indonesian readers don't know about Cuka Lahang (Canesugar Vinegar). This vinegar is used in West Java area more, especially for sate mariggi (Cianjur or Purawakarta Beef Sate).

Another vinegar that I like to use is Cuka Aren (Nypa Sap Vinegar). Unfortunately, Nypa sap vinegar is no longer popular in Indonesia. The people like the chemical white vinegar more.

In which I disagree with those people choice. I pick these two vinegars over a white vinegar. The reason is, first of all, I hate white vinegar (I come to the point that I really can't stand the taste and smell). Secondly, they are naturally fermented from plant resources, canesugar (Indonesian: tebu) and nypa-sap (Indonesian: nira aren/enau).

Living in Winnipeg, it makes me easy to find South East Asian stuffs. These two vinegars are product of the Philippines and also popular among Filipino community. So, I don't need to buy these at the special stores, just go to any Superstores in town.

For those who follow a Halal diet. These vinegars are also safe to consume since they have a halal label on the bottles.

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Gulai Kerapu Tauco is very interesting combination dish. Indonesian gulai is influenced by South Indian cuisine especially curry and by adding fermented salted soy bean sauce/paste (or tauco), it makes this dish very fusion. Tauco is a part of Peranakan ingredients in Indonesia.

In Indonesia, there are two terms that refer to Chinese descendants, Peranakan and Totok*:

1. Peranakan is a term for people of Chinese descent who were born in Indonesia and have blended into the local culture. A peranakan usually has an Indonesian name and can't speak Mandarin. However, it has been changing lately. I know ample younger generation of Peranakan go to school that is taught in three languages; Indonesian, English and Mandarin.

2. Totok refers to Chinese people who were born in China and maintain strong links to mainland China. The term now also includes Chinese Indonesians raised with strong Chinese traditions, and usually speak Mandarin.

When did these Chinese immigrants move to archipelago (Indonesia)? According an article from the Jakarta Post, between the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, a large number of Chinese immigrants moved to the archipelago from different ethnic groups in the southeastern part of China, including Hakka, Hainan, Hokkian, Cantonese, Hokchia and Teochew.

Back to our food discussion, tauco has many different varieties depend on the region. The city producers of tauco are Cirebon, Medan, Riau dan Cianjur. Medan's Tauco is salty just like the fermented soybeans that I use in Canada. While people who grew up in Central Java will say that is not the tauco that they have. Tauco in Central Java has sweeter taste due to the coconut/palm sugar added.

Interestingly, I grew up in Java cities but I used to have Medan's tauco, because my dad came from Medan. So, I accustomed to salty tauco. For those who live in Indonesia and want to try this recipe, I recommended to use Medan's tauco.

Gulai Kerapu Tauco
- Grouper Curry with Fermented Salted Soybean Sauce -
recipe by Sedap Sekejap, modified by me

Ingredients:
400 g whole grouper, cleaned and rinsed off under running water
1 turmeric leaves
2 cm (0.8 inch) long galangal, bruised
2 long green chilies, length cut
3 tbsp tauco
200 ml water (I substituted for clam juice or shrimp/fish broth)
400 ml thin coconut milk
1 asam kandis (I substituted for kokam or gorakha)
2 tbsp EV olive oil/coconut oil

Spices to be ground:
8 shallots
4 cloves garlic
4 candlenuts
5 long red cayenne pepper
salt as desired


The spices without tauco in the picture

Directions:
1. Broil grouper until both sides are brown.
2. Stir fry ground spice until fragrant.
3. Combine turmeric leaves, galangal and green chilies; stir until chilies wilted.
4. Add tauco; stir briefly. Add grouper and stir evenly.
5. Add broth and coconut milk. Cook until spices are absorbed. Add asam kandis/kokam/gorakha. Stir briefly and remove from the heat.

Notes:
- Thank you to the Jakarta Post for the article.

- The original recipe stated to deep fry the fish. I chose to broil it since it applied less oil and left a small mess in the kitchen.


If it happens you don't have to scale your fish, all I say lucky you!
When I bought a fish sometimes, the fish hasn't scaled yet. At least, I don't have to clean the innards

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