Biji Salak and Bubur sumsum (Sticky sweet potato dessert)

This sweet and delicious dessert always reminds me of my lovely childhood with all my beloved cousins in Jogjakarta when they still stayed at their old house. At least once a year I would visit them and stayed with them. Every morning, we would go out and look for an old lady who sold this biji salak with bubur sumsum and this dessert would be our breakfast... :-)

Since my cousins moved to their new house, I didn't get a chance to eat this biji salak anymore and I always miss it up to now. Now my cousins and I live every where in this world and we seldom see each other again.

But everytime I make this dessert, that memory will always come back. I'm not sure if they still remember those happy days though. Do you, cousins?? I hope you do!

Miss you always!!Hope to see you where ever you are.In case you want to remind yourself, you can use the recipe below or you can ask your wife to cook for you...whe..he..he.. :-D

Ingredients:

Biji Salak:
400 gr sweet potato
100 gr tapioca flour
2 tsp salt to taste
200 gr palm sugar
500 ml water
200 ml thin coconut milk
1 pandan leaves

Bubur sumsum:
100 gr rice flour
350 ml thin coconut milk
1 tsp salt to taste

To make:

Biji Salak:

1. Peel the sweet potatoes skin, dice, then steam.
2. Once the sweet potatoes are cooked and soft, add 2 tsp of salt to taste, then mash the sweet potatoes and wait until it cools.
3. When the mashed sweet potato cools off, mix well with the tapioca flour and make a shape of small balls similar to salak seeds.
4. Boil the small balls (biji salak) in hot water until they float.
5. Drain the biji salak and put aside.
6. Bring to boil 500 ml water, pandan leave, and palm sugar until the palm sugar dissolves.
7. Strain the palm sugar water and boil again.
8. Add the biji salak and stir well.
9. Add the coconut milk and stir well.

Bubur Sumsum:

1. Mix the rice flour with salt and coconut milk and bring to boil while keep on stirring until the rice flour thicken.
2. Switch off the stove and put aside.

To serve:

1. Scoop 2 table spoon of bubur sumsum put in the bowl
2. Pour the biji salak on top of it.
3. Serve at room temperature

Garlic Fried Rice

I've tasted it this delicious and yet simple fried rice at a japanese restaurant near my house
Ingredients:
2 plates of cooked white rice
3 pieces of broccoli
1 Big onion – diced thinly
½ can of corned beef
4 cloves of garlic – cut into small pieces.
1 tbsp salty Soya sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

To make:

1. Fry the garlic and onion until the smell comes out. Put the broccoli in and mix it until the broccoli softens.
2. Put the corned beef and stir it with the onion for about 2 minutes.
3. Give a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir it again.
4. Put the rice and stir it until all the ingredients mix evenly.
5. Put the soya sauce and mix all again.
6. Give more salt and pepper to taste and mix it again until everything is evenly mixed and cooked.

There you have it.

Chicken vegetable soup

My toddler loves to eat with soup. Once in 2 days, I have to make a new soup for him.
When I cook for him, I have to make sure the food contains all the vitamins he needs to grow to be a healthy child. He loves broccoli and potato but he does not really like carrots but when the carrot is cooked inside a soup, he will just eat it because normally since the carrot in the soup is soft, I will mash the carrot and mix it with the rest of soup ingredients and feed him. He won’t be able to see the carrot anymore.

Ingredients:
900 ml water
4 pieces chicken wings
1 potatoes (big potato) – if the potato is small then you can use 2-3 potatoes.
1 big fat carrot.
7 pieces of broccoli cuts
1 tomato – cut into 4 pieces
1 big onion (bawang Bombay)
2 stalks spring onion
2 stalks small celery
Some shallots – cut thinly and fried to garnish the soup.
Salt and white pepper to taste – not too salty please. Too much salt is not good at all.

To make:

1. Bring to boil the water in the pot. While waiting for the water to boil, wash the chicken wings thoroughly, put aside. Peel the potato skin then dice the potato (to dice the potato the quickest way: cut the potato into half vertically, then cut each half into another half vertically then cut into smaller squares horizontally). Peel the carrot skin then dice the carrot the same way as you dice the potato.
2. When the water is boiled, put the chicken wings into the pot and boil until the chicken wings are cooked.
3. While waiting, cut the broccoli into 7 pieces or just enough to put into the soup. Peel the onion skin and dice the same way as you dice the potato. Wash the spring onion and dice about 2 cm-long. Wash the celery and cut small about 1 cm-long.
4. When the chicken is cooked, put the carrots and boil until it softens a little bit, then put the potatoes and onion into the soup and boil until the potatoes soften.
   Then put the broccoli cuts, spring onion, and celery and boil everything until everything is soft and cooked.
5. Once everything is cooked, before you switch off your stove, put the tomatoes in and give a pinch of salt and pepper to taste the soup. Stir for a while. Garnish with fried shallots.
6. That’s all. It’s a very simple, tasty and healthy soup for everyone in the family.

Pineapple kopyor ice

This is my 2nd post for kopyor ice and it is not much different compared to the previous one. The only difference is the fruit mix ingredient.

Just to recall:
I don't actually know how to say "Kopyor" in English. My mum told me, kopyor is made from young coconut meat from a special kind of coconut. This special coconut will not mature and the meat inside will not harden as in old (mature) coconut.

According to http://www.agnet.org/library/rh/2003002c/ :

THE SPECIFIC nature of `kopyor' on coconut plant is its abnormal fruit endosperm
controlled by recessive gene (Kk or kk). Based on phenotypic characteristics,
kopyor could not be differentiated from a normal coconut.

Kopyor is very delicious especially if you mix it with syrop and other fruits such as jack fruit, pineapple or avocado or the normal young coconut meat to make some dessert or some eksotic drinks. I have never found kopyor in other countries outside Indonesia.
Mixed kopyor ice is a special drink to quench your thirst during the hot summer day.
Even in Indonesia, not many places sell this classic eksotic drink because kopyor is not easy to get.
Since kopyor is not easy to find, many people try to create the kopyor immitation using jelly that has been mixed with coconut milk and coconut juice.

Here is the recipe:
To make this drink, you need 5 whole young coconuts. The best type of young coconut to use is pandan coconut because pandan coconut has a very sweet fragrance and tastes so fresh.
Ingredients:
500 ml coconut juice
200 gr young coconut flesh
50 ml rose syrop/grenadine
1 can of cubed pineapple in a can (if you have fresh pineapple - by all means - just use the frest one)
200 ml rock sugar syrop (you can just boil some rock sugar with 200ml water to make your own syrop)
1 can nata de coco (in some countries nata de coco is sold as canned fruit. According to Wikipedia (the free encyclopedia) Nata de coco is a chewy, translucent, jelly-like food product produced by the bacterial fermentation of coconut water.)
Some ice cubes

For kopyor imitation:
1 packet Agar-agar (jelly) powder (the Indonesian brand Swallow Globe yellow packet is the best to make this kopyor imitation)
200 ml thick coconut milk
1/2 tsp salt
1 big block of ice (you can make the ice by yourself by freezing some water inside a medium size Glad zipped lock plastic bag)
900 ml coconut juice

For coconut milk sauce:
500 ml coconut milk from 1 whole coconut
1 tsp salt
2 pandan leaves
1/2 tsp vanilla powder

To make the kopyor imitation:

1. Mix the coconut juice, coconut milk, salt, and the agar-agar (jelly) and bring to boil.
2. In the mean time, you have to put your big block of ice into a big bowl. If you made the ice by yourself, don't forget to take it out from the plastic bag.
3. Once the mixture is boiled, switch off the stove. Keep stirring agar-agar mixture to release the heat until it is cooling down. Using a table spoon, scoop the mixture one by one and pour it on the ice block and let it freeze.

To make the coconut milk sauce:

1. Mix all ingredients and bring to boil.
2. Let it cool.

To serve:

1. Prepare some glasses to serve the kopyor ice.
2. Put some young coconut flesh, 3 cubes of pineapple, nata de coco, some kopyor imitation, ice cubes.
3. Pour some coconut juice, rock sugar syrop, coconut milk sauce, and give a drop of rose syrop (grenadine).
   

And now the mixed kopyor ice is ready to be served.

Sweet potato chocolate cake with sultanas

I'm sure the first thing comes to your mind when you read this post title is "this cake must be very sweet". In fact, this cake is very delicious and not very sweet at all because at that time when I made this cake, I was short of sugar and so was the whole country.

I was in the middle of preparing all the ingredients to bake this cake and when it came to preparing sugar, I run out of sugar! I quickly run to the nearest supermarket to buy more sugar and I was thunder struck to see the supermarket did not have and did not sell sugar at all. I run to different supermarkets hoping to find some sugar to bake my cake but I was told that the whole country is in the shortage of sugar. Oh no!! I went back home empty handed. No sugar to bake my cake and I already halfway preparing the ingredients including steaming the sweet potato. Luckily, I found my last packet of icing sugar. I had no choice then to use this type of sugar.

Then after I finished baking this cake, I was ready to decorate the cake with some chocolate topping. Again I run out of my usual chocolate for baking but I still had a different type of chocolate bar. This chocolate bar is a pure dark chocolate and it is bitter.

So, the only sweet things in my cake are the sweet potato, icing sugar, and the sultana raisins and when they were combined together those sweet ingredients didn't give a strong sweet taste and my cake is just very delicious.
It is so delicious until I decided not to share it with anyone... :-D
This is a blessing in disguise for running out of sugar and my usual chocolate for baking.

Below is the recipe for that delicious cake:
Ingredients:

100 gr sweet potato - peel the skin off, steamed and mashed
150 gr flour
150 gr sugar (icing sugar/castor sugar)
5 egg yolk
4 egg whites
150 gr butter
150 ml coconut milk
100 gr sultana raisins
150 gr grated chocolate
1 tsp vanilla essence

To make:

1. Preheat the oven to 160^oC (315^oF). Grease a deep 20 cm round cake tin and line with baking paper.
   
2. Mix sugar and butter with electronic mixer in a big bowl until the mixture raises.
3. While mixing, put egg yolks one at a time, followed by the egg whites one at a time, followed by the mashed sweet potato, flour, vanilla essence, and pour the coconut milk slowly one drop at a time.
   
4. Keep on mixing until the mixture is perfectly mixed.
5. Put the sultana raisins into the mixture, mix with wooden spoon slowly.
6. Spread the grated chocolate on the mixture and mix with wooden spoon a little while just to give pattern to the mixture created by the grated chocolate.
7. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake about 2 hours OR until a fork comes out clean when inserted into the center of the cake.
8. Leave in the tin to cool completely, then turn over the cake out of the tin and put it on the plate.

As for the chocolate topping, you can get it from my previous post Chocolate Toppings for your cakes.

Spiky empek-empek Palembang

Empek-empek is a fish cake mixed with sweet, hot, and sour sauce. It is a local dish from south Sumatera, empek-empek Palembang. You can have the fish cake fried after it is boiled or just boiled. This recipe is my own version of this local dish. Making empek-empek is such a tedious work and takes a lot of time. Though the place I live is not too far away from south Sumatera, it’s not easy for me to just fly there and buy empek-empek so I have make empek-empek on my own.

There are 2 versions of empek-empek Palembang that are so famous; empek-empek kapal selam (this one is with whole egg filling) and just ordinary empek-empek (this one is mixed with coconut milk and no filling). I like them both equally, but unfortunately, to make empek-empek kapal selam takes a lot of time and patience and I don’t have both…J . Since I do not have time and patience, I try to simplify the steps of making this dish and I choose empek-empek mixed with coconut milk and no filling.

Empek-empek ingredient:

500gr Tenggiri fish paste
200gr sago flour/tapioca flour
3 tbsp wheat flour
250ml coconut milk
4 egg whites
50gr shallots – slice into small and thin pieces, then fry.
10gr salt or just enough to taste
1 tsp pepper or just enough to taste
1 tsp salty soya sauce

Sauce ingredient:

700ml water
150gr palm sugar/Malacca sugar
5 tbsp clear vinegar
5 garlics
3 red chillies
2 chilli padi
50gr dried shrimp – use food processor to grind until smooth.
Salt and sugar to taste

Cucumber (cut into small pieces) and yellow noodle or spaghetti to serve the empek-empek.

To make Tenggiri fish paste:
Take out the bones and the skin from Tenggiri fish. Use only the meat of the fish, put into an electric blender and blend it until smooth and turn into Tenggiri fish paste.

To make empek-empek:

1. Mix egg whites using a mixer, then add coconut milk little by little while mixing, then add salt, pepper, soya sauce, fish paste (little by little), fried shallots, the sago flour, and the last one is the wheat flour while keep on mixing without a mixer until all ingredient are finely mixed together.
2. Cover and put aside for about 10-20 minutes while you prepare the water in the pot to boil the mixture you made before. Bring the water to boil.
3. Once the water is boiled, take the mixed ingredient and use a table spoon to scoop it out one at a time and drop it into the boiling water. Keep doing that until you finish scooping all the mixture. The spiky shape is a natural shape that is created when you scoop the mixture.
4. Once the empek-empek is cooked, it will float.
5. Take out all the floating empek-empek and put in a plate.

To make the sauce:

1. Bring the water to boil. While waiting for the water to boil:
2. Peel off the garlic skin, cut into 2 or 3 pieces.
3. Cut the chilies into 3 pieces.
4. Put into food processor to grind them until smooth and mixed.
5. Put the mixture of garlic and chilies in the boiling water, add the vinegar, palm sugar, a little bit of dried shrimp, sugar, and salt, and mix them together.
6. Once it boils, switch off the stove and filter it to a container.

To cook the spaghetti:

1. Bring 700ml water to boil.
2. Put the spaghetti and salt to taste.
3. Bring to boil for about 15 minutes until the spaghetti softens.
4. Drain the water.

To serve:

1. Deep fry the cooked empek-empek until golden brown then cut into small pieces and transfer into a bowl.
2. Add the yellow noodle/spaghetti.
3. Add the small pieces of cucumber.
4. Pour the sauce just enough to sink all the empek-empek in the bowl.
5. Put a little bit of dried shrimp on top.

Voilà! Fuih… You finally finish making empek-empek. I’ve told you before that this dish takes a lot of time and your patience. I hope you like it.

Top 5 things to eat before you die

My good friend from Lolita's kitchen, tagged me to post this subject on my blog. This is a project initiated by Melisa from The Traveler’s Lunchbox as a global food guide.

I love to eat fattening food because I think fatty food is delicious..he..he..he..
Yeah..yeah..I already have problem with my weight and I’m trying hard to cut down my intake on fatty food.

If I’m about to die and I have to mention 5 things I want to eat, I will not have to worry about the fatty food anymore, so here are the list:

1. DURIAAAAANNNNN (The king of fruits) – taste of heaven. I want to eat the best durian in the world such as Monthong Durian from Thailand, D24 and XO24 from Malaysia, or any other types that will remind me of the taste of heaven… :-)
2. Tiramisu cake from Café Grecco in Italian Town, San Francisco, California. This is the best tiramisu cake in the world!! Trust me! I’ve tasted almost all tiramisu cakes from all over the world and none beats café Grecco Tiramisu cake. It’s so soft and creamy, yummy and another taste of heaven… :-)
3. Sweet satay pork. I love this sweet satay pork so much. It’s sooooo delicious, but unfortunately I can only buy it in my home country. I can not find it anywhere else in the world and not many people know how to make it. Too bad… :-(
4. Black pepper crabs from Hai par wang restaurant in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. (See my previous post on Labuan, Malaysia).
5. My own spiky empek-empek palembang. I am finally able to create the best empek-empek I’ve ever tasted so far. This is my own version of empek-empek palembang. I’m going to post the recipe on my blog so that you also can taste this yummy empek-empek.
   

As you can see, the list is full of fatty food..he..he..he..That’s me! I love fatty food.
I still have many kinds of food to be included in that list but then I will talk about my favorite food instead of 5 things to eat before I die.
If you ask me about my favorite food…oh well, the list will never end and KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) will be in the list..he..he..he..

Man! I love KFC, especially the ones in Singapore. Singapore has the best KFC in the world! (I’ve tasted KFC almost everywhere in the world.) One of my friends scolded me once for taking him eating KFC from one country to another. Sorry, man! I just love KFC…he..he..he..

Chocolate pudding with cookie crumbles

I love eating pudding. I've been making pudding since I was 10 years old
helping my mom who sold the pudding to our neighbors back then.

I normally serve my pudding with my favorite vanilla sauce with rum (my earlier post). The vanilla sauce enhances the pudding taste and just the perfect
sauce for my pudding. I suggest you try this and you're gonna love it.

Ingredients:

• 750ml/cc milk - I use a non-fat milk


• 1 sachet agar-agar (jelly) powder (Swallow globe brand is the best) - no
  color/clear color


• 20gr cocoa powder - I normally use a block of dark chocolate then I grate
  it.


• 125gr sugar


• 2 egg yolks (lightly beaten)


• 20gr margarine


• 1tsp vanilla powder


• Salt and rum to taste


• Cookie crumbles - I use 4 pieces DIGESTIVE cookies

To make:

1. Put the cocoa, milk, agar-agar powder, sugar, egg yolks, vanilla powder,
   and salt into the pot and bring to boil while keep on stirring slowly.


2. Put the margarine while keep on stirring until the mixture is boiled.


3. Once it is boiled, stir a little bit to release the heat and when it is cooling down, put all the cookies crumbles into the mixture and stir.


4. Pour into a jelly mould and leave it to cool.

Vla vanilla (Vanilla sauce/Saus Puding)

Vanilla sauce for pudding

The first time I was successful to make this vanilla sauce when I was 10 years old. My mom gave this recipe for me.

Ingredients:
350 ml milk
100 g sugar (if you don't like sweet, you can reduce the sugar)
1 egg yolk (lightly beaten)
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tsp corn flour disolve with water (not too much water. Just enough to disolve and mix the flour)
1 tsp rum/jackfruits (diced)

1) Mix milk, sugar, egg yolk, vanilla essence in a pot and keep stirring to boil to prevent froth to form.
2) Pour the corn flour drip by drip and keep on stirring the mixture slowly until it thickens and has smooth texture.
3) Let it cool.
4) Mix with rum/jackfruits before you serve.

Strawberry Jam

When I visited Cameroon Highlands in Pahang, Malaysia, I got a chance to pick and pluck my own strawberry at one of the strawberry farms along the way to Cameroon Highlands.
This is a great experience for me and my son. Since my son is too small to pluck the strawberry on his own, so he is happy just clinging onto his daddy and watching me picking and plucking the strawberries. The strawberries are big and red. Unfortunately, I am not allowed to eat the strawberry I've plucked at the farm. But after I paid for all the strawberries I picked, I could eat them. The cost to pick and pluck your own strawberry is RM15 per 50 gr.

When I arrived home, I quickly make my own strawberry jam and here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
5 cups (1.25 kg) sugar
1.5 kg strawberries
1/2 cup (125 ml) lemon juice

1. Put 2 plates in the freezer. Warm the sugar by spreading in a large baking dish and heating in a very slow 120^oC (250^oF) oven for 10 minutes, stirring occationally.
2. Hull the strawberries and put in a large pan with the lemon juice, sugar and 1/2 cup (125 ml) water.
3. Warm gently without boiling, stirring carefully with a wooden spoon. Try no to break up the fruit too much.
4. Increase the heat and without boiling, continue stirring for 10 minutes, until the sugar has thoroughly dissolved.
5. Increase the heat and boil, without stirring for 20 minutes.
6. Take out the cold plates from the freezer. Start testing for setting point: place a little jam on one of the cold plates, a skin will form on the surface and the jam will wrinkle when pushed with your finger.
7. It could take up to 40 minutes to reach setting point.
8. Remove the jam from the heat and leave for 5 minutes before removing any scum that forms on th surface. Pour into hot sterilized jars, seal, and label.

Chocolate Toppings for your cakes

Your cake will look dull without any toppings. So, here are 2 versions of chocolate toppings.

Version 1: Chocolate topping

ingredients:
150 gr butter, chopped
150 gr dark chocolate, chopped

1. Combine the butter and chocolate in a pan.
2. Stir over LOW heat until melted. Remove from the heat to cool slightly.
3. Pour the topping over the cake, letting it run down the side to create the 'mud' effect.

Version 2: Chocolate buttercream topping

Ingredients:
25 gr butter
3 tsp cream
1/4 cup (30 gr) sifted icing sugar

1. Combine the chopped chocolate, butter, cream and icing sugar in a small pan.
2. Stir over LOW heat until the mixture is smooth and glossy.
3. Spread the chocolate buttercream over the top of the cake with a flat-bladed knife.

Strawberry Jam Chocolate cake

This is the 2nd version of the chocolate cake. This is the one with the strawberry jam.

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups (155 gr) self-raising flour, sifted
1/2 cup (125 gr) caster sugar
1/2 cup (60 gr) cocoa powder
1/3 cup (40 gr) icing sugar, sifted
1/4 cup (80 gr) strawberry jam
125 gr butter
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
1 cup (250 ml) milk

1. Preheat the oven to moderate 180^oC (350^oF). Grease the base and sides of a deep 20cm square/round cake tin and line with baking paper.
2. On a big bowl, beat butter, caster sugar, and icing sugar with electric beaters until mixture is light and creamy. Add the eggs gradually, beating throroughly after each addition.
3. Add vanilla essence and strawberry jam and beat until combined.
4. Using a metal spoon, fold in the combined sifted flour, cocoa, and bicarbonate soda alternately with the milk.
5. Stir until the mixture is just combined and almost smooth.
6. Pour into the tin and smooth the surface.
7. Bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer (I normally just use a fork) comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the cake.
8. Leave in the tin for 15 minutes and cool on a wire rack.
9. After the cake is completely cool, turn over and put the cake into a plate.

Chocolate Cake

There are 2 versions of chocolate cake, one is without some strawberry jam and the other one is with some strawberry jam. It's up to you. But this post will only talk about the chocolate cake WITHOUT the strawberry jam.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups (185 gr) self-raising flour
1/2 cup (60 gr) plain flour
1 1/2 cups (375 gr) caster sugar
250 gr butter, chopped
200 gr dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tbsp instand coffee powder
1 tbsp oil
1 cup (250 ml) water

1. Preheat the oven to 160^oC (315^oF). Grease a deep 20 cm round cake tin and line with baking paper.
2. Sift the flours and cocoa powder into a large mixing bowl and make a well in the center.
3. In a pan, combine the butter, oil, chocolate, sugar and coffee powder with the water. Stir over LOW heat until the chocolate and butter are melted and the sugar has dissolved. It is very important to use low heat so that your mixture will not be burned.
4. Pour into the well in the mixture of sifted flour and cocoa powder (no. 2).
5. Whisk until combined. Add eggs and mix well, but do not overbeat.
6. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 2 hours or until a fork comes out clean when inserted into the center of the cake.
7. Leave in the tin to cool completely, then turn over the cake out of the tin and put it on the plate.

My hubby's special curry chicken

I don't actually like to eat curry but my husband does. He loves curry so much and if possible, everything is curried... :P
His favourite curry among all curries is curry fish head but I'm not going to write down the recipe for curry fish head here because you can find a better curry fish head recipe from other websites especially those originated from Penang, Malaysia.

On this post, I'm going to write about curry chicken recipe. This recipe is very special because my husband taught me. Oh well, I told you earlier that I don't like curry so I try my best not to cook curry, but since my husband is a curry lover, so I have no choice other than to learn at least 1 curry recipe... :D

Here is the recipe:
The ingredients:
2 potatoes peeled and sliced (don't have to be too thin) then put in a bowl and soaked in the water to prevent browning
2 carrots peeled and sliced round
6-10 pieces chicken drum stick
1 big white onion cut into cubes
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chilli powder (if you like your curry to be hot, put more chilli powder)
1 tbsp oyster sauce
100 ml thick coconut milk
2 tbsp cooking oil
4 cups of water to boil the chicken

1. Boil the chicken drum sticks until they are half-way cooked, drained the chicken and keep aside the broth.
2. Mix the coconut milk with turmeric powder, chilli powder and the oyster sauce.
3. Put the chicken drum stick into the coconut milk mixture and mix evenly. Put aside.
4. Heat the cooking oil in the frying pan, fry the onion until its fragrance comes out, then put the salt to taste, then pour the chicken broth and mix again.
5. Put the chicken drum sticks with the coconut milk mixture onto the frying pan, and mix again.
6. Put the potatoes and the carrots into the pan, mix and cook again until the potatoes dissolve a little bit and the carrots are soft.
7. Put the sugar to taste and mix everything again. Cook for awhile until the sauce a little bit thick.
8. Pour into a big serving dish and the curry chicken is ready to be served.

Fish with Tauge

This is another recipe for fish but this time, you have to use big fish such as siakap, big tilapia, or tenggiri (tuna).

Ingredients:
2 tbsp cooking oil
2 tbsp chopped challots and chopped garlic
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp grind red chilli
2 lime leaves
200 gr Siakap fish fillet (or any other big fish with alot of meat)
Salt, sugar and 1 tsp vinegar to taste
2 tomatoes cut into cubes
200 gr tauge (bean sprout) boiled and drained

1. Heat the cooking oil in the frying pan. Fry the challot and garlic with ginger, turmeric, chilli and lime leaves until the nice fragrance come out.
2. Put the fish fillet into the frying pan, seasoned with salt, sugar, and vinegar.
3. Pour 1/4 cup of water
4. Put the tomato cubes and mix them all until fish cooked.
5. Put tauge (bean sprout) on the bowl then pour the fish mixture into a bowl.
6. The fish tauge is ready to be served.

It's not difficult, right? It's simple, delicious, healthy and quick.

Mixed Kopyor Ice

I don't actually know how to say "Kopyor" in English. My mum told me, kopyor is made from young coconut meat from a special kind of coconut. This special coconut will not mature and the meat inside will not harden as in old (mature) coconut.

According to http://www.agnet.org/library/article/rh2003002c.html:

THE SPECIFIC nature of `kopyor' on coconut plant is its abnormal fruit endosperm
controlled by recessive gene (Kk or kk). Based on phenotypic characteristics,
kopyor could not be differentiated from a normal coconut.

Kopyor is very delicious especially if you mix it with syrop and other fruits such as jack fruit, pineapple or avocado or the normal young coconut meat to make some dessert or some eksotic drinks. I have never found kopyor in other countries outside Indonesia.
Mixed kopyor ice is a special drink to quench your thirst during the hot summer day.
Even in Indonesia, not many places sell this classic eksotic drink because kopyor is not easy to get.
Since kopyor is not easy to find, many people try to create the kopyor immitation using jelly that has been mixed with coconut milk and coconut juice.

Here is the recipe:
Ingredients:
2 avocado peel and cut in small cubes
200 ml rose syrop/grenadine (or you can just boil some rock sugar to make your own syrop)
100 gr jack fruits cut in small cubes
100 gr nata de coco (in some countries nata de coco is sold as canned fruit. According to Wikipedia (the free encyclopedia) Nata de coco is a chewy, translucent, jelly-like food product produced by the bacterial fermentation of coconut water.)
Some ice cubes

For kopyor imitation:
1 packet Agar-agar (jelly) powder (the Indonesian brand Swallow Globe yellow packet is the best to make this kopyor imitation)
400 ml thick coconut milk from 1 1/2 coconut fruit
1/2 tsp salt
1 big block of ice (you can make the ice by yourself by freezing some water inside a medium size Glad zipped lock plastic bag)
900 ml coconut juice

For coconut milk sauce:
500 ml coconut milk from 1 whole coconut
1 tsp salt
2 pandan leaves
1/2 tsp vanilla powder

To make the kopyor imitation:

1. Mix the coconut juice, coconut milk, salt, and the agar-agar (jelly) and bring to boil.
2. In the mean time, you have to put your big block of ice into a big bowl. If you made the ice by yourself, don't forget to take it out from the plastic bag.
3. Once the mixture is boiled, using a table spoon, scoop the mixture one by one and pour it on the ice block and let it freeze.

To make the coconut milk sauce:

1. Mix all ingredients and bring to boil.
2. Let it cool.

To serve:

1. Prepare some glasses to serve the kopyor ice.
2. Put the avocado, jack fruit, nata de coco, and the kopyor immitation.
3. Pour some syrop, coconut milk sauce, and put some ice cubes

And now the mixed kopyor ice is ready to be served.

If you like it sweet, you can put more syrop but I don't recommend this.

Crispy Fried Fish

The main ingredient of this recipe is fish. You can use any small (not too big/not too fleshy) fish such as belanak, catfish, sardin or tilapia.

The other ingredients are:
3 cloves Garlic (finely chopped)
A pinch of salt to taste (if you like salty, then you can put more, but I don't recommend this.)
1 tbs corn starch (is used to make the fried fish crispier and to avoid the fish from sticking on to the frying pan)
15 ml warm water
Vegetable cooking oil to fry the fish (depends on how many fishes you fry as long as the cooking oil covers all fishes when the fishes are fried).

1) Clean and scale the fishes thoroughly especially the belly part by cutting the side of the fishes.
2) Mix the fishes with garlic, salt and warm water.
3) Rub the fishes with corn starch
4) Leave the mixture for min. 15 minutes in the fridge.
5) After that you can start heating up the cooking oil in the frying pan.
6) Once the cooking oil is hot, dip and fry the fishes. Don't forget to turn the fishes to get even color of brown.
7) When the fishes turn brown, take them out and put them on the plate covered with paper hand towel to dry the oil.

That's all. It's very simple, easy, and delicious. My husband loves the crispy fried fish so much till I have to serve it on my dining table almost every night.

One gently reminder: Please be extra careful with the bones. Though you can eat and chew it, some parts of the fish bone are quite sharp.

Banana-raisin Cake

My son loves to eat banana for his breakfast. I don't know if this is because he was born on the monkey year (chinese calendar)... :) I hope not... :D
Just like other 18months old toddler, he sometimes will eat more than 1 banana in a day but some other time, he won't eat at all.
I always have to buy banana at least twice a week. I normally buy a semi-ripe banana so that I can keep it longer. But sometimes, the bananas have become over-ripe even before my son eats them all and no one is going to eat them anymore.
So, rather than throwing them out into the rubbish bin, I use the over-ripe banana to make everyone's favourite banana cake.
I mix and match the recipe from a wonderful recipe book I have "Cooking - a commonsense guide" from family circle series.

Here is the recipe:
To make the banana cake, for the best result, you need to use some ripe bananas. The ripe bananas will give a very nice banana fragrance to your cake.

125 gr butter
1/2 cup (125 gr) caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 cups (360 gr) mashed ripe banana (I normally use all over-ripe bananas that I have)
1tsp bicarbonate soda
1/2 cup (125 ml) milk
2 cups (250 gr) sifted self rising flour (I normally use wheat flour)
2 tbsp Sultanas raisins

To make the banana cake:
1) Preheat the oven t0 180^oC (350^oF).
2) Grease a 20 cm (8 inch) round cake tin and line the base with baking paper.
3) Lightly beat the 2 eggs.
4) Using electric beaters, beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy.
5) Add the eggs gradually, beating well after each addition.
6) Add the vanilla essence and mashed banana, and beat until combined.
7) Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the milk. Using a metal spoon, fold in the sifted flour alternately with the milk.
8) Add the Sultanas raisins, stir until all the ingredients are just combined and the mixture is smooth.
9) Spoon into the round cake tin and smooth the surface.
10) Bake for 1 hour or until a fork comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the cake.
11) Leave the cake in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a serving plate.

Voila! Now you have a very delicious banana-raisin cake. Enjoy your cake!
My son loves my banana cake so much.

The preface...

I like to cook and I know I'm quite good in doing this thing…:)
This blog contains recipes of my favorite food which I would like to share with everyone. Just to let you know, it is NOT easy for me to write down a recipe because I don't normally follow exact measurement when I cook. I just use my instinct and have great belief in my taste-buds. But I can't just say "a little bit of this, a little bit of that, or whatever you think it's enough" to explain a recipe for you. So, I take some measurements from my recipe books to help me to explain a recipe better so that you can understand and use my recipe. I don't actually follow everything on the recipe book. I like to mix and match the recipes.

My little advice for you, to make your cooking more delicious, you have to cook with love and be happy. Don't be afraid when mixing the ingredients! Be creative! Use your commonsense when cooking. I like to create my own version of some recipes I get to adapt to current situation I am facing when I cook. For example, if the recipe book says one of the ingredient is blackberry jam and I don't have blackberry jam but I have strawberry jam, I will just use my strawberry jam. The most important thing when you cook is that you have to be confident of yourself and believe that you CAN cook. Some of my friends freak out a little bit when they see me putting all spices that I have in my kitchen without any hesitation but end up finishing all the food I have cooked. I believe, each person has his/her own style of cooking so I'm sure you have your own style of cooking. Be yourself! Don't copycat other people! If the food doesn't come out like the one on the recipe book you are reading to help you to cook that food, don't be disappointed! Taste it first, who knows your own food actually taste alot better than the one on the recipe book.
To me, a delicious food is when that food has a strong taste but not too much, of course. If you don't agree with me, then create your own style. It's perfectly ok to create and discover your own style of cooking.
Oh, 1 tip from me: When you use an electric mixer to mix some ingredients, please DO NOT stop abruptly! You have to switch the speed slowly from the fastest to the slowest, then only you stop/switch off the mixer.
Happy cooking, people!!