Thursday, September 21, 2006

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.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

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..

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

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.