Pickled Bitter Mustard Soup

I usually see people using pickled bitter mustard for double boil soup with pork ribs. But the soup that I used to have during my childhood is not a double boil type, so it's much easier to make.

What you need:

1 pack 200g pickled bitter mustard

300 gr lean pork (healthier choice, can change this with pork ribs)

400 ml bonito stock

5 cloves of garlic

1.2L water

How to:

1. On the pot, saute garlic until fragrant, and add on pork.

2. When pork is half done, add on the pickles, stock and water

3. Leave it to simmer for about 40 minutes

4. If the soup is too tasty for your liking, add on water until you get the taste that you like

My favorite is to add on rice into the soup.

Enjoy!

My Version of Gulai Singkong

I made a different version of the cassava leaves dish, quite sometime ago (here and here). This time, I made gulai singkong, not as healthy because of those coconut milk, but I got a feeling it'll be different if I use milk instead. If you google the recipe (example, here), you'll see the long list of ingredients to my horror. So, I decided to cut all those out without taking out the flavor. Let's see if you agree to it :).

What you need:

500 gr Cassava leaves - boiled for about 7 to 10 minutes, strained and cut

100 gr anchovies (the small ones)

500 gr coconut milk

water (as needed to thin out the coconut milk)

6 pc lime leaves

3 tbsp oil

Condiments:

1/2 round garlic (about 5-6 cloves)

2 medium sized red onion - you can cut all those small shallots, but I don't like peeling those tiny shallots, waste energy

10 gr macadamia nuts

5 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

1/2 pack of chili padi (about 50gr)

How to:

1. On food processor, add on all the condiment ingredients and blend it until smooth

2. On a pot, heat up oil and saute the condiment and the lime leaves until fragrant

3. Add on anchovies, keep on saute-ing until well mixed
4. Add on Cassava leaves, coconut milk and water
5. Simmer the cassava leaves until the gravy reduced and thickened, and the leaves are soft

For a very Indonesian lunch, you can have it together with pepes tahu.

Enjoy!

Scallop Porridge

Porridge is one of those easiest thing to cook. But you'd always wonder how to make a really good porridge. What's the proper rice:water ratio? What are other stuff to put into? I happened to come across a variety show which cover this simple dish in a very short segment and the recipe is just nice. Mind you it's not that cheap coz it use dried scallops but it tastes good! The texture is just right, not too thin or thick and like any porridge, it's light on your tummy!

What you need for 4 person portion:
300 gr rice
2 tsp vegetable oil (I use sesame oil, instead)
2 tsp salt
3 L water
12 pc dried scallops (medium size) ~ soaked and shredded

How to:
1. Place the rice on a strainer and soak it and lift up the strainer and place the rice on a bowl.
2. Coat the rice with oil until well mixed.
3. On a pot, put water and start to boil it under slow fire, add on the coated rice, salt and the scallops
4. Cook the rice for about 40-50 minutes. Pointer: by the time the rice blooms that's when you off your fire.
5. Serve hot and with toppings like: Century eggs (Pi Tan), fermented tofu, pickled lettuce, chinese doughnuts.

Pumpkin Treats

Halloween is around the corner! It means pumpking season is at its best! So, we need to celebrate it by having:

Pumpkin Cheesecake

And my fave Pumpkin Pie

When you live in the US, pumpkin pie is everywhere, and you can just buy the nice one from Costco bakery. But it's not the case if you don't live in the US. So, you just have to whip one for yourself. An easy way to whip it up for a 7" round pan is:

What you need:
Crust:
150 gr digestive biscuit - crushed
70 gr butter
Filling:
290 gr canned pumpkin puree
180 ml milk
1 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
4 tbsp brown sugar

How to:
1. In a bowl, mix digestive biscuit and butter until well mixed and spread over the pie pan. Make sure to cover both the bottom and the side and with spoon pad over to solidify the crust. Put the pan in the freezer while working on the filling.
2. Pre-heat oven to 200C
3. On a mixing bowl, beat in egg, sugar and cinnamon until light
4. Add in pumpkin puree and continue to beat until well-mixed
5. Add on milk bits by bits and keep on mixing
6. Pour in the filling into the pie crust
7. Bake at 200C for about 15 minutes, reduce the temperature to 160C and continue to back for another 40 minutes

Enjoy!

Okra Ponzu

I love Okra or Lady Finger, but this is the first time I cook it myself. Why the hinder? Simple reason, it's hairy. And what I don't understand, why the name is Lady Finger? Have you ever see a lady with hairy fingers? I know my fingers are definitely not hairy... LOL... Lame joke... I know...

What I find it interesting from this dish is that the regular ponzu, which is rather salty, becomes somewhat lightly sweet when cooked with okra. It's just nice! I personally love the taste! You can also make this as a side dish or even, cold dish.

What you need:

1 pack of Okra - cut about 2cm length

Dried chili - optional, for the kick

Seasoning: Mirin, Yuzu Ponzu

How to:

1. On a wok, heat up oil and dried chili until fragrant

2. Add on Okra and mirin and close the lid for about 4-5 minutes (you can do a bit of net surfing, some whatsapp or start cleaning up)

3. Open the lid then add ponzu. Start stir frying, and done! In less than 10 minutes!

Enjoy!

Beef Patty with Mushroom and Leek Sauce

What do you do if you have leftover of about 250plus gr of ground beef? The easiest way out is... either hamburger steak or beef patty which are actually 99% the same thing LOL

This patties are quite versatile. You can eat them with pasta (make cream pasta), mashed potato, or rice (like the pic).

What you need:

Patty:

250-300gr minced beef

1/2 leek, chopped fine

20gr bread crumbs

1 egg

Salt, pepper - as needed 

Mushroom Sauce:
1 pack sliced white button mushroom
1/4 leek, julienned
1 onion, thinly sliced
Dried chili - as needed
Bonito stock - as needed
Seasoning: Worcestershire sauce, mirin, sake, sweet soy sauce - as needed

How to:
1. In a bowl, mix all the ingredients until well mixed and smooth
2. Scale and mold the mixture to your preference. 50gr makes small patties and will make about 8-10 patties.
3. Pan fried the patties until well-done and set aside.
4. In a same pan, stir fry dried chili, leek and onion until soft and fragrant.
5. Add on mushroom stock and seasoning.
6. Cook until mushroom is cooked.

Tips:
1. Careful not to make the patties too thick, you'll end up with dry patties because it'll take longer to cook.
2. Recipe can be changed to minced pork.
3. Mushroom sauce can be changed to demiglace sauce or beef stroganoff sauce.

Enjoy!

My First Kurokke

It's been a long while since the last time I do deep fry and true enough my deep frying skill shrinks so much compare to before (lack of practice off course)... So, this time I made kurokke/クロッケ (Japanese Croquette). Made the basic one because I have no confident to pull those fancy creamy kurokke LOL. So, I pulled up the recipe from the net (here). Yes, as the recipe suggests, it's easy, true, it's just my deep frying skill now sucks that my kurokke look like... below, not as shinny as I want them to be.

So, what's kurokke? For Indonesian, it's basically Japanese perkedel LOL... that's the basic one. The difference Indonesian use egg for coating, Japanese use pankon (bread crumbs). I didn't really follow 100% of the recipe because I don't follow recipe, that's all LOL...

What you need:

750gr potatoes - peeled, cut, steam for 20min and mash them

100gr minced beef

1/2 leek - julienned

30 gr grated cheese

Salt & pepper - as needed

Cake flour - as needed

1 no egg - for breading

Pankon - as needed

How to:

1. Cook beef and leek until soft and cooked, seasoned it with salt & pepper, set aside.

2. Add #1 and cheese into mashed potato, mix them until well mixed

3. Mould the mixture into patties. 70gr each will make about 9-10 kurokke.

4. Coat them with cake flour then do the breading station --> egg --> pankon

5. Deep fry them until golden brwon

Point from the website:

1. Coating them with cake flour supposed to prevent the kurokke from exploding when deep fried

Point from me:

1. Don't be stingy with oil. Pankon fried faster than the softer bread crumbs so deep frying has to be fast. If your oil is not deep enough and only cover half of your kurokke, the side will get burnt fast and you'll have kurokke with black sides.

2. Don't add butter into your mashed potato, it'll become too soft and not easy to be fried. It makes the kurokke tastes nicer though. Decision, decision haha...

3. If you don't have tonkatsu at home, you can mix tomato sauce, mirin and Worcestershire sauce. It should do the job. Or try it with mayo and lemon for different flavor.

Enjoy!