Nagasari

My favourite traditional steamed banana cake. It can go to every wheather, every season, every mood I have.. it is simply yummy!! and the preparation is not difficult. Try it!!





Ingredients
- 150 gr of rice flour
- 750 ml of coconut milk
- 2 pcs of pandan leaves
- 200 gr of sugar
- 1/2 tsp of salt
- Ripe plantains, cut thinly about 1/2 cm lengthwise
- Banana leaves for wrapping

Direction
Dilute the rice flour with 1/3 of coconut milk till you get a fine mixture. Add in the rest of the coconut milk, pandan leaves, salt and sugar and bring it to boil with small flame. Keep stirring until the sugar melted and the pandan leaves released the fragrance. The mixture will get thickened. Take it off from the stove and prepare the banana leaves.

Lay a piece of banana leaf (about 10cm wide), clean it first before you use it, and spread 1 spoon of the cooked mixture in the middle of the wrapping leave, put the banana slice in the middle, and cover it with the cooked mixture again. Wrap nicely and steam it about 20 minutes. Let it cool before serve.

Nasi Uduk - steamed Rice cooked with coconut milk

I have to say, living far away from homeland is not that easy.. You get easily excited at first, to the life where you are stranded on, but then, after some time the craving is there... I always long for tradisional food, and this is where I began to say to myself, after 6 years living here in Austria where the indonesian restaurant is nowhere to find, that I would do my best to live as comfortable as I can, with all those hurdles - the time, the availability of the kitchen stuff - I will manage!

And hey, after walkbloggings here and there.. I begin to like my kitchen so much.. hahaha..

Now, I thought of this steamed rice 'NASI UDUK'.. as I have a left-over coconut milk in the fridge. And I took out some frozen chicken to make fried chicken to eat with the rice.

Basic need for NASI UDUK :
- jasmine rice, 200 gr? 300 gr? I always cook very little as I am alone at home..
- coconut milk about 200ml, is perfect enuf
- 3 pcs of bay leaves

- 1 pc of lemongrass - crush it a bit!

then cook them in a pot with medium heat. If you happen to have a rice cooker, that is even better. You can put them all in and let it cook. You might need to stir it once or twice, as coconut milk make the rice easily get sticky to the bottom of the cooker pot.

Bika Ambon

They call it Bika Ambon, though it doesnt come originally from Ambon but Medan. A very special cake, using tapioca flour and a very small quantity of normal flour . It tastes different, but very good.. ^-^

See the texture? this what makes it different than any other cake.. ;-)

(recipe copied from http://www.dekap.com/)

This is what you need:

15 gr instant yeast
20 gr sugar
15 gr flour
75 ml water

Mix all those ingredients above well, and leave it for 25 minutes.

15 citrus leaves
350 ml coconut milk
a pinch of salt

Bring those three ingredients in a pan and let it boil.

300 gr sugar
8 yolk
200 gr tapioca flour
1/2 tsp vanillie

Beat the yolk and the sugar in a bowl, until smooth, then add the tapioca flour, stir it gently. Put in the vanillie and the coconut milk mix. Take out the leaves first. Then leave it for about 2-3 hours.

When all is done, heat up the oven, put the bake form inside. When the form is warm, brush first with some vegetable oil, then pour in the cake mix. Bake for a good 20 minutes.

Martabak

Most populer filled-cake in Indonesia.... ;-)

This one traditional dessert is very easy to find in Indonesia. Especially in Jakarta. In every corner of the street, especially a crowded one, you would find a food seller of this one dessert.

Making this martabak is not that difficult, and the stuff you would find easy everywhere.. so jetzt geht´s los...

What you need:

Bowl A:

• 250 gr flour
• 50 gr sugar (normal sugar, the fine crystal one is even better!)
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 350 ml water
• 1 tsp instant yeast

all those above, except the instant yeast, beat all together in a bowl till smooth. When done, add in the instant yeast and stir. Leave it for about 2 hours, till the dough rises up.

Bowl B:

• 4 eggs
• 60 gr sugar
• 1/4 baking soda

Beat all those in a bowl, doesnt need to beat too long, just to get all mixed well. Then mix bowl A and bowl B together.

One by one, put some portion in a pan, like you do a pancake. This one mixture will give about 4 portions of pancake.

Now for the filling you would need:

• salty margarine (we normally use BlueBand), sweetened condensed milk, some grated cheddar cheese

When one cake is done, brush the top thinly evenly with the slightly-salted margarine. Then pour generously the condensed milk, and then sprinkle some grated cheddar cheese. Cut the cake into two, fold them, and cut it again smaller for small serving.

Another version for the filling would be:

• salty margarine, sweetened condensed milk, some shredded chocolate and the grinded peanuts.
  

Crispy bakwan?

This one side dish always comes perfect in every occasion. Party? you just have to put in on a decorative plates. Picnic? in a lunchbox will do just fine. In between meals? any plate is ok.. takes not so long time to prepare, and the taste is very good.

To me, this dish can really brings back memory.. the time when I was still working in Jakarta. There was this one guy, called Gepeng- the sidewalk food seller. Spotted the most strategic place to sell his stuff, all those crispy snacks - pisang goreng (fried banana), bakwan (crispy veggie snack), ubi goreng (fried sweet potatoes), etc.. he was very much in demand, especially around 4pm -the time we all needed to get some break from work... his crispy stuff was really perfect to enjoy with some warm tea.

ok, back to the kitchen.. it is not all that difficult. See below, you just need:

1 egg

1 tofu

some little shrimps

some beansprout

some shredded cabbage

1 package of KOBE savoury mix (bakwan flour)

beat the egg and mix the rest with some water, like this ..

the beansprout you can cut smaller before you put in the mix -that´ll make it easy while frying.

when the mix is done, fry them in frying pan with quite a lot of oil. One spoon at a time. And fry them good, to get them crispy.

Shells -cooked in garlic sauce

This is something worth trying, very easy to prepare, and not taking much time.

all you need to have:

1 or 2 big onions - cut cubes

1 teaspoon of oyster sauce

1 teaspoon of soy sauce sweet

1 package of KOKITA Bumbu D (garlic dish)

1 package of shells, about 750 gr to 1 kg - *frozen shells are just what we can find here, fresh ones considered luxury!!... *

Fry the onion cubes in the pan with little oil, and then bring the shell in the pan, sautee together.. taste it up with some oyster sauce and soya sauce.. feel free to put in some sugar if you wish.. keep it cooked for some good 25 minutes. Just make sure that all shells are cooked.

a few tips:

• if you want to spice it up a bit, you may add a bit of a sambal oelek.
• instead of shells, you can also use shrimps, a moderate size please...
• or if you happen to have chicken breast instead of shells, well... why not?

Home-made Teh Tarik

Just when you have the feel of having some warm milk tea, and you have no instant Teh Tarik at home...

as long as you have all these:

• - dried tea leaves
  - cinnamon stick
  - cardamom
  - ginger (I always have sliced ginger – frozen, that works too!)
  - milk (of course!!)
  - sugar (depending on your taste).

First boil some water (about 250 ml) with all the ingredients needed: dried tea leaves, cinnamon stick, cardamom, sugar and ginger. When it boils, lower the heat and put in some milk (depending on how you would like it. Thick milktea? Then have it more than the amount of water...)

And let it boiled again for some more minutes and then it is ready to be served.
(Oh, don’t forget to take out all those cinnamon stick, ginger, etc before serving!!!)