Easy Indonesian Recipes

Nagasari

2009-04-19T01:24:00.001-07:00

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

2008-11-17T06:25:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-15T07:59:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-08T13:36:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-11-02T11:19:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-02T09:47:00.000-08:00

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

2008-09-01T02:51:00.001-07:00

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!!!)

Soto Ayam - Indonesian Chicken Soup

2008-09-01T02:32:00.000-07:00

The easiest way to prepare warm food at home, especially if you don’t have much time to spend in the kitchen!!

All you need to have:

1 pack of bumbu instant SOTO AYAM
ca. 400gr chicken (2 chicken legs or breast – whichever you have in your fridge!)
1 lt water
(1 pc of lemon grass and a few of dried citroenleaves – optional!)

Boil the chicken in the 1 lt water until the meat gets tender.
Take out the chicken, let it cool first and cut the meat small. See above pict.
Put in 1 pack of bumbu instant SOTO Ayam in the clear soup – lower the heat.
When done with the chicken, put the sliced chicken meat back in the soup.
With the low heat, cook for another 15 minutes…

This is how it looks at the end….

for the final touch I have put in some vermicelli (rice noodle), cooked egg, and sprinkle over the soup some fried red onions.

You may add some fresh coriander leaves, and that will give really a boost in the taste!!

Rendang (Indonesian goulash... ;-)

2008-09-01T00:43:00.000-07:00

Feels like having some spicy meat for lunch? Why not try the instant spice for Rendang... It doesn’t take much time for preparation, yet the taste is great!!

This is what you need to prepare:

1 pack of Bumbu Rendang (Rendang spice)
1 coconut milk 500ml
300 gr meat – cut in pieces
1 onion and some garlic – chop them fine.
1 pc of lemon grass and some dried citroenleaves.

Sautè the finely chopped onion and garlic with enough cooking oil in a big pan. After a while, put in the lemon grass and citroenleaves, as well as 1 pack of the bumbu Rendang (Rendang spice), stir it slowly.

Then put the small pieces of meat in, and 1/3 of the coconut milk. Slowly, stir it and low the heat. When the meat gets tender, put in the rest of the coconut milk. Let it cook until some oil comes out (from the mixture)... See the picture below for the final serving…

Somehow, it looks like the Austrian Goulash… humm.. yummy!!

Tip:
For those who like hot spicy meat, feel free to add some red chillies –chop nicely and put them in together with the onion and garlic while cooking. Or if you found it late, well… you still can add some 1 or 2 teaspoons of Sambal Oelek.

Another tip:
One say, the more you let it cooked, the more tasty it becomes. It's true, though. Even somew would find it more tasty to have it somehow 'dried'. You may let it stay overnight first, and re-heat it the next morning. You will find it more tastier than before.

Banana blossom in duet with chicken hearts…

2008-08-29T05:40:00.001-07:00

Back home in Jakarta, we call this kind of cooking style ‘tumis’. I have to say, this was the first and the easiest way I found when I had to prepare food when I was teenager. Every kind of vegetables (bittergourd, morning glory, bean sprouts and tofu,..) you can do almost every vegetables with this cooking style, and add anything small or anything you can cut small, chicken meat, chicken hearts, shrimps, meatballs…

You just have to have: onions, garlic, galanga roots, red chillies (and some pieces of bay leaves.

And the preparation is always the same: cut them all nicely, only the bay leaves stay the way they are.

Sauté all the ‘tumis’ ingredients together (onions, garlic, red chillies, galanga roots, and bay leaves). After a while, put in the chicken hearts (or whatever you feel like having: shrimps, meatballs,... anything). This time I am using the chicken hearts and the banana blossom in can. The chicken hearts get into the pan before the banana blossoms (vegetables in the can don’t need to be cooked too long!). You may want to slice the banana blossoms if they are too big in size.

Let it cooked for some more minutes with low heat, and then serve it.

Voila!! One vegetable dish is served in almost no time!!!