Fried rice (nasi goreng) is my dad’s speciality. He likes to treat us by cooking his version of fried rice for breakfast. Back when I was younger, my dad would make it even more special by making a nasi goreng wrap. The wrap is nasi goreng wrapped in a thin layer of egg crepe. I remember that his egg crepe was always so thin and pretty looking goldish yellow. Sometimes he made it even more special by adding a sunny side up with runny yolk that would run when we cut it open. So so good!

Anyway, my husband and I love to cook his recipe at our own kitchen because it’s so easy and quick. We could make this dish within 10 minutes and it’s always so delicious. For our version though, we like to add a bit of greens (usually choy sum) just to make it feel healthier. Heheh.

Easy Fried Rice

• 2 servings of cooked rice, refrigerated for at least 2 hours
• 150 gram of smoked ham, cut small. Trim the fat for oil.
• 1 egg, beaten
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoon of oil - Alternatively, use the fat from smoked ham
• a pinch of pepper, to taste
• 2 stalks choy sum, cut to an inch (optional)

Instructions

1. Heat oil (or smoked ham fat) in a wok and stir fry garlic until fragrant.
2. Add egg, wait until it’s slightly cooked and scramble it.
3. Add smoked ham and cooked rice, vigorously flatten them so rice are separated. Use high heat to fry the rice.
4. Season with pepper to taste.
5. Serve and enjoy!

From the moment my mom knows that I’m pregnant, she has told me to drink air kacang hijau (boiled mung bean water) because she said it’s good and beneficial for the baby. After I did some research, apparently mung bean really is nutritious. So instead of just drinking the water (from the boiled mung beans), I went a bit further and made this bubur kacang hijau (mung bean porridge).

Bubur kacang hijau is definitely one comforting dish, suitable for snacks as well as desserts. It can also be served either hot or cold. While some people like to mix the coconut milk straight away into the dish but I prefer to add the coconut milk just before I eat the meal. I treat the coconut milk like sauce and of course, everyone has different preference for his sauce.

If you’re in need for a comforting dish, this would be the one. Otherwise, you can try my bubur ketan hitam (black glutinous rice) recipe here.

Bubur Kacang Hijau

• 1 cup mung beans
• 3/4 cup palm sugar, thinly sliced
• a pinch of salt
• 200 ml coconut milk
• 2 cups water
• 1 pandan leaf

Instructions

1. In a pan, boil mung beans with pandan leaf and water. Simmer on low heat for 30 minutes.
2. Add more water if necessary, until the beans are completely soft and cooked.
3. Once cooked, add salt and palm sugar. When the sugar is completely melted, take off heat.
4. In a small pan, heat coconut milk and add a pinch of salt. Once boiled, take off heat.
5. Serve bubur kacang hijau in a bowl and drizzle with coconut milk to taste.

Cooking udang goreng mentega (buttered fried prawn) was a pleasure for me. It brought back memories to the time when my mom used to cooked this dish. Back then, I always have regret each time I finished eating this dish which was my hurting throat. This was of course, because I loved to scrap down the buttery sauce. It was so good that I couldn’t stop myself!

Udang Goreng Mentega (Buttered Fried Prawn)

• 300 grams prawns, head removed and deveined
• 1 lime, to soak the prawns
• 4 tablespoon butter
• 5 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1 onion, sliced
• 5 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 4 tablespoon sweet soy sauce
• a pinch of pepper
• oil, to stir fry

Instructions

1. Soak prawns in lime juice for 15 minutes then wash prawns.
2. Stir fry prawn in oil, set aside.
3. In a pan, heat oil over medium heat, stir fry garlic and onion until onion is translucent.
4. Add sweet soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce, mix well.
5. Return prawns into the pan, add pepper and mix well.
6. Take off heat and the dish is ready to be served!

Bakut Sayur Asin (Pork Ribs with Pickled Mustard Green) is my dad’s favourite dish whenever he comes to Bandung. Not any Bakut will do and his favourite is Bakut Ahon at Pasir Kaliki. Bakut or Paikut is actually pork spare ribs, while the pickled mustard green is what the name implies. In Indonesia, pickled mustard green can be easily found in supermarkets and if you’re overseas, it can be found at Asian groceries in the fresh/chiller section.

I love to make this dish because it’s so easy to cook and always turns out yummy. I love using my slow cooker to cook this dish because I prefer super tender ribs rather to chewy ones. But really mainly because I don’t like the idea of checking on the pot every now and then. However the dish is totally doable on a conventional pot which will take about 2 hours to cook. Towards the end of your cooking, don’t forget to reduce the oil by either cooling the pot and then scrap the oil using spoon or use oil absorbing paper.

Bakut Sayur Asin

• 500 grams pork spare ribs
• 5 garlic cloves
• pickled mustard green, cut into 2-3cm pieces
• water, enough to cover spare ribs by about 2cm
• a pinch of salt, to taste

Instructions

1. To reduce the saltiness of the pickled mustard green, stir fry the pickles in a pan over medium heat. Take off heat once the pickles is a turning dry.
2. Put garlic, pickles and cleaned spare ribs in a slow cooker (or conventional pot), and cover with water up by about 2cm. Turn on slow cooker and cover for 5-6 hours until meat is tender. If using conventional pot, turn the heat to medium high until boiling then reduce the heat to simmer and cover the pot. Let cook for 2 hours or until meat is tender.
3. Reduce the oil by spooning the surface or use oil absorbing paper.

Bakmi Ayam or Chicken Noodle is my dear husband’s favourite dish. He would happily eat chicken noodle anytime on any given day. Lucky him, my late grandpa from dad’s side was a noodle expert. By expert I mean he was in noodle making business. Of course then, by default my grandma became a noodle chef expert. Whenever we’re at her place, she makes sure that we’re not short of food and the fastest meal for her to cook is… noodle!

Imagine this, my husband who is very open about his love of noodle and I arrive at my grand’s. She’s obviously very happy to see us so she cooks us a meal. Lots and lots of yummy noodle.

noodle making at grandma

This kind of noodle is somehow only common available in Indonesia – or Indonesian restaurants for that matter. I’m not sure why this is the case so can someone give a clue? Here in Indonesia, it’s very common to have noodle as breakfast or lunch. My family (and so many others that I know) have a habit of having noodle for lunch after church on Sunday. This was something that I used to miss back in Melbourne.

The recipe that I’m going to share is probably one of the simplest variations of chicken noodle. My husband prefers boiled/steamed chicken so I didn’t proceed to cook the chicken further after I boiled it to make broth. You could add champignon mushrooms to add more texture to the dish or if you’re like me and my brother, we love to have fried meatballs as our side. I have posted the “cheese-infused” version of the meatballs here.

Before I proceed to the recipe, I have to make a big shout out to my dear husband with whom I developed this dish. As an avid noodle eater, he was so excited to hear that we’re having homemade chicken noodle for dinner. Of course he wanted to make sure that this noodle is on par with his favourite.

Chicken Noodle

For broth / soup:

• 400 grams chicken breast and thigh, on the bone
• pepper
• salt
• a bunch of bok choy, roughly cut
• 500 ml water

For onion oil seasoning:

• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 stalks of spring onion, use only the white part, finely chopped
• around 2 tablespoon oil to stir fry

For noodle seasoning:

• 300 gram egg noodle
• 3 bunch bok choy
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon sweet soy sauce
• a pinch of pepper

Instructions

1. Prepare the broth, simmer in low heat for an hour to two depending on the thickness of the chicken. Turn off heat and discard the vegetable after cooking.
2. Ensure that the chicken is thoroughly cooked, take out and pat dry. Bone the chicken and cut meat into small pieces.
3. For the onion oil seasoning, heat oil on low heat. Add spring onion and garlic and cook until brown. Turn off heat once they turn brown as the heat will continue to cook them.
4. In your serving bowl, mix the noodle seasoning (soy sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil and sweet soy sauce) and the onion oil seasoning.
5. Boil egg noodle in a big pot for 2-3 minutes. Avoid rookie mistake by not overfilling the pot with noodle. Like cooking pasta, use lots of water to boil the noodle.
6. Take out noodle, set a portion into each of your serving bowl and mix well. Add chicken and bok choy to your liking. Garnish the dish with some finely chopped spring onion (the green part).
7. Add some broth on the side and enjoy your meal!

Oxtail Soup (Sup Buntut Sapi) has been a favourite in my mom’s family for years. When my grandma was still healthy, she used to cook this during the Christmas period or any other special events. I remember that as a child I would intentionally walked past the kitchen just to smell the fragrant broth from the simmering pan. My grandma’s oxtail soup was everyone’s favourite and we would fight to get the last bone.

The tradition continues on to my mom, who cooks this when my brother or I come home for holiday. Few years ago, she even brought this dish to Kuala Lumpur, where we met up for our family holiday. Oxtail Soup has become a special occasion meal for our family. Now that I have my own family, I’m so keen to  master the dish. Like any other heritage recipe, there’s no exact measurement because they heavily rely on their taste buds. This recipe is an approximate that could be adjusted to taste.

On this recipe, I’m using my trusted slow cooker to achieve the desired tenderness while extracting the yummy juice. I prefer this method because I enjoy a super tender meat. I usually leave the meat to cook overnight before transferring it to a saucepan for an hour to cook my potatoes and carrots. Sometimes I also cook this in the morning and leave it cook for 4 hours in slow cooker before adding carrots and potatoes into the slow cooker and let it cook for another 3 hours. It will then be ready in time for dinner. You could also use a conventional saucepan (like my grandma) or a pressure cooker (like my mom) if time is an issue.

Grandma’s Oxtail Soup / Sop Buntut Sapi

• 1 kg oxtail
• 4 cloves garlic
• 4 shallots, thinly sliced
• 2 stalks celery
• 2 stalks of spring onion
• 8-10 cloves, take out the round bit at the top (or 2 tablespoon of ground clove)
• 5 nutmeg seed (or 2 tablespoon of ground nutmeg)
• 3-4 carrots, cut into 3 (or depending on size)
• 2-3 potatoes, peeled and cut into 4 (or depending on size)
• Water
• Oil, to stir fry

Instructions

1. Heat oil in a pan to lightly stir fry garlic and shallot until fragrant.
2. Place cleaned oxtail, garlic, shallot, celery, spring onion, clove and nutmeg into the slow cooker.
3. Add water until all the ingredients is covered. Set the slow cooker heat to low and leave overnight.
4. In the morning, turn off the slow cooker and carefully skim the top layer of the soup to reduce the fat.
5. Transfer soup into a saucepan, add potato and carrot into the saucepan.
6. Set heat to medium, cover the saucepan and let it simmer for an hour.
7. Once potato and carrot are cooked, turn off heat. Discard celery stalk and spring onion from the cooker.
8. Transfer soup to a serving bowl and serve with warm rice.

Kangkong or water spinach is my brother’s all time favourite and we always have it every time we eat seafood. This time however, my brother wasn’t here but I took it as a practice for when my brother come to town. We did have chilli garlic prawn (recipe here) to go with this kangkong and together they’re yum! One important note for this stir fry is to have everything ready to go in the pan to avoid overcooking the kangkong and turning it dark. Other than that, this definitely is a quick one pan dish for a busy night.

Kangkong stir fry with quail eggs

• 2 bunch kangkong, cut
• 10 quail eggs
• 3 garlic cloves, cut
• 3 shallots, minced
• 4 chillies
• 4 tablespoon fish oil
• 2 tablespoon sweet soy sauce
• A pinch of salt, to taste
• A pinch of black pepper, to taste
• Sugar, to taste
• Oil, to stir fry
• 50 ml water

Instructions

1. Boil quail eggs for 5 minutes for hard boiled eggs, or less if preferred
2. Heat up oil in a pan and stir fry garlic, shallot and chilli until fragrant
3. Add kangkong and the rest of the ingredients to pan, quickly mix the kangkong well.
4. Add quail eggs and take the pan off the heat as soon as the kangkong is cooked.

During our groceries errand last week, I bumped into eggplants and was stunned by their tiny shapes comparing to the eggplants I used to buy back in Melbourne. I remembered still having some chillies at home so I decided to cook terong balado (eggplant in chilli sauce). Balado is traditionally from Padang, West Sumatera and words have it that Padangnese use chilli for everything; fish, potato, chicken or basically everything that they fried. In Padang, lado means chilli and so balado means using chilli. The spiciness can be adjusted to your preference but what would a chilli sauce be if it’s not spicy? This dish is also not the healthiest dish due to the deep frying of the eggplant but if you prefer,  you could grill or stir fry the eggplant.

Terong Balado / Eggplant in Chilli Sauce

• 5 eggplants, halves and cut into 3
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cm galangal, minced
• oil, to deep fry & stir fry

For chilli sauce:

• 5 shallots
• 4 cloves garlic
• 5 chillies
• 1 tomato
• a pinch of salt, to taste
• sugar, to taste

Instructions

1. Deep fry the eggplants until cooked. To know if they’re cooked, test if the surface has turned soft and tender. Once done, lined eggplants on paper towel to reduce the oil.
2. While eggplant is fried, mixed all chilli sauce ingredients and grind them using mortar and pestle until we reach paste consistency. You could also use food processor, but don’t overdo it to avoid turning it to puree.
   
3. Stir fry chilli mix paste with bay leaves and galangal until fragrant
4. Add eggplants to the chilli paste and mix well
5. Take off the heat and it’s ready to be served with a bowl of warm rice

Selat Solo or Javanese Bistik is an European influenced dish originated from Solo, Central Java. Solo is mom’s home town and we still visit Solo every Christmas to visit my grands, so this dish is my once-a-year kinda meal. Selat Solo might not be as popular as nasi liwet, gudeg ceker or timlo but this delicacies is my second favourite dish from Solo, with nasi liwet being the first. I still haven’t found the answer of why this dish is named Selat Solo (Eng: Solo Channel) as Solo is located inland and has no channel but I have found the answer of making this simple delicious dish.

I have to admit though that I cheated this recipe by using frozen vegetables mix instead of fresh carrots and green beans. I also used bottled mayonnaise instead of making it from scratch. One other thing to note, it is quite common to use beef tongue as the main ingredients in Selat Solo but I used beef tenderloin instead of beef tongue to make this recipe more reader friendly. To be more honest with you, I think I don’t have the guts to handle raw beef tongue.

Also, as I used local beef which is famous for being chewy, I put the complete soup (after step 4 below)  in my trusted slow cooker for 2 hours to tenderized the meat. I think you could use tenderizer powder or hammer to make it quicker but I prefer using a slow cooker as the process would infused the flavours longer and make the dish more delicious.

Selat Solo / Bistik Jawa

To soak the meat:

• 500 grams beef tendeloin, sliced
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon clove
• 2 tablespoon vinegar
• 4 tablespoon sweet soy sauce
• 3 shallots, thinly sliced

For soup:

• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 200 ml water
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• a pinch of salt, to taste
• a pinch of pepper, to taste

To complete the dish:

• carrots, steamed
• green beans, steamed
• corns, steamed
• lettuce, washed
• eggs, hard boiled
• potatoes, fried / steamed
• mayonnaise
• any other vegetables that you like

Instructions

1. Wash meat and put it in a bowl. Combine all ingredients for soaking and pour the mix over the meat. Leave it covered in the fridge for at least an hour.
2. Heat oil in a pan and cook onion until it’s translucent.
3. Lower the heat and pour in meat mix into the pan. Cook the meat for 2-3 minutes on each side and flip over. Cooking time will depend on the thickness of your slices.
4. Pour in water and the rest of the ingredients, let it cook covered for 10-15 minutes. Check if the meat is tender and soft.
5. Prepare your serving plate: start with layering lettuces and top it with vegetables and egg. Don’t forget to add potatoes and mayonnaise on the side.
6. Once the meat is tender, add 3-4 slices of the meat unto the plate and pour some soup over the meat. The dish is now complete and ready to be served.

Looking excited

Along with our move to Bandung, I decided to cook more Indonesian food or practically cooking with ingredients that I can’t easily (or cheaply) find in Melbourne. My dear husband is obviously more than excited to have more varieties in our diet On one groceries shopping run, he asked me to make Black Glutinous Rice which is a popular dessert here in Indonesia. As we prefer the less sweet version, this recipe also suits breakfast. Feel free to adjust the sugar to taste. 

Black Glutinous Rice

Glutinous Rice

• 250 gram glutinous rice, soak for 3 hours or overnight
• 1.5 L water
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 150 gram coconut sugar
• 2 pandan leaves, roughly torn

Coconut Milk

• 250 ml coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 pandan leaf, roughly torn

Instructions:

1. Ensure to soak the rice for at least 3 hours, or otherwise the rice will take longer to cook.
2. Place the drained rice in a saucepan, along with water and pandan leaves, bring the mix to boil over a medium-high heat.
3. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered until rice is tender, stirring occasionally. This will take approximately 45 mins. Add more water if required.
4. Once the rice is tender add sugar and salt, and simmer for another 3 minutes or until the wanted consistency is reached. Take the saucepan off the stove.
5. For the coconut milk, combine the ingredients in a small saucepan and bring the mix to boil.
6. Serve the rice with the sauce while they’re warm and enjoy!