Sate Kerang

Mussels Satay. Yay.
If every week your food shopping is around beef,chicken and fish (like minee), you might get bored of what you cook (like I do). So, remember there are a lot of other creatures in the sea that we can 'catch' from the fisheries! For example, mussels. At the last shopping I grabbed a bag of frozen mussels and thinking of satay. Hm.. I wish I could just buy Sate Kerang (Mussels/Cockles Satay) just like in my home country, but here, I have to cook it by myself.

Thinking about buy or cook our food. It is probably more practice and easier when I was in my home country where I could just buy any food I like. But living here makes me more experience in cooking and baking. I am forced to! Of course, because not much people selling Indonesian food here. Not much at all. Not to mention not so many various Halal food here. Sometimes there are times when we feel that we are forced to do something, and feel a bit down about it, but we finally know that it is good for us.

Back to topic. Ehm.

Usually my hubby won't let me buy mussels, because he said that this creature able to live even in polluted water. He doesn't want us to be contaminated by any poisonous pollution. However, I successfully persuade him by saying, "We're in New Zealand now, don't you think the sea is much cleaner?". He agreed right away :p

I got this recipe, and I don't do much change to it, except the type of clam(the original recipe used cockle) and the amount of chilli, because my toddler would eat too. My family enjoyed them, Alhamdulillah. My husband just requested me to make Sambal Kacang(peanuts sambal/sauce) next time I make it again. Noted! So, I probably going to make it again next week, and I will update this post with Sambal Kacang.
By the way, I know I'm still not good in photograph, especially for night shooting. It's also look too plain. Maybe I should prepare the photo scene first before cooking. Although sometimes it's hard to do it when all your family member trying to grab the food as fast as they can. Oh well, I'll try again next week, InsyaAllah.

Anyway, here is the recipe.

Sate Kerang (Mussels Satay)

Ingredients:
500 gr mussels
1 tbsp gula jawa (Javanese palm sugar)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sweet soya sauce
100 ml water
3 tbsp oil
2 cm galangal, smacked
2 cm ginger, thwack with knife's back(or anything you got)
2 stalk lemongrass, thwack!
4 indonesian bay leaves, or you can use any bay leaves
4 kaffir lime leaves, tear a bit
skewers

Spices, grind altogether:
4 cloves shallot
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp coriander
4 red chilies, I use only one for toddler friendly sake

Directions:
- Heat the wok or pan and pour the oil
- Stir ground spices, lemongrass, lime leaves, salam leaves and ginger until fragrant.
- Add gula jawa, soy sauce and salt, stir well.
- Add the mussles and pour the water, bring to boil until cooked.
- Thread the mussels to the skewer, grill
- Enjoy

Easy Pizza

My eldest son knows Pizza Hut. And KFC. And McDonald. Oh yes, he does. So wherever we go, he could spot those junk food restaurants. He likes pizza. So far after we got here, I just bought pizza crust from stores, and put on the toppings myself, bake few minutes and served. But, since I made bread once or twice, I feel a little confidence to try another type of breads. I made pastry too! But I haven't post anything about it, because I don't think it's 100% success. Well, maybe just about 70-80% success, ha ha!
Anyway, as always, I Googled the easiest recipe there is. I stumbled upon this Jim Lahey's easy way to make pizza crust. The ingredients are just minimum. All you have to do is stir and sleep over it. The change I made was just the water. The recipe just says 'water', but I decided to use lukewarm water instead.

I made it, and it turned out great. Just the way I like it. I made thin pizza with the easiest topping: whatever I had in fridge. Surely, I will make this again.


Easy Pizza

Ingredients:
3 ¾ cups bread flour, plus more for shaping the dough
1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 teaspoons salt
1 ½ cups lukewarm water

this is the best moment when making bread; when they puffed into chubby but air-light, just like my sons' cheeks when they were babies!

Directions:
- In a medium bowl, stir in yeast into the water. Set aside until it's a bit bubley.
- Thoroughly blend in the flour and salt and with a wooden spoon or your hands.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and allow it to rise at room temperature for 18 hours or until it has more than doubled. It will take longer in a chilly room and less time in a very warm one. I personally made it after dinner and left it in warmer room over night, then made it as lunch the day after.
- Flour a work surface and scrape out the dough. Divide it into 4 equal parts and shape them: For each portion, start with the edges of the dough and pull it toward the centre. Shape each portion into a round and turn seam side down. Mold the dough into a neat circular mound. The mounds should not be sticky; if they are, dust with more flour.
- If you don’t intend to use the dough right away, wrap the balls individually in plastic and refrigerate for up to 3 days. Return to room temperature by leaving them out on the counter, covered in a damp cloth, for 2 to 3 hours before needed.
- Flat your dough with your hands, add toppings. I added whatever I could get from the fridge; olive oil, tomato sauce, minced garlic, black pepper, bell pepper, mushroom, beef sausages, chicken dices and mozzarella cheese.
- Grill in oven that already heated up to 250C for about 10 minutes. Enjoy.

Sate Ayam

Sate Ayam or Chicken Satay. It's like, everybody's favourite. There are a lot of satay or sate in Indonesia, but this sate is Sate Ayam Madura, is one of the most famous satay in Indonesia.

Back in my home town (am I talking about my home town too much? Sorry), 'tukang' Sate Ayam (Chicken Satay's seller) could easily found around almost any residence area. Some tukang sate usually open on the side of the road or street from dawn to very late of night. Some other tukang sate pushing their cart passing houses while yells out, "Teeee, sateeeeeee!!". If you're bored with your home cooking, just call out the tukang sate and your tummy will be happy. Aww, I love road side food stalls :)
But... now we are in Auckland. There's no way there will be any food seller pushing their carts around your neighbourhood. Ever. Absolutely no Sate. Maybe there are some restaurant that sells Sate. But, it might be expensive and might not have the same taste as we used to bought in home town(again).

Browsing around the recipes, I found this recipe. Hmm, might be not so hard, so I gave it a shot. First of all, the chicken. You can use the breast fillets. But, in my opinion, chicken breast is not so juicy, you know? I decided to use boneless thighs instead. They are more juicy than the breasts. I tossed away some of their fats. Too much bulky chicken's fat scares me sometimes. Thighs have a lot of fat.

I grilled the sate on a pan over stove. For the sauce, I was still not so good in frying the peanuts. Peanuts has to be fry in hot oil, but the heat must be low. We want peanuts that brown and crunchy. Otherwise, the peanuts can be over cooked, too dark, and taste a bit bitter. So it has to be taken out from oil before it's too dark. Well, I was a little late, it became too dark but fortunately it wasn't so bitter. I made it the sauce not so spicy hot because I made them for the toddlers too. If it was for adults only, I might have add more chilli peppers.

Overall they tastes good and reminded us the taste of homeland.

Sate Ayam

Ingredients:
800 gr - 1 kg boneless thighs, diced about 2x2x2cm
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 lime
2 tbsp oil
15 - 20 skewers
sweet soy sauce

Spices, grind altogether until smooth:
1 big red chilli pepper, toss away the seeds
2 small hot chilli peppers
3 big shallots
2 cloves garlic
6 candle nuts, fried or tasted
2 tsp palm sugar
1 tsp salt

Peanut sauce:
150 gr peanuts with skins, fried
water
lime


Directions:
- Marinated the diced chicken with lime juice and crushed garlic. Set aside.
- Grind the peanuts, but not too smooth. It is better to make it a bit chunky. Set aside.
- Heat oil on a pan over medium heat.
- Cook the grounded spices until well fragrant. Turn the heat off. Take 2 tablespoon of this cooked spice, mix with 2 tablespoon of sweet soy sauce, set aside. Left the other part of cooked spice in the pan.
- Mix the ground peanuts with cooked spiced, turn the heat on, add some water until reach sauce consistency. Cook just until boiled. Set aside.
- Thread the chicken onto the skewers, about 4-5 dice per skewer. Grill about 2-3 minutes one side. Brush soy sauced-spice onto the cooked side of chicken.
- Grill the other side about 2-3 minutes, then brush with spice-soy sauce again. Grill until done.
- Serve them with peanut sauce, sweet soy sauce and a splash of lime juice. You can add some chilli sauce if you like it hot.
- Enjoy! :)

Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies (Dairy-free, Additives-free)

Alhamdulillah.
I'm just very happy, and relief after making these cookies.
Every time I saw cookies recipe anywhere in internet or recipe books, they always using baking soda or baking powder. It's not that all of food additives are veerrrrrryyy dangerous. I'm not a doctor, you know. I'm just a little bit suspicious with food additives. A video and an article that I found about food additives makes me more and more want to avoid them. Besides, I just want to prove that all those synthetic or maybe chemical thing(I don't know) are not necessary to use in our food. More natural food probably are better healthier food, I think.

Of course I'm not and can't always avoid those things. I'm not so uptight avoiding it. We still eat store-bought cookies, breads, crackers, etc. But, it's just makes me happier to baking and cooking naturally. I'm not too attached with such synthetic things and don't have to buy baking powder, baking soda, and all of their friends. I can safe some money, thrifty me!
It feels like..great when we can beat those mass-production food. Ha ha, okay, I'm exaggerating.
I have talked about reducing food additives before in a cooking and baking mailing list. Some of them told me not to be paranoid. Oh dear.. Is it wrong if we have our own choice of healthiness?

Anyway, I always thought, can I make chocolate cookies without any synthetic food additives? Whenever I google about it, they always say no, you can't. Only shortbread that can be make without baking soda or baking powder, they said. Well. let see about that now.

Yesterday I really want to make cookies for my sons. I remember I have chocolate chips and almonds in the kitchen. I have to make something from those almonds before they got rotten! But, oh no, I only have 1 stick of butter, while that butter I kept to make pastry for pie. So, search and search, I found some recipe that instead of using butter, they uses oil. Good. I'm safe. Besides, using oil in baking is slightly healthier than using butter, right? ;)
Then I was thinking again, if I mix the eggs and oil until resemble to mayonnaise, maybe it can substitute butter well... While on that thought, I remember how we can bake cakes without those food additives as long as we mix the eggs right. So probably... The result of my fuzzy mind was, I will mix the eggs and oil until resemble to mayonnaise, and skip out the baking soda. Here is the recipe that inspire me to make cookie with oil, but I guess I changed quite a bit in it.

How's the result then? Good. I don't know how many cookies does it makes from one recipe, because my son kept on eating it every time I took them out from the oven. So I did't really had chance counting them.

I just love it.

Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup wholemeal wheat flour
1⁄2 cup brown sugar
1⁄4 tsp salt
1⁄3 cup oil
1 egg
1⁄2 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup whole roasted almond, crushed

Directions:
- Mix with spoon flour, chocolate chips and almonds.
- In another bowl mix with electric mixer egg, oil, sugar and salt until thick and the consistency resemble to mayonnaise.
- Add the flour mix into the egg mix. Fold with spatula, just until all wet.
- Put the dough in the fridge at about 15 minutes, while we heat up the oven to 170C.
- Line a cookie tin with a baking paper.
- With two teaspoons make a ball of dough and put onto the the tin. You can press the dough a little with your finger to make it wider if you like.
- Bake about 10 minutes.
- Take out from the oven and let it cool. The first time they took out from the oven they might seems a bit soft, but after cooled it will be harden a bit. It will be chewy inside and crunchy on top.

Enjoy :)

Gulai Ikan Snapper (Snapper Fish Gulai)

It is supposed to be Gulai Kepala Kakap(Kakap's Head Gulai). A luscious meal from West Sumatera, Indonesia. Unfortunately, I don't know if there is 'kakap' in NZ. But they do got Snapper fish. My hubby love Snapper, and this time he requested Gulai Snapper.

I never really make gulai before. Gulai itself is a kind of curry. As many Sumatera's cooking, gulai needs a lot of spices and uses coconut milk(santan in Indonesian). It's not impossible to get all the spices that needed in this gulai. But, some of them need to be replaced or skipped, because my spices collection in the kitchen is not so complete. Some other spices even might hard to find in NZ. So based on the recipe I found, and the spices I have in our kitchen, I made the gulai, with adjustment.

Now let's talk about hot pepper. As in the photo, I used three kind of pepper. I used three small red chilli pepper which are very hot. I also use one of two big red chilli pepper, which I assumed not so hot. The big green chilli was from my landlady whom grown the pepper in her garden. I don't know the name of all these chillies. Back in my country, I might recognize some types of chilli pepper. But here, I'm pretty much clueless he he. Anyway, the result of using three kind of chillies was a very hot gulai. It might makes you sweating when eating it. So, if you want to try this recipe, just find chilli pepper that suits your taste.

For this gulai I used whole fish, head included. Maybe it's scary to some people, but my hubby love fish' eyes. Yes, to eat. I have to make sure they're well cooked. But no, I do not eat fish' eyes. I always feel that they are 'eyeing' on me :p

There are some Indonesian spices in this recipe which probably known in other Southeast Asian Cooking as well, like tamarind paste. There is also salam leaf(daun salam) which is sort of Indonesian bayleaf. If salam leaf is not available, you can substitute it with bay leaves. Bay leaf makes milder aroma than salam leaves. The shallots here are quite big. They can be as big as medium onion, but with some cloves in it. In Indonesia, shallots are just a little bigger than garlic.

Here is the recipe, which I already adjust to the conditions.
Oh, I forgot to tell how does it taste. Gooood.

Gulai Snapper

Ingredients:
1 medium snapper, clean and cut into pieces
2 tbsp lemon/lime zest
1 tsp salt

800ml coconut milk
2 lemongrass stalks, thwack them once with knife's back
1 tomato(green is better), cut into wedges
1 tsp tamarind paste, diluted with 1 tablespoon of warm water
3 salam leaves
3 small red hot chilli pepper
1 big green chilli pepper, chop 1cm
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
salt
cooking oil


Spices, grind altogether to smooth:
1 big red chilli pepper
1 tbsp coriander seeds, toast on pan 1-2 minutes until fragrant
1 cm fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic
4 big shallots


Directions:
- Marinate fish with lemon/lime and salt. Let it sit at least 15 minutes.
- Deep fry the fish just until cooked but not overly dry. Drained.
- Heat about 2 tablespoon of cooking oil in a pan with medium heat, stir in ground spices, lemongrass, salam leaves and chopped chillies, until fragrant and change colour.
- Pour in coconut milk, keep on stirring while boiling.
- Add in turmeric, salt and black pepper. Taste it.
- Put the fried fish, tomato and diluted tamarind paste.
- Let it on medium heat for a while. Better not boiling too long because the fish will be mushy.
- Serve with hot white rice, yummy....