Widening My Cooking Horizons

I had to ask what Indonesian cooking was? I feel so embarrassed for admitting that I get confused between Thai food, Indonesian food, Chinese food, Japanese Food, etc. If someone was to ask me what dish went to which ethnic origin, well, I would probably look right back at you, glassy eyed. . .as if I never even heard the question.

Indonesian food is still not much easier for me now that I have made a full dinner BUT I have acquired some fun new cooking products. I found out that Kecap Manis, pronounced KEH-chuhp MAH-nees, is an Indonesian sauce that is a lot like a sweet soy sauce. My electronic scales that converts ounces to grams was my best friend during my cooking adventure. I can not believe just how long it takes to make a recipe when measurement conversions are not done ahead of time. This also leaves a larger window for making an error. The dinner took 2 nights to prepare all the ingredients before cooking. . . and this was suppose to be an easy Indonesian dinner. Go figure! I would say that people who cook Indonesian food regularly having excellent chopping skills.

Dinner consisted of:

Nasi Goreng ~ Indonesian Fried Rice
Indonesian Beef Sate's with a hot Peanut Sauce for Dipping
Gado Gado ~ Indonesian Vegetable Salad
and
Atjar Bening ~ Mixed Vegetable Pickle. . .which is still pickling so I don't know what it tastes like yet.

Nasi Goreng is a delicious fried rice with prawns and chicken along with red chili peppers, onions, and fried egg strips. I found all recipes on Indochef.com when I decided that this was going to be my next adventure.

Ingredients:
350 gr. Long Grain Rice
2 Tbs. Vegetable Oil
3 Eggs
1 Onion
2 Green Chillis, Sambal Ulek or Sambal Badjak.
1 Garlic Clove
1 Leek
1 teaspoon Ground Coriander
1 teaspoon Ground Cumin
250 gr. Chicken meat
250 gr. Shelled Prawns
3 Tbs. Kecap Manis



Directions:
This dish is best made from cold leftover rice, but you can cook a fresh batch and leave it to cool for at least 4 hours. Beat the eggs and make into a omelet, slice into strips and set aside.Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan. Add the chopped onion, leek, garlic and chillies. Fry until the onion is soft. Add the Coriander and Cumin. Slice Chicken into strips and add with the prawns to the onion mixture and cook, stirring occasionally until they are well mixed. Add the rice, soya sauce and omelet strips and cook for a further 5 minutes.Decorate with some of the leftover leek and serve hot. Enjoy.

The Indonesian Beef Sate with Peanut Dipping Sauce is as good as the wine used for marinating. I used a Zinfandel and allowed the beef to marinate over night. Dang, I just remembered I forgot to serve an artisan loaf of 3 cheese French Bread with this dinner. I knew I forgot something.

For the Sate's:
500 gr. of Beef, Pork or Chicken
For the marinade:
1 Onion
1 Garlic clove
30 ml Kecap Manis
1 teaspoon Coriander powder
1 teaspoon Cummin powder
1 stalk Lemon Grass (crushed)
1 teaspoon Sambal Ulek
1 glass red wine (optional) ~ I used 8 ounces
30 ml water





Directions~
Dice the meat in to 2 cm square cubes and put onto bamboo skewers(about 4 per stick). Combine all the marinade ingredients , except the lemon grass, into a food processor and make into a smooth paste. Poor this over the prepared sate's, add the lemon grass, and leave to marinade for at least 2 hours. Cook the sate's on the barbecue or under the grill for 5 -10 min. until done and serve with Sate dip or hot Peanut Sauce.










The hot Peanut Sauce will have a mild peanut flavor unless you add more peanut butter to the recipe. I like mine tasting like the recipe title, so added an extra tablespoon. I also put the sauce through my food processor to get a smooth dipping sauce consistency.

1 small Onion
3 tablespoons Peanut butter
30 gr Dark Brown Sugar
20 ml Kecap Manis
1 teaspoon Coriander
½ teaspoon Cumin
1 stalk Lemon grass (crushed)
1 tablespoon Lemon juice
1 tablespoon groundnut oil - I used Almond oil here.
1 teaspoon Sambal Ulek
Coconut Milk or Water ~ I use coconut milk and can not taste it in the sauce

Directions~
Finely dice a small onion. Put the oil in a small saucepan and soften the onion, add all other ingredients except coconut milk/water.Slowly heat on low flame adding liquid as required to make it into a smooth sauce.Remove Lemongrass before serving.

The Gado Gado; Indonesian Vegetable Salad, was a surprising dish that offers leeway for a wide variety of vegetable combinations. I used the vegetables listed in the recipe because I have never tasted the dish prior to making it and wanted to know the authentic flavor first. Fresh vegetable do make a difference in this dish and the peanut sauce drizzled overall with slices of boiled egg on top were wonderful flavor additions. I even crushed Prawn crackers and sprinkled over the vegetables like I would sprinkle crispy croutons over a garden salad. Tasty!

White Cabbage, diced.
Green beans
Bean sprouts
carrots
2 Eggs, hard boiled.
Peanut Sauce.
Tomatoes.
Prawn crackers


Directions~
Separately boil all the vegetables lightly.Drain and arrange in layers on a dish. Pour the Peanut Sauce over this.Decorate with the sliced egg and tomatoes. Just before serving, sprinkle the crackers over the sauce. Best enjoyed when salad is cooled down slightly.



The Atjar Bening has to be a great vegetable dish because I happen to LOVE pickled vegetables. I think the only way I really could see myself eating a beet would be if the vegetable was pickled. In fact, that sounds pretty good right now =). This recipe is listed as a condiment and the author of the recipe suggests serving this with boiled, white rice. I'm not so sure pickled vegetables sound appetizing with rice of any kind. Alone, yes.

1 cucumber
1 big carrot
2 big onions
3 red chillies
1 small cabbage
½ cup water
1 cup vinegar
½ cup sugar
salt & pepper to taste

Directions~
1. Peel, wash and slice all the vegetables except the cabbage.

2. Wash and shred the cabbage.

3. Rub salt into all the vegetables, in a large bowl. Leave covered for 3 hours.

4. Boil water, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper. Remove from flame and cool.

5. Wash salt off vegetables. Put them into cooled solution and store in bottles.

6. Serve with boiled white rice and other dishes. This will keep in the fridge for 1 to 2 weeks.

Dinner goes Caribbean!

Tropical Flavors of the Caribbean; the lime, spices and herb like ginger, thyme, and cloves; the basting juice made up of Rum and lime juice with a smidgen of brown sugar. . .can you just smell the aroma? The simplicity of the recipe makes this a perfect candidate for a weeknight dinner. The aroma and flavors makes those eating the Roast Chicken feel special time and preparation had to be taken to create this wonderful chicken!

Not just any Rum was used. I used Appleton Estate Jamaican Rum for the deep rum flavor and I basted the chicken with the rum, lime juice, and brown sugar every 20 minutes while baking. This chicken was truly moist and delicious. I served the Caribbean-Spiced Roast Chicken with quartered potatoes baked in a little olive oil, kosher salt, cayenne pepper, and minced garlic along with steamed baby peas. A nice dinner is always relaxing =D

Ingredients:
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 fluid ounces rum
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground clove
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1 (3 pound) whole chicken
1 tablespoon vegetable oil








Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).

In a small bowl, combine the lime juice, rum, and brown sugar; set aside. Mix together the cayenne pepper, clove, cinnamon, ginger, pepper, salt, and thyme leaves. Brush the chicken with oil, then coat with the spice mixture.

Place in a roasting pan, and bake about 90 minutes, until the juices run clear or until a meat thermometer inserted in thickest part of the thigh reaches 180 degrees F. Baste the chicken with the sauce every 20 minutes while it's cooking. Allow chicken to rest for 10 minutes before carving.

Chocolate Malted Coffee Whopper Drops

I left for vacation and missed 2 TWD events. I felt terrible and even tried seeing if doing one of the events while I was away was possible? It wasn't. Bummer. To make up for it, I baked last weeks Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chippers, picked by Stefany with Proceed with Caution, and this weeks Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops, with recipe picked by Rachel of Confessions of a Tangerine tart. The Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops, found on page 85 of Dorie Greenspan's Baking, From My Home to Yours cookbook sound wonderful but I made a few changes according to the taste buds of my family. First, I used Cafe Select's Chocolate Coffee Trios Coffee Whoppers. Second, my family seems to enjoy milk chocolate more and I have oodles of Hershey milk chocolate bars with almonds dying to be used up so I chopped up a Large bar for the chocolate chunks part of the recipe.


This is the first time I have ever used malted milk powder and boy does the powder ever smell delicious! I loved the flavor too! Adding coffee malted balls did not make the cookies overly chocolaty but gave the cookie a nice, soft espresso flavor with a hit of chopped almonds. Tasty!


I also used my little hand powered chopper to make easy work out of chopping up the malt balls. I love this little contraption and I get allot of use out of it. My Silipat mat worked great for baking the cookies and I was especially glad that I remembered I had one since I forgot to replace my parchment paper supply. I really hate the feeling of opening a drawer to pull something out when in the middle of a project and there is nothing there. It is even a better feeling when you are in a hurry, like I was tonight.


The Hershey's milk chocolate and almond bar chopped up easily and was very hard not to nibble on a piece or two!

The butter, sugar, and eggs whipped up easily enough and. . .

I added the dry ingredients, in two batches, alternating with 1/4 cup of whole milk. . .

Mixed everything together with the exception of the chocolate and malted coffee balls. . .

and baked them for 11 minutes. Left them to cool for about 4 minutes and the cookies turned out great!

For the Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters, I used peanut M&M's instead of the bittersweet chocolate chunks.

The spices with the oatmeal smelled so yummy! I absolutely LOVE cinnamon and nutmeg. Oatmeal anything is always another plus. . .






Mixed all the ingredients together. . .

and baked most of my little cookies tonight. The rest of the dough is waiting for me in the refrigerator to be finished baking tomorrow night. Since it is almost midnight, me and Fluffy need to get some sleep. The kitchen will still smell wonderful in the morning =)

With both sets of cookies waiting to be taken in little bags for lunch. . .






and there are even a few coffee malt balls left over to be shared.

Doughnut Muffins. . .Crazy Yum!

I was looking for a unique muffin and ran across a recipe on Fine Cooking Magazine website that looked absolutely delicious! The thought of a muffin dipped in butter and then coated in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar gave way to thoughts of finger-licking goodness! I was a little worried about the ingredient list because for starters, I am using 24 Tablespoons of butter and second, the recipe calls for 6 cups of flour yet the outcome is for only 24 medium muffins. I loved the idea of the muffin but not the size. I could just envision cinnamon and sugar coating all over the place just trying to eat a muffin that size. What a mess that could end up being. Solution? Make miniature muffins.

To make miniature muffins, the baking time needs to be changed. I found that 19 to 20 minutes is sufficient. Any longer and the muffins will taste dry. Also, when making miniature muffins, there will be oodles! Down-sizing the recipe is an option BUT I have to be honest with myself here and say I have never been known to down-size anything. I believe true cooks are known for his and her attributes of sharing. I ended up with 5 dozen little muffins and I need to put a CAUTION note right here: Addictive and of Popable Size! You know the Ruffles potato chip commercial where they dare you to eat just one? Totally applies to these cute little muffins. I REALLY need to share and not have these sitting around in the house because my self-control is coming apart at the seams. . . .! But why cook if not to find the best recipes that are so good you can't forget them? I wonder if this fits in a martyr list?

On the weekends, it seems that each of us get a hankering for something to munch on while watching a movie or playing a game together, late at night. This time, we decided we were going to the Babylon A.D. movie on Saturday night. I kind of wished I had waited for the movie to come out on CD instead of wasting 8.50 on a movie ticket. The movie was fantastic for the first 3/4's of the movie and then it just ended. No explanations but the movie left us feeling like the directors ran out of money so they just buttoned it up and put a "the end" to the movie way ahead of time. The rest of the movie was incredible. Action packed and full of adrenaline rushing scenes. At least the little muffins were home waiting.

Doughnut Muffins
(adapted from Fine Cooking Magazine website)

For the muffins:
12 oz. (24 Tbs.) unsalted butter, warmed to room temperature
1-3/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 lb. 11 oz. (6 cups) all-purpose flour
1 Tbs. plus 2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1-3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1-2/3 cups milk
1/4 cup buttermilk


For dipping:
8 oz. (16 Tbs.) unsalted butter; more as needed
2 cups sugar ( I used extra-fine sugar)
2 Tbs. ground cinnamon












Directions:
Put a rack in the middle of the oven and heat the oven to 350°F.

In a stand mixer or a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until just mixed in. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg.

Combine the milk and buttermilk. With a wooden spoon, mix a quarter of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Then mix in a third of the milk mixture. Continue mixing in the remaining dry and wet ingredients alternately, ending with the dry. Mix until well combined and smooth, but don't over mix.




Grease and flour miniature muffin tins. Scoop enough batter into each tin so that the top of the batter is even with the rim of the cup.

Bake the muffins for 18 - 20 minutes or until firm to the touch and wooden toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.



To finish:
Melt the butter for the dipping mixture. Combine the sugar and cinnamon. When the muffins are just cool enough to handle, remove them from the tin, dip them into or brush them all over with the melted butter, and then roll them in the cinnamon sugar.

Disneyland for 2 days

After our long road trip, we arrived in Anaheim, CA at 11 p.m., exhausted. Reservations were made previously on the internet for the Hotel Menage. I was worried, since there seemed to be very few pictures of what to expect and, well, the name of the hotel made me a little leery. The reason we booked 2 nights here was because of location - less than 1/2 mile from Disneyland. The hotel did have a pretty bar next to the out door pool and inside, which we didn't take advantage of, and a restaurant called K'ya, which we also didn't use because the food in the pictures looked minimal on the plate but had a big price tag. Here is a sample of the menu:

APPETIZER
SamplePlatter
a creation of selected menu and appetizer specials (priced per person, minimum 2pp)................................$12
ahipoke
papaya, wasabi tobiko, avocado with spicy soy vinaigrette...............................................................$13
seared spicy garlic & herb shrimp
papaya salsa and chardonnay-lemongrass butter............................................................................$12
grilled petitlamb chops
asian slaw, spicy hoison-coconut glaze............................................................................................$13
flash fried calamari
sweet & spicy thai glaze, bean sprouts, carrots, peanuts, cilantro and green onions..........................$9
mauistylebbq beef ribs
sesame-soy marinated and flame broiled.........................................................................................$11
pacific lobster& grilled portabello mushroom
caramelized onions, tomato fondeu and garlic basil sauce................................................................$11
entrees
hibachisalmon
wok’d vegetables, white rice, spicy coconut sauce...........................................................................$18
Mahmahi
macadamia nut crust, lehua-honey butter sauce..............................................................................$19
sesamcrusted ahi
(seared rare) brown rice, sauteed spinach, mushrooms and onions. soy-mirin butter, unagi drizzle................$19
d seascallops
sautéed arugula, mushrooms and onions, mashed potatoes, chive-white truffle butter.....................$28
grilled chicken & garlic-herb shrimp
red thai curry sauce, white rice, wok’d vegetables..........................................................................$21
duck leg confit
sautéed arugula, onion, wild mushrooms, black truffle sauce..........................................................$19
d flatiron steak
gorgonzola cheese gratin, carmelized onions..................................................................................$21
grilled filetmignon tournedoS
asparagus, portobello mushroom, tear drop tomato, port wine sauce..............................................$34
roasted pork primerib
chilled apple sauce, calvados glaze.................................................................................................$22
1/2 lb. kobebeef burger
lettuce, tomato, onion, swiss and cheddar.......................................................................................$14
hunan braised beef shortribs
white rice, wok’d vegetables, carmelized pineapple.........................................................................$19

Disneyland was a blast and we managed to fit "all" the big rides in between 2 days. I don't think we really rushed either. The lines were reasonable and everyone that goes to Disneyland seems to always be smiling.

Have you ever noticed anywhere else where all the people seem to be having a nice time? I find this quite shocking and really enjoyed the whole environment!

One of the water rides required sharing a large innertube with several other people, which happened to be 3 adorable, young children and their parents. The two young boys, about 8 and 10, were happily telling us how they have been on this particular ride at least 3 times today when

the Dad chimed in that he was sure it had been 4 times. Then they asked us where we were from. Long story shorter, we all found out that we live about 45 minutes from each other. We live in Port Orchard, WA and they live in Olympia, WA. What a small world =D!

I talked Larry and Ashley into going on a rollercoaster, I couldn't believe they actually have a rollercoaster now, and I think the wait for this ride was the only negative in the whole trip. We waited in the heat, about 85 degrees I would say, for almost 40 mintes. The time at the beginning of the ride said 20 minute wait so that was pretty deceiving. Then, the ride itself was

over almost as quickly as it started. Disneyland is so good about their rides being elaborate and

the minimal wait being so worth it; I guess we were either just spoiled or surprised that this particular ride was short. If I was at an amusement park or 6 Flags, I would have expected this sort of thing. Funny, yes?

We all had a total blast and none of us was looking forward to leaving. In fact, we were contemplating ditching our reservations at the Westmark in San Francisco for the week, to see about staying in Anaheim. All in all, sadly we left the beautiful (and Immaculate) Disney park and left for our 6 1/2 hour roadtrip that Monday afternoon. We actually arrived in San Francisco about midnight that evening.

I have got to learn to schedule road trips better BUT I really didn't want to box the family into a tight time schedule. After this roadtrip, I learned time schedules are necessary sometimes.

I almost forgot. The nightly fireworks! What a huge and awe-striking event! How Disney can put this kind of show on every night is beyond me but we were all glad they do. The variations of colors and rhythm for shooting the different displays, letting time elapse for the smoke to

clear, then shooting several more, within seconds of each other, was not only-mesmerizing but a true art all in itself. We stood on our hotel balcony in comfort, to watch and take pictures.