Sep 03 2008

Chili Potato Gravy

Published by admin under Chinese Cuisine, Main Meal, Vegetarian

When the first time I came to India, I was quite surprise whenever me and hubby visited Chinese restaurant. Most of the menus have been innovated as per Indian taste. I never find tofu in any Chinese restaurant not even in a big Chinese restaurant, in spite they have change it with paneer which is made from cow milk and which is quite similar with cottage cheese. I will write the article about paneer menu in my future recipes :)

One of the famous Chinese food in India beside chowmein is Manchurian, which I have never seen in my life before. I think I quite understand that all these changes were to adapt the food with people’s taste and culture. For example, in Indonesia, some or basically most of Chinese foods use beef in their menu and mostly are non vegetarian. But in India, majority of the people don’t eat beef and some culture prevent the people to eat meat.

Chili potato is commonly found in Chinese restaurants in India. Continue Reading »

No responses yet

Sep 01 2008

Siomay

Siomay is my favorite food, when I was still staying in Jakarta, I used to buy this almost everyday :) I really miss this food so bad, specially the Indonesian siomay which is eaten with peanut sauce.

Siomay is an Indonesian cuisine which is influence by Chinese people who have immigrated to Indonesia since a very long time. The word Siomay came from chinese word shaomai which is traditional chinese dumpling which we very well know as dim sum.

In Indonesia, siomay can be steamed along with tofu, cabbage, potatoes and bitter gourd or bitter melon. Normally this cuisine is served or eaten with peanut sauce, sweet soya sauce and lime juice while normally dim sum can be eaten only by dipping the siomay in chilly sauce. Continue Reading »

No responses yet

Sep 01 2008

Mixed Spicy Eggplant

Published by admin under Indian Cuisine, Main Meal

I have taken this picture from my mobile phone camera, I don’t know why my camera doesn’t work. But I hope that the image doesn’t discourage you to try this recipe :)

This is a very simple recipe and doesn’t take time to cook. Continue Reading »

No responses yet

Sep 01 2008

Snow Cashew Cookies

Published by admin under Cake and Cookies, Vegetarian

Snow Cashew Cookies

Snow Cashew Cookies

One thing that I will not forget when the first time I ate this cookies was the softness and the sweetness which melt in the mouth. The taste of the cashew really spoils in the tongue. I tried to make this recipe about few years back and since then, I always make this cookies during some events or festivals.

I like to pack these cookies nicely and give them away as gift to my hubby’s relatives and friends. And they really love these cookies. There was one time that I had to send the second pack to the same relative :) because these cookies really in demand. Continue Reading »

No responses yet

Aug 26 2008

Pav Bhaji

Published by admin under Indian Cuisine, Main Meal, Vegetarian

Today I packed pav bhaji for my hubby’s lunch. Pav bhaji is originated from Maharashtra, the most popular city in India where most of the bollywood/Indian movies were made.

Pav bhaji is very well known as street food, now this food is easily found everywhere in India. The seller used to sell this food on a very big and flat pan which they called “tawa”. It is actually the thick vegetable gravy which is served with bread.

Based per the history which I found from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pav_bhaji), the origin of this dish is traced to the heyday of the textile mills in Mumbai. The mill workers used to have lunch breaks too short for a full meal, and a light lunch was preferred to a heavy one, given that physical work followed immediately. A vendor created this dish using items or parts of other dishes available on the menu. Roti or rice was replaced with pav and the curries that usually go with Indian bread or rice were amalgamated into just one spicy concoction-the ‘bhaji’. Initially, it remained the food of the mill-workers. Continue Reading »

One response so far

Aug 26 2008

Fried Noodle / Chowmein

A very interesting fact about noodle is that it has been related to chinesse cuisine since a very-very long time or I can say since the ancient time. I’ve been searching about the history of noodle and chowmein and interestingly nobody knows how this noodle began and who was the first person who made it.

I found some interesting definitions and comments about noodle / mein from this site http://www.foodtimeline.org :

“Chow mein is related to and takes its name from “chao mian,” a Chinese dish consisting of previously boiled noodles stirfried with meat and vegetables. There is, however, an important difference. In chow mein the noodles are deep fried in bundles, which are crisp and brittle when they emerge; whereas in the Chinese dish the noodles are soft.”
—Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 183)

“Chow mein.
A Chinese-American dish made of stewed vegetables and meat with fried noodles. The term comes from Mandarin Chinese ch’ao mien’, “fried noodles,” and probably was brought to the United States by Chinese cooks serving the workers on the western railroads in the 1850s. The word first appears in print in 1900. Although most chow mein bears scant resemblance to true Mandarin cooking, it has become a staple in Chinese-American restaurants…Owing to its inexpensive ingredients, chow mein has long been a lunch dish in American school cafeterias.”
—Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 83)

“If chop suey was…Chinese food for the American masses, chow mein was a dish for gourmets. Hard as it is to believe for those of us who have only eaten the horrid frozen or canned chow mein of the messes served under that name in doubtful greasy spoons, properly prepared chow mein can be very good indeed…The key to good chow mein is the noodles. Those nasty deep-fried things tasting of rancid fat that most Americans associate with chow mein are virutally unknown in China. Instead, the Chinese…stir-fry freshly boiled noodles in hot oil until they are crisp on the outside but still beguilingly soft in the center. The hot noodles with their contrasting crisp/soft text ures are then served with a stir-fried mixture of vegetables and strips of meat.”
—Fashionable Food, Sylvia Lovegren (p. 91)
[NOTE: This book as plenty of information on the introduction of Chinese food to America...ask your librarian to help you find a copy.]

“Chow Mein, or “fried noodles,” is a casual dish which calls for parboiled noodles (previously drained dry and chilled) to be cooked with other ingredients, somewhat in the manner of fried rice; that is, the noodles and the other ingredients are fried separately, then combined and cooked until nearly done.”
—Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook, Gloria Bley Miller [Grosset & Dunlap:New York] (p. 630-1)

Very interesting, isn’t it? well… whoever inverted this noodle, I couldn’t thankful enough. Noodle can be cooked in many ways. The word chowmein is basically came from two words chow and mein. Chow means fry and mein means noodle. In Indonesian we call chowmein as mie goreng :) but whatever you call this delicacies, this food is always a favorite wherever you go. Continue Reading »

One response so far

Aug 26 2008

Light Chicken Curry

Published by admin under Indian Cuisine, Main Meal

India is very famous with curry… Turmeric , red and green chilly, ginger, coriander, etc are the common spices which are used in cooking. In some of the homes in India, people still use fresh turmeric, chilly, ginger and other spices, but in some homes which are more modern and open to changes, people have learn to cut the long process in cooking by using ready to use spices.

Rather than making the paste from the fresh spices, some people have change the pattern to use the powder spices. Frankly speaking, after living for more than 6 years in India, I understood why most of the ladies prefer to stay at home to be a full time housewife rather than pursuing their career. Indian are still quite traditional in the way they eat and people are not so open up with the habit of eating outside.

It takes quite a lot of time to cook Indian food, people can spend hours to prepare the food in the kitchen. But with all the spices powder, cooking the curry has become less burden.

After some trials, I found my own style in cooking the curries. The recipe which I’m going to share today is a very simple way of making the curry. I have learnt, if I don’t cook the curry too heavy, it will reduce the pressure in my stomach :) I still sometimes feel bad in my stomach if I eat heavy curry, maybe because I’m still not used with this spicy food yet. So, I tried to modified the cooking to suit my stomach condition. Most of all, it doesn’t take so much of time to cook this curry. Continue Reading »

One response so far

Jul 24 2008

Vegetarian Pine Pasta

Published by admin under General, Main Meal, Vegetarian

Vegetarian Pine Pasta

 

To be a wife of vegetarian husband, I always try to innovate some foods from non-veg cooking recipe. I tried to replace the meat which are required for the cooking with some vegetables. In some cases, this really work and the taste also not less delicious.

Pasta is our favorite meal at home, in the matter of fact, whenever I’m out of idea what to cook for the next day, I would decide to cook pasta and my hubby never complaint :) , not because I don’t like to use the chart for weekly menu, but in my home, this is quite difficult to apply. Continue Reading »

No responses yet

Jul 24 2008

Grilled Corn

Published by admin under General, Indian Cuisine, Vegetarian

Grilled Corn

This is my husband favorite snack… Grilled Corn! Easy to make, less time to spend, doesn’t make the kitchen dirty and most of all… huummm… yummy!!! :) Continue Reading »

No responses yet

Jul 24 2008

Eggplant and Ham Fried Rice

Eggplant Fried Rice

One day when I was at home and feeling hungry in the afternoon, I thought that I would cook something easy to stuff my hunger. When I opened my refrigerator I only found the left over of the morning rice, some eggplants, few eggs, cabbage and half pack of cooked sliced ham.

I thought… “well… I’ll try to make something from all these things”, then I came up with the idea of making the fried rice, beside I don’t cook fried rice most of the time, especially my hubby is not very fond with fried rice. Fried rice is the most favorite dish in Indonesia. Continue Reading »

No responses yet

Next »