Some of you might be wondering why I have many recipes which contain potato , well… my husband is the biggest fan of potato. He loves anything which are made from potato, there wouldn’t be a day when we don’t have potato in our menu

Many people think that Indian food is all about curry and lot of spices, well… it is not all true. In this recipe, I will show how to create a simple Indian dish without using a lot of spices.

Ingredient:

• 2 pcs large potatoes - peel and cut strip about 2 inches
• 2 pcs carrot - peel and also cut strip about 2 inches or as big as the potatoes
• 1/2 cup green peas
• 1/4 tsp tumeric powder
• 1/2 tbsp chili powder
• 1/2 tbsp corriander powder
• 1/2 tbsp mango powder
• Sprinkle of sugar or brown sugar
• Salt to taste
• 2 tbsp oil

How to make:

• Heat the oil on the pan
• Add the potatoes, carrots and green peas - put the lid on and cook in medium flame until the vegetables are tender
• Saute the vegetables every 2 - 3 minutes
• Add the turmeric powder, chil powder, corriander powder, mango powder and mix well
• Add the sugar and salt - cook for another 2 minutes
• Garnish with corriander laves and ready to be served

There are more vegetables which can be added in this recipe such as beans, cauli flower, capsicum, etc.

Sweet and Sour Tofu

Having a husband who is a vegetarian, there are a lot of adjustments which I have to make in my cooking. Not only because I didn’t have much time to cook 2 type of dishes everytime for me and hubby, but sometimes when I feel very lazy, I didn’t want to spend the lengthly process in cooking many dishes

This recipe is very much inspired by Indonesian dish sweet and sour gourami (ikan gurami asam manis). Gourami is a fresh water fish which I believe natively Indonesian water and this fish has spread widely throughout south east asia and China.

I have used tofu in this recipe to replace the gourami and modified the recipe into gravvy to give more taste and flavor to the tofu.  Sometimes when tofu was not available, I just simple replace the tofu with paneer/cottage cheese.

Ingredients:

• 200 grams tofu - cut into big cubes about 3 cms
• 1 tbsp corn flour
• 50 grams plain flour
• Sprinkle of black/white pepper
• Oil to fry
• 1/4 cups of green peas
• 1 spring onion - sliced
• About 50 grams onion leaves - slice lengthwise about 3 cms
• 1 pcs tomato - roughly chopped
• 2 cms ginger - finely sliced
• 1 clove of garlic - finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 3 tbsp tomato sauce
• 1 1/2 tbsp vinegar - or as per taste
• Salt to taste
• Mix 1 tbsp corn flour with 1 1/2 cup of water

How to make:

The tofu:

• Mix the corn flour, plain flour and pepper. Add some water and mix until you get medium consistency
• Heat the oil
• Dip the tofu in the flour mixed and deep fry until golden brown. Keep aside

The Sauce:

• Heat the oil in the pan
• Add the garlic and ginger, and fry for few seconds only
• Add the peas, saute for few minutes
• Add the spring onion and tomato - cook until the tomato soften
• Add the tomato sauce, sugar, vinegar and salt - stir well
• Add the onion leaves - stir
• Add the mixture of corn flour and water - cook until the sauce thicken
• If the sauce is too thick, add some water until you get the consistency that you like

Place the fried tofu on a plate, spread the sauce on the top of the tofu. Ready to be served with steamed rice.

Butter Paneer Masala

Butter paneer masala which is also known as Kadai paneer, is widely known as Punjabi cuisine which is very popular in the northern part of India.

Unlike any other Indian cuisine, butter paneer masala has more softer taste of spices as it is normally prepared or cooked with cream, and sometimes people also mixed with cashew paste in the cooking.

The soft texture of the paneer cooked in butter instead of oil, gives this dish the oriental taste which is acceptable internationally. Not many people can eat a lot of spices, some people may have stomach breakdown eating too much of spice, this .. in this case, happened to me when I was still adapting myself with Indian food years ago.

I have tasted butter paneer masala in many restaurants and I found out that the best taste of paneer dish is when I could feel the soft texture of the paneer/cheese and the spices altogether.

Last year, I was quite lucky to get a very important lesson from a cook whom we hired during my in-law’s 50th anniversary. He asked me what did I want to have for my lunch as he prepared my lunch separately with less spices, and I told him that he can cook paneer for me. While he was cooking in the kitchen, I watched him prepared the paneer. The most interesting part was when he put the paneer in hot water before cooking it with the spices. I asked him why would he do that, he told me that if he put the paneer or cottage cheese in the hot water, it will make the paneer softer instead of frying it in oil.

That was might be the most valuable lesson that I got from Indian chef so far, because I used to fry the paneer before cooking it with spices and sometimes it made the paneer hard. Since that time onward, I always put the paneer in hot water for at least 15 minutes before cooking it. The result was very good and  I love this dish even more.

Ingredient:

• 200 grams of Paneer - cut in 1.5 cms cubes
• 1 big onion - finely chopped
• 1 tsp ginger and garlic paste
• 1 big tomato - finely chopped (optional - 1 cup of tomato puree)
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1 table spoon butter
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• salt to taste (I used 1/2 tsp in this recipe)

How to cook:

• In the cooking pan, heat the butter
• Add the chopped onion and cook it until it become soft
• Add the ginger and garlic paste, stir for about 1 minute
• Add chopped tomato, cook until it become very soft and the juice reduced
• Add the turmeric and chili powder
• Add the salt and sugar
• If the curry is too thick, add little water
• Garnish with corriander leaves
• Ready to be served with steamed rice or roti

Fried Chicken

Fried chicken has been the most favourite meal for each generation in no matter which country people live in. I believe that each country have their own way of serving and cooking their special style of fried chicken. And I believe that each home have their own favourite recipes for fried chicken. Mothers… specially know how to capture their children’s hearts by preparing the foods which they like, and… the taste that they love.

In Indonesia itself, there are many types of fried chicken. Indonesia is a country which is rich with spices and many types of agriculture products. Indonesia is also rich with the cultures, people with different backgrounds and languages, but we have one national flag and language.

Before KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) entered the market of fried chicken in Indonesia and introducing western style fried chicken in our country for the first time more than a couple of decades ago, I only knew the traditional fried chicken which my mom used to cooked for us. Traditional Indonesian fried chicken are marinated in spices such as tamarind, turmeric, ginger, garlic, etc. In different article I will post the recipe for fried chicken using indian spices and yoghurt.

For this recipe, I have modified the original recipe according to my taste.

Ingredients:

• 500 gms chicken - cut in medium pieces
• 2 pcs onions - make a rough paste
• 2 pcs garlic - make a rough paste
• 1 pcs egg
• 200 gms plain flour
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1.5 tsp salt
• Oil to fry

How to make:

• Wash the chicken and pat dry with the tissue towel
• Marinate the chicken with the mixture of garlic, onion, half tsp of pepper and 1 tsp salt. Keep for about 1-2 hours
• Mix the flour with the rest of the pepper and salt
• Whisk the egg in separate bowl
• Heat the oil
• Take one piece of chicken, dip in the egg and after that cover it with the flour
• Fry until golden brown
• Serve with chilli and tomato sauce

Panner and Potato BBQ

There was a saying that to reach to a man’s heart is through his tummy , I kinda think that is is absolutely right. My husband really love this dish and whenever he eats this food, I can see the glow in his face… lol!!! He really loves the home made veg BBQ.

He loves potatoes alot, everyday I never absent to cook potato… potato curry or chilli potato, or any type of potato dish. And he would complaint alot if one day I skip to cook the potato :), that’s why I called him “Mr. Potato” sometimes

I tried to make the new style for the potato dish, just to give my hubby some kind of variety in his food. So, when I tried to make the recipe for paneer BBQ, I used the same spices to make the potato BBQ to see how it would taste, and the result is really good, and my husband really likes it.

Paneer… I called paneer as the Indian style of tofu. I called it this way because whenever I went to the chinesse restaurants, they would actually replace the tofu with the paneer… eventho’ they really put it as “tofu” in the menu. Funny, huh??? So, each time we went to the chinesse or Thai restaurant, I always ask first if it is really tofu or paneer in the menu before ordering the food.

Paneer / Cottage Cheese

Paneer which we also known as cottage cheese, is a dairy product and is an integral part of Indian cooking. They use this to make the main dish, snacks or even sweets. In India, paneer is more popular among the vegetarian, this is one of the food which they eat to complete the need of the protein in their bodies beside the grains and nuts.

To make the Paneer and Potato BBQ, I will separate each of the paneer and potato in the cooking, but will use the same spices. This is because potato will take a bit time to cook, while paneer will take much lesser time. If we grill or fry the paneer too long, it will extract the liquid from the paneer and as the result the paneer will become too hard to eat. Paneer will taste good when it is soft.

Ingredient:

• 250 gr paneer - cut in cubes about 1 inch
• 250 gr medium size potatoes - peeled, each cut in 4 pcs
• 1 pcs large onion spring - slice in big pieces
• 1 pcs capsicum - any color - cut in big pieces
• 200 gr plain yoghurt - throw excess water if any
• Make a paste of 2 pcs garlic and 1.5 cms of ginger
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 2 tbs tandoori masala (optional can use garam masala)
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp salt

How to make:

Making the BBQ sauce:

• Mix together yoghurt, turmeric powder, tandoori/garam masala, chilli powder, salt and the paste of ginger and garlic
• Take about 1 tbs of the sauce to marinate the onion and the capsicum
• Divide the rest sauce in to 2 for each paneer and potatoes
• Marinate the paneer and potatos in the BBQ sauce for about 2 hours

Potato BBQ:

• Put the marinated potatoes in aluminium foil along with the marinate.
• Bake in the oven for about 30 - 45 minutes depending on the size of the potatoes
• Take out the potatoes from the oven and throw any excess water
• Put the potatoes in the grill stick
• Brush the potatoes with the oil or butter and grill until the color is brownish 

Paneer BBQ:

• Put the paneer cubes in the grill stick. Grill the paneer until it is brownish

Serving Tips:

• Don’t worry if you dont have the griller, there is even an easy way to get this BBQ done without changing it’s taste.
• Heat a non stick pan and brush it with oil or butter
• Add the marinated paneer or the potatoes (which are already half cooked in the oven) along with the marinate
• Stir until the color of the paneer or potatoes brownish and the marinate thicken
• Brush the pan once more with butter or oil
• Add the marinated onion and capsicum, and cook for about 5 minutes
• Put the cooked onion and capsium on the top of the paneer and potatoes BBQ
• Sprinkle with chat masala if available
• Serve hot with slices of lemon

Indian Style Paneer and Potato BBQ

 

Choco Cheese Banana Bread

I love Choco Cheese Banana Bread, I used to eat it when I was still staying in Jakarta. I really love sweet bread, especially with lots and lots of chocolate in it. I’m normally not the type of the person who likes to bake a bread, basically I didn’t have that much of confident in me that I can bake a bread successfully. Well… I believe that this might be the same mind-set that all of us who are amateur or beginner in cooking might be thinking

So… why would bother to bake the bread if we can just buy it? … well… firstly, I can put lots and lots of chocolate inside the bread… (humm… yummy :p … ) and secondly, finding the sweet bread in India is like finding the needle in the bunch of straw. Indian are not so customised in term of fooding. All the foods beside Indian food are very typical… Mexican, Thailand and Italian… Eventho’ chinese food is very popular in India, the taste has been customized with the Indian taste.

About three years ago, when me and my husband went for a trip to Kalimpong (it’s a small town on the hill outside Kolkata), I was very surprised when I found chocolate Danish bread in one of the bakery shop. It was a very small shop which includes the coffee shop, I didn’t even think that they bake the bread everyday.

I have used the recipe below for making the sweat bread, I believe that there is still a lot of room for improvement considering that this is my first trial , I’m very open for all kind of suggestion

Ingredients:

• 1 pcs Banana (Any type of banana will do)
• Choco rice (optional: Baking chocolate)

For the Sweet Dough:

• 1 Kg Flour (Maida)
• 150 gr Sugar
• 20 gr Yeast
• 50 gr Butter
• 20 gr Salt
• 40 gr Milk Powder
• 300 gr Milk (liquid)
• 100 gr Cold Water
• 100 gr egg yolk (About 4 eggs)

How to make:

• Mix all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
• Add milk, water and egg yolk and keep mixing in medium speed
• Allow the dough to rest in about 15 - 20 minutes until it double in size
• Make small balls from the dough each about 50 grams
• Make small holes in each of the balls and add slices of banana and choco rice as the filling, and close the fillings
• Keep it rest again for about 45 minutes
• Brush the upper side of the bread with the mixture of 1 eggyolk and 50 ml of milk
• Bake in the oven at 180C for 25 minutes

Choco cheese banana bread

 

 

Cheese Bread

Choco Bread

Chili Baby Corn

This is my husband’s favorite meal, he likes to eat it along with the veg chowmein. It’s preety easy to make it and it doesn’t take so much of time. Very ideal for people who don’t have so much of time to cook… just like me

In India, especially in Kolkata, baby corn is quite popular as part of chinesse dish. But in some part of area in Kolkata, people don’t even know what is baby corn. One day when I went to the market to buy baby corns, one lady asked me what was that and she also asked me how do I cook it. I could understand because not all the market sell baby corn. So far that I know, It is only available in big department store such as Big Bazaar, Spencer and couple of markets in South Kolkata.

Ingredient:

• 200 grm baby corn - cut into half
• 5 pcs green chilies - chopped
• 50 grm onion leaves - cut about 10 cms
• 1 pcs capsicum - cut length-wise about 0.5 cm
• 1 pcs of onion - cut length-wise
• 2 pcs big garlic - chopped
• Salt as per taste
• A sprinkle of sugar (can be replaced with 1 tsp sweet soya sauce)
• 1.5 tbs soya sauce (salty)
• 1.5 tbs tomato sauce
• 3 tbs flour
• 2 tbs oil to cook
• Enough oil to fry

How to cook:

• Mix the baby corn wih the flour after washing, make sure that it mixed well. Keep aside for about 10 - 15 minutes
• Heat the oil and fry the baby corn until the color turned golden
• Heat 2 tbs oil and fry the chopped garlic until the good smell come out
• Add the capsicum, onion and chillies, cook for about 4 minutes in medium flame
• Add the soya sauce, tomato sauce, sugar and salt, mix well
• Add the fried baby corn and mix well
• Add the onion leaves
• Serve hot

Tips:
To keep the baby corn crispy, don’t dry the fried baby corn on the tissue paper, but on the strainer.

The movie is about a mouse named Remy who had a dream of becoming a chef. He was very inspired when he saw a book “Anyone Can Cook” which was written by a very known chief. He has a gift to sense the smell and taste.

After he went through many things and separated from his family, he ended up Gusteau’s restaurant where he met a young boy named Linguini who cannot cook but really wanted to become a chef.

Anyway, at the end of the story, both Remy and Linguini finally ran a restaurant together.

The part which I like from this movie is when Remy showed his brother how good is to taste two kind of foods at once, especially when he finally could cook the mushroom with the cheese with the help of the lightning. Wow… that’s amazing.

I know that I’m not the best chef on earth, and I count myself as an amateur in cooking. But I believe it is always worthwhile to try and if we cook with the whole of our heart and not affraid to take the risk, even the simplest recipe can be a great dish.

I do really hope that this website can inspire those who are like me :). There was a saying, the key to men’s hearts is through their stomachs. But I would like to say, the key to everyone’s heart is through the food which you cook with the whole of your heart

So, don’t be affraid to cook for the people whom you love even if you cannot cook

Veg Fried Bihun

Rice noodle which we called “Bihun” in Indonesian or “Bee Hoon” is made from rice and water, but sometimes other ingredients such as starch is added to give the chewy texture and transparent look.

Rice noodle also known as Rice Vermicelli or Rice Stick, in India, rice noodle is also known as “Sevai”. As per my knowledge, sevai doesn’t have the chewy or firm texture like any other rice noodles in south East Asia. I have bought sevai in few occasion with the expectation that I could have made the fried rice noodle with it considering it has the similar look as normal rice noodle which we have in Indonesia. But to my disappointment, sevai melt easily in the water eventho if it is cold water. I’ve tried in many ways but all are failed. First I tried to dip it in cold water, it seemed working, but when I drained it, it really melt and stick to each other and soon became like a dough. Secondly, I tried a different way, I put the sevai in a strainer, and just poured the cold water on it, but again the same result as the first one. so, I never dare to try to do it again with sevai. In my first resident area, I didn’t find any rice noodle which I really want, it was really a very backward area.

After I moved the my second home, I was very glad when I found rice noodle in one small department store, it was manufactured in Bangalore, India. Interestingly, it has “Dragon” brand . At first I was not very much sure about this one as I thought this might be the same result with the sevai, but it was really work, the noodle became soft when I dip in the water and wasn’t melt like a dough. When the first attempt with this brand quite good, I went back to the department store and bought many packages of Dragon Rice Noodle, in fact I was the only one who finished the stock (They don’t have many packages maybe only 8 packages at that time), after quite sometimes, I understood why I was the only one who bought this rice noodle because people in that area didn’t know how to cook the rice noodle. One day when I went out from that store, one lady asked me (with the curiosity of others ladies surround her) how do I cook the rice noodle, so I told them that I will cook it just like we make the chow-mien. Well… believe me that was the easiest way to explain it, because chow-mien is quite famous in here as Chinese food, and believe me also… that is all that they know about Chinese food funny isn’t it?

Few months after that, the store closed down their stock for Dragon rice noodle with the reason: low demand (Of course… I was the only one who bought that!!!). I was left devastated when I visited the store and they told me they don’t keep the Dragon rice noodle anymore. But few months after that, I found imported rice noodle from Thailand came to the market in one big department store about 4 Kilometers from my home. Well… that was a relieve

Almost two years ago, me and hubby shifted to the South Kolkata, I was very delighted to find both Dragon Rice Noodle and imported Thailand rice noodle are available everywhere, whether in traditional market or big department stores.

To prepare the rice noodle, we just need to soften the noodles with water. Just dip the rice noodle in the water for few minutes and drain it, the noodle is ready to be used. But If I use the imported Thailand rice noodle, I would soften the noodle with water and drained it, then I would pour the hot water on it while it was on the strainer. After that I would again put the noodle under the running cold water. For me, this would give the best taste and “easy to chew noodle” that I want.

If you want to make stir fry rice noodle, mix the noodle with little oil to prevent the noodle to stick with each other and keep it cool before using it. It is much better to prepare the noodle first before preparing other ingredients, so the noodle will be cool and dry enough.

For making this recipe, I was using the same ingredient and instruction with the Chow-Mien (but without the ham and the eggs as I was cooking this for my hubby ). Click here to see the recipe.

Fried Chicken in Sweet Butter Sauce

The tasty secret of this dish is the mixture of 3 sauces, cooked with butter instead of oil. It’s quite Indonesian traditional dish … well, so far that I know. One of the sauces which we use for this dish is sweet soy sauce.

Soy sauce which we also called shoyu in Japanese, is a fermented sauce made from soy beans. Base per the history which I found from Wikipedia, Soy sauce was invented in China, where it has been used as a condiment for close to 2,500 years. In its various forms it is widely used in East and Southeast Asian cuisines and increasingly appears in Western cuisine and prepared foods.

In Indonesia, there are 2 types of soy sauce available; salty soy sauce and sweet soy sauce. Sweet soy sauce is thicker than salty soy sauce and it’s consistency is almost like syrup. I thought sweet soy sauce was only available and made in Indonesia, but one of my friend who lives in Netherlands told me that she also found sweet soy sauce in that country, which is brought down through generations from the Indonesian people who went to Netherlands during Dutch colonial. While in Indonesia the name of sweet soy sauce has followed new rule of Indonesian spelling “Kecap Manis”, in Netherlands the spelling is still using the old spelling “Ketjap Manis” - If anyone of you can find this soy sauce with this spelling please send me the picture I’ll be very grateful

Alternatively, if you are not able to find sweet soy sauce in your country, you can also use oyster sauce, this is what my friend told me.

Ingredient:

• 1/2 Kg chicken - cut in small pieces and marinate in salt and white pepper for about 15 minutes. 
• 2 tbs sweet soy sauce
• 2 tbs salty soy sauce
• 2 tbs Manchester sauce or worcester sauce
• 1 pc lemon
• 3 pcs garlic - make a paste
• 1/2 tsp white pepper
• salt as per taste - I used only a sprinkle in this recipe
• 2 tbs butter
• Oil to fry

How to make:

• Deep fry the chicken, keep aside
• Heat the butter and add garlic
• Add the fried chicken and mix well
• Add the sauces and mix well until the sauces thicken
• Sprinkle the lemon juice
• Serve hot