Cooking and Baking Laboratory: 10/1/08

October 29, 2008

Soto Betawi (Batavian Beef Soup)

This is one of my favorite Soto. I really enjoy its taste. Yes, certainly it comes from Betawi, so it is named Soto Betawi. But, where Betawi actually is? Betawi or Batavia is the old name of Jakarta, The Capital City of Indonesia.

Coconut milk and cow’s milk in its gravy is unique to this Soto. Other Soto never put milk in its gravy. Besides that, Soto Betawi uses various spices to build its taste. The origin recipe uses cow’s innards such as intestines, livers, and lungs. For health reason, I choose not to use cow’s innards. And for simplicity, I also choose not to use cow’s milk. However, it is all up to you, prefer to the origin or the modification..:)

Ingredients:

500 g beef, sliced in cube formed
½ nutmeg, grated
4 cloves
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 Jeruk Purut leaves
2 teaspoons salt
250 ml coconut milk from ½ coconut fruit
1500 ml water for boiling
1 tablespoon cooking oil

Ground Spices:

4 cm ginger
3 cloves garlic
8 shallots
1 teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon ground white pepper
A pinch of ground caraway
A pinch of sugar
Grind them all with stone mortar or processor

Complements:

1 tomato, sliced
2 leek, chopped
3 celery leaves, chopped
4 tablespoon fried onion
Lemon juice
Sweet soy sauce
Bitter nut crackers
Condiment
Cucumber and Carrot Acar

Instructions:

Set the high heat, boil the water in the pan
While the water already boiled, set to medium heat, put the beef into it, keep boiling
Add nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, salt, and Jeruk Purut leaves
Keep boiling until the meat is mild enough, then set into lower heat

Sauté the ground spices until fragrant, low the heat
Then pour coconut milk into it, stir, turn off the heat

Pour that spiced coconut milk above into boiling pan, stir until well cooked, then ready to serve with all the complements

(for 6 peoples)

October 28, 2008

Ikan Acar Kuning (Fish cooked in Yellow Spicy and Sour Spices)

Caesio erythrogaster or Yellow Tail Fusilier Fish is very easy to find in Indonesian fresh market. There are some ways to make it delicious, such as simply fry it or steam it in banana leaves. My favorite way is cooking this fish with acar (yellow and sour) spices.

Marinated Spices for Fish:

3 cloves garlic, ground
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
A pinch of salt
1 teaspoon lime juice
1 tablespoon fresh water

Ingredients:

500 g (1 or 2) Yellow Tail Fusilier Fish (Bahasa Indonesia= ikan ekor kuning), cleaned, sliced in two chunks, marinated with spices about 15 minutes
Cooking oil

Ground Spices:

5 candle nut
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 cm ginger
½ teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon white sugar

Acar Spices:

10 shallots, thick sliced
3 red chilies, sliced
10 red hot chilies (Don’t cut them if you don’t want a hot taste)
1 lemongrass
3 Jeruk Purut leaves
2 tablespoon lime juice
2 tablespoon cooking oil
300 ml fresh water

Instructions:

Use high heat. Fry the marinated fish until turns into golden brown colour. Set aside.
Then change to medium heat.
Sauté the ground spices with small amount of cooking oil, add lemongrass and Jeruk Purut leaves until fragrant. Pour some water into it. Stir.
Add lime juice. Stir and wait until it turns into thick liquid.
Add sliced shallot, sliced red chilies, whole red hot chilies, stir well. Wait until they become wilted.
Add the fried fish. Let the fish absorb the spices.
Then ready to serve with warm cooked rice.

(Served for two people)

October 27, 2008

Rendang (Beef in Chili and Coconut Milk)

Rendang is an Indonesian beef stew dish with coconut milk and very complicated spices. I make it simpler and easier. Actually, this recipe below is adapted from my mother recipe. So that, my Rendang (I am sure) is different than Rendang from Padang (A city in West Sumatera- Indonesia where Minangkabau community come from, which has the origin of this recipe). Rendang (as I wrote before) usually serve with ketupat and other dishes in Hari Raya (Iedul Fitri Celebration Day). However, if you just eat it with warm cooked rice it would be very nice too.

Ingredients:

1 kg beef, sliced into 10-15 chunk, in the same direction with its fiber
3 jeruk purut leaves
1 lemongrass, crushed
2 salam leaves
500 ml thick coconut milk from 4 coconuts
2 turmeric leaves (my mother used it, but I didn’t)
5 ml cooking oil (I replaced it with olive oil)

Ground Spices:

10 chilies, or as necessary (depend on you like hot or not)
4 cloves of garlic
7 shallots
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 pieces galangal root (2 cm per piece)
2 pieces ginger (2 cm per piece)
1 tablespoon salt, or as what you think necessary
1 teaspoon white sugar, or as what you think necessary
1 tablespoon palm sugar, or as what you think necessary

Instructions:

Grind all spices in Ground Spices above with stone mortar or processor
Set the heat in medium
Sauté the ground spices with cooking oil, add lemongrass, salam leaves, jeruk purut leaves, and turmeric leaves if you use it. Sauté them together until it is fragrant
Then, add the beef, sauté until the red color of beef turns into brown
Set the heat in low
Add the coconut milk, stir well
Boil about 1 hour or until the beef are mild enough or turn into dark brown color
Don’t forget to stir it well occasionally
If it runs dry meanwhile the beef are still hard to chew (use fork to make sure), you can just add the boiled water into it and do the same process again

Refrigerate it, if you want to keep this dish for any longer use for 1 week or more. When you need to serve a meal, you can simply warm it.

October 5, 2008

Ketupat (Cooked Rice in Woven Coconut Leaves Pouch)

Ketupat is the most favorite food in festive occasions such as Idul Fitri (the day right after a month of Ramadhan fasting) In Indonesia.

Javanese people believe that ketupat is one of Sunan Kalijaga’s Islamic preaching medium. Remembering about telupat (similar sound with ketupat) telu ( third) and papat (fourth) in 5 Pillars of Islam, paying zakat and Ramadhan fasting. If you do your fasting well and also paying your zakat you will get the light, a holy light. Light in Arabic means nur (light) so Javanese choose jaNUR (young yellow coconut leaves) to make this ketupat pouch. I got this information from this site, Prof. DR. Damardjati Soepadjar said about philosophy of ketupat. He is a tremendous philosopher from Gadjah Mada University in Jogjakarta.

Hmm..okay let’s talking about making this food. Ketupat sometimes are boiled in thin coconut milk and spices to enhance the taste, but this time I’d rather make the plain one.

Ingredients:

5 ketupat pouches
A cup of rice, washed
A teaspoon of salt

Instructions:

Boil the water

Fill the rice into ketupat pouch . Add the rice until a half of the entire ketupat’s volume
Add salt to the boiled water
Put the ketupat in the pan with the boiled water. Set them all under water
Keep boil them with medium heat for about 2 hours or until the rice become densely tight and the yellow turn into brown coconut leaves
Keep watching the water level. Pour hot water into the pan if the water level becomes lower
Take ketupat out of water, drain and hang them
Slice the ketupat, and serve it with various dishes
In Lebaran day or Hari Raya Iedul Fitri, Indonesian people usually combine it with Opor Ayam (Chicken in Coconut Gravy) and Sambal Goreng Hati (Beef Liver in Chili and Coconut Milk), Rendang and Sate(Satay).

Related Link:

If you want to know how to weave ketupat from coconut leaves you can go here

Soto Ayam Magetan (Magetan Chicken Soup)

My grandmother who lived in East slope side of Mount Lawu, used to cooked this kind of Soto when Lebaran Idul Fitri to serve her hundreds of guesses. She wasn't living in Magetan, but her Soto was very similar to what Seri MAsak Femina said about this kind of Soto.

So, it doesn’t matter at all what its name actually. I just want to remember my beloved deceased grandmother’s soto, which was so yummy.

This dishes is inspired by my grandmother’s recipe, combine with Seri Masak Femina

Ingredients:

1 free range chicken/ organic chicken, cleaned and cut into frying pieces
1,5 L fresh water
1 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons cooking oil
2 salam leaves
2 lemon grasses
4 jeruk purut leaves
¼ teaspoon cinnamon powder
2 cm galangal root, crushed

Spices to Grind:

3 cloves garlic
8 shallots
2 cm ginger
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
5 candle nuts
½ teaspoon white pepper powder
A pinch of caraway powder
½ teaspoon tamarind
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar

Complements:

50 g rice vermicelli, boiled for 2 minutes, then poured by cold water, drained
150 g bean sprouts, soaked in hot water, then drained
3 hard boiled eggs, peeled, sliced
100 g cabbage, finely sliced
2 tablespoon celery
2 tablespoon fried onion
Potato crisp
Chili condiment
Sweet soy sauce
Lime juice

Instructions:

Grind all spices in Spices to Grind above with stone mortar or processor

Boil the chicken with salt in water, until the chicken is tender enough, and the broth is about 1000 ml
Take the chicken out of pan and drain it well, shred it

Sauté the ground spices with salam leaves, lemon grasses, jeruk purut leaves, galangal root, cinnamon powder
Pour the chicken broth little by little, stir, boil it again

Set the shredded chicken and all the compliments in a bowl, and then pour them with hot spiced broth

Sambal Goreng Hati (Beef Liver in Chili and Coconut Milk) ala Diana Novita

Ingredients:

400 g beef liver, boiled, cut into cube shape, fried
250 g potatoes, peeled, cut into cube shape, fried
10 g peas
2 salam leaves
Galangal root, crushed
2 tablespoon cooking oil to sauté spices (grind)
250 ml cooking oil to fry potatoes and beef liver
400 ml light/thin coconut milk

Spices (Grind):

8 chilies, halved, seeded
3 cloves garlic, peeled
8 shallots, peeled
One or two pinch of terasi (shrimp paste)
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar

Instructions:

Grind chilies, garlic, shallots, salt, sugar, and shrimp paste with stone mortar or processor
Sauté that ground spices with salam leaves and galangal root
Pour the coconut milk, stir it and boil it
Add the fried beef liver, stir
Add the fried potatoes, stir
At last add peas into it, stir until it becomes a little bit drained

Adapted from my mother’s, Ibu Djoko Sutrisno’s, recipe

(A healthier) Cheese Cake ala Diana Novita

Ingredients:

5 Egg yolks (from Organic eggs/ low cholesterol eggs)
3 Egg whites (from Organic eggs/ low cholesterol eggs)
½ cups sugar
½ tablespoon cake emulsifier (I used VX)
⅓ cups wheat flour (medium protein/all purposes flour)
20 ml low fat liquid milk
50 ml canola oil
Cheddar, grated, as necessary
Butter cream instant, as necessary
Raisins, as necessary

Instructions:

Beat sugar, egg yolks, egg whites, VX with high speed for about 10 minutes or until it well improved
Add wheat flour, stir it with spatula
Add low fat liquid milk, stir
Add canola oil, stir
Pour the batter into non-sticky cake pan, so you don’t need butter to cover it with
Place the pan in the the middle rack. Bake in 185°C for 40 minutes or until it is baked well, risen and firm. Take it out from the oven
Mean while, prepare the butter cream, whisk or mix it for about 20 minutes or until it doubles its volume
Cool the cake in a room temperature, and then unmold it
Cut into 10-14 slices
Beautify the cake with butter cream, grated cheddar, and raisins

Opor Ayam (Chicken in Coconut Gravy)

Ingredients:

1 free range chicken or organic chicken, clean and cut into 8 parts
3 cloves garlic
8 shallots
2 teaspoons of coriander seed
2 teaspoons of salt
2 teaspoons of sugar
2 lemongrasses, crushed
A pinch of caraway powder
2 cm galangal root, crushed
2 Salam leaves
4 Jeruk Purut leaves
300 ml thin (light) coconut milk
200 ml thick (heavy) coconut milk

Instructions:

Grind coriander seed. Add salt and garlic. Then add shallot
Sauté grinded spices, salam leaves, galangal root, lemongrasses, jeruk purut leaves, and also a pinch of caraway powder
Whenever it smells good, add the chicken, stir
Pour the thin coconut milk, lower the heat. Stir until it boiled. Then add the thick coconut milk. Stir it until boiled
Then…ready to serve

Ibu Djoko Sutrisno’s, my mother’s recipe
(for 4 peoples)

Related Posting:
Common Indonesian Herbs And Spices For Daily Cooking