Pindang Serani

Kalo ke Palembang jangan lupa nyobain yg ini - Pindang Serani ikan patin. Asam, manis, pedas. Nano nano dech rasanya. 

Bahan

- bawang merah 10 biji

- bawang putih 3 siung

- cabe merah pedas 2 atau 3 biji

- cabe merah tidak pedas 8 biji

- 2 batang sere dimemarkan

- jahe 1 ibu jari

- laos 2 ibu jari

- kunyit 3 ibu jari kalo kurus, 2 ibu jari kalo kunyitnya besar

- daun jeruk 2 lembar

- daun salam 2 lembar

- asam jawa 1 sdm + air

- gula merah 1 sendok makan

- air 1,5 liter

- ikan 700/ 800 gram atau bisa juga daging bila anda tidak suka ikan

Cara membuat

- bumbu2 kecuali daun jeruk, daun salam, sere dihaluskan. Sebagian diiris tipis2

- setengah bumbu ditumis, sebagian dimasukkan langsung ke dalam rebusan

- bila menggunakan daging, masak daging + garam hingga empuk sebelum bumbu dimasukkan

- bila pake ikan, ikan di marinade dulu dengan jeruk nipis + garam. Buang airnya. Ikan dimasukkan di saat terakhir. 

Celimpungan

Happy Mother's day !!!
Greatest respect to all mothers that raise their kids with compassionate love.

Today's recipe will be Celimpungan.
In my home town, we love to eat fish cake and we have various forms and way to serve it and each of them has its own name.

This one is Celimpungan. It's almost similar to fish balls (giant balls normally) and serve with sauce made with coconut milk.  Here is the recipe, it's for 2 to 3 serving; and as I live in Europe where I cannot find the original ingredients, the recipe has been adjusted to suit the situation :-)

How to make the fish balls
- Filet Brosme fish about 275 gr.
- water 1/2 bowl (small bowl size 250ml)
- white egg of 1 egg
- Tapioca flour - 1 bowl
- 1 tablespoon salt (flat)
- 1/2 cube maggi

Mix the all the ingredients above, except the Tapioca flour, in a blender till they are smooth. Then mix then slowly with tapioca flour. Till it can be form with spoon as balls. Approximately below consistency

Boil a lot of waters in a pan. Wait till it is really boiling and then make balls form with spoon and drop it into the waters. When they are floating, add about 10 minutes to ensure they are well cook. And lift up from the water. Put it on fabric and leave it dry.

How to make the sauce (we call it kuah)
- 4 pieces small shallots (asian shallots)
- 1 piece small garlic.
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1/4 teaspoon coriander powder
- salt as per your taste
- 1/2 cube maggi
- 200 ml thin coconut milk (you can mix coconut milk with water to thinner them)

Grind shallots, garlic, turmeric and coriander together till it become a paste.
Heat small amount of oil in a pan, put the paste and stir fry till it smells nice and then pour the coconut milk, put maggi and salt to taste. Stir it slowly till it's boiling. And then put those fish balls inside. And leave it boil for few minutes.

Serve with fried shallots and if you like spicy food, you can add sambal terasi or with sambal ulek.

Pempek DOS/ Pempek Sagu

This is a delicious, cheap and easy to make food. My mom used to make it for me as snack in the afternoon. Well, do not hope a high nutrition value from this ... but the happiness that it gives you when eating it, you won't care on nutrition anymore.

Anyway, it is not an everyday food - it's time to time. And we have the right to enjoy food isn't it :-)

Warning !!!, we are used to cook without measurement. We call it 'kiro kiro bae' ... this is where your cooking skill is being challenged :-D

Portion for 4 people

Ingredients for dough (pempek)

- 200 gr multi purpose flour

- 200 gr tapioka flour

- salt

- a bit of sugar

- one maggi cubes

- 4 eggs

- water

- oil

Ingredients for the sauce (cuka)

- 100 gr palm sugar

- 12.5   gr garlic, grind and make as paste

- 25 gr chilli paddy + big red chilli (2 pieces) - grind and make as paste

- 5   gr salt

- 25 gr sugar

- 1    table spoon vinegar (25%), if you use apple vinegar then you need more

- 250 cc water

How to make pempek

- mix multi purpose flour with sugar, maggi cubes, salt and pour boiling water into it slowly. Pour the water until all the flour are wet and form like a dough

- then put one egg, mix it

- and then mix them with the tapioka flour

- beat the other 3 eggs in a bowl

- boil at least 2 litter of water

- form the dough like a pocket, and then pour the beaten egg inside and close it

- put it directly in the boiling water

- boil till they float, and then you can take out from the water

- leave it till cold

- cut and fry

How to make cuka

- boil the water 

- put the garlic and chilli paste

- put the palm sugar

- put salt and vinegar

- taste, you can add salt, sugar or vinegar to your taste

How to serve

- put the pempek in a bowl, and then pour the cuka on top of it. 

- and you can put shredded dried shrimp on top of it and/ or cuts of cucumber

Other option is not using egg but make the roll shape (like bolster) and then cut in the middle, put shredded dried shrimp, chilli paste and sweet soya sauce

To Our Mothers with LOVE

I'll be posting series of recipes blogs of my childhood food - Palembang food. These blogs are dedicated to my beloved mother and also the mother's of all my friends.

I am so lucky that I've been grown up with mother that stays at home ... cooking and taking care of us with love.

So do many other mothers of my friends, at that time. They are all mothers who is working 100% as mother. Mothers who really know how to cook exquisite food, mothers who spend hours and hours in the kitchen to produce the best healthy food from raw ingredients.

Time has changed. Time has forced women to go to work and therefore less time spent for family and especially less time for cooking.

I'll dedicated some of my time to re-write their recipes, keeping it as treasure for the next generation.

End of Journey

This journey has been ended. But the real journey is still a long way to go ... but I am sure I will reach the end as long as I keep stepping on the path.

I am very glad and grateful having a chance to do this journey. It is an enriching journey. Many thanks to my boss, my friends; especially the one in the office that has to work hard covering my work, my family and everybody that make this journey possible.

Dhamma Sumeru

J'ai encore Feb 2011 pour mon vacance :-) ...  J'ai passé tout le mois dans Dhamma Sumeru, situe au Mt. Soleil. C'est une place tranquil et tres beau. Le lever de soleil et le coucher du soleil sont étonnants.

Je sense que je suis a la maison la. Mes amis, les participants, l'enseignants sont trés gentil. C'est une experience inoubliable. Je suis trés content pour avoir la chance d'être là

On the way back

After one month of travelling, it is time now to go back home. So from Bagan to Yangon and then Yangon to Ho Chi Minh. Atmosphere in Ho Chi Minh is a bit changed as it is approaching the Chinese New Year. The park turned into flower selling market. Beautiful ... a lot of Chrysan flower. You can enjoy some photos below.

 

And from Ho Chi Minh, I am supposed to fly back to Frankfurt and then Frankfurt - Zurich and supposed to arrive at home at noon on the 29 Jan 2011. But due to technical reason, after more than 6 hours waiting in the check-in queue, the flight got cancelled and I am re-routed via Seoul ... hehehehe.

So here below are the pictures of Seoul - Incheon International airport. A very nice airport. They have Korean cultural exhibition and also museum in the airport. So 6 hours transit time turned into a fun time.

At last, after long journey ... I managed to reach home by 02:00 AM in the morning on 30th Jan 2011 hehehehe. Home Sweet Home.