Bakmie Goreng (Indonesian Fried Noodle)

This food reminds me of my childhood in Indonesia. Most birthday parties that I went always served bakmie goreng. Noodle is a sign of long life and hence, every birthday party must have noodles!

I cooked bakmie goreng to celebrate Thu's birthday. It was his first experience of my bakmie goreng as we usually order this dish in Indonesian restaurants. I was pleased with the result and will definitely make it again, especially for someone's birthday!


Ingredients:

• 1 bulb garlic (peeled and crushed)
• 2 eggs (scrambled)
• 10 beefballs (cut in half)
  
• 3 chicken thigh fillets (cut in strips)
• half bunch choy sum (cut to medium strips)
  
• 1 pack Hokkien Noodle
• salt & pepper
  
• 2 tbs sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
• 1 tsp garlic chilli sauce (sambal bawang)
• fried shallot (bawang goreng) to garnish
  

Preparations:

• Blanch hokkien noodles in boiling water until they are well-separated. Drain and run in cold water for 1 minute to avoid noodles get too soft.
  
• Scramble the egg and put them aside.
• Stir fry crushed garlic until they turn slightly golden. Add chicken thigh strips, a pinch of salt and pepper. Keep stir-frying until chicken is fully cooked.

• Add choy sum, beefball, and garlic chilli sauce. Keep mixing. When the veggies are cooked, add hokkien noodle and sweet soy sauce, a pinch of salt (based on your taste). Mix until the colour is uniform.

• Add scrambled egg. Mix and it is ready to serve. Garnish with fried shallots.

Chinese Noodle Salad

My Chinese colleagues at work like to prepare this noodle salad during special occasions when everyone brought some food to share. I always enjoy this kind of gathering and forget about science for a little while. Science is sometimes too mysterious and this really tests my patience. What I love about science is that once you get an interesting result, it's very rewarding. This, of course, makes you feel good.

Anything can be added to chinese noodle salad, depending on your preference. You can have prawns or chicken or BBQ pork/ duck or vegetarian style. I spent last weekend making this salad based on what I had in the fridge. There were Hokkien noodles, cabbage, shallot, coriander, chicken thigh filllets, five-spiced tofu, dried beancurd and toasted sesame seeds. This salad is very delicious and so perfect to enjoy during summer. Give it a go!

Salad dressing:

• 1/4 cup kikkoman soy sauce
• 2 tbs dark soy sauce
• 1/4 cup brown vinegar
• 1/4 cup sesame oil
  
• 3 tbs hot chilli oil
• 1 tbs sugar

This salad dressing is enough for 2 packets of Hokkien Noodle (6 servings). If you only prepare a small portion, reduce the dressing by half the amount. You can adjust the amount of soy sauce and vinegar depending on your taste. 

Salad Ingredients:

• Hokkien noodles (blanch in boiling water and drain)
• shallot (cut thinly)
• coriander (cut thinly)
• cabagge (cut thinly)
  
• toasted sesame seeds
• Stir fry: olive oil, minced garlic, chicken thigh fillets (cut into strips), tofu (cut thinly) and dried beancurd (soaked in water overnight, then cut thinly). Add a pinch of salt, pepper and dark soy sauce.

I prepared my thigh fillets in stir fry to avoid having raw garlic in my salad. You can boil the meat for the salad and add raw garlic. This is easier to prepare but the garlic taste will be quite strong. You can balance it by adding minced young ginger. So, here are some pictures showing my salad preparations.

 

Yakitori Chicken

It has been 2 years since we moved to Waterloo, Sydney. I love this suburb as it is close to the city and a reasonably quiet area. There are also many factory outlets around Waterloo. This is very enjoyable during weekends when we have no plans on what to do. Wandering around factory outlets! The recent one that we went was a book factory outlet called "Book Margins". There were plenty of cooking books in this shop and the prices were really good.

As I haven't got a proper Japanese cookbook, I chose "Taste of Japan" by Masaki Ko. Her home-cooking style is very simple and easy to follow. So, I spent last weekend trying a recipe from this book: Yakitori Chicken. I added asparagus salad served with the yakitori sauce. Thu and I were very happy with the result!

Ingredients:

• 6 chicken thigh fillets (cut into chunks)
  
• 1 red capsicum (cut into medium-sized squares)
  
• 1 green capsicum

Yakitori sauce:

• 150 ml soy sauce
• 0.5 cup sugar
• 5 tsp sake
• 1 tbs plain flour

Salad:

• 1 bunch asparagus (cut into 8 cm segments)
• half red capsicum (minced)
• alfalfa sprouts
  

Preparation:

1. Stir the soy sauce, sugar and sake in a small sauce pan to make the sauce. Bring to boil and add the plain flour. The sauce should be quite thick.
2. Marinate the chicken chunks with 2/3 of yakitori sauce for 15-30 mins.
3. Blanch the asparagus in the boiling water (with added salt and oil) for 2 mins. Wash with cold water and drain.
   
4. Thread the chicken and red/green capsicum alternately to the bamboo skewers.
5. Grill under medium heat for 15 mins or until the chicken is cooked but still moist
6. Dilute 1/3 of the yakitori sauce with warm water until the sauce consistency is thin. Add this diluted yakitori sauce to salad and the kebabs.

 

 

 

Pastel Tutup (Indonesian Potato Pie)

I remember that my mum used to take me to different cafes as our resting points during a long day of shopping. I often ordered an ice cream or a chocolate drink or "pastel tutup". Any of them was just perfect after we shopped around. I hardly can find "pastel tutup" in Sydney. Not many Indonesians know this food, it seems to be popular only in Surabaya.

I recently got an idea to make pastel tutup faster and easier to prepare. I separated the potato top layer and made them as mashed potato balls. It tasted the same as the original "pastel tutup" when you served the pie filling and mashed potato balls on a plate. You need quite a bit of patience to prepare this dish as there are a lot of chopping required. If you got some helpers, this won't take you long at all. 

Ingredients:

 

Pie filling

• 3 pieces chicken thigh fillet (cut into cubes)
• 3 thin frankfurts (cut into cubes)
• 2 carrots (cut into cubes)
• a handful of dried black fungi (soak in cold water for 2 hours, then slice thinly)
  
• 1 can of garden peas
• 2 small packs of green bean threads vermicelli (soak in hot water and then drain)
  
• a few cloves of garlic (minced)
• a few cloves of dried shallot (slice thinly)
• 3 tbs of margarine
• 1 tsp salt
• 0.5 tsp white pepper
• 1.5 tsp nutmeg
• 1 cup of soy milk
• 0.5 cup water

Mashed Potato Balls

• 6 medium sized potatos (peel, cut into big chunks, boil in hot water until cooked but not too soft, drain)
• 0.25 cup soy milk
• a pinch of salt 
• 1 tsp freshly ground blackpepper
• 1 egg 

 

Decoration

• 1 hard boiled egg
  
• parsley

Preparations:

1. After finished chopping the pie filling ingredients, prepare mashed potato balls. I used food processor to soften the boiled potato chunks. Alternatively, you can use a wooden spoon. Either way works fine. Add soy milk, salt and ground blackpepper. Shape into balls and brush with egg. Bake in the oven at 160 deg C for 30 mins or until they turn golden in colour. 
2. While you are baking the mashed potato balls, start cooking the pie filling. Heat the wok, then add margarine, garlic, dried shallot. Stir until they are aromatic, add the cubed chicken thigh. Keep stirring until the chicken is fully cooked. Add water, soy milk, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.
3. Add carrots and frankfurts, keep stiring for 3 mins. Then add black fungi, garden peas and finally vermicelli. The pie filling shouldn't be too dry. If they look dry add a bit more of milk.
4. Serve the pie filling and mashed potato balls on a plate. Add a slice of boiled egg and parsley on the pie filling. Garnish the pie filling with chopped parsley.
   

Thai Chicken Noodle Salad

Here is a nice and easy recipe for busy people. I understand how tiring it could be to prepare dinner after a long day of work. As a solution, I always try to prepare dishes that require a small number of ingredients as possible.

I got this recipe a while ago from a cooking demo held in Westfield Eastgardens, 10 mins drive from our place. We tasted the dish and Thu said "Let's cook this tonight!!". Just a reminder that Thai sweet chilli sauce has so much sugar in it. If you're diabetic, please reduce the amount of the sweet chilli sauce.

Ingredients:

• half pack of Wai Wai noodle
• basil leaves (chopped thinly)
• 2 tbs olive oil
• a pinch of salt and pepper
  
• 2 chicken thigh fillets (cut into strips)
• 2 tbs Thai sweet chilli sauce
  
• 0.5 lemon
• 200 grams long green beans (cut into small pieces)

Salad dressing for noodle:

• 3 tbs soy sauce
• 1.5 tbs sesame oil

Preparations:

1. Boil noodle for 2-3 min, then drain. If noodle are too long, chop them with scissors before adding the salad dressing.
2. Toss the noodles in a bowl with sesame oil, soy sauce and chopped basil leaves.
   
3. Heat olive oil on the wok, add chicken thigh fillets, salt and pepper. Stir fry until they are fully cooked. Add Thai sweet chilli sauce, lemon juice and long green beans. Cook for maximum 3 mins. The green beans should be crunchy.
4. Serve the chicken with green beans on top of the noodles and garnish with basil leaves.
   

Vietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls (Banh Trang)

During the first visit of my mother in law to our place in Sydney, I specifically asked her to show me how to prepare banh trang. It is not difficult and the sauce is the key ingredient in this dish. Thu and I slightly modified the recipe based on our preference of omelette, chicken rather than pork, and we add extra lemon and roasted peanuts to the sauce.

This is our signature dish when we invite friends to come over. As I am Indonesian and Thu is Vietnamese, I love to introduce this dish to my Indonesian friends. They always had fun make their own spring rolls on the dining table. If you have some guests over to your place during spring/summer and want to have a healthy dish. I suggest you to try this. I guarantee you'll be the star!!

Salad Ingredients:

• half chicken breast fillet 
• 15 green prawns
  
• 2 eggs
  
• a handful of bean sprouts
• a range of Vietnamese herbs (Vietnamese basil, Vietnamese garlic chives, mint leaves)
• Lettuce
• 1 pack of dongguan rice vermicelli
• 1 pack of banh trang rice paper (round shape)
  
• 1 big bowl of boiling water
  

Sauce Ingredients:

• 5 tbs Tung Chun brand hoisin sauce
• 2 tbs white sugar
• 2 freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 0.5 cup chicken broth from the boiled chicken breast
• 2 tbs roasted granulated peanuts (buy granulated peanuts from any supermarkets and place them in the oven for 3 mins or until slightly golden)

Preparation:

1. Boil the chicken breast fillet with water in a small pot. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. When the chicken is cooked, take it out to cool. Run the chicken broth through a filter and use 0.5 cup of the broth for the sauce. Cut chicken breast fillet into thin strips (about 3cm x 6cm).
   
2. Remove the prawn shells and cut sideways in half. Pan fry the prawns with a small amount of olive oil. Add a pinch of salt and freshly ground blackpepper.
3. Using 2 eggs to make a thin omelette. Cut into strips.
4. Wash all the vegetables. Cut lettuce in half so that they can fit nicely in the spring rolls. Separate herb leaves on the plate as some guests may not like certain type of herbs.
5. Boil vermicilli in hot water for 5-7 mins, wash with cold water for 30 sec, then drain for 20 mins.
6. Once the sauce is made, put 4 tbs of sauce into a number of small bowls based on how many people you are serving.
   
7. When the salad and sauce are ready, boil water using kettle. Transfer the hot water into a big bowl and locate it in the center of the dining table so that everyone can use it for their rice papers.
   
8. Dip the rice paper in hot water. Place it on your plate. Add a small amount of vermicelli, 2 strips of chicken/2 pieces of prawn, 1 or 2 pieces of omelette and different herbs. 
9. Roll the rice paper with all ingredients into a spring roll shape. Eat it with the sauce.
   

Teriyaki Chicken

I love chicken teriyaki! I always order anything teriyaki when I am going to a Japanese restaurant. I was wondering how difficult it is to make the teriyaki sauce and thought that I have to buy a Japanese saute pan to make teriyaki dish.

Anyway, I guess everyone needs google search these days. I typed "Chicken teriyaki recipe". Many recipes came up from the google search engine. There was even a video to show how to saute the chicken correctly. COOL!! Time to try making this dish in my kitchen using a flat teflon pan. As simple as that!!

Ingredients:

• Teriyaki sauce: 0.5 cup kikkoman soy sauce, 0.5 cup mirin, 2 tbs sugar
• 3 chicken thigh fillets (cut each fillet into 2 pieces)
• 1 carrot (sliced into matchstick size)
• 2 brown onions (sliced into lengthy strips)
• 1 tbs toasted sesame seeds (optional)
• 4 tbs oil for sauteing

Preparation:

1. Marinate the chicken with the teriyaki sauce for 30 mins
2. Add oil into the pan, wait until it is hot
3. Fry the chicken fillets until they turn golden brown, turn the chicken over to another side
4. Pour half the sauce in pan
5. Cover the pan and steam cook the chicken fillets on low heat until only a little bit sauce left
6. Put the chicken fillets on the serving plate
7. Add the remaining teriyaki sauce into the pan
8. Add carrot and onions until they are cooked
9. Add the carrots and onions on the side of chicken thigh fillets
10. Sprinkle the dish with toasted sesame seeds (optional)