Mexican Snack “GUACAMOLE dip with tortilla chips”

This is my first entry for My Kitchen My World” which this week theme is “Food from Mexico”.

I choose guacamole dip with tortilla chips that because it is very easy to make. And this kind of snacking just make us more comfortable while watching tv or seating in front of computer. As you may know, it is only take a minute away to make it.

The tomatoes and pepper are finally growing on my garden. To be honest, this is my first time gardening. We made a small garden bed on the back yard and plant basil, thyme, pepper, tomatoes, rosemary and lavender. I keep staying away from them as I don’t really like to see little creature crawling, you know that “worm”! But when I see tomatoes and pepper grow it brings smile on my face.

I don’t precisely measure how to make a dip. It is simply mash together the avocado, pepper, tomatoes, lime juice, salt, dices onion and ground cumin. Then refrigerate about 1 hour before serving.

Happy Snacking!

Kembang Goyang cookies and will be away temporary

Some of you who view my blog might notice that it has been awhile I haven’t upgrade my blog.

I am still here, doing things as a mom and busy with my 2 years old boy. Yep, baking and cooking is my everyday routine. The weather in Erie kinda weird lately, sometimes the sun comes up and it becomes so hot and humid. But then raining for several days in the row.

I do enjoy my life being mom and many crazy things here, therefore I kinda behind to upgrade my site. I think in the next couple days or weeks I am not be able to do so. So before I am away for temporary there are two things I want to post.

Kembang Goyang.
These cookies are so crunchy and taste. It is easy to make but just take time to do so. I got the recipe from Mamagabby Cake’s.

Chocolate chips cookies.
These cookies I baked before. But this time after I make the dough, I refrigerated for about 30 minutes before baking. It will make the cookie come out little bit chunky which that what I want it. But before it turned out pretty thin as you can see on my post HERE.

My hubby and my son, of course love cookies! Or anything with chocolate! Just seeing them enjoy eating those cookies, it brings smile on my face. Seeing my son running around in the back yard under sunny and hot weather and eating cookies at the same time, I wish I could have his energy and oh boy, his face……!! So messy!!

So dear reader, this may be my last post for this month. I hope I will come back as soon as possible. It is not summer time yet, but it will come soon though.

HAPPY SUMMER!!

Ps: Buat event FP#2 Gila property yg nge host Dita, saya sudah posting DISINI. Kalau mau mampir and baca silahkan. Tidak perlu kasih komen loh yah:)

Shrimp and fried vegetables

I found this flower grew on my front yard. Wow, finally Spring is arrived!! Oh such a wonderful feeling seeing the sun comes up for couple of days in the row. Time to get out of my couch and clean up! Some of the left over falling leaves from winter are still on the ground. They covered the ground and successfully occupied my garden. One word, it is a mess!

My son sang………..Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere…. With his head moved left to right trying to follow the way BARNIE sing. We cleaned up our yard. So far we got two full bags of leaves!

Since the weather was quite clear this afternoon, I was in the mood of cooking. Shrimps and vegetables sounded like they could get along huh. So I made this simple appetizer for dinner “SHRIMP and VEGGIES FRIED”

What you need:
1 cup of flour
1/2 cup of water
1 cup of shredded cabbages
1 cup of shredded carrots
1 cup of sweet onion
Garlic powder
Salt
Pepper
Shrimps

Combine all the ingredients. Take one big scoop of mixture and deep fry them. Put a whole shrimp on the top.

These are the pictures of my garden that needed to be taken care. My son took a little windmill out from the garden. You could see that instead of helping me, he pulled out garden decoration or plants tag.

Enjoy your spring everyone!

EGG ROLLS

We are still having winter here in Erie but on Saturday morning last week, we had a surprise of a severe snow storm. On that day, we could not get out of the house at all. The snow decided to keep coming down until we had 2 feet high of white wall. With the snow, we also had strong wind and it was very cold! We do hope that that snow storm will be our last one.

My hubby was busy keeping the house warm and cozy. Putting more woods in to keep the fire place burning. Cooking, snuggling up, watching movie and playing with our two years old son that were the best things we could do.

Having a cup of hot coffee in the afternoon, it sounds very relaxing. Accompanied by couples of egg rolls. There is no doubt that my husband loves my handmade egg rolls. He kept saying those egg rolls are better than the egg rolls of any Chinese restaurants or grocery stores. Ah ha, that kind of praise will mean that he wants me to make more of them.

Well, that is a little story of our Saturday afternoon during the snow storm last week.

I have been busy lately so I haven’t had much time to blog. I have to take some of my spare time to gather all the stories and pictures. I know this excuse is old! I do hope I’ll can have more time to blog in the future.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
Spring rolls or egg rolls wrap
Ground chicken
Shrimp (grounded)
Garlic (mince)
Salt
Pepper
Green beans
Carrots
Jicama (Mexican potato)

Directions:
Slightly cut green beans, carrots and jicama.
Stir fry garlic until slightly brown then add ground chicken and shrimp.
Add vegetables (green beans, carrots and jicama) cook until all together blended and soft.
Lastly add salt and pepper.

Take one spring roll wrap and add the filling on the middle of the skin and form it like you make an envelope. Then deep fry it.

Nagasari

Back in my childhood, I remember going to the wet-market with my mother and was given “nagasari” as a reward for my good behavior. This happy memory is still lingered in my mind and my dream. Now that I am living in the U.S., if I want to relive this happy childhood and want to share it with my husband and my boy, I have to cook the “nagasari” by myself.

So yesterday when I came across a recipe of “nagasari” in Primarasa recipe book, I bought all the needed ingredients and relished my happy childhood memory.

A little information about Nagasari. It is a traditional Indonesian snack that is still popular now in Indonesia. You can find “nagasari” in any wet-markets, bakery stores and even supermarkets.

Also special thank you to my friend HILDA, she sent me bananas leaves which they are hardly to find here.

Here is the recipe,

Ingredients:
150 gram of rice flour
300 ml of thick coconut milk
500 ml of diluted coconut milk
2 pcs of pandan leaves
200 gram of sugar
½ tsp of salt
5-6 pcs of ripe plantains, half lengthwise further cut each into pcs
banana leaves for wrapping

Direction:
Dilute the rice flour with thick coconut milk. Set aside. Boiled diluted coconut milk, pandan leaves, salt, sugar until the sugar melted and the pandan leaves have released their fragrance.

Add in the diluted rice flour mixture, mix well. Heat the mixture until it is half cooked.

Lay a piece of banana leave, spread 2 tbsps of the cooked mixture in the middle of the leave, put the slice of banana in the middle of the mixture and covered it by the cooked mixture again.

Wrap the mixture with the banana leaves. You can wrap them any style you like.

Steam them with big fire about 15-20 minutes. Cool them down before serving.

Enjoy!

Nuts Brittle (Tengteng Kacang)

It’s a favorite of mine! It is called Tenteng Kacang (in Bahasa). Due to having an Asian taste originally, I would rather make it myself. This snack is very popular among students and children and it can be found very easy anywhere in Indonesia. Both in the grocery store and street seller.


This recipe is adopted from Lisa, her blog is Somewhere in between. Absolutely easy to make and very nice to be served for party.

NOTE: I don’t fry my own nuts. Finding an easy way by buying salted nuts at the grocery store.

What you need:
100 gram nuts (chopped)
100 gram cashews (chopped)
300 granulated sugar
1 tablespoon of ginger juice

Cook sugar in a pot until boil and caramelize in medium heat. Add chopped of nuts, cashews and ginger juice. Stir them well and quickly until everything is blended together.

Put the mix on a greasy baking pan and flatten them well. Chill at room temperature until the mixture gets hard.

Then the snack is ready to be served.

Happy snacking!

Deep-fried Bean curd balls

Easy and simple side dishes for dinner, that sounds like a good idea. Don’t feel like spending much of time in the kitchen. So I found this recipe from my friend’s Singaporean book. Very easy to make and the most important is “quick”.

Ingredients:
2 firm bean curd
2 stalks spring onion
1 egg
4 dried mushrooms
100 gram minced pork
4 tablespoon corn flour
Salt
Pepper
½ tsp sesame oil

Soak mushrooms until soft, trim off stems and chop mushrooms finely. Rinse spring onion and chop finely.

Beat egg in bowl, then combine with mushrooms, spring onion, egg, pork, seasoning and corn flour, string to mix well.

Mash bean curd and combine with pork mixture. Shape into balls.

Heat 2 cups oil in wok until hot. Put in bean curd balls and deep-fry until golden brown. Remove and drain. Ready to serve.

Going nuts!

This is really happening! I went nuts with my jobs and the house chores these past few months which delayed my plan to make fried nuts. These fried nuts were one of many Indonesian delicacies that usually served during Christmas and New Year back at home in Indonesia.

These fried peanuts are my mother's recipe. They are crispy and yet not hard like any store peanuts I bought.

For those nuts lovers like me, I give you my mother's secret recipe,

Ingredients :

Raw peanuts

2-3 cloves of garlic, slice thinly

enough salt

enough garlic powder

(please adjust the salt and the garlic powder to your liking!)

Direction :

Boil enough water to cover the nuts in a deep pot. Add in the peanuts and boil them for 10 minutes. Make sure you dry the peanuts thoroughly after boiling. Marinate the peanuts with garlic powder for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes or so, fried the garlic and the peanuts with medium fire separately. After they cooled, mix them up and store them for afternoon or evening snack.

Enjoy!

Bakwan

Erie is getting colder and I don't like cold, chilly weather. Then, I asked myself, "what should I do to keep my house warmed and my tummy fulled?. The answer was cooking. I flipped some magazines I brought from Indonesia and I found a picture of delicious looking bakwan.
Bakwan is a poor people food. It is cheap and tasty. You can find bakwan almost anywhere in Indonesia. Many times, bakwan is sold by a road-vendor.

Bakwan is basically vegetables fritters. There are many kinds of bakwan. The must ingredients in bakwan are vegetables however you can add other ingredients such as tofu and shrimps.

If you want to try, you can try my recipe,

Ingredients :

some vegetables such as beansprouts, shredded carrots, shredded cabbage
shrimps or tofu, cut them into cube size
enough all-purpose flour for the batter
salt and pepper
oil to deep frying

Direction :

Mix together all-purpose flour,salt and pepper with enough water until it resembles a pancake batter. Add in all the vegetables and cube tofu/cut shrimps. Mix well.
Make sure your oil is hot enough. Scoop a big spoon-fulled of the batter and fry.

Enjoy your bakwan with a dip of sambal or a piece of eye-bird chili.

Risoles

HIYA! Craving for comfort food again, especially after saw WITA’s blog. Many Indonesians love this kind of snack. Some people even eat this snack for breakfast. I used to when I was in my home town because it is very easy to find them in the market. Like here in America, people eat doughnuts and they are easy to find.

Apparently, since risoles aren’t popular at all among Americans, I can not find them in the any supermarkets of course. That is why I have to make them when ever I crave for them. The hard part for me of making rissoles is, it takes quite some time. Making the filling is the easy part. One time I made rissoles skin and it didn’t quite come out like I had planned because the skin tended to break up. BUT this recipe so far work for me! I don’t have to worry of the skin breaking up.

My husband and my son love this kind of snack too. My hubby said it takes like chicken pot pie wrapped up to go.

To make risoles skin:
100 gram all purpose flour
3 medium eggs
1 tablespoon melted margarine
½ teaspoon salt
300 ml milk

Combine all purpose flour with salt and melted margarine. Add eggs one by one and whisk them until smooth texture. Gradually add milk and whisk until smooth.

To cook risoles skin, cook them the same way you would cook crepes. Take about 3 tablespoon and pour evenly on the non stick medium pan. When the skin is getting dry on the edge and easy to peel off that means it is cooked.

For Filling:
2 boneless chicken, boil and finely cut
1 Garlic
1 Vidalia onion
1 bag of frozen mix vegetables (carrot, peas, corn, green bean)
Salt and pepper
200 ml milk
50 chicken broths
50 gram all purpose flour
2 green onion (finely cut)
2 tablespoon vegetables oil




In pan, stir garlic and Vidalia onion, salt and pepper for about 2 minutes or until slightly brown. Then add chicken, vegetables and chicken broth. Heat until boiling.

Lastly add milk and all purpose flour. Cook in medium heat and keep stirring until it is thick. Cool it down.

Take one cooked skin and add the filling on the middle of the skin and form it like you make an envelope.

Then dip them in uncooked beaten egg and coat them with bread crumbs. Deep fry until the skin fully cooked. Also use low heat as the skin get brown easily.

For the bread crumb I use Italian Seasoning bread crumb. That even gives more taste on the risoles skin.

Hopefully you can make them and enjoy your Indonesian breakfast.

"PERKEDEL" Potato Cake

If we were asked, "what is our staple food?" Rice will be our answer. I hardly have any substitute for rice. For me, having a meal means having rice with all the side dishes and for many Indonesians, having no rice during dinner means they haven't eaten their dinner.

What about potatoes? Well, we eat potatoes but not as a main dish. Indonesians usually cook potatoes in a certain way before they eat it. One of the way is to make them into 'Perkedel". A Perkedel is mainly mashed potato mixed with ground meat, shaped like a ball and fried until it is golden brown. We usually eat it with, guess what, rice and other side dishes.

Here is the recipe for making Perkedel,

Ingredients :

500 gram of potatoes, cut into fries size and fried

50 gram of ground meat (you can use either ground beef or corn beef)

1 green onion, finely chopped

2 tbsps of fried shallots

1/2 tsp of salt

1/4 tsp of pepper

1/2 tsp of powder nutmeg

You also need 1 egg beaten to coat the perkedel.

Instruction :

1. Mash the fried potatoes with fork.

2. Add in the ground meat, chopped green onion and fried shallots, mix well.

3. Add in salt, pepper, powder nutmeg, stir again.

4. Shape into a flatten ball (see the picture), coat with the beaten egg and fry in hot oil until golden brown.

Stuck in the snow vs Egg Rolls

As I heard the news about the winter snow warning on the TV,
The snow is falling more,
The snow pile is thicker in front of my house,
The wind is blowing stronger,
The temperature is dropping,
Meanwhile,
My son is awake, his diaper needs to be changed,

he needs to be fed,
While something happens to me…………….
I am freezing!

And worst of all, my CAR got stuck in the middle of my driveway because the snow on the ground is quite high, OH NO! I can’t go anywhere, but I need to go.

Now as I look through the window and see my husband shovel the snow (poor thing!) I decide to make some egg rolls to cheer up our morning.

Ingredients:

One Jicama (bangkoang) thinly cut
Green beans – thinly cut
A bit of Salt
A bit of black Paper
Enough ground beef or Pork
Enough raw shrimps – chop finely
Garlic – chopped finely
2 tablespoons of oil

Heat up a wok and fry garlic until it is golden brown. Add shrimps, ground beef or pork until it’s cooked. Then add jicama and green beans. Finally add salt and paper.

Method to make egg roll skin;

100 gram of all purpose flour
1 egg
Pinch of salt
275 ml milk
Little bit of oil

Heat up a medium non-stick pan on low then brush oil. Drop batter in the pan thinly.

REMPEYEK TERI (Anchovy cracker)

This is a classy and a very famous snack among Indonesians. Most Indonesians like to eat their meals accompanied with this crackers. Some prefer to have Rempeyek Kacang (peanuts crackers) and some like to have Rempeyek Teri (anchovy crackers). Me? I love them both.

BUT honestly, I have not had a chance to make one. I remember back in my country, Indonesia, my dear mom used to love making rempeyek and usually I would be the one who would enjoy that crispy and delicious rempeyek. Now that I live so far a way from home, I really crave to have this kind of comfort snack. Let see IF I can make some as well as my mom did.

To be honest, it is quite easy to make the rempeyek but it takes a long time to fry them.

Ingredients:

1 cup of rice flour
½ cup of all purpose flour
½ cup of coconut milk
5 candle nuts
Lime leaves (grated)

1 egg
Pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of onion powder
Enough Dry anchovies (you can buy it in Chinese grocery store)
Water as needed (about ½ cup to 1 cup)
Pinch of MSG (optional)

Preparation:
Mix the rice flour and all purpose flour in a bowl. Add salt, sugar and onion powder. Fry candle nuts without any oil on a frying pan until slightly brown. Crush candle nuts until it looks like a paste. Add the remaining ingredients; lime leaves, candle nuts, egg, dry anchovies and coconut milk and mix them well. Then add water until the batter slightly.

To fry rempeyek – you need a non-stick frying pan or a wok. You need to have a sufficient oil to deep-fry the rempeyek.

Frying method:

Take a quartered part of the batter in a ladle. Spread thinly the batter to the side of the wok. Make sure, you wet the side of the wok with oil so the batter will not stick to the wok. After a while, the batter will slide down into the oil. Keep turning them often. Fry until they are brown.