Mommy's Lasagna

Kathleen loves baked lasagna. One day, when she came back from school, she asked me if I could make lasagna for dinner.

So here it is my version of lasagna and she loves it. It has yellow squash in it and I mix the tomato sauce with fat free Ricotta cheese to make the meat sauce thicken and delis.

Ingredients:
• 1 pound of lean ground beef
• ½ chopped red onion
• 2 yellow squash (minced using a food processor)
• ½ small package of Fat Free Ricotta Cheese
• 1 pound of “Ragu” brand –Garden Combination tomato sauce or your preference
• 14 Oz of “Ragu” brand-Pizza sauce or your preference
• I bar of Mozzarella cheese
• Grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 Cup of water
• 3 tsp of salt
• 3 tsp of MSG or chicken bouillion
• Lasagna pasta
• oil

How to make:
• Sautee ground beef with red onion until it browned
• Drain extra fat using a coriander
• Place into food processor to get finer meat texture
• Add cooked meat, minced yellow squash, tomato sauces, ricotta cheese, water, salt and MSG into a pot
• Simmer for 20-30 minutes in medium heat
• Cook lasagna pasta until aldente, drain and set aside
• Turn on oven 400 degree F
• In a pyrex, pour a little bit of meat sauce at the bottom of pyrex so it won’t burn
• Second layer is lasagna pasta
• Third layer is meat sauce
• Fourth layer is sliced mozzarella cheese
• Fifth layer is lasagna pasta
• Sixth layer is meat sauce
• Last layer is Grated parmesan cheese
• Baked for 45 minutes to 1 hour

Mommy's Meatballs

Kathleen loves spaghetti but she does not like the meat balls. So mommy tries to make my own recipe for meatballs, and she loves it.

Instead of using ground beef, I am using ground pork. Adding ground cinnamon and all spice powder make the meatballs smell so fragrance.

You can serve it with spaghetti , warm steamed rice or toasted bun.

Ingredients:
• 2 pounds of ground pork
• ½ chopped red onion
• ½ cup of plain bread crumb
• 1 egg
• 3 tsp of salt
• 3 tsp of MSG / chicken bouillion
• 1 tsp of ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp of all spice powder
• 1 pound of “Ragu” brand – Garden Combination tomato sauce or your preference
• 14 Oz of “Ragu” brand- Pizza sauce or your preference
• ½ cup of water
• Oil

How to make:
• Mix ground pork, red onion, bread crumb, egg, salt, MSG, cinnamon, and all spice
• Make meat balls as a size of golf balls and set aside
• Carefully drop meatballs into the frying pan just until all of meatballs turn browned on all sides, don’t worry about the inside of the meatball, because we are going to cook them further
• Lay meatballs on paper towels to absorb excess fat
• Pour all of tomato sauce and water into a pot
• Drop browned meatballs into the pot
• Add 1 Tbsp of chicken bouillion to the taste
• Close the lid, turn the heat into medium, simmer for 20 minutes

Fried Shrimp Ball

This recipe is super easy to make and everybody loves it. I got this recipe from my mom and I twisted it by adding more vegetables in it. It is a creative way for Kathleen to eat vegetables without knowing it. I used broccoli and carrot (sold at grocerry store for coleslaw). But you can always use shrimp itself instead of adding vegetables. Then I added lots of garlic and green onions to add more flavor and remove the seafood smell. It will be deep fry and it will be ready in no time.

Ingredients
• 14 Oz of raw shrimp, peeled and minced (put it in food processor)
• 3 green onions, chopped
. 1 Tbsp of minced garlic
. 1 Cup of chopped brocolli and carrot (put it in food processor)
• 3 Tbsp of corn starch
• 3 tsp of salt
• 3 tsp of chicken bullion
• 1 tsp of pepper if desire
• 1 eggs
• Oil to fry

How to make
• Mix all the ingredients above
• Slowly drop about 1 Tbsp of mixture into hot oil, deep fry until golden brown

Shepherd's Pie with Asian Twist

I opened the refrigerator the day before Easter and found some carrots, celeries, peas, onion, and potatoes. I thought Shepherd’s Pie would be a perfect comfort food for Easter.

Shepherd's Pie is an English dish and it is essentially a casserole, lined with cooked meat and vegetables, topped with mashed potatoes, and baked.

In this recipe, I added my Asian twist by adding sweet soy sauce and oyster sauce. I then garnished it with shredded parmesan cheese and bake to perfection.
It is one of my signature dish and my family loves it.

Ingredients
• 1 Lb of ground pork
• 8 slices of cooked bacons, sliced thinly
• 4 stalks of celeries, sliced
• 1 cup of shredded carrots, sliced
• 1 cup of frozen peas
• ½ onion, sliced
• ~2 Tbsp of sweet soy sauce “Kecap ABC” or to your desire
• 1 Tbsp of oyster sauce
• 1 Tbsp of sugar or to your desire
• Salt and chicken bouillon
• 1 cup of water
• ¼ cup of all purpose flour
• 8 Russet potatoes
• 3 Tbsp of butter
• ½ cup of half & half
• Shredded Parmesan cheese

How to make meat and vegetables filling
• Turn a skillet into a high heat
• Add oil and sautee onion and bacon until fragrance
• Add ground meat, cook until change color
• Add sweet soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt, and chicken bouillon, water
• Cook about 3 minutes
• Add all purpose flour for thickening
• Add vegetables and stir them well
• Place cooked meat and vegetables into a pyrex (first layer), set aside

How to make mashed potato
• Boil potatoes until tender
• Peel the skin off
• Mash potatoes, add salt, chicken bouillon, butter, and half & half
• Blend them well
• Pour mashed potatoes on top of cooked meat and vegetables
• Smooth the mashed potatoes with fork to make ridges
• Sprinkle shredded parmesan cheese on top
• Bake in the oven 400 degree, 30 minutes
• Lastly, broil it in the oven until the cheese and potatoes ridges are golden about 5 minutes
• Removes from oven and let it sit for few minutes before serving

Birthday Ice Cake

We love to make every special occasion more special with delicious ice cream cake. Two layers of our favorite flavor of ice cream combine with Fudge in between layers, making the special occasion more festive.

Kathleen is turning 8 and I am going to make 2 layers of ice cream cake for the party. The first layer would be vanilla ice cream with chocolate chuck and the second layer is chocolate ice cream. We are going to drizzle fudge in between 2 layers of ice cream.

The theme for the party will be figure skating. Thanks to Jenny Gregor, Karen Lagergren, and Mary Hokansen who gave her ice skating boot ornament that we can use for decoration on the cake. For frosting, I am going to use butter cream with purple color (Kathleen’s favorite color).

It is easy to make, but you need to have a springform cake pan and Saran wrap.

Ingredients
• 1.5-1.75 Quarts of vanilla and chocolate chuck ice cream, soften in room temperature
• 1.5-1.75 Quarts of chocolate ice cream, soften to room temperature
• Chocolate Fudge “Smucker’s”
• Butter icing or melt chocolate for frosting, see Birthday cupcake recipe for butter icing in my blog
• Your favorite topping or decorations

How to make
• Layer the entire springform pan with saran wrap
• Add first layer of cream, smooth it with spatula
• Layer chocolate fudge on top of first layer, and refrigerate until it settles
• Add second layer of ice cream, refrigerated at least 4-6 hours
• Loosen springform pan, remove plastic wrap, place the ice cream cake in a serving plate
• Layer frosting on the cake and decorate it as you desire

Fried Birthday Noodle

Noodle symbolizes long live in Chinese and we always have fried birthday noodle in every birthday celebration. You can also have this friend noodle for any occasion. I still like to make this fried noodle for brunch in the weekend.

Ingredients
• Egg noodle
• Raw shrimps, peeled
• Chicken, sliced thinly
• Shredded cabbage
• Shredded carrots
• Onion and garlic
• Eggs
• Oil
• Oyster sauce
• Sweet soy sauce
• Salt and chicken bouillon

How to make
• Step 1, boil water, add noodle, cook until aldente
• Drain well and place in a bowl
• Immediately add a little bit of oil, sweet soy sauce, salt and chicken bouillon to your taste, mix well, set it aside
• Step 2, turn on your stove with high heat, add oil in your wok
• Add garlic and onion
• Add chicken and shrimp, cook until the color change
• Add oyster sauce, sweet soy sauce, salt and chicken bouillon to your taste, remove from the wok and set aside
• Step 3, add oil in a wok and crack eggs to make scrambled egg, remove from wok and set aside
• Step 4, add oil in a wok, add cabbage and carrot, stirred-fry for 1-2 minutes
• Add noodle, scrambled egg, and stirred-fry shrimp and chicken to a wok
• Stir and mix well
• Garnish with green onion and fried shallots if desire

Birthday Cupcakes with Butter Icing

Kathleen is turning 8 today, and every year Kathleen always brings cupcakes to celebrate her birthday with her friends in class. This year Kathleen comes up an idea to have a Pirate theme for her cupcakes with purple frosting on top. Kathleen loves pirate theme, she even have a character program in her figure skating. What a cool idea I thought!

I chatted to my friends at work about Kathleen’s birthday that is coming up soon. Surprisingly, one day I got a phone call at work from one of my friend Jolene Herlitzke-Foss who went shopping at Sonoma, and she found the coolest pirate toppers for the cupcakes. I was so excited and thrilled and decided to buy it for Kathleen. Thank you Jolene for your kindness.

The cupcakes is super easy to make, practically I used the stored bought cake mix. I like to make my own butter frosting and top it with any topping you want to make it prettier.

Ingredients
• 3 sticks unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 2 Lbs of confection sugar
• 9 Tbsp of milk or water
• 3 tsp of vanilla extract
• Food coloring to your favorite color

How to make
• Mix butter with a mixer
• Slowly add confection sugar, milk, vanilla, and food coloring
• Continue to mix in low speed for 1-2 minutes until it blends

Vinegar Rujak

Rujak is a fruit and vegetable salad dish commonly found in Indonesia. There many different types of rujak in Indonesia. This type of rujak typically served after it chilled and has combination taste of sweet, sour and spicy. It is very refreshing in hot summer day. The dressing itself is not dense and thick, but is more liquidy.

Ingredients
• 1 Fresh pineapple or 1 canned pineapple “Dole”, cubed
• 2 Fresh apples “Red Delicious”, cubed
• Bean Sprout, washed and drained
• 2 Cucumber, peeled off the skin, removed the seeds, cubed
• 1 Cup of Gula Jawa (Palm sugar)
• Red chili flakes if desire
• 1 Cup of roasted peanuts, crushed
• 2 Tbsp of vinegar
• 1 tsp of salt and sugar to taste

How to make
• Boil water and adds palm sugar, chili flakes, vinegar, salt and sugar
• Removes from heat and cool it down
• In a glass bowl, add all of vegetables, fruits, and roasted peanuts
• Pours the dressing into the bowl
• Blend well with wooden spatula
• Keeps it in refrigerator overnight before enjoying it.

Velvety Macaroni and Cheese

Soon, Kathleen is turning 8. This year we are going to have Hullabaloo Party at Children Museum where 20 girls are going to enjoy the entire museum for themselves. How fun!

Anyway, we are planning to have a buffet dinner for the girls this year. Kathleen requested to have one of her favorite side dishes, the Velvety Macaroni and Cheese. It tastes yummy, so rich, creamy, elegant, and crunchy on top.

In the original recipe, combination of Gruyere and Sharp Cheddar Cheese are used. However, I could not find Gruyere cheese in my area, so I used Sharp Cheddar Cheese only. You can also add about ½ tea spoon of ground black pepper and nutmeg if desire. I use bread crump on top and bake it in the oven to make it more elegant. Thanks Ina for sharing this wonderful recipe.


Ingredients
• Oil
• 1 Lb elbow macaroni
• 1 quart (32 Oz = 4 Cups = 1000 ml) of milk
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• ½ cup all purpose flour
• 4 Cups (16 Oz) of grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese “Sargento”
• 1 Tbsp of salt
• 1 ½ Cups of bread crumb

How to make
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F
• Drizzle oil into a large pot of boiling water
• Add macaroni and cook 6 to 8 minutes, drain well
• Meanwhile, heat the milk in a small saucepan, but don't boil it
• Melt butter in a large (4-quart) pot and add the flour
• Cook over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring with a whisk
• While whisking, add the hot milk and cook for a minute or two more, until thickened and smooth
• Off the heat, add cheese and salt
• Add the cooked macaroni and stir well
• Pour into a baking dish (pyrex)
• Sprinkle bread crumb on the top
• Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly and the macaroni is browned at bottom
• Broil in high until macaroni is browned on top
• Let it cool and cheese is set before serving
• Serve when it is warm

Zuppa Toscana Soup

This is our favorite soup every time we went to Olive Garden Italian Restaurant. It is a popular soup from Tuscany, Italy. It is very easy to make and hits the spots on cold winter days. Special thanks to Shari Graham Curry who shared this wonderful recipe.

In this recipe, I used regular ground pork since Italian sausage is too spicy for Kathleen. The bacon, I used for garnish, but you can cook the uncooked bacon with the sausage if you like to get the smoky flavor. I like to use yellow Yukon or red potatoes because it cooks quickly. I like to use the combination of water and chicken broth which added more flavor to the soup. For thickness of the soup, you can add heavy cream. If you try to avoid cream, you can use mixture of corn starch with water, or simple roux (all purpose flour).

Ingredients
• 1 lb ground Italian sausage or ground pork
• 1½ tsp crushed red peppers if desire
• 1 large diced white onion
• 4 cooked bacon “Oscar Meyer”, sliced for garnish
• 2 tsp garlic, minced
• 5 Cups of water and 5 cups of chicken broth
• Chicken bouillon and salt to your taste
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3 large yellow or red potatoes, peeled, quartered, sliced thinnly
• 2 bunch of kale, shredded the leaves, sliced thinly

How to make
• Sauté pork and crushed red pepper in a large pot until the meat changes color. Drain excess fat with a coriander, and place the meat in a pot
• In the same pot, sauté pork with onions and garlic over low-medium heat until the onions are soft
• Add water, salt and chicken bouillon
• Add the sliced potatoes and cook until soft and fork tender, about half an hour
• Add kale until the leaves are soft
• Add heavy cream

Samosa

Chicken Tikka Masala

Spanish Paella

I found that there are many varieties of paella: seafood, vegetables, and mixed paella which is a combination of seafood and vegetables. However, the most globally popular recipe is seafood paella because fish always predominated with rice along Spain's eastern coast.

You can always use lobster, littleneck clams, and mussels in paella. When cooking paella, we need a specialized shallow pan (paellera) used for cooking paellas. Paelleras are traditionally round and shallow, made of polished steel with two handles. I don’t have a paellera, but I found that cast iron works well too.

Paella usually has a layer of toasted rice at the bottom of the pan. This is considered a delicacy in Spain and is essential to a good paella. The toasted rice develops on its own if the paella is cooked over a high heat burner or open fire.

Ingredients
• 2 cup long grain rice “Jasmine”, rinsed, set it in cool water for 15 min
• 2 skinless breast chicken
• 7 Oz of raw shrimp, peeled and de-veined
• 2 fillets of tilapia or cod fish
• 3 links of smoked turkey sausage “Johnsonville” or chorizo Spanish sausage, sliced an angle
• 500 ml of chicken stock
• 1/2 cup of peas
• Chicken bouillon and salt to taste
• Oil
• ½ onion, chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 tsp of Saffron threads
• Squeezed lime if desire
• 2 Bay leaf
• Chopped parsley for garnish

How to make
• Sautee onion with chicken until change color
• Add shrimps
• Add boiling chicken stock
• Add fish and rice, cooked with medium heat, stir occationally
• Add saffron, chicken bouillon and salt to taste
• Cook in medium heat until all of water has been absorbed
• Add peas at the end
• Cook in high heat while listening to the rice toast at the bottom of the pan.
• Remove it from the heat once the aroma of toasted rice wafts upwards
• The paella must then sit for about five minutes to absorb the remaining broth

Gyoza

Gyoza is a dumpling comprised of a thin skin of dough with a small amount of filling which is sealed closed then pan-fried.

Bottoms of gyoza dumplings should be brown and crunchy and it serves with dipping sauce.

Every time we go to Japanese restaurant, Kathleen loves to order gyoza.




Ingredients for Gyoza
• 1 Lb of ground pork, minced
• ¼ onion, minced
• 4 green onion, minced
• Garlic, minced
• Green cabbage, finely chopped into small pieces
• 1 Tbsp of Soy cause
• 1 Tbsp of Sake
• 1 tsp of sugar
• 2 Tbsp of corn starch
• 1 Tbsp of sesame seed oil
• 1 Tbsp of oyster sauce
• Round gyoza wrapper, or regular square wonton wrapper and cut it into circle shape with 3 inches in diameter

How to make
• Mix all of ingredients
• Shift all purpose flour in a baking pan (to make bottom of gyoza cryspy)
• Spread a wonton wrapper flat in your palm of one hand
• Place ½ - 1 Tbsp of filling in the center of the wrapper
• Cover the entire edge of wonton with water
• Fold halves and start to pledge in one side
• Place gyoza in a baking pan
• Brush lightly your frying pan with sesame seed oil in medium heat
• Add gyoza in the pan
• Add ½ cup of hot water
• Cover the pan with the lid, cook for 5-6 minutes, until all of water is evaporated and gyoza starts to sizzle
• Add 1 Tbsp of sesame seeds oil between gyoza and close the lid, cook for 1-2 minutes more until bottom of gyoza becomes golden brown and crunchy
• Removes gyoza with spatula into a plate with the bottom side up

Gyoza Dipping Sauce
• 1 Tbsp of rice vinegar
• 2 Tbsp of Soy sauce
• 1 tsp of Sesame seed oil

Siomay Bandung (Bandung Steamed Dumplings)

People say Bandung (West Java) is Paris van Java because of its beautiful city and has cool climate. Besides that, Siomay is an Indonesian delicacy that is popular in Bandung. Siomay is steamed dumplings, cabbage and tofu that are stuffed with mixture of minced fish, shrimp, and/or chicken. The siomay includes steamed potato and boiled eggs. It serves with drizzling of peanut sauce, sweet soy sauce, and Indonesian pickles.

Thank you for Nining Tresnaningsih, one of our friends who lives in Nagoya, Japan, who shares this wonderful recipe.

There are 2 type of fillings and my family loves both of them.

Ingredients for Indonesian pickles
• 2 cucumbers, off the skin, halves, off the seeds, diced
• 2 carrots, off the skin, halves, diced
• 200 ml of vinegar
• 400 ml water
• 2 tsp of salt
• 15 Tbsp of sugar
• 1/3 onion, diced

How to make
• Place diced cucumbers, carrots, and onion in a container or jar
• Add mixture of vinegar, water, salt, and sugar into the jar
• Stir and store it in a tight seal container or jar, refrigerated at least few hours before use

Ingredients for wrapper and other ingredients use for siomay Bandung
• Wonton wrap
• Cabbage leaves, dip in boil water for 2 minutes, set aside (better dip as soon as you want to fill it with the filling)
• Red potato, peeled the skin, halves, and steamed until fork tender
• Firm or extra firm tofu, quarted, scrape the middle of tofu, fill it with the filling mixture
• Hard boiled egg, halves

Ingredients for filling 1 (Fish and Shrimp Mixture)
• 14 Oz (397 grams) of fresh shrimps on shell, peeled, minced in food processor
• 2 Lbs of fish fillet (Cod), minced in food processor
• 150 grams of corn starch
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 1 eggs
• 1 Tbsp of oyster sauce
• 50 ml of cold ice water
• 3 Tbsp of salt, MSG, and chicken bouillon

How to make
• In a bowl, add minced shrimp an Cod
• Add corn starch, green onion, egg, oyster sauce, salt, chicken bouillon, and cold ice water
• Mix it well
• Place 1 Tbsp of filling in the center of wonton wrap, gather edges together to make a waist
• Fill the filling into center of tofu
• Fill 2 Tbsp of filling into cabbage (after dip in boiled water for 2 min to make the leaves relax), fold like an envelope, and roll
• Steamed all of wonton, stuffed tofu, stuffed cabbage, and potato for 15 minutes or until done, set aside

Ingredients for filling 2 (Chicken and Shrimp Mixture)
• 14 Oz (397 grams) of fresh shrimps on shell, peeled, minced in food processor
• 2 Lbs of ground chicken
• 150 grams of corn starch
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 1 eggs
• 1 Tbsp of oyster sauce
• 150 ml of cold ice water
• 3 Tbsp of salt, MSG, and chicken bouillon

How to make
• Same as instruction for filling 1

Ingredients for peanut sauce (if you don’t have Indonesian peanut paste, and you have to make from scratch)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 200 grams of unsalted roasted peanut, ground it in food processor
• 1 red chili if desire
• 400 ml of water
• 4 lime leaves
• 2 Tbsp of palm sugar
• 1 tsp of salt
• Sugar to your taste
• 1 Tbsp of sweet soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp of squeezed lime

Note: if it is not thick enough, you can add peanut butter "JIFF" and if it is too thick, you can add more water.

How to make
• Blend all of ingredients (except water) until smooth and form a paste
• Place peanut paste into a saucepan
• Add water to make sauce, add the rest of ingredients and stir well in low heat until thick and oily
• If it is too thick, add more water
• If it is too saucy, add more peanut paste

Ingredients for peanut sauce (If you have Indonesian peanut paste/bumbu gado-gado)
• 350 grams bumbu pecel
• 500 ml of water
• 2 Tbsp of peanut butter “Creamy JIFF”
• 4 Tbsp of sugar
• 1 squeezed lime
• 1 Tbsp of sweet soy sauce
• 1 tsp of salt

Ingredients for peanut sauce (If you like silky sauce and don’t have peanut in your pantry)
• 5 Tbsp of creamy peanut butter “JIFF”
• ½ squeezed lime
• 300 ml of water
• 1 tsp of salt

How to serve
• In a plate, cut steamed dumplings, potatoes, stuffed cabbage, stuffed tofu, egg into bite sizes
• Pour peanut sauce on top
• Add drizzle of sweet soy sauce
• Add Indonesian pickles at the side

Kwetiaw Goreng (Stirred-Fry Wide Noodle)

This noodle is a bomb in the house. It is very simple to make, appropriate for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or supper.

The only different this noodle from other noodle is the size of the noodle. Instead of using egg noodle, the wide rice noodle is used. It is stirred fry with sliced beef, sliced bakso, scrambled eggs, vegetables such as bean sprout, cabbage, baby bakchoy, or chai sim, minced garlic, oyster sauce, soy sauce, and sweet soy sauce.

Although, the original recipe is using the beef as a primary protein, chicken or pork can also be used.

Ingredients
• Dried wide rice noodle or fresh kwetiaw
• 5 Eggs, make scrambled eggs
• Beef stew, sliced thinnly
• Beef bakso, optional, sliced
• Bean sprout, blanced
• Baby bakchoy, washed and sliced
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• Oyster sauce
• Soy Sauce “Kecap Asin ABC”
• Sweet Soy Sauce “Kecap Minis Sedang ABC”
• Salt, MSG, white pepper to your taste

How
• Boil water, add dried wide rice noodle until aldente, drain
• Add 1 Tbsp of oil on cooked noodle to prevent stikiness
• Heat a wok with high heat, add 1-2 Tbsp of oil
• Add minced garlic, and sliced beef until change color
• Add beef bakso
• Add oyster sauce and soy sauces
• Set aside
• Make scramble eggs, set aside
• Add 1 Tbsp of oil into hot wok
• Add cooked noodle, stirred-fry meat, eggs, and all of vegetables
• Add Salt, MSG, white pepper to your taste
• Blend them well
• Garnish with green onions

Mommy Chicken Soup

Mommy likes to make this soup in rainy and winter days. Mommy also makes this soup if Kathleen or dada are not feeling well. It is a clear soup, no heavy cream is added, so it is very easy for your stomach to digest.

Ingredients
• 4 pieces of chicken, do not slice
• 4 stalks of Celery, sliced
• 2 Carrot, sliced
• 2 Potatoes, diced or 2 handfuls of elbow macaroni
• Hot dog, sliced
• ½ Onion, quartered
• 2 Green onions, sliced
• Salt, MSG, chicken bouillon
• Water

How to make
• Full a pot with cold water about ½ way, boils
• Add chickens
• Skim off all of chicken fat
• Add potatoes or macaroni, until fork tender
• Add carrots, celeries, and hotdogs
• Add salt, MSG and chicken bouillon to taste
• Add green onion at the end

Cucumber Salad

Mommy loves to make cucumber salad in the summer. The cucumber is so light, refreshing, and has cooling effect to your body. Special thanks to Buna for sharing this wonderful recipe. This is one of dada’s favorite.

The sugar, lime, and salt will bring out all of the juice from cucumber, so no water added in this recipe. That’s why mommy like to make this salad in the summer because the cucumbers has lots of juice.

Ingredients
• 3 Cucumber, peeled, skimmed of the seeds, and sliced thinly
• 2 tsp of salt
• 4 Tbsp of sugar
• ½ lime, squeezed
• ½ bag of original Potatoes chip , “walmart brand”, “Ruffles”, “Lay’s”, set aside the rest of chip
• 5 Hard-boilled eggs , halves and sliced thinly

How
• In a large pyrex(glass) bowl, add sliced cucumber
• Add salt, sugar, and lime
• Add potatoes chips
• Add eggs
• Gentle blend them well
• Refrigerate for at least 1 hour

How to serve
• Place the salad in a small bowl
• Top the salad with crunchy potato chips

Mama's Porridge

January is very cold in Wisconsin, and warm rice porridge is very good to eat for breakfast. It is easy to digest, very flavorful, and warm your stomach and body.
Porridge can also be served when somebody’s is not feeling well because it is a light meal and easy to digest.

There are many recipes of porridge (Chinese Congee) such as minced pork, fish, and seafood. There are all good! In this recipe, mommy makes my own version because it has vegetables and bean in it. Krupuk or potatoes chip can be topped at the porridge.

Ingredients
• 2 Cups of Jasmine rice, rinse several times with cold water until it is less cloudy, and drain
• 1 can of SPAM ham, diced small
• 1 can of black bean
• 1 can of good chicken stock, or fresh homemade chicken stock
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 3 handfull of fresh baby spinach, wash and drain
• 1 Tbsp of chicken bouillon
• 2 tsp of salt and MSG
• Water 1000 cc

How
• Sauteed diced ham with minced garlic until golden and char at the side, set aside
• Pour rice and water in a pot, boil with medium heat, stir occationally to prevent burning
• After the rice is halfway tender, add chicken stock
• Add sautéed ham, black bean, bouillon, salt, MSG
• Add spinach, stir about 30 sec onds, do not overcook spinach, it will turn black

Nikujaga (Japanese Beef and Vegetable Stew)

Nikujaga is a Japanese comfort food, meaning meat-potato. Thinly sliced beef is the most common meat used, although pork can also be used. It has potatoes, onion, and holy trinity sauces…that is what mommy called…because it must have sake, mirin, and soy sauce to make it original. The vegetables can be used such as carrot, snap peas or any kind of vegetables that you like.

It is so easy to make and it is best served with a bowl of steamed rice, and it is very common home-cooked in winter time.

Mommy likes to use beef skirt, but if you cannot find it, beef meat for stew will be just fine.

Ingredients
• Beef , sliced thinly
• 2 potatoes, quartered
• ½ onion, sliced
• ½ carrot, sliced
• ½ tsp of granulated dashi + 1 Cup of water
• 1 ½ Tbsp of sake
• 1 ½ Tbsp of mirin
• 1 ½ Tbsp of soy sauce
• 1 ½ of sugar
• 2 Cups of water
• Oil

How
• Saute onion with meat until it changes color
• Add mixture of dashi and water
• Add sake, mirin, sugar, and soy sauce
• Add potatoes and carrot
• Simmer until potatoes and carrot are tender
• Garnish with green onion if you desire

Mie Pangsit Kuah(Chicken Broth Noodle with Wonton)

In a rainy or winter day especially in Wisconsin, mommy likes to cook warm chicken broth noodle with wonton. Mommy uses the fresh chicken stock, the chicken is then cut and stirred fry.

The wonton’s filling mommy use is the wonton filling #2. Instead of frying the wonton, mommy boils the wontons with chicken stock.


Ingredients for Noodle
• 4 bags of egg noodle, or ramen noodle “Maruchan”
• 2 Tbsp Oil
• Water


How
• Boil water and add the noodle, cook until aldente
• Drain noodle and place it immediately in a serving bowl
• Mix them well with oil to prevent stickiness

Ingredients for Chicken Broth
• 1 Chicken
• ½ onion
• Water
• Salt, MSG, chicken bouillon

How
• Fill a pot with water, boil the water
• Add chicken
• Skim off the chicken fat
• Add cut onion
• Simmer chicken stock with medium heat about 20-30 minutes
• Add salt, MSG, chicken bouillon to your taste
• Set aside the chicken for chicken topping

Ingredients for Chicken Topping
• 1 chicken used to make chicken broth, diced
• Garlic or onion, minced
• 2 Tbsp of Oyster sauce
• 2 Tbsp of Sweet soy sauce “Kecap Manis Sedang ABC”
• ½ Tbsp of Sesame seed oil
• Salt, MSG
• Oil


How
• Sautee minced garlic or onion with oil
• Add chicken
• Add water, oyster sauce, sweet soy sauce, sesame seed oil, salt, MSG to your taste
• Stirred fry and set aside

Ingredients for Wonton Filling #2
• 1 Lb of ground pork, minced
• ¼ onion, minced
• 4 green onion, minced
• Garlic, minced
• Green cabbage, chopped
• 1 Tbsp of Soy cause
• 1 Tbsp of Sake
• 1 tsp of sugar
• 2 Tbsp of corn starch
• 1 Tbsp of sesame seed oil
• 1 Tbsp of oyster sauce


How
• Mix all of ingredients
• Spread a wonton wrapper flat in your palm of one hand
• Place 1 Tbsp of filling in the center of the wrapper
• Fold the wrapper into triangle
• Seal the edge of wrapper with water by compressing the wrapper’s edges together with the fingers
• Boil chicken broth and drop wonton into broth
• Cook about 1 minute and set aside

How to Serve
• Fill a serving bowl with noodle
• Add stirred fry chicken topping
• Add wonton and broth
• Garnish with chopped green onion and fried shallots if desire

Mie Ayam Pangsit (Chicken Noodle with Fried Wonton)

Both of mommy and dada’s family love to eat Mie Ayam Pangsit. Our favorite is Mie Pangsit Gajah Mada, which is a famous noodle restaurant in Jakarta. It is egg noodle, topped with stirred fry chicken with oyster sauce, sweet and soy sauce, sesame seed oil, and topped with crispy fried wonton.

Mommy like to use baby bakchoy or chai sim for the vegetable. The wonton’s filling for chicken noodle is from wonton filling #2 (see appetizer – Fried Wonton recipe). If fried wonton is not your preference, Asian meat ball (bakso), which is available in Asia grocery, can also be used.

It seems complicated but it is not. Mommy like to make this in the weekend for Saturday or Sunday brunch.

Ingredients for Noodle
• 4 bags of egg noodle, or ramen noodle “Maruchan”
• 2 Tbsp Oil
• 2 Tbsp Oyster sauce
• 2 Tbsp Sweet soy sauce “Kecap Manis Sedang ABC”
• 1 tsp of Salt and MSG
• Water

How
• In a serving bowl, add oyster sauce, sweet soy sauce, oil, salt and MSG, mix them with a spoon
• Boil water and add the noodle, cook until aldente
• Drain noodle and place it immediately in a serving bowl with sauce mixture
• Mix them well

Ingredients for Chicken Topping
• 1 chicken cut up, sliced thinly
• Garlic or onion, minced
• 2 Tbsp of Oyster sauce
• 2 Tbsp of Sweet soy sauce “Kecap Manis Sedang ABC”
• ½ Tbsp of Sesame seed oil
• Salt, MSG
• 1 Cup of water
• Oil

How
• Sautee minced garlic or onion with oil
• Add sliced chicken, cook until it change color
• Add water, oyster sauce, sweet soy sauce, sesame seed oil, salt, MSG to your taste
• Simmer with medium heat until chicken is tender and set aside

Ingredients for Wonton Filling #2
• 1 Lb of ground pork, minced
• ¼ onion, minced
• 4 green onion, minced
• Garlic, minced
• Green cabbage, chopped
• 1 Tbsp of Soy cause
• 1 Tbsp of Sake
• 1 tsp of sugar
• 2 Tbsp of corn starch
• 1 Tbsp of sesame seed oil
• 1 Tbsp of oyster sauce

How
• Mix all of ingredients
• Spread a wonton wrapper flat in your palm of one hand
• Place 1 Tbsp of filling in the center of the wrapper
• Fold the wrapper into triangle
• Seal the edge of wrapper with water by compressing the wrapper’s edges together with the fingers
• Heat the oil and fry the wonton until golden brown
• Place it into the paper towel to absorb excess oil, set aside

How to Serve
• Fill a serving bowl with noodle
• Add stirred fry chicken topping
• Garnish with chopped green onion and fried shallots if desire
• Top with fried wonton

Pangsit Goreng (Fried Wonton)

Fried wonton is typically eat with mie ayam (chicken noodle) or can be served as an appetizer alone. Kathleen, mommy has 2 types of Wonton’s filling and both of them are good. I know for sure that you like both of them.

Ingredients for Wonton Filling #1
• 10 Oz of peeled shrimp, minced
• 1 Lb of ground pork, minced
• Minced garlic
• 4 green onion
• Salt, MSG to your taste
• 2 Tbsp of corn starch
• 1 Tbsp of sesame seed oil
• 2 Tbsp of oyster sauce
• 1 bag of wonton wrapper


Ingredients for Wonton Filling #2
• 1 Lb of ground pork, minced
• ¼ onion, minced
• 4 green onion, minced
• Garlic, minced
• Green cabbage, chopped
• 1 Tbsp of Soy cause
• 1 Tbsp of Sake
• 1 tsp of sugar
• 2 Tbsp of corn starch
• 1 Tbsp of sesame seed oil
• 1 Tbsp of oyster sauce

How to make
• Mix all of ingredients
• Spread a wonton wrapper flat in your palm of one hand
• Place 1 Tbsp of filling in the center of the wrapper
• Fold the wrapper into triangle
• Seal the edge of wrapper with water by compressing the wrapper’s edges together with the fingers
• Heat the oil and fry the wonton until golden brown
• Place it into the paper towel to absorb excess oil, set aside

Banana Almond Choc Cake

This recipe is super easy to make. I got this recipe from Nining Tresnaningsih, one of mommy and dada’s friends who lives in Nagoya, Japan. Thank you for sharing…

Kathleen, you are 7 and loves to help me everytime we make this cake. We have fun time together in the kitchen. Mommy loves to hear your giggles and laughs when you cracked the eggs. You also love to sliced the bananas.

In this recipe, Kathleen adds her twist by adding Hershey semi-sweet chocolate chips on top of the cake, and guess what...bananas and chocolate....it is a perfect combination ever, so good, so yum! Thank you Kathleen for your idea, you are awesome and an excellent baker too!

Kathleen, this one is one of your favorite one...with lots of almonds!

Ingredients
• 150 grams of sugar
• 200 grams of butter
• 4 eggs
• 200 grams of all purpose flour
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• 1 tsp of baking soda
• 1 tsp of salt
• 3 ripped bananas
• 2 handfuls of Hersey semi-sweet chocolate chip

How to make
• Mix sugar and butter until white with high speed, about 5 minutes
• Add eggs one by one, mix with high speed about 5 minutes
• Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, mix with medium speed about 5 minutes
• Mash bananas with fork, add into the mixture, blend it with slow speed, about 30 seconds
• Pour the mixture into a baking pan that has been buttered and powdered with all purpose flour, to prevent stickiness
• Add sliced almonds on top
• Add choc chips on top
• Bake 400 degree F for 40 minutes

Es Dawet

Es Cendol or dawet (pronounced “chen-dol” or “dha-wet” is a traditional beverage, originating from Central Java, Indonesia. The word "es" is Indonesian for "ice". It is also very popular in Malaysia, Singapore, and Southern Thailand. The beverage consists of shaved ice or ice cubed, coconut milk (santan), mung bean flour (Hunkwe) with green food coloring (from the pandan leaf), palm sugar (gula merah) , and slices of jack fruit (nangka).

In the Javanese language, cendol refers to the jelly-like part of the beverage, while the combination of cendol, palm sugar, jack fruit, and coconut milk is called dawet.
Es dawet has become a popular beverage among the multi-racial population in Southeast Asia and is often sold by vendors at roadsides and food courts.

All of es dawet ingredients can be found easily in Asia grocery stores or big supermarkets in international section. It is hard to find fresh coconut in Kentucky and Wisconsin, so canned or instant coconut milk will be just fine. If you cannot find the palm sugar, tried in Mexican section, and surprisingly, Mexican people also used palm sugar in their food. Mommy thought the Indonesian palm sugar is still the best because it is more pungent and sweeter than the one from Mexico. Mommy could not find the fresh nangka here in America. Mommy used canned jack fruits and it turned out just fine. The mung bean flour (Hunkwe) is the primary ingredient to make cendol. You also need a cendol Siever(saringan cendol) to mash them into cendol strip. But don’t worry if you don’t have one, it doesn't mean the end of world. Mommy used a big strainer (has holes in it) or a steamer pot that has many holes. Mommy tried them all and they produced the perfect cendol too. Oma Mel actually the one who bought mommy a cendol siever from Indonesia last year…thank you mom.

Ingredients for Cendol
• 1 bag of mung bean flour (Hunkwe)
• 600 cc or 4 Cups of water
• Few drops of green food coloring (Pandan), brand “Koepoe”

How
• Filled a small pot with water
• Poured off Hunkwe flour in the pot
• Add few drops of green food coloring (pandan)
• Used a low heat, kept stirring until all flour was dissolved, became thick and translucent
• Removed the pot from stove
• Poured some mixture into a strainer or cendol siever
• Used a large wooden spoon or spatula, pressed cendol mixture through the strainer into cooled water bath (a big basin or pot filled with cold water and iced cubed)
• Let cendol strips drop into cooled water bath
• Let cendol strips hardened, drained and set aside
• For cendol storage, I placed the cendol in a container filled with cooled water, placed it in refrigerator

Ingredients for Palm sugar (Gula Merah)
• 3 blocks of palm sugar
• 200 cc of water

How
• Boiled palm sugar and water in a small pot until the sugar dissolved
• Cooled and set aside

Ingredients for Coconut Milk (Santan)
• 1 can of coconut milk, or 2 sachet of instant coconut milk, brand “Kara”
• 500 cc of water
• 1 tsp of salt

How
• Boiled water, coconut milk, and salt into a small pot
• Cooled and set aside

How to serve
• Poured palm sugar syrup into a glass
• Added cendol and sliced jack fruits
• Poured coconut milk and ice cubes

Risoles

Risoles is one of popular appetizers in Indonesia. The name Risoles is borrowed from the traditional Portuguese rissole. However, the Dutch was actually introduced this popular snack to the Indonesians.

A rissole is a thin pancake like wrapper, filled with minced meat, diced carrots, diced green beans that is stirred fry with sweet and savory ingredients, rolled in breadcrumbs, and fried.

Risoles is one of mommy signature dishes that mommy keeps so many years. I remembered when I was in college and opened my own bakery, risoles is one of the food that customers ordered all the time. People often bought or ordered it for office meetings, ladies meetings (arisan), church meetings, family gatherings, or parties.

Mommy went to a professional culinary school in Jakarta for fun during the weekend if they offered an interesting course. The risoles recipe that mommy used today was from Chef Hadi, who was a professional chef and also was mommy instructor. Thank you Chef Hadi for sharing your talent and the wonderful recipes.

Making risoles can be tricky and need lot of patience. You don’t want to make the wrapper too thin or too thick. When you make the risoles over night, just make sure to bring the risoles in room temperature before frying it; otherwise, it breaks open easily. You also have to watch the temperature of your oil, and medium high is a perfect temperature for risoles.

Ayam Goreng Mentega (Fried Chicken in Sweet Butter Sauce)

Ayam Goreng Mentega is a comfort Indonesian food that both Ferdy and I ate when we grew up in Indonesia. I always ate ayam goreng mentega with my fingers, and still do to this day. Licking the juices and spices off my fingers at the end of the meal was part of the sublime experience.

I loved the crispy skin, juicy of the sweet butter sauce, and warm steamed rice in my mouth, as well as the taste and texture of the fried chicken mmm…mmm….mmm….good.

Ferdy and Kathleen are also a big fan of ayam goreng mentega. Every time I made it, it will be gone quickly. Buna taught me instead of using chicken breast, it tastes better with chicken thighs or drum sticks because it is juicier and tender even after we fry it.

Ingredients
• 6 pieces of chicken tights or drum sticks
• 1 Lemon, squeezed
• 2 tsp of salt and MSG
• Oil

How
• Marinated chicken in salt, MSG, and lemon juice for 15 minutes
• Heated up oil and fried chicken until golden brown, set aside

Ingredients for Sweet Butter Sauce
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp of butter
• 2 Tbsp of sweet soy sauce “kecap manis ABC”
• Salt, MSG, sugar to your taste

How
• Heated up a wok, saute the garlic for a minute
• Added butter, sweet soy sauce, salt, MSG, sugar
• In medium heat (so it won't burn), stirred fry for a minute and added fried chicken
• Plated when the sauce started or in the beginning to caramelize

Perkedel Jagung (Indonesian Corn Fritters)

I was thinking the other day that I should have posted about perkedel jagung this summer, when corns were in season. Although it can be made from frozen corn, its best when the kernels are shaved from the cob. I love this recipe in summer because you can get fresh cobs and certainly more flavorful than any frozen corn could ever hope to be. In winter time, when we miss this fritters, I use canned kernel.

Perkedel jagung is relatively easy to make, and good perkedel jagung are all about the corn. There is flour added, egg to bind the fritters, and deep fried it.

Ingredients
• 6 ears of corn, shaved
• 1 can of sweet corn cream
• Minced garlic
• 2 Eggs
• 21/2 Cup of all purpose flour
• Green onion, sliced thinly (optional)
• Salt, MSG, chicken bouillon, sugar to your taste
• Oil

How
• Mixed all of the ingredients above
• Heated frying pan and added oil
• Dropped 2 Tbsp of corn mixture into hot oil
• Fried both sides until golden brown
• Drained on paper towels and served warm

Shrimp Balls

When dada and mommy still lived in Lexington, KY, we liked to go to Cincinnati, OH in the weekend with our close friends. One of our favorite places to go was Uncle Yip’s Seafood Restaurant at 10736 Reading Road Cincinnati, OH 45241. Phone number is (513) 942-6512. The seafood is so fresh, the price is reasonable, and the taste is the authentic Chinese food. One of Kathleen’s favorite is Fried Shrimp Balls.

Since we moved to Wisconsin in 2005, we missed the food a lot. Mommy then tried to make the shrimp balls and finally found the right ingredients and consistensy to duplicate the original one.

In this recipe, mommy used Panko, a variety of bread crumbs used in Japanese cuisine as a crunchy coating for fried foods. It is often available in Asian markets and is also available in many large supermarkets.

Ingredients
• 28 Oz of peeled shrimps, minced in food processor
• ½ cup of all purpose flour
• 1 Eggs
• Green onion, sliced thinly
• Minced garlic
• 3 tsp of salt and MSG
• Panko
• Oil

How
• Combined all of ingredients above in a bowl, blended well
• Took about 1 Tbsp of mixture, shaped it like a ball
• Covered it with Panko, set aside
• Heated the oil and fried the balls with medium heat until golden brown

Char Siu Bao "Bakpao" (Steamed Buns With Barbecued Pork)

Dim sum is a unique culinary art, originated from Cantonese in southern China, which involves a wide range of light dishes. It is now a staple of Chinese dining culture, especially in Hong Kong. Dim Sum is linked with the older tradition of Yum Cha (drinking tea), which has its roots in Chinese travelers on the ancient Silk Road.

Dim sum is usually served in the mornings until noon time at Chinese restaurants. Dim sum is a tradition for the elderly to gather with their families after morning exercises, often enjoying the morning newspapers. Nowdays, dim sum is treated as a weekend family day. Chinese parents like to take their children on Sunday mornings to meet and talk with their grandparents. I also find more dim sum items are even sold as take-out for families, workers, students, and travelers on the go.

Dim sum dishes come in small portions and may include meat, seafood, and vegetables, as well as desserts and fruit. The items are usually served in a small steamer basket or on a small plate. Some Chinese families like to gather for dim sum on special occasions such as birthday, Mother’s Day, or Chinese New Year.

One of the most popular dishes in Dim sum menu is Char Siu Bao, which is a steamed bun, filled with Cantonese barbecued pork filling. It has a reddish brown and slightly charred look around the edges.

You can make your own BBQ pork filling or you can go a Chinese delis where you can buy Soy Sauce Chicken, Salt-Roasted Chicken, and Roast Duck. When I lived in Lexington, KY, I bought the BBQ all the time. Since we moved to Wisconsin, I made it by myself because it was hard to find one. It is not hard to make the BBQ, especially you can easily find the Chinese BBQ mix in grocery stores (international section) and Asian grocery stores.

There are many variations for the fillings, such as sweetened mug bean and chocolate. Personally, my family loves the BBQ one. They are the best!

There are many names for this popular steamed bun. When Ferdy and I grew up in Indonesia, we learned the name is bakpao. I also learned from my dad (my side of family is Hokkian) that bakpao is a Hokkian word (a Chinese dialect in Fujian province). Bak means meat and Pao means wrap. So, I guess, it supposedly means a meat being wrapped. Our family loves dim sum…we ate it in the morning or brunch time with grandparents, grandchildren, and/or friends. It was so much fun…we pretty much talked about everything.

Jade Palace in Louisville, KY; Jun Bo and Mandarin Kitchen in Twin City, MN, as well as The Happy Chef Dim Sum House in Chinatown, Chicago are our favorite dim sum restaurants because the food is authentic. Every time after Kathleen ice skating competition, we tried to stop by at one of the dim sum restaurant. Kathleen love dim sum so much....our favorites are char siu bao, har gau (shrimp dumpling), shaomai (siu mai-steamed dumpling with pork and shrimp), lotus leaf rice (steamed rice is wrapped in lotus leaf, containing egg yolk, dried scallop, mushroom, and pork), congee (thick, sticky rice porridge served with different savory items), taro dumpling (mashed taro, stuffed with shrimp and pork, deep fried in cripy batter) etc. We love all of them!

I tried so many bakpao recipes and I like the bun recipe Buna taught me. I also found the BBQ filling that my family loves after trial and error. After marinated the pork overnight, I put it in pressure cooker so it is tender and cook faster. I like this method better…easy and faster.

You can also use a roasting pan, make sure you turn and brush with the reserved marinade, and broil the pork in the oven until the meat is just beginning to char, 7-10 minutes (155 degrees when tested with meat thermometer). If pork is getting too charred, lightly cover with aluminum foil. Removed it from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes before you cut it.

Ingredients for BBQ Pork Filling
• 1 Char Siu seasoning mix
• 1 Lb of pork butt or pork fillet
• 3 Tsp of salt
• 3 tsp of MSG
• 2 tsp of minced garlic
• 2 tsp of oyster sauce
• 2 Tbsp of honey
• 1 Tbsp of sugar
• 1 Tbsp of oil
• Corn starch and water for thickening agent

How
• Mixed all of the ingredients above and rubbed it on the meat
• Poured off any excess liquid and marinated overnight in a Ziplock bag
• Placed the marinated pork in a bowl into a pressure cooker (I used a rack so the water didn’t touch the meat) with high heat
• When you heard the buzzing sound, turned down the heat to medium
• Cooked for 30 minutes until tender
• Waited until the buzzing sound off, slowly opened the pressure cooker
• Let it cooled for 10 minutes, sliced thinly
• Used a wok, stired-fry the sliced meat with a little bit of excess liquid
• Final tasted to your taste
• Mixed corn starch with water, poured off into the meat mixture
• Blend them well until thick and set aside


There are 4 steps to make the bun:

Step 1
• Mixed together 14 grams of dry yeast (1 sachet) with 1 Tbsp of sugar and 1 Cup of warm water for 5 minutes
• Note: do not use hot water because it will kill the yeast
• Note: In winter time, I found it is hard to rise any kind of dough. The trick my grandfather taught me was by rising the oven to 100 degrees F, turned it off, and placed the mixture in the oven, so the mixture could rise quickly
• After 5 minutes, added 4 Tbsp of all purpose flour, let it rose for 15 minutes

Step 2
• Wrapped a medium size potato with clear plastic wrap (Saran wrap), cooked it in microwave for 7 minutes, high heat
• Removed the wrap, peeled off the potato skin, smashed it with fork , and set aside
• Note: The potato will make the bun soft when you eat it

Step 3
• Added ½ of stick butter, ½ Cup of water, 1 Cup of sugar, and ½ tsp of salt into a saucepan
• Boiled all of the ingredient in step 3
• Added the mashed potato, stirred well, let it cool

Step 4
• Measured 500 grams of all purpose flour
• Added mixture in step 3
• Added 1 egg
• Added mixture in step 1
• Kneaded the dough with mixer (I use Kitchen Aid, high speed) for 10 minutes
• Note: Take a little bit of dough, spread it evenly with your palms. If the dough doesn’t break easily and can form a transparent-almost like paper, it means that your dough is ready
• Note: If your dough is still wet, add more flour; or if it is too dry, add more water/milk
• Turned oven to 100 degrees F and turned it off
• Rose the dough in the oven for 20 minutes

How to fill the BBQ into the bun
• Measured about 30 grams of dough and flatten it with your palms
• Placed 1 Tbsp of BBQ filling in center of each flatten dough
• Gathered dough up around the filling by pleating along the edges
• Brought the pleats down and twisted securely and firmly
• Placed each dough in a center of cut parchment paper (4x4 inches), set aside in a tray
• Note: A parchment paper is needed so dough does not stick in steamer
• Rose oven temperature to 100 degrees F and turned it off
• Rose each dough for 30 minutes in a warm oven
• Boiled water in a double boiler
• Note: I don’t have double boiler. Another alternative is fill a medium wok with water (steamer should not touch water) and bring to boil. Arrange buns in steamer, cover and place steamer in boiling water. Covered the side between wok and steamer with cloth to trapped the heat
• Steamed buns over boiling water for 20 minutes
• Note: Add more boiling water to wok when necessary
• Lift steamer off wok and carefully remove buns
• Removed the parchment paper before eating

Avocado Juice

Mommy got this recipe from dada Ferdy. Mommy and dada grew up in Indonesia and we drank the Avocado Juice. However, dada’s version of avocado juice is the best! This is one of our favorite juices. Thank you dada for sharing this recipe.

When you purchase avocado, look for darker color (brown) and semi-soft but not mussy when you press it. This will determine the ripeness of avocado. Green avocado is not ripe, and typically is still very hard when you press it.

Ingredients
• 2 haas avocadoes or 1 large avocado
• ½ cup of water
• ¼ cup of sugar
• 2 Tbsp of Chocolate syrup to your taste and color
• 2 Tbsp of condensed sweetened milk
• 4 Cups of crushed ice




How
• Boiled water and sugar (I put it into microwave for 1 minute), poured it into a blender
• Cut avocado into 2, removed the seed
• Scrapped of avocado with a spoon into a blender
• Added chocolate syrup, milk, and crushed ice into a blender
• Blended well until silky smooth
• Chilled in refrigerator for left over

Soto Ayam (Javanese Chicken Soup)

Soto ayam is a yellow chicken soup with cellophane noodles, commonly found in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. Turmeric is added as one of its ingredients to get yellow chicken broth.

Besides chicken and noodles, it is also served with hard-boiled eggs, bean sprouts, slices of fried potatoes, green onion, and fried shallots. Krupuk, sambal, and slices of lime are a very common topping.

Mommy used a lot of instant Soto Ayam or Sop, brand “Indofood” or “Bamboe.” It is so convenience with mommy busy life. Kathleen liked it so much, and we could hear “slurp…slurp…slurp” when you ate the cellophane noodles. If you can’t find cellophane noodles, vermicelli (rice noodles), or steamed rice can be used too.

Instead of fried the potatoes, mommy sometime cut the potatoes into cube size and cook it with the broth until tender. Mommy used fried shrimp crackers or krupuk, brand “Ny. Siok.” Everytime mommy fried this krupuk, it will be gone quickly.

Another option is to use regular potato chip "Lay's" or "Ruffles" ...and don't worry about the potatos in the soup and kerupuk.

Ingredients
• 1 whole chicken cut up
• Water
• 2 Peeled potatoes, cubed
• Bean sprouts (washed and drained)
• Boiled eggs
• Cellophane noodles (soaked noodles into hot water until tender, drained, set aside)
• Instant soto ayam or sop mix
• Salt, MSG to your taste
• Green onion and fried shallots (optional)
• Krupuk, sambal, and limes (optional)

How
• Boiled water about ½ the pot
• Added chicken, boiled the chicken for few minutes until the fat came off (use a soup ladle to scoop all of the excess fat)
• Added 1 sachet of instant soto ayam or sop
• Added salt and MSG to your taste
• Turn the heat to medium, added cubed potatoes
• Cooked about 45 minutes until potatoes were tender
• Cooled and shredded the chicken, set aside
• In a serving bowl, added noodles, potatoes, bean sprouts
• Added chicken and broth into the bowl
• Added boiled egg, krupuk, green onion, fried shallots and limes for garnish

Bakwan Goreng (Shrimp Vegetable Fritter)

Shrimp vegetable fritter is originally called Bakwan Udang in Indonesia. You can use shredded cabbage, shredded carrot, bean sprout, and peeled shrimps, mixed them well into batter and deep fried.

Kathleen likes to eat broccoli, not so much eating cabbage. Thank God, the grocery stores have shredded broccoli and shredded carrot now, which make our job easier. If you don’t have shrimp, you can make vegetables fritter.

Ingredients
• Shredded broccoli or cabbage
• Shredded carrots
• Bean sprout, washed and drained
• Green onion (optional)
• Peeled shrimps (optional)
• 1 egg
• All purpose flour
• Water
• Salt, MSG, chicken bouillon to your taste
• Oil to fry

How
• Combine all of vegetables and shrimps into a bowl
• Add egg, flour, water, salt, MSG, and chicken bouillon
• Mix them well until the mixture is thick (if it is too liquid, add more flour, if it is too thick, add water)
• Heat the oil in a wok
• Take one scoop using soup ladle into hot oil, make sure you have few shrimps in each batter
• Fry until fritters are golden brown

Corn Soup

The Cantonese (Asian) corn soup is a quick and easy recipe to make. This soup has wonderful flavor from chicken stock, creamed sweet corn, sweet kernel corns, green onions, chopped ham, chopped hotdog, chopped chicken, and/or chopped seafood (shrimps or crabs) depends on your desire and availability in your area.

The cornstarch and water mixture is used as a thickener, and the eggs are streamed into the hot broth, just like in Egg Drop Soup, gives this soup a fantastic taste.

This soup is so good you can just have it as a main meal, just have a crusty bread roll with it.

When mommy still lived with my parents in Pontianak, West Borneo, my mom taught me how to cook creamy corn soup with chicken stock, chopped chicken, and chopped crabs. Oh my God, it tasted heavenly. Then, we moved to Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, we were having a hard time to find fresh crab meat, so we only used chicken pretty much. When mommy got married and learned how dada’s side of family cooked the corn soup. Buna taught me to use ham and hotdog, it tasted good too.

The recipe below is the original recipe from Buna and this is one of Kathleen’s favorite!

If you don’t have time to make fresh chicken stock, get stored bought chicken stock, or use water. The chicken stock adds richness and sweetness to the soup.

Ingredients
• 2 Cans of chicken stock or fresh stock
• 2 Cans of water
• Chopped ham....chicken, shrimp, or crab are optional
• Quartered hotdog
• Minced garlic
• 1 can of sweet corn cream
• 2 cans of sweet kernel corn, washed and drained
• 3 Eggs
• 2 Tbsp of Corn starch and ½ cup of cold water
• 3 tsp of salt
• 3 tsp of MSG
• 1 tsp of chicken bouillon
• 1 Tbsp of sugar

How
• Turn your stove into high heat
• Add oil and minced garlic into a pot
• Add ham, hotdog (cooked chicken, shrimp, crab…optional)
• Add chicken stock or water, sweet corn cream, and kernel corns
• Add salt, MSG, sugar, and chicken bouillon to your taste
• Cook until the soup boil, turn the heat to medium
• In a separate bowl, mix cold water with corn starch, add it to the boiling soup
• In a separate bowl, whisk 3 eggs with fork, add it to the boiling soup, and keep stirring until the egg form
• Sprinkled with green onion for garnish

Bihun (Fried Rice Noodle)

Bihun or rice noodle is used frequently in Indonesian cooking, such as birthday party, gatherings or weekend brunch. It is super easy to make!

Depend on what you had in the refrigerator or pantry, different kind of vegetables, meats, and seafood will be good with bihun. Mommy likes to use chicken, shrimps, hotdog, smoked crunchy bacon, and eggs. Yeah, we are carnivore family…not eat much of vegetables.

The vegetables that marry well with bihun are shredded cabbage, Choy Sum (Chai Shim)-"Flowering Chinnese Cabbage" due to yellow flowers in this delicate of pak choi or Baby Bok Choy, which is very common in USA.

Depends on your desire, you can make plain white fried rice noodle. In this case, you don't have to use the sweet and salty soy sauce. Once a while Kathleen and dada requested the plain one too. In this picture, mommy used both sweet and salty soy sauce because it had combination of sweetness and saltiness.

There are many brand of rice noodles, pick one that you really like and keep it in your pantry.

Ingredients
• 1 bag of dried rice noodle
• Oil
• Minced garlic
• Sweet soy sauce, brand “kecap manis ABC”
• Salty soy sauce, brand “kecap asin ABC”
• Oyster sauce, brand “Lee Kum Kee” or “Panda”
• Salt, MSG
• Peeled shrimps, sliced chicken, quartered hotdog, sliced bacon

How
• Cook dried noodle in the boiling water for 6-8 minutes until aldente
• Pour into a colander, run under cold water and drain, set aside
• In a separate pyrex or mixing bowl, add oil, soy sauces, salt, and MSG (the oil is used to prevent stickiness, dryness and looks shiny)
• Combine cooked rice noodle into sauces mixture above (I like to use hands to blend them well, make sure you wash your hands very clean), set aside
• Turn high heat, using a wok, add oil, garlic, shrimps and chicken until change color
• Add hotdog, bacon, oyster sauce, sweet and salty soy sauce, MSG, and salt to your taste, mix them well and set aside (if you use vegetables, add vegetables until meat is half done)
• Add oil in a small wok, make scramble egg
• Mix all the cooked rice noodle, egg, vegetables (optional), and meat mixture together with spatulas or hands
• Sprinkles on top with fried onion if desire (optional)

Mommy’s Crunchy Shrimps

Tuesday is mommy's day off from work. Mommy is so excited because mommy can make good meals for my family. Kathleen love to eat shrimp basket at any restaurants. Mommy tried so many spices mix for shrimps but no one satisfied our taste buds. It is either too spicy, too blend etc., so mommy decided to make our own batter for shrimps. It is really simple and you don’t have to depend on stored bought batter mix anymore. Yey!

We always have shrimps in our menu every Tuesday….Kathleen called it “Shrimpy Day”
Mommy used this batter for any kind of your favorite seafood, such as shrimp, tilapia, cod.
Please don't use this recipe for salmon, Kathleen.

Remember, shrimps cook very fast, don't overcook it; otherwise it turns cheewy, tastes like rubber. Gross!



Ingredients
• 14 Oz. of Large peeled shrimps
• 2 tsp of salt and 2 tsp of MSG
• 3 handful of all purpose flour
• Oil

How
• Mixed all of peeled shrimps with salt, MSG, and flour
• Make sure each of shrimp get coated well with flour
• Turned on “High” heat, fried the shrimps
• Cooked 1 side of shrimp about 1 minute, then flipped it over for another minute
• Removed and placed fried shrimps on paper towels to remove excess oil

Macaroni Schotel

When people think about Indonesia, pasta somehow doesn’t seem to fit. Pasta is more associated with Italy or even at its roots, China. Pasta, an Italian staple, became well known in Indonesia at the beginning of the 20th century and was brought by Dutch colony. So, the Dutch was actually brought the macaroni schotel to Indonesia.

Originally, Macaroni Schotel was cooked macaroni with minced meat, thickened with eggs and milk, and spiced with salt, pepper, and ground nutmeg. The dish was then baked in the oven.

Every family has their own recipes for macaroni schotel. Mommy also changed the recipe a little bit to fit ours taste. This is one of mommy signature dishes and it has been in the family for many years. It is one of the favorite in the house. Kathleen even has a special name for it "Mommy's macaroni." We have it for the Christmas, New Year, Easter and other special occasions like birthday and family gatherings.

Thanks to my mom who taught me how to make this wonderful dish. However, mommy improvised it a little bit when mommy moved to America in 1999. It was a trial and error, searching the right cheese, the right ham etc., and mommy finally found the right ingredients that fit well for the dish.


Instead of using the traditional recipe above, mommy used elbow macaroni, smoked ham, cream cheese, thickened with milk, eggs, and water, and spiced with salt, MSG, chicken bouillon, and sugar. At the top, mommy topped with bread crump and parmesan cheese. Then I bake it in the oven.

It is super easy to make. Mommy likes to make it the day before the weekend comes and enjoy it for breakfast or brunch on Saturday or Sunday.

Ingredients
• 24 oz of smoked ham, you can get it at daily section
• 225 grams of elbow macaroni
• “Philadelphia” cream cheese
• 4 Eggs
• 100 cc of water
• 150 cc of milk
• 1 Tbsp of sugar
• 2 tsp of salt
• 2 tsp of MSG or 2 tsp of chicken bouillon to your taste
• Bread crump
• Shredded parmesan cheese

How
• Boiled elbow macaroni with 2 tsp of salt, until “al dente” or fork tender, drained
• Sliced smoked ham, set aside
• Sliced cream cheese into rectangular shape, set aside
• In a glass measure, mix water, milk, beaten eggs, salt, MSG, and sugar
• In a pyrex 8x8x2 inches, layered ½ of cooked elbow macaroni for the base
• Placed sliced smoked ham in a second layer
• Third layer, spread out the cream cheese, I like to press down the cheese a little bit with palm of your hands
• Covered it with the last ½ of macaroni
• Poured the liquid mixture
• Dusted with bread crump to keep it moist
• Parmesan cheese on top
• Baked in the oven for 40-45 minutes, 400 degree F (every oven is different, I judge it for doneness by looking at the bottom of the pyrex, you will see that the macaroni turns golden brown)
• Removed it from oven, let it cool and let the cream cheese settled down

Rawon (East Java Beef Soup)

Rawon is famous soup in East Java. The soup consists of special beef soup containing keluak (fruits of kepayang tree used as a spice). The dark or black color of rawon comes from keluak as a prime spice.

Commonly, the beef is cut into bite sized pieces. The soup base is made of ground mixture of spices cooked in oil until it is aromatic. Then the spice is poured into boiled stock along with beef.

Practically, mommy stir-fry the spices in a pot, add beef stewed and water at the end. This saves you from cleaning and washing lots of dishes.

It is a meal because it is served with rice, completed with bean sprouts, limes, chips (krupuk), and chili sauce (sambal).

In cooking of rawon in America, mommy relied on the Rawon instant spices from “Bamboe” because mommy could not get the fresh Keluak. Also, it is so easy and no mess of grinding all of the ingredients. I love it! It depends on where you live, the instant Rawon spices can be found in Asia grocery stores. Otherwise, you can also order online. Thank you for Oma Mel who always sent us instant spices from Indonesia, which is very helpful for daily cooking.



Mommy cooked it in pressure cooker for 25 minutes with medium heat to get the tender beef instead of traditional cooking which can result in hours. It is a good investment and worth it to get the pressure cooker, it is easy to use and make cooking easier and faster in your busy life. I love it!

Ingredients
• 1 sachet of Rawon instant spices, brand “Bamboe”
• 2 Lb of Beef stewed
• Red onion, minced
• Water
• Salt, MSG

How
• Turn on stove into high heat
• Add oil in a pressure cooker pot and stir-fry the minced onion until it is aromatic
• Add beef stewed, stir-fry until it changes color
• Add water about ½ of the pot
• Add the Rawon instant spices
• Salt, MSG to the taste
• Close the pressure cooker, you don't have to wait until the water boils
• Keep cooking until you hear the “buzzing” sound from pressure cooker
• Reduce heat to medium
• Cook for 25 minutes
• Turn the stove off, wait until all of the steam is out and no longer hear “buzzing sound”
• Slowly open the pressure cooker and do the final taste
• Get a bowl, put cooked rice at the bottom
• Add fresh bean sprout
• Pour Rawon soup
• Squeeze fresh lime or lemon to your taste ….optional
• Eat it with krupuk (chips) and chili sauce (sambal)…optional

Tiramisu

Tiramisu is one of the most popular Italian dessert that consists of layers of lady finger biscuits (Savoiardi) or sponge cake , dipped in expresso or strong coffee, layered with a whipped mixture of egg yolks, mascarpone cheese, sugar, and rum, and topped with cocoa. Oh it tastes heavenly!

Mascarpone cheese is triple-crème cheese, made from cow milk and low fat fresh cream. However, finding Mascarpone cheese can be difficult and can be expensive. Some of the substitutes are Ricotta or Cottage Cheese, or mixtures of 8 Oz of cream cheese, 3 Tbsp of sour cream, and 2 Tbsp of heavy cream.

Thank God I can find Mascarpone cheese in our local grocery so we can enjoy the dessert. I haven’t tried making tiramisu with the substitute cheese, so I can’t give my opinion on it.

I like to make my own sponge cake (using the recipe for lady fingers) because it tastes fresh and my family likes the flavor. Instead of shaping it into the lady fingers, I baked it in a 12x15 inches baking tray. If you don’t want to make your own, you can find easily stored bought lady fingers in grocery stores now too.


I found in easy tiramisu recipes, people use raw egg to make the whipped mixture. My technique of making the whipped mixtures (egg yolks, mascarpone cheese, sugar, and rum) is required more cooking technique called “Tempering” to reduce the risk of Salmonella or other food-borne illness from consuming raw and lightly-cooked eggs.

Tempering is a technique used to blend uncooked eggs into hot liquid or sauce using a double boiler. Eggs are beaten and a little of the hot mixture is stirred into egg mixture. Tempering slowly raises the temperature of an egg, without curdling it and without heating it through conventional methods. This prevents the eggs from scrambling or the milk from curdling when the hot liquid is introduced.

I don’t have double boiler, so I boiled a pot of water in a stove until it boiled, then I added another pot above the boiling water without touching the water, it worked very well too.

It seems complicated but it is not and it is worth it. Thank you for Wolf Gang Puck for sharing the recipe.

Instead of using rum or brandy for tiramisu, I use coffee so Kathleen can enjoy it too. Coffee for Kathleen? What kind of mom am I? I just use it a little bit, for flavor, well at least it is better than alcohol. This is her favorite dessert so far.

Ok, enough with the lecture, stop talking, let’s make the dessert.

Ingredient (Sponge cake or Lady Fingers), you need to make 2 recipes, the recipe below is for 1 recipe.
• 6 eggs, separated white from egg yolk
• ½ Cup of sugar
• 1 Cup of all purpose flour

How
• Preheat oven to 3500 F
• Placed parchment paper on 12x15 inches baking tray, buttered and shifted with flour
• In a mixing bowl #1, mixed 6 yellow eggs with ¼ cup of sugar until peak with high speed (5 minutes). Slowly, added ½ cup of flour until blended with low speed (I minute), set aside
• In another mixing bowl #2, mixed white eggs to soft peak (2 minutes). Slowly, added ¼ cup of sugar, mixed until medium peak (5 minutes). Slowly, added ½ cup of flour until blended with low speed (I minute)
• Added mixture from bowl #1 to #2, blended with slow speed
• Pour mixture into baking tray, spreading and banged to prevent air trapped and evenly distributed
• Baked for 15 minutes until pale-golden in color, tested with tooth peak for doneness
• Removed from oven and cooled
• Note: It could be made up to 2 weeks in advance, wrapped in plastic wrap and foil, stored in freezer

Ingredient Whipped Mixture
• 6 eggs yolk
• 1 Cup of sugar
• ¼ Cup of rum or brandy or coffee
• 2 Lbs (32 Oz or 907 grams) of mascarpone cheese

How
• Using tempering method, boiled water in a pot
• Place another pot on top of boiling water
• With medium heat, add egg yolk, sugar, and rum
• Whisked until thick (5 minutes)
• Removed and cooled mixture over ice bath, set aside
• Mixed mascarpone cheese to soft peak (2-3 minutes)
• Slowly, added mixture to cheese mixture
• Blended with slow speed
• Stored in refrigerator, wrapped until is ready to use
• Note: It could be made up to 4 hours in advance

Dipping mixture, you need to make 2 recipes, the recipe below is for 1 recipe.
• 1 Cup of hot espresso (1 Cup of hot water + 1 Tbsp of coffee)
• 3 Tbsp of brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp of sugar
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract

How
• Boiled hot water and made 1 Cup of coffee
• Added brown sugars, sugar, and vanilla
• Stirred well, set aside

How to layer
• Divided sponge cake in baking tray into 2, so it fitted 8x8x2 inches of glass pyrex. With this recipe you will have 4 sponge cakes. For this recipe, I only need 3 sponge cake.
• Divided whipped mixture into 3
• Soaked sponge cake #1 or lady fingers into dipping mixture until it was well absorbed. I like to use a fork to make pores to the cake, I found that it absorbed well the liquid and it was quickly too. You don’t have to make pores if you use lady fingers.
• Placed first soaked sponge cake or lady fingers into the base of pyrex
• Added Whipped mixture #1 on top of sponged cake #1
• Layered soaked sponged cake and whipped mixture alternately (you will have 3 layers of cake and 3 layers of whipped mixture, and make sure the top one is the whipped mixture)
• Dusted the cocoa on top of whipped mixture
• Refrigerated for 2 hours ( I used a short cut….put it in freezer for 30-45 minutes, and moved it to refrigerator for storage, it tasted better the next day).