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Cacio e Pepe with Asparagus
I am a huge fan of easy and quick recipes! Who isn’t? 🙂 I mean, I enjoy spending a lot of time in the kitchen, creating yummy food. However, quick recipes are a must – especially if you’re a mom of two very energetic monkeys! 🙂 And I would say that cacio e pepe falls into the category of quick – if you know what you’re doing. So, what is cacio e pepe? I can only tell you the general overview here, as I’m not a pasta expert. I’ll tell you what I know. Cacio e pepe literally translates to cheese and pepper. That should give you a general idea.…
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Homemade Steamed Bao Buns
I don’t know what it is, but to me, there’s something very comforting about these warm, fluffy, slightly sweet little things that brings me joy. I remember in my childhood days in Indonesia, I’d be on the lookout for the bao carts (or bakpau as we call them in Bahasa) in the afternoons. Or there was always one on standby just outside of my then-paediatrician’s office and I would ask my mother to buy me one as a reward for behaving at ‘uncle doctor’. They come with either savory filling or sweet filling. In Indonesia they’re usually filled with minced chicken mixture or mung bean paste. But the possibility here…
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Easy Homemade Daifuku Mochi
I have to say, this dessert and I go a way back. It is traditionally from Japan, of course. However, Indonesia has its own copy-cat version. When I was small, occasionally my family would go up to the mountains for a hike. There was always different rest areas there, but at every rest area you would find vendors with these rice cakes sold in small bamboo-woven baskets. I could eat more than a whole box on my own and was always told to share, which I’d then grudgingly do. 😀 The more traditional filling of these “mochis from the mountains”, as I used to call them, was peanut filling. Or…
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Veggie-Stuffed Tofus (Tahu Isi)
What can I say about these babies, except that they’re delicious and surprisingly filling. They’re a popular snack in Indonesia and don’t require too many difficult ingredients. They’re good to eat on their own, but Indonesians would eat these with a piece of fresh green bird’s eye chilli. (I know, I know, in the pic it’s red chilli) Yumm… Just writing about it makes my mouth water. 😀 So, what do you need to make tahu isi? Well, quite obviously, tofu. Let’s talk about the tofus for a minute. For this recipe you will need firm tofu, not the silken one. Because the tofus are going to be hollowed out…
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Cinnamon French Toast Sticks
Who doesn’t like French toast? It’s like dessert for breakfast! Who doesn’t like finger food? So, there’s really no reason to not like this one. Moreover, it’s so quick to put together. Perfect for a Sunday breakfast (or maybe snack?) Anyway, there’s really not much to say about these sticks. So, I guess it’ll be a really short post. Except maybe that I do recommend using stale brioche bread. In my opinion brioche is the perfect kind of bread for French toast, because it’s so rich and buttery and when dipped in the egg mixture, it’s just like pudding. Why stale? Because stale bread is usually dry and dry bread…
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Chicken Noodle Soup (Mie Ayam Pangsit)
I don’t know if you haven’t noticed Mea’s and my motto for this little blog, you’ll know that noodle soup play a huge role in our lives (A for drama! ;)). So, I am rather excited to share this recipe (I’m sure it’ll be one of many). I made this when my mom, brother, his gf and grandfather came over for lunch a few days back. And I didn’t hear them complaining. My grandpa even went so far as saying it’s similar to a bowl of noodle soup from Bakmi GM (a very prominent noodle soup restaurant in Indonesia). So, what is it about noodle soups? To be honest, I…
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Milk Tea Grass Jelly
I’m gonna level with you, I’m an Asian, which means boba ice is always welcome in my tummy. However, sometimes those tapioca pearls sit too heavy afterwards and I feel like I can’t eat/drink anything else. Enter grass jelly. Grass jelly is very common in Asia. You can find it in many desserts. It’s essentially what it is, jelly. It’s made by boiling the stalks of Chinese mensoa with a some starch for very long hours and when left to cool, it’ll harden into jelly. It has a mild and herb-y taste and is very refreshing, especially in summer. Nowadays, you can buy the grass jelly powder mixture and make…
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Corn Fritters (Perkedel Jagung)
Another really easy recipe coming at ya! 😉 This was actually one of my favorite things to snack on when I was little. It’s good to eat as it is, but goes surprisingly well as a side dish with steamed rice as well. Also, it’s a crowd pleaser. Bring a platter of these to a potluck, and they’ll be a hit every single time. Two important things to mention here: first, the two kinds of flour. You can absolutely omit the rice flour (and if you do, add the amount of the all purpose flour). However, without the rice flour, your fritters will not be crispy at all. If you…
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Indonesian Style Chicken Congee (Bubur Ayam)
Has anyone seen the new Disney movie Raya yet? My boys and I have, multiple times. And for my oldest, it’s all he talks about (after Minecraft, of course). Southeast Asians, if you’re debating with yourselves if you should see it, I say go ahead. It’s beautiful. For me, it was a way of introducing a little something of my roots to my boys, who were born and bred in Europe, thus having little knowledge of the Indonesian/Asian culture. I absolutely enjoyed spotting the little cultural Easter eggs in the movie and explaining to the boys what they meant and why people in Southeast Asia do it. But enough about…
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Eggplants in Chilli Paste (Terong Balado)
Okay, where do I start with this dish? That’s just it – I’m always out of words when it comes to anything balado. Ah, let me first explain what balado is. It is essentially chilli mixture. It’s tangy, sweet-ish and, of course, spicy. It originates from West Sumatra (Minang), Indonesia. The cool thing about this balado is, once you have the basic chilli mixture down, you can add virtually anything to it. There’s egg balado or dendeng balado, just to name a few – the closest I can translate dendeng to is probably jerky. Or in this post’s and recipe’s case: terong, eggplants. Typically, Chinese eggplants are used for this…
