Sup Merah (Red Soup)

I love soup, and it runs in my family. My family has a habit of putting a bowl of clear soup on the dining table since we were young. My favourite soup will be crab and corn soup (sup jagung), chicken soup with luncheon meat (oyeah!) and roulade soup (sup rolade) and last but not least Sup Merah (Red Soup).

Not many Indonesian know this soup, well if you come from a Chinese Indonesian family , peranakan family or  residing around East Java you would probably have seen/eaten at least once in your life. Sup Merah (red soup)  as the meaning tells it all, it is really a red colored soup . A bowl of goodness made from tomato base soup with ingredients of your choice. The base stock could be anything from chicken, beef or pork (I am a pork person, so for this recipe I am gonna use my pork bones to get lovely delicious clear pork stock, well you might want to change it if you do not eat / hate pork  ). Tomato base soup is unlikely connected with Indonesian culture as tomatoes are often used only for additional ingredients, condiments or for making sambal. The Dutch has influenced this soup, and it adapts with the local taste over the years. It is very easy to make, you do not need to be a head chef of a restaurant to make this, and I believe that little kids would love the taste. My nieces love this soup so much.. So you might want to try to make this and perfect for weekend delights and perfect companion during cold and rainy days 🙂

The key ingredient for this soup is sausages . I bought my sausage in Batam (I had a day off and crossed the country just for a day trip) , my mom loves this with beef sausages but you can substitute it with chicken or pork sausages.

Nasi Bakmoy

Nasi Bakmoy is an inter cultural dish between the Chinese and Javanese. According to a source,the word ‘bakmoy’ came from “Bah Mui” which originally using pork as the star ingredient. Once was said that the recipe creator was a Chinese man that came from Fujian , China who migrated to Jogjakarta and married to a balinese woman. One day, as a Chinese immigrant in a strange country with limited Chinese food availability, he missed braised pork rice (LU ROU FAN/卤肉饭) , the wife with zero knowledge of cooking Chinese food tried hard to duplicate the dish and incorporate local ingredients such as petis udang (fermented shrimp paste) and kecap manis (sweet soya sauce). From that moment on, the Chinese man talked alot about the wife’s dish and words were spread from mouth to mouth. Nevertheless, a lot of Indonesians who do not eat pork so in some kitchen, they substitute pork with chicken meat.

There are 3 elements on this dish, rice,  topped with tofu & ground meat stirfry and soup with kecap rawit (chili soy sauce) or sambal petis ( Chili with fermented shrimp paste) so many versions of nasi bakmoy, in my hometown around Central Java you would find nasi bakmoy made of chicken meat with non-fried firm tofu (the original nasi bakmoy has deep fried tofu) while in D’s hometown, they usually serve nasi bakmoy with extra fried prawn cake (bakwan udang) and sambal petis .

One day, D told me that he is craving for nasi bakmoy and I thought that it was a good idea to make it. So I googled some of the recipes online. Most of the recipes I found are using chicken meat, but I love the originals, so when I did some experiment in the kitchen I used lean pork meat instead of chicken meat. For those who do not eat pork , you may substitute pork with some other meat of your choice.

 

Mun Tahu

December had been a very busy month for me and sorry for not updating the blog for more than a month! It had been a hectic month both in the office and home. First of all, I would like to wish you late Merry Christmas and a blessed happy new year 2014 to everyone. I wish that you all the very best and I believe 2014 will be an awesome year for all of us. Believing for something greater in 2014, and more great recipes to come too this year ! 🙂 🙂 My boyfriend and I decided to fly to Semarang (Located in Central Java, Indonesia) and met our family there for short getaway trip. You could easily guess what we did the whole day, eat and sleep.. haha! Well, anyway.. I would be sharing some photos from my culinary trip on my next post. Meanwhile, I have a great recipe to share with you to start of this wonderful 2014.

The dish that I want to share with you is called Mun Tahu ..My mom used to cook this dish alot when I was little or if I was not feeling too well. This dish has been influenced greatly by the Chinese immigrants who settled down in Indonesia long time ago, the Chinese loves to use of beancurd, oyster sauce and  soya sauce added new flavoring to the Indonesian dish. For sure, you could still notice several similarities between Mapo Tofu and Mun Tahu. Mapo tofu is indeed a Szechuan dish It is a combination of tofu (bean curd) set in a spicy chili- and bean-based sauce, typically a thin,chili infused oil, and often cooked with fermented black beans and minced meat, usually pork or beef while as Mun Tahu is not spicy at all, the use of minced beef or pork mix with shrimp and oyster sauce will give you milder version of Mapo Tofu (minus the chili and bean based sauce). Mun tahu has delicious gravy and it is a good and healthy dish for your children , and a not complicated recipe. You all can cook this !

MUN TAHU

Ingredients :

• 2 Chinese tofu, diced 2×2 cm
• 200 gr minced pork (If you don’t eat pork  you may substitute this with minced beef or chicken )
• 100 gr peeled shrimp, diced
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp corn starch , dilute it with cold water
• spring onions, thinly sliced
• 300 ml water
• 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (angciu) (omit the cooking wine if it is not available in your country)
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• Sugar, salt and pepper to taste

How to make :

• Heat oil and saute garlic and ginger until fragrant.
• Put in minced pork, stir-fry until the meat changes its color,
• Toss in the diced shrimp, stir-fry until the meat changes its color
• Put it 1tbsp Chinese cooking wine and stir for few seconds
• Add water (you can control how much water  you want for this dish as I love this to be more gravy), soy sauce, oyster sauce, and tofu
• Add sugar, salt and pepper to taste
• Stir until the water boils, add in the corn starch solution and stir till it thickens
• Add in the sliced spring onions , stir for few seconds and voila ! Ready to serve 🙂

I did bring them to the office for my lunch the next day , the leftovers taste even better ! haha..This dish is really easy to make !

 

 

Risoles

 

A French influenced Indonesian snack is a small croquette rolled in breadcrumbs and deep fried. It is filled with ragout stir fried veggies and meat with sprinkle of nutmeg. I would say that it takes a lot of time making this snack but it is worth trying.
You can easily get this almost in every city in Indonesia, and some of my friends do eat this with rice . If you want to make it a halal risoles, kindly omit the luncheon meat and substitute it with chicken sausage or corn kernels.

Ayam Goreng Mentega (Butter-Fried Chicken)

This dish is one of the famous dishes served in oldies Chinese restaurant in Indonesia, one of my favourite restaurants which serves this dish will be the one in my hometown. It brings back the memory of my childhood whenever I visit the restaurant, we used to celebrate my uncle and auntie’s birthday there for ages. The owner had passed away several years ago but the lady owner and one of the kids continue the business. I still remember vividly the furnitures used there are still the same 20 years ago, still standing strong although it will look abit old but I just love the ambiance of the vintage restaurant.

The star ingredient for this dish is Worcestershire sauce, made in England, this sauce is normally used for steak sauce or gravy but in Indonesia, we often use Worcestershire sauce for stir-frying. Ayam (Chicken) Goreng (Fried) Mentega (Butter) or it is simplified as Butter-Fried Chicken. Some will be using lemon juice to add into the chicken you may add it but personally I like the one without lemon juice. If you notice too that I add a little bit of ground nutmeg, is to enhance the flavor of the sauce so that it will be more fragrant, you might want to try this but just add a pinch of it otherwise the flavor will be overpowered with nutmeg instead of Worcestershire sauce.

from left to right : Worcestershire sauce, Shao Hsing cooking wine, soy sauce, ground nutmeg and sweet soya sauce