Empal Daging Sapi (Indonesian Tender Beef Jerky)

Here is one of a dish that you would want to have during holiday seasons and it's (apparently) quite easy to prepare.

Ingredients:
½ lb. Beef tenderloin
2 - 3 tablespoon olive oil or vegetable oil
1 tablespoon ground coriander
2 tablespoon of sugar (or more if you wish)
1 tablespoon tamarind paste
3 big cloves of garlic
Salt to taste

Direction:
Boil the beef meat in a pot until tender
Remove from the heat and tenderize it with meat tenderizer until flat/smashed well. Set aside.
Ground tamarind paste and garlic together.
Heat the olive/cooking oil in a pan. Add the mix of tamarind paste and garlic then ground coriander
When the sauce brings nice aroma, put on the meat, sugar and salt to taste.
Keep stirring until the meat turns into slightly darker color and the oil is almost absorb by the meat.
Remove from the heat and serve.
Yield 2-3 servings

Tempe (Tahu) Orak-Arik (Sauted Tempe and Tofu)

Through browsing on the net and talking to people at the grocery stores, I found out many people in this part of the world (USA) are more and more familiar with Tempeh - one of the most delicious vegetarian food option from Indonesia. But only a few know how to prepare it; in fact perhaps many have known and have been using Tempeh for quite sometime without knowing its origin, therefor not knowing where to ask on how to prepare it, delicious way, the way mostly Indonesian do. So, here is one of so many variation on preparing Tempeh that I'm going to share...

Ingredients:
- 2 packages of Organic Tempeh of "Turtle Island Food Inc.", dice about ¾ X ¾ inch.
- 2-3 Jalapeno pepper, slice thinly
- 8 to 10 Bird eye chili (or Thai chili), slice thinly. You can reduce the amount to reduce the hot flavor
- 4 red pearl onion, ground
- 2 cloves garlic, ground
- 1 ½ inch of fresh Galangal, slice thin or smashed/jerked
- 2 to 3 pieces of Indian Bay leaves (can be found in Viet Wah or Uwajimaya stores in Seattle)
- 1 big and fresh stem of Lemon Grass, smashed
- 3 to 4 tablespoon Kecap Manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce)
- salt to taste

Direction:
- Prepare all the spices according to the ingredients order, set aside.
- There are two ways on preparing the Tempeh; you can either bake it first until it's cooked enough; for this way then you need to wrap it in aluminum foil to avoid burn or over cooked. Bake at 350 degree for about 15-20 minutes.
- If you choose to saute it; then you enough cooking oil to saute; either with Olive oil or Canola Oil. Saute until all look evenly golden brown. Remove from the heat and set aside.
- Heat about 2 tablespoon of cooking oil on the pot/wok on medium heat.
- Add ground red pearl onion and ground garlic until it produces nice smell, then add Daun Salam, jerked galangal and lemon grass. Toss for about a minute.
- Add jalapeno and Thai chili, toss for a bit then add Tempeh; followed by Kecap Manis and salt.
- Stir and toss for another few minutes until the food is brown (Kecap Manis will add darker brown color to the food) and you will see that the chili and jalapeno is cooked.
- Remove from the heat, remove Daun Salam, Galangal and lemon grass from the food and serve.

NASI UDUK & AYAM GORENG BERBUMBU (JAKARTA STEAMED RICE with SPICED FRIED CHICKEN)

Imagine you're sitting on the food vendor on the side of Jakarta's crowded streets. It's a hot humid and busy night with lots of other kind of food sellers' tents/vendors around you. Your order is right in front of you with a cup of hot tea to company... I can't even remember when was the last time I ate this; as when we went to Jakarta last December 2007-January 2008 we didn't even buy this! I had stomach problem and were too worry about stomach so we couldn't buy. But the last couple of days I was so craving of Pecel Ayam and Nasi Uduk, so we went shopping last night. Got Basil Lemon Leaves (Daun Kemangi), fresh lemon grass, fresh galangal, fresh Thai egg plant (terong bundar hijau) and bird-eye chilis then I'm all set to cook. To accompany the rice, I prepared famous street-vendor fried-chicken which we commonly know as "Ayam goreng Berbumbu". Oh... it was heaven!! Even hubby ate what I ate. No complain except the hot chili. We didn't do "Sambal Terasi" as I can't stand the smell of toasted "Terasi" (shrimp/fish paste) that stays inside of the house, even after you air out the house for an hour!I guess the basic for the "Betawi Steamed Rice" (Nasi Uduk) is well-known by many people. But just in case here I share my recipe, which yields for 4-6 people;

Ingredients:
RICE:
- Rice and sticky rice
- ratio is 2 (rice) :1 (sticky rice)
- Galangal, lemon grass and 2 Indian bay-leaves (daun salam)
- Coconut milk (medium thickness) and salt to taste

SPICED FRIED CHICKEN (Ayam Berbumbu):
- 4 to 6 pieces chicken
- 6 pearl onions (or shallots) and 3 garlic
- 4 candlenut (kemiri)
- 1 finger digit (that's how mostly Indonesians measure the amount of ginger or turmeric to use) of turmeric
- 1 Teaspoon tamarind
- Lemon grass, galangal (jerked) and Indian Bay leaves.
- Palm sugar and salt to taste
- 300 ml medium -thickness coconut milk with water enough to soak the chicken in.

Directions:
RICE:
- Bring coconut milk, galangal, lemon grass and Indian bay leaves to boil, add rice. Continue cooking until liquid is dry, occasionaly stir to keep rice from lumping. Take off from the heat and put aside.
- Prepare the steamer, when the water is boiling put the rice and steam until the rice is well -cooked. Like when you prepare regular rice.

SPICED FRIED CHICKEN (Ayam Berbumbu):
- Put all the ingredients into the pot with the chicken, cook until the juice is boiling, done enough to marinade the chicken and chicken look half-cooked. Take out of the heat, put aside.
- Heat Cooking Oil in frying pan for deep frying. Fry chicken until all the skin looks golden-brownish. Serve with Rice, Lalap (fresh leaves) and sambal and krupuk (fried fish crackers).

AYAM BETUTU (BALINESE CHICKEN DISH)

I found this recipe from one of the Indonesian recipe books I brought from Indonesia. The picture showed very plump, goldenish chicken drumsticks, that made me droolled and wanted to prepare this. The book suggested the meal to be accompanied with "Sambal Matah" and some Indonesian fresh veggies, but since hubby was joining the meal; I just made some stir-fry green bean rather than complete "Sambal Matah and Lalapan"...and, oh... I also 'improvised' the recipe by marinading the chicken with salt, pepper and lemon juice.

Ingredients:
Source: “Aneka Santapan Nusantara ala Resto” by Enita Sri Yana
- 4 - 6 chicken drumsticks
- 200 ml coconut milk
- 2 Tablespoon Teriyaki Sauce
- 2 Tablespoon cooking oil
- 1 Tablespoon margarine
- ½ Teaspoon sugar
- 500 ml water (I used half for non-country chicken)
- Chicken broth powder to taste
- Pepper to taste
- 1 stem lemon grass; smashed the bottom
- 2 lime leaves

Spices to ground (finely):
- 5 shallots2 garlic
- 1 thumb-size fresh ginger
- 1 thumb-size fresh turmeric
- 2 red chili (jalapeno type)
- 2 bird-eye chili

Directions:
PREPARE: mix chicken with salt, pepper and lemon or lime juice, put aside. Heat up the grill or oven into 425 degree Fahrenheit. Heat the cooking oil, sauté the grounded spices, adding lemon grass, lime leaves for 2-3 minutes, then add coconut milk, sugar, pepper, Teriyaki sauce, chicken broth and water. Cook for about 15 minutes or until the chicken cooked enough before you put it into the grill/oven. Coat chicken with the margarine, then juice and put them into the oven, turning them every 5 minutes to keep an even brown color. When the skin looks golden-brown, take the chicken out. Serve with hot steamed rice and sambal and fresh vegetables (lalapan).