Rujak Serut - Indonesian Shredded Fruit Salad

The perfect little salad for summer. Ultra refreshing, very appetizing, full of textures and flavors. I love this as an appetizer, side dish, snack or even dessert. Making this does require quite a bit of work shredding the fruits, but the result's totally worth it.

The fruits

These super cute and adorable rose apples. I love the bit of crunch and spongy texture, its sweetness with a bit of tang, and its adorable shade of pink!


These green mangoes have deep yellow interior. The texture's firmer than the yellow ripe mango, it's very fragrant, it almost has coconutty/floral scent, and it is very sweet. I pretty much gnaw on the thin and small seed to clean up the part of the flesh which I could not shred. The cook's prerogative!


Jicama is a must in many Indonesian fruit salads. It gives the combo a nice crunch, with fresh yet earthy flavor.

I've also used fresh ripe pineapple, which I didn't photograph because I am forgetful. But I am sure everyone has seen pineapples before. Golden deliciousness!

Peel and shred all the fruit into matchsticks (except the rose apples, simple remove the core and chop away). I just used half a jicama, 1 mango, 2 rose apples and half a pineapple.

The combination of fruits is not fixed. Feel free to use anything which are available in your area.

The palm sugar dressing

The majority of the dressing is palm sugar, for its deep, sweet, coconutty, almost caramel-ish flavor; then salt to balance the sweetness; tamarind paste and lime for the sourness; a touch of shrimp paste for that extra savory umami-ness; and bird's eye chillies for the hot slap on the face.

I didn't exactly measure when I made the dressing, I started with a few chunks of palm sugar pieces, a tsp of sea salt, a tiny drop of shrimp paste, 1 tsp tamarind paste, 1 chilli, juice of 1 lime and a bit of hot water. I mix them together and keep adjusting the flavors to achieve the perfect balance of everything. The paste would be thick in the beginning, you can dissolve it by adding more hot water until you reach a thin-ish syrupy consistency (I should be killed for my very unclear "description", I know) and keep adjusting the flavors as you're thinning the dressing.

This is the kind of salad that needs quite a bit of dressing. All the fruits should be able to get just submerged in the dressing to let all the flavors marry.

Pour dressing over all the shredded fruits and refrigerate. The already multi-faceted flavors of the dressing will be combined with all the different juices from the fruits, you can imagine how complex it is, but yet...perfectly balanced. Just before serving, squeeze a bit of lime juice for that final punch.


Serve cold, of you can even add ice. If you wish, top with a bit of roasted nuts for more crunch.

Enjoy...and happy Friday!

Hot Winter Drink - Ginger, Palm Sugar & Clove

OK, Hong Kong is currently experiencing the coldest November in...hmm...many many many years.

It's on the news.

It's what people talk about.
It's become the standard greetings...

"Morning. Isn't it cold?" (while making a dramatic hand gesture to the air)

"Morning. Gosh, aren't you cold?" (staring at exposed boobage/thigh)
"Morning. Oh, you live in the New Territories (patronising once over), must be cold out there eh?"
"Morning. No, I've moved to ..*insert a fancy schmancy city flat name here*..so it isn't that cold"

"Morning. Oh, can't wait for my (expensive) exotic tropical island getaway (which will only happen next summer, but tried to make it sound as if it is happening tomorrow)"

Enough already!

I get it! It's cold!
It's still only a little below 10C, people!
Relax and drink your hot drinks...

This time, it's something exotic, something spicy (unlike me).
A little Chinese, a little Indonesian (just like me).

It involves ginger, clove, and this...

Indonesian palm sugar.
They aren't so hard to get. In Hong Kong, you can get these babies at any Indonesian grocery shops (they're all over the city) easily. Much easier than finding a plate of decent scrambled eggs in local char chan tengs.
These babies are mildly sweet, very coconutty with a hint of smokiness.
Perfect for making exotic food and desserts....when I am in the right mood.

Now all I want is to drink something sweet, hot and gingery.

It's so easy, I can't believe I am writing this down. Feel free to adjust the amount liberally, I know that sweet for me is probably bland in your books. Bring a couple cups of hot water to boil (you can make more and refrigerate), I made about 4 cups. Then throw in the rest of the ingredients, used about 5 cm ginger (peeled, sliced and crushed), 4 pieces of palm sugar, 2 tbsp of sugar, and 3 pieces of cloves. Feel free to add nutmeg and cinnamon etc. If you're in the mood for something creamy, add coconut milk. Whatever makes your toes curl, baby.

The palm sugar is pretty grainy, so don't forget to pour the drink through a sieve before serving.

Now that I'm all warmed up...I want ice cream.

Tamarind and Palm Sugar Popsicles - Off to Malaysia (Again?)

I am not a big fan of summertime's heat, it gets me sweaty from doing...even absolutely nothing. However, summer heat is the perfect excuse reason for everything icy.
Ice cream? I like.
Sorbet? Even better.
Shaved ice with syrup and coconut milk? Totally.
Icy stares thrown at uncles who gawk at your legs/chest? When else are we allowed to be so bitchy? Secretly enjoyable.
and above all...
POPSICLES!!!
Refreshing, thirst quenching, fruity, icy cold goodness on a stick, in a hot summer afternoon. Perfection.

In Summer, I prefer fruity treats over their creamy chocolatey cousins. Lemon, lime, orange, berries...nice, but for me, it's time to get a bit more exotic and well...Indonesian :)

Tamarind and Palm Sugar Popsicles

Recipe
- A couple of spoonfuls of tamarind paste
- A few pieces of palm sugar (I used about 4 small pieces)
- Hot water

Boil water in a pot, add tamarind paste and palm sugar bit by bit and taste until you reach the perfect balance between the tang of tamarind and the sticky coconutey sweetness of palm sugar. Strain into another pot and let cool. Pour into popsicle mold and freeze.

To pull out the popsicles from the mold, dip them into a bowl of hot water for just a few seconds. They will slide out gently.


Lick, bite, suck.
Hear the sizzle as our bodies cool down.

Talk about heat, I am off to somewhere hot, Malaysia (again) for work, and I heard it is nowhere near any good food. Hello days of cup noodles and soyjoy....hope I could squeeze in a few moments of deliciousness. Wish me luck, and see you soon, my hungry monkeys! Stay yummy.

Sticky Rice Cake with Palm Sugar and Coconut Milk - A Desperate Attempt of Indonesian Street Snack

What comes to your mind when you see something challenging?
A. Yes! I should try! I can do this!
B. .........Oh shit!

Not proud of it, but I am leaning more towards B. Oppps. Rarely From time to time, I welcome challenges and feel excited...but most of the time, including the time I heard that the cooking together (Masak Bareng Yuuk) event 's theme is Indonesian street snack, and not only that...the snack has to be made of rice...."oh shit" was really the first thing that came to my mind. I've never attempted any Indonesian snacks at home. Whenever I miss them, I'd dig deep into my pocket and just buy some. So, I initially planned to "miss" this event, but after some intense discussions with my blogging pal, Deetha, I gave it a go.

I started making this snack without any expectation of success, not aiming to create any specific classic snack. I was thoroughly submissive of what the result was gonna be, it was a desperate experiment.

My plan was to throw the following:
- Sticky rice
- Palm sugar
- Coconut milk
- a pinch of salt
into a pot, cook them for a while and see how it goes....

Sticky Rice Cake with Palm Sugar and Coconut Milk

I realised that I haven't even tried cooking sticky rice before. I imagine it should be the same as cooking regular rice, which is..dump them into the rice cooker and press cook. I assumed I could do the same with this thing, and when I heard the beep, I would have some sweet and fragrant sticky rice thingy, ready to be consumed.

Clearly, I was delusional. Cooking sticky rice is a gadzillion miles away from cooking regular rice. It has to be soaked, it has to be steamed, and then cooked again, and possible steamed again. Whoa! Was I ready for that? Not really. But with a pack of sticky rice on my hand...and the fear of that pack of rice being thrown onto my face by Deetha (albeit virtually - hehe no, Deetha is sweet and not at all violent), I got onto it and did this very dubious snack, which despite of it looking miles away from any classic Indonesian snack, tasted bloody fantastic. Sticky, sweet and fragrant.

Recipe
- 1 cup of white sticky rice, soaked overnight
- blocks of palm sugar (add bit by bit until you reach the desired sweetness)
- a pinch of salt
- coconut milk (I use 200 ml)
- water (add when necessary)

Cook soaked sticky rice in a bit of water, add coconut milk, add palm sugar and pinch of salt, adjust taste until it is perfect for you and all the coconut milk are absorbed. Set aside, let cool. When you want to consume it, steam until the cake is done thoroughly. You can create a sticky rice cake "sandwich" by adding mashed bananas or durian in between, or serve it with creamy coconut milk, or consume as is.

Hope I won't say "oh shit" again next month and take whatever challenge with courage and optimism (nah, that doesn't sound like me, does it?)

Super Spicy Indonesian Pineapple Sweet Salad - Rujak Nanas Super Pedas

I used to be a hot food snob. I used to be dead proud that not only I could handle tongue numbingly hot food, I even LOVEDDDD them. A meal was not a meal without a huge dose of sambal or chilli of any kind.

It started when I moved to Sydney. Back home in Indonesia, being able to handle hot food is nothing.
Everybody love hot food. So what? It's not a big deal, it was probably even cool if you can't handle hot food, according to the law of the non-mainstreamers ;) But in Sydney? Boy! The first few months were really challenging, a trip to any eatery was often accompanied by a bottle or packs of Indonesian chilli sauce (sambal ABC)...and classmates from other countries always ooohed and aaahed, looking at you in awe, admiring eyes when you nonchalantly downed pieces upon pieces of hot chillies, without even blinking or breaking any sweat.

But that was then.

A few years living outside Indonesia seemed to have tamed the hot bitch in me. Nowadays, I don't even drizzle a drop of chilli oil into my wonton soups...my eyes get all teary, my nose runny, my face turns steamed lobster red while gasping for air when I went to have Sze Chuan hot pot (which even Tony Bourdain could handle, wat the??!!!)...and...I regret to announce that these days, I order the lowest level of heat for my noodle soup base (head down, tail between legs, so ashamed) instead of the hottest of hot that I used to love T_T sob sob sob. I've become heat intolerant. Arrrrggghhhhh!!!

So, it was a silly decision for me to remake this Super Spicy Indonesian Pineapple Sweet Salad (Rujak Nanas Super Pedas) and thought that I could still handle it. Duh!

Recipe
- 1 ripe pineapple, cut into bite sized chunks (you can use many different tropical fruits, such as jicama, young mango, guava, etc, but I particularly love ripe pineapple)
The Super Hot Sauce/Dip
- 3 small red chillies, chopped (I didn't remove the core and the seeds. You can adjust to meet your level of heat tolerance, I recommend put as little as possible and add more later if you need)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup palm sugar
- 1/2 tsp shrimp paste (toasted)
- juice of 1 lime
- a bit of hot water

Blend everything into a paste (traditionally, we use stone mortar and pestle), add a bit of hot water to blend everything better. Pour sauce over pineapple or dip pineapple into it ^_^

I am sharing this with Waiter, there's something in my....Indonesian by Spittoonextra.

Again, the whole sniffing and crying episodes happened upon me when I consumed this childhood favorite treat of mine. Sad. Sad. Sad.

...and to make it even worse...sous chef ate most of the thing nonchalantly like there was no heat at all. SOBBBBB. I guess my palate is now more "refined", eh? Hehe (denial, denial)

Kering Kentang & Tempe - Caramelised Soy Bean Cake & Potatoes

Friday was a day off (yay! doing my little day off dance at the background), and I was thinking how to spend the day.

I ofcourse chose to conveniently "forget":
- an avalanche of dirty laundry at the corner of my bedroom (and living room, and bathroom, and dining room) screaming to be brought to the laundry shop
- floor desperately needs vaccuming
- furniture begging for dusting
- the bathroom laughing hazardously every time I almost slipped on the life threateningly dirty tiles
- clean dishes, pots and pans mocking me as they took over my tiny kitchen
...the list is endless...

But all I could think about was how I've been missing kering tempe, and how inconvenient it is to do kering tempe on work days. So, dodging the dirty laundry, pirouetting past the dusty furniture, pranching over the dirty floor, I went straight to the nearest Indo shop and bought myself a pack of tempe (Indonesian soy bean cake), and got it going. I love the wet and moist version, not the dry and crunchy one, but both are delicious. :)

Ingredients
- 1 pack of soy bean cake, diced
- 1 medium potato, diced
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 4 cloves of shallot, sliced
- a bit of ginger, crushed
- 3 red chilli, remove seed, sliced
- palm sugar
- kecap manis
- salt, pepper
- 3 tbsp of coconut milk
- cooking oil


Soak palm sugar in a bit of hot water (I used 3 of those) until totally dissolved

Tempe - the soy bean cake - tempe can be used as a meat replacement

Dice the tempe into a tiny rectangular shape, sprinkle with salt

Fry until golden but not too dry. This can already be eaten. I had to fight myself not to "sample" too much
I like the softness of potatoes as a contrast to the crunchy tempe. Fry the diced potatoes until golden.

Saute garlic, chilli, shallot, ginger in hot oil, add tempe and potato, add the dissolved palm sugar, salt, pepper, kecap manis, stir in the coconut milk, bring it to boil, serve.

Serve with hot steamed rice.

OK. I couldn't live in a dirty flat. So, finally spent the whole afternoon off cleaning. The kering tempe made a perfect reward :)

PS. Retno of Kedai Hamburg also made her version of Kering Tempe. Check it out! :)