L'SHANAH TOVAH

Hi everyone, I wish you all

Shanah Tovah!

Have A Good Year

INDIA, My Kitchen My world

Aunt Lolo from Chow Review, take the member of My Kitchen My World culinary journey to India. I can honestly admit that I can eat Indian food everyday, even if its vegetarian. I think only Indian can prepare the best vegetarian dishes! I send my special thank you to "Aunt LOLO" for choosing INDIA

I was thinking about making just Indian - vegetarian dishes for MKMW for this week challenge. I thought this would be perfect for  Peter,  who is a strict vegetarian  and was staying with us for a week during his business trip in Silicon Valley. Peter is my husband's cousin (Jozie's) husband, they live in Israel with their 2 gorgeous teens and 5 (?) cats (check out Peter's cool blog) Unfortunately, his visit was too short and I didn't have the opportunity to make an Indian meal for him. 

So, I've changed my menu by adding chicken as the main dish. 

Zubzion Ka Achar

Recipe adapted from: The Indian Spice Kitchen 

Written by: Monisha Bharadwaj

This is by far the most easiest and fastest vegetable pickle, and still tastes great. Most recipes for Indian pickle require long process including drying the vegetables and letting them soak in the hot sun for at least 2 days. I couldn't wait for the long process, and very thrilled when I found this recipe in one of my Indian cooking book. 

This pickle can be eaten with Chappati, even more delicious with Paratha. I didn't make any Chappati or Paratha this time (I will in the near future) 

Ingredients:

2 Medium carrots, cut into strips

1 cup string beans, halved

5 ounces cauliflower, cut into floret

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 teaspoon cayenne powder

large pinch of asafoetieda

1 teaspoon sugar

salt

4 teaspoon lemon juice

1  tablespoon corn oil

1 teaspoon black mustard seeds

1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

• Mix the vegetables with the first six ingredients. set aside
• Heat corn oil in a small pan, add the mustard seeds until crackle, add the fenugreek seeds and sauté until dark.
• remove the pan from the heat. Cool completely. Grind coarsely in a mortar and pestle or a coffee grinder.
• Add to the vegetables mixture and mix well.
• Store in a sterilized airtight jar, refrigerate and use within a month.

Cinnamon Chargrilled Chicken

(Amritsari Bhunna Murgh)

Recipe adapted from "Indian Flavours" by marut Sikka

I was really in the mood of making this chargrilled chicken, however,  I always failing when it comes to grill chicken. I either over cooked or under cooked them. So I've decided to bake the chicken in the oven as I couldn't bare to redo my MKMW event for this week.  I am going to be busy preparing some of dishes to bring to our friend's house  for "Rosh Ha'Shana" celebration!

Ingredients:

1 pound chicken thigh, wash and dry with paper towel.

Marinate I: Mix in a small bowl, 2 tbs malt vinegar, 1 tbs ground ginger, 1  1/2 tbs garlic paste, 2 tsp red chilli powder, 2 tsp cooking oil, and salt to taste. Set aside.

Marinate II: In another small bowl mix, 2  1/2 oz yogurt, 2 tsp pomegranate powder, 1 tsp cumin powder, 1 tsp ground black pepper, 1/2 tsp black cardamom powder, 1/2 cinnamon powder, 1 tsp kasoori methi, 1 tsp kashmiri chili powder, 2 tbs cooking oil, 1 tsp lemon juice, and salt to taste. Refrigerate.

• Lay the chicken thigh on a baking ceramic or a plastic container in a single layer, rub all over with marinate I, cover with plastic wrap or with the lid. Refrigerate to marinate for an hour.
• Add  the marinate II, to the chicken and mix well and continue to marinate for another 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 350⁰ F. Transfer the chicken to a shallow baking pan, discard the marinate. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes until the chicken is done. Alternately, the chicken can be skewered and grilled on a charcoal grill.
• Transfer the chicken on a platter, drizzle with lemon juice and serve with Basmati rice.

* note: I couldn't get over how good this chicken was. I was pretty skeptical at the appearance when I took it from the oven, but I can assure you that you won't be disappointed!

Shrikand 

(Sweet Saffon Yoghurt)

Recipe from: Indian Everyday, Light Healthy Indian Food

by: Anjum Anand

1  1/2 pints low-fat yoghurt

1/2 tsp saffron strands

2 tsp hot milk

5 - 6 tbs icing sugar

5 - 6 green cardamom pods, crushed

1 tbs rose water

1 - 2 tbs raw pistachio nuts

edible silver leaf for decoration, optional

• Line a large sieve with muslin or cheesecloth. Place over a bowl, pour in  the yoghurt and refrigerate overnight, letting the whey drip and discard the whey the following day.
• Infuse the hot milk with saffron for 5 minutes.
• Mix sugar, cinnamon, saffron milk and rose water into the thickened yoghurt. Cool for 3 hours.
• Serve chilled, garnish with chopped pistachio nuts and silver leafs (if using)

I like to serve mine with any fresh or poach berries or any stone fruits. 

MUHAMMARA

Recipe adapted from: The Food And Cooking Of Turkey 

by Ghillie Basan

Ingredients:
1 cup broken shell walnut
1 tsp cumin seed
1 - 2 tsp kirmizi biber or 1 - 2 fresh red chillies
1 - 2 garlic cloves
1 - 2 tbs tomato paste
2 tbs pomegranate syrup ( I use 5 tbs, because I like it so much)
1/2 cup olive oil
a few sprig of flat leaf parsley (I use fresh mint leaf)

• Using mortar and pestle, pound walnut with cumin seed, kirmizi biber or chillies and garlic.
• Add tomato puree and pomegranate syrup, continue to pound then slowly drizzle in olive oil, pound into a paste, transfer into a small bowl and garnish with parsley or mint*

* Instead of using the mint or parsley for garnish, I actually chopped the mint finely and added (mix) them to my muhammara, tasted so much better.

My 3rd Award

Thank you so much Alexa!

Thank you for your  kind words, I am so honored!

 Alexa wrote:

"I cannot say enough nice things about Elra. Her meals are scrumptious. Her talents delightful. A visit to her blog is like taking a trip to some exotic location, where you're the guest that she spoils with delicious dishes"

I am very flattered and I can't thank you enough Alexa!

In no particular order, I'd like to pass this award to:

Karen, Something Sweet By Karen

I can not believe that she actually almost deleted her blog. I think her blog is very nice and I especially like the way she photographs her food. You really deserve this award, Karen. Hope you will never thinking about deleting your blog again.

Ira, Simply Passion For Food

Her blog is full with delicious recipe and beautiful photographs.

Andrea@ Nummy Kitchen

Andrea is very meticulous about her blog, I like how she display her children photographs on the side bar. She is also a talented cook.

Eliza, Note From My Food Diary

She is very talented cook, from baking to canning, she can do it all. She deserve this award!

The Award Rules are:

1. when you receive a diamond, make a post about it on your blog.

2. name the blogger from whom you got it.

3. award the diamonds to seven other bloggers.

4. link them.

5. and tell them they got one.

Za'atar Marinated Grill Salmon

Original Recipe

So I am sending this to Lore for her event "Original Recipe"

Za'atar is middle eastern mix of wild herbs, spices and sesame seeds. If you can't find Za'atar in your area, you can make your own using dried herbs such as, thyme, marjoram and origano. Mix the herbs with ground cumin, ground coriander and ground fennel seeds. Add saseme seeds to the mix, transfer to air fitting jar. Now you have your own za'atar.

I found out about za'atar when I visited the Middle Eastern Store in my area. I always intrigue by spices that sounds strange or I never herd before. I grabbed a bag without even thinking what I was going to use it for. When I read the ingredients, which basically contained herbs and spices, I thought this ought to be good. I couldn't go wrong with this herb-spice mix. I went home and showed it to my husband (I tend to do this a lot, showing what I buy from market or even from boutique, which I think it's a bit silly thing  to do)  Anyway, I was surprise that he got pretty excited about this za'atar. He told me, when he lived in Jerusalem (he lived there for 5 years) He used to buy flat bread from the Iraqis vendor. This bread was serve warm with za'atar sprinkled on top. The bread was bake in a dome shape clay/mud oven, by slapping the dough to the side of the oven. It's like a tandoor oven I guess. He said that was the best bread he ever had, and he almost had it everyday. However, I never really had a chance to taste this bread every time I visited Israel. I should remind him to bring me to this vendor for my next visit (I hope he still there, considering how many years ago it was, when my husband last tasted his bread)

Back to the recipe, 

you can use za'atar to marinate any type of fish, it is also good for cornish hen, chicken or quail, but you need to marinate it over night to deepen the flavor. What I really like about this recipe is that you don't really need a lot of time to make it and taste absolutely delicious serve with rice pilaf, plain rice, or  spiced couscous with dried fruits.

Here is the recipe:

2  1/4 lb Wild Salmon
1 tbs za'atar
1/2 tbs Fish Sauce*
2 tsp Smoke Cipoltle flakes

1 tbs sesame seeds
1 tbs olive oil
lemon juice from half lemon
1 tbs finely chopped parsley
1/4 tsp sea salt
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

• In a small bowl, combine zatar, fish sauce, smoke chipoltle flakes, sesame seeds, olive oil, lemon juice, chopped parsley, salt and pepper. Mix well, rub this mixture in to the wild salmon. Let the salmon marinate at least an hour.

• Grill, skin side down first for 2 - 3  minutes on a medium high heat. Turn it over, continue to grill to desire doneness.
  

* Fish sauce has a very strong odor and flavor, I recommend to find the best brand available in your grocery store. I like  the "Three Crabs" brand compare to other brands, I think it has less strong odor and very flavorful. You can substitute the fish sauce with tamari or soy sauce. 

LITHUANIA

My Kitchen My World

Andrea, from Nummy Kitchen chose Lithuania for our culinary journey this week. I have come to learn that most of Lithuanian dishes are very similar to most Eastern European cuisine and they love for their dark rye bread. Thank you for choosing this country Andrea!

I have made this bread earlier this week, although what I made was the light version of the rye bread, it was still has the strong flavor of the rye. I would love to make the dark/dense rye bread, if I only had the time to make it. It would take me total of 4 days to make the dark version. 

I am submitting this bread for MKMW, to accompany your Lithuanian soup or stew. Or, you can simply serve this bread with butter and/or cheese!

The recipe adapted from "Baking With Julia" written by Dorie Greenspan.

I half the recipe, omitted the shortening (nothing against it, it just I didn't have it at the time I made this bread) I also simplified the process. Here it is...

Ingredients:

3/4 tbs active dry yeast

1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cup of tepid water

1/2 tbs sugar

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 cup rye flour

1 3/4 cup high-gluten flour or bread flour

3/4 tbs caraway seed

egg white for brushing the dough

• Mix yeast, tepid water and sugar in a small bowl, let the yeast bloom for 10 minutes.

• In a large bowl, mix rye flour and bread flour and salt. Make a well in the center, add the bloomed yeast. Stir with wooden spoon until the dough become to hard to stir.

• Turn the dough into kitchen counter top and knead for 10 minutes, add a little bit of flour if you find the dough is too sticky to work on.

• Form the dough in to a ball, transfer to a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough has it first rise at room temperature for 1 1/2 - 2 hours. 

• Transfer the dough into counter top, deflate and form the dough into any shape you like. Mine was slightly an oval shape. You can also transfer the dough into loaf pan. I use my "la cloche" for this bread. Give the dough its final rest for about 45 minutes.

• Preheat oven to 450F. Brush the dough with egg white, scatter the caraway seed all over then, using the sharp serrated knife, slashes the top and the side of the of the dough.

• Bake the bread for 35 - 45 minutes or until brown. Cool completely before serving.

Don't forget to visit other MKMW member to see what are they making for this week culinary journey!

Aloo Tikki

Potato Ho Down

ALOO TIKKI

(Pea-Filled Potato Cakes)

This is my entry for "Potato Ho Down". Thank you so much to Diana, Asthmagirl for hosting this month "Potato Ho" event. 

If you have any delicious potato recipe, please submit your recipe to Diana for this month. Better yet, why not join the group? It is easy, no pressure and the inventor of this event are wonderful and hilarious  people Cathy, the Noble Pig  and Krysta, the Evil Chef Mom. Just e-mail Cathy or Krysta, and you'll be in.

Aloo Tikki is popular Indian street food that is very quick, easy to make yet very delicious. Here is my adaptation of the recipe  from "Indian Every Day" Light, Healthy, Indian Food by Anjum Anand

Make: 3 potato cakes

Recipe can be easily double or triple

Ingredients:

250 g waxy new potatoes, boil until tender, peel then grated

1 tsp corn flour (I didn't have any, so I substituted with 1/2 tsp cornstarch and 1 tsp rice flour)

2 tbs canola oil

40 gr shelled green peas, blanched

1 teaspoon each, ground coriander, cumin, and red chili

1/2 tsp amchur or mango powder (optional)

1 tbs coriander, chopped

• Mix grated potatoes and corn flour just to combine (it will be sticky) refrigerate for an hour until firm enough to handle
• Heat 1/2 tbs canola oil in a frying pan, add blanched shell peas, ground coriander, cumin and the red chili powder. Cook until just  tender but not overly cooked, add chopped cilantro, mix. Transfer to a plate and coarsely mash a little.
• Take the potatoes from the refrigerator, divide into 6 equal portion. Roll each one into a ball, flatten into a disk.
• Fill equally 3 of the disk with green peas, sandwich each filled disk  with the remaining flatten potato disk (you have 3 potato cakes)
• heat an iron cast skillet or a non stick pan over medium to medium high heat, add the remaining canola oil. Fry potato cakes until brown on both side.
• Transfer to a plate, serve with yogurt, tamarin chutney and  mint or  coriander chutney.

BUNTIL Salmon

I wanted so much to make this dish for MKMW event last week, but haven't had a change to do so. It would be too spicy and too much of spices for my father in law to digest! So I waited until he went back to LA to make this delectable meal.

Buntil is a Javanese fish, meat or tofu and Tempe mixed with freshly grated young coconut and wrap in cassava or papaya leaf. Since cassava or papaya leaf are not easily available here in the States, I substitute it with collard green (I still have some left over in my vegetables  garden). You can also use Swiss chard or Kale. 

Ingredients:

8 large Collard green, Swiss card or Kale (you might need more or less, depending how large you want your salmon wrap)

1 cup freshly young grated coconut (you can buy it at the Indian grocery store @ the frozen section, thaw before using)

1 - 1  1/2 lbs salmon, cut into small chunk

Spice Paste:

6 shallots

4 garlic

1 large red tomato

5 Thai red chilies or 7 - 10 red Jalapeno pepper

1/4 tsp  zedoary powder, optional

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 tbs coriander seed, or powder

1/2 tsp minced fresh  galangga

2 fresh lemon grass, white part only, minced

1/2 tsp  shrimp paste

1 tsp  Javanese palm sugar

5 Kaffir lime leafs

2 Salam leaf (Indonesian bay leaf, no substitute/do not substitute with regular bay leaf, it will taste awefull. Just omit if you don't have it)

3/4 cup  coconut milk

1/2 cup water

1/2 tbs fish sauce

Salt, to taste or as needed

2 tbs canola oil

• Transfer the  first 11 ingredients for spice paste into food processor, add  2 kaffir lime leafs, reserve the rest for the sauce. Process this ingredients until you get the consistency of a paste. Add splash of water if needed.
• Fry the paste with canola oil until it releases its fragrance. Cool completely.

Assembling the fish:

• Mix 1/2 of the spice paste with salmon and freshly grated coconut. Add 1/4 tbs fish sauce, a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix well until all ingredients are well incorporated.
• Lay one collar green on a counter top, add salmon spice mix and roll as you would make a spring roll. Tie with kitchen string to secure the filling. Do the same with the rest.

The sauce:

• Put the remaining  of the spice paste in a wide  pan, add coconut milk, water, remaining kaffir leafs, salam leafs and the remaining fish sauce. Stir well, add the salmon wrap in a single layer. Cook with medium low heat until the salmon is done, about 20 minutes. 
• Do not let the sauce become boil, or the coconut milk will separate. Though it doesn't effect the taste, it just unpleasant to look at. 
• Taste and add salt if needed.
• Serve with plain steam rice.

For vegetarian version, replace salmon with tofu or tempeh and omit the fish sauce. 

In Indonesia, dessert is not a common thing to have after dinner. They do have a lot of snacks and sweet through out the day. Occasionally,  they'll serve jello (agar-agar/sea weed) type of dessert on a special day. 

Here is a slice the mixed fruits agar-agar

Way better then Jello

INDONESIA, MKMW # 12

Thank you to Michelle, (My Year To Get Skinny) who takes us, the proud member of MKMW, My Kitchen My world to Indonesia for our culinary journey.

Oh.... I wanted so much to show off my Indonesian dishes, but my father in law is still here with us, and he'll be staying until next week. It was impossible to make all of those elaborate dishes. So, I just came up with very simple and dishes.

Village temple in Ubud

Indonesia is not just BALI, I am agree with that statement!!!

But, I am Balinese, I was born and raised as a Balinese and I am very very proud of it. I do hope to visit another part of Indonesia for my next visit. I know that many of them are as unique and even more beautiful then Bali. 

Just want to show you the photo of my mom (sitting) was preparing for the "Galungan" prayer in our family temple in the village, by the way she is a Hindu's priest! 

Galungan is the biggest Hindu's festival in Bali, it is a celebration where the good win the evil (I'm sorry that I can't explain it better)

Anyway, here is what I made for MKMW, INDONESIA!

Appetizer:

Lumpia Semarang (Central Javanese Spring Roll), if you are interested of making this very good spring roll, recipe can be found @AG'F FOOD. Her website is devoted to extra delice Indonesian food. She is awesome, hilarious and very talented cook.

I apologize that I didn't have the time to translate her recipe, I will try to do this as soon as I have the time.

Main Dish:

Ikan Bakar Colo-Colo (grilled salmon with Balinese spice paste rub, serve with tomato and chile relish, from Sulawesi)

YES, you can combine Balinese spice paste and Celebes relish together. The flavor of the two really compliment each other. Serve with plain steam jasmine rice and simple saute green vegetables.

Ingredients:

2  - 2  1/4 lb salmon fillet 

1/2 cup base be pasih (spice base for sea food)* 

1 lime

1/2 tbs oil 

• Rub the fish all over with spice, sprinkle lime juice and oil, let the fish marinate for an hour.
  
• Grill the salmon with the skin side down first, turn once and cook until desire doneness. 
  
• Transfer to a serving platter, top with colo-colo relish (recipe below).
  

Note:
* You may or may not have left over paste, it is all depend on how much spice you want it for your fish. I normally like to rub the fish with lots of spices and let it marinate overnight.

Colo-colo Relish:

lime juice from 2 limes

1 large tomatoes, chopped

2 red chilies, chopped

1 - 2 jalapeno pepper, sliced

2 shallots, sliced

1 tbs canola oil

salt or fish sauce, to taste

• Mix all ingredients but the lemon basil in a bowl, let marinate for at least 15 minutes before using it.

Dessert:

Es Campur (Javanese mixed fruit drink)

Recipe can be found here     

My apology for not being able to make something more presentable Indonesian food. My father in law is very picky about food. He is a very religious  ortodox man (he used to be a rabbi in Cape Town, South Africa), so he only eat kosher food. He doesn't like spices and never eat spicy food in his life. For the grill salmon that I've made, I only rub the salmon lightly with the Balinese spice rub, so it won't be too spicy for him. He only try very little, I am talking about max an inch. Luckily, I made chicken dish for him. Very plain chicken dish with onion, garlic, potatoes and green bean. That was it, he eat it with ciabatta. He eat quite a bit. I guess he liked it!

How odd it is that, I am a daughter of Hindu's priest (my father was a high priest) married to a son of a (used to be) rabbi?

Grill Eggplant With Fiery Sauce

This Indonesian eggplant will guarantee become your favorite eggplant dish. 

The original recipe require frying the eggplant before adding the sauce, but  my mom would grill the eggplant instead, it really does give the eggplant smokier flavor.

Ingredients:

15  Japanese eggplants (find the smallest one) cut in half (length wise)

oil for brushing the eggplants

• Preheat the grill. Brush each eggplant with oil and grill on both side until done. Set aside.

The Sauce:

3 shallots

3 cloves garlic

10-15 red Thai chiles (if you dare) 

2 Balinese Black Pepper (sorry, there is no substitute for this. Or it will be completely become different dish/taste)

1 cup chopped tomato

1 tablespoon fish sauce, or 1/4 teaspoon shrimp paste

salt & pepper to taste

2 tbs canola oil

• In a large skillet over medium high heat, fry the shallots, garlic, Thai chiles and tomato with one tablespoon canola oil. Fry just until they are soft. Turn off the heat and let it cool a bit.
• Transfer the content to a food processor, add Balinese Pepper, and process until becoming a smooth sauce.
• Return the sauce to a large skillet or a wok, add 1 tablespoon canola oil and saute for a minute. Add the eggplants, stir once or twice just enough to mix the sauce and eggplants together. If you stir too much, the eggplants will break or turn into mush.
• Add fish sauce and pepper, taste to see if its need salt. 
• Serve with plain steam Jasmine rice.

Note: for vegetarian version, omit the fish sauce! Don't forget to turn your exhaust, turn it high otherwise you'll end up sneezing and your eyes watering! It's that spicy!