Bala-bala a.k.a Mix Vegetables Fritter

Most of us must be familiar with fried fish or fried chicken. Both of them are popular fried meals in almost every country in the world. Fried rice and fried noodle are popular dishes in Asian countries. Frying is one of the easy cooking methods (bear in mind, I'm not talking about healthy or unhealthy cooking method here :P).

In my beloved Indonesia, almost every type of food can be fried. Banana fritter probably is the most popular fried fruit, but we also have pineapple fritter or jackfruit fritter (please raise your hand if you have ever tried them). Don't you thing it is very creative? ha..ha...ha..

Not only fruit. One of the popular street fried food is Bala-bala or mix-vegetables fritter. Some people call it Bakwan. It is made of mix vegetables (shredded carrot, chopped cabbage and bean sprout), flour, egg, salt and some spice. Normally, it is served with chilli paddy; oh yes... they are small but very hot.

In my kitchen, I have been trying to produce crispy and un-greasy fritters. After several time 'trial and error' cooking, finally I found out that it's better to use rice flour plus 2-3 tablespoons of wheat flour instead of using only wheat flour.
That's what I did when I prepared this Bala-bala. I got a very good result; a crispy skin but soft inside meat plus ungreasy fritters.

This time I'm just posting one picture of the food that I cook. The reason, ... I just took some picture from 1 angle, and suddenly my camera battery was drained empty. After charging the battery, the fritters were gone!

Bala-Bala
source : Dapurbunda
Bahan:
150 g tepung terigu (I used rice flour + some wheat flour).
1 butir telur ayam
100 ml air
100 g daun kol, iris halus
100 g wortel, iris halus kecil
50 g taoge, bersihkan
1 batang daun bawang, iris halus
minyak goreng
Haluskan:
2 butir kemiri
2 siung bawang putih
1 butir bawang merah
½ sdt merica butiran
1 sdt garam
Cara membuat:
Aduk tepung terigu, telur dan air hingga licin.
Masukkan bumbu halus, aduk rata.
Tambahkan sayuran, aduk rata.
Goreng sesendok demi sesendok makan adonan dalam minyak panas dan banyak
hingga kering dan matang.
Angkat, sajikan hangat.
Untuk 16 buah

*please let me know if you need the recipes in English version.

The pictures below were taken in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia, on January 2009 during our vacation there. These are some popular street 'fried' food that very easy to be found around the city. Here, in India, everytime I see samosa, my mind is transported back to these kind of food. Don't you thing they look so tempting.

[Click] Cookies

Both of my children, 6 and 9 years old, have a routine to drink three cups of milk everyday. Morning, late afternoon and night time just before they go to bed. During the milk time, they usually need a accompanion to their milk.

Cookies, toast, brownies, or banana are choices that normally I prepare for them.

The picture below, I took on one late afternoon just before these cookies were "executed" by my 'monster cookies'. These are Chunky Peanut, Chocolate, and Cinnamon Cookies, the most favorite cookies at our home now. To be ready anytime for the children's unpredictable order, I keep two big plastic bags of the 'ready to bake' frozen cookies in our freezer.
This picture is my entry for Click Cookies Event.

Have a great weekend with milk and cookies!

[Masak Bareng Yuk!] Spicy Clay Pot Chicken

Back again to 'Masak Bareng Yuk!' event.
I just realize that today is the last day for posting the entry. Puuuuffff... The theme that the host has chosen for this month is 'North Sulawesi Dish using Chicken as the Main Ingredient'. North Sulawesi is an Indonesian province that located on center-north part of the archipelago on the island of Sulawesi just to the south of the Philipines.
The unique part of North Sulawesi dish is rich of leaves aroma and 'hot' spicy. This makes the food a bit special and different compared to the general dish from other parts of Indonesia.

Most of the North Sulawesi dish use lots of aromatic leaves that always raise an appetite and very mouth-watering. Kaffir leaf, basil, lemon grass and pandanus leaf are the most popular used in their culinary. The spicy aroma come from small chillies.

Fish is the most popular meal in North Sulawesi. Most of villages and cities are located just by the seashores. It explains about the fish. By the way, one of the most beautiful corals and under-water flora in the world is in North Sulawesi. It's the beautiful Bunaken.

Beside fish and delicious stir fried vegetables, they have other type of very famous meals, like Ayam Rica-rica (Hot & Spicy Grilled Chicken), Ayam Tuturaga (Fragnant Curried Chicken, Manado Style), Ayam Masak Belanga (Spicy Clay Pot Chicken) and more.

This time, I tried the Spicy Clay Pot Chicken, that is supposed to be cooked on a clay pot. Unfortunately I don't have one, so I just used my big steel pan to cook this meal. The combination of aromatic leaves, lime and chillies has produced a very special flavour of chicken meal. To give more 'traditional' flavour, I used banana leaves to cover the pan while shimmering the chicken. Please come, the food is ready...

source : The best of Indonesian Cooking by Yasa Boga.
Ingredient:
1 chicken, cut into small pieces
1 tsp salt
1-2 tbsp lime juice
3 tbsp oil
1/2 turmeric leaf, finely sliced
1 pandanus leaf, finely sliced
3 kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced
2 stalks lemon grass, bruised
4 green chillies, coarsely sliced
2 spring onions, cut into 2 cm pieces
25 grams basil leaves

Spices (ground)
7 red chillies
2 tsps turmeric
2 tsps ginger
7 shallots
3 gloves garlic
2 chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp salt

Method:
1. Rub chicken with 1 tsp salt and lime juice, and let it stand for 10 minutes.
2. Heat oil and saute the ground spices until fragnant. Add the chicken, turmeric leaf, pandanus leaf, kaffir leaves and lemon grass. Fry for a few minutes before adding enough water to cover the chicken. Bring to the boil.
3. Simmer until the chicken is tender, then add green chillies, spring onions and basil leaves. Cook until the gravy thickens.

Ayin, Dheeta, Shinta... terimakasih.

Orange Yogurt Cake

My husband and I just came back from Matunga, one unique place in Mumbai that also called as mini Madras, when I decided to make this simple cake. It was late afternoon, and I thought it would be good to have afternoon snack to accompany our afternoon tea.

I am so happy with the result; soft cake with fresh orange flavour. And...hey, it doesn't require to use the mixer! Just mix all ingredients, pour the butter on the pan, send to the oven... and... taarrrraaa, a very delicious light cake is ready.
Actually according to the recipe, it's required to use an 8-inch round pan, but I don't have it. So I used my 8-inch square pan. Don't worry, it doesn't affect the flavour of the cake :D

source : Martha Stewart Living, December 2006
Makes one 8-inch round cake.
Ingredients
Unsalted butter, softened, for pan
1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon grated orange zest, plus 1 tablespoon orange juice
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large oranges (1 zested into thin strips, both segmented)
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch round cake pan. Stir flour, 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, the baking powder, baking soda, salt, yogurt, oil, orange zest and juice, egg, and vanilla in a bowl. Pour into pan. Bake until a cake tester comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.
2.Place zest strips in a bowl. Stir in segments and remaining tablespoon sugar. Garnish cake with some segments; serve with the rest. Dust with confectioners' sugar.

Sweet & Pretty Cake a.k.a Cantik Manis

Sweet cake, as sweet and pretty as its name.

This is one of the popular Indonesian traditional cakes, that easy to be found in markets, local bakery and even some famous bakery. The soft texture (like pudding) is produced by the main ingredient; a combination between mung bean (hunkwe) flour and coconut milk. I prefer to add some chopped jack fruits to give additional and special flavour to this cake.

At first, I was not sure if I had enough patient to wrap this cake one by one. Then I used my ice cream scoop spoon to put the dough to the plastic wrap ... It worked and made my job easy :)
I suggest to put in the refrigerator after the cake is ready, it tastes better while it's cold.

source: The Best of Indonesian Desserts by Yasa Boga. Times Edition.
Ingredients
100 gr sago (delima) pits or coloured mutiara sago (biji mutiara)
50 gr mung bean (hunkwe) flour
500 cc coconut milk from 1 coconut
1/4 tsp salt
100 gr granulated sugar
1/8 tsp vanilla
banana leaves or plastic sheets, for wrapping

Method
1. Cook sago pits until done and transparent, rinse and drain.
2. Diluted mung bean flour with part of coconut milk and set aside.
3. Boil remaining coconut milk with salt, then add flour liquid and stir. Add sugar and vanilla, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Add sago pit, stir well and remove.
4. Wrap 2 tablespoons dough in banana leaf or plastic sheet. Roll and fold both sides to the center. Leave to cool.

Biji Mutiara/Mutiara Sago.
This is made from cassava core/strach and sold in various forms and colour.
To use: Boil the biji mutiara for quite long time unti the pellets in the middle shrink in size. Sieve and flush with cold water to prevent clumping. Check the package for any other instruction.