Stuffed Tofu Soup aka Sup Tahu Isi

There were times in my university days, I got submitted to hospitals – and trust me, those days were many. My mom would rush to go to Bandung (she lives in Jakarta, different city from where I studied), and she would stay for a while to take care of me and make sure I was having enough nutrition and sleep.

This soup was one of her weapon to force me to eat. She would by the best stuffed tofu from Chinese Store and she would make the soup – the most delicious soups I had ever had in my life. Well, I don’t know about being a mother – does it make you an excellent cook? Humbly I say that I can cook well – my friends and family say so. And I love to cook. I love to spend hours in the kitchen cooking something for my beloved ones. I even enjoy cooking complicated dishes. But my Mom? She always prefers to cook anything simple and fast. And sometimes she’s too lazy to cook. But this I tell you, her cooking is always waaay more delicious than mine.

Well, maybe it got something to do with being a mother. Hope my daughter would say the same about me :)

So please find the recipe here (I’m too lazy to do this in English, will translate it at another time)

Ingredients:

Stuffed Tofu (Tahu Isi):

4 Tahu putih yang besar, potong dua jadi segitiga (di sini tahu putihnya besaaar dan panjang, jadi saya cuma punya satu, dipotong 4, dan dipotong 2 lagi jadi 8 potong segitiga). Keruk isi tahu, kerukan tahu bias dicampur ke adonan daging nantinya

400 gr ikan (saya pakai fillet pangasius beku)

300 gr daging giling (enaknya ini dicampur udang, tapi saya alergi udang dan teman2nya)

5 bawang putih, cacah

1 bawang daun, cacah

1 wortel ukuran kecil, cacah

1 sendok kecap ikan

1 sendok saus tiram

1 sendok tepung tapioka

Garam, lada putih, gula

Soup Base (Kuah Sup):

1.5 liter air

300 gr leher ayam

5 bawang putih, cacah

1 bawang Bombay, iris2

1 wortel ukuran besar, dipotong agak tebal (ini dipakai di kuah sup supaya kaldunya agak manis)

1 bawang daun, potong2 (tapi jangan diiris halus), hanya untuk kaldu saja

Gula, garam, sedikit ketumbar bubuk, dan sedikit fennel seed (untuk memaniskan kaldu)

1 blok kaldu ayam

How to:

Untuk tahu isi:

Keruk tahu sehingga berlubang dan bisa diisi.

Haluskan ikan dan daging giling, campur dengan bumbu2 yang lain (I used a food processor so I just threw everything in)

Masukkan adonan yang sudah dihaluskan ke dalam tahu, kemudian kukus sampai matang (warna adonan akan berubah dan hasilnya akan agak mengembang)

Adonan ini jadinya banyaaak sekali, jadi saya pakai untuk pangsit rebus juga. Isi adonan ke kulit pangsit, rebus sampai matang.

Untuk kuah sup:

Tumis bawang bombay dan bawang putih, masukkan leher ayam dan bahan2 yang lain, rebus sampai mendidih, kecilkan api, rebus dengan panci tertutup sampai satu atau dua jam. Saya suka masak kaldu sampai leher ayamnya lunak – they will go for my husband :D

You can add more water so you can have a soup base if you want to eat the stuffed tofu with noodle or bihun. Or you can eat the stuffed tofu and the steamed dumpling with peanut sauce (eat them as siomay).

Yellow Rice Everyone :)

There was a pot luck held in our church last Sunday and I wanted to participate and introduce the beauty of Indonesian food to our friends. Because it was an international church, the idea was to get everybody bring their native breakfast or lunch menu – which left me dumbfounded: Indonesian eats big meal at breakfast, lunch and dinner! If I bring one dish then I must bring the rice… so I decided to cook yellow rice and shredded chicken to bring to the church. It’s the simplest version of real yellow rice I can make (it should be more complete with many other dishes, but it was lovely, and my husband was very very happy because he got a traditional yellow rice as his breakfast :D

Ingredients:

5 cups of white rice (I used the cup comes with the rice cooker, it’s about 180 ml)

4 cups of coconut milk plus 1 cup of water (I used the same cup)

5 cloves of garlic

1 big onion

1 teaspoon of blue ginger powder

1 teaspoon of lemon grass powder

4 or 5 teaspoons of turmeric powder (I’m not a spice-powder type of girl but our previous housemate left a lot of spices powder behind, and the best way to get rid of them is to cook with them :D)

2 Indonesian bay leaves (daun salam)

3 kafir lime leaves

Sprinkle of salt

How to:

Grind garlic, onion, plus the spices powder to make paste.

Cook the coconut milk, water and the spice paste, put in the bay leaves and kafir limes, until it boils.

Put in the rice, cook and stir until the liquid is all absorbed by the rice.

Steam the rice for about 40 minutes until it’s cooked. (I got very nervous and keep peeping to the pan looking if my rice was ready, since it’s my second time to cook yellow rice this way – and the first time was about many years ago and it was a disaster, and especially this time I cooked it for others, so it must be successful! Plus my pan was too small, so you know how difficult it was :D)

Serve the rice with the shredded chicken, fried onion, prawn crackers, scrambled egg – anything you want to add, just add it :D

This would make a bit too much rice for two person (I cooked it for many anyway), you can reduce it as you want. I want to make it again smaller portion using our little rice cooker. I’ll let you know if it works out :D

Bubur Ayam Kuah Kuning aka Chicken Porride with Yellow Sauce

This is a typical Indonesian breakfast, if you live in Jakarta you can find the Porridge Cart almost everywhere, with people in queue for their healthy breakfast (actually it’s not so healthy if you know how those men wash their cutlery, but trust me, it will make you tougher!:D)

Basically this is rice porridge with Soto Sauce, it’s not so simple to make but trust me, it’s not THAT difficult. If you want to save some energy and get double result, I suggest you make Chicken Soto, put aside some of the broth and make it thicker, and serve it for the porridge. Keep them in the fridge so you’ll get Soto and Chicken Porridge ready for a couple of meal times :)

Ingredients:

For the porridge:

Rice about 2 cups

2 or 3 liters of water, just add when you feel your porridge needs them

A sprinkle of salt

3 Indonesian Bay Leaves (Daun Salam)

For the yellow sauce:

4 or 5 shallots ( I used one big onion or bawang bombay)

6 cloves of garlic

2cm turmeric

2cm blue ginger (laos)

1cm ginger

2tsp coriander

5 candlenuts

Salt, white pepper, lemon juice, sugar to taste

2 or 3 kafir lime leaves

2 stalks of lemon grass, crush the white bottom

About 10 pieces of chicken necks for the stock. I know this sounds a bit scary, but that’s the cheapest and easiest way to get a real chicken stock for me here, instead of buying the whole chicken only for the stock :D

For the topping:

1 fillet of chicken breast (boil along with the chicken broth)

Cakue (you can buy in the Asia store, my friend said it’s in the freezer section – will definitely try it next time)

Fried soy bean (I didn’t have it and it was too cold to go out, but next time will get it :D)

2 stalks spring onion and celery, finely sliced

Fried onion

Melinjo creakers (Emping) and Shrimp Creakers

Boiled Egg (if you want ;D)

How to:

Cook the rice with the water and bay leaves until you get the porridge with the nice texture. I suggest just used cooked rice to cut the times shorter.

Grind the shallots, garlic, turmeric, ginger, blue ginger, coriander and candlenuts into a paste, sauté the paste with two or three table spoon of cooking oil until it smells good. I added kafir lime leaves and lemon grass too and stir fry them again until it smells good.

Add the chicken necks and the chicken, stir fry for a while and add 1 or 2 liters of water. Bring to boil (you can use high heat) and after some times, lower the heat and boil the stock for another one hour until the chicken become soft. Personally, I don’t eat chicken neck. I fear them. But my husband loves it so I will cook them until they are soft and bitable.

Shred the chicken breast – if you cook it until very soft, you don’t have to shred it, just press it with a fork and it will be shredded :)

Serve porridge in a bowl, add yellow sauce (the chicken broth), shredded chicken, sliced spring onion, Asian celery, fried onion, fried soybean, cakue, and the crackers.

The original Abang-abang (Porridge man) will use a kind of salty soya sauce, which taste differently with the one we buy at the store. So this recipe doesn’t make the porridge exactly taste like theirs (and I always wonder why), but it is close enough and it can make our family happy :)