The Touch of Mother’s Love

All of us must have different experiences with Mother’s love. I know I have. They run like threads through my childhood. And it was my Mom’s love that made me took the first step of my cooking journey hence this blog as it was her who taught me to enjoy home meals.


Looking back to that childhood moment, feeling of warm and joy rise even now to meet me. I always felt safe and loved whenever I enjoyed my Mom’s cooking.

During my childhood, our country had for some years been struggling through economic difficulties. My father had meager salary and grocery money was scarce. We were fortunate that my Mom was excellent in managing the little money we had so that none of us, her children, felt the difficult situation. She was also a great cook. She knew how to prepare very simple dish in a way that made it seem like rare delicacy

One of the dishes my Mom often cooked for us during that difficult time was Vegetable Scramble Eggs or locally is called ‘Orak Arik’ which means scrambled. Orak Arik is a popular Javanese cooking. It was a very simple dish, the main ingredients were just vegetables and eggs. But it was the touch of my Mom’s love which made this simple dish into something special for us.

Here is the original of my Mom’s recipe of Orak Arik

Ingredients:

• 1/4 of medium size white cabbage, shredded
• 100 gram carrots, grated coarsely
• 2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
• 4 shallots, finely sliced
• 2 eggs
• 1 chicken cube, crushed into powder form
• Pinch of salt and pepper
• Vegetable oil

How to make:

• Heat the oil in wok on medium heat
• Stir fry the onion and garlic until fragrant
• Add in the white cabbage and carrots
• Continue to stir fry until the vegetables are tender-crisp

 

• Make a well in the center of the vegetables and drizzle in a teaspoon of oil before cracking the eggs into it

• Stir to scramble the eggs and combine with the vegetables

 

• Add the crushed chicken powder, stir and mix well
• Add salt and pepper, continue stirring for a few minutes
• Remove from heat
• Serve warm

When I cook this dish, I like to add  chopped bird’s eye chilies in the vegetable mix to give a kick .