Chili, a HOT commodity

The title of this post is not pun intended. In-deed, recently chili has become a HOT commodity in my country both literally and figuratively. Since the end of 2010, the price of chili has gone through the roof. Reaching an impressive IDR 100,000 (US $ 11.1) per kilogram, or five times its normal price and more than the price of chicken meat, it has truly become a hot commodity on dining table and in kitchens of most people in my country.



In less than one week, I already noticed more than 3 articles about this ‘hot commodity’ on headlines of Jakarta Post, one of the local newspapers. Both newspapers and social networking sites have been flooded with ironic messages and posts about chilies. Let me quote some interesting statements:


‘Asnidar is willing to sacrifice her family’s meat consumption in order to keep chili on the table. Chili is our staple food, not rice or meat, she said.’


‘Housewife Desi Octaviani said her family had replaced the hot flavor of chili with pepper’


‘The chili shortage hit lovers of fried snacks particularly hard. On a good day, fried snack vendors are generous in handing out fresh chilies as a complement. Now for 10 pieces of fried-snacks, the vendors only give 3 pieces of chili, tiny ones, told by office worker Rachmadin.’


‘Adisya said that the food at her favorite restaurants had dulled although it still contained chili. The taste is less spicy because they put more tomotoes in it.’


‘Rising chili prices have given us a chance to explore other Indonesian flavors, wrote Bondan Winarno, culinary expert.’


‘In Banyumas, Central Java, food traders tried their best to provide the usual menu at the same price. “We feel sorry for our customers because we cannot provide sambal (chili paste) for them,” Sumini said’.


People in Indonesia hardly go without eating fiery dishes during mealtimes. The hottest condiment known as ‘sambal’ or chili paste is a must-have accompaniment for every meal.

Life without sambal would be so plain for me and I think also for millions of other Indonesians. Imagine life for Koreans without kimchi, Americans without hamburger or Mexicans without tortillas. That is how it has felt for a large number of people in my country over the past few weeks.


Now let’s take a closer look at Indonesia’s treasure chest of Sambals:


Sambal is served as a condiment and as an ingredient for a variety of dishes. It is sometimes a substitute for fresh chilies. It can be extremely spicy for the uninitiated. It is common to find bowls of different sambals on the dining table in Indonesian homes.


Some popular Indonesian sambals include sambal terasi (shrimp paste sambal), sambal bajak, sambal mangga (green mango sambal), sambal ijo (green sambal), sambal balado, sambal kecap (sweet soy sauce sambal), sambal setan, sambal Taliwang, sambal matah and many more.


Sambal Terasi

A common Indonesian style of sambal. Terasi (shrimp paste) is similar to the Malaysian Belacan, but with a stronger flavor since terasi is a more condensed shrimp paste than belacan.


Sambal Bajak

Chili (or another kind of red pepper) fried with oil, garlic, terasi, candlenuts and other condiments


Sambal mangga

Freshly ground Sambal Terasi with shredded young mango; this is a good accompaniment to seafood.


Sambal ijo

A specialty of the Padang area from Indonesia, the sambal is green, made of green tomatoes, green chilli, and spices. The sambal is stir fried.


Sambal Balado

This is the Padang style of Sambal. Red chili pepper is blended together with garlic, shallot, tomato, salt and lemon or lime juice, then sauteed with oil.


Sambal Kecap Manis

Indonesian sweet soy sauce, chili, shallots and lime it has a chiefly sweet taste, as said by the Indonesian word ‘manis’ which means ‘sweet’.


Sambal Setan

A very hot sambal with Madame Jeanette peppers (red brownish, very sharp). The name literally means “Devil’s Sauce”.


Sambal Taliwang

This variant is native to Taliwang, a village near Mataram, Lombok Island, and is made from naga jolokia pepper grown specially in Lombok mixed with garlic and Lombok shrimp paste. It is served as condiments to ayam bakar Taliwang (Taliwang grilled chikcen)


Sambal matah

Raw Shallot & Lemongrass Sambal of Bali origin. It contains a lot of finely chopped shallots, chopped bird’s eye chilli, shrimp paste (terasi), with a dash of lemon.



There are still many other types of sambals ….. but for today, let me close this post by quoting Bondan Winarno, a culinary expert who asked people to look at the brighter side: ‘Rising chili prices have given us a chance to explore other Indonesian flavors. There are other hot flavors such as pepper, andaliman (szechuan peppercorn) and ginger’.


So perhaps it isn’t the end of the world after all for all lovers of chili in Indonesia.

New Year's Day

New Year 2011 is here. For some people New Year is no more than a change of a calendar while for some others the New Year symbolizes of a better tomorrow.


And every new year many people make resolutions to change something they believe are negative or set new goals or to live healthier, to learn new things, to lose weight ……you name it.

I respect those who make new year resolution but for myself I agree with a quote (Anonymous) I found in About.com: A New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one Year and out the other.


For me, the New Year is like the New Year wish of Edith Lovejoy Pierce:


We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called “Opportunity” and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.


And here is the first post of my Blog in 2011…….


I know that we have left the old year and entered a new year but for some of us the memories of 2010 are still there in our minds and hearts. And for me, one of my bitter sweet memories of 2010 was our new years eve dinner.



Before New Years Eve (NYE) I have made plan to cook a special dinner for my family. But in life sometimes things don’t go as we planned and this happened to my NYE family dinner.


On the last week of 2010, I still had to work and took care of lots of thing at the office related to ‘closing the book’. I did not have enough time to do proper shopping. I only managed to do last minute shopping on my way home from the office on the last day of 2010. To my disappointment, some important and necessary ingredients needed to cook my NYE dinner were not available at the store where I shopped.


Guess what happened to my NYE dinner:

My plan was to have cantaloupe in the blanket (prosciutto wrapped canteloupe) for starter, spaghetti aglio e olio with bacon and chili for the main course and caramelized banana split with ice cream for dessert but I ended up with a quite different menu:

For starter, I cooked ‘Angeun Kacang Beureum’ (Spicy Red Kidney Bean Soup), a local dish from West Java instead of cantaloupe in the blanket  since I could not find the canteloupe but found a can of red kidney beans in my kitchen cabinet.  

Ingredients:

• 1 can of red kidney beans (around 400 grams)
• 1 liter water
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 big onion, coarsely sliced
• 1 tablespoon tamarind juice
• ½ teaspoon dried shrimp paste, roasted
• pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon palm sugar, shaved
• 2 cm galangal, sliced
• 2 salam leaves
• 1 tomato, diced into cubes
• 1 spring onion, cut into 2 cm
• 5 bird’s eye chilies

How to make:

• Cook the beef in 1 liter water until tender
• Add in all ingredients except tomato and spring onion and cook over low heat until the red kidney beans softened and the soup is thickened
• Add spring onions and tomato and cook for a few minutes
• Remove from heat
• Place in a bowl and serve immediately

For the main course, instead of cooking Spaghetti Aglio e Olio with Bacon and Chili as planned, I ended up buying a RTE (ready-to-eat) Chicken Rotisserie coz I simply did not have the energy to prepare the spaghetti. Fortunately, I could get the recipe of the chicken rotisserie from the store who sold it.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole fryer chicken
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoon honey
• 2 tablespoon lime juice
• 2 tablespoons rosemary leaves
• seasoned salt to taste

How to make:

• Combine all ingredients, except the chicken of course, in a saucepan over medium heat.
• Mix until honey is completely melted and mixture is smooth.
• Clean and prepare chicken for rotisserie.
• Baste chicken with sauce and place on rotisserie on preheated grill.
• Cook for about 45 to 50 minutes at a temperature around 200 degrees Celcius basting occasionally with sauce.
• When done remove from grill and wrap tightly in foil.
• Let sit for about 15 minutes, then serve.

The only dish that I prepared inline with my plan was the dessert – Caramelized Banana Split with Ice Cream:


Ingredients:

• 1 banana (I used the big banana called ‘pisang tanduk’ or literally is translated ‘horn banana’). According to Wikipedia it’s called Musa African Rhino Horn, a cultivar of genus Musa found in Africa. It produces rhino tusk-shaped edible bananas.

• 50 gram unsalted butter
• 30 gram brown sugar or shaved palm sugar

How to make:

• Peel the banana
• Cut the banana into 2 parts
• Each part is then cut lengthwise into 2 parts

• Melt butter in the pan
• Fry the banana and caramelized with brown sugar

 
  Serve with ice cream

So that was my NYE dinner menu……and let me close this post by quoting G.K Chesterton: the object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul.

Simply Having Wonderful Christmastime

I am sure you all know that Wonderful Christmastime is a 1979 Christmas song by Paul McCartney. It enjoys significant Christmas time popularity around the world. McCartney recorded the song entirely on his own during the sessions for his solo project McCartney II.

This post is not to discuss about this song but I think ‘Simply Having Wonderful Christmas Time’ is just what we need during this time of the year. Most of us have a busy and demanding life and it is often hard to find the time to really appreciate the importance of capturing the Christmas Spirit.


Why Wonderful Christmas Time?


Christmas is a season of joy and peace, sharing and giving. A period to to show love and spend time with our loved ones.


For me, one particularly wonderful thing about Christmas was that I had the opportunity of cooking dishes that we, Indonesian don’t normally cook at any other time of the year.


In addition to that, this year I could plan and prepare a special Christmas menu for my family:

• my version of smoked turkey salad complete with the salad dressing
• my version of pigs in the blanket (bacon wrapped sausages)
• my version of mighty meaty meatloaf complete with its glazing and sauce
• my version of baked pumpkin
• seedless grapes
• Christmas cup cakes

I spent FIVE hours working in the kitchen to cook and ‘create’ my version of all these Christmas dishes myself except the cup cakes (I bought them in one of the famous cup cake stores in Jakarta) and the seedless grapes.

Here I would like to share with you my special Christmas dishes:


My Smoked Turkey Salad


Ingredients

• 2 big red tomatoes, deseeded and thickly sliced, length-wise
• 2 red bell peppers, deseeded and thickly sliced, length-wise
• 250 grams lettuce, coarsely chopped
• one whole big onion, thinly sliced, rounded
• 200 grams smoked turkey, thinly sliced

The Salad Dressing:

• 1/2 cup of olive oil
• 3 lemons, cut into half, squeezed to get the juice
• Pour the lemon juice into the olive oil
• Stir well to combine
• Add salt and pepper

My Pigs in the Blanket


Ingredients:

• 12 cocktail pork sausages
• 6 slices streaky bacon

Preparation:

• Heat the oven to 180C/Gas 5
• Using the back of a knife stretch each bacon slice then cut into 2 equal pieces.
• Tightly wrap each sausage with a piece of bacon.
• Use tooth pick to secure the wrapping
• Lay side by side on a baking tray.
• Cook in the preheated oven for 30 mins or until crisp and golden.

My Baked Pumpkin

Ingredients:

• 500 gram pumpkin flesh
• 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons of All Purpose Seasoning  (Note: All Purpose Seasoning contains 1 teaspoon dried leaf basil, crumbled, 1 teaspoon ground mace, 1 teaspoon dried marjoram,1 teaspoon ground cloves, 1 teaspoon dried leaf thyme, crumbled, 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1 teaspoon leaf oregano, crumbled, 1 teaspoon black pepper, 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes, 1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper, 1 teaspoon savory)

How to make:

• Preheat the oven to 180ºC/gas 5.
• Cut the lid off the pumpkin
• Scoop out the seeds with a spoon
• Coarsely chop the pumpkin flesh
• In a baking pan , pour in a splash of olive oil, then add the chopped pumpkin
• Add in the All Purpose Seasoning
• Bake the pumpkin for 10 minutes or so until the pumpkin has softened.

My Mighty Meaty Meatloaf


Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons of extra Virgin olive oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 3 tablespoons minced garlic
• salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 kg of ground beef
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup full cream milk
• 3 tablespoons of barbeque sauce (I use Delmonte)
• 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
• 2/3 cup fine dried bread crumbs

The Glaze:

• 1/2 cup barbeque sauce
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons Worchestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon hot chili sauce (optional)

Step by Step of Making Meatloaf:

• Position rack in center of oven and preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius
• Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.
• Add the onion, parsley, garlic, salt, basil, thyme, and black pepper.
• Cook, stirring, until the onions are soft and lightly golden, about 6 minutes.

• Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
• In a large mixing bowl, put the ground beef and smoothen with wooden spoon or with clean hands. Be sure to wash up afterward.

• In a medium mixing bowl, combine the eggs , full cream milk, barbeque sauce, dried basil, thyme, and Worcestershire sauce, and whisk to combine.

• Add the egg mixture to the meat mixture along with the cooled vegetables and bread crumbs.
• Mix with your hands or a wooden spoon until thoroughly combined.

• Transfer the mixture to a aluminum foil and using your fingers form into a loaf
• Using the wooden spoon, smooth the top into a rounded loaf shape. Wash hands again.

• To make the glaze, combine the barbeque sauce, brown sugar, Worcestershire, and hot chili sauce, if desired, in a small bowl.
• Stir to blend

• Spread the mixture evenly over the top of the meatloaf.

• Bake the meatloaf for 45 minutes to 1 hour .

To make the meatloaf sauce:

• using oven mitts or pot holders, carefully tilt the meatloaf pan away from you and drain off the excess grease from the pan and move it into a sauce pan
• Add in 3 tablespoons barbeque sauce
• Add in 2 tablespoons of Worchestershire sauce
• Cook and stir well for around 2 minutes

It turned out that the FIVE hours labor of LOVE spent in the kitchen was so fruitful. All my special Christmas dishes were successfully done as planned. My family members loved and enjoyed all of them, they even finished EVERYTHING!

And while we were busy eating our Christmas meal, the youngest member of our family, Miu Miu, came to join us as our very special Miss Santa …….

I felt exactly like the McCartney’s song….the mood is right, the spirits up, were here tonight, and that’s enough …….. simply having wonderful Christmas time.

Christmas, the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year is a popular Christmas song written in 1963 by Eddie Pola and George Wyle. It was recorded and released that year by pop singer Andy Williams or his first Christmas album, The Andy Williams Christmas Album.

BUT according to a Psychology Today article, some 45% of us are not thinking it is the most wonderful time of the year, as the old Andy Williams song goes. Sadly, to some people the “most wonderful time of the year” has become the most stressful time of the year due to over commercialization of the Christmas holiday.


Whether or not you are religious, Christmas is a beautiful time meant to be enjoyed by everyone. Let’s try to focus on the original message of Christmas: love and joy – things we all strive for – by appreciating the most important aspect of Christmas, which is time spent with our loved ones. I believe that the things that matter most are things that money cannot buy.


Every country and culture across the world has its own way of celebrating Christmas. One factor that unites Christmas celebrations everywhere is that they are undoubtedly a family affair


How about Christmas in my country?


Though we live in a part of the world that doesn’t see snow, located far from Santa’s radar where the majority of the population would find trees in the living room illogical, Christmas remains one of the the most sought after holidays in Indonesia.

Christmas trees adorned with decorations and even fake snow have been erected, and Santa Clauses appear in many shopping malls in the city presenting a Christmas ambiance.

Similar to other countries, what makes Christmas a special celebration in my country is its focus on family and togetherness. Spend time with the entire family in the kitchen surely will be a wonderful time. It certainly does not matter how big, small, fancy or not, the kitchen is. As long as it is filled with love, it will draw our loved ones in.


Kitchen is the LOVE center of any home


The kitchen is the perfect place for making memories. When we spend time cooking and enjoying meals with our family, we create happy memories that will be cherished forever.

You are lucky if you can cook the best Christmas meals with every member of the family sitting at the dining table for a memorable dinner.


The benefits of preparing and enjoying food as a family are clear. We save money and eat healthier meals. We create opportunities to connect and communicate with our family. And most importantly, we show love for our family when we spend time cooking and eating with them.


Christmas is all about nostalgia and memories. Many of us have traditions that go back years, if not generations. What foods must be on the table every single year? No matter where you live or how old you are, Christmas from your childhood have a special glow about them. And food always plays a part in these memories.


It’s important to have your own family traditions. A tradition doesn’t have to be fancy, complicated or expensive; it just has to be memorable. That’s what the holidays are all about


Here are traditional Christmas foods in my country:


Pork satay

Brenebon (Red kidney bean soup with garlic and ribs)

Layer Cake

Klapertart

Kaastengel

Nanas Tart

Get together with our loved ones with such delicious traditional Christmas foods on the table, surely we will agree with Andy Williams that Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year.