Penne with mixed veggie and italian sausage September 23, 2006

Today’s dinner, Penne with lots of vegetables and Italian sausage, in Spinach Tomato Sauce. It is store bought sauce (classico). Cook penne, set aside. Cook Italian sausage, slice, and set aside.

Heat up a pan, add 1 tbs olive oil. Then add mixed vegetables (chopped garlic, red onions, broccoli, green pepper, zucchini, tomatoes, carrots, mushrooms). Add a bit water to cook the vegetables, add back sausages, then penne. Then add sauce, mix well.. Serve with parmesan cheese and cracked black pepper.

Steak dinner and sweet dumpling September 16, 2006

I’ve been wanting to eat steak for quite a while. I didn’t do anything fancy. I only use olive oil and montreal steak seasonings. Then pan fried them for 6 min on each side. Let it rest for 10 min. All the bits in the pans, deglaze it with beef stock, let it reduced.. and drizzle on steaks.  
   
For dessert, sweet dumplings.. Use regular dumpling wrapper, fill it with banana, chocolate sprinkles (or chopped baking chocolate), chopped nuts, and cheddar cheese. Then deep fried/pan fried them. Sprinkle it with cinnamon sugar, and serve.. yummy. For more adult taste, you can soak the banana with a bit of rum beforehand.

 

Note: I know it is strange for a lot of people to combine chocolate and cheddar cheese. But it is a very popular combination in Indonesia.

Tofu Marinara Pasta September 16, 2006

 

I had asian style pasta years ago and feel like tasting it again. It is tofu marinara pasta.

Instead of parmesan cheese, I use nori goma furikake for the sprinkles. I also use soy sauce to salt the marinara sauce. 

Believe it or not, it works.

(Sept 14th Dinner, forgot to post that day)

Power Lunch September 16, 2006

Once in a while, we’re giving ourselves a treat. It’s called the ‘power lunch’. Bacon wrapped hotdog, served with grilled onion, peppers, and mushrooms. On top of that, some squirts of dijon mustard, ketchup, and mayo.. mmm… If I’m going to eat some serious fat, I am making sure that it’s worth every bite.

    

mini Spam Musubi September 13, 2006

Trying to make cute things with minimum work. Today’s bento:

• mini Spam Musubi. Basically it’s spam, rice, nori, and a bit of teriyaki sauce (store-bought)
• Fried Eggs
• Spaghetti Salad
• Left over hash beef

Hash beef and fried ebi bento September 12, 2006

Feel like making special bento for tomorrow. I use ‘hash beef’ instant roux available in the store (glico). Just follow the direction, I add lots of onions, and mushrooms. For fried ebi, very basic seasoning. I marinate the shrimp for 15 min in soy sauce, sake, and white pepper, then go into corn starch, egg, panko, hot oil.. hhhot. Serve it mayo and tonkatsu sauce.

Nasi Goreng September 8, 2006

It’s Friday. I thought I will put an extra effort today to make Nasi Goreng since my sweetie’s been asking for it for a while.

I put lots of shrimps and eggs, yum yum, and I’m also putting in chicken sprinkle from the left over. At least today, I won’t have to handle raw chicken, all done yesterday.

We don’t normally put veggies in our fried rice (like carrots/peas/celery/lettuce) . If we add veggie, that will be either bean sprout/cabbage. Usually we serve veggies on the side.

It’s all worth it.

3-Color Rice September 7, 2006

Today’s dinner, I am making one chicken dish ‘Mom’s Chicken Sprinkle’. Also, I am using leftover from california rolls yesterday, and making quick imitation crab salad. After work, I don’t have a lot of energy left. Therefore, I am looking for ways to reuse one type of dish for something else. So that I can make a big batch but won’t feel like eating the same dish everyday.

    

For tomorrow’s lunch, I’m making 3-Color Rice.

I got the inspiration from Japanese bento. In Japanese version, usually it has salmon, spinach, and egg sprinkles.

I am reusing the chicken sprinkle, adding scramble eggs. I don’t have spinach, but I always keep frozen peas in my freezer. All I need is blanching the green peas. I am not adding any salt to the peas cause there’s enough salt in the chicken and eggs.

For the little thing on the side, it’s always good to have extra fruits and vegetables.

Practice sushi September 6, 2006

We went to H-Mart (Korean Market) closest to our home to do some groceries. I love going there for they have good quality seafood, meat, and vegetables. Also, it is only within 10 min drive.

Suddenly I had the crave for sashimi when I saw the salmon. I bought the sushi grade salmon, sliced them up, and made some california rolls. I still need to practice a lot on my rolling. 

I wasn’t planning to make lunch. But then, I changed my mind. I remembered I still got the left over chicken from soto ayam and some chinese broccoli that I prep already in the fridge.

I made fried chicken out of the left over. It was already ‘marinated’ in the soto soup for over a day.. mm.. Take the chicken out of the soup (pat dry with paper towel), heat the oil, fry only to crisp the skin (remember the chicken is already cooked).

 

 

Bento:Turmeric Fried Chicken and Stir Fry Chinese Broccoli

Long weekend is almost over September 4, 2006

My Mom always cooks something special during holidays. She usually makes steamed fish, buttery prawns, and beef with chinese broccoli. I prep for chinese broccoli, but I just don’t have the energy to defrost the beef. I just stir fry some bean sprout for our veggie today.

          

What’s for dinner? I make ”Soto Ayam”. I make quite a lot of them so that tomorrow I don’t need to cook. I also fry some Indonesian shrimp chips (left), to make “poya”. I know it sounds language from other planet (soto, poya, shrimp chips), I’ll do my best to explain them in the recipe page.

    

It’s not normally how we present ‘Soto’. We would shred the chicken, not serve them with bone-in. I am just too lazy today to do that, maybe tomorrow night. Good thing about Indonesian food, you don’t need to serve it immediately, it tastes just as great the next day, sometimes even better.