Shiitake and Pumpkin Ravioli

I'm cleaning out my cabinets (as well as the freezer and fridge) this week because.. wait for it... Tim and I are moving to Bangkok, Thailand.  Woo!  More details to come soon over at the other blog.  For purposes of this blog, moving means cooking and eating through the substantial pantry I have built up over the past couple years here in Jakarta.  This meal made a dent, taking care of: a can of pumpkin, half a container of walnuts, parmesan cheese, and a pack of gyoza wrappers from the freezer.

I used this recipe for shiitake and pumpkin ravioli, although I changed it up a teeny bit, using regular soy sauce in lieu of tamari and rosemary in lieu of sage.  Also, for the sauce, I browned the butter with a handful of chopped walnuts and minced rosemary.  Awesomesauce.  Literally.

I highly recommend this recipe- it's super easy and quite a tasty delight.  The sweetness from the pumpkin is great with the savory/umami of the mushrooms and soy.  Perfect!

Sambal Chicken Skewers with Pineapple Jicama Salsa

I know, I know... another sambal-centric dish.  But, in my defense, these dishes were eaten a month apart, only blogged right in a row. Furthermore, this Bon Appetit recipe made the cover of the July issue, so the juicy chicken was just staring at me constantly from the coffee table, tempting me.  It had to be made.

A simple, tasty marinade/sauce for BBQ chicken, for sure.  However, for me, like in the case of the sambal/banana/shrimp dish, my Indonesian sambal (labeled "EXTRA PEDAS") was a bit too spicy... I think the heat from the stuff I buy here is several notches higher than the sambal oelek you get in the U.S.   Tim and I had a couple coughing fits while eating this (which may also be partially due to the fact that I cooked this chicken on the cast iron grill pan inside, being too lazy to wait for the charcoal to heat up outside). We did think the flavor was nice despite the excessive heat, though.

I served the chicken with a side of cooling pineapple-jicama salsa and some lime and cilantro couscous.  I think the salsa was the big hit of the night: crunchy, fresh, a little sweet, super healthy... give this recipe a try for sure!

Shrimp with Sambal and Banana

Right before heading out on our 'round the world trip, the Real Martha cooked up this tasty dish that combined unusual ingredients (shrimp, overripe bananas and sambal?).  Before she made it I tried to convince her to make something else, assuring her that she would eat more rice and sambal than she ever dreamed of when in Indonesia, but she had seen this recipe on the Food Network and was itching to make it...  I'm glad she did because it came out pretty tasty!  An interesting mix of sweet, spicy and savory.

Definitely a good use for bananas that have sneakily gone overripe (other than making a variety of banana shakes).  The Indonesian sambal we used may have been a bit too spicy, but that's easily remedied by leaving a little bit out next time.  I bet chicken, tofu or tempeh would work well in lieu of the shrimp, too.

Chocolate Ricotta Pie

Mmmmm... this pie is good.

Tim and I had some leftover ricotta after making lasagna over the weekend.  I wanted to do something sweet with it (visions of cannoli dancing in my head... but that's too complicated for a weeknight), so I did some Googling and found this well-reviewed Giada recipe for chocolate ricotta pie.  I made a couple substitutions... almonds instead of pine nuts [much cheaper], milk chocolate instead of semi-sweet [it's all I had at the house] and I decreased the amount of simple syrup in light of the milk chocolate substitution.

Tim and I really liked it... the filling is creamy and light and the crust has a nice nutty crunch from the almonds and cornmeal.  Good stuff.  This would make a good fancy looking but not actually hard to make dish for a dinner party or holiday.

Granola Bars: Finally, a Winner!!

I have made what seems like endless granola bars, searching for the perfect combination of taste and texture...  usually the recipes are good in one department and not so much in the other.   This recipe, though, is a winner on both counts.  Chewy and crunchy (not too sticky or crumbly), sweet, salty and nutty.  Mmmm.  Thanks, Ina.

I made them last minute (hence the blurry airport cell phone pic) as a travel snack for our looooong one taxi-two flights-one car-two boats journey to Bunaken... good stuff.

Pea and Bacon Risotto

Mmmm... this pea and bacon risotto recipe is a winner.  I like how some of the peas are kept whole and some are pureed and mixed into the rice to ensure the flavor is spread throughout the dish.  Plus, the fresh, green pea flavor is complimented by the smokey, meaty bacon and the lemon juice at the end brightens it all up.  Good stuff from Food & Wine. 

Bulgur Maple Breakfast Cereal

I recently came into what I think is bulgur wheat from some friends who moved on from Jakarta to greener pastures (Hi Brooke and Rob! Miss you!)... it came in an unmarked (but for a stylized drawing of what looks like a wheat stalk) bag, but looked fairly bulgur-y, if that's a thing.  

I've used bulgur a little bit in the past... tabbouleh, Moroccan spiced stuffed squash, bulgur and ricotta pancakes... but was intrigued by this idea I saw in last week's NY Times for a maple bulgur breakfast porridge.  

I always think the concept of oatmeal is nice: a hearty, warm bowl of breakfast goodness.  But in reality I find oatmeal to be kinda gluey and gross.  The texture of this bulgur wheat porridge is better somehow... it's got a creaminess, but the little bits of wheat retain some appealing bite and pop.  Add a hint of smokey sweet maple flavor?  Pretty awesome.

I followed the super simple NY Times directions to a T (soaking the bulgur overnight in hot water then cooking it briefly in milk in the morning), but switched up the accoutrements, using quartered strawberries and roughly chopped almonds in place of the blueberries and pecans.  Yum.  As an experiment, I also tried Martha Stewart's cook it all at once methodology, but I found the overnight method creamier and more appealing.

Chipotle White Bean Dip

Bored with hummus?  Me too.

Hummus seems to have turned into the staple party snack.  I have nothing against it, I mean, I love hummus, but I think it's become somewhat overdone as a snack and party dip.   

Here's an awesome alternative: chipotle white bean dip. 

Similar to hummus in the sense that its base is a bean and it's got some garlic and olive oil, but this dip is jazzed up with chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, lime juice, cilantro, and cumin.  It's awesome as a dip for salty chips or fresh veggies- fresh and zingy, smokey with a hint of spicy...  good stuff.  And good for you, too!

 I used this recipe as my general inspiration, but altered the ratios to suit my tastes.  One can of white beans, two chipotle peppers, juice of 3 limes (although I am using the tiny Indonesian jeruk nipis, which is probably equivalent to one or one and a half regular limes), about 3/4 teaspoon of cumin, a tablespoon of olive oil, a handful of cilantro, one grated garlic clove and salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

English Muffin Bread

I stumbled on this English muffin bread recipe the other day and decided that I neeeeeeeeded to make it ASAP.  I haven't had English muffins in about a year and a half, whereas when I was in the States, they were a breakfast staple...

The recipe was super simple: no knead, basic ingredients... however, I think it was perhaps a little too good to be true.  It toasts well and has an English muffin-y flavor, but is not quite right texturally.  My bread came out too dense for my taste, and didn't replicate the nooks and crannies of a good English muffin, which is really what I was hoping for.

This recipe, however disappointing, did spark my interest in making legit English muffins, though.  The kind that are cooked on a griddle with cornmeal.  Alton Brown's recipe has rave reviews.... perhaps my next project?  Gotta get me some milk powder first.  Because nothing beats an egg sandwich on an English muffin, although an egg sandwich on a biscuit is a close second.

Guava Frozen Yogurt

After our last frozen treat ended up being a bit of a disappointment, we needed some chilled redemption in the form of frozen yogurt. 

I made guava paste with fresh guava and sugar, then stirred some of it into plain yogurt to sweeten it up.  I froze the yogurt in the ice cream maker, then layered it with additional guava paste to make a pink swirl throughout. 

Tart and tasty!  It got a little bit icy, but a few seconds on the counter before scooping solved that.

Ginger Lime Fizz

Erin (you may remember her as Mr. Ben's lovely wife) was in town for work last week, so I had her over for dinner.  I whipped up a couple old favorites, Moroccan spiced chickpea soup and salty sesame chocolate chip cookies.  I wanted to make a fun drink, but since Erin is pregnant, it had to be an alcohol-free mocktail.

A riff on my favorite, the gin rickey, this ginger lime fizz drink replaces the herby gin with a spicy and sweet ginger simple syrup and pairs it with lime juice.  It's pretty awesome...  a little bit like ginger beer with a hint of lime.  The way I mixed it was by the glass rather than in a large pitcher... I found the ratio of 3 tablespoons ginger simple syrup to 2 tablespoons lime juice to 3/4 cup soda water to glass full of ice tasted just right.

This drink would be perfectly refreshing for a summertime baby shower, next to some apple green tea mint punch.  Bonus: cooking the ginger simple syrup infuses the air in your house with an amazing ginger scented air freshener.

Coconut Energy Bars

I keep seeing all of these copycat energy bar recipes floating around the internet lately... many different variations on the same theme: 

nuts + dried fruit (usually dates) + extra flavorings x a quick zip in the food processor = 

raw energy bars similar to Larabars

I thought these might be a good grab-and-go breakfast option for me and Tim.  We've been exercising in the mornings before he heads to work and I start my work-from-home routine, but since we're not very good at getting up early, there's not a lot of time in between for a sit down breakfast of any sort.

I decided to use this recipe for chocolate and coconut flavored energy bars.  Unfortunately, it was a bit of a bust and required much troubleshooting to achieve the ultimate product.  The recipe calls for dates (Medjool, but I used Deglet Noor, which perhaps was part of the problem), nuts (almonds and walnuts), dried unsweetened coconut and cocoa powder.   The ratios (dry to wet) seemed to be off for me, though, as my final product was much too dry and very crumbly:

I had to almost double the amount of dates in order to get a sticky enough consistency to form the bars.  Plus a couple tablespoons of honey, just in case:

In the end, we liked them ok, but we want to try one of the other recipes for a different flavor combination.  I think I was hoping for a little more chocolate flavor myself.  I'll definitely give it another try.  Perhaps chocolate chip?  Or peanut butter chocolate?

Maple Coconut Granola

While in the U.S., I picked up a copy of the new cookbook from Deb Perelman (the blogger behind my go-to recipe source, Smitten Kitchen)... good stuff!  Her photos are beautiful and the recipes look like they stay true to her trusty simple/easy/beautiful style.

 

Tim and I are trying to make morning workouts and breakfast more of a priority in the new year (especially after recently overindulging in all of the things we rarely get here, including pork products and good booze), so I am on the hunt for fun and healthy breakfast options.  Deb's book had just such an offering: homemade maple granola.  Yum. Paired with tart yogurt, fresh passionfruit (markisa here in Indonesia) and a banana, it's a pretty healthy and satisfying breakfast.

The recipe doesn't require anything too crazy... oats, dried coconut (unsweetened), maple syrup, wheat germ, walnuts, a hint of cinnamon.  It uses an egg white to stick everything together and achieve the large clumps/clusters that Deb was striving for.... somehow that didn't work out for me, but I think perhaps my Indonesian eggs are smaller than the typical American egg.  Alternatively, it may be because I overloaded my mini baking sheet in my mini oven.  In any case, I did not get clusters, but I'm not too worried about it because it tastes great- crunchy, nutty and a little sweet.

Peppermint Ice Cream

I have been going a little bit Christmas crazy in my head for some reason this year... purposefully listening to Christmas music (not something I normally do), repeatedly viewing this gem featuring Jimmy Fallon, Mariah Carey and the Roots (love it), craving cookies (trying not to eat them), trying to convince Tim to sit on Indonesian Santa's lap for a photo opp at our local mall (unsuccessfully)...  not sure what it is.  Perhaps the anticipation of being in the U.S. for the first time in 14 months?

Anywho, I've been craving creamy pink, pepperminty, candy caney ice cream- the kind with the little candy bits in it. I found some candy canes here in Jakarta, have some peppermint extract that Meghan and Liz brought me back when they visited, and found a recipe from sources I trust (Simply Recipes using a David Lebovitz technique), so I had a go at it.  

Peppermint cce cream: success. Creamy, minty and awesome with chocolate sauce.  Can't wait to try it sandwiched between some chewy chocolate cookies.

Candy canes: FAIL.  Like many "western" things here in Jakarta, those candy canes were Not Quite Right (NQR, my most frequently used acronym these days).  Luckily I tasted them before adding them to the ice cream, because they were most definitely not peppermint flavored, despite their peppermint look.  Strawberry, perhaps?  Whatever flavor, it was gross, so these will be show candy canes, never to be eaten.  Sigh.

Creamy Pesto Parmesan Salad Dressing

I had a bunch of leftover homemade basil/cilantro/almond pesto that needed to be used up as well as a craving for a salad.  Did some Googling and came up with this creamy pesto parmesan salad dressing recipe that looked pretty good.  Apparently it's based on a well-loved and much sought-after recipe from the Old Spaghetti Factory.  I've never been to that restaurant, but the dressing sounded pretty nice.  

I put my own twist on it as follows, upping the pesto quantity and subbing in yogurt for the sour cream.  I like how it turned out- tangy, herby and a hint of cheesey. 

Creamy Pesto Parmesan Dressing

Adapted from SavorySweetLife.com

1/4 C plain, unsweetened yogurt

1/4 C mayonnaise

1/4 buttermilk (I mixed milk with a teaspoon of lime juice)

1 TBS finely grated parmesan

3 TBS pesto

Freshly grated black pepper

Mix, chill and pour over salad!

Stove-top Naan

Tim and I went to our favorite Indian restaurant last weekend for lunch.  We love the food there, but it's not somewhere we could feasibly go on a weekday, as we could be stuck in Jakarta traffic for 2 hours there and 2 hours back, possibly.  As such, I decided to also order some of my favorite dishes (chana masala and saag paneer) to go (dibungkus, which means wrapped up, a useful phrase to know) to eat later in the week.  

I was planning to make rice to accompany the leftovers, but honestly, we're a little sick of rice.  Naan it is, then!  I made this recipe from Aarti Sequeira, which is a simple stove-top version made in a cast iron pan and then brushed with butter at the end.  Pretty good! The dough is ridiculously sticky and I knew trying to use my rolling pin would be a disaster, so I shaped the loaves with my hands.  They're probably not as thin as they could be, but still quite awesome.

Leftover Cranberry Sauce?

Got leftover cranberry sauce?  If so, make these cranberry crumble bars.  Super easy and quite a big hit at the Thanksgiving party we went to in Jakarta...  they went slowly at first, but at the end of the party, as we were leaving, I had at least 6 people pull me over and tell me they were awesome.  Pretty ringing endorsement.

I used this cranberry crumble bar recipe from the November issue of Martha Stewart Living, which conveniently arrived here in Jakarta the day before Thanksgiving.  The recipe looked pretty easy and delicious, but I had to make a few changes out of necessity:

• First, a 9"x13" pan doesn't fit in my mini oven, so I decided to switch up the pans.  I went with my removeable bottom tart pan so I would end up with pie-shaped bars... I split the dough recipe into 2 and made 2 tarts, each cooked for 30 minutes. 
• I probably used 1 and a half cans of cranberry sauce between the 2 tarts, though.  
• Also, I substituted toasted, slivered almonds for the walnuts, which I couldn't find for some reason (the Real Martha thinks there is a walnut shortage of some sort this year- she says prices of walnuts have skyrocketed of late).

 

Crisp Cheddar Cheese Crackers

Also known as fancy homemade Cheez-its!  

I saw this recipe on Joy the Baker a few weeks ago and had a hankering that would not subside until I made them.  Cheez-its: another one of those things that I rarely bought in the U.S., but since I can't get them in Jakarta, I inexplicably crave them regularly.  I could probably get some sort of cheezy cracker here, but a lot of the crunchy cheese snacks made around here are just... not quite right.  And they have MSG in them, which gives them a weird after taste.

Flakey, cheesy, a little bit buttery... these rule.  They would be awesome with beers for happy hour.

And easy!  They literally have 5 ingredients: cheese, butter, flour, salt and pepper.  Mix, chill, roll, cut, bake, snack.

Pumpkin Mousse with Maple Creme Fraiche

I wasn't sure what I could do with half a cup of canned pumpkin leftover from my pumpkin and white chocolate bars, but this recipe sounded too good not to try: pumpkin mousse with maple creme fraiche.

While not particularly difficult, you should probably get your whisking arm and several bowls ready, as the mousse has 3 different ingredients that get a thorough whisking: egg yolks, egg whites, and cream. 

The recipe was quite tasty- the maple creme fraiche (which is like a super thick sour cream to me) was the kicker- so good!  Without it I think the mousse may have been a little bland despite all the spices, but together they were great.  I didn't make the gingersnaps as directed in the recipe, but instead crumbled some butter/almond cookies on top.  Also, I made a half recipe and was able to fill 3 dessert glasses with it (luckily, because I dropped one of them and still had two left for me and Tim!), so I think you could get six desserts out of the full recipe.

Eggplant Jeow

As I said, I've been hankering to make one of Laos' iconic jeows (dips) since we got back from Vientiane.

Jeow is served with basically every Lao meal... there are many different varieties and takes on jeow from around the country, but most recipes share the fact that the ingredients are grilled and imbued with a smoky flavor.  Typically, jeow is served with sticky rice, which is eaten by hand, picked out of the dish and rolled into little balls for dipping in the jeow (thusly).

Last night I finally had at it (i.e. remembered to soak the sticky rice 3 hours in advance) and made an eggplant jeow... kinda like a Lao baba ganoush, I'd say.  Smoky, salty, garlicky, a little spicy.  Good stuff.  Tim and I ate it with the traditional sticky rice accompaniment, but this stuff is multi-purpose; I could see it as an appetizer at a party, served with raw veggies, or better yet on toasted baguette slices rubbed with garlic. Next on my list: tomato jeow, which is like Lao salsa.

I used the recipe from the beautiful cookbook that I bought at the lovely Vientiane training restaurant, Makphet, called "From Honeybees to Pepperwood: Creative Lao Cooking with Friends."   I modified it somewhat as I went along, so below is the recipe with my changes noted in parentheses:

Grilled Eggplant Dip

Jeow Mak Kena

Adapted from "From Honeybees to Pepperwood: Creative Lao Cooking with Friends"

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

- 500 grams of Japanenese eggplant 

(I used 4 of the long skinny purple ones)

- 6 shallots 

(skin on... also, I used 6 of the tiny Asian shallots- if you're using the big French shallots, made only use 3)

- 10 garlic cloves (skin on)

- 10 chilies 

(I used 10 of the cabe merah besar, big, red, fairly mild chilies... maybe the U.S. equivalent is Serrano?)

- 4 tbsp fish sauce 

(this seemed like a lot of fish sauce to me- a little fish sauce goes a long way- so I added it to taste and ended up with more like 2 tbsp)

- 1 tsp lime juice

- handful of cilantro leaves, minced

- salt to taste

Preparation:

1. Grill the eggplants, chilies, shallots and garlic until the skins are charred.  Remove from the grill and cool.

2. Peel eggplants, shallots and garlic and roughly chop (I also peeled the chilies).  Do not use water for peeling, as it will bog down the jeow.

3. Using a mortar and pestle (you could probably lightly pulse in the food processor, too), pound the chilies and (a pinch of) salt.  Add the shallots and garlic and grind until ingredients are crushed.

4. Add eggplants, lime juice and fish sauce, pound until well combined.

5. Finish by mixing in the cilantro.

6. Serve with sticky rice!