Indonesian Corn Fritters a.k.a. Bakwan Jagung

Growing up, my grandma cook this often as side dish for lunch or dinner. Unlike American's corn fritters, this Indonesian version is more on the crispy side rather than chewy.

On the past, I tried cooking with canned corn, using the usual "approximate" recipe and it didn't turn out so well. I am tempted to cook this again after seeing my friend's picture of the dish on Instagram and she told me she was using real fresh corn so I gave this dish another try after finding fresh corn from Trader Joe's. It tasted so much better than my previous attempts but still didn't taste like my grandma's corn fritters. Since she passed away already, I asked my aunts thankfully they know exactly what's the missing ingredient: ground kempferia galanga (Indonesian: "kencur").
So I gave it another try:

Place all the ingredients, except the oil in a mixing bowl

Mix well while occasionally crush the corn ( I use potato masher if you don't have one, use wooden spatula and mortar and pestle )

Siomay Jambi

I fell in love with Siomay Jambi when my mother in law first brought it from Jambi, a small town in Indonesia where hubby grew up. The inside is mainly veggies and ground pork with little bit flour, which make it less filling than the more popular Siomay Bandung. 

First cut up the veggies: carrots, jicama, bamboo shoots, mushroom. 

Cook the inside

Soothing drink for cold

Whenever we are down with cough, sore throat, and congestion, my dad often reminded us to consume honey and lemon to soothe the pain. My friend, Carolina advised us to drink Chrysanthemum Tea as natural coolant while another friend suggested ginger drink and lo han kuo drink. I found all of the ingredients in the Asian Supermarket except for the raw honey, which I either buy at Costco of the farmer's market.  Here is my go to drink recipe to combat cold:

Cooking Indonesian Beef Stew a.k.a Rendang with Instapot

According to CNN' survey on 2017, Rendang is the world's most delicious food. How blessed I am to grow up eating this dish. I used to cook this using instant seasoning but out of so many brands, I only like one particular one. Unfortunately, our local Asian Supermarket no longer carry it so I had to make it from scratch. Turned out it is not that hard. I don't mind making it any day as long as I have chopper and instapot.

First thing first: cut the beef meat then brown them. Pressure cook it with beef bone and water for 35 minutes (or use the meat/ stew setting on Instapot)

Purple Yam / Taro Bread

My second born loves eating purple yam as snack. I usually just baked them in 375 degree Fahrenheit oven for 45 minutes. After that voila, it's ready to be eaten. When we went to Big Island couple years ago, we ate Hawaiian Taro Bread that we love so I thought of making that but using purple yam instead of taro. You can use taro if you prefer just add about 10 grams sugar since taro is not as sweet as purple yam. 

Just combine the bread ingredients in the kitchen aid or bread machine. Then add 100 grams of soft baked taro. Here is what the dough looks like after the kneading and first proofing: