Pindang Iga / Sweet, Sour & Spicy Ribs Soup

I remember that I cooked this food for my sister while she visited me in Seattle on December 2010, and I  she loved it a lot! and hubby also loves this dish. It's the perfect dish to eat for a rainy cold weather.
Unlike Balinese fishy pindang, this Javanese pindang is very different in taste. This Javanese pindang is sweet, sour and spicy, the unique combination of flavors will make your tongue dancing and keep wanting this food more and more.
This recipe was adapted from Masakan Indonesia Untuk Jamuan

Ingredients,
3 lbs pork neck bone + pork ribs
Olive oil

Sauce Ingredients A ---> blend all the ingredients in food processor
1 tbs galangal powder
1 tsp turmetic powder
1 thumb of ginger
1 handful of garlic

Sauce Ingredients B,
4 lemongrass, smash it.
1 handful bay leaves
2 handful of shallot, thinly sliced.
2 tsp dark tamarind paste, dilute it in 1 cup of hot water
5 ripe tomatoes, sliced large chunk
10 red jalapeno, halves
4 bird eye chili (optional, if you want it more spicy)
3 tbs sweet soy sauce
2 tsp Javanese brown sugar
salt

Cooking Method,
1. Wash the pork bone and pork feet, then soaked them in cold water for 20 minutes to drain the bloods. If you are in hurry, you can omit this step, I did it too sometimes.
2. Boil water on a big pot.
3. Put the pork bone and pork feet into the boiling water, let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes. Then you'll see the foam rise to the water surface. We don't want those dirty stuff.
4. Throw out the dirty water, rinse the pork bone one more time, rinse the pot, and put new water to the pot.
5. Boil the water with the pork bone in it one more time. Use High temperature
6. Add salt, half of the tomatoes, lemongrass and bay leaves, simmer until the pork bone is soft. Approximately 2 hours.
7. Heat another pan, heat the olive oil on medium high heat.
8. Add the sliced shallot into the new pan, pan fry until it get brownish. 
9. Add the sauce ingredient A and mix it with the shallot until fragrant.
10. Add the cooked mixture of shallots & sauce ingredients A into the soup.
11. Add the rest of the sauce ingredients B into the soup, simmer for another 30 minutes.
12. Keep tasting, the end result should be sweet, sour and spicy. 
13. Serve it with warm steam rice, the authentic Indonesian style :)

Sop Buntut / Oxtail Soup

Oxtail soup always reminds me of my younger brother. I remember that oxtail soup is one of his favorite dish and he always ask mom to buy him oxtail soup from a restaurant not far from our house. So, if we had oxtail soup at home, most likely it's because my brother requested it.
My mom doesn't cook oxtail soup, and even my master-chef grandma told me "if you want to cook oxtail soup, just use that instant spice pack, it's taste so good and so easy!". So I always been using the instant spice pack ever since. I even remember the very first time I cook oxtail soup, I didn't have any idea that I had to cook the soup for a long to achieve the tasty soup with tender meat. I only cooked it for 30 minutes, and the meat was so rubbery like sandals...lol. It was on 2006 in Seattle while I live together with my brother.
Last month, my friend Tess invite me over for dinner, and she cooked me oxtail soup. I asked her if she made the soup from scratch (not using instant spice pack", and she said yes. She told me that she only seasoned the soup with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Nutmeg is the key ingredient here.
Inspired by her oxtail soup, I recreate my own version of oxtail soup. It's very easy and delicious <3

Ps. I usually don't use measurement while I'm cooking, but for the purpose of writing this recipe, I measure every spices and ingredients used to cooked this soup. Enjoy!

Ingredients,
2.9 lbs fresh oxtail
5 carrots, peeled & sliced
3 stalk celery
1 big thumb of ginger, sliced
1/2 cabbage, chopped big sliced
1 tbs butter
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
7 tsp nutmeg
1tsp sugar
1 tsp white pepper

Sauce Ingredients A ---> blend all the ingredients in food processor
1 big onion
1 handful of garlic
2 handful of shallot

Garnish,
tomatoes, sliced
green onion, chopped.
lime, sliced.
fried shallot (bawang goreng)

Cooking Method,
1. Wash clean the oxtail, the  boil them in 12 cups of water for 20 minutes until it for the dirty foam. Remove the water, rinse the oxtail one more time.

2. Add 10 cup of cold water into the pan.
3. Add the oxtail and ginger, then bring to boil in high heat for 20 minutes.

4. Low the heat to simmer.
5. Add salt, pepper, sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon powder.
6. Simmer for 1 hour, close the lid.
7. After 1 hour, add the carrots, celery and cabbage (the cabbage wasn't in the picture).

8. Take another pan, heat the butter.

9. Pan fry the blended sauce ingredient A with the butter. Then add it into the soup.

10. Simmer for another 2-3 hours or until the meat is tender and easily falls off from the bone.
11. Put slices of fresh tomato on the bowl, then pour the oxtail soup.

12. Garnish the soup with some green onions, squeeze some lemon and sprinkle the fried shallot...bon apetit!!

Babi Rica-Rica / Pork in Spicy Rica-Rica Sauce

In Indonesia, we have so many different types of spicy foods, and this rica-rica style is originated from Manado region that is very famous for their delicious spicy foods. Rica-rica sauce is spicy, tangy, and very fragrant.
The most famous type of rica-rica is ayam rica-rica (chicken in spicy rica-rica sauce) and ikan bakar rica-rica (grilled fish in spicy rica-rica sauce). I love pork, and this is the recipe for my pork rica-rica, it's very addictive, I had to make a lot of them because once I ate it, I keep wanting to eat it again, again and again!

Ingredients,
2 pack of pork butt / pork stomach. I like to use the pork meat that consist the fat.
4 lemongrass, cut and smash it.
5 pandan leaves, knot them individually (diikat)
1 hand full of kafir lime leaf. the more the better!
14 shallots, thinly sliced.
1 to 2 cups of water
Olive Oil

Sauce Ingredients A ---> blend all the ingredients in food processor
15 red jalapeno (cabe besar)
4 bird eye chili (cabe rawit)
12 garlics
2 thumbs ginger

Sauce Ingredients B,
1 lime
salt & sugar

Cooking Method,
1. Heat the pan, Add the pork cubes. We don't need oil in this step because the fat from the pork will create the oil itself.
2. Stir fry the pork until it's half cook, then set aside.
3. Add olive oil to the pan, wait until the oil is hot.
4. Add shallots, lemongrass, pandan leaves, keep stir them up until the shallots turn brown.
5. Add the blended sauce A and the kafir lime leaf, stir until fragrant. Add lime, salt & sugar according to your personal taste. I usually just add couple pinch of sugar to elevate the taste.
6. Add the half cooked pork into the sauce, stir for 5 minutes, add water then close the pan with the lid.
7. Turn down the heat to low / simmer.
8. Keep stirring every 10 minutes, watch the sauce, don't let it be too dry it would burn.
9. Check if the pork meat is already tender and the sauce thickened. If both conditions are meet, then your dish is ready.
10. Best serve with hot rice, it's the Indonesian way to eat it :)

Terong Balado / Eggplants in Spicy Balado Sauce

Indonesian people love spicy foods, and Terong Balado (Eggplants in Balado Hot Sauce) is one of the most popular dish. You practically can cook a lot of different dishes with balado sauce, and since I love eggplant, I made this terong balado. And by adding the fried anchovy, it add the taste & texture contrast to the dish.   This is what I cooked tonight for the dinner, and hubby loves it :D

Ps. For me, this is a medium spicy, put more or less red jalapeno and bird eye chili according to your personal taste.

Ingredients,

3 big eggplants

a handful of dry anchovies (ikan teri)

Olive oil

Sauce Ingredients A ---> blend all the ingredients in food processor

5 red jalapeno (cabe besar)

2 bird eye chili (cabe rawit)

6 shallots

5 garlics

1 ripe tomato

Sauce Ingredients B

1 lime

salt & sugar 

Cooking Method,

1. Cut the eggplants into 4, then halves them. 

2. Deep fried the anchovies, then put them on top of paper towel to absorb the excess oil .

3. Deep friend the eggplants,  then put them on top of paper towel to absorb the excess oil .

4. Put the "Sauce Ingredients A" into the food processor, blend them well.

5. Heat a pan, put some olive oil in it, wait until the oil get hot, then pour the sauce and fry until they get fragrant.

6. Add some salt and sugar to the sauce. I use the same amount 1:1

7. Squeeze the lemon into the sizzling sauce, mixed them well.

8. Add the fried eggplants into the sauce, mixed them well.

9. Garnish the ready food with the fried anchovy. 

10. And as always, Indonesian dish is best served with steamed hot rice.