Ayam Betutu / Chicken in Traditional Balinese Betutu Sauce

Betutu is a Balinese famous chicken dish, almost all nasi campur Bali will have betutu in it. One of my favorite betutu in Bali is from Warung Adyana, that is also known as Nasi Pasar Burung, I always go there whenever I visit my hometown.
Now that I live far far away from my beloved hometown, I can't get this dish anywhere here...so I started my adventure to try finding the betutu recipe that tasted delicious, and would be comparable to my favorite betutu in Bali. I tried 3 different recipe and finally found this recipe that in my opinion, beat any other recipe that I had tried previously. It's very easy, I don't need to wrap the chicken with banana leaves, and I don't even need to bake it on the oven.
I cooked this dish for my mother who visits me from Bali, she was surprised that the betutu tasted very authentic, she said it tasted just like those betutu sold in Bali :)
This recipe was adapted from Kitchen Warrior's Ayam Betutu Express


Ingredients,
2 pack of sliced chicken
2 tbs coconut oil
500 ml water
one handful chopped lemongrass
salt

Sauce Ingredients ---> blend them all in food processor
20 cloves garlic
3 big shallot / 7 small shallot
2 thumbs ginger
2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp kutchery powder (kencur)
1 tsp galangal powder
2 tsp belachan
10 red jalapeno

Cooking Method,
1. Blend all the sauce ingredients in food processor, we want a coarse, not to fine result.

2. Heat 2 tbs coconut oil on a big pan

3. When the oil is hot, add on the blended sauce ingredients and the lemongrass, stir well and season it with salt

4. When the sauce is fragrant, add the chicken pieces and stir well

5. Add on water, let it boil, then simmer covered until the chicken is cook and tender and the water is reduced by half. The thicker the sauce the stronger the taste, adjust it to your own personal taste. 

Mie Babi Jamur Bakso / Egg Noodle Soup with Pork, Mushroom and Meatball

Mie ayam bakso / Egg noodle with chicken and meatball is a very famous dish in Indonesia. Most of the noodle shop own by Chinese immigrant, but other than that we have a lot of hawker style or cheaper version of this noodle too...you can find the noodle cart almost everywhere in Indonesia.
My mom used to have a noodle shop, she sold pork noodle and chicken noodle as well...she made her own noodle, it was a family recipe she got from her parents, my mom also made her home made wonton. I remember her deep fried wonton was crazy delicious!!

 I was craving for that kind of noodle and trying to re-create the dish, this is my second attempt making this dish.  Previously I made this dish with the dried wonton skin and fried meatball (look at picture below), too bad my fried meatball was too tough...lol...I have to try to make the fried meatball again, once I hit the perfection, I'll share the recipe here :)

So, they are 4 components of this dish that need to be cook separately: the meat, noodle, vegetable and the soup.

THE SOUP,

Ingredients,
8 cups of water
1 pack of pork bone
7 cloves garlic, crush and chop finely
a bunch of green onion (about 7 stalks), slice thinly
1/2 tsp white pepper
3 tsp sugar
3.5 tsp salt
1 pack of beef meatballs (I like to use meatball with tendon)

Cooking Method,
1. Wash the pork bone and soaked them in cold water for 20 minutes to drain the bloods.

2. Boil water on a big pot.

3. Put the pork bone into the boiling water, let it boil 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 8 cups water to the pot.

5. Use high temperature, it it boil then low the heat to simmer. Simmer the bone for at least 3 hours or until the meat fall apart from the bone and the broth turn milky. Add more water to retain the 8 cups amount of broth.

6. Take away all the bones, and meat until you got clean broth.

7. Add the green onions, garlic, white pepper, salt and sugar. Bring to boil one more time, then add the meatballs. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. 

THE MEAT,

Ingredients,
1.7 lbs ground pork
1 can string mushroom
1 handful garlic, smash and chop finely
3 tbs sweet soy sauce
1.5 tbs oyster sauce
2 tbs fish sauce
2 tbs soy sauce
1/2 tsp
salt, as needed.
Olive oil

Cooking Method,
1. Heat a pan, drizzle some olive oil on it.
2. When the oil is hot, add the garlic

3. Stir fry the garlic until fragrant and wilted, but not brown. Then add the meat

4. Stir the meat until it half cooked, then add all the seasoning. When the meat cooked thoroughly, add the mushroom and mix well

5. Set aside the cooked meat 

THE GREEN VEGETABLE,
Ingredients,
one big bunch of green vegetable, cut into 4 lenghwise

Cooking Method,
1. Cut the green vegetable and rinse 3 times

2. Divide the green vegetable into 2 part, the leaves and the other bottom half (the leaves cook faster). Boil the quickly and then set aside.

THE NOODLE,

Ingredients,

Wonton noodle / thick egg noodle

sesame oil

sweet soy sauce

Cooking Method,

1. Open the noodle from the knot, then boil them on boiling water until cook (follow the instruction of the packaging).

2. Drain the noodle, then drizzle some sesame oil and sweet soy sauce on the bowl. 

3. Add the individual potion into the bowl and mix the noodle with the sesame oil and the sweet soy sauce

SERVING,

place the boil vegetable and meat on top of the noodle. I like to have the meatballs and the soup on separate bowl, some people like to pour the soup into the noodle bowl...it's all up to one's personal preference :)

Slow Cooker Jambalaya

Jambalaya is known as the most versatile Creole dish. I still remember my first jambalaya was from the chain restaurant Cheesecake Factory, it was chicken and shrimp jambalaya and it was served with rice. Some other place also serve it with pasta. 

Couple days ago, I was really craving for jambalaya and found a really easy slow cooker jambalaya recipe. Delicious food that would cook on its own (on slow cooker)...perfect!! I love the idea of throwing all the ingredients on the slow cooker, then take a nap and woke up to delicious food...yumm!!

I gather the ingredients I have at home and improvise adding other ingredients to replace the stuff that I don't have. I use 2 different type of bell pepper just because I like more color on the food...I only have half of the canned dice tomato and have to chopped some fresh tomato and made some tomato paste using ketchup...I also replace the unknown red pepper sauce with red pepper flakes + cajun sauce. 

After all, cooking is about creativity and fun...adding more ingredients, omit the ingredients that you don't like and so on. And I always double up the meat portion because my hubby is a big eater and he love meats! 

The jambalaya was a big hit, hubby loved it, and even my 16 months son loved it too!

This recipe was adapted from Betty Crocker's Slow Cooker Jambalaya. 

Ingredients,

1 large onion, chopped

1 medium green bell pepper, chopped

1 medium red bell pepper, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped crosswise

5 garlic, crush and finely chopped

1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained

1 fresh tomato, diced

1/3 can of water + 2 tbs tomato ketchup

2 pack (total 26 oz) of smoked sausage, sliced

1.5 tbs parsley flakes

1/2 tbs dried thyme leaves

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp red chili powder

1/2 tsp cajun powder

1 lb uncook prawn, peeled and deveined.

hot cooked rice

Cooking Method,

1. Mix all the ingredients EXEPT shrimp and rice.

2. Cook in high heat setting 3 to 4 hours. You can also opt for low heat setting for 7 to 8 hours.

3. After it finished cooking, add the shrimp, lower the heat setting, cover and cook for another one hour or until the shrimp turn red, firm and cook.

4. Serve the delicious jambalaya with white fluffy rice.

Bebe's dindin

Fragrant Pork Bone Soup with Winter Melon and Pandan Leaves

Last month during the lunch time at Church, my friend, Yuth made this delicious pork bone soup. It was so light, yet very fragrant and flavorful, I ate 2 bowls of them...haha. I asked him what ingredients did he use for the soup? "secret" he said...later on he told me that his secret ingredients was the pandan leaves and also he didn't use ginger for the soup.
I always love winter melon, I think it's the best match for Chinese pork bone soup. Sadly, I almost chop off my finger one day while trying to cut the hard skin of winter melon...and I haven't cook winter melon again ever since. Yuth told me his tips to cut the winter melon, so instead of trying to cut the hard skin, he told me to use peeler to shave off the skin. I tried it and it was so easy!! I wish I knew this tips earlier, so I can enjoy my favorite winter melon more. So, here's my version of the soup. Yuth only used 1 pandan leaves and he used cilantro on his soup. I skip the cilantro and use more pandan leaves.

Ingredients,
1 pack of pork short rib, chopped
5 pandan leaves
1 bucket of cut winter melon
1 handful of garlic, crush.
salt & white pepper
3 pinch of sugar

Cooking Method,

1. Wash the pork bone and soaked them in cold water for 20 minutes to drain the bloods. If you are in hurry, you can omit this step.
2. Boil water on a big pot.
3. Put the pork bone into the boiling water, let it boil 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 the pandan leaves and garlic into the pot.

7. Season with salt, white pepper and sugar.

8. After the soup is boiling, turn down the heat to simmer. Cook with the lid close for 1 hour.

9. After 1 hour, add the winter melon, the continue to simmer for another 30 minutes.

10. The soup is ready when the short rib and winter melon turn soft. The pork meat should be easily fall from the bone when poke with fork.