Bakwan (Vegetable Fritter Snacks)

Bakwan is possibly the most loved snacks in Indonesia. Comfort food for young and old, cherished for generations. I remember when I was in primary school in Jakarta, I used to spend my pocket money only to buy Bakwan and Popsicle. Boy, that was loooong time ago..

To make Bakwan, various diced or shredded vegetables are needed.

ingredients
makes 10 pieces

2 tbs julienned carrot
2 tbs bean sprouts (tauge)
2 tbs shredded cabbage
1 tbs chopped spring onions
1 tbs chopped celery leaves
250 gr plain flour
about 200 to 250 ml water
1 tsp garlic powder
a pinch of sugar
salt and pepper to taste
1 liter cooking oil for deep frying

method

1. Mix the flour with water, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Give it a very good stir.
2. Add the carrot, bean sprouts, cabbage, spring onions, and celery leaves. Mix them all together until you reach the consistency shown in the following images. Add  water if necessary, but if for some reason, it feels a bit too runny or liquid-ish, add more flour, re-season it again with salt and pepper.

3. In a deep-fry pan, heat the cooking oil over medium heat.
4. When the oil is hot, use a table spoon or a small soup ladle to spoon the Bakwan batter into the hot oil. Do it gently and carefully. Fry maximum 5 portions of batter at one time. Do not overcrowd the frying pan as the batter would likely stick to each other.
5. Deep-fry the Bakwan for one to two minutes, then turn those fritters upside down. Fry for another one or two minutes or until they are all golden brown.
6. If you have peanut sauce at your disposal, you can serve Bakwan with it.

Tahu Isi (Deep-fried Vegetables stuffed Tofu)

Tofu or bean curd has been an integral part of Asian cuisine. In Indonesia where I come from, Tofu is called Tahu, and everyone loves it. I can't think of anyone who hates it back there in my home country. When you stuff Tofu with diced vegetables, cover it in flour batter, and deep-fry it in hot cooking oil, it would be Tahu Isi. Here's how I make it.

ingredients
makes 8 pieces

2 tbs julienned carrot
2 tbs bean sprouts (tauge)
2 tbs sliced cabbage
1 tbs chopped spring onions
1 tbs chopped celery leaves
(in Holland you can get a package of ready to use, diced, soup vegetables)
1 block Tofu, cut into 8 triangle pieces
200 gr plain flour
about 150 to 200 ml water
1 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 liter of cooking oil

method
1. Season the diced vegetables with garlic powder, salt and pepper, give it a good toss.
2. Mix the flour with water and season it with salt and pepper, give it a very good stir so that there isn't any lump or air bubble anymore. The consistency of the batter should be similar the following images. Add extra water when necessary. Set aside.

3. With a teaspoon, make a hole in the surface of each tofu to stuff the vegetables into. Then stuff the vegetables into each hole. Set aside.
4. In a deep frying pan, heat the cooking oil on top of a stove, over medium heat.
5. While waiting for the oil to get hot, place the tofu with stuffed vegetables in an up right position inside the batter bowl. Carefully spoon batter on top of the tofu surface. Make sure the tofu stays on its upright position while you spoon the batter, it prevents the vegetables from collapsing. Refer to the following images.

6. When the oil is hot, deep-fry the tofu upside down so that the part with the stuffed vegetables will be facing the bottom of the frying pan.
7. Deep-fry the tofu for 1 minute each side until every side becomes golden brown.

Vegetable and Smoked Fish Congee

It was supposed to be Bubur Manado, a special congee from a beautiful place called Manado in South Celebes, Indonesia. The ingredients for making Bubur Manado were not easy to find here, and I just could not manage to compile all the spices needed, therefore I use the name Vegetable Congee or Bubur Sayur instead of Bubur Manado.

ingredients
serves 6-8

225 gr/8 oz short-grain rice
3 liters/5 oz water (a little bit extra water is better)
200 gr/7 oz spinach
100 gr/3,5 oz canned sweet corn
salt
pepper

condiments
smoked mackerel (I used the ones with black pepper)
chili sambal from a jar

method
1.Wash the rice and place in a large saucepan with the water. Cover and cook for about 2 hours, stirring regularly.
2. Add the spinach, corn, salt and pepper. Stir well, then return to the boil and cook for a couple of more minutes.
3. Serve the congee with smoked mackerel and sambal.

note: you can skip the smoked mackerel if you are a vegetarian

Gado-gado Salad

Gado-gado Salad is an Indonesian dish of slightly boiled vegetables served with peanut sauce dressing. Gado-gado in Indonesian literary means "mix-mix" since it is made of rich mixture of vegetables such as potatoes, string beans, bean sprouts, spinach, chayote, bitter gourd, corn and cabbage, with tofu, tempeh and hard-boiled eggs, all mixed in peanut sauce dressing, sometimes also topped with krupuk (if you are vegetarian, there are plenty of onion crackers available in the market), and sprinkles of fried shallots. That's what Wikipedia says, and I agree with it :)

For the peanut sauce (enough for a large serving of salad), I use these following ingredients:
100 gr ground roasted peanut
1/2 tbs palm sugar
1 tbs chili paste 
1 tbs dark soy sauce
2 kaffir lime leaves
1/2 tbs tamarind juice
a pich of salt
about 70 to 100 ml water (depending on the preferred thickness of the sauce)

Mix all the ingredients together in a food processor. Served with the boiled/steamed vegetable of your choice, and any meat substitute such as boiled eggs, fried tempeh and tofu. 

I sometimes add boiled eggs, and some other times I add Lontong or compressed rice cake to my Gado-gado. Few slices of cucumber will give an extra crunchiness to this salad. Enjoy!

Tumis Tauge

Tauge or Mung Bean Sprouts in English is famous in Asian cooking, in Indonesia too. We use this in fried snacks or soups, salad and many other things. If it is stir-fried with Tofu or Bean Curd in English, it makes a delicious vegetable dish eaten together with warm white rice.

ingredients:

4 cups of tauge/bean sprouts, washed and cleaned
1 package tofu (about 15 cm x 6 cm, 6 cm thin) sliced in the size of 1 x 2 cm
1 tsp turmeric powder + 4 cups of water mixed with 1 tbs of salt (optional)
15 green beans, sliced thinly and diagonally
2 red chilies, sliced thinly and diagonally
2 shallots, sliced finely
2 garlic cloves, sliced finely
light soy sauce
salt and pepper
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tbs sunflower cooking oil
oil for frying the tofu

method: 

1. Before heating the oil in the wok and fry the tofu slices, you can make the tofu turn color into yellow first. This is optional: Soaked the tofu slices in the turmeric + brine water mix for an hour. Then remove the water, dry the tofu with kitchen paper/towel and fry the tofu. The reason to soak it in the yellow brine water is to get the yellow color for the tofu. Therefore it gives better and festive look. In Indonesia, yellow tofu is everywhere, no need to do this step to make it even more yellow. This process can be skipped and just fry the tofu without having to soak it in the brine first. Fry the tofu in hot oil for about 3 minutes just to get it firm and crispy. In Indonesia, yellow tofu is firm enough to be cooked without being fried first but I'm not there now, so I need to fry it to make it firm. Once the tofu is done, remove from the wok with slotted spoon and transfer to a plate with kitchen paper.

2. Heat the sunflower oil in a different wok. Add garlic slices and shallot slices and stir fry them until fragrant. Add the chilies, sugar, salt and pepper. Stir fry for a minute.

3. Add the green bean slices, stir fry again. After about 2 minutes, add the tauge, sir fry. Add light soy sauce, stir fry again for a minute.

4. Add the fried tofu slices to the wok. Give it all a good stir. Serve it with warm white rice.