Tahu Gejrot is one of famous traditional snack of Indonesia. Gejrot itself means “grind”. Grind your food doesn’t really sounds nice, isn’t?! but we call it so because the way we prepare it is we grind the spices with an indonesian mortar pestle (cobek/ulekan). If you got your tahu gejrot from the local seller, you will se they do this with full-force, almost looks like they are trying to kill the spices. 

When I was a kid, almost every evening my dad had his coffee time and he (almost) always had his jar of snack to enjoy with, it can be cassava chips, banana chips, bakpia pathok, ampyang, etc... Ampyang is one of javanese sweet savory snack made of peanut and palm sugar, with a hint taste of ginger. This snack mostly made in a home-industry. 

I bought a bag of roasted peanut today so I can make myself some ampyang. I imagined to have it for my tea time this afternoon. Unfortunately the peanut was stale (apek), seemed like it has been in the store for too long altho it hasn't passed its expiry date and bad peanut makes bad ampyang. It was pretty annoying. I want my brittle!

I snacked on a bucket of fresh wild blueberry in the kitchen, sulking on my lost hope of enjoying ampyang when I suddenly got this idea; why don't I make brittle from blueberries instead?  If I think about it, google must have it, et voila, I found an easy recipe and I gave it a try. It turned out pretty awesome (altho its nothing compare my ampyang.. -sulk.. sulk.. sulk.. )

I love udon, I think almost every recipe using noodle is better if we use udon instead. There is something about udon that makes it just perfect for my taste; the gooey texture, the thickness of each string and somehow I find that udon absorbs the sauce better then any other noodle. Luckily a store nearby sells fresh udon. Is there any dried udon out there anyway? I have never seen one. Fresh stuff usually always better for cooking anyway. 

Today I cook easy stir fry udon with heart and chicken gizzard. Three of my fav ingredients in one plate, yummmmm... Thats the joy of cooking, we can cook whatever ingredients we like in what ever manner we want. Yay for the freedom of expression on a plate :) 

For those who doesn't eat chicken heart and gizzard, don't worry, you can substitute it with beef or chicken. 

Ingredients:

2 servings of fresh udon noodle, process according to package instructions and drained

the sauce: 

1 tbsp gochujang paste (korean red pepper paste)

2 tbsp mirin/sake

3 tbsp japanese soya sauce

4 tbsp sugar

200 gr Chicken heart

200 gr Chicken gizzard, cleaned and cut into bite size

2 cm of fresh ginger

1 cube of dehydrated chicken broth

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tbsp duck fat or normal oil

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

2 carrots, sliced

1 zucchini, slice diagonally (optional)

6 shiitake mushrooms, sliced

3 scallions, chopped

1. Whisk the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside,

2. On a nonstick skillet or work, sauté garlic until it fragrant, add chicken hearts, gizzards, ginger and chicken broth. Cover the skillet with a lid and continue cooking until the gizzards are tender enough.   

3. Once the gizzard are tender enough, add in carrot and zucchini and the sauce. Stir. Continue cooking until the carrot tender. Add the mushroom and continue cooking for 2 minutes. 

4. Add the udon noodle and stir gently and thoroughly. Do not over mix and break the noodle. Let the noodle simmer in the sauce for around 2-3 minutes. 

5. Add the scallions and gently stir it again. Continue cooking for another minute.

6. Et voila, the udon is ready to serve! 

Happy Cooking!!

On summer, one of the best fruits to snack on is watermelon. Its sweet and juicy, very refreshing. Unfortunately, I usually end up with lots of left over (well you know how big that fruit is). I was thinking is there any way to use this fruit other than for snack and dessert, then I stumbled upon this interesting salad recipe: watermelon salad. Its super easy and super fresh. Yay! 

I must admit my plate looks far from cute, actually it looks like Fred Flinstone's dinner kind of plate with huge piece of meat, whole carrots and potato and barely sautéed mushroom. Well, actually, he was the inspiration for tonight's dinner at my place. This steak recipe was a no-brainer recipe; super easy and quick to make. Perfect for summer time, just light up your grill and pitch your meat and veggies in. Then you just chill out sipping your favorite beer while the meat is cooking. I am sure Fred Flinstone did this as well back then!

Another simple recipe for Me-Time break cookies.

This soup is best to be served with rice cake like ketupat. There are many different variation of this recipe from almost each region in Indonesia. Usually each region modifies a bit of the ingredients or the spices but they are all have similar taste. This soup is a classic soup on Eid day. Eid day celebration is not complete without having this dish on the table for dinner with family.