Coming Home To Indonesia

 Indonesian food is a vast array of flavor, color and texture. Not many know this, associating the archipelago with turquoise waters and white sugar sand beaches. However, there's a new cookbook coming out that  will change people's view of the country. Lara Lee is the author and her new book is a kitchen must have.

Kayla Stewart ,a freelance food writer interviewed Ms Lee about her new book Coconut And Sambal: Recipes From My Indonesian Kitchen (Bloomsbury Publishing), Ms Lee is originally from Australia with an Indonesian father and an Australian  mother. It was when her paternal grandmother, Margaret Thali moved from West Timor to their home. Suddenly there were dishes like roasted Balinese chicken, gado gado,a kind of hot salad with peanut sauce dressing and rendang,a spicy and colorful beef dish. Ms. Lee missed these dishes when she moved to London where there were only two (!) Indonesian restaurants in the entire capital. She had to cook her favorites and then discovered she loved to cook these classic Oceania dishes. The idea for a cookbook was born after she visited family there in 2016. She unearthed her grandmother's handwritten recipe book, an oddity because Indonesian family recipes are orally passed from one generation to the next. Back in London, she reached out to Sri Owen, the prolific food writer, cooking teacher and guardian of Indonesian cuisine. She worked with Ms Lee to help deepen her understanding of the cuisine.

There are recipes included and the ingredients are pretty common. Home chefs can try rendang daging, or beef rendang. This is cubed and defatted beef cooked with a spicy paste of chiles, shallots and garlic along with a host of such spices as cumin , coriander and ginger.Coconut milk, lemongrass and bay leaves are also added along with makrut limes leaves (which can be bought at an Asian grocery). There is also chicken nasi goreng, a chicken and  sunny side up eggs dish, spiced up with shallots, ginger and turmeric. Kecap manis a , kind of ketchup, and soy  sauce are added too. Kecap manis can be bought or made ,It's soy sauce cooked with light or dark brown sugar until a syrup forms and can be stored up to two weeks in the fridge.The chicken and eggs are served with crisp crackers and basmati or jasmine fried rice. Rib lovers will love iga babi bali, Balinese sticky glazed pork ribs. The marinade is a fiery blend of cayenne chilis, garlic shallots and kecap manis. After being marinated , the ribs are then slow roasted in a 350 degree oven for two(!) hours. This would be great served with fried basmati or jasmine rice.

Indonesia is beautiful beaches and the ultimate vacation getaway. It is also islands full of rich culinary history. Coconut and Sambal: Recipes from My Indonesian Cookbook will show that along with delicious recipes full of fire and flavor.

A Resourceful Cuisine From Puerto Rico

 The island of Puerto Rico has been through some rough times lately.. Hurricane Maria devastated this beautiful island three years ago and now the Corona virus is doing the same thing and then some. Luckily the Puerto Ricans  are resourceful and know how to create dishes from very little. Their recipes are nourishment for the body and for the soul.

Von Diaz, author of many cookbooks reflecting her heritage, wrote this informative piece for today's New York Times Food section. 

There are also classic island recipes too, home chefs can try.  This beautiful island has been dealing with hurricanes since recorded time, the earliest one being Hurricane San Roque in 1508. Islanders have been resourceful, relying on foraging and each other for food and ingredients when electricity and water have become scarce.A pandemic is different. People can't come together. They can't share. There is food insecurity and limited supplies. Yet they rally. The Puerto Ricans can take the ingredients given to them and turn them into filling and delicious dinners. This is true in the case of plantains which came from Africa to the Caribbean to feed enslaved workers.They're blended with Spanish based ingredients such as garlic, olive oil and pork cracklings to give the famed and flavor packed dish mofongo. Arroz con pollo is another dish which is a marriage of indigenous herbs and a European basic  - chicken. Then there is Spam which came to the island in 1947 with Operation Bootstrap. It may have wrecked Puerto Rico's agriculture but it became a beloved ingredient in many dishes.Crispy fried Spam figures in many dishes from Spam and eggs to Spam guisado with tomatoes, olives and potatoes.

The recipes included are Spam macaroni and cheese and the classic arroz con pollo. The first is a nice departure from the usual mac and cheese. A whole can of Spam is used, as it's first fried for ten minutes until crispy.It will have a smoky ham flavor, sort of like bacon. Ms. Diaz recommends tasting it along away to decide what is the desired crispness. The rest of the recipe is not that far from the classic baked mac and cheese. The cheeses used are the spicy Monterey Jack and a sharp yellow cheddar. Milk and flower along with seasonings are added too. For a more involved recipe, definitely try the arroz con pollo. There is the adobo marinade which is a mix of garlic, olive oil and white vinegar mixed with oregano and black pepper.Then to give the chicken and rice more flavor there's sofrito, a mix of red bell peppers, aji or amarillo pepper, garlic,onion and the two herbs cousins, culantro and cilantro. Culantro can be bought at either Latin or Asian markets. Use boneless , skinless chicken thighs that have the adobo poured over them Let them marinate for at least thirty minutes and then cook them in a Dutch oven. Sofrito, tomato sauce and chicken broth are added. The chicken meat is pulled as the rice is added. It's fluffed together with green olives  to create a flavorful , filling meal, perfect for the cold days ahead. You can serve with salted avocado and tomato slices along with a squirt of lime juice.

The Puerto Ricans have been resourceful for a very long time. They can take the most basic of ingredients and turn them into the most flavorful dishes. It's a reflection of their resilient spirits and souls.

Chicken And Waffles Vegan Style!!!

 One of the most popular dishes right now is chicken and waffles. This Amish Sunday dinner and famed Black dish is being made throughout the US.I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and make it. The only problem? It has to be vegan.

The vegan chicken part was easy.It was simply air frying Gardein's chicken tenders in the air fryer.

This was the easy as pie part. It was just air frying the tenders at first 400 degrees F for eight minutes, then  turning. They were finished at 360 degrees F for five minutes.

The next part was hard.

I used Bisquik's gluten free mix which gives the finished product s dense texture. 

To make the waffles vegan it was adding two cups of almond milk which produced a creamier batter (the recipe called for a cup and a half but that was a mistake. The batter looked like wallpaper paste). The recipe called for three tablespoons of vegetable oil along with one egg. I used Vegg's Uncaged egg baking mix for the egg substitute. One teaspoon of the mix is mixed with half a teaspoon of granulated sugar and a quarter of a cup of milk. This is thoroughly mixed before added to the batter.

I chilled it for half an hour, simply because I needed time to prep the waffle iron and air fryer.

I used my batter distributor to evenly pour the batter onto the iron after spraying the plates with cooking spray (I used Stop and Shop's butter flavored one).

This is the batter precooked.It looks like gooey toast.

This was the first batch which was sorely disappointing. 

They were half cooked and stuck to the plates.

I didn't cook them long enough. Bisquick recommends cooking the waffles for five minutes.

 Depending on your waffle iron I'd say ten minutes should do it. This was the third batch.

They're not deeply golden but they are perfectly formed. Both were served with maple syrup which is an interesting add on (but not one I particularly like. There has to be another sauce to put on both)

Would I try this again? Maybe. I may  add soy cheese to the waffles to make them more savory and nix the maple syrup.Maybe a barbecue sauce????)

Chicken and waffles are the latest thing right now. I will try them again, - maybe less sweet and more sandwich like for the chicken. The best part is that it was all vegan, 

Stretching Your Stock

Times are still hard. There are more closings and layoffs thanks to spikes in the Corona virus. Pantry staples and fresh produce go all too quickly. How can we make our food last? By stretching it into several different meals and a variety of different ways for one product. It's an easy and economic way of saving what we have.

By now everyone has beans in their pantry. They're one of the cheapest to buy yet are possibly the most versatile.Try them as burgers as a nice breakaway from beef. Bean burgers are easy to make. You can make them without egg and dairy too for a really inexpensive meal. It's taking black beans, walnuts and rolled oats, the last too, equally as economical and mixing them with soy sauce, scallions and a variety of different spices. There's also maple syrup added along with paprika to give the savoriness balance. You can add garlic if you want along with red wine vinegar. Can beans be made into a loaf?Yes! Again black beans come to the rescue along with their versatile cousins, chickpeas!. Pulse and mix the two with cornmeal and liquid smoke. Save the chickpea liquid or aquafaba for binding.It's then adding sauteed onions along with different spices, and then molding a loaf. It's put into a parchment lined load pan and baked. Of course chili is  a must make. It can easily be made in a crockpot and eaten just with crackers or polenta. Use the leftovers for chili dogs or even poured over nachos for a treat.Go the English route and have beans on toast, a really cheap way to enjoy them.

Always remember that veggies as just as versatile as beans. Take advantage of when your grocery stores have a two for one or buy one, get the other half price. This is starting to happen with broccoli and cauliflower right now. Both veggies are good as soups and best of all you can double the batch for freezing. Broccoli proves to be a great ingredient for quiches and omelets too, adding color and nutrition. It's great by itself as a salad, giving your family one last taste of summer. Cauliflower makes for surprisingly good steaks. The recipe is easy.It's removing the leaves and cutting the head into large slices then drizzle with olive oil. This gives the steaks a lovely golden hue as well as making them crispy.Sprinkled on sea salt, pepper, paprika and garlic powder for more flavor. The good for you veggie is also good riced or creamed. Potatoes have sustained generations for decades. It's also one of the least expensive veggie than can be made into all sorts of dishes. A fun twist are loaded baked potatoes. Fill them with leftover chili or leftover chicken and broccoli. Have healthy ones filled with beans and tofu and a light salsa. Try them twice baked, loaded with cheese and bacon or in a creamy soup. Freshly mashed potatoes are always a plus because the leftover can be fried into tasty puffs.

There will probably tough days ahead. Learn to stretch your pantry during these times. You'll still be able to have nutritious dishes along with the variety you and your family want.

Halloween Home Parties

 Halloween may be different this year but you can still have the same fun and foods. The parties will be smaller and there may only be family around. That doesn't mean a boring night. Make it fun. Make it delicious.

You can start with breakfast with some scary and tasty dishes. Think sausage links wrapped in dough to resemble mummies. Add some maple syrup in ramekins for dipping.Another idea is taking bacon and arranging it in a spiderweb shape.You could places this over an omelet for a delicious background. Cook the strips in the circular pattern and then gently lift onto a large plate or eggs. Eggs can also have a creepy vibe. Add a trickle of ketchup and a dash of hot sauce to simulate blood. Serve orange juice in jack o' lantern decorated scooped out oranges or make virgin Bloody Mary's kid style, with a glass of tomato juice complete with celery stalks. leave out the spicy Tabasco and Worcester sauces. You could even have a breakfast dessert with cinnamon raisin bagels  topped off with squeeze bottle cream cheese. Ice the bagels so they look like wrapped mummies and use blueberries for the eyes. As for lunch , make it fun too. English muffin pizzas can take a frightful look by cutting the mozzarella cheese in ghost shapes. Add olive bits for eyes. Coffin sandwiches (!) are another Halloween themed lunch , Get a dark bread such as pumpernickel and cut into coffin rectangles. Fill with favorite fillings and serve with potato chips.

Of course it's the evening when the festivities amp up. Imagine a spaghetti dinner with your meatballs staring up at you. These are meatballs with mozzarella rounds and olive slices put on them to resemble eyeballs.  Another bone rattling dinner or party idea is a spinach dip , made to resemble old moss studded with tombstones. This last is simply cutting tortillas into tombstones and baking for three to seven  minutes in a 350 degree F oven. Even more gruesome are handburgers. This is not a misspelling but patties formed in the shape of little hands. You can mold them yourself or use a hand cookie mold both Etsy and Amazon sell this). Cover in ketchup when served.What would go with these? Severed hot dog fingers. Cut out pieces of the tops to resemble nail beds and score the dogs at equal distances to resemble knuckles. Accompany these with cheese eyeballs. Use cream cheese mix with powdered ranch dressing, forming into one or two inch balls. Make them bloodshot with a sprinkle of paprika and top with sliced olives. How should the evening end? With a candy apple bar , of course. Have already coated and sticked  apples in front of bowls of M&Ms, cinnamon sugar , sprinkles and gummy worms. You can also use crushed or broken Halloween candy too for decoration. Bat brownies are another fun and sweet treat. Bake brownies and cut them into rounds. Halve chocolate wafer cookies for the wings and decorate with candy eyes and red icing for the fangs. 

Yes, Halloween will be different this year. Yet the parties and the gruesomely fun food will be the same. Go wild for breakfast, lunch and dinner and celebrate this fun holiday!!!!

The Importance Of Food Pantries

 Food pantries are a vital part of our lives today. Without them even middle class families could starve.Yet those in one of the hardest hit cities, New York have survive and still thrive because of it. 

Nikita Stewart and Todd Hesiler covered New York City's food panties in Wednesday's New York Times Food section. Ms. Stewart, a Times reporter who usually writes about social services conducted the interviews, Mr. Heisler, a Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times photographer got into the various kitchens to photograph home chefs working with their food pantry  choices. It's inspiring yet at the same time saddening and disturbing. There is a bravery to these people as there is a bravery to the food banks such as City Harvest who manage to survive despite the overwhelming need for food. The same goes for the Bronx's Bronxworks. Before the pandemic, this last only served under five hundred a month . Now the numbers are up to four thousand per month, thanks to job loss or office  downsizing. The influx also has to do with the closing about one third of fellow pantries and soup kitchens closing due to lack of funds or lack of workers. Many quit afraid of catching the Corona virus.Sunset Park and Flushing Queens, two of the hardest hit areas have the biggest spike in food pantry visitors.

People do persist and survive. There is Jose Gavidia and his wife Leyla Moale, who manage to create dishes from their native Peru, thanks to their food pantry. Going there became part of their shared schedules and where they can get the ingredients to make limena, tuna between layers of potato. Leslie Johnson and her six year old daughter , Trinity, weren't going to go to a food pantry at first, letting others take the needed food. Yet they were in need of it themselves. Ms. Johnson was able to make chicken cutlets on her George Foreman grill, wishing she had learned how to make her mother's West Indian recipes. The Patel family of Flushing, Queens made a chichpea chole, a favorite stew from stretched out ingredients. They're not strangers to their local food pantry  at the nonprofit South Asian Council for Social Services. Before the pandemic they could select items bit now they have to accept prepackaged bags. In another section of Queens, Yuliya Matveyeva creates much clamored for tacos for her five year old daughter, Marie and a friend's children. The food comes from Masbia, a Jewish food pantry that also serves meals. This is an appointment only pantry which has angered some people. Ms Matveyeva also uses recipes from her native Belarus and fuses them with American cooking. 

Hopefully, the strain on food pantries across the globe will lessen as the virus abates. For now they are a vital part of our lives. Please donate or give to them. They need whatever help they can to deal with the vast amount of neediness.

An Aussie Favorite For American Tables

Every country has their comfort foods. We may have our meat loaf and chocolate chip cookies but the Australians have something a bit tastier - sausage rolls. This kid classic is loved  Down Under and with good reason. They are a flavor and texture explosion, perfect to make at home for a fall lunch or dinner.

Regular contributor Melissa Clark dedicated her entire A Good Appetite to them in yesterday's New York Times Food section. Sausage rolls were to Aussie school cafeterias as meat loaf and mashed potatoes were to ours. The school made ones weren't exactly made from the greatest ingredients according to Paul Allam, owner and baker at Bourke Street Bakery. Ms. Clark interviewed him, along with also getting his best recipes for them. Most school cafeteria rolls are composed of cartilage with the more upscale ones adding celery. His are different, a spin of the classic English sausage roll which is a puff pastry filled with sausage and sometimes an egg. His bakery sells ones with such fillings as a fennel scented pork  along with a turkey and cranberry, a riff on our Thanksgiving dinners. There's also a rotating menu of vegan ones stuffed with eggplant and chiles and spinach and feta. As far as the crust, the flakier the better. Mr. Allam uses his own recipe,a daunting feat but one that can be made at home.

What makes a sausage roll delectable is the crust. Ms. Clark found a  good all butter brand of puff pastry (you can use Trader Joe's store brand or Dufour's for this) but you can also use your favorite pie crust recipe or try your hand at making your own puff pastry. The fillings are mouth watering. There is aforementioned pork and fennel, plumped up with classic comfort food veggies like, peas, carrots and onions. You can use ground pork but ground chicken or turkey is just as good, Vegan meat crumbles are also recommended for  hearty vegetarian fare. Fennel seeds are used for flavor and also fro decoration as they're sprinkled on top. For a Middle Eastern spin there is a lamb and almond one, zinged up with harissa paste, a smoky blend of chiles. There's also couscous and currants added, the last to give it a kind of tangine vibe.Poppy seeds decorate the outside. Vegetarians will love the flavorful leek and mushroom roll.Any kind of mushroom is used and two large leeks. Tomato paste is added for more taste and color and almond butter is also included for creaminess and more substance . There's also garlic and soy sauce added too.

Sausage rolls are the perfect meal  for these cool days ahead. They are the perfect comfort food, filled with tasty flavors and textures. They may be Australia's comfort food but they sure' to be America's too.