Fun with Batik

Published on by sweetsourmoments3 Comments

I bought my first Batik fabric during my trip back to Indonesia last year. It was because I didn’t want to spend nearly $28 for a batik pillow cover sold at Pendopo, a high end store for Indonesian art & craft. My mom, my sister, and I began the planning to make our own pillow covers. We went to Pusat Batik pasar tanah abang where you can find all kind of batik fabric in reasonable price.

I used to have thought that batik is dark, brown, old, and not fun but when I saw how much batik design and quality have progressed I was quite surprise, specially Cirebon stamped batik with its colorful design. This is my pick for batik pillow cover project. The next project is for kitchen: fridge cover, apron, and oven pad. I bought the fabric, dark blue, during my trip this year then combined with left over yellow from first project.

Though the pillow cover at Pendopo is very nice and also professionally made, I think mine is more fun 🙂

More information about batik at wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batik

 

 

Sole Miso Soup

Published on by sweetsourmoments6 Comments

For you who like oriental culinary this soup would satisfy your taste buds unless you don’t like food with fermented soybeans. This recipe tastes rich in simple way.

 

 

1.  Sauté 1/2 cup sliced ginger and 3/4 cup of sliced yellow onion in 3 tbsp of heated vegetable oil, stir for 2 minutes.

2.  Add 1/2 cups sliced carrot, 1 cup sliced daikon radish, 1 cup sliced fresh shiitake mushroom, stir for 2 minutes then add 4 cups of water.

 

3.  Whisk 3 tbsp of fermented soy bean paste and 2 tbsp of soy sauce, add into the soup.

4.  When the soup is boiling and radish is softer, put 2 Sole fillets ( sliced in 1/2 inch wide strips ).

 

5.  Add 1/4 tsp sugar and salt pepper to taste.

6.  Just when the sole is opaque throughout, add 1/2 cup diagonally sliced green onion , stir then turn off the stove.

7.  Drizzle sesame oil and garnish with cilantro sprigs.

8. Bon Appétit

Honey Sesame Roasted CASHEWS

Published on by sweetsourmoments8 Comments

I have never met people who do not like cashew, I am definitely one of its fan. Indonesia is among the top ten cashew production country in the world, one of the reason we are so familiar with this nut. We call it kacang mete in Indonesian, kacang means nut and mete is for cashew. Sometimes we call it kacang monyet, monyet is monkey in Indonesian, not sure how it gets this name though … I prefer kacang monyet, sounds cute :). Both names can be used interchangeable. This time I am making Honey Sesame roasted cashews. After searching the recipes, here is my version which is quite simple and tastes good.

1. Put 2 cups of raw cashew in baking pan, bake in 300F for 10 minutes until golden brown.

2. Combine 1 tbsp butter, 2 tbsp honey and 1/4 tsp cinnamon in small pan, bring to heat, stir until the butter melt and all well combined.

3. Coat the cashews with honey mixture well.

4. Cover the baking pan with aluminum foil before transfer the honey coated cashews onto it, spread them in one layer evenly. ( please don’t skip this step if you don’t want to end up cleaning sticky pan ).

5. Put back in oven for 15 minutes, let cool for 1 minute.

6. Take out the cashew and coat with the mixture of 3 tbsp brown sugar, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/3 cup roasted sesame.

7. Enjoy!!

Tips : make sure you move fast to get the cashew coated in last step. Once it is cool the honey coating will harden and causes the cashews stick to the sheet, also makes it difficult to get it coated with sesame mixture. I had to put them back to oven several times to make them melt slightly before continue with coating.