Recipe : Chicken Balls Noodle Soup

Warm soup is a perfect comfort food for the cold days because it is able to keep you warm inside. However, you don’t have to wait cold days to come since it tastes great as well in warm days. Bakso is Indonesia’s most favorite meatball soup which is usually served in beef broth, and  completed with yellow noodles, glass noodles, vegetables and some condiments. Bakso is generally made of ground beef with addition of some spices in it. In this recipe, I’ll show you my way of making bakso with a little bit modification by using ground chicken breast instead of ground beef. It might be not authentic, but you couldn’t agree more when you taste it.

INGREDIENTS :

Chicken Balls :

300 gr ground chicken breast

2 cloves garlic

3 cloves shallots

1 ½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

½ tsp ground candlenut

½ tsp ground coriander

Cooking oil

Broth :

2 cloves garlic (mashed)

3 cloves shallots (mashed)

250 gr chicken bones

4 stalks scallions, use only the white part, thinly sliced

Salt

Pepper

Coriander Powder

Powdered Chicken Stock

Approx. 2 liter of water to boil bakso

Complements :

Yellow noodle

Bok Choy

Sliced Tomato

STEPS :

1. In a food processor, add the ground chicken breast, garlic, shallots, salt, pepper, ground candlenuts, and ground coriander. Milled them until well blended and reach smooth consistency.

2. Transfer the meat batter in a bowl. Wash your hands cleanly and rub it in cooking oil in order to prevent sticking when forming the meat balls. Form the meat batter into ball-shaped and set aside.

3. In a pot, add the cooking oil. Wait for a few seconds to raise the heat, then add the mashed garlic and shallots. Stir-fry for about 30-60 seconds until fragrant.

4. Add water and chicken bones, then boil it for 5 minutes.

5. Add scallion stalks, salt, pepper, ground chicken breast and powdered chicken stock. Boil it for 15 minutes.

6. After 15 minutes, add the meatballs that have been formed before. Boil them with minimum high heat until the meat balls float to the surface and perfectly cooked.

7. Serve the meatballs with yellow noodles, sliced tomato and bok choy. You can add the chili condiment, soy sauce and ketchup as well if you like.

ENJOY!!

Recipe : Tumis Mandai (Stir-fried Mandai)

You might be familiar with this thing if you grew up in Borneo Island. Yup!! this dish is made of Mandai, which is Cempedak skin which has been preserved for for several days. Cempedak is a fruit which physically resembles Jackfruit, but has a strong smell almost like durian. You can eat the fruit just like that, or like many people here love to eat cempedak as fritters. The skin of cempedak itself is edible and normally used as vegetables which later can be cooked as a side dish. Making Mandai is very easy, you can make it your own at home by following the recipe below and after that I’ll show you my mother’s way to cook something with Mandai itself by stir-frying it.

TUMIS MANDAI (Literally translated as Stir-fried Mandai) 

Ingredients (For Mandai) :

Cempedak Skin (From a whole fruit)

Salt and Pepper

Water

Steps :

1. Peel the outside skin by using sharp knife in order to separate the hard meat from the rags
2. Once it separated, washed with clean water to remove the sap
3. Chop the cempedak skin into small pieces
4. Mix it with salt, pepper, and pour enough water in it, then put it in a jar for minimum 2-3 days. You can store this Mandai in refrigerator for future cooking since this preservation can be last for 2-3 months

Ingredients (For Stir-Frying) :

250 gr Mandai (washed and rinsed)
4 cloves shallots
3 cloves garlic
1 candlenut
3 cabe keriting (curly chili peppers)

3 bird-eye chilies
2 tsp coriander powder
8 pcs dried shrimps (optional)
Salt and pepper
Cooking oil

Steps :

1. Fried the mandai with small amount of cooking oil in order to reduce the water in it. Set aside
2. Chop the cabe keriting (chili peppers) into 2-3 pieces. Set aside
3. In a food processor, add shallots, garlic and candlenut, then grind it finely (you can use the traditional way as well by pound it in a cobek)
4. In a wok, add the cooking oil and heat it for a few seconds. Then add the grinded spices, cabe keriting, bird-eye chilies and dried shrimps. Stir-fry for a few seconds until fragrant
5. Add Mandai, season it with salt, pepper and coriander powder. Cook it for about 4-5 minutes, set aside
6. Tumis mandai is ready to be served. It is best eaten with rice and sambal

Happy Cooking and Enjoy!