Tanamerah

31/05/2024

Forty years on…blimey! How has it been that long?

27/05/2024

13/05/2024

28/03/2024

Lemper tuna - an arancini style rice cake. I use glutinous rice cooked in coconut milk and aromatic for the rice base. I cook tuna in a mix of shallots, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, chillies, lime leaves and tomatoes until the mixture is dry, almost crispy.
The balls then dredged in eggs and panko mixed with coconut flour.

02/03/2024

Rare occasion, I’m not holding a plate of food.

It’s a busy weekend. A lot of cooking with food from different countries.
Back to the kitchen.

Have a great weekend everyone…

23/02/2024

Vegetable siomay with peanut sauce.

This is definitely one of my family’s favourite snacks.
There was an elderly man on a bike who used to come by our house early evening. He never announced his coming to the area. He never made jingled bells or shouts. Quietly pedalling in our neighbourhood. If we wanted his fare, we had to be outside and wait. He very rarely didn’t come, but when he did, he would just turn his head ever so slightly to see if we were there. He’d stop and acknowledge us and get on with his food prep. Always mesmerising to watch him. His siomay was just the best and the peanut sauce was hard to copy.
Eventually his son took over the business and we moved away from the family house. We’ve missed the old man’s special siomay and can’t help comparing his to other people’s.
I’ve made some today but they’re really not the old man’s siomay. Still good though

18/02/2024

The happiest of birthdays my beautiful girl. 😘😘

04/01/2024

Sop kacang merah - brenebon or bruine bonen. A soup that was influenced by a Dutch recipe and it is enjoyed by many in Indonesia as it’s so nutritious and cheap to make if you don’t use meat.

I make this soup regularly, especially in the time when I’m not feeling well. It’s also delicious to eat in summer time too, served at room temperature.

When we were growing up, there wasn’t much meat served at the table but the beans replaced the protein.
I don’t often use meat when making this soup which makes the dish a lot lighter and refreshing.
Very quick to cook. Like a lot of soup, the basic is the stock (cubes are convenient) but water from the bean tins would make the soup creamy. So I would use either.

Here is my simple recipe for it.
Plenty to serve 4 people. I like mine served with rice and fried shallots.

Recipe:
1/2 med sized res onion or 2 shallots
4 cloves of garlic
3 to 4 carrots (not too critical)
3 to 4 celery sticks
2 to 3 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 tin of red kidney beans, or aduki or black beans
I also added 1/2 tin chickpeas
1 mushroom cube, diluted in water
Water
4 cabbage leaves, shredded
Salt and pepper

To garnish:
Slices of 3 spring onions
5 to 6 cherry tomatoes, halved
Slices of 1 red chilli (optional)
Juice of 1/2 lemon or lime
Fried shallots (optional)

Can be served with rice.

Carrots and celery to be cut about 2cm
Onion and garlic to be chopped finely
Heat up oil in a saucepan and soft all the above vegetables

When soft, pour in the stock water (if using) and add in the beans and the bean water plus some tap water
Season with salt. Cover and cook till the carrots and celery are tender.
Mix in the cabbage and pepper to taste. Cook for another couple of minutes. I like my cabbage still has a bite to it.

Before serving mix in the spring onions, tomatoes and chilli slices

If served with rice, put the rice first on the plate then top with the soup and then the fried shallots. Drizzle the citrus juice all over the soup.

That is it. Selamat Makan.

28/11/2023

Ina Pegley

28/11/2023

Following the previous post.

02/10/2023

One of my most popular fish dishes in the menu. Ikan Panggang Sambel Embe - grilled fish with aromatic sauce of lemongrass, shallot, garlic, shrimp paste, lime juice and chillies (optional).
Picture 1 - The end product of the dish.
Other pictures are the ‘journey’ to get to how the dish is served at the end. Sambel or sambal Embe is the cooked version of sambal matah (matah means uncooked or raw). Watch the video of the dish in my story

19/09/2023

A birthday celebration held on Saturday when the weather was unexpectedly brilliant. We served salady dishes as well as a curry dish and a pudding which was a nod to a British summer dessert. Eton Mess with an Asian twist, gingery cream and a touch of pandan flavoured fruit coulis.
1. White filleted fish with Sambal Embe (fried sambal matah)
2. Sambal Goreng Ayam
3. Nasi Kuning Gurih
Other dishes didnt make it to be photographed.
Edible flowers from

13/09/2023

This is traditionally what I would eat when I arrive back at my family home in Jakarta. Sayur asem was served every single day at my husband’s office in Bogor for nearly two years. Again traditionally the soup would be served with salted fish and sambal but he was ‘spared’ them regrettably.
He would have loved them…

24/08/2023

to the time I was doing a lot of cooking classes and demos. I travelled around the South East with a car loaded with equipment and ingredients. Those days are not completely gone. Perhaps a demo in residence would be a better option for me now.

18/08/2023

A selection of picnic food for this year Goodwood Festival.All tailored to the client’s specific requirements
No soggy quiche nor wilted salad here

21/07/2023

Supper for four.
Indoors or outdoors. At this time of the year, both are possible

22/06/2023

One of my favourite tempeh dishes which we used to have at least once a week when we were kids. So quick and easy to make and pretty adjustable with the ingredients available. As long as there is tempeh in the fridge obviously.

So, here goes what I do:
Cut tempeh to baton shape then fry lightly

Prepare:
Shallots, garlic, ginger and lemongrass (the white part) then slice them all finely
Add chillies too if available

Cook them in vegetable oil, add in the green part of the lemongrass (bashed lightly) and lime leaves (crushed).
Add salt, white pepper and sugar to the mix

When fragrant, add the tempeh. Mix and add just a little amount of water to soften the tempeh

Cook for a couple of minutes then add in KECAP - sweet soya sauce (or dark soya sauce and sugar), mushroom stock cube (crumbled) and tamarind (or tomato paste).

Mix mix mix. Adjust seasoning if necessary. It should be tangy, sweet and savoury
I would add halved cherry tomatoes if I had but alas not. So I added more chillies instead 😂

07/06/2023

Karedok - Super delicious raw vegetable salad. The dressing is made using peanuts, palm sugar and chillies.
Except for the peanuts, which are fried, nothing else is cooked.
To make it even no cooking involved, crunchy peanut butter maybe used.

I have snake beans (can be replaced with green beans), brussel sprouts, seeded cucumber, bean sprouts, green baby aubergines (optional) and garnished with plenty of Thai basil (or strong flavoured basil you can find).
Except for the basil, all cut (cucumber , snake/green beans and baby aubergines) and shred (brussel sprouts) finely.

The dressing:
On a mortar, grind the peanuts with small amount of water, together with chillies, sand ginger (not easy to find, so replace it with fresh peeled ginger). Add palm sugar (or just brown sugar) and salt

When the dressing is amalgamated well and not too thick, mix in all the vegetables. Squeeze juice of half a lime/lemon.
Adjust seasoning if necessary. It should be tangy, spicy, sweet and savoury.
With all the fresh vegetables, the salad should be crunchy.
Shred basil all over before serving

Leave for five to ten minutes before eating to get the flavours mingled together .

05/06/2023

Es Campur - a perfect pudding for this summer. All lovely ingredients are assembled together and served ice cold but not frozen
Make this to cool the body during this warm weather.

Ingredients: for 6 people
-250g tapioca pearls (small multiple coloured mix) from Asian supermarkets.
-A can of sweet yellow jackfruit, cut each piece into four or 2 ripe mangoes, peeled and cut the flesh into chunks
-2 ripe avocados, peeled and stoned then cut into chunks
-1/2 or more of a can of condensed milk
-2 tins of 400ml coconut milk
-a pinch of salt
-12 or more ice cubes

Prep:
Boil 1lt of water in a medium sized saucepan
When still boiling, add in the tapioca pearls and stir a couple of times. Turn down the heat slightly and cook the pearls for about 15 minutes. Turn off the heat, put the lid on and leave the pearls in the pan for about 15 minutes

Meanwhile heat up the coconut milk in another saucepan. Gently. When hot, stir in the condensed milk and mix well. Add a pinch of salt and stir. Leave to cool in a container with a lid and keep in the fridge
To make it vegan, replace the milk with caster sugar and stir in the coconut milk until dissolved. Do make it quite sweet as this dessert will be served ice cold

After 15 minutes, the pearls need to be drained and rinsed in cold running water until cool. These are then to be kept in the fridge until serving time.

The avocados need to be prepared just before serving time.

To serve:
I like using a deep plate so you can see everything on it

First:
Divide slivers of jackfruits or mango chunks to go on 6 plates.
Followed by the pearls then the avocado chunks
Ladle up the sweetened coconut milk, gently and generously. It should be like eating soup
Put two cubes of ice on each plate.
Serve and enjoy