Biji Salak/Sweet Potato Snack in Palm Sugar and Coconut Milk

Last week, I saw the photo uploaded by a good friend of mine, Fransisca. We met for the first time when we were very little, I think. My childhood friend, mostly because of our mothers who were schoolmates and best friends.

Fransisca uploaded an Indonesian snack called Biji Salak. Literally translated: seed of salak fruit. But it is technically not from the fruit. It is called biji salak because of the shape, I think. Anyway, I did not check the history of the food.

Her photo gave me inspiration (Thanks, Sis!). I had sweet potato at home. But since usually I only served it as steamed sweet potato, I have not made any for some time. A little bit boring, I think, every time serving it as steamed one. But, seeing her photo, I wanted to try to serve it as Biji Salak for Patrick and my husband. So, this was my last weekend project, hm part of the project, since we made also Gudeg. But that one is another story.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredient

Sweet potato *(depends on how much you want to make or have, I used around 650 grams, and it served around 7 portions)

Tapioca flour *(There are different proportion between sweet potato and the flour in different recipes, I used the following ratio 1:10 for the flour:sweet potato)

1/4 tsp salt

1000 ml water

150 gr palm sugar

2-3 tsp brown sugar

200 ml coconut milk

1/4-1/2 tsp salt

How to make

1. Wash the sweet potato

2. Steam the sweet potato and than peel the sweet potato

3. Mash the steamed sweet potato

4. Add the 1/4 tsp salt and flour to the mashed sweet potato. Mixed it using hands until uniform

5. Shape the mix into balls by rolling it using hands

6. Boil water *(use water as necessary, the amount of water should be able to cover the sweet potato balls)

7. Wait until the water is boiled *(do not put in the balls when it is not yet boiled, it will make the balls break)

8. After the water is boiled, put in the balls inside the boiling water. Do not turn off the fire.

9. When the balls are floating on the water surface, wait for 1-2 minute before taking them out of the boiling water.

10. Keep around 1 ltr of water and boil it again with the palm sugar and brown sugar.

11. After it is boiled, add in the sweet potato ball.

12. In other pan, boil the coconut milk and 1/4-1/2 tsp salt. Put it aside.

How to serve

1. Serve the sweet potato in the palm sugar soup

2. Add 1-2 tbsp coconut milk *(you can use it to decorate also if you like)

And, it turned out that Patrick found it nice. Hm, may be he was just hungry. But I am happy that my friend's photo has given me additional food variation idea for Patrick, although we live thousands of kilometers away. I miss you a lot, my friend. GBU.

Ayam masak kecap asin dan tomat/Chicken cooked in soy sauce and tomato

Since my son, Patrick, started to eat solid food without the need to make it into paste-like consistency, we tried to let him eat with us. He will sit at the table with us, gets his utensils, and since he was around 15-16 months he started to try using utensils to feed him self. It is a mess, of course, and most of the times we have to clean the floor and our son. But he loves to feed him self and becomes more and more "independent". Hm, not really...

Anyway, this week I have chicken drumsticks. I wanted to make spicy Indonesian food, called ayam bumbu rujak (do not know how to translate it). But, of course not suitable dish for a soon-to-be-toddler (here, he is considered as "dreumes" which not yet 2 years old but also not baby anymore).

So, I put aside 3 chicken drumsticks for him. I thought they could make as 3 meals for him. Hm, wrong calculation. The first meal, he finished 1 drumstick with the rice and vegetables. But, the second meal, he finished two left over drumsticks and only a little bit of rice plus some vegetables. Next time I should have different strategy.


Ok, here is the simple recipe I used to make the dish.

Ingredients
3 chicken drumsticks *(of course you can use more, I only put aside those 3 drumsticks for 1 little man)
1 1/2 tsp light soy sauce
2 cloves garlic (chopped) or 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp ginger powder
1 tsp brown sugar
1 pinch salt
1 pinch pepper
5-7 cherry tomato cut into small pieces *(of course you can subtitute it with other type of tomato)
sesame oil
olive oil

How to make it
1. Heat the pan with olive oil
2. Fry the garlic for around 1 minute
3. Add the chicken drumsticks. Fry it until it is 3/4 cooked
4. Add the soy sauce, brown sugar, salt, pepper, ginger powder and tomatos
5. Stir it until the chicken is fully cooked. If it is needed, you can add 1-2 tbs of water
6. Add sesame oil and stir it for additional 1 minute
7. Serve it with warm steamed rice

And here is photo of Patrick's chicken drumstick and rice before he attacked it.

Kukus Singkong - Steamed Cassava

Being a mom also means being a cook for the little boss. That is how I call my son. Sometimes I also call him with other names.

I love to cook, but I am not a good cook. I love to eat and am critical to what I eat. Don't get me wrong, I am always grateful of what is served in front of me. However, having tasted variation of foods from so-so quality to quite good quality (do not dare to say I have tasted the best, since I am not a qualified cook or food critic), I manage to from-time-to-time differentiate the better one from the not-so-good one.

Anyway, I am trying to record what I have served for my family and friends. And will use this to improve what I can provide them. I hope everybody enjoy the food and process.

The following is a snack I tried to serve to my 1 year old boy. I was looking for something Asian, which is not easy to get in our living place, but suitable for a new toddler. One Sunday afternoon, I made this. Turned out that my baby boy quite liked it. It is easy to do.

The recipe is taken from www.detikfood.com. It is reposted below in Indonesian. If I have time I will post the translation.

Bahan:
1 kg singkong, kupas, parut *(I used frozen grated cassava, thawed)
1 bungkus agar-agar bubuk putih
300 ml santan *(I used 400 ml coconut milk since I do not want to waste the extra 100 ml from the package)
150 g gula pasir *(I used only 100 gr sugar)
Pewarna makanan, sesuai selera
Taburan, kukus jadi satu:
100 g kelapa kupas, parut memanjang
½ sdt garam

Cara membuat:
•Peras singkong, sisihkan.
•Siapkan loyang segi empat 20 cm, olesi minyak.
•Campur santan, gula dan agar-agar, aduk rata.
•Masukkan singkong parut, aduk rata.
•Bagi menjadi 3 bagian, beri pewarna sesuai selera. *(I used only 2 colors)
•Tuang satu bagian adonan dalam loyang.
•Kukus dalam kukusan panas hingga matang.
•Lapisi dengan adonan kedua.
•Kukus dan kerjakan yang sama dengan adonan ketiga.
•Kukus hingga seluruhnya matang.
•Angkat dan dinginkan.
•Potong-potong setebal 1,5 cm. Taburi kelapa parut.

And I do not have a big enough steamer. So, I heated my oven for 15 minutes with a pyrex bowl full of water at 200C, and after that put the cassava in the oven. It worked!

Here is a picture of my son enjoying the food.



And here is the whole loaf of the steamed cassava cake.