Gudeg Nangka Using Electric Pressure Cooker

This is one of my Indonesian favorite dish. The origin is from Jogjakarta (Java). It is made from young jack fruit (Nangka) cooked with several spices, coconut water, and coconut milk. Gudeg is usually eaten together with steam rice, and other dishes such as opor ayam (chicken opor), sambal goreng krecek (which is stewed crisp beef skin), and tahu/tempe bacem. Whenever we are eating this Javanese cuisine, I will never forget to serve it with sambal/chilli and krupuk (a type of Indonesian cracker).

My children, at the time I am writing this post, love this Indonesian dish, except for the krecek (stewed crisp beef skin). May be the texture is quite strange for them, especially because they are used to western food.

I usually make a batch of Gudeg and the friends, enough for at least 3 times 3 person-serving. I intentionally do that because making a complete Nasi Gudeg is a labor by itself, at least for me. So, if I have to do a laborious work, it is better if I can keep at least one 3-person serving in the freezer for one of the day when I do not have time to cook dinner.

A few years ago, when I started to learn to make this dish, I made it using pots. However, since my husband bought me an electric pressure cooker, I could make the Gudeg Nangka faster - with some modification of the recipe, saving a few hours.

Ingredients:
1 kg jack fruit (not the ripe one), cut into smaller pieces - (I usually use 3 cans of young jack fruit. The drained weight is around 900 grams)
10 eggs (boiled and peeled the shell) - put aside
500 cc coconut water (The original recipe is calling for 1 liter. However, since I am cooking using pressure cooker, I will only need half of it)
8-10 salam leaves (similar to bay leaves, but please use Indonesian salam leaves, the flavor is different)
5-8 slices galangal (or it is around 0.5 cm) - I usually used around 3tsp galangal powder
200 gr palm sugar - shredded (I love to use Wayang brand here, because it is clean and easy to portion)
500 cc thick coconut milk (or coconut milk from 1 coconut) - (I usually use 3/4 of a 500ml can Kara + 1/4 can water and use the rest of the coconut milk for making sambal goreng krecek)

Spices, Ground
12 cloves shallot
12 cloves garlic
1 tsp coriander seed
3-4 tsp salt or to taste
8-10 candle nuts (I usually use the candle nuts paste in jar - about 4-5 tsp)

Method
1. Drained the canned young jack fruit and cut into small pieces.
2. Ground the garlic and cut the shallot.
3. Put all ingredients into the pressure cooker, make sure that it is still below the maximum level allowed.
4. Set the pressure cooker to "High Pressure" and the timer for 30 minutes.
5. In the mean time, boil the eggs. Let it cool and peel the shell. Set them aside.
6. After 30 minutes timer is off, turn off the pressure cooker and open it after you release the pressure according to the Pressure Cooker Manual/instruction book.
7. Move the Gudeg Nangka to a pot and add the boiled eggs.
8. Boil the Gudeg Nangka and the eggs again before serving.

The Gudeg Nangka is now ready to be served with warm steam rice accompanied by Sambel Goreng Krecek and Opor Ayam Tahu.

I seldom cook this, although my husband loves this food. To cook the complete dish I will need a lot of preparation and cooking time. Quite tiring if you are cooking after the children are in bed. That is why I only make this 2 or maximum 3 times a year.

My children find the gudeg nangka is delicious. However, they still find the Sambal Goreng Krecek has funny texture. May be, just may be, I have to cook the complete dish more than twice a year.

If you are having a vacation in Indonesia, do not forget to find the best warung gudeng there.Enjoy!

NB: in the photo above, I have just add the boiled eggs. That is why it is still white. It is best eaten after the eggs is covered by the gudeg nangka for a few hours to make sure the spices also infused the eggs.

Chinese Pork Jerky

I love and missed eating Bak Kwa (Chinese Pork Jerky). When I was a child, my uncle introduced me to this food. He brought it back from Singapore, Usually, tourist will buy this from a famous shop, called Bee Cheng Hiang. This pork jerky is expensive. Over the years, it is getting more and more expensive. I think this is not only the effect of inflation but also the popularity.

Although most tourist bought their Bak Kwa from Bee Cheng Hiang, I noticed, when I lived in Singapore, that the  many local friends prefer other shop, called Lim Chee Guan. The queue during the Chinese New Year period is always impossible. People can queue for hours, even before the shop is open. I have tried both shop, and I like both. They have different signature taste, but not everybody can distinguish the difference.

Although Chinese New Year has passed weeks ago, I suddenly had a craving for this, especially after browsing the blog of Sonia, Nasi Lemak Lover. To make it worse, our friend tried to make this a few days ago. So, I decided to make this pork jerky. My motivation was quite big, because Sonia made it seems quite `easy´. I used her recipe to make this.

It turned out quite good and similar to what I usually bought back home and not too sweet. Just as I would love to have.

My family love this also, except my oldest son. We ate it with warm rice and also as snack. I will try to persuade my oldest son to give it a try again. We will see if he will love this later.

The recipe and method are from Sonia, Nasi Lemak Lover

Ingredients (with some modification)
500 gr minced pork (the original recipe is 450 gr), with at least 10% fat
100 gr sugar

1 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tbsp Chinese rice wine
1/2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp dark caramel sauce or sweet soy sauce
1/4 tsp Chinese powder 5 spices
a pinch of pepper
3/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp honey (the choice of honey will affect the taste)


How to:
1. Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix everything until the mixture mixed well and forms a glue like consistency
2. Keep the mixture in the refrigerator for a few hours (I kept it for 1 night, since I have to spread my time. I only cook or bake when the kids are in bed)
3. Take out the mixture from the refrigerator, Line a baking tray with baking paper. I did that to make the cleaning easier and avoid some burned meat
4. Spread the mixture to form a thin, probably around 3 mm thick layer on the baking paper evenly

5. Bake the meat in the middle of the oven at 160 Celcius, 15 minutes.
6. Take out the meat and let it slightly cool. Cut the meat into squares/rectangles/desired shapes
7. Grill one side using top heat at 240Celcius for around 8-10 minutes or until it is golden brown with a slight burnt appearance.
8. Take it out from the oven and grill the other side of the meat for around 5-7 minutes until this side is also golden brown with a slight burnt.

The last step is to let the pork jerky to cool down and enjoy it.
I love to eat it with Indonesian yellow rice. With the result of this trial, I would like to try this method to make Indonesian beef jerky. The problem now is to find a time to do it.

My husband and I brought some to the office for snack and shared them with a couple of colleagues. The respond was quite good. Enjoy!