Chicken with Garlic & Rosemary

Inspired by video of Gennaro Contaldo, Jamie Oliver’s buddy, I tweak this recipe as my 6-year-old wannabe chef does not do chilli.

I ‘m sure the original recipe would turn out superb, mine isn’t lack of taste too :-)

So, this is my version of Chicken with Garlic & Rosemary:

I prepared:

•  2kg of chicken  –we loves drumsticks, easy for kids to hold into-
• Handful of fresh Rosemary –still on its twig
• About 8 piece of garlic
• Olive oil
• Salt & pepper
• Pan with lid

 (warning: this picture is not a ready to serve chicken, it is how its look like when I put all together on the pan)

How to:

• Wash the chickens, pat dry with paper towel.  Season with salt & pepper.
• Heat olive oil in good size pan on high heat; add seasoned chicken onto it, turn once or two until brown.
• Once it’s browned, add fresh rosemary & garlic, put the lid on, and lower the heat.
• Leave it cook slowly about 30 minutes
• Open the lid, turn up the heat and let chicken skin getting caramelized (on this stage, you could add half  cup of white wine if desire, which I did not).
• Once its caramelized, turn the heat off, and chicken are ready to serve.

 

We paired it with roast potato and salad, but fries will do okay too.

Happy cooking  :-)

Featuring on Stumble Abroad : I'm fabulous ;-)

Never thought that Ana Gaby, one of my Strawberry Patch customer contacted me wit a mission: want to interview me for her blog.  I'm flattered. Then perplexed when I read question she sent me.

Some question prove hard to answer. Not that I do not want to answer, but there was an embarrasing moment reading through question and realized: after all I'm not so Indonesian anymore...feel like a soul trapping in between cultures and I can tell you I'm not proud at all.

So if you read this interview, this is my 7 hard-days working out to filled all blank space and lot of thoughts.

And I'm HAPPY with the result.

Enjoy reading it ;-)



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This is a series of interviews of fabulous people who live, breathe and thrive in Jakarta. We will feature expats and Indonesians who call the Big Durian home in hopes to give all of you a glimpse of what life is all about in Jakarta. I would love to have different perspectives on our Fabulous Jakartan Friday (FJF) so if you would like to be featured, leave me a comment or shoot me an email and I would be so excited to hear all about YOUR Jakarta!

Fabulous Jakartan:  Ayu, the Indonesian Crafty Mompreneur

Today we are meeting Ayu. Ayu is a fabulous Indonesian lady. She is a mother of two and runs the cutest business I have seen in Jakarta. Strawberry Patch makes handmade accessories and toys for children. I have talked about her previously when I was (re)decorating Joshua’s nursery and had some banners and robots custom made. Ayu is a wonderful lady and I hope you enjoy meeting her as much as I have.

So, here’s Ayu’s Fabulous Jakartan Friday Interview.

Tell me more, tell me more

1.  First, tell us a little bit about you. What’s your background? Where did you grow up?

I grew up on small and beautiful city called Solo-or Surakarta. My mother was very fond of fabrics and crafts and this shaped me into what I am now. As many parents wish for their kids to pursue their dream via school -so did my parent-, I ended up studying Economics & Marketing and worked on the biggest car manufacturer in Indonesia afterward. I just couldn’t give up my childhood dream to have my own fabric-related business. Now my marketing background helps me a lot with my business 

Strawberry Patch in Kemang Lippo Mall

2. I love your shop Strawberry Patch! I loved decorating the boy’s rooms with your banners and cute robots and wish I had a girl to buy some rag dolls. How long have you had Strawberry Patch for? What’s the best thing that has come from Strawberry Patch?

I had another fabrics-related venture called Botanica Indonesia -which specialized on Batik- since 1998 but decided to swift into more colorful fabrics on 2007, right after I had my daughter. I was living in Sydney and Batik was not huge back there. Finding beautiful patterned fabrics was not difficult in Sydney and its easy access for fabrics flourished my idea and creativity.  Now that I live in Jakarta, I see the opportunity for Strawberry Patch to grow, means I could help empowering people more. To see the joy on my customers once they received items they ordered, or seeing my staff able to put her kids on school, its in-description moment for me.

Strawberry Patch Workshop

Living in Jakarta

1. What three adjectives would describe Jakarta the best?

BIG, BUSTLING, BUSY

2. What’s your biggest Jakarta Love and Jakarta Hate?

Food, and traffic for sure.

 3. How do you find the sweetness beneath the Prickly Surface of the Big Durian?

Unexpected things happen a lot and it always lead to another door of opportunity and pump up positive energy –meeting new friends, see people helping other in unthinkable way; to name a few.

4. What activities or things keep you happy and thriving in Jakarta?

My business –it helps empowering women- and my family, of course!

Ayu’s Workshop

5. For a first time visitor coming to Jakarta, what would you recommend they try out that is uniquely Jakartan? A specific food, activity, or place?

Museum Nasional – some call it Museum Gajah, since it has an elephant statue given by King of Thailand standing in its front yard- is great place to start. Taman Mini Indonesia Indah showcases beautiful architecture of Indonesian houses -and culture too.

Sate Khas Senayan serves beautiful Indonesia food that quite friendly with foreigner’s  tummies. I always treat my friends -or recommend it to friends- this place. The Owner should give me discount for keep promoting this place 

6. If you were to move somewhere else and not be able to come back to Jakarta, what Indonesian thing would you stock up on?

Dried Crackers a.k.a Kerupuk

Traveling in Indonesia

1. If you could only visit one place in Indonesia while in Jakarta what would it be?

Yogyakarta

2. What is the best advise to anyone traveling with kids in Indonesia?

Plan carefully. Can’t  do very tight schedule with small window as hurdles can pop up anytime along the way. Give yourself enough time to move from one place to another, even it only short distance.

3. Bali or Lombok?

Lombok.

4.    Yogyakarta or Jungle Trekking in Sulawesi or Krakatau?  

Yogyakarta.

Jakarta Mama

1. What’s your favorite activity to do with your kids while in Jakarta?

Go to traditional market , or places where my kids can experience real Indonesia life and local culture.

 2. What are your favorite places and things in Jakarta for Kids

1. Playground: Playground in Kemang Dalam
2. Classes: We love cooking and crafting. At home. So really have no clear answer for this.
3. Clothing Stores: Nothing in particular. I made most of my daughter dresses and frocks, and my son shirts.
4. Toy Stores:  Toys Kingdom
5. Snacks: We hang out quite often at Il Supremo Café at Periplus Kemang. Books and snacks in one place. Perfect.

Ayu and her lovely kids

Crafting in Jakarta

1. What’s your favorite place to buy fabric in Jakarta?

Pasar Mayestik

2. Is there ONE place you recommend where we can find anything and everything for crafting and sewing?

There is ONE shop in Pasar Mayestik in South Jakarta called Toko Maju. Don’t get off with its small appearance from outside, step in and you’ll only be saying ‘wow’ for it massive collection of everything craft. I could spend hours inside this two story shop. (Ana says she didn’t realize it was two stories!!! I will have to go again soon!)

 3. Where do you think is the best place to buy a sewing machine and have it repaired if it needs to?

A shop in Glodok area in  West Jakarta selling all sewing machine related things and they do repairs too. Can’t remember the name as my sewing machine never comes back there for repair since I bought it 14 years ago!

4. Is there an Indonesian material that is so unique you recommend people buy if they are leaving Jakarta?

Batik is popular, and easy to carry home. Just have to know where to get the good one. If have no time to look around traditional batik market, I like to recommend people to get Batik from Batik Keris chain-store. They stock up decent quality batik -and souvenirs too.

Eating in the Big Durian

1. What’s your favorite Indonesian restaurant in Jakarta?

Sate Khas Senayan. Isn’t it obvious? 

2. What about your favorite “Western” restaurant?

KOI Kemang

3. What is the one Indonesian dish that everyone should try?

Sate ayam -it has different style with its Malaysian counterpart- and Soto Ayam -clear chicken soup with vermicelli and been sprout-

Oh and Tempe Goreng !

 4. Could you share a short and sweet recipe for an authentic Indonesian dish so I can pretend I learned to cook Indonesian…

Chicken satay, you could do easy way using store-bought peanut sauce (ECO Brand has authentic Indonesia taste!) and preparing your 1/2kg boneless chicken breast, diced and marinated –overnight is the best- with 2 tbs of kecap manis, 1 tsp ground coriander, 1 tsp ground white pepper and 2 cloves of minced garlic.

Soak your bamboo skewers about 30minutes before barbecueing , put your diced chicken on pre-soaked skewer and grill over BBQ about 5-10 minutes. Pan-grilled is also doable. Then enjoy it!

Thank you very much for joining us in Stumble Abroad today, just one more request:

Describe what life in Jakarta is like in one sentence.

Amazing & exciting experience like no other 

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Prawn & Fish Curry - British Style

Since I bought Jamie's Magazine with curry as its main topic,  conversation about cooking curry with various style never stop inside my household. My son popped question again and again, when  and what curry I will try. My hand bit tight lately with working affair. 

Until today. 

Usually we had our lunch out on weekend, but I just feel like cooking so I decided to do one of the recipe and scrambling around my fridge and pantry to assemble ingredients.

'Found' prawns and fish fillet inside freezer. But  I had no fenugreek nor mustard seed, two main spices needed on this curry recipe. Another downside, my curry plants on my garden were drying out, left no curry leaves at all. 

I came to the point of no return -yup, bit of dramatized-, this curry mission had to go on -since I got my saffron-infused basmati rice cooked on my rice cooker-. So scrambled around on Mr.Bing try to find some answer whether is possible to change one spices with another or not, then decided to tweak a bit -sorry Jamie- due to my limited spices on my pantry.

The result? 

GREAT ! One of the best lunch we ever had :-)

So here, my version of Jamie's Keralan Fish Curry.

Serving 4.

My Ingredients:

* good lug of vegetable oil

* 1 green chili, deseeded, finely sliced

* 1 tsp cumin ground (replacing 1 tsp fenugreek seed on original recipe)

* thumb-size fresh ginger, grated

*! 2 onions, finely chopped (original recipe: 3 onion)

* 16 medium-size prawns, head-off, tail intact

* handful of cherry tomato

* 1/2 tsp curry powder (replacing handful of fresh or dried curry leaves on original recipe)

* 1 tbs turmeric powder

* 400ml light coconut milk

* 200ml water

* 250 grams  fish fillet (original recipe: monkfish. Mine: halibut)

* 100g spinach

* handful of coriander leaves

* lime wedges to serve

I skipped:

- Mustard seed,

- Chili powder (having 5 years old is quite challenging sometimes)

How to:

* Heat oil on pan, add cumin, ginger&green chili, stir for about 30seconds.

* Add onion, stir about 5-10 until translucent, make sure you do not burn it.

* Add prawn, mix with onion, stir until prawn cooked, add tomato and turmeric powder, stir evenly.

* Time to put in coconut milk and water, stir well, simmer for about 10 minutes.

* Add fish, simmer again for about 5 minutes, then turn the heat off.

* Last, add spinach and coriander leaves just before serving it.

* Served with lime wedges.

It taste rather light, compare to usual Indian curry, we ate accompany with saffron-infused Basmati rice, and it was gone in half an hour.

Definitely  cooks it  again :-)

Day Tripper: Cable Car ride at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah

It was not our 1st time visit Taman Mini Indonesia Indah in East Jakarta, not like our trip before, this time our timing was not quite perfect. Our little brother and his wife and son were in J-town, and this little man was very eager to had first hand experience riding Cable Car. I could recall my last ride on the same cable car was like 25-30 years ago, so this kind of exciting for me and my kids too.

Though we came early enough -early as on our timeline of course-, once we hit Taman Mini gate we saw  thousand of people flooded this park already. We decided we had to jump on the queue of the first cable car station -thanks to our parent that lend us their car plus driver, so we don't have to find parking spot ourselves-. 

Bought our ticket, lining lane seems empty, we thought we still can kick up our morning with another ride after Cable Car, until we followed through this metal-waist-height-bar to turnstill door, got our hand stamp, and wohoo....the queue was just unbelievably long! It seems moving through though, so we kept going until up to Cable Car deck an MORE and MORE people -was waiting on the platform. No turning point, we continued queue, tried to do quick math between numbers of people and timing of cable cars come and go. Long way to go. We did not think that it will be this long queue so we left our drinking water inside our car, and no sight of water vendor on the deck -on that time I really wish there were drink vendor or 'pedagang asongan' as we called it.

This flashing timer turned green after 26 seconds, means the cable car on the queue is ready to dispatch....it's 26 seconds distance between one cabin and another...

Rama loves buildings, structures and mechanical things so much, this photo taken by him -so I could check the company who made this Cable Cars on the net, that was he said-

We finally had turn to jump on our cabin after about 1 hour 10 minutes standing on the queue. Cable car ride was about 10 minutes, gliding along from C station (where we started) to B station and return back from B to C. There was also another station, A station which lead to B station too, and back to A again.

The view from atop was fantastic, we could see Taman Mini area from above, getting to enjoyed Taman Mini more compare with driving around this huge park -which one of traveller blogger said that "nothing mini about Taman Mini"-

It's worth the queue and Rp.25.000,- ticket fare.

Should try again next time. 

Lego all the way

When I uploaded picture above -the main family picture- in front of Legoland Malaysia's sign on my Facebook, I flooded by e-mails and messages asking about if this place is actually open. Some of friends thinking I was on holiday in Malaysia, some are envy that we got there on first day -thanks to my provocative info on my picture :-)

Then I had to tell the truth, that we actually only went to Gandaria City Mall nearby, and they happened to have Legoland Malaysia booth on LG level opposite Kopitiam Restaurant, and according to booth's staffs we were one of less than 5 families visited that day because they just had opened their booth. Of course they had special price for entrance ticket, IDR 288.000 instead of IDR 420.000 for adult and IDR 210.000 instead of IDR 330.000 for child and senior member (60+). Pre-sale ticket valid from opening day -which is plan on Sept 15- to Dec 2012.

Apart from Legoland booth there were also big Lego display on main LG lobby -cmiiw- that were not so outstanding, some little details are cute. Like the Firemen doing push-up exercise or a fireman on its pole.

This time, Lego had new collection called 'Friends', marketed for girls age 6-12, which my daughter completely fall in love with it. Though we loves Lego so much, we think this Friends collection still bit pricey at the moment so we decided we not getting any but Friends minifigure for my little girl.

They will have this Lego display until school holiday ends, about 2nd week of July. If you really want to see it, heading off to Gandaria City, LG, around opposite Ace Hardware area.

Happy Holidays!

Jakarta from my camera : June 2012

It is June, and Jakarta -big city often referred as Big Durian- will be one year older. Apart from smoked,fumed cursed and tot-toted motorbikes and cars fighting for their tiny space on its roads and 'gangs', I found plenty interesting things in Jakarta.

My son sketch for his version of Jakarta Guidebook he created with his classmates few months ago, and his introduction about Jakarta were interesting, with his personal view about Big Durian -rough and smelly on the outside but really sweet and great on the inside- gave me the idea to capture many you would not -or not yet- see about Jakarta.

It's unfortunate that my first snapshots were taken from a deli inside big hotel, which of course putting a lot into this celebration month. Put it aside, 'Roti Semprong' -a thin,crispy and sweet traditional snack made from flour and shaped onto cigar-size was always a prominent feature you would see in June, alongside 'Roti Buaya' -a crocodile shaped sweet bun-.

That's all for now. Will be back with more pictures...

Sunday Snapshot

Sunday, June 3rd 2012

Snapshot between Aksara Bookstore in Kemang , Mc Donald in Kemang and Lunch around Kemang, South Jakarta...

And things from Tintin-themed Birthday Party my son invited