Sambal Chicken Skewers with Pineapple Jicama Salsa

I know, I know... another sambal-centric dish.  But, in my defense, these dishes were eaten a month apart, only blogged right in a row. Furthermore, this Bon Appetit recipe made the cover of the July issue, so the juicy chicken was just staring at me constantly from the coffee table, tempting me.  It had to be made.

A simple, tasty marinade/sauce for BBQ chicken, for sure.  However, for me, like in the case of the sambal/banana/shrimp dish, my Indonesian sambal (labeled "EXTRA PEDAS") was a bit too spicy... I think the heat from the stuff I buy here is several notches higher than the sambal oelek you get in the U.S.   Tim and I had a couple coughing fits while eating this (which may also be partially due to the fact that I cooked this chicken on the cast iron grill pan inside, being too lazy to wait for the charcoal to heat up outside). We did think the flavor was nice despite the excessive heat, though.

I served the chicken with a side of cooling pineapple-jicama salsa and some lime and cilantro couscous.  I think the salsa was the big hit of the night: crunchy, fresh, a little sweet, super healthy... give this recipe a try for sure!

Shrimp with Sambal and Banana

Right before heading out on our 'round the world trip, the Real Martha cooked up this tasty dish that combined unusual ingredients (shrimp, overripe bananas and sambal?).  Before she made it I tried to convince her to make something else, assuring her that she would eat more rice and sambal than she ever dreamed of when in Indonesia, but she had seen this recipe on the Food Network and was itching to make it...  I'm glad she did because it came out pretty tasty!  An interesting mix of sweet, spicy and savory.

Definitely a good use for bananas that have sneakily gone overripe (other than making a variety of banana shakes).  The Indonesian sambal we used may have been a bit too spicy, but that's easily remedied by leaving a little bit out next time.  I bet chicken, tofu or tempeh would work well in lieu of the shrimp, too.

Pepitas Two Ways: Brittle and Pesto

So, this post may be a little too early, in the sense that pepitas, which are hulled pumpkin seeds, are not really in season yet, but I have an excuse.  I bought a bag of roasted, salted pepitas at Trader Joe's back in January when I was in the States, with no particular plan in mind for them.  I brought them back to Jakarta, set them on the counter, and there they sat for six months...  I felt like I needed to use them or lose them, so here we are.  I've got two fall recipes for you...

Pepita Brittle: sweety, salty, crunchy, awesome.  I was a little bit worried about candy making in a humid environment (see: weepy marshmallows, January 2012), but this recipe from Smitten Kitchen was pretty foolproof. 

A spicy pepita pesto, with basil and cilantro, pepitas in the place of pine nuts, lime instead of lemon juice and a chili for heat... served on pasta with roasted squash (I used kabocha squash, but you could do pumpkin, butternut, what have you...):

Chipotle White Bean Dip

Bored with hummus?  Me too.

Hummus seems to have turned into the staple party snack.  I have nothing against it, I mean, I love hummus, but I think it's become somewhat overdone as a snack and party dip.   

Here's an awesome alternative: chipotle white bean dip. 

Similar to hummus in the sense that its base is a bean and it's got some garlic and olive oil, but this dip is jazzed up with chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, lime juice, cilantro, and cumin.  It's awesome as a dip for salty chips or fresh veggies- fresh and zingy, smokey with a hint of spicy...  good stuff.  And good for you, too!

 I used this recipe as my general inspiration, but altered the ratios to suit my tastes.  One can of white beans, two chipotle peppers, juice of 3 limes (although I am using the tiny Indonesian jeruk nipis, which is probably equivalent to one or one and a half regular limes), about 3/4 teaspoon of cumin, a tablespoon of olive oil, a handful of cilantro, one grated garlic clove and salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Chili-Lime Roasted Squash Salad

Continuing our health kick, we (well, I) picked out some tasty looking salads for us to munch on in the new year, trying to avoid meat and processed carbs where possible.
 

Our first foray into the salad world was this chili roasted squash salad with a cilantro lime dressing.  I had seen it in the November Martha Stewart Everyday Food Magazine (RIP!) and then again on The Bitten Word, so I thought it was worth a try. Squash (we used the readily available (in Jakarta) kabocha squash, or Japanese pumpkin) roasted with chili powder, lime, cilantro and honey dressing, feta cheese, pepitas (we brought some home from Trader Joe's... I cannot explain to you how much I miss TJ's...), your lettuce of choice (we went with a mesclun mix). 

I thought this was a solid and really easy recipe, but nothing spectacular to write home about (and yet here I am, writing home about it).  I'm not sure what it was missing, but perhaps a little bit of spice?  The chili powder I have is a dark chili powder and it's not too spicy.  Maybe I should have jazzed it up with some cayenne powder...?

Roasted Tomato Salsa

Tim and I had some folks over to grill this weekend and we needed a starter.  I had big plans to make some guacamole, but couldn't quite get the avocados to ripen simultaneously, so salsa it was.  

As I said last week, the tomatoes here are not the best, but when roasted they perk up a bit, so I made a roasted tomato salsa, loosely based on this recipe from Closet Cooking.  Pretty good!  Roasting the tomatoes gave it some depth and a bit of a smokey flavor... good stuff.  Lots of lime juice and cilantro gave it some contrasting zing.  

Grilled Veggie and Rice Salad with Fish Sauce Dressing

Omg.  This salad is so good.  Even Tim liked it, lamenting the lack of meat only somewhat, stating that, "maybe it would make a really good side... you know... to some meat."  I liked it on its own, but agree that it would also make a kick-ass side dish and/or bed for some Vietnamese-style grilled chicken (we made a recipe quite similar to this one at our Hoi An cooking class in June.)  

I had lots of fresh herbs left over from our Vietnamese pomelo salad last week and saw this herb-heavy, Vietnamese-esque recipe in my July 2012 Bon Appetit magazine... I am so glad I made it.  It's got a lot of ingredients, but don't be intimidated, as it's really quite easy once you light up the grill and is a great way to utilize all your summer veggies and herbs- corn, eggplant, zucchini, okra, mint, basil, cilantro.  Mmm.

I made only a couple small changes to the recipe- the dressing is supposed to have grilled Holland or Anaheim chilis, but here there are just cabe rawit (the little ones) and cabe besar (the big ones).  All are blow-your-face off hot and not really the equivalent of an Anaheim.  Thus, I decided to substitute with some Sriracha to taste.  Also, rather than plain white jasmine rice, I bought some whole-grain Javanese brownish/reddish rice and cooked it coconut milk substituting for 1/3 of the liquid.  I think the hearty, nutty rice and extra coconut flavor really put the finishing touch on the recipe.

Orange Glazed Tempeh with Broccoli

Did you know that tempeh originated in Indonesia?  On the island of Java, in particular.  Me neither, until recently.  Fermented soy beans formed into a cake and wrapped in a banana leaf, it's got a meaty texture and it's pretty inexpensive and quite tasty.  It's got a bit of a nutty flavor that I adore.

In the U.S. tempeh is almost exclusively sold to hippies, but here's it's ubiquitous.  I've been eating a lot of it (spelled "tempe" here) around town... fried, curried, coated in sweet soy sauce and chilis... they've got it all.  My favorite, though, is this curried tempe/tofu combo (which I think may be called tempe gulai, but I am not sure yet- I just point) that I have been getting for lunch, along with these awesome papaya leaves and spicy green beans (all the above, including Diet Coke for the equivalent of $2.92).  

Inspired, I bought some tempeh at the grocery store and used it to make a recipe I had made last year using tofu... orangey ginger glaze, cilantro and coriander, plus my addition of hot sauce and green onions.  Mmm.  

I highly recommend you try some tempeh, and this recipe.  I also warn you that the tempeh smells not unlike feet when it first starts to cook.  Don't be intimidated or dissuaded.  Soldier on and it will be worth it.

Grilled Corn Salad and Fresh Mint Ice Cream

Tim and I were invited to a BBQ here in Jakarta this past weekend... the hosts made an awesome spread of great Aussie sausages, a whole baked red snapper with rosemary and some tasty steaks.  Our contributions to the meal were of the side-dish and dessert variety:  a grilled corn salad with feta, tomato, cilantro and a cumin-chili-lime dressing and fresh mint ice cream with chocolate chunks, both of which seemed to go over quite well with the crowd.

The salad was really tasty and easy.  Grill corn right on the cob until it's slightly charred, cut it off the cob and mix it with cherry tomato, chopped red onion and cilantro, and a lime vinaigrette flavored with chili powder and powdered cumin.  The only changes I made to the recipe was to toast the spices for the dressing in a dry pan until fragrant before adding them...  brings out the flavor.  Also, I skipped adding the whole cumin seeds, as ours were a little "off."

The mint ice cream was a big hit... while it wasn't florescent green like the stuff you get at the store, but it was better since it was full of natural mint flavor from steeping a bundle of fresh mint leaves in the cream before making the custard.  Awesome. 

Cilantro-Lime Chicken and Pineapple Skewers

This recipe for cilantro-lime chicken pineapple skewers in last week's Washington Post Food Section caught my eye, and conveniently, I happened to have all of the ingredients on hand.  

Tim and I have been trying to take better advantage of all of the tasty tropical fruit here in Jakarta, and so we had purchased some mangosteens, pineapple and bananas and were able to use about half the pineapple for this recipe and still have half left over for snacking.  

Super easy and quite a tasty recipe... grilled pineapple is so good.  I used bird's eye chilis instead of the serranos called for, and it was a little spicy.  "A little too spicy" seems to be a running theme here, eh? 

Served with couscous cooked with garlic, green onion, a little butter and chicken stock. 

Rice with Pineapple and Beans

Tim and I bought a fresh pineapple last week, and after eating most of it straight, my tongue was going a little numb from the acid.  I decided I needed to cook the remaining fruit a little to tone it down, and thought I might mix it with some beans and rice.  (As an aside, I thought I was buying black beans, but somehow ended up with red kidney beans... oh well.)

  I sorta made the dish up, loosely based on some recipes I found online:

-In a small pot, saute a couple cloves of garlic (minced) and some chopped onion in a pan, add 1 cup of rice and then 1.5 cups of chicken stock- cook until rice is done

- Meanwhile, in a frying pan, saute a couple cloves of minced garlic, 2 or 3 chopped green onions, a couple minced hot peppers (I think I used 3 or 4 birds' eye chilis) and about a teaspoon each of cumin and coriander until fragrant.  

- Throw 1.5 cups of chopped pineapple (and any juices that accumulated) and a 15 ounce can of rinsed beans into the frying pan heat up and carmelize a little bit.

-  Mix the rice and bean mixture, add salt and pepper to taste

- Top with lime juice to taste and lots of coarsely chopped cilantro.

- Eat!

Pretty good!  Tangy, sweet, spicy, earthy.  You could probably make it healthier with brown rice, but that's hard to find here. 

Roasted Salmon with Lime and Cilantro

Tim and I saw some salmon at our local butcher shop, and although it was clearly not local, it looked so good and so different from everything we've been eating over the past few months, so we got some.

We cooked them according to this recipe from the Other Martha- roasted until super tender and moist and then topped with lime juice, cilantro and a little bit of soy sauce.  Served with a side of garlic-sauteed green beans and couscous with garlic and green onion to soak up the sauce.  Delicious! 

Roasted Potato Salad with Corn, Tomato and a Jalapeno Lime Vinaigrette

Barbara requested a potato salad for her combo housewarming/birthday/last bash before the baby party... after the holiday weekend I felt a little over mayo-laden potato salads, so I decided to research some more funky potato salads.


This potato and corn salad recipe from the Splendid Table calls for lots of sunny summer produce, perfect for using up my fresh-from-the-farm corn on the cob, cherry tomatoes, jalapenos, and red potatoes. I didn't follow the directions exactly since I didn't feel like turning on the grill, but I roasted the potatoes (which I had cut into bite-sized pieces), toasted the corn, onion, and jalapeno in a cast-iron skillet, and just whisked the dressing together rather than busting out and dirtying the blender.

Fresh, tasty, a little spicy, and definitely not mayo-y!

Chile-Braised Pork Tacos with Rhubarb Salsa

Amy bought some tasty looking pork shoulder from Truck Patch Farms via the 14th and U Street Farmers Market, and we had some dried chiles leftover from a delicious batch of pozole she made a few weeks ago. Put them together and you get... ta da... chile-braised pork shoulder tacos! Pretty tasty! I think perhaps next time I would leave a couple seeds in the chiles, though, as it wasn't as spicy as I was hoping for.Coupled with some rhubarb salsa (loosely based on this recipe, but simplified even more- just lime juice, scallion, jalapeno, cilantro, a pinch of sugar), the tacos were a tasty treat. I served them along with some black beans with toasted corn, and followed them up with some delightful Mexican spiced chocolate pudding (which I made a few years ago and loved).

Orange Pan-Glazed Tofu

Colleen sent me this tasty looking orange pan-glazed tempeh/tofu recipe a couple weeks ago, but I didn't get around to giving it a try until this week, and she's busy hiking the Inca Trail... good news is, the recipe is great, so I'm happy to make it for her when she gets back. I bet at that point, she'll probably be ready for a break from Peru's national dish, guinea pig.Crispy tofu coated in a sour, sweet, gingery glaze was delicious served with rice (to which I added some lime juice, cilantro and minced scallions) and roasted broccoli. The only change I made to the recipe (because it seems like I'm incapable of making a recipe word-for-word these days) was to add a couple big squirts of Sriracha to the glaze prior to adding to the tofu, because I like it spicy.

Warm Butternut and Chickpea Salad with Tahini Dressing, Take Two

Remember this tasty salad that I made a couple years back? Yeah, it's still tasty, still easy, still pretty healthy. Try it.This time I served the salad lettuce-wrap style with some Bibb lettuce alongside some rosemary focaccia made from leftover pizza dough. Yum.

Spicy Lentil Walnut Burgers

Last year, in an attempt to eat healthier, I bought several different types of dried lentils (brown, red, yellow). A short time later, I inherited even more lentils from Amy when she moved across the world to Australia. Since I came into this wealth of lentils, I think I have cooked lentils ZERO times. This needed to change...

Enter the Other Martha's Spicy Lentil-Walnut Burgers... perfect! Spicy, earthy, easy... plus the burgers help me get over one of my main consistency hang-ups with lentils- they get super crispy on the outside if you cook them slow-and-low. The burgers are pretty big, so be sure to get the larger sized pitas. They also fall apart a little bit, which isn't the end of the world, but not very picturesque (sorry!). The leftovers were great the next day heated up in the toaster oven and served over a green salad with feta, olives, and a vinaigrette.

Moroccan Butternut and Carrot Stew with Quinoa

I made this spiced butternut and carrot stew for the mostly vegetarian EPA girls as a precursor to the recycled t-shirt necklace tutorial, and, judging by the clean plates, it seemed to be a hit (except with Jenny, who found it to be too spicy... sorry, Jenny!). I didn't find it to be particularly hot-spicy (I thought it was more spice-spicy), but it definitely warmed us up on a freezing night.
After looking at the comments on the recipe, I decided to double all the spices except the cayenne, added 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon with the other spices, and used smoked paprika rather than Hungarian sweet paprika. Also, I added another 1/2-3/4 of a cup of water, as it was looking a little dry as it cooked. Finally, I didn't have any mint for the quinoa, so I added some parsley in addition to the cilantro.

I think that next time, maybe a little more quinoa would have been good, as we had no leftover quinoa, but a whole serving of the stew remaining. Also, the stew could probably benefit from some raisins or dried currants, and maybe some sliced almonds.

Fire-Roasted Corn and Tomato Salsa

Tomato time continues!

Today's recipe was a fire-roasted corn and Roma tomato salsa, served on top of chicken quesadillas (chicken breast was rubbed with cumin, chili powder and garlic salt before cooking) with chipotle-lime sour cream. Yum.
This salsa is really nice- it's fresh, it has a kick, and the sweetness of the fresh corn compliments the acidity of the tomato and lime. Super easy, too, especially if you don't bother to peel the tomatoes (which I didn't because I was lazy).

Spicy Black Bean Balls

Spicy black bean balls... no relation to chocolate salty balls.

Based on this spicy black bean burger recipe from Real Men Eat Green (a cute website from an earnest Canadian trying to convince men that eating and living green is cool/good for you), I decided to make these into dippable balls (ha! I said 'dippable balls'!) rather than burgers since we didn't have any buns.

Served with a chipotle/lime/cilantro sour cream dipping sauce. Mmmm.