I know there is no autumn in Indonesia, but it is my favourite season and it is coming and I am missing it…so I made this risotto that reminded me of autumn colours. Luckily I could find pumpkin here and also found the red cabbage. Love the colour combination of orange risotto and red-purplish cabbage stew and dark green-brownish colour of the sage. Of course there is not arborio rice here, I used white organic rice and good homemade vegetable stock and I must say I am quite satisfied with the result. (more…)

After reading Keiko’s post for Live Strong with A Taste of Yellow, I wanted to participate too, and the first dish coming to my mind was nasi tumpeng. People don’t eat nasi tumpeng everyday in Indonesia, they usually eat it for blessing or celebrating, I think it is perfect to share this with all of you fighters!

As nasi tumpeng is rather complicated to make, I turn to my beloved tata, who has been cooking for us for almost 30 years. We did not have the tools and it was too late to go to the market, so we just make a simple one, and without the distinctive cone shape. This is like the base, you can add anything you like to eat this with. People commonly eat this with assorted ‘dry’ dishes like this shredded fried egg that I made, kering tempe (sweet and salty fried tempeh) - I made this too, abon sapi, empal (salted fried beef) or Indonesian fried chicken. (more…)

When hearing the name of this recipe: spaghetti ai cucuzzi e ricotta, I think you would not guess that I made it with one very-much-under-estimated vegetable called blonceng :) It is considered such an uninteresting vegetable that people here never really consider that it would pair nicely with pasta, nor that it has another ‘cooler’ Italian name: cucuzzi :) But for me I found it delicious and has a soft and abit sweet taste, I first experiment with cucuzzi (sicilian gourd) when I was in Italy, introduced by Pipo, my Sicilian vegetable seller at my usual tuesday farmer market, making soup and also use the leaves (called tenerumi) to make pasta.

Blonceng is so ridiculously cheap in Indonesia, we usually got one for 3000 rupiah, around 20 euro cents :) plus it is rather big that I could use it to make four times meals for four people. Imagine that! I made gratin two days ago with blonceng and mom was amazed to see this vegetable transformed into something looked…tres chic! :)

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Is my cookie too small or is my tea cup too big? :) Made this yesterday, my first reaction was on the first bite was: hmmm…it is ONLY ok, the second bite: ow, it is quite good :) the third bite: I don’t think I can stop eating this :))) Made with four kind of flours: whole wheat+all purpose+organic red rice+oat (both we made at home) (more…)

I have just got back from a week trip to Solo, Central Java, visiting my best friend Deb and to Bali to meet Bruno and Lorenzo before they returned to Milan. I am back at home now, with loads of beautiful batik and ingredients I brought back from Bali and Surabaya. Still need to organise those, plus catching up with the wired part of me :) I opened my computer and see this recipe I should have posted before I left for the trip.

I just wanted simple banana muffin but with a bit of twist, so I added podang mangoes (again), I try to make as many food as I can with these beauties before their season ends :) (more…)