Indonesian Chicken Curry

 This was soooo good!

INGREDIENTS

• ▢2 teaspoons ground coriander
• ▢1 teaspoon ground cumin
• ▢1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ▢1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• ▢1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• ▢4 dried red chilies - (seeds removed
• 
  
• ▢1/4 cup raw cashews (I used almonds)
• ▢4 cloves garlic - peeled
• ▢1 large shallot - (I used an onion)
• ▢2 inches fresh ginger - peeled and sliced
• ▢3 Tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
• ▢5 wild lime leaves
• ▢2 sticks cinnamon
• ▢3 small stalks lemongrass (you can use dried but fresh is better)
• ▢3 pounds boneless - skinless chicken breasts, cut into large chunks
• ▢1 14.5 ounce can coconut milk, divided
• ▢1 cup chicken broth
• ▢4 Tablespoons fish sauce (left it out because I was out)
• ▢6 cups cooked rice - for serving

INSTRUCTIONS

• Place the spices, chilies, cashews garlic, shallot, and ginger in a food processor and grind into a paste.
• Heat the peanut oil in a large skillet or work over medium-high heat. Add cinnamon sticks, lemongrass stalks, and lime leaves. Let cook one minute. Add the ground paste and use a wooden spoon to break it up and mash into the oil. Let cook two minutes.
• Add chicken pieces and cook two to three minutes per side, until browned.
• Stir in half of the coconut milk and all of the chicken broth. Cover, reduce heat to low, and let simmer 10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
• Stir in the rest of the coconut milk and the fish sauce. Serve hot with lots of rice.

I removed the cinnamon sticks, lime leaves, and lemongrass before serving. You don't want to eat them, but they make for a pretty presentation.

Sourdough pizza crust

Fresh mozzarella with smoked salmon and capers.

 Graded mozzarella with pepperoni.

Fresh mozzarella with sausage and onion.

FOR THE DOUGH:

• 375 g water
• 100 g sourdough starter, active and bubbly, see notes above
• 10 g salt
• 500 g all-purpose or bread flour

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Mix the dough. Place the starter, salt, and water in a large bowl. Stir with a spatula to combine — it doesn’t have to be uniformly mixed. Add the flour. Mix again until the flour is completely incorporated. Transfer to a bowl. Cover bowl with tea towel or cloth bowl cover some plastic and let stand 60 minutes.
2. Stretch and fold: after 60 minutes, reach into the bowl and pull the dough up and into the center. Turn the vessel quarter turns and continue this pulling 8 to 10 times. Let the dough rest for another 30 minutes; then repeat the stretching and folding. If possible, repeat this cycle three more times for a total of 4 stretch and folds. By the 4th cycle, you will notice a huge difference in the texture of the dough: it will be smoother, stronger, and more elastic.
3. Bulk fermentation: Cover bowl with some plastic and set aside to rise at room temperature (70ºF/21ºC) for 4 to 18 hours (the time will vary depending on the time of year, the strength of your starter, and the temperature of your kitchen; see notes above) or until the dough has roughly doubled in volume. 
4. Portion and shape: Turn the dough out onto a work surface and shape into a rough ball, using as much flour as needed — the dough will be sticky. Using a bench scraper, divide the dough into 4 equal portions. Sprinkle portions with flour. With floured hands, roll each portion into a ball, using the pinkie-edges of your hands to pinch the dough underneath each ball. Transfer each round of dough to a plastic quart container, cover, and store in fridge for at least 6 hours or up to 3 days.
5. Make the pizzas: Pull out a round (or more) of dough from the fridge one hour before you plan on baking. Dust dough with flour and place on a floured work surface. 
6. Place a Baking Steel or pizza stone in the top third of your oven. Set oven to 500ºF. Heat oven for at least 45 minutes but ideally 1 hour prior to baking. 
7. Shape the dough: Gently shape dough into a 10-inch (roughly) round handling it as minimally as possible. Lay a sheet of parchment paper on top of a pizza peel. Transfer the dough round to the parchment-lined peel.

Add the toppings and bake for about 10 minutes in the oven. Doing it on an outdoor BBQ will give even better results. We dont use the BBQ in the winter because we can't get it to the right temperature due to the cold. 

White Sourdough Discard Sandwich Bread

This bread was so soft on the inside and had a nice crust!

 Ingredients:

• 100 g Sourdough Discard unfed sourdough starter
• 270 g Water (divided)
• 500 g Bread Flour
• 12 g Salt
• 20 g Sugar (divided)
• 60 g Butter room temperature
• 7 g Instant Yeast

INSTRUCTIONS

 

• Combine the sourdough discard, water (245 gr) and flour into your stand mixer and mix until it forms a shaggy dough (really shaggy) (around 30 seconds will do it). Leave the dough to rest for 30 minutes.
  
• In a small bowl mix 25 gr water with the instant yeast and 5 grams or sugar. Let stand for about 10 minutes. 
• Now add the salt, sugar (15 gr), butter and yeast mixture to the bowl and knead the dough for around 8 minutes.

  You want the dough to be elastic, silky and slapping the sides of the bowl. Just keep the mixer going until you achieve this. If you are using a stand mixer you'll need to use your dough hook attachment for this step.
• Now you need to let your dough rise. You are using instant yeast as the leavening agent in this recipe, rather than sourdough/wild yeast, so it will rise very quickly, particularly if your home is warm.

  Leave it for around an hour (it will take longer if your house is cooler). You want it to double.
• Lightly butter or spray a 9x5 pan so it's ready to go when the dough is shaped.
• Once the dough has doubled, tip it out onto the counter top with the smooth side underneath and the sticky side on the top. Gently ease the dough out into a rectangle. It should be quite easy to do this as the dough is very elastic.
• Now you want to shape your dough into a sandwich loaf. This is fairly easy. Make sure that the short side of the rectangle is in front of you. Fold each side of the dough into the middle, then roll the dough into a tight log with the seam underneath. Tighten the top of the dough by putting your hands at the base and pulling the dough towards you, without lifting if off the countertop.
• Once the dough is shaped, gently place it into the buttered loaf tin. Leave the dough to rise until it's just above the rim of the tin.

  This will take around an hour, depending on the temperature of your home.
• Once the dough has risen, you'll need to bake your loaf.

  Turn your oven on and set the temperature to around 180C/350F.

  Let it warm for around 10 minutes. Spray the top of your dough with some water mist and place into the oven.

  Make sure that there's plenty of room for it to grow in the oven as it will generally keep rising.
• Bake your bread at 180C/350F for around 40 to 45 minutes or until the loaf is golden brown.
• Remove from the loaf tin and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Whole wheat sourdough discard sandwich bread

 Ingredients:

• 100 g Sourdough Discard unfed sourdough starter
• 285 g Water (divided)
• 400 g Whole Wheat Flour (freshly ground white wheat)
• 100 g Bread Flour or All Purpose Flour
• 12 g Salt
• 20 g Sugar (divided)
• 60 g Butter room temperature
• 7 g Instant Yeast

INSTRUCTIONS

 

• Combine the sourdough discard, water (260 gr) and flour into your stand mixer and mix until it forms a shaggy dough (really shaggy) (around 30 seconds will do it). Leave the dough to rest for 30 minutes.
  
• In a small bowl mix 25 gr water with the instant yeast and 5 grams or sugar. Let stand for about 10 minutes. 
• Now add the salt, sugar (15 gr), butter and yeast mixture to the bowl and knead the dough for around 8 minutes.

  You want the dough to be elastic, silky and slapping the sides of the bowl. Just keep the mixer going until you achieve this. If you are using a stand mixer you'll need to use your dough hook attachment for this step.
• Now you need to let your dough rise. You are using instant yeast as the leavening agent in this recipe, rather than sourdough/wild yeast, so it will rise very quickly, particularly if your home is warm.

  Leave it for around an hour (it will take longer if your house is cooler). You want it to double.
• Lightly butter or spray a 9x5 pan so it's ready to go when the dough is shaped.
• Once the dough has doubled, tip it out onto the counter top with the smooth side underneath and the sticky side on the top. Gently ease the dough out into a rectangle. It should be quite easy to do this as the dough is very elastic.
• Now you want to shape your dough into a sandwich loaf. This is fairly easy. Make sure that the short side of the rectangle is in front of you. Fold each side of the dough into the middle, then roll the dough into a tight log with the seam underneath. Tighten the top of the dough by putting your hands at the base and pulling the dough towards you, without lifting if off the countertop.
• Once the dough is shaped, gently place it into the buttered loaf tin. Leave the dough to rise until it's just above the rim of the tin.

  This will take around an hour, depending on the temperature of your home.
• Once the dough has risen, you'll need to bake your loaf.

  Turn your oven on and set the temperature to around 180C/350F.

  Let it warm for around 10 minutes. Spray the top of your dough with some water mist and place into the oven.

  Make sure that there's plenty of room for it to grow in the oven as it will generally keep rising.
• Bake your bread at 180C/350F for around 40 to 45 minutes or until the loaf is golden brown.
• Remove from the loaf tin and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Beef Rendang

 I have another rendang recipe on here but this one is even better and more authentic. I do substitute pork if I dont have beef on hand. 

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs beef or pork cut into cubes
5 Tbs cooking oil
1 stick cinnamon , about 2 inch length
3 cloves
3 star anise
3 cardamon pods
1 lemongrass, cut into 4 inch length and pounded
1 cup thick coconut milk, coconut cream (I just use a whole can of coconut milk)
1 cup water
2 tsp tamarind pulp, soaked in some warm water for the juice and discard the seeds
6 kaffir lime leaves, very finely sliced (I sometimes leave these out when I dont have them on hand)
6 Tbs kerisik, toasted coconut
1 Tbs sugar or palm sugar to taste
salt to taste

Spice paste:

5 shallots
1 inch galangal (I used dried)
3 lemongrass (white part only)
5 cloves garlic
1 inch ginger
10-13 dried chilies, siaked in warm water and seeded

Instructions:

1. Chop the spice paste ingredients and then blend it in a a food processor until fine.

2. Heat the oil in a stew pot, add the spice paste, cinnamon, cloves, star anise, and cardamon and stir-fry until aromatic. Add beef or pork and the pounded lemongrass and stir for 1 minute. Add the coconut milk, tamarind juice, water and simmer on medium heat, stirring frequently until the meat is almost cooked. Add the kaffir lime leaves, kerisik, sugar, stirring to blend well with the meat. 

3. Lower the heat to low, cover the lid an simmer for 1 - 2 hours or until the meat is really tender and the gravy had dried up (I like to let it simmer for multiple hours). Add more salt and sugar to taste. Serve immediately with steam rice (l like to use coconut rice).

Notes: To prepare the kerisik or toasted coconut, just add the grated coconut to a dry wok or cast iron pan or any pan ;) and stir continuously until they turn golden brown. 

Chili

 Ingredients: 

1 lb Beef

1 C onions - diced

1/2 C red/green pepper

28 oz tomatoes 

1 can red kidney beans

1 can black beans

1 can chili

1 tsp salt

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp sugar

2 clove garlic

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 C ketchup

Tuscan Tomato Soup

 Ingredients: 

3 T Olive Oil
5 C of diced, seeded, skinned tomatoes (I love to use fresh garden tomatoes when available in the summer)
1 small can of tomato paste
3 C chicken stock
1 large onion - diced small
1 1/2 C heavy whipping cream
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in soup pot. Add onions and cook until transparent. Add tomatoes and tomato paste and allow to simmer. Add chicken stock and simmer for 15 minutes. Add cream and pesto. Blend in blender. Season with salt and pepper.