Spicy Steamed Fish Head

The weather had been bleak for days and the sky had been gray and foggy the whole morning. It made me hesitant to go out, though I had wanted to shop for several run out items like vinegar and butter. In rainy season like this, I usually consume a lot of ginger tea or more spicy food to warm up my body. Since Indonesian is an archipelagic country surrounded by the sea, thus, Indonesian diet consists of a lot of seafood, mostly fish. We do have abundance of fish - many kinds, which we are very grateful for 'cause we have such immense source of protein from the sea.

So, I decided to cook spicy steamed fish head (Chinese style) and here is the recipe:

2 big red snapper fish heads (halved)

2 cloves of garlic (minced)

5 cm of young ginger (julienned) (add more as you like) 

10 hot Thai chayenne pepper (diced, if you don't like spicy leave the pepper undiced) - you can use any paddy chilli too (green ones)

2-3 small calamansi citrus to marinate the fish heads (you can subsitute it with lime or lemon juice just enough to season the fish head in order to eliminate the fishy smell) 

2 Tbs of vegetable oil for sautéing

2 Tbs of sesame oil

3-5 Tbs of salted soya sauce (adjust it according to your taste, I usually don't use anymore salt so I just add more to reach the salty taste).

1 Tbs of salted soya bean (optional) - if you use salted soya bean, you may want to lessen the salted soya sauce.

11/2 tsp of sugar

1 - 1 1/2 cup of water

2 sprigs of scallion, sliced

How to:
1. Marinate the fish heads with the lime juice for 5-10 mins, drained. Place the fish heads in a tin plate. 

2. Pre-heat the steamer and sauté garlic with vegetable oil until fragrant, add diced chilli, ginger, salted soya sauce, sesame oil and salted soya bean(optional). Keep sautéing until it turns brown. 

3.Transfer the sautéd ingredients over the fish heads, sprinkle sugar on top of it, add water.

4. Place the the tin plate in the steamer when the steamer is boiling or ready. Steam for 15 mins.

5.Remove the plate from the steamer when it's done and sprinkle with sliced scallion. Serve with steamed rice.

Sometimes I use dehydrated red pepper though fresh paddy chilli/hot pepper is best

New Recipe To Try - Amish Cinnamon Bread

The productivity continued on till the evening, where I decided to try on the recipe of Amish Cinnamon Bread from Redfly Creations 

This gave me the opportunity to run my still brand new mixer I got from my best friend on one of my birthday several years ago! It hasn't been used at all for at least 6 or 7 years! Amazing that it still works perfectly! I am so grateful for it, since it eased my work very much!

I was actually thinking about baking some banana bread, but then I stumbled upon this recipe and since I have all the ingredients I gave it a go.  As usual, I cut the amount of sugar because I don't have a sweet tooth, so I cut the sugar from 2 cups to 1 1/4 cups only, given that the topping will use another 2/3 cups of cinnamon sugar. And it proved to be perfect for me!

Look at the crumbly and soft texture, it's yummy!

Potted Garden Apprentice

Today has been a great and productive day! I moved my mango tree to a new pot this morning. I am happy to see it sit comfortably in its new dwelling. I also started to germinate some seeds in mostly recycled containers: Basil which I bought from a nearby Ace Hardware store, Lemon, Lime and Orange Bell-Pepper which I saved myself. To make it easier for me to remember the date and check up on the germination, I put a label on each container.



And then, I organized my remaining seeds in small zip-lock plastic bags. Well, talking about seeds, I am so glad to have been informed that a dear friend from the States is coming to Indonesia this coming November, because that means she can bring me some seeds I am going to order from an organic source in America! Well, I'm not really sure if the seeds will be able to grow in the tropical weather of Indonesia, but I will try anyway. I have made a list and so far there have been 67 types of vegetables and fruit seeds in it! Gosh! I can't help it, I want to plant them all! 

Seeds Saving

Since last week, I have started my Project # 3  - Seeds Saving! Thanks to Hickery Holler I have started to save some seeds of Lemon, Orange-Color Bell Pepper (Paprika) and a handful of Pumpkin seeds! However, it has some weaknesses as I don't have any idea if the fresh produce I saved the seed from were hybrid or heirloom, let alone organic or pesticides-ladden! :-(  As far as I know that most of the vegetables we consume, those we buy from the wet market or supermarket, are traditionally grown - meaning: grown using pesticides and inorganic fertilizers. But, this is such a fun project for me, a way to learn and experiment. 

My indoor plants

Last Sunday, I bought a 15 kgs bag of organic compost which is made of organic waste and a packet of lemongrass seeds, and yesterday I scored 2 bags of soil. With these I think I can sufficiently start germinating the paprika, lemon and lemongrass, and will have enough soil for the tomatoes bedding. I only need to wait till they are 10 cm high before I can move them to a bigger pot. I plan to utilize an old bathing plastic pail for the tomatoes bedding. A frugal choice and it's also recycled! Yeeei!

New Addition

Yesterday, I bought two plants from the nursery to be added to my still very small-sized garden. A plant called Zodia (Latin name : Evodia Sauveolens) which originated from Papua (the third largest island in Indonesia). This plant is from the citrus family (Rutaceaen) and posseses mosquito repellent property. In Papua, this plant is used as natural mosquito repellent by rubbing the leaves to the body. The smell it produces when its leaves rub each other is said to drive the mosquitoes away. This is an endemic plant and is being cultivated in many places now.

 The second plant is a local transplanted mango tree called "Arum Manis" which literally translated as "Sweet Fragrant". This defines the character of this mango tree as the meat is sweet and fragrant. Though, this is a local species but has been exported abroad and well-accepted. 

The man at the nursery told me that it will start yielding fruit when it reaches a year over, but after I searched for more information on it, I acquired the fact that it will only start to produce fruit after 4 years. Oh well... :-( 

I put a handmade cane by utilizing a couple of disposal chopsticks to help supporting the crooked trunk. I have placed it on the rooftop at the second floor since this morning, and it had endured strong wind that made its trunk bent even more. It had also had enough vitamin D provision for today since the sun was quite scorching during the afternoon, and this evening it must endure heavy rain and strong wind which lasted for about an hour. What an extreme weather today!  I really hope it can survive the weather tonight and the cane would succesfully supported its trunk.