Salads

Enjoy Salads in Spring.  Lots of leafy greens, crisps green beans, red tomatoes, and citrus fruits are added for a refreshing taste; indeed, they are a treat for a light meal.
Some vegetables that we love are not available here in the market; however, we can replace them with others.  Fresh salads are always at the table more so in this season.

washing green-endive

Endive is a suitable replacement for 'kenikir' (Javanese vegetable), as the bitter taste is similar.

My recipes for salads are here for you.


Long Bean Salad
It is one of my favourite Javanese salads.  Delicious to be served as is or as a garnish.
What is long bean?
Long Bean or Snake Bean, is a vegetable or a type of bean which is very popular for Asian cooking. I love to prepare the beans for a salad based on Javanese cuisine.  It brings a lovely memory every time I have the fresh long bean salad.  At my parent's house often had the Salad - Gudangan for a special occasion, such as the celebration of a newborn baby or birthdays for the children.
The Snake Bean salad is easy to do.  It is such simple preparation, simply boil the beans until soft but crunchy, add extra cooked cabbage or spinach and dressed the cooked vegetables with coconut dressing. Garnish with boiled egg if you like.

Snake Beans, Cucumber, Ginger and Garlic

Other salad dressed with the same dressing is Trancam, all vegetables are raw/fresh not cooked.
This time I will prepare 'Trancam' - fresh leafy vegetables salad. Raw leafy greens mix with cucumber, carrot (you can add bean sprout) dressed in coconut dressing.

The green vegetables or kenikir I could not get it here in Australia, I am using delicate endive leaves instead.

Trancam (Fresh raw mixed vegetable salad dressed in coconut dressing)

Trancam with shredded kaffir lime leaves 

Green Curley Endive 

Green Endive

Washing the Endive

The fresh vegetable-endive has a lot of sands, as it is the nature of the plants, a proper and thorough washing is needed.  It does require work, but it is worth it.

The vegetables for Trancam.

Sliced unpeeled cucumber and endive

Coconut Dressing to Dress the Trancam and
Gudangan Kacang Lanjaran.

Long Beans.

Gudangan Kacang Lanjaran (Snake Beans Salad)

6 Snake Beans

1 cup cooked cabbage or spinach
Boiled Eggs to garnish

Dressing

1cup desiccated coconut

1 cup of water

1 heaped full tablespoon light brown sugar

3  kaffir lime leaves

1 teaspoon salt

Juice of a half lemon

1 clove garlic, shallot (sliced finely), and crushed little ginger

(saute in vegetable oil)

Method

Saute the onion, garlic, and the ginger  until all release their fragrant

Add the rest of the ingredients

Continue cooking until the water is absorbed.
Transfer to a bowl, let it cool.  Refrigerate to keep for a few days.

Often the salad complements steamed white rice, one of the rice dish which is popular in Java.

Snake Bean Salad (Gudangan Kacang Lanjaran)

The Snake Bean Salad Garnished with Boiled Eggs

Preparation for the Vegetables

Cabbage and Long Bean for Gudangan
Chop the cabbage into small pieces, keep the beans as they are

Cooking the long beans for less than 2 minutes in boiling water,
before adding the cabbage

Continue cooking the bean and the cabbage for another 2 minutes.

The Coconut Dressing
Preparation and  Cooking  the Coconut Dressing

The picture is self-explanatory, you could follow step by step to cook and to prepare the coconut dressing.  It keeps well refrigerated for three days, simply place it in a bowl with a good lid.

Fresh Cucumber
Cucumber Salad-Acar

This salad is for spicy garnish food such as curry and savoury rice-nasi goreng or fried rice, noodles, and so forth.

Peel and dice a continental cucumber or green cucumber
1 fresh shallot, peel and slice thinly
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-2 tablespoon white vinegar
(place all these ingredients in a bowl, mix and toss together.  Let it stand for a few minutes before serving).

Green Bean

Give Me That Steak.
Green bean and tomato salad dressed with red wine vinegar is such a perfect combination. It is delicious garnished for a rare seared steak cooked in a frypan.  It does not mean that you will always have it, but it could have been good, but the salad is delicious on its own, even though crusty toasted bread would compliment it.

Green Bean and Tomato Salad with Red Wine Vinegar Dressing and Chopped Young Celery Leaves.

Green Bean and Tomato Salad
a handful of green beans topped and tailed.
(cooked-but stay green and crunchy)
2 red tomatoes, sliced thinly
Fresh parsley, chopped finely
Dressing
2 tablespoon olive oil
2 red wine vinegar
Salt
(mix all ingredients together)
To serve
Place the green beans on a plater, drizzle some of the dressing, place the sliced tomato on the green beans and drizzle the rest of the dressing, and sprinkle the chopped parsley the last.

The Green Bean and Tomato Salad

Pan-fried Rump Steak

It works very well with pan-fried steaks or pan-fried lamb meat.

It's plain lucky that there was a piece of rump to pan-fried to serve with the salad.

The Meat and The Salad

Tofu Salad-Tahu Guling ( Javanese Style)
Tahu Guling for Two
A reminiscent of afternoons treat in Java, enjoyed these fresh but substantial salads on a hot day were very pleasant. No, you did not need to prepare them, as street food sellers were always there for you.
Here it is, the salad that we could all prepare at home.

1 cup diced firm tofu, pan-fried.
Sliced tomato, chopped lettuce and other vegetables at your fancy
Krupuk and fried shallots for the garnish
Dressing
2 tablespoons sweet soy-kecap manis
1 tablespoon salty soy
Juice of a lime or lemon
salt to taste
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
a crush of one clove garlic and one red chilli (optional)
(mix all ingredients together)
To serve
Place all salad ingredients in a large bowl, add in the prior dressing serving, toss them together but lightly.  Sprinkle the fried shallots over the salad, and place the krupuk on top for the garnish.

Tahu Gulling

Pomelo

Pomelo Salads
Pretty pomelo salad is very inviting to be served on a warm spring day. Refreshing to garnish pan-fried salmon marinaded in mandarin juice and soy.  Easy preparation.

Pomelo Salad with Pan-Fried Salmon

These are what you need for the Pomelo Salad.
Pomelo meat.

Fresh herbs greens and garnishes such as edible flowers, tomato and red capsicum

Mandarins juice, to marinate the Salmon add soy

The Dressing
1 tablespoon vegetable Oil
A pinch of Salt
Juice of a lemon
Chopped fresh chives
(mix these ingredients together, to dress the salad prior serving)

Place the pomelo and other greens, tomato and herbs in a bowl, add the dressing and toss together gently.  Serve with the pan-fried salmon, and sprinkle with fresh chives on top, garnish with pretty edible flowers.

Pretty Pomelo Salad

The salad works very well too with buttered fried prawns and other fish.

Using Pomelo Meat
Pomelo and Avocado salad with creamy dressing to served with chicken
Pomelo mixed with other fresh fruits and tropical fruits to make a fruit salad.


Enjoy salads for Spring Eating, and you may like the salads that I do to add to your family meals.
Have Fun and Happy Eating.


Until Next Post
Susy.

Keeping Sourdough Starter (Updated)

Sourdough Starter

Sour Dough Starter

Stir before the Feeding.

Take 100 gr Starter and 200 gr remaining
Feed with 50g flour and 50 ml of water

Keep at room temperature, use the sourdough starter in three days, otherwise refrigerate until you need it.

I have been keeping my sourdough liquid starter since three months ago.  Now I took it out from the refrigerator, and it looks like this, a whiteish colour on the bottom and with a little black line on top.

It is OK I understood, I stirred it up, and the colour stays creamy white.  And now I let it rest on the kitchen bench.

After stirring thoroughly, it becomes even creamy white. 

Fix the lid and secured tightly7 

Leave it on a bench at room temperature for overnight.

I will bake the bread tomorrow; hopefully, it is going to work.  I must use 100 g of the sourdough liquid, and I must not forget to feed the sourdough to keep it a life.

The starter will remain a life for an average of 3 days after it has been refreshed.
Accordingly, it should be refreshed at 3-day intervals by adding 50 % of its own weight in water and flour.
I will take 100gr for my baking, and I have 200g sourdough starter remaining, so I will feed with 50g plain flour mix with 50g water.
(Based on  Éric Kayser)

It is going to be a fun baking day,  and a fancy bread baking.   I have decided what type of bread I will bake, and it is a mixed nut crown loaf as I am in luck that I have active ingredients at hand.

Mixed Fruit and Nut Crowns
250-275 g mixed fruit and nuts (you could put more-30% of the weight of the dough)
-Raisins, currants, apricots, prunes, pecans, almonds, macadamia nuts, and cashew nuts.
500g all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
325g water at 20 degrees C
100g liquid sourdough starter
3g dry yeast or 5g fresh yeast
10g salt
30g softened butter


Wish me luck, I need that, but I am looking forward to having a lot of fun in the kitchen, I must start at 12 00 noon enable me to have the fresh bread at 4.30 in the afternoon.  Or start in the morning to have the bread for a late morning tea.

If I could not do it by tomorrow for reasons, so  I shall bake the bread on the following day.

Keeping the sourdough starter well is one of the keys for successful baking bread.  And it stays for a long time, almost forever.

My dream of having a fancy home-baked bread hopefully could be achievable.


How to make the sourdough starter, please look on an older post!


Monday. I decided to bake the bread and started at one o'clock.  It was full-on, especially we both were busy in the morning.  They were baked at six o'clock and tasted at seven.  


And this is the result, I show you the pictures, and I am happy enough, it was a good baking day.  

Freshly Baked
Mixed Fruit and Nut Crowns  Bread

Slices of the Crown Bread

Delicious bread.  This bread is rich but not too sweet, in fact, it needs lots of butter to have.
The good thing is the bread freezes well, a good supply of home-baked bread is always appreciated by the family.

I did not forget to feed the sourdough liquid, and within three days, I could do another baking, or simply keep in the refrigerator for safekeeping.

Feeding the Sourdough Starter

The sourdough starter is staying in the family, and it keeps well for future baking.

The Preparation and The Baking of The Crown Bread.

Chopping the dried fruits and the nuts.  Roasting the nuts, my tip is roast the nut according to how long it takes to bake, do not cook all the nuts at the same time.

Mixed Fruits and Nuts

The Ingredients
Plain flour, sourdough liquid, water. salt, dry yeast, butter

Roasted Nuts, and Chopped

Mixed dried fruits, Chopped.

Mixing the Dough and The Fruits and Nuts

Shape into a ball and place it in a large bowl and cover with a damp cloth
 to proof for 1 hour and 30 minutes

The bread dough was proofed, it's almost double.

Time for shaping, the mixed nut crown should be looking good, there are steps to follow to make the perfect shape.

Cut the ready dough into two.

Now, here two pieces of dough with the same weight.

Roll the dough very lightly, shape into small balls and rest for 15 minutes,
cover the dough with a damp cloth

Working with 1 piece of dough at a time,
use your fingers to make a large hole right through the centre
Working carefully, stretch and pull the dough as evenly as you can to make
the crown larger and larger.

The crown is nicely shaped, now place it on a baking tray,
and lined with baking paper

Cover with a damp cloth and leave to proof for 2 hours

Covering the Crown with the damp cloth to proof as stated above

Baking Time

To bake the sourdough bread has methods, and this method is different from others.  So far, I manage but not perfect just yet.  Particularly the bread does not spit well during baking.

Score the bread,  before putting in the oven splash 20 mil of water on the baking tray
 which is ready there at the bottom of the oven and bake for 18-20 minute.

 Scoring the bread is the skill which required to learn correctly, and I will get there eventually. The steam and the heat will help the process of baking.

Bake in a hot oven at 230 degrees C

Freshly baked mixed fruit and nut crown bread.
Beautiful rustic golden brown look, sadly the scoring did not
do any good but acceptable.

Slice and taste when it is cold.   Keep it in an airtight container to freeze if you wish to.


The recipe based on Éric Kayser.  I learnt a lot from his book and a few changes that I did to the method, and they worked.




Until Next Time
Susy