IT'S COLD! Time for Homemade Pizza

This recipe is simple. You have nothing to fear. Ingredients: 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, 1 package active dry yeast, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 cup warm water (120 to 130 degrees F), 2 Tablespoons olive oil, then an additional 1 1/2 to 2 cups flour, plus flour for the kneading board or counter In large bowl, mix together the 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, the yeast, and the salt. For the water, boil water in a teakettle on the stove. When it whistles, fill a Pyrex measuring cup 2/3 full. Top off the other third with cold water from the tap or fridge. This will bring the water to the right temperature. Add the warm water and the 2 T olive oil to the flour mixture. Using a wooden spoon, stir by hand until it is mixed. Then stir vigorously for 3 minutes more, alternating arms every half minute or so if your arms get tired like mine do. Then begin to stir in the remaining 1 1/2 to 2 cups flour. If desired, start by stirring in 1 cup of whole wheat flour. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in the remaining 1/2 to 1 cup flour (we are back to all-purpose again), to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic. Divide the dough in half. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 375 F. Take two 11x7 or 9x9 inch baking pans. Put a generous puddle of olive oil on each. Pat your hands in the olive oil, take one of your dough balls, and gently work it into the size and shape of a large pancake. Put it on the pan. Pat, squish, and gently stretch it into shape until it fills the pan. It may pull back from the edges a bit. If you get a hole, just squeeze the dough around it until the hole is covered. Let this crust rise while you do the same with the other one. If desired, you can let them rise up to 45 more minutes. Or, you can put them in the oven right away. They will puff a little more during baking, and this will cover some minor cracks in the crust. Put the plain crusts in the 375 oven for ten to fifteen minutes. Then, take them out, put on the toppings, and put them back in to bake until the cheese is melted and/or bubbly (about 15 or 20 more minutes). To get the feta/spinach pizza pictured here, I first brushed the baked crust with olive oil. Then I added a sparse layer of grated mozzarella, a generous sprinkling of feta, and a layer of thawed frozen chopped spinach. I topped it with a little more feta and mozzarella, and finished with a sprinkle of dried basil. For this version, top with spoonfuls of your favorite spaghetti sauce from a jar, grated mozzarella, and pepperoni.

Back-of-the-Pantry Tuna Casserole

This is something to make at the end of the month, when money runs low, using ingredients that are probably never absent from your pantry or fridge. I will have to separate the sections of this post with elipses, as Blogger does not respect my Enter key. ... Ingredients: half a packet of spaghetti noodles ... a can of tuna ... a slice of onion ... ground black pepper ... as much mayo as you like ... Method: break the spaghetti noodles into shorter pieces with your hands (you can do this while they are still inside the package. Less messy.) Put them on to boil. ... While they are cooking, get out a large serving bowl. Open and drain the can of tuna. Add it to the serving bowl. Chop the onion. Add it to the serving bowl, along with ground black pepper and mayo to taste. ... When the spaghetti is done, drain the noodles and immediately add them to the serving bowl too. Mix all the ingredients together. ... Presto! A cheap, ready to eat main dish in about 10 minutes.

Easiest Chicken

Based on a recipe called "Brown Sugar Chicken" that I found on the Internet ages ago. The original recipe called for crushed garlic too, but I don't usually have time for that, and it's good without. Ingredients: meaty chicken pieces, as many as you like brown sugar (gula aren works if you are in Indonesia) salt ground black pepper soy sauce (about 3 T) 1/3 cup water or apple juice Method: Put the chicken in the crock pot. Sprinkle liberally with brown sugar, salt, and pepper. Pour on the soy sauce and apple juice or water. Turn on to High and leave it alone for 3 hours. Turn it on to Low until you are ready to eat it. It will fall off the bone!

The Best Lunch

This is tastiest, most filling, quickest-to-prepare, vegetarian lunch you will ever eat. Make a big batch of the lentil soup. Keep it on hand in the fridge, along with your leftover naan bread (recipe to follow) in the freezer. At lunchtime, heat up the lentil soup and naan in the micro, butter the naan, and enjoy them both with a big glass of milk. The combo will keep you full for hours.

Indian-Style Lentils (Daal Bukhara, heavily adapted)
This recipe can be done on the stovetop or in the slow cooker.

Ingredients
1 cup lentils
4 tsp garlic puree*
4 tsp ginger puree or finely grated ginger root
1 tsp chile powder
¼ tsp salt
1 can tomato sauce or ½ can tomato paste
½ cup butter
2/3 cup cream, half and half, or milk

Method
Boil the lentils in 6 cups of water until tender, about 1 hour. Or, if using the slow cooker, cook on high heat for an hour and then low heat for about five more hours.
Skim off some of the extra liquid, if necessary. Add the garlic paste, ginger paste, chili powder, salt, and tomato sauce or tomato paste. Stir well to make sure these ingredients dissolve. Simmer for another hour till the mixture is thick. This can be done on the stovetop or in the slow cooker.
Chop the butter and stir it into the lentils, allowing it to melt. You can reduce the butter to ¼ cup, but do not go below that or you will lose the richness of the soup. Add the cream or milk. Stir for about 15 minutes or until the fat is incorporated into the lentil mixture.

Serve with Naan bread and fresh veggies on the side. This soup can be garnished with additional butter.
This recipe is adapted from The Indian Menu Planner, Lustre Press/Roli Books. The original recipe is called “Daal Bukhara.” I cannot call my recipe that, because D.B. calls for black lentils. I have been unable to find black lentils, so I use brown lentils and they seem to work just fine. I like lentils because they cook so quickly.

*In the major city where I live, my local Kroger’s carries garlic and ginger purees, made by Gourmet Garden, in their salad section.

Just A Picture

Red Lentil Soup with plain yoghurt and a lemon wedge for garnish

Another Thrown-Together Supper

... or last-minute inspiration, if you like.

Mock Gyros

The only reason I'm proud of this one, is that I just happened to have all the ingredients on hand. The secret weapon, the tzatziki, is a yoghurt-garlic-cucumber sauce. I had an 8-oz container of it because I got it as an impulse buy at Jungle Jim's. The Greek seasoning was in our house thanks to my sister in law. The bell pepper was from my mother in law's garden!

Ingredients
1 lb ground beef
2 t Greek seasoning
4 garlic cloves (or more, to taste)
¼ of a red onion
1 small bell pepper
whole-wheat tortillas, or other wraps
tzatziki

Method
Use your hands to mix the Greek seasoning thoroughly through the ground beef. Shape beef into eight to ten little “logs.” Place logs in a frying pan and flatten slightly. Turn the heat on medium low.
Peel garlic cloves, cut off the stem ends if desired, but leave whole. Place in the pan with the beef. Wash and slice red onion and bell pepper, and add them to the pan as well. Cook on medium or low until the pink is almost gone from the beef; then flip the patties. Cook until the patties are well browned on both sides, the garlic is getting some brown spots and softening, and the veggies are relaxed.
Place one to two patties, plus some veggies, in each tortilla or wrap. Serve the tzatziki on the side so each person can add the amount they want of it. Serve with grapes. Serves four to six.

Frito Casserole

Fritos are a thick, crunchy corn chip made with corn flour and oil and salt. You know, your basic American junk food. Better than many. You can make the casserole without topping it with Fritos, but I have a feeling that is what made it really popular around here.

Ingredients
1 cup cooked brown rice

meat mixture:
1 lb ground beef
spices:
1 1/2 t garlic salt
2 t paprika
1 t chili powder
1 ½ t cumin
1/8 t black pepper

1 20-oz can diced tomatoes, with juice
1 15-oz can kidney beans, with liquid
1 15-oz can whole sweet corn, drained
1 green sweet pepper, chopped
¼ cup black olives, sliced
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
½ bag Fritos

Method
Pre-cook brown rice. For prep work, you can also pre-chop the sweet pepper and olives, and pre-grate the cheese. Preheat oven 350 F.
In a large frying pan, brown the meat. Meanwhile, put the spices in a small bowl and blend them together. When the meat is browned, sprinkle the spices over it, stir around, and allow to fry for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes and juice and stir it around to allow the spices to come off the pan and into the juice.
Place the rice in a 9x13 glass baking dish. Add the kidney beans with their liquid, corn, sweet pepper, and black olives. Mix. Transfer the warm meat mixture from the frying pan to the baking dish, and mix everything together. Sprinkle cheese over the top.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake 1 hour at 350 F. If necessary, the temperature can be reduced and the mixture can be left in a warm oven until serving time.
A few minutes before serving time, crunch up the Fritos by squeezing the bag with your hands. Remove the aluminum foil from the casserole, and sprinkle the Fritos evenly over the top. Bake another 5 or 10 minutes.
Let stand about 10 minutes before serving. If desired, serve with salsa.

Spinach Bacon Alfredo with Whole-Grain Pasta

Pretty fast in itself, this recipe can also be done in stages throughout the day.
I thought it was going to be a froufrou, girly recipe, but my husband liked it! Must have been the bacon.

Ingredients
6 – 8 slices bacon (half a packet)
6 oz frozen spinach (half a bag)
2 T flour
1 t garlic salt
¼ t pepper
2 cups milk
½ cup shredded cheese (optional)
¼ cup sour cream (optional)
6 oz dry whole-grain rotini (half a box)

Method
Stage 1
Fry the bacon until crisp; drain on paper towels. Pour half the drippings into a deep saucepan; reserve the other half in the skillet. Meanwhile, partially thaw frozen spinach.
Stage 2
Slightly heat the reserved bacon grease in the skillet. Gently put the frozen spinach in it, a little at a time. If not done carefully, the water in the spinach could cause the bacon grease to spit and burn you. Keep the spinach on low heat, stirring the grease into it until it is completely thawed and has absorbed the grease. You can do that periodically while making the white sauce.
For white sauce, reheat the bacon grease in the saucepan. Add 1 t to 1 T of butter, depending on how much grease you have. The behavior of the butter will tell you when the grease is the right temperature. Mix flour, garlic salt and pepper in a small bowl. When the butter is melted and starting to sizzle, dump the flour mixture into the saucepan. Stir it to create and partially cook a rout, until all the grease is absorbed. Then add the two cups milk, pouring carefully in case the cold milk causes the grease to spit. Cook and stir the mixture over medium to high heat until it thickens and begins to bubble. Cook and stir one minute more to make sure the flour is fully cooked. Reduce heat to low. Optionally, stir in ½ cup shredded cheese until it melts into the sauce. I used cheddar and Monterey Jack; Swiss would also work well.
Stage 3
Boil water and 1 t salt in a large pot. Add the rotini and cook 12 minutes or until done. (Whole wheat pasta often requires a slightly longer cooking time.) Meanwhile, stir the spinach into the white sauce. Optionally, stir in ¼ cup sour cream. Crumble the bacon and add it to the white sauce.
When the pasta is done, drain thoroughly and add it to white sauce. Mix everything together. Serve with Parmesan and ground black pepper. Serves 4.

Greek Style Pork

This one is unaltered right out of Better Homes & Gardens, but it’s too good not to share. The acidity of the tomatoes contrasts nicely with the savory of the oregano and the sweet of the cinnamon and raisins. And it’s simple to make.

Ingredients
1 lb boneless pork sirloin (or 2 – 4 pork chops)
1 T cooking oil
½ of a medium onion, cut into wedges
1 14 ½ oz. can diced tomatoes
½ cup raisins
½ t dried oregano, crushed
½ t ground cinnamon

Method
Trim fat from meat. Cut meat into ½ inch cubes. In a large skillet with a lid, brown meat and onions. You may need to brown the meat half at a time, depending on how much meat you have and the size of your skillet. Drain off fat.
Stir in undrained tomatoes, raisins, oregano and cinnamon. Bring to boiling. Reduce heat and cover. Simmer for 20 to 25 minutes or till meat is tender. If desired, serve atop hot cooked rice. Serves 4.

Sate-Style Chicken in Peanut Sauce

Indonesian "sate" is street food served in roadside booths in the evening. It consists of chicken ‘bits’ skewered on bamboo sticks and grilled over hot coals. (If you try this method, you should soak the sticks first so they don’t catch on fire.) So that the meat will cook quickly, the chicken pieces in Indonesian sate are generally very small. One bamboo skewer will typically contain a few pieces that are meat, a few that are mostly skin, and a few that are organ meats. This recipe was adapted to American tastes and recommends boiling the chicken because that is the fastest method and will produce tender juicy meat.

Ingredients

6 to 8 chicken breasts or other meaty pieces, + 2 cups reserved broth
2 jars all-natural peanut butter (1 crunchy, 1 smooth)
¼ onion, finely minced or grated (optional)
8 - 10 cloves garlic, minced or grated
6 – 8 tablespoons soy sauce
10 tablespoons brown sugar
6 – 8 teaspoons hot pepper sauce (optional)

Method
Boil chicken in a large pot. If necessary, debone and boil further until no pink remains. Reserve 2 cups broth. Cool chicken and cut into bite-sized pieces.
Meanwhile, add peanut butter, reserved broth, onion, garlic, soy sauce, sugar and hot pepper sauce (if using) to another pot. For hot sauce and sugar, add a little at a time, tasting in between. Cook on medium heat, stirring, until the ingredients combine to produce a sauce. If necessary, add more water as the sauce cooks to achieve the desired consistency. Add chicken to sauce, stir, and heat through. If desired, serve with rice, extra soy sauce and extra hot sauce. To make it really Indonesian, the beverage should be iced tea.

Minty Pasta Salad

Try this recipe with thinly sliced celery in place of the water chestnuts. If you like a kick, add thin slices of the hot pepper of your choice.

Ingredients
6 oz. (1/2 box) whole-wheat pasta spirals
1 15-oz can pineapple chunks
2 cans tuna in water
1 can sliced water chestnuts (optional)
4 or 5 very thin slices red onion, chopped
4 or 5 stalks of fresh mint
½ cup light mayo or Miracle Whip
dash lemon juice (optional)
additional mint

Method
Boil water in a pot and cook the pasta for 12 minutes or until done. Meanwhile, open the pineapple and tuna, and drain in a strainer. In a large bowl combine the pineapple chunks, tuna, water chestnuts, and red onion. Rinse the mint, pat dry, and remove the healthy leaves. Chop them coarsely and add them to the bowl. Add the mayo, with a dash of lemon juice if desired, and mix.
When the pasta is done, drain it in the strainer, rinse in cold water and drain again. Add it to the bowl and mix well. Transfer to a serving bowl and chill until serving time. Garnish with additional mint, if desired. Serves four.

Bangladeshi Sweet Chicken Curry with Yoghurt

This is another recipe from Extending the Table, successor to the popular More with Less Cookbook. The original recipe calls for 3 onions and a whole 3-lb chicken. I have adjusted these amounts. For the spices, cardamom is expensive and I didn’t have coriander on hand, so I made it without these two spices and it was still good. I also served the ground red pepper on the side instead of adding it to the dish while cooking, to please the tender palates in my family.

Ingredients
½ to 1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced

Spices:
½ t ground ginger or 4 slices ginger root, grated
5 – 6 whole cloves or ½ t clove powder
5 -6 whole cardamom pods or ½ t ground cardamom (optional)
1 – 2 cinnamon sticks or 1 t ground cinnamon
1 t ground coriander (optional)
1 t ground cumin
¼ to ½ t ground red pepper
1 t salt

1 to 1 ½ lb chicken, whatever cuts you like best (I use breasts or tenders), skinned and cut in pieces
1 cup yoghurt or buttermilk
2 T shredded coconut
2 T raisins (optional)
1 cup water (optional, for more sauce)
additional yoghurt, buttermilk or sour cream, if desired

Method
Select a heavy pan with a lid that seals. Heat 2 T oil and fry the onion and garlic until soft and lightly brown. Add the spices, including salt, and fry about 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the chicken, and brown on all sides. Mix and add yoghurt or buttermilk, coconut, raisins, and water. Cover and simmer 35 – 45 minutes for larger chicken pieces such as legs and thighs, 20 – 25 minutes if you have cut the meat into bite-sized pieces.
Despite the yoghurt or buttermilk, this recipe makes a watery, not a creamy, sauce. I suggest that instead of adding 1 cup of water before simmering, you wait until the end and then stir in about ¼ cup additional yoghurt, buttermilk, or sour cream just before serving. That will yield a creamier sauce.
Serve hot over rice. Serves two to four.

Mulligatawny Soup

I can’t believe I’ve never tried to make this before. It would have been perfect for our lifestyle in Indonesia, because all the ingredients are easy to find in our town there. It remains a quick, healthy, tasty soup for anyone. I got this recipe from the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, where it is called Easy Mulligatawny Soup. I substituted sausage for their 1 ½ cups chopped cooked chicken or turkey. I also changed the amounts of various vegetables slightly to make them easier to remember. (I also left out the rice when I made it, because I didn’t know how long the soup would need to simmer before serving, and was planning to serve corn bread on the side.)

Ingredients
2 ½ cups chicken broth (or 2 ½ cups water plus two bouillon cubes)
1 chopped apple
2 chopped carrots
1 7 ½ -ounce can tomatoes, cut up, or three Roma tomatoes, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1/3 cup rice
½ onion, chopped
¼ cup raisins
1 T (tablespoon) snipped fresh parsley
1 to 2 teaspoons curry powder
1 t lemon or lime juice
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1/8 t ground mace or nutmeg
1 ½ cups chopped cooked chicken or turkey,
OR a Polish sausage or four hot-dog style sausages

Method
In a large saucepan combine chicken broth, apple, carrots, undrained tomatoes, celery, uncooked rice, onion, raisins, parsley, curry powder, lemon juice, pepper, mace or nutmeg, and 1 cup additional cup water. Bring to the boil; reduce heat. Cover and simmer about 20 minutes or until the rice is tender.
Meanwhile, if using sausage, bias-cut the sausage into pieces about ¼ inch thick, place in a frying pan, and brown on all sides.
If using cooked chicken or turkey, add the meat when the rice is done, heat through, and serve.
If using sausage, reheat the sausage in the pan, add to the soup and serve immediately. Remember not to add the sausage until the last minute or it will become less appetizing. Also, if using rice, do not let the rice sit in the soup a long time after it is done, as it will continue to absorb the broth.

Serves 4.

Frank's Red Hot Tuna

Now that it's Lent, we need a fish recipe!
This recipe makes use of the well-blended flavor of Frank’s RedHot Sauce. It is not a very hot sauce for its volume. If you substitute Tabasco, you should use smaller amounts. Other than Frank's, all the ingredients in this dish are available in our town in Indonesia. We used to have it frequently. I've made it with Frank's, Tabasco, and simply with cabe rawit, the tiny hot "bird's eye" peppers.
This recipe was inspired by Indonesian canned "pepper tuna," but it is more suited to American tastes. A true Indonesian recipe would have sugar and fish sauce.

Ingredients
1 onion or 4 green onions, chopped
2 – 3 cloves garlic, sliced thinly into “coins” but not minced
3 cabe hijau or one green pepper, seeds removed and cut into strips
2 – 3 glugs cooking oil
1 can tuna in water, undrained
1 Tablespoon Frank’s, original flavor
2 tomatos, diced
1 T tomato paste and ¼ cup water (optional)
3 - 4 T Frank’s
2 teaspoons lemon or lime juice (optional)
1 t cumin
1 packet chicken boullion granules, MSG, or 1 block chicken boullion starter (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
ground red pepper (optional)

Directions
In a pan fry onion, garlic, and pepper in oil until soft. Add tuna; mix and fry briefly. Add 1 T Frank’s, mix, and allow to fry briefly. Meanwhile, cut up tomatos. Add tomatos and/or tomato paste and water, mix, and allow to fry while you measure and add the remaining 3 T Frank’s, lime juice, cumin, boullion granules, salt and pepper. At this stage, you can optionally add ground red pepper to taste to produce a hotter result. Mix well, form into a mass in the center of the frying pan, and allow to simmer 20 minutes for flavors to blend. Serve over rice. Serves 2 to 3.

http://www.franksredhot.com/

Jambalaya

Any American living in Asia ought to know how to make jambalaya. Jambalaya is all about throwing in whatever you have on hand, and as long as you get the seasonings right, it will still taste good. It can be made with as little as just onion, garlic, and seasonings (plus the rice and butter or oil of course), or it can be made with all three kinds of meat, and with whatever additional veggies (e.g. zucchini) you need to use up. Of course, the more extras you put in it, the more satisfying and nutritious it will be.

Ingredients
1 small onion or 2 - 3 green onions
2 – 5 garlic cloves (or subst. 1/4 t garlic powder later)
1 red or green bell pepper (or 3 – 6 cabe hijau, or any favorite pepper you have on hand)
2 – 4 T butter or margerine
1 cup uncooked rice
1 15-oz. can stewed tomatos, with the juice (or 1 - 3 small tomatos, diced; or 1 - 4 T tomato paste)
1 – 2 cups water
1 or 2 chicken boullion flavor cubes, or 1 t aginomoto (optional)
¼ teaspoon pepper
1/8 – ¼ t bottled hot sauce, such as Tabasco, or a dash of ground red pepper (or use hotter peppers in place of the bell pepper)
1 t dry basil
1 bay leaf (optional)

1 cup cooked cubed chicken, sausage, or shrimp (optional)

Method
Chop up the onion, garlic, and pepper, and fry in butter, in a large saucepan or in a large frying pan with a tight-fitting lid, until tender but not brown.
Add the uncooked rice; mix and fry briefly.
Add the stewed tomatos, seasonings, and 1 cup water (2 cups if not using canned stewed tomatos). Stir the ingredients together, breaking up the boullion cube and cutting the stewed tomatos into bite-sized pieces with the spoon as you do so. Cover; bring to the boil, then turn down the heat, leaving the mixture covered, and simmer until the rice has cooked fully, about 20 to 25 minutes. Depending on how much water you use, the rice may resemble a porridge. You can experiment with this until you get it to a dryness you like.

When the rice is done, stir in the chicken, sausage or shrimp and heat through. You may add the chicken or shrimp along with the other ingredients before cooking, but if you do this with the sausage, the fat will pop out of the meat during the cooking process and you will not want to eat it.

Serve hot, alone or with any combination of the following garnishes: grated cheese; sour cream or plain yoghurt; hot sauce; lemon or lime juice; cilantro. Also good with corn bread, if you have it. Serves 2.

Fried Spicy Tempe

Tempe is a cheap local source of protein. It is soybeans in a sort of cake, formed into a log. It can be sliced and deep-fried. Here is a log of tempe wrapped in a banana leaf.

The following is a Javanese recipe that goes by a lot of different names, most of which include the words “fried,” “dried,” and “tempe.” (They are: tempe kering, tempe bumbu kering, sambel goreng tempe, sambel goreng kering, and tempe orek.) I decided I wanted to learn to make it in order to save our budget a bit. At first I kind of guessed how to make it, guided by a few tips from a kind lady in the market where I bought the ingredients for my first batch. Then I got some more advice from a friend who is a caterer. My husband also got some advice from a food vendor. But the person who helped the most was my housekeeper. She’s the one who explained that you have to fry the tempe before you sautee the garlic and onions. To an American, this is a very counterintuitive recipe!
Ingredients
1 log of tempe
cooking oil
1 or 2 small fresh red peppers
a handful of string beans (buncis)
3 – 6 shallots (small red onions)
2 – 4 cloves of garlic
lemon grass (serai) (optional)
turmeric root (optional)
a flavor enhancer (e.g. Royko)
about ½ log palm sugar, grated (or 2 – 3 tablespoons brown or white sugar)
salt
1/8 to ¼ cup water
Method
In a large frying pan, heat just enough oil to deep-fry the tempe. Slice the tempe into strips and deep fry. You may need to fry it in two batches.
Drain on paper towels. Frying the tempe is the step that will take the longest. While it is frying, you can do the prep work for the other ingredients.
Rinse and bias-cut the red peppers and the string beans, stringing the beans first if necessary.
Poach the peppers and beans in a little water until done (about 10 minutes), then drain and set aside.
Grate the shallots and garlic. Optionally, grate a small amount of turmeric. Also optionally, cut the lemon grass into 1-centimeter pieces and crush it slightly to release the flavor. When all the tempe is draining on paper towels, there should be a few tablespoons of oil left. If not, cool and pour off any excess oil. Add the grated onions and garlic, and the other optional spices if using. Reheat the oil and sautee the spices, meanwhile sprinkling a packet of flavor enhancer such as Royko over the mixture. (Those allergic to MSG may leave this ingredient out, but you will not have the authentic Indonesian taste.)
When the spices are soft and fragrant, add the tempe back to the pan and stir gently so as to coat the tempe with the sauteed spice mixture without causing the tempe strips to fall apart. When the tempe is well coated, turn off the heat. Add the palm sugar and a little water. (I grate the palm sugar directly onto the tempe.) If the flavor enhancer you used is not very salty, you may need to to add salt. Turn the heat on low. Cook and stir until the sugar and water has become a brown glaze on the tempe strips. When this step is almost done, add the peppers and beans.
Voila! This dish is usually served with rice that has been cooked in a solution of water and coconut milk.

Red Lentil Soup

This is a wonderful soup. It cooks quickly, tastes good, and gives you a big serving of your veggies for the day. We have it frequently, usually with biscuits. I adapted it from Extending the Table, the successor to the popular More With Less Cookbook. In ET it is called "Spicy Lentil Pot." My changes: less lentils and water to suit our family's size, 2 boullion cubes instead of one for better flavor. Leave them out if you're allergic to MSG.
Ingredients
2 carrots
1 green bell pepper (using a red one gives the soup an even more beautiful red color)
1 onion
2 tomatos or 1 8-oz. can tomato sauce
5 – 8 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole
1 cup orange lentils
4 cups water
2 chicken boullion cubes (optional)
2 t. ground cumin
1 ½ t. salt
¼ - 1 ½ t. ground red pepper or Tabasco or other hot sauce

Method
1. Coarsely chop carrots, onion, and tomatos. Place in a large soup pot. (If substituting tomato sauce, do not add it until after the lentils are cooked.) Add garlic, lentils, and boullion cubes (see picture above). Add water.
2. Cover and boil 20 – 30 minutes without stirring.
3. Cool slightly and strain or puree. The puree step is not absolutely necessary, but I’ve tried it both ways and I think the pureeing is important to that extra-good taste that makes you want to make this soup again and again.
4. Return the pureed soup to the pot and add cumin, salt, and pepper or hot sauce. Simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, to blend flavors.
Serve with bread or rice. Yoghurt and/or lime juice make good toppings.

10-Minute Broccoli Cheese "Casserole"

The perfect midday meal for a busy, ravenous breastfeeding mom who needs her protein, calcium and folic acid.
Ingredients
1 box Kraft instant mac ‘n’ cheese
1 head of broccoli
3 T butter
a splash of milk
grated cheese (optional)
sour cream or plain yoghurt (optional)
parmesan cheese or wheat germ
Instructions
In a pan, bring water to a boil. Meanwhile, rinse the broccoli and cut into florets. When the water is boiling, stir in the Kraft noodles and the broccoli florets. Boil for 6 to 8 minutes until done. Meanwhile (optionally) grate about 2 oz of cheese of your choice.
Drain the noodles and broccoli. Add the Kraft seasoning packet, butter, and milk; mix thoroughly. Optionally, stir the grated cheese into the hot mixture; it should melt. At this point you can also optionally stir in 2 T sour cream or up to ½ cup plain yoghurt for a creamy texture and a slightly tart flavor.
For that crunchy casserole topping, top with parmesan cheese or wheat germ (pictured). Eat immediately. Serves 1.