Siomay Bandung (Bandung Steamed Dumplings with Peanut Sauce)

 

I don't know exactly since when I love to eat this street food. Siomay is similar to Chinese Dim Sum. It is an Indonesian steamed fish dumpling served with Peanut Sauce. A word of Siomay itself can be derived from Chinese Shumai (siu mai or shaomai), a traditional Chinese Dumpling that is considered to have originated from Inner Mongolia.

This traditional dim sum is a popular meal in Indonesia as street food. There are so many types of siomay variations in Indonesian cuisine based on the meat that is used for the filling. We can use king mackerel fish, chicken, shrimp, crab, or mixture of chicken and shrimp. As the recipe I share in here is using mixture of chicken and shrimp as filling. Siomay Bandung is the most famous variety of siomay in Indonesian cuisine.

Siomay Bandung is served with tofu, hard-boiled egg and vegetables such as potato, cabbage, bitter-melon, and the most important component, that is Peanut Sauce. We can add some seasoning for peanut sauces such as chili, lime juice and a little bit sweet soy sauce.

The original recipe is come from NCC. But I made some change to the original recipe due to my liking. And also the recipe of Peanut Sauce or Peanut Sambal. I made my own recipe.

Siomay Bandung

Bandung Steamed Dumplings with Peanut Sauce

 

Ingredients: 

• 400 g chicken meat, paste
• 100 g shrimp/king mackerel fish, paste
• 2 tbs shallots, grated
• 1 tbs garlic, mashed
• 2 tsp ground white pepper
• 3 tbs sugar
• 3 tsp salt
• 1 tbs cooking oil or sesame oil
• 3 eggs
• 400 g chayotes, grated
• 450 g tapioca starch
• Wonton skins
• 1 medium sized bitter-melon
• 1 medium sized cabbage
• Some hard-boiled eggs
• Tofu

Peanut Sauce:

• 500 g roasted peanut
• 200 g red chilies 
• 3 garlic
• 3 shallots
• 2 tbs Javanese tamarind juice
• 2 tbs salt
• 7 tbs coconut sugar
• 1,5 liter water

 Directions:

1. In a bowl, combine chicken meat and shrimp paste with shallot, garlic, white pepper, sugar, salt, and cooking oil. I used food processor to combine it. Then add egg and mix well. 
2. Add grated chayotes and mix well. Add tapioca starch, mix well. Set aside.
3. Grease the steamer with small amount of cooking oil to make the dumplings will not sticky when steaming. 
4. Siomay : Take a piece of wonton skin, scoop about 1 tbs of filling, shape it using hands. Repeat until all the wonton skin are used up. Steam for 20 minutes.
5. Potato :  Boiled potatoes until half-cooked then peel the potato's skin. Cut in half and scrape a portion of potato side and fill it with the filling. Steam it. If you want simple way, just boiled it and peel the potato skin without fill it with the feeling.
6. Tofu : Cut in half and scrape a portion of tofu and fill it with the filling. Steam. You can also just cut in half and directly steam it.
7. Bitter melon : Cut in several pieces (as your liking). Scrape the seed portion and fill it in with the filling. Steam it.
8. Cabbage : Cut in several pieces as your liking and steam it. Some people usually make the cabbage roll and fill it with the filling. But I choose simple way, just steam it with fill nothing.
9. Egg : hard boiled eggs 
10. Peanut Sauce (Peanut Sambal) :
    
    • Process the peanuts in food processor until smooth. Transfer it into a medium bowl. Set aside.
    • Process red chilies, garlic and shallots until smooth. 
    • Heat a skillet and add some cooking oil. Stir fry the smooth red chilies, garlic, and shallot until fragrant. Add the ground peanuts, mix well. Pour water, mix it. Add salt, coconut sugar, tamarind juice, mix well. Wait until the sauce become thick then turn off the heat. Set aside.

Serving suggestions: place all dumplings on a plate. Pour some peanut sauce and drizzle over lime juice, sweet soy sauce, and some ground chilies or you can use chili sauce from the store. 

Pesmol Ikan Kembung (Short Mackerel in Spicy Onion Sauce)

I was tempted to short mackerel since I was child. Nowadays, I never let through to buy this fish whenever it was displayed in grocery. Usually I just deep fried this fish and eat it with Sambal (one of Indonesian staple food that has spicy flavor). But today I try to make something different. Then I remembered that I have ever eat Fish Pesmol in Sundanese Restaurant and I like the spicy onion sauce of Pesmol. I searched the recipe in the internet and Voila.... Here they come....

In the original recipe, she used White Pomfret fish (Ikan Bawal), so I just substitute the main ingredients. Overall I love this recipe, fresh and spicy. If you don't like spicy food, you can eliminate or reduce the bird-eye chilli. Hope you enjoy it..

Pesmol Ikan Kembung 

(Short Mackerel in Spicy Onion Sauce)

 Ingredients:

• 500 gram Indonesian mackerel (Ikan Kembung), you can substitute to other kind of fish that you like
• 1-2 lime, squeeze to get the juice
• 3 cm fresh galangal, crushed
• 1 lemon grass, bruised
• 2 kaffir lime leaves
• 2 Indonesian bay leaves
• 6 shallots, halved, sliced
• 1 spring onion, sliced
• 1 lemon grass, sliced
• 1 small size tomato, sliced
• 1 long red pepper, angle sliced
• 5 whole bird's eye chillies
• water as desired
• 1/2 tablespoons vinegar (can be substituted by tamarind juice)
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil

Ground Spicy Paste:

• 3 shallots
• 5 cloves garlic
• 5 candlenuts
• 3 cm fresh turmeric 
• 1 cm fresh ginger
• salt, sugar, and pepper as desired

 Directions:

• Rub fish with lemon juice, salt and pepper. Marinate for 15-30 minutes. Deep fry until golden brown, then set aside.
• Stir fry ground spicy paste, galangal, lemon grass, bay-leaves, and kaffir lime leaves in a small amount of oil until fragrant.
• Add water, salt, pepper, and sugar. Bring to boil. Add whole sliced shallot, spring onion, lemon grass, tomato, long red  pepper, and bird's eye chillies.
• Add vinegar/tamarind juice. Cook until chillies and shallots wilted then add fish. Stir evenly in small heat until all the paste seep into the fish. Serve with warmed rice.

Recipe in Bahasa Indonesia version

Pempek (Palembang Stuffed Fish Cake)

Pempek or we can called it Palembang Stuffed Fish Cake is a savoury fish cake delicacy from Palembang, capital city of South Sumatra. It is usually served with yellow noodles and a dark, rich sweet and sour sauce called kuah cuko. Pempek is one of my favourite Indonesian cuisine since I was child. I really love it. I still remember when I got my first pregnant, I ever asked my parents to bring Pempek from Pontianak just because I really want to eat Pempek that is made by my mother's friend. 

Now, I try to make it by myself. So, I don't need to imported  it again from Pontianak, or maybe from the origin place, Palembang. I was so happy because although it was my first experiment to made it I can made it successfully :D But only for Pempek Lenjer, not for the Kapal Selam type, it was so hard to make it perfec.

Pempek dough is made from a mixture of boneless ground fish meat, commonly Indonesian uses Ikan Tenggiri (kind of Wahoo or Spanish macakerel) with water, salt and tapioca. But some of others uses Ikan Gabus (Snakehead fish) or Ikan Belida (Featherback fish). Many people said the best tasting pempek are made from Ikan Belida, but it is so difficult to find that fish in Malang, very rare, so I use the usual thing and easy to find, Ikan Tenggiri.

The other important part of this cuisine is Kuah Cuko. The colour of this sauce is dark brown. Just make sure you made the sauce from palm sugar (gula aren), because it will give good colour of the sauce better than if you use brown sugar/coconut sugar (gula merah). But the best thing will always gula merah Linggau, palm sugar from Palembang.

 

Pempek (Palembang Stuffed Fish Cake)

Source: NCC

Ingredients:

Basic Dough:

• 500 grams boneless ground Ikan Tenggiri (Spanish macakerel) meat
• 100 milliliter icy water
• 1 egg
• 25 grams wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 4 clove garlic, minced
• 100 milliliter water
• 400  grams sago flour (Tepung sagu tani)
• 3 tablespoons Tang Mien Flour (wheat starch flour)

Kuah Cuko:

• 250 grams palm sugar
• 50 grams tamarind
• 1 teaspoons ground dried shrimp
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 750 milliliter water
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• bird eyes chilies, ground 
• salt

Directions:

Basic Dough:

• In a bowl, mix boneless ground fish meat, icy water, and egg. Mix well (use your hand better than spoon). Take in chiller until thicken.
• In a bowl, mix wheat flour, sugar, salt, minced garlic, and water. Stir it while boiled in small heat. Stir continuously until thicken. Leave it cold and take in chiller after that.
• After 30 minutes, take out all the ingredients that you put in chiller. Mix all ingredients in different two bowl into one bowl. Mix well (use your hand again).
• Add sagu flour and tang mien flour gradually while you knead the dough slowly until smooth and not sticky in the hand.
• In a big pot, boil water. Add some cooking oil to make Pempek looks shiny and didn't stick each other while boiled.
• On your work table, dust sagu flour. And also don't forget to dust your hand also with sagu flour.
• Take a small amount of Pempek dough, shape it into ball (if you make Pempek adaan), or shape into long cylindrical (if you make Pempek lenjer), and you can also add chicken egg wrapped within the dough (Pempek kapal selam).
• Plunk Pempek into a pot of boiling water. Let pempek float. Take it and leave it cold.
• Deep fry until golden brown. Serve with kuah cuko and cucumber chopped. You can also add some noodles or ground dried shrimps to enrich the flavour.

Kuah cuko:

• In a saucepan, add water, tamarind, palm sugar. Let the sugar dissolve and wait until boil.
• Add minced garlic, ground dried shrimp, ground bird eyes chilies, salt. Bring to boil. Turn off the heat. Add vinegar. 
• Strain it. Ready to be served.

Tekwan (Palembang Fish Ball Soup)

Tekwan is a fish soup typical of Palembang, Indonesia. The fish cakes are made from the dough of fish and tapioca (or sago starch) similar to Pempek. The fish cake is cut in small sizes and presented in shrimp broth with a distinctive flavour, served with rice vermicelli, mushrooms, sliced jicama, and sprinkled with sliced fresh celery, scallion, and fried shallot. Some people made the fish ball from ikan tenggiri (Spanish mackerel), but the other made it from ikan belida (Featherback fish) or ikan gabus (Snakehead fish). All of them are freshwater fish.

Actually I have been several times made this tekwan. But I don't know why the texture of the fish ball never been same as what my mother's made. Maybe I add too many fish in the mixture or something like that. My mother gave me tips to not add so much fish to the mixture to make it more chewy and mix it with ice/cold water. Maybe when I made this in the next time, I will revised the recipe.

 

Tekwan (Palembang Fish Ball Soup)

Source :  "Resep Keluarga Nugraha"

Ingredients:

Fish balls :

• 325 grams boneless ground Ikan tenggiri (Spanish mackerel) meat
• 100 grams tapioca starch 
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

Soup :

• 250 grams prawns
• 25 grams dried black fungus, soaked with hot water
• 2 medium sizes of jicama (bengkoang), peeled and slice into long and thin shape as you wish
• 20 grams dried lily flower (bunga sedap malam kering), soaked with hot water
• 1 stalk of Chinese celery, chopped finely
• 6 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoons pepper
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 liter water
• 5 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 medium size of onion, chopped
• cooking oil

 Other ingredients:

• 2 stalk of green onion, chopped finely
• 1 stalk of Chinese celery, chopped finely
• fried shallot flakes
• dried rice vermicelli, soaked with hot water
• soy bean sauce (optional)
• slices of lemon (optional)

Directions:  
Fish ball:

• Add all the ingredients to make fish ball and mix it well. 
• In a pot, boil water, reduce the heat. Take a tablespoon of fish ball dough and shape it into small balls by using two tablespoons. Drop into the pot until the fish ball floated. Then take away the fish ball and set aside.

Soup :

• Add 2 tablespoon of cooking oil. Stir fry garlic and onion until fragrant. 
• Peel the prawn shells of, add the shell and head. Stir it well until the shell and head turning into red.
• Pour the water, boil it. Then strain the prawn soup.
• Boil again prawn soup after you strain it. Add chopped prawns, jicama, soaked black fungus, and lily flower. Add sugar, salt, pepper, and Chinese celery. Cook until all the ingredients well-cooked.
• Add fish ball, take the soup into re-boil. Turn off the heat.
• Ready to be served with green onion, Chinese celery, soaked rice vermicelli, fried shallot flakes. If you like you can add some soybean sauce and slices of lemon juice and some chili sauce.

Tumis Kangkung Pindang

Nah ini dia hasil ublek-ublek di dapur.. Hasilnya lumayan deh... Langsung abis tandas licin tadi sore...

Ingredients:

• 1 ikat kangkung, dipetik
• 1 ekor ikan pindang, digoreng, disuwir-suwir
• 2 siung bawang putih, iris tipis
• 3 butir bawang merah, iris tipis
• 1/4 sdt kaldu ayam bubuk
• 1/4 sdt garam
• 1/4 sdt merica bubuk
• 1/4 sdt gula pasir
• 75 ml air matang
• 1 sdm margarin
• 1 sdm saus tiram

Directions:

• Panaskan margarin. Tumis bawang putih dan bawang merah sampai harum. Tambahkan saus tiram. Aduk sebentar.
• Tambahkan kangkung. Aduk sampai layu.
• Masukkan air, kaldu ayam bubuk, garam, merica bubuk, dan gula pasir. Aduk rata.
• Tambahkan ikan pindang suwir. Aduk rata. Angkat.