Curly Kale Leaf, daun pepaya versi British...

Udah lama pengeeen banget sayur oseng2 daun pepaya, seperti yang biasa dibuat Ibu. Apalagi kalo pas lebaran, Ibu pasti masak, buat penyeimbang masakan yang berkuah santan. Setelah bertanya sana-sini, akhirnya menemukan juga daun "Curly Kale" di Sainbury deket rumah. Rasanya seneeeeeng banget, akhirnya bisa masak oseng2 daun pepaya ala Brit hehehe...

Tekstur daun setelah dimasak seperti daun pepaya, tapi rasanya tidak pahit, jadi mirip daun singkong. Ditumis pakai tambahan teri, wuaduh, ueenak sekali rasanya, suami sampai nambah makan beberapa kali...

Lucunya, waktu kami cerita kepada salah seorang teman yang sudah lama tinggal disini dan menikah dengan british-native, dia bilang kalau kelincinya biasanya diberi makan daun itu! Aduh mbak, wong kami aja doyan koq, he he he....

Fruit Basket

Selama tinggal di negara yang mempunyai iklim berbeda dgn Indonesia, aku menjumpai beberapa buah-buahan yg jarang atau bahkan belum pernah ku nikmati sebelumnya. Ada sih di antaranya yg dijual di supermarket besar, tp tidak pernah ku jumpai di pasar tradisional Indonesia. Ya iyalah, wong buah-buahan itu tdk secara alamai tumbuh berkembang di Indonesia alias buah impor.

Alhasil, aku bertekad mau nyobain berbagai macam buah yg blm pernah tak coba. Suka..suka, enak dan segar juga rasanya, ndak mengecewakan sejauh ini.. Apalagi setelah tahu klo buah-buahan ini terjamin bebas dari tambahan bahan pengawet, tidak seperti kebanyakan buah impor yg dijual di pasar Indonesia. Ini dia beberapa yg udah aku coba:

Kiwi 

Udah pernah liat di supermarket di Indonesia, tp blm pernah beli. Udah pernah ngicip dikit klo pas makan pie buah, cuma belum puas kr cuman dikiiit bgt!

Awalnya bingung, gimana ya, cara makannya, perlu dikupas ga, ya? Akhirnya aku belah dua, trus disendokin daging buahnya. Rasanya seger kayak stoberi, sensasi di mulut juga seperti klo lg makan stroberi, ada biji2 kecilnya, krenyes2.  Suka, ga kapok beli lagi.

Plum

Baru pertama kali nyobain, rasanya seger juga sih, empuk, dan sedikit manis.

That's how we make tempe

Tempe's the most wanted food that we missed so much since we've lived in UK. It's difficult to find tempe in any store in Southampton, except in china's town or buy online from Holland. That's way, before we went to UK, we had learned how to make tempe from one of tempe's maker in my home village. We also brought tempe starter supposing we couldn't find it around UK.

We've tried several times, but always end up in the trash! Firstly, our tempe smelled so weird as tempe become rotten. At second and third experiment,  tempe had better shape and perfect mold, but they had strong bitter flavor.. :((

Still, then we learned from our trial, we found our mistakes and come up with a better way in making tempe.
Alhamdulillah, in our fourth experiment, we can manage our tempe. They had good shape, perfect mold, and soft bitter taste.

Materials that we used : 

• 1 kg of soybean
• Tempe stater 2 grams (we use RAPRIMA ragi  tempe)
• 6 sealed sandwich plastic bag 
• 3 tablespoon vinegar
• a large pot

Here are steps in making our own tempe.

Step 1: Soaking and dehulling soybeans

Wash soybean, then soak them with hot water approximately 12-18 hours, the longer the better. We use whole soybean, so after soaking, we split them by squeezing them with a kneading motion. Stir gently causing the hulls to rise to the surface, then  pour off  water and hulls into a strainer. Add fresh water and repeat until most hulls are removed. Don't worry if a few hulls remain attached.

If you are lucky, you can find a store that sells dehulled soybeans. The easiest way is to crack the soybeans with a loosely set grain mill. Ideally each soybean is cracked in half. 

Step 2: Cooking the soybeans

Put the beans in a cooking pot and water to cover the soybeans. Add 3 tablespoon vinegar and cook for 30 minutes. Drain off the water and dry the soybeans by continue heating them in the pot on medium heat for a few minutes and until the beans are dry. 

Step 3: Let cooked soybean in room temperature

Allow the soybeans to cool down to below 35°C. 

Step 4: Inoculating the soybeans with tempe starter

Sprinkle the soybeans with 1 teaspoon of tempe starter. Mix with a clean spoon for about 1 minute to distribute the tempe starter evenly. It's very important to mix the tempe starter very well: it reduces the risk for spoilage and the fermentation will be faster.

Step 5: Incubating the beans

Take sandwich plastic bags and perforate them with holes at a distance of about 1 cm by a fork. This will allow the mold to breathe.
Divide the soybeans in the six bags and seal them. Press them flat, making sure that the total thickness of the beans is max 3 cm. Place the packed beans in an incubator at 30°C or at a warm place for about 36- 48 hours during which the tempe fermentation takes place, we use boiler room. 

Step 5: Our tempe have done!!

The plastic bag filled soybean should be filled completely with white mycelium (mold) and the entire contents can be lifted out as a whole piece. It's done, I can cook them as my fam wish or store them in the freezer for my future cooking.

Eid Mubarak 1433 H @_@

Taqobalallahu minnaa wa minkum

Shiyamanaa wa shiyamakum

Minal ‘aidin wal faizin

Let’s write all the mistakes down in the sand

And let the wind of forgiveness erase it away

Happy Idul Fitri!

Long Journey to UK : prepare your flight

Sebelum mengajukan visa ke UK, ada baiknya merencanakan waktu keberangkatan ke UK. Saat mengajukan aplikasi visa, kita akan ditanya perkiraan keberangkatan. Hal ini mungkin menjadi pertimbangan UK Border Agency dalam memutuskan kapan visa terbit. Dulu kami memperkiraakan akan berangkat kurang lebih tiga minggu setelah waktu pengajuan visa. Hal ini berdasarkan rata-rata waktu pengurusan visa antara 3 - 15 hari, bahkan dapat lebih lama, tergantung pada kelengkapan persyaratan. Alhamdulillah, visa kami terproses dalam 3 hari.(read : Layanan SMS dr VFS)

Kira-kira sebulan sebelum mengajukan visa, saya mulai mencari jadwal penerbangan ke London via www.skyscanner.co.id. Saya tentu mencari jadwal penerbangan dengan budget kecil ;). Beberapa pilihan maskapai penebangan dengan biaya relatif murah yaitu Qatar Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Emirates, dan Saudi Arabia Airlines. Waktu itu kami pilih maskapai yg pertama, tp saya gak rekomen maskapai ini, karena ternyata penerbangannya di delay 6 jam waktu transit, dan sejauh yg saya tau, tidak semua penumpang diperlakukan sama dalam hal kompensasi karena keterlambatan ini.

Perlu diingat bahwa kita juga harus mempersiapkan beberapa kemungkinan penerbangan, jika belum ada kepastian visa.