Tag Archives: Indonesia

Delicious Salami Pizza

April 24, 2020 The Captain & the Cook Leave a comment

I love pizza, and I love homemade pizza because I can make it exactly how I like it. I love all things salty, and this is a salt lovers pizza – anchovies, capers, olives. Seriously, does it get any saltier! The best thing about pizza is that you can top it with anything you like. Change-up the toppings until you have your perfect pizza.

The last time I made this pizza was a month ago while we were sailing through Indonesia. Sailing through Indonesia during the Coronavirus Pandemic was an experience I won’t be forgetting soon. Not all good – gunshots fired in warning, but not all bad – swimming with a wild dugong. Click here to read my story.

Ingredients

For the base

Olive oil, to grease
250ml (1 cup) lukewarm water
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp (7g/1 sachet) dried yeast
450g (3 cups) plain flour, sifted
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbs olive oil

Topping

Homemade pizza sauce*
1 onion, thinly sliced
4 – 8 anchovies, roughly chopped
1 Capsicum sliced
2-3 Tablespoons sliced olives
1-2 Tablespoons of capers
16 – 20 slices of Salami
400g grated cheese (pizza mix is delicious)
Dry Italian herbs and chilli flakes
- amounts are a rough guide only

Method

Preheat the oven to 220°C. Brush two or three 25cm pizza trays with oil to grease. (I used 3 oven trays and got yummy thin crispy bases).

Mix the sugar and water in a jug or small bowl. Sprinkle the yeast on top and place it in a draught-free place for five minutes, until bubbles form on the surface.

Put the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add the yeast mixture and the oil. Mix well with a spoon until blended. Dump the mix onto a floured work surface and knead for six minutes.

Divide the dough into 2 or 3 pieces and cover and rest for five minutes. Now is a good time to prepare your topping ingredients.

Roll each dough portion out. Use your hands to stretch the dough gently. Line the greased pizza trays with the dough, pushing the dough to the edges of the trays. Spread the bases with pizza sauce, and top with onion, anchovies, olives, capers, capsicum, salami and cheese. Sprinkle with Italian herb and chilli flakes.

Bake in preheated oven, at 220c for 8 minutes or until cheese is bubbling on top and base is crispy.

* I make pizza sauce with a tin of chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic, pepper.

* Another delicious alternative to pizza sauce is using sun-dried tomato pesto for the base. This pesto is a delicious option!

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Cooking with Local Ingredients, Indonesia, Marlin

Sate Ikan (Fish Satays)

May 16, 2016 The Captain & the Cook 2 Comments

We are back in Indonesia for a month and one of the things we really love about Indonesia is the food! We are moored at Pulau Weh, actually we are moored off a smaller island call Pulau Rubiah. The snorkelling here is fantabulous, as is the food! We have discovered a local delicacy called sate gurita (sate octopus). Delicious and tender, it awoke memories of our time with our boys at Gili Air when we sailed there for Christmas 2014. I cooked sate ikan, using some marlin we caught in Australia. It was part of a feast that I cooked up on the boat for a friend who wanted to film it.

While anchored off Gili Air (Lombok Indonesia) with our son’s Jedd, Alex, Kye and two of their girlfriends, we had a visit from Jackie and her son Alexander. Jacqui was interested in filming a short video of us cooking up a storm on Thorfinn. I hadn’t had time to think about what to cook and therefore had not shopped in Bali before we left. So, before I could decide what to cook, I had to look at what I had on the boat and then I had to go ashore to see what I could purchase on the small island of Gili Air. In the tiny village I found a shop selling some fresh produce and a very limited array of other supermarket goods. I choose some things I love to cook with – limes, ginger, garlic, chillies, galangal – while I gradually formulate an idea of what I would cook.

Shopping for chillies, lime, galangal etc.

Back on the Thorfinn I fine-tuned my proposed menu. When in Indonesia, do as the Indo’s… I decided to cook some Indonesian favourites. Ikan Bakar (grilled fish), sambal and sate ikan (fish satays).

So, while the boys enjoyed the swimming and snorkelling, and the girls chilled out on the sun-beds with a cocktail, Dwayne and I cooked and Jacqui filmed. It was a lot of fun and when it was ready the kids joined us on Thorfinn for a feast. As we sat around Jedd’s surfboard, which had become our makeshift table for the day, we enjoyed the sunset and the company of family and friends… and I think we all privately reflected on how lucky we were.

For the sates …

I grated one onion into a sieve over a bowl. Using a spoon I then pressed down on the grated onion to squeeze out the onion juice. I set aside the the grated onion for using in the peanut sauce.

To the onion juice I added…

2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 finely chopped garlic clove
1 tablespoon of grated ginger
2 teaspoon of palm sugar
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 kg of marlin fillet

I mixed it well, covered and refrigerated it until I was ready to skewer the marlin to grill.

For the peanut dipping sauce…

In a small saucepan, I sautéed the reserved grated onion for two minutes with –

1 Tablespoon of olive oil
2 crushed garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon of sambal olek

I then added…

3 teaspoons ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon of ground turmeric
1 Tablespoon of palm sugar

I stirred continually as I cooked for a minute and then added…

1 1/4 cups coconut cream

I gently heated it until almost boiling, then removed the saucepan from the heat and stirred in…

3 Tablespoons of peanut butter

Once the peanut butter was well blended I returned to a gentle heat and cooked for about 5 minutes while stirring and checking it often. (Add water if needed).

To serve

I skewered cubes of marlin onto small skewers and Dwayne cooked them on the BBQ. I then served them with the peanut sauce.

Sate Ikan served with peanut sauce on Jedd's surfboard! — Sate Ikan served with peanut sauce on Jedd’s surfboard!

I loved our Christmas on Gili Air!… and have welcomed the opportunity to reminisce about it. Hope you enjoy the recipe.

Want to read about catching the marlin? Click on the photo below!

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Cephalopod, Cooking with Local Ingredients, Pork

Pork Stuff Squid Tubes

December 19, 2015 The Captain & the Cook 2 Comments

This is easily one of our favourite squid dishes. I have cooked them a couple of times during our sailing through SE Asia. The first time was in Indonesia when we bought some fresh squid from a local fisherman. The second time was recently in Thailand at a BBQ we put on at PSS Shipyard in Satun.

Pork stuffed squid served with rice cakes and a simple salad.

Ingredients

25g Rice vermicelli noodles
3 spring onions
3 tablespoon of peanut oil
2 garlic, finely chopped
3cm ginger, peeled and grated
½ cup cabbage, finely shredded
325g pork mince
¼ teaspoon ground star anise
1 Tablespoon fish sauce
Several medium squid or 16 baby squid, cleaned and tentacles reserved

Dipping sauce

1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 small chilli, finely chopped
2 tablespoons soft brown sugar
4 tablespoons fish sauce
Freshly squeezed juice from ½ a lime

Method

To make dipping sauce, mix all ingredients well until sugar has dissolved. Taste and add more lime if needed. Transfer to a dipping bowl.

For the stuffing, pour boiling water over the noodles and allow to stand for 5 minutes until soft. Drain well, chop them into smaller pieces and place in a large bowl.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a fry pan and gently cook the garlic, ginger and spring onion until soft. Remove from heat and add to the bowl. Chop the squid tentacles and add to the bowl along with the pork, cabbage, star anise and fish sauce. Mix well.

Cooking Spicy Stuffed Squid — Cooking the stuffed squid

Stuff the squid tubes with the stuffing. Make sure to leave a little room at the top and close the top of the tube with a toothpick.

Heat the remaining oil in a fry pan and cook the tube for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned and cooked through.

Pork Stuffed Squid — Slice the squid into rings with a sharp knife.

Slice the squid and serve with the dipping sauce.

At the PSS Shipyard, while painting and varnishing our boat for six weeks, we cooked a goat BBQ. For entree I served my stuffed squid. Dwayne built a four layer BBQ to cook all the food for the 23 people that were to join in on the feast. I used two different types of squid, which I bought from the local fish market down the road. In my opinion the squid are not as yummy when grilled on the BBQ, but everyone still enjoyed them. If you were to cook them on a BBQ use a hot plate instead of a grill.

Dwayne’s four layer cooking contraption – squid cooked over the coals and there are potatoes cooking under the coals.

From the pantry, Indonesia

Cheat’s Mie Goreng

August 7, 2015 The Captain & the Cook 1 Comment

Today we are anchored in Ao Chalong, Thailand, and the monsoon weather has certainly set in! With barely a break, the rain has been lashing at us all morning. The fridge and freezer are almost bare and there was no way we were going to go to shore in the dinghy to get lunch, so with what I had onboard I made a quick and easy, cheats mie goreng.

My cheats mie goreng is an easy to make lunch, which I have often made while cruising though Indonesia and Malaysia. The two minute (mie goreng) noodles you can get in Indonesia and Malaysia are much nicer than the two minute noodles you get in Australia so we always keep a few packs on board. When sailing, we will often resort to cup of noodles for a hot lunch, especially if the weather is foul. However, if the weather is good and I can put a bit of effort into it, we will have something a little more appetising than just ‘two minute noodles’.

Yummy cheat's mie goreng, fried noodles and egg — Yummy cheat’s mie goreng with a few fresh ingredients.

Ok, so all I do is…

I soak the noodles in boiling water until they are tender. In the meantime I chop garlic, chilli and asian shallot (we found shallots everywhere as we cruised through the Indonesian islands). The other veggies I use depends on what I have on hand, e.g. I have used carrot (julienned), capsicum and beans. I often use Shitake mushrooms which I keep dried (soaked in boiling water and then sliced).

I add oil to my wok and heat. Then I sauté the garlic, shallot and chilli until soft. I then add whatever vegetables (or meat if using) I am using and cook through.

Next I add the noodles and the sachets of flavour – reserving the crispy onion to garnish when done. I toss the noodles until they are heated through and serve on a plate. Top with a fried egg and garnished with cucumber and crispy onion.

Yummy, warm and savoury and just what you need on long distant sail or a miserable wet day such as this!

beef, Cooking with Local Ingredients, Indonesia

Beef Rendang

July 11, 2015 The Captain & the Cook 3 Comments

One of our favourites, which we ate in abundance while cruising through Indonesia, is the beef rendang. Rendang is a spicy meat dish which originated from the Minangkabau ethnic group of Indonesia. [wikipedia] This dry style of curry is sometimes called caramelised beef curry because of the ‘reduction’ style of cooking.

Prior to refrigeration technology, this style of cooking enabled preservation of large amounts of meat. When the Minangkabau farmers killed a cow for a special occasion it was often turned into Rendang. Rendang provided a way to make the beef last for weeks in Indonesia’s hot tropical climate. For rendang the meat is cooked for hours with coconut milk and a paste of mixed ground spices, which includes ginger, galangal, turmeric, lemongrass, garlic, shallot and chilli. This paste has antimicrobial properties and serves as natural organic preservatives.

For my rendang you will need the following ingredients….

2 small brown onions, chopped
8 asian shallots, chopped
10 cloves of garlic, chopped
2cm piece turmeric, chopped
1 tsp salt
15 dried long red chillies, soaked in boiling water until soft, drained
1 tsp ground coriander
2-3 tablespoons oil
1kg beef, cubed
5cm piece of galangal,
grated 2 sticks of lemongrass, (soft white only), finely chopped
2 sticks lemongrass (white only), smashed with the flat side of a knife
8 lime leaves
500ml coconut milk

Cooking rendang is a simple but lengthy process. My instructions are as follows…

Place the onions, shallots, garlic, turmeric, salt, chillies and coriander into a blender (or mortal & pestle) and process until smooth. Set aside the spice paste.

Heat the oil in a pan and brown the beef in batches. Remove from the pan and set aside. Add the galangal, lemongrass and lime leaves to the pan and fry for a minute in oil, remove and add to the beef.

On medium-low heat fry the spice paste for a few minutes, then add the beef and the galangal, lemon grass and lime leaves and the coconut milk. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 2 – 4 hours.

It is ready once the curry sauce has reduced and the oil is separating from the rest of the curry. Serve with steamed rice and enjoy the taste of Indonesia. This rendang is delicious ‘if I do say so myself’!

Beef Rendang - the oil separating from the curry. — Beef Rendang – the oil separating from the curry.

Cephalopod, Cooking with Local Ingredients, Crustacean, Fish, Indonesia

Dwayne’s Chilli Seafood

June 24, 2015 The Captain & the Cook 1 Comment

While cruising Indonesia we were lucky enough to visit a tiny fishing village on the island of Panebangan. The people were exceptionally friendly and welcomed us with huge smiles and a large bunch of bananas! It was at this village, the following morning, that we were invited onto a fishing boat for breakfast. Dwayne watched how the fisherman made chilli fish and it has since become Dwayne’s signature dish! This is great for when I don’t feel like cooking…. i.e. “I’d really love your chilli fish for dinner tonight Dwayne!”

Dwayne has made this a couple of times for dinner. Once he used fish and squid and the other time he used crayfish.

It’s simple and tasty. This is how he does it…

fresh chillies, chopped
fresh garlic, chopped
asian shallots, chopped
salt

Blend all the above ingredients with the mortar and pestle.

Add oil to a pan and heat.
Add the spice mix, fry until fragrant.
Add the seafood (fish or what ever you want) and fry it for a while.
Then add some water and let it simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasional.
Season with salt as needed.

Serve with steamed rice.

For the full story of Panebangan check out “Karamata and Surrounding Islands“

Guess what we are having for dinner tonight!

Cocktails

Dwayne’s Bloody Mary

June 18, 2015 The Captain & the Cook Leave a comment

Dwayne made this Bloody Mary while staying at Nongsa Point Marina, Batam (Indonesia) when we had Gary and Libby (SV Aquarius) aboard for drinks. Libby and I were real pirates and drank rum while the ‘girls’ I mean the skippers had Bloody Marys.

I have since asked Dwayne how he made his Bloody Mary and this is it….

To a glass he added ice cubes and then poured over vodka and tomato juice. Added a dash of Tobasco sauce and some freshly ground black pepper.

Voila! Easy Peasy and tasty so they say.

Cephalopod, Cooking with Local Ingredients

Stuffed Squid in a Rich Tomato Sauce

May 28, 2015 The Captain & the Cook 2 Comments

As we sailed amongst the islands off the west coast of Borneo, we were able to purchase fish and squid from the fisherman that visit us, when we drop anchor for the night. The squid, used for this recipe, we bought off a fisherman at Pulau Bawal and the fish I use to stuff the squid was a mackerel we traded a mobile phone and a pair of sunnies for, when anchored off Pulau Genting.

Stuffed Squid in a Rich Tomato Sauce — Stuffed Squid in Rich Tomato Sauce

It had been two weeks since we had been able to get fresh fruit and veg and I used my last fresh tomato for this recipe. At the time we had been eating rice with almost every meal. Every time I cook rice I will cook a cup of rice and I then use the left over to make rice cakes or I heat it up with curry sauce etc. This time I used it to stuff my squid.

OK so this is what I did…

I made a stuffing for the squid with:

about 1/2 cup of left over cooked rice
a small fillet of mackerel (finely chopped) about 100g
1 large red chilli, chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tomato, chopped,
5 small asian shallots, finely chopped
about 1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Mix it altogether and stuff it into the squid tubes. Close each tube with a toothpick. Cook the squid tubes for 5 mins to brown them slightly and then removed them from the pan

For the sauce…

I heated oil in the fry pan and fried:

1/2 head of garlic (about 6 cloves), chopped
3 small hot chillies, finely chopped
1 large red chilli, chopped
8 small asian shallots, chopped
about 80g anchovy fillets
2 Tablespoons capers, chopped

Shallots, garlic, chilli and lots of anchovy!

I fried this until it was cooked and the garlic and shallots had softened. I then added:

1 can of tomatoes, diced
3 Tbs tomato paste
dried italian herbs and black pepper to taste.

I brought it to the boil and then simmered the sauce for about 15 minutes, after which I added the stuffed squid tubes. I then simmered it until the flavours had developed into a rich, spicy, flavoursome sauce and the squid were cooked through (adding water as necessary). I served the squid with rice.

The left overs

I used the left over sauce the next day with some mackerel fillets. I cooked the mackerel then added the sauce to the pan with the fish and simmered until heated through. I served it with pasta. Yum!

Cephalopod, Cooking with Local Ingredients, Indonesia

Nasi Campur

May 16, 2015 The Captain & the Cook Leave a comment

Nasi Campur refers to a dish with a scoop of nasi putih (white rice) accompanied by small portions of a number of other dishes, which includes meats, vegetables, peanuts, eggs etc. Nasi campur is a ubiquitous dish around Indonesia and as diverse as the archipelago itself. There is no exact rule, recipe or definition of what makes a nasi campur, since Indonesians and Southeast Asians commonly consume steamed rice surrounded with side dishes consisting of vegetables and meat. [Wikipedia]

Nasi Campur - rice, tempe, octopus skewer, tomato, cucumber and sambal — Nasi Campur – rice, tempe, octopus skewer, tomato, cucumber and sambal

Nasi Campur - rice, crispy pork, tempe, kangkung (water spinach) and chilli sambal — Nasi Campur – rice, crispy pork, tempe, kangkung (water spinach) and chilli sambal

When in Indonesia we eat like Indonesians! This has as much to do with the food/ingredients that are available, as with our love of Indonesian food. We eat rice most days, and I usually make sambal to go with it. Chilli, garlic, shallots keep well on the boat, so they feature in most of our meals during our cruising.

Our Nasi Campur consisted of octopus skewer, tempe, kangkung and sambal…..

Skewered Octopus with Lime and Basil

Marinate octopus in olive oil, lime juice, garlic and chopped basil leaves. Refrigerated for about an hour then skewered the octopus on small skewers. Dwayne grilled them on the BBQ, and I served them with Nasi Campur.

Octopus Skewers — Octopus Skewer with Lime and Basil

Tempe Goreng

Tempe is fermented soybeans. I sliced some prepared tempe into bite-size pieces and fried them in hot oil until brown and crispy. I removed them from the oil and mixed in a little kecap manis.

Kangkung

I probably do the kangkung differently every time I cook it. Still, generally speaking, I fry up quite a bit of garlic (usually garlic slices ), shallot and a bit of chilli in a little oil. I then add the washed, roughly chopped kangkung, season with salt and pepper and sauté for a minute.

Sambal

I usually make raw sambal by smashing up chillies with garlic and a small shallot, in my mortar with pestle. However, my favourite is sambal matah, and if I have lemongrass on board, I’ll make it. Sambal matah is lemongrass and shallot sambal. It will often have shrimp paste in it, but I usually make mine without the paste… I just love the taste of fresh lemongrass.

In the mortar, I smash up lemongrass, shallot, a little chilli, some thin slices of kaffir lime leaves, salt and oil. It is delicious.

Sambal Indonesia, chilli, shallot, lemongrass — Sambal Matah

Bon appétit

Cocktails, Cooking with Local Ingredients

Caipiroska

April 15, 2015 The Captain & the Cook Leave a comment

I have been searching everywhere in Batam for limes. I finally found some today. I can’t wait to have a nice fresh caipiroska! In Bali and on other islands while cruising Indonesia I have, usually, had no trouble finding fresh limes and our favourite lime flavoured treat is undoubtedly the CAIPIROSKA!

All I do is…

Wash and quarter two limes, place them in a cocktail glass with two teaspoons of brown sugar and, using a muddler, I squash the bejesus out of them. I add two shots of vodka (naughty) and some ice. Voila! Ready to drink.

Refreshing, full of Vitamin C and a good use of local ingredients!

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Our Nasi Campur consisted of octopus skewer, tempe, kangkung and sambal…..

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