Making Indonesian Chicken Soup with Luncheon Meat

B is turning two in less than two months' time and nowadays I have been feeding him with more rice, noodles or pasta. He has not been really receptive towards any sort of porridge that I prepare anymore (bored perhaps?) so I everyday I have to scratch my head and come up with toddler menu that could entice my picky eater to eat.

Generally speaking, B can only eat rice if I mix it with lots of soup. My problem is coming up with soupy dish every single day is not that easy since the choices of soup that I can rotate are limited. Unlike B, Naomi is always okay with any dish or soup that I cook. She also loves soupy food and can easily gobble a bowl of rice + soup that I make under 10 minutes (on the other hand, B probably eats like only 2 tea spoons of rice in 10 minutes!)

Anyway, here is a recipe of easy vegetable chicken soup that I grew up with and often make for my children. It's so easy to make, has lots of veggies and not oily. I normally add sausage slices to the soup but yesterday I used pork luncheon meat for a good change.

Easy toddler menu. Non-halal.

Indonesian Chicken Soup with Pork Luncheon Meat

Ingredients:

1/2 Chicken
1.5 liter Water
1/2 tin of Pork luncheon meat, cut into small cubes
1 Carrot, slice thinly
1 Potato, cut into cubes
1/2 Small cabbage, cut large
Scallion, cut small
Sugar
Salt
Pepper
Thin soy sauce

Methods:

1. Boil water in a large-medium pot. Put in chicken, carrots and potato. Boil for about 10-15 minutes until the chicken changes color and the root vegetables are half cooked.
2. Put in the cabbage. Simmer until the cabbage cuts are slightly cooked. Seasoned with sugar, salt, pepper and a dash of soy sauce.
3. Add the pork luncheon meat cubes and scallion. Gently mix everything with a ladle and let the soup cook for a bit longer. Taste the soup to see if it needs more seasoning, then turn the heat off. 

Bahasa Indonesia version:

Sop Ayam dengan Ham Babi (Maling)

Bahan:

1/2 ekor Ayam
1.5 lt Air
1/2 kaleng Pork luncheon meat, potong dadu (atau boleh diganti sosis ayam/sapi)
1 buah Wortel, iris tipis
1 buah Kentang, potong kotak
1/2 Kubis kecil, potong-potong
Daun bawang, potong kecil, optional
Gula
Garam
Merica
Kecap asin

Cara memasak:

1. Didihkan air di panci agak besar. Masukkan ayam, wortel dan kentang. Rebus (kira-kira 10-15 menit) sampai ayam berubah warna, wortel dan kentang setengah matang.
2. Masukkan kubis. Tambahkan gula, garam, merica, sedikit kecap asin. Masak sampai kubis agak matang.
3. Masukkan potongan ham babi dan potongan daun bawang. Aduk dan masak sebentar. Koreksi rasa. Matikan api.

Making Hollandse Boterkoek (Dutch Butter Cake)

I have been baking rather frequently of late, like 2-4 times a week. When I am not tired, I try to make a time to bake something. My husband and I hardly go to bakery to buy cakes or bread anymore in the past few weeks. LOL.

This afternoon, when B was napping, I baked a Dutch Butter Cake, famously known as Hollandse Boterkoek or Lekker Holland. The recipe is adapted from one of the many baking personalities that I follow in social media.

Dutch Butter Cake is a moist flat butter cake with crispy edges. It's almost like a cross between a very rich butter cake and pie or shortbread. The texture is dense but it's guaranteed delicious. It's definitely the best company for a cup of hot tea or coffee. If you are on diet, I need to warn you that you may want to gobble more than one slice of boterkoek tho'. Why? Because it's amazingly good I ate two slices not long after the cake was out of the oven.

Boterkoek.

Here's my version of this cake's recipe.

Dutch Butter Cake

(Klassieke Hollandse Boterkoek)

Ingredients:

220gr Flour
200gr Butter, at room temperature
1 Egg
120gr Fine sugar or icing sugar
25gr Milk powder
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1 Egg yolk, for egg wash
Almond flakes or raisins, for garnish

Methods:

1. Sift flour and milk powder together. Set aside.
2. Beat butter, sugar, vanilla extract and egg using high speed mixer until pale.
3. Gradually incorporate the flour mixture into the batter using spatula.
4. Pour the cake batter into a pan that is already greased and lined with baking paper. Evenly press and smoothen the top of the thick cake batter with spatula.
5. Apply egg wash then run a fork on the top of the cake batter to create patterns.
6. Sprinkle the cake with some almond flakes or raisin.
7. Bake the cake in a preheated oven at 170 degree C for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.

For the love of butter!

This cake makes me reminisce about Holland so much and I can't help but feeling very nostalgic about my good old days living there. The cool breeze, the beautiful scenery, canals of Amsterdam, the green grass, the sound of the NS train, the food even the supermarkets! Ironically tho', I never tasted any boterkoek when I was there. Haha.

Suiker + bloem + boter + ei + amandel = boterkoek. 

Zo simpel en heel lekker.

Things My Kid Says #12

The below conversation happened when both children happily played together ... before one of them screamed or cried or fought over something that I cannot remember anymore by now.

Dragonfly

Late last night just before bedtime, Naomi was playing Teacher with B using the animal cartoon book for 0-3 yo kids. She was acting as the teacher and B was the student who's learning about animals' names. Naomi knows alphabets but is not so good, tends to be lazy, at reading.

Naomi threw lots of questions to her brother like "弟弟, what is this?" "弟弟, where is owl?" "Huh, you don't know owl ah?" "Hahahaha you say this is peacock? Peacock is this one!" and so on. When B guessed the animal right, Naomi clapped at him. When B didn't know the answer, she laughed hard at him. Finally, she pointed at a picture of an animal on the insects page and quizzed B about that particular insect.

Tom reads to Jerry.

: 弟弟, where is the mosquito monster?
👶🏻: ? 

(I could not recall if a mosquito cartoon picture (let alone a mosquito monster picture printed on a supposedly educative children book!) was featured in this animal book at all so I double checked the book that Naomi was holding)

: Naomi, what mosquito? Where got mosquito monster? There is no mosquito in this book.
: Got ah!
: Where?
: The eyes are so big!
: Show to me.
: This! This one is the mosquito monster.  *see the following picture*

Refer to the circled animal to relate.

👶🏻: *attentively listening to his sister and analyzing the book too*

: Naomi, that one is called DRAGONFLY lah! Aiyo! Not mosquito monster. LOL.

🤣🤣🤣 

25 February 2018: My talkative soon to be 5.5yo girl.

Caterpillar

Moving on, when Naomi's Dad was lying on the bed, getting ready to sleep last night; Naomi continued talking to him. I didn't follow their conversation from the very beginning, which topic was caterpillar, but I overheard the following and I was ROFL.
: Papa, so, the ca te pi low is bla bla bla...

: Naomi, it's ca-ter-pil- lar... Pil-Lar. Not pillow! Not cater-pillow.
: Ca.. Ter.. Pi.. Low..
: Caterpillar!

😂