This Global Kitchen | Day 17: Indonesia (Small Kitchen)
Welcome to my Indonesian kitchen!
The kitchen is my happy place and cooking is a creative outlet for me. I love the challenge of adapting recipes to the local ingredients available. I come from a foody family where everyone is a good cook. Trying the most unusual thing on a menu is my norm. Besides just a few family favorites, we rarely have something more than once or twice in this household.
People do not entertain with an evening meal in this culture. I’ve tried over the years to invite people over for dinner but it has always been awkward. It involves them pushing the unusual western food around on their plate. Learning to adapt to the culture in this way has been hard. I’ve had to die to my own desires and culture of what “hosting” looks like and take cues from my host culture. Now I just host guests with traditional tea and cookies. At Ramadan we host a large “buka puasa” with local cuisine.
My kitchen is a busy place, often full of kids. Mommas, keep letting the littles “help” because one day they turn into real helpers. My 13, 11, and 10 year old all enjoy cooking and they need very little help cooking full meals and baking treats. Also, I don’t wash dishes anymore. These days are goooood!
An Ace Hardware came to town last year and Mason jars of various sizes entered my life. They now hold our breakfast cereal mix-ins, oatmeal, sugar, and spices. Spices have a tendency to rot in the Indonesia climate due to humidity, so I can only keep out these cute jars filled with spices that I use regularly. Also, notice my paper towel holder that sometimes actually holds paper towels depending on the stock at the local grocery store.
I have two nicknames for my kitchen: The Box that is Hotter Than the Sun and The Consignment Shop. Many items in my kitchen were bought from other expats over the years. The upper cabinets, the lower cabinets, the fridge, bread machine, oven, etc, etc. It has been a blessing for our wallet, but it also means that I have orangey cabinets, a cracked tiled counter top, and an oven that has to be wedged closed with cookbooks and a mixing bowl. I’m sure I could paint to make this more like the kitchen of my dreams, but I just don’t have the energy. I’d rather complain than do anything about it, I guess.
Since my kitchen is on the smaller side, my dining room serves as a space for dishes, pans, and appliances that won’t fit. This buffet (also bought from a leaving expat) holds dishes, cookbooks, coffee paraphernalia, and many of my sentimental items. Our city is set on top of the crossroads of two fault lines. Therefore, having my antique cake plate, a wedding gift from my parents, set on top of the buffet is probably dumb, but I would rather have it out than boxed up in a friend’s basement in America. If it falls one day and breaks, I will remember the 16+ years we enjoyed it. (Please remind me of that, if it does happen, in a loving and kind way.)
When my grandmother passed away, my mom sent me a few of her depression glass antiques and her recipe box. My grandmother was second generation American. This recipe box holds many Hungarian/Slovak family recipes. It also holds random recipe inserts from Campbell’s and Crisco…probably from the 70’s. I have dreams one day of cooking through my grandmother’s box. It would be a fun, future blogging project.
Lastly, all my alat-alat (tools). Every stateside I have come back with an appliance that will make my life simpler. I have a large 3000 watt converter on top of the fridge connected to a power strip tucked behind the appliances. It’s my “American Corner.” My Kitchen Aid Pro, generic Vitamix (bought locally), Instantpot, and electric coffee grinder are used almost daily. They have been so worth the luggage weight.
The bread machine was my last expat-is-leaving purchase. I don’t know how I lived without one for so many years. I’ve almost perfected my whole wheat bread recipe and I use the jam setting every week. Some of our favorite jams include strawberry, blueberry/starfruit, papaya/pear and mango lime. For every 4 cups of fruit, I add a cup of sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid. Throw it in the bread machine and hit “jam.” You can keep the jam in the fridge for a few weeks, but ours never lasts that long.
Thanks for stopping by my expat kitchen. If you are ever on my side of the world, come on by and I’ll cook something yummy for you. That’s a real invitation!
My Must Haves for my Expat Kitchen:
As I mentioned above, my oven is less than ideal. It’s huge but is not one bit accurate in the temperature department. One thing that revolutionized my baking is good baking pans. I love the U.S.A. brand pans and I have various sizes for cakes, cookies, and casseroles. (You can see my 8x10 pan in use with the lasagna in the picture above).
I also love these cheap veggie peelers. My brother-in-law, who is a chef-restaurant owner, introduced these to me.
My Favorite Expat friendly Recipe:
Baked BBQ Meatballs
by Denise James | TakingRoute.net
This recipe is adapted from the Pioneer Women. It is a simple a versatile recipe that is true comfort food. Serve with mashed potatoes and a steamed veggie.
For Meatballs:
- 1.5 lbs of ground beef
- 3/4 cups of oats (whatever you have)
- 1 cup milk
- 3 TBS of finely minced onion (I grate it on my cheese grater)
- 1.5 tsp salt
- plenty of ground black pepper
For BBQ Sauce:
- 1 cup ketchup
- 2 TBS brown sugar (sub palm or white)
- 3 TBS vinegar
- 2 TBS Worcestershire Sauce (optional or sub soy sauce)
- 4 TBS Grated Onion
- dash of Tabasco or Hot Sauce (sambal will work)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees (or in my case just turn it on). Grease the bottom of a casserole dish. Combine all the meatball ingredients. Roll into small balls (about 2-ish inches or so) and place in dish. Combine sauce ingredients. Spoon sauce onto the top of meatballs. Bake for 45-ish minutes, or until they are done. You know they are done when they are no longer pink.
