Olivia's Kitchen

This dish is very similar to Shepherd’s Pie , Indonesians call this Pastel Tutup .This dish was highly influenced by European countries , particulary , the Dutch . Pastel Tutup along with Macaroni Schotel ( casserole type ) , snacks such as Dutch Sausage Rolls , known as Saucijzenbroodjes , and then Kaastengels or cheese shortbread cookies are some of the Indonesians favorite choices from the Netherlands . I remember as a youngster , we bought or ordered Pastel Tutup quite often , we didn’t own any oven so my mom couldn’t make this herself . view full post »

In short we can call this Kue Pia , because that’s how i knew them ever since i was younger . Growing up in a small town in Malang , East Java , there was this home business that specially made Kue Pia . My mom would stop by after church usually to buy some fresh ones , it came in a package of 5 . We never made it ourselves though since it’s really easy to buy . view full post »

So now that we have fresh , homemade delicious Tempe , what to do ? what do we use it for ? There are many ways to eat Tempe , you can pan fry , deep fry , with batter , as is , or steam , i never grilled them though . But i’ve had them in many different ways . The most famous one is to deep fry them , Indonesians love their deep fried food . Then eaten with simple warm white rice . Yum view full post »

After that black bean burger last week for meatless monday , it got me thinking , it would be nice to have other option just from having beans or tofu as a protein source . It would be nice if i can make Tempe again . I’ve done it back in 2018 . My mom would have been laughing , either that or would be so proud of me , because my mom never made tempe herself . Tempe is widely available in the country i was born . It was sold everywhere at the market , sometimes you don’t even have to leave your house and there is a…

I have this one friend that i would never thought he’d go vegetarian .. so i think it’s been a month since he eats meat . So after chit chatting with him , i thought .. let’s give a meatless monday a try . Needless to say , last monday i decided we all going to have meatless day . Yes , breakfast , lunch and dinner without meat . It wasn’t an easy task , especially when i had some protein goal to reach , and it’s always harder to reach protein goal without the meat . I obviously had no issue going over the carbs with meatless monday…

Lately my husband been mentioning about Shepherd’s Pie often . He usually travels out of state for work and there is this one Irish Pub in Lafayette , Indiana that he goes to when he goes to that area for work travel . It’s called Nine Brothers Pub , i’ve only been there once , and i did not have their Shepherd’s Pie . My husband loves their Shepherd’s Pie , only thing i knew about it was that it was like beef , basic veggies , and mashed potatoes on top . Sort of like Pastel Tutup , which is Indonesian Pie , but instead of beef and we…

Years and years ago when i was growing up in Indonesia , we used to have this kind of bread they sell at the store , we called it Roti Sisir , it was more like a pull apart bread , except it’s thin , and wide , and each layer has sweet butter in between . Just like comb , so they call it roti sisir , sisir means comb . view full post »

Beef Rendang is one of those dish that is super delicious, full of flavor from all the spices used in the cooking , yet , you really can’t cook this too often . It is very time consuming , not that it’s hard , it’s just that it takes a long time for the flavor to develop and you want to get it right , otherwise you’re just having a beef curry . view full post »

I love one skillet , one pot type of meal . Sometime we get busy doing things ,and with quarantine over with , we have no time to mess around too long in the kitchen . Even if i do have the time , i prefer something easy and quick to prepare and less mess , which means less dishes to do . Don’t we agree ? view full post »

Few years ago i started making this home made italian pepper mix . We had so much jalapenos one year from our garden , and you know family of three can only eat so much fresh jalapeno . And you can’t really freeze it anyway , so what better way to eat jalapeno ? Well , we remember when we used to live up north , when we buy sandwiches , they usually serve it with hot italian pepper mix . Or some people would call it pickled peppers , i just call it italian pepper mix . I love this on sandwiches , but i eat it pretty much…