The Boy's Birthday Meal

For birthdays here, we follow their tradition of having yellow rice for a special meal.  One part of that special meal that we love is the peanut topping.  As I was working on it, my house helper pitched in to refine my skills!  Here are photos of the process...

I chopped up 3 chunks of tempe - fermented soybeans - and fried them in a pan - no oil.

I also fried about 3 cups of peanuts - shelled but with skins on. 

I cracked open some kimiri nuts (candlenuts) and dry roasted them on a hot pan.  These are used as a thickener.  Apparently they are poisonous if eaten raw.

My helper got the rice going - this is not the way I cook rice - but nationals here do.  I use a rice cooker.  She put fresh tumeric into the rice water, not sure what other seasonings she used.

I chopped up some shallots & garlic and "tried" to pulverize them in my mortar and pestle.  

Thought I'd done a good job, 'til my helper came along and "finished the job".  Wow!

I added some water to tamarind paste to work out the seeds and other stuff, and ended up with this tamarind/water mixture which is essential in flavoring the dish.

This is what stayed in the strainer when I worked the tamarind pulp through.

I grated some palm sugar to add to the tamarind.  

Then we fried the spices in a little oil...

 ...added the tamarind and palm sugar...

...the fried peanuts...

...the fried tempe...

...and mixed them all together!

The end result?? Sweet, tangy, caramelized peanut and tempe mixture.  We used to also put some dried spicy peppers in it to give it a nice kick, but noticed the kids weren't as nuts about it spicy.  Little by little we'll add that back in.  Locals also add tiny dried fish, but since this is my house, we leave those out!!!  

Here's a photo of "Nasi Kuning", presented with garnishes of "Sambal Kacang" (the peanut dish we just cooked) along with cucumbers, shredded chicken, local hot sauce and omelet slices.  

One of our favorite meals!  Thanks for having a birthday, boys! :)