Loofah with Egg Crumb

Meals without vegetable seems very wrong. Do you know loofah? It also known as sponge guard, people in my hometown (Surabaya) call it Gambas and it has slight sweet taste. Loofah can be cooked as soup or stir fry.
Once it matured, it can be used for sponge bath scrub or kitchen sponge scrub for washing dishes.


Matured dry loofah. Goshh...how come i eat that scrubber!!!
To make egg crumb, beat egg and strain over hot oil and turn off heat soon(or it'll be burn)

Cheese Fruit Tart

My yesterday project with Vinna. If only i got red color fruit, it will be more beautiful for sure.

Ingredients:
Pastry
210 g all purpose flour
110 g unsalted butter
50 g sugar
1 egg beaten
1/4 tsp salt

Cream Filling
140 cream cheese, room temperature
120 ml whipping cream
15 g sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Mixed fresh fruit for topping

-Whisk flour and salt. Beat butter and sugar until fluffy, gradually add beaten egg stir well, do not over mix. Add flour and stir lightly until it forms a ball. Refrigerate for 45 mins.
Roll out the pastry dough about 3 mm thickness. Lay in the tart pan and prick the bottom using a fork(i use 23 cm tart pan). Refrigerate for another 25 mins and bake for 25 mins at 190 degrees C.
Beat all the cream ingredients until soft peak. Spread on top of tart pastry, and top with fruits.

Meat Filled Omelet

This recipe also adapted from Creative Chinese Home Dishes by Angela Cheng

Ingredients:

4 eggs beaten
80 g minced beef
1 tbsp minced onion
1 stalk scallion
salt and pepper

-Heat 1 tbsp oil and saute minced onion till fragrant, add beef and stir quickly, season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and sprinkle with chopped scallion.
Heat another tbsp of oil over small fire, pour half of the egg and add beef on top and pour the rest of egg. cover until done.

Mango Muffin

Mangoes are in season now, it's yellow soft flesh and amazing smell with red beautiful shapes are so tempting. Who can resist it?
I'm tired of mango smoothie these days, and i'm thinking about anything about mango recipe, and it come to this mango muffin!!!

Ingredients:

140 g all purpose flour
75 butter
60 g fine sugar
1 egg
2 tsp mango essence
110 ml mango flavored yogurt
2 tsp baking powder
50 g diced mango
1/2 tsp salt

- Combine flour, salt, baking soda in a medium bowl. Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy, add egg and mango essence, beat well. Beat in yogurt until well blended.
Stir in flour mixture and diced mango until moistened, do not overmix.
Spoon the batter using ice cream scoop into muffin tin and bake in preheated oven at 180 degrees C for 20-25 mins.

Indonesian Style Chicken Porridge

I used to think that cooking an Indonesian food is very difficult and complicated. The fact, it was very very easy, and look..i made it.
I don't use an instant paste this time. And this was the best breakfast i've ever had in last 7 years.

Ingredients:

1 boneless chicken breast
3 candle nut
1 inch baby ginger
4 cloves shallot
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1 stalk lemon grass-bruised

- Grind all the ingredients, except chicken and lemon grass.
Grill chicken over high heat until brown then shred it. Heat 1 tbsp oil and saute all the ingredients until fragrant, add water and simmer for few minutes, add chicken and continue cooking until done. Pour over white porridge and sprinkle with chopped celery, spring onion and shallot flake. So yumm....

Mashed Potato And Broccoli Butter

It's been 2 months since i quit those junk & oily food (Taiwanese said Instant noodle, KFC, McD, Pizzahut are delicious junk food), i cook my own dinner everyday (except those lazy days) and i lose 3 pounds in this last 2 months. I still break my diet rule whenever i walk over the bubble tea shop. I just can't resist it.
KFC(or McD?) served mashed potato and coleslaw long long ago, around 1999 as i remember. I made mashed potato today and it was so good, i'll try coleslow other time.
Things that i use are 1 large boiled potato-mashed, 3 tbsp cream, 2 tbsp butter, and salt beat together. I use minced garlic and 1 tbsp butter to stir fry broccoli.

Milk - Peanut Butter Ice Cream

Rain, typhoon, and flood are in the city today. Fruit and vegetables shop doubled their price. And best thing of all (for me... hehee), it become public holiday.
I'm going to do some baking but run out of flour and i keep singing ohh....rain rain go away, come again another day. But it just wouldn't stop.
Browse through the net and again, ended up in Aunty Yochana's blog with base ice cream recipe

Ice-Cream Base:

1 1/2 cups of Fresh Milk
1 1/2 cups of Whipping Cream
4 egg yolks
100 gm. Sugar
a pinch of salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 cup peanut butter

- Heat up the cream and milk in a pot till warm.
- Whisk egg yolks with sugar until smooth.
- Pour in the warm milk mixture into the egg yolks mixture and stir till smooth.
- Pour the egg and milk mixture back into the pot and cook over medium heat till mixture thickens. Add in vanilla extract and leave it to cool then put in the freezer to freeze for about an hour.
- Take out from freezer, scrap and whisk until smooth. Add half cup of peanut butter before refreeze it (for 6 hours) and come out with very delicious combination of milk-vanilla-peanut butter

It melt while i'm taking the other picture

Tofu and Salmon

Tofu also known as bean curd come in many varieties. It contain beneficial amounts of iron and has no saturated fat nor cholesterol.
I read local news paper few days ago, research from one of university/organization in UK(sorry forgot the name and thrown the paper) show that consuming too much tofu(and soy milk) may resulted in a variety of harmful or beneficial effects to our body.
Believe or doubt? Ask the expert.
Another quick and easy dish. Recipe adapted from my cooking book, slightly modified by me.

Ingredients:

1 block fresh tofu, cubed
100 g salmon, cubed
1 tbsp shredded baby ginger
1 tbsp minced onion
2 tbsp mushroom oyster sauce
1 scallion
salt and pepper

- Heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil (less is better), saute ginger and onion until fragrant add a cup of water. Add in oyster sauce and stir, add tofu and salmon, cover for few minutes and season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat. sprinkle with sliced scallion

Mini Puff Pastry

Choux pastry is famous and delicious dessert yet easy to make. Indonesian call it "sus kering" and usually filled with custard cream.
This is my last Sunday project with Christin, a friend of mine. Turned out beautifully isn't it?
I use sugarless strawberry cream for filling. Consume less sugar and oil is better for our health, don't u agree?
And here is basic ingredients for pastry.

- ½ cup butter
- 1 cup water
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 4 eggs

- Place water, butter and salt in a small pan, bring to boil add flour and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon till dough is not sticky and leaving the side of the pan, let it cool.
Add egg and beat till smooth. Fill the dough into piping bag and pipe it onto baking tray.
Bake in preheated oven at 180 degrees for about 25 mins.

Spaghetti Carbonara and things that makes me smile

Started with things that makes me smile
- My new kitchen utensils, oven, non-stick pan, small hand mixer and bakery tools.
- A shop that sells bakery tools and ingredients and it is located only couple blocks away from my appt and the price is 30% cheaper compared to the supermarket that i used to shopped in
- Message from my dear J, he told me that he's stuck on the traffic caused by "si komo lewat"
- When i told him i'm going to try spaghetti recipe, he said "i would rather have fried instant noodle than spaghetti"

I've read few articles about spaghetti carbonara, Cream is not used in Italian recipes, but is used in the US, France and England. They use mushroom and peas as well for color. Most of these preparations have more sauce than the Italian versions, and have more in common with a cream sauce such as that used for fettuccine.
I'm trying the Italian version without cream and adding broccoli instead of mushroom, it is a bit dry but taste still "not bad for me"(i eat anything that can be eaten :P) and this how i do it,
- Cook spaghetti with salt and olive oil, drain. Blanch broccoli with hot water for few minutes
Fry chopped bacon until dry and crisp, mix 2 egg yolk with grated parmesan cheese, 2 tbsp fresh milk and 2 tbsp bacon drip. Return spaghetti and broccoli to the pan, add egg yolk mixture and fried bacon, stir quickly and turn off the heat. Sprinkle more grated parmesan cheese and serve hot

Japanesse Cheesecake

This is my 3rd attempt of making Japanese cheesecake. The 1st and 2nd was not turned very well, it's still cheesy but a bit hard, my friend said it's much like bread rather than cake.
The recipe come from many sources, modified by myself. I reduce the amount of cakeflour and add more corn flour. And it is really.... much better.

Ingredients:

135 g cream cheese
3 egg, separated
70 g fine sugar
30 g unsalted butter
50 ml fresh milk
10 g cake flour
30 g corn flour
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp salt


- Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over double boiler.
Cool the mixture and fold in egg yolk, lemon juice, salt and flour.
Beat egg white until frothy add cream of tartar and continue beating.
Add sugar 1 tbsp each time and continue beating until soft peak form, gradually add egg white to the cream cheese mixture and steam bake at 175 degrees for 75 mins.

How did u eat Broccoli?

Are u broccoli lover or hater? How did u eat broccoli? Steam or juice them up? This is much much better than the tasteless steam/juice. Don't believe me? Give it a try!!
By adding oyster sauce and another seafood or fish/meat ball will give it extra flavor.
A dash of pepper and/or sesame oil will do good too.
I don't juice them up from now on.

Grilled Salmon with Rosemary

According to wikipedia, salmon rich in protein and omega 3 which are important for brain function and structure among other things.
I hardly buy it because it is tasteless and sometimes hard (if over cooked) and a bit pricy too for the fresh one, except for those which are already kept in Costco's freezer for months.
This is just one of try-out-my-own-creation. I dunno where the idea come from (perhaps from grilled lamb with rosemary in Sizzler or else?). However, it turned out "not-bad" with rosemary and lemon flavor.
And this is the way how i do,

- Marinate salmon with 3 tbsp of lemon juice, 1 tsp minced garlic, pinch of sugar, chopped rosemary, refrigerate for 1 hour, turning each side for 30 mins and grill until done, sprinkle with black pepper or any grill seasoning.

Oreo Cupcake

Another great recipe from aunty yochana. She's really nice person and she helped me much with my silly question. It might be ugly, but u know... sometimes looks can be deceive.
Thank you aunty Yo.

Rawon

I've been craving this soup for months and the only problem is how can i get the blacknut, while no one selling it?
Went to Indonesian Mart and grab some Indofood instant paste and the problem solved !!
Taste was not as delicious as my mom's one, but it is better than i keep drooling whenever i remember it.

Apples are everywhere

Try-out from aunty yochana, the original recipe using banana and sunflower seed but just like usual, i dont have stock of banana at home so i use apple and walnut instead.
It turned out perfectly and apples are everywhere(too much i guess)

Soft Spicy Crisp Fried Chicken

Inspired by my last night dinner in Cafe Bellini, Italian chain restaurant with their curry flavor fried seafood, i made this my own fried chicken breast with chili powder. Sound weird isn't it? It is soft, crispy and a bit tangy. If u don't like spicy then u can substitute chili powder with ground pepper.
And here is list of things that i use

1 chicken breast, sliced
4 egg yolk
2 tbsp corn starch
1 bowl all purpose flour
2 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
oil for deep frying

- Marinate chicken with egg yolk and corn starch for 30 mins.
In a large plastic bag, shake together flour+chili powder+salt, be very careful not to sniff the chili powder when you open the bag, otherwise you'll sneezing all night long(wear mask if possible).
Coat chicken with flour and deep fry over medium fire till brown.

Pandan White Egg Cake

Thanks to Mba Retno for the recipe. I don't have cheddar cheese at home, and it is 36 degrees out there. I don't think you still feel going out in this weather.
Luckily, theres still few blocks chocolate and cream cheese in my fridge, so why don't i use it.
And instead of whipped cream-grated cheese topping, i use cream cheese frosting and shaved chocolate. Not bad for a beginner(and baker wannabe) like me....