Light Beef Consomme

Wow, its been really a long break for me. Been a little busy with facebook's game...hahaa seriously not! I've been looking for new apartment and unfortunately have not find one till now.

It seems like i've had same meal over and over and after a while, i feel really sick, only by passing infront of chinese take away and smell the "aroma" of my recent meals. Well, i hope this post will be the beginning of my comeback into the blogosphere.

Recipe for Light Beef Consomme

Ingredients:

200 g beef tenderloin, cut into 1 inch long

1 carrot, cubed

1 stick celery, cubed

2 king oyster mushroom, cubed

1 stalk spring garlic

2 clove garlic, crushed

Beef stock as required

salt and pepper to taste

- In a medium pan, boil beef stock, crushed garlic and spring garlic for 15 minutes, add the vegetables and simmer over low fire until tender. Lastly, add chopped beef and season with salt and pepper. Do not let the beef boil for too long as it will be overdone. Remove from heat and serve immediately.

Healthy Cranberries and Oatmeal Cookies

My cooking blue started again for past few weeks. It caused by facebook's application called happy farm, i'm so addicted to it recently. Happy farm is just small game where u can plant and harvest some kind of fruits. It is nothing compared to maple story and travian but i have so much fun playing that my friends called as a "boring game". I spent most of my evening infront of my laptop, planting, harvesting, take care my plants even stealing from my friend's farm.
Feeling so upset when i can't access my farm yesterday, so off i go, to my old favorite website, foodgawker and found this amazing and healthy cookies recipe. And why i call it healthy? because no butter in it, i even substitute canola oil with olive pomace oil, skipped chocolate chips and add more oatmeal and it still turned out great.
So, do you think that big amount of sugar is healthy as well? I would say yes, since it impossible to bake cookies without sugar ^_*

Melting Brownies

What can i say about this? well, this is the best brownies i've ever made so far. With melted chocolate in the center, my friends at work gave me two thumbs up. One of them said, she'll give me 5 thumbs up if only she have it.... From now on, i will stick to this recipe for brownies and maybe some modification with peanut butter and or cream cheese next time. To make it even more special, i also made a recipe card for this one.


Source: discussion at NCC yahoo groups and of course...with slight modification.

Wuxi Style Braised Spareribs

Wuxi is one of big city in China which is very famous with their silk and delicious dishes, one of them is this braised spareribs. More article about Wuxi can be found here. I was searching for this recipe and ended up in aunty Lily's blog. She wrote a lot of great chinese recipe and i should try them one by one. This finger lickin' sparerib is my favorite and i always ordered this dish everytime i dine out in chinese restaurant.

Mango Cheesecake

It is mango season here in Taiwan. Mango is always my favorite fruit. There is a dessert shop near my working place called Ice Monster and their 芒果芋头冰 , literally mean mango+yam mixed with shaved ice+condensed milk is really to die for. I have really really huge appetite lately with 5-7 meals a day!! hahaa...and i've been buy this mango ice for a week without break. In order to used up my half package of cream cheese, i made this cheesecake with... of course, mango topping!!

Recipe for mango cheesecake

Ingredients:
500 g cream cheese, room temperature
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup mango flavored yoghurt
Mango, extra yoghurt and oreo biscuits without cream, as required

- Beat cream cheese and sugar until fluffy, add egg one at time and beat until incorporated. Stir in yoghurt, mix well. Arrange oreo on the side of baking pan, pour the batter in and bake in preheated oven at 180 for 50-55 minutes, until the center of the cake has been set. Cool for up to 2 hours in fridge. For topping, mix cubed mango with yoghurt and pour over cooled cake.

Banana Chocolate Cake

I just stepped into the house when i smell something sweet from my kitchen. It was banana that i bought 4 days ago, before i left for long weekend in the mountain with some friends. For me, banana is the best fruit for baking and it always satisfying. I love combination of banana + chocolate. Wonder why no one sell chocolate with banana flavor out there.
Recipe from Stephanie Jaworski at joyofbaking.com

Caramel Flan

Hey... i'm back after 2 long weeks without update. I've been a little busy helping a friend to design her new online shop and also doing some label and banner design, haven't done with it up until now.
It is not summer yet but the weather is terribly hot here, the heatwave makes me feel exhausted, not wanting to do anything and all i want is water and something to cool down. I've been bookmarked this recipe since few weeks back, and only got the mood to do it today. The flan turned to be as smooth as it looks, with slightly sticky caramel syrup and it really cooled my evening off.

Orange Cheesecake

Browse through daring baker's blog, i found a lot of luscious and tempting cheesecake as their April's challenge is cheesecake. Their post really makes me drool and luckily i still have a pack of cream cheese and orange in my fridge.
Recipe tweaked from my previous Oreo cheesecake

Ingredients:
for base:
1 1/2 cups ritz cracker crumb
1/4 c melted butter

for cake:
500 g cream cheese, room temperature
2 eggs
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup whole milk
1 orange rind, finely grated
1/2 cup powdered sugar

for topping (optional):
1 tbsp orange flavored jelly powder
1/3 cup water

- For base, mix cracker crumb with butter, press into baking pan and set aside. Beat cream cheese with sugar until smooth, add eggs 1 at time, beat until fully incorporated. Add in milk, orange juice and rind, stir well. Pour the batter into prepared base crust. Steam bake in preheated oven at 180 degrees celcius for 40-45 minutes. For topping, prepare jelly as directed and let it cool. Arrange sliced orange on top, pour jelly on top of cooled cake. Let it set in the fridge for about 3-4 hours.

Stir Fry Chicken With Hot Bean Sauce

Hot bean sauce (la dou ban jiang) is a very popular condiment and commonly used in Chinese cooking especially in Szechuan cuisines. It goes very well with any seafood, chicken, tofu and other vegetable like bamboo shot and eggplant. In this version, i use boneless-skinless chicken thigh, recipe adapted from easy Chinese stir fry by Angela Cheng

Recipe for braised chicken with hot bean sauce

Ingredients:

1 boneless chicken thigh
4 cloves garlic
1 stalk scallion
seasoning 1:
1 egg white
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp water
1/2 tbsp cornstarch
seasoning 2:
1/2 tbsp rice wine
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp hot bean sauce
2 tbsp water
1 tsp cornstarch

- Cut chicken into bite size, marinate with seasoning 1 for 20 minutes then deep fry till half done. Set aside. Heat another tbsp oil, saute garlic and scallion till fragrant add chicken, stir fry for few minutes. Add seasoning 2, mix well. Remove from heat and serve while it's hot.

Beef Rendang

Most people say, cooking rendang is kinda wasting time and that also my main reason for never making rendang on my own. I hate stay in my tiny kitchen for more than 20 minutes and i hate to leave my kitchen when my stove is on. I almost burn the whole apartment once, and it really remind me to be more careful when leaving kitchen with fire on.
In the end, i decide to use pressure cooker to make this rendang. It still tastes as good as the stewing version. It took 1 hour to be done, 45 minutes in pressure cooker plus 15 minutes simmering to dry off the gravy.
Recipe adapted from NCC and of course with little modification to suit my ingredient's availability

IFW - Braised Fish with Coconut Milk, Tomato and Basil

If you read my blog regularly, you will noticed that i never participate in blog events like everyone else does.
Well, this is my first submission for blog event, Indonesian Food Week hosted by Siany Nugroho one of NCC's member.
I love seafood so much(who don't?) and most of times i buy it outside since my cooking skill is terrible, especially in Indonesian food.


Indonesian name it Pencok Ikan. Ikan mean fish, but pencok???(anyone who can come up with explanation will be greatly appreciated). As you all know, Indonesia made up by more than 17.500 island, so can you imagine how many language we have?
One of the event's rule is to mention where the dish come from. So, i'll say this recipe is come from my mom(sorry about the exact place, i wish i or my mom know)

Recipe for mommy style pencok ikan(braised fish with coconut milk, tomato and fresh basil)

Ingredients:
500 g mackerel
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 tbsp coriander powder
1/2 cm lesser galangal
1 tsp salt
5 red chili
3 cloves garlic
2 candle nut
1 tsp shrimp paste
1 medium tomato, diced
salt and sugar to taste
handful fresh basil

- Rub fish with coriander powder and salt, let it stand for 15 minutes, fry till brown on both side, set aside. Blend all the ingredients except coconut milk, basil and tomato. Heat a tbsp oil in a medium pan, saute spices and keep stirring for 1-2 minutes. Pour in coconut milk, let it bubbling, add in fish and tomato. Simmer for 3-4 minutes until gravy almost dry, adjust the taste with salt and sugar. Sprinkle fresh basil just before remove from heat.

Rich Chocolate Cake

As Asian and a beginner cook, i often confused when reading recipe using American standard measurement. It's not a cup that make me headache but stick, ounces, pints, quarts, gallon etc really make me crazy. I'm totally idiot when it comes to maths and yeah, my brother called me as a "mathematics's idiot". I remember that i used to argue with my math teacher back when i was in high school. But still, i'm doing pretty good in physics. Strange right?


I was thinking about this cake, and have no problem at all when reading the recipe, i've made that cake before and it turned out great, so i decide to use that recipe again.
I was pretty sure that 1 stick butter is equal to 226 grams, how.....where that conversion come from??? Without checking converter, i started baking. Feel like something amiss when i fold in the flour. Butter amount seems too much compared to the other ingredients. And yes it is, i used 2 sticks butter instead of 1!!! Thinking about dumping my batter to the trash, but i can't afford to waste anymore food, so i go on bake my cake and it turned out to be rich, fudgy and soft(almost like melt in mouth, when it warm). This was my first failed cake that turned out to be so good.

Ohh...reminder, 1 stick butter is 113 grams :)

Creamy Vegetable in a Bread Bowl

I still have some bread dough left in my fridge and i want to used it up today. After flipping through my cooking books, finally i decide to make this cute bread bowl with vegetable filling(original recipe using sourdough bread and creamy mushroom filling). My bread dough is very soft and it resulted in flat bowl instead of tall and round one.

Recipe for creamy vegetable filling
Ingredients:
1 can sweet corn
1 cup diced ham
1 cup diced celery
1 1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup minced onion
1/2 stick butter
2 tbsp flour
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
salt and freshly ground black pepper

-Melt butter in a medium sauce pan over low fire, add onion and cook for 3-4 minutes until it turn translucent, add in flour and stir for another minute. Pour milk slowly, mix until smooth, add vegetable, simmer over low fire for about 15 minutes. Taste with salt and pepper, remove from heat, sprinkle with grated cheese.

Dried Longan Muffin

Longan is native fruit of southeast asia. In Chinese it called long yuan which is literally mean dragon's eye fruit. More information about longan can be found here. Dried longan muffin is another famous Taiwanese delicacy. It is easily available almost in every corner of bakery in Taiwan. However, every one of them has their special taste or texture. It usually topped with either chopped walnut or pine nut.

Recipe for Dried longan muffin

Ingredients:

150 g cake flour
110 g brown sugar
65 g dried longan soaked in 3/4 cup hot water, cooled, squeezed and juice reserved.
2 eggs
70 ml melted butter
1/2 cup longan juice
1/2 cup chopped walnut
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup pine nut for topping

-Sift cake flour, salt and baking powder, set aside. Beat egg and sugar till white and fluffy, add in longan juice, vanilla extract and melted butter , stir until well mixed. Fold in flour lightly. Add in chopped walnut and dried longan. Spoon the batter to the paper cup, top with pine nut. Bake at preheated oven at 180 for 30-35 minutes.

Artisan Bread

Am i the only one who had been dying to try this bread? This recipe is the easiest and simplest one compared to other bread and it has great review from around blogosphere. I never make a "real" bread before but i've been trying those buns several times, though it always ended up in the trash. You won't need heavy duty mixer or break your handmixer (like what i do...) to knead this bread. Recently i came across this site while searching for the artisan bread recipe and i thought basic recipe would be a great way to start with. I'm so surprised and satisfied with the result. It has crispy crust and chewy inside with amazing fragrant smell.

Most Authentic Taiwanese Stewed Ground Pork ( Lo Ba )

If you've ever come to Taiwan, you'll find this menu in every local Chinese restaurant, no matter it is high class or road side one. I've been trying so many recipe, but none of them meet the authentic taste of traditional Taiwanese lo ba which is usually served with steamed white rice, a piece of stewed deep fried tofu, yellow preserved radish and it served in a clay bowl, topped with freshly chopped cilantro. Yumm...my favorite lunch, cheap and delicious, hahaa..yeah i love anything with "cheap" word in it. Lo ba literally mean stewed meat in Taiwanese/Hokkien. Lo= stew ba=meat, while in Mandarin it called lu rou.
Couple days ago, i watched TV show hosted by mr.blablah, i dont even know his name, but my sister say he is one of the best chef in Taiwan. He said that the secret condiment that usually taken down from lo ba recipe is the cinnamon powder. Lo ba won't have its authentic taste without cinnamon powder. So, here i go again, doing experiment and come up with the most authentic taste of lo ba ( i don't celebrate April's fool day, so don't worry about being fooled by me)

Recipe for Taiwanese Stewed Ground Pork

Ingredients:
650 gr ground pork (preferably with lots of fat)
1/3 cup sliced shallot
2 tbsp minced garlic
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup chinese rice wine
6 cups water
1/4 cup cooking oil
2 tbsp sugar
2 star anise
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder (or more to suit your taste)

-Heat oil, saute chopped shallot and garlic until fragrant, add star anise and ground cinnamon, stir well, add in ground pork and stir quickly to break the meat into small bits. Add soy sauce, sugar and rice wine, once the meat has changed color. Pour six cups of water and cover the pan, let it simmer for 2,5-3 hours.

Black Glutinous Rice Cake

Like i said before, i'm not a big fan of steamed cake, but when it comes to leftover thingy, then i really have no choice.
I've been keep this leftover homemade black glutinous rice powder (from making this cookies) for about 4 months. Luckily it still fresh and fragrant, since it placed in the fridge. Never imagined before, that glutinous rice powder can be used for cake, until i found this recipe. I was quite sure that the cake will turned out hard and sticky. I'm so surprised when i opened my steamer, the cake rise beautifully, it has dark purpelish color and the combination of coconut milk - black glutinous rice powder smell heavenly.

Recipe for steamed black glutinous rice cake.
Source: NCC

Ingredients :
6 eggs
200 gr sugar
350 gr black glutinous rice powder
150 ml corn oil
200 ml coconut milk
1 tsp ovalette/cake emulsifier
¼ tsp salt

- Beat egg, sugar, salt and ovalette until white and fluffy, fold in black glutinous rice flour and stir lightly. Add corn oil and coconut milk, stir until well mixed. Pour the batter to 2 loaf pan and steam for 40 minutes( i halved the recipe and steam for 35 minutes)

Banana Oatmeal Quick Bread

I have 3 overripe bananas sit in my dinning table for two days, the sweet smell getting stronger and it will attract tiny fly's attention if i don't use it as soon as possible. Banana bread is the perfect way to used up overripe bananas. Easy, healthy and delicious and it bursting with flavor of bananas.

Ingredients:
3 large banana, mashed
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup quick cooking oats
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

- Whisk banana and melted butter, stir in egg, sugar, salt and baking soda, mix well. Add in oats and chocolate chips, fold in flour, stir until well mixed. Bake at 175 for 50-60 minutes.

Indonesian Style Soy Sauced Milk Fish

It's been a month or two since my last time of cooking seafood. I hate cleaning oily and fishy stuffs and that become the main reason of my laziness. I was inspired by my last weekend dinner in Vinna's place, one of my good friend who is great in cooking but refused to join foodblog community with loads of reason, such as work, pregnancy and recently her new born cute baby. She made Indonesian soy sauced chicken and it tasted great, i ask her if i can replace chicken with seafood, and it really went well with fish.

Recipe for Indonesian Soy Sauced Fish, courtesy of Vinna.
Ingredients:

1 large milk fish
3 tbsp Indonesian sweet soy sauce
3 clove shallot
2 clove garlic
3 red chilli
1 cup water
1 tsp cornstarch, diluted in 1 tbsp water.
salt to taste
juice of 1 lemon

- Clean and chop fish, rub with lemon juice and let it stand for 30 minutes, fry till golden brown on both side. Saute sliced shallot and garlic in 1 tbsp oil till fragrant, stir in chili and pour a cup of water, add soy sauce/salt. Let it simmer for 5 minutes, add corn starch solution to thicken. Add in fish and remove from heat. Serve while its hot.

Flower Butter Cookies

I do enjoy making cookies so much, though i'm not a big fan cookies. Moulding and shaping cookies is kinda fun. My first interest in baking was chocolate chips cookies, around two years ago. I was shopping in nearby supermarket, turning round and round dunno what to buy, till my eyes caught a pack of hersheys chocolate chips. And unfortunately it has cookie recipe written on the package. So, thanks to hersheys chocolate chips for giving me inspiration in baking.

Basic taiwanese butter cookies recipe,
Ingredients:

120 g unsalted butter, room tempature
60 g icing sugar
200 g cake flour
50 g bread flour
1 whole egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
melted chocolate as required (i use banana flavoured chocolate)

- Beat butter and sugar until slightly pale (do not beat too long, otherwise the cookies won't hold its shape). Beat in egg and vanilla extract, mix well. Sift cake flour and bread flour together and add to the butter mixture.
Roll out the dough and cut with flower shaped cookie cutter. Bake at 175 for 15-18 minutes till golden brown. Decorate with melted chocolate once it cooled off. Store in air tight container.