CHRISTMAS AND THE MENUS :)

My first Christmas menus from baking to cooking :). It is a great experience since I never cook Christmas dinner by myself. Last year, when I was lived in Singapore, I had a christmas dinner with my friend, and I only made side dishes (stir fry enoki mushrooms, mashed potato and garlic bread), and my friend grilled the steak.

So, few days before Christmas I am looking for the Christmas dinner menus, and I found out it just same as Thanksgiving dinner menus with all the turkey, ham, mashed potato, salad, etc. Whoaaaa.........TURKEY??? I never bake it and I don't know how to make turkey, so I decided to make steak (again!) as the main menu for our Christmas dinner. Ok, the problem solved! But, wait a minute, what kind of steak I'll make?? Hmmm.........by the power of Mr.Google, at last by combine few steak recipes and a little suggestion from Christine, I made Beef Tenderloin with Red Wine Sauce :). It tasted so good, and my hubby liked it!! :)

At the end, our Christmas dinner menus are:

1. Chicken Corn Soup

2. Blue Cheese Gourgeres

3. Beef Tenderloin with Red Wine Sauce

4. Baked Potato with Bacon

5. Broccoli and Carrot with Fusion Salsa

Also, I baked this man of the day.........he is Mr. Gingerbread Man :). For this one, my hubby told me that he never like gingerbread before, but this time he likes my gingerbread :). Despite of it's true or not, it made my heart so flowery when I heard that :).

And here we are with the recipes :

Blue Cheese Gourgeres

Ingredients:

1 cup whole milk

4 tbsps unsalted butter

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/8 tsp Emeril's Original Essence (recipe follows)

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1/4 pound blue cheese, or other creamy blue cheese (Belzy -- I used crumbled blue cheese)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400`F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (Belzy -- I used muffin pan).

In a large saucepan, combine the milk, butter, salt, black pepper and Emeril's Essence over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, then remove from the heat. Add the flour, and stir constantly with a large wooden spoon to incorporate, about 1 minute. Return to medium-high heat and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and add the eggs one at a time, beating well after the addition of each. Add the cheese and beat until mixed well and a slightly soft dough forms.

Drop the dough by the spoonful on the baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350`F, and bake until golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Remove from the oven and serve immediately, or at room temperature.

Emeril's Essence:

2-1/2 tbsps paprika

2 tbsps salt

2 tbsps garlic powder

1 tbsp black pepper

1 tbsp onion powder

1 tbsp cayenne pepper

1 tbsp dried leaf oregano

1 tbsp dried thyme

Combine all ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight jar or container.

Yield: about 2/3 cup.

Beef Tenderloins with Red Wine Sauce

Ingredients:

4 pounds petite beef tenderloin steak (about 4 pieces)

Marinade:

1 cup red wine, such as Zinfandel (Belzy -- use any kind red wine is ok)

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

2 garlic cloves, pasted with mortar

1-1/2 tsps dried rosemary

1-1/2 tsps dried thyme

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Red wine sauce (recipe follows)

Directions:

Whisk all of the ingredients in a large bowl to combine. Immerse the tenderloin in the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for at least to 2 hours and up to overnight. Drain the tenderloin and let stand at room temperature for 1 hour before serving.

Set the oven at broil, position a rack in the center (3 inch below the the heat). Rub the tenderloin with oil and season with the salt an pepper. Place in baking sheet (line in with alumunium foil), broil it for 8 to 12 minutes for medium raw or 15 to 17 minutes for medium rare (at this point, a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the meat should read 135`F for medium rare; for medium well, broil it for 3 minutes more). In the middle of broiling, don't forget to flip up the meat.

Remove from the oven. Tent tenderloin with foil, allow to rest for 10 minutes (if you want to eat it warm), or directly served it if you want to eat it hot.

Red Wine Sauce:

Ingredients:

The remaining marinade sauce

3 egg yolks

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

Directions:

Cook the marinade sauce in a small saucepan and place over medium-high heat. Bring to a simmer and cook until reduced by half. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. Blend 3 egg yolks and red wine sauce reduction together in a blender on low speed until combined. With the blender running on medium speed, add one-third of the butter in a slow, steady stream. Once the mixture emulsifies (it will become thick and satiny), turn the blender speed up to high and add the remaining butter. Warm it a little on low heat. Ready to serve.

Baked Potato with Bacon

Ingredients:

6 pieces medium size potatoes

Broccoli, small size cut, washed and rinsed

4 slices bacon, diced and half fried

Butter/margarine (for spreading purposes only)

Mozarella cheese or any kind melted cheese, shredded

Directions:

Scrub and wash all potatoes, wipe and dry it. Rub the potato with salt (do not peel the skin, but if you dislike it you can peel the skin off and no need to rub the potato with salt).

Wrap tight the potato with alu foil. Bake it in the preheated oven 350`F (approx. 1 hour). Test the potato with insert a toothpick in the middle of potato, if the toothpick easily pushed into the potato, it's the time to turn off the oven.

Crossing slice the potato, do not slice it to the end of the potato. Push up the bottom of the potato until the edge of potato widely opened. Spread it with butter. Put in bacon, broccoli and shredded cheese. Bake it for another 5 minutes or until the cheese are all melted. Dish it out and ready to serve!

Gingerbread Men

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

2 tsps ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup (or 1-1/2 sticks) butter, softened

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup molasses

1 egg

Directions:

Mix flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg and salt in large bowl. Beat butter and brown sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add molasses and egg, beat well. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until well mixed. Press dough into a thick flat disk. Wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350`F. Roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness on lightly floured work surface. Cut into gingerbread men shapes with cookie cutter. Place 1 inch apart on greased baking sheets.

Bake 8 to 10 minuts or until edges of cookies are set and just begin to brown. Cool on baking sheets 1 to 2 minutes. Remove to wire racks, cool completely. Decorate cookies as desired. Store cookies in airtight container up to 5 days.

HOMEMADE ITALIAN PIZZA

Woohoooo.....I made pizza!! That's awesome!! And this is my very first experience baking pizza by MYSELF!! I'm so happy when I took out the pizza from the oven, the crust rised up so well, also it tasted really good and mellow!!

Really, this recipe is worthed to try! :). Many thanks to my dear friend Chizzy for sharing this wonderful easy recipe :).

Homemade Italian Pizza

Ingredients:

For Pizza Crust:

3 cups of all-purpose flour

1 cup of luke-warm water

1 tbsp of salt

1 tbsp of sugar (Belzy -- I skipped it)

1 tbsp of yeast

2 tbsp of oil (the best less fat oil: olive oil, canola oil, sunflower oil)

Extra oil to grease the bowl

Parchment paper

Topping:

Pepperoni of Salami

Button mushroom

Olive

Homemade pizza sauce base*

Shredded mozarella cheese

Homemade pizza sauce base:

5 tbsps of tomato ketchup

1 tbsp of oregano

1 tbsp of garlic powder

1/4 tsp of sugar

Directions:

For Pizza Crust:

Mix all purpose flour, salt and sugar (if desire) in a bowl, mixed well. Stir in water and oil, stir well and add in yeast. Mix those ingredients by hand until elastic or until the dough rise up again when you pinch it.

Brush a new bowl with oil slightly, then move the dough into the greasy bowl. Cover it with clingwrap plastic or a clean towel. Let it rest until double size. Do not put the bowl near the stove!!

After the dough doubled in size, slowly push the dough down to let the air go. Shape the dough into round form and cover it with clingwrap plastic or clean towel again. Let it rest for 1 hour.

Then, if you want to make big pizza, roll the whole dough on the greasy parchment paper into square or round form, but if you want to make small pizza, you need to divide the dough into 3 round of crust base).

Finishing:

Spread the homemade pizza sauce base on the rolled dough, sprinkle it with mozarella cheese and make sure the cheese cover the whole dough's surface, then followed by mushroom, olive and salami. Then, sprinkle the pizza with more mozarella cheese.

Bake it in the preheated 400`F oven for 10-12 minutes or until th ecrust little bit rised and brown. Dish it out and cut it into 8 pieces pizza. Enjoy!!

Note:

1. The thinner you roll the crust, the more crispy the pizza will be.

2. For the pizza sauce base, you can buy a ready pizza sauce base at supermarket.

PEMPEK KAPAL SELAM (INDONESIAN FISH CAKE)

Finally, I made it!! All these times, I always worry the process of making pempek would be too difficult so the possibility of failure is bigger than success everytime the thought of making pempek acrossed into my mind. But, this time I challenged myself to make it (of cos with self-prepared that I might fail).

Since I can't find spanish mackerel (tenggiri) and sago flour here, so I used fish paste and tapioca flour, and........wallaaaaa.....It tasted good and its not as hard as my imagination!!

Now, I have no worry to make pempek, and I can eat pempek in this far far away country ANYTIME!!.....Yayyyyyyyyyy....

PS: many thanks to Dewi Febrianti, Myrna and Hanny for the great recipe!! :)

Pempek Kapal Selam

Ingredients:

For Basic Fish Dough:

250 gr fish paste (spanish mackerel)

5 tbsp cold water

75 gr tapioca flour

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp MSG (Belzy -- I skipped it)

For Garnish:

3 pieces of eggs

50 gr mungbean noodle, soak in hot water (optional)

1 tbsp dried shrimp powder (optional)

1/4 pieces of cucumber, diced into small form (optional)

Homemade vinegar sauce

Methods:

For Basic Fish Dough:

Combine fish paste, cold water, salt and MSG (if desire) in big bowl. Mix them until sticky. Pour in tapioca flour, once at a time, while knead the batter until free-sticky on hand. Ready to use.

For Fish Cake:

Take 150 gr fish dough, roll it into ball form. Push the middle of the dough, make it oval bowl form. Pour in an egg (Belzy -- I boiled the egg first then placed it into the dough). Then pinch the edge with fingers. Boil it in boiling water until floating. Dish it out and cooling down before deep frying.

For Finishing:

Sliced the fried pempek, and place it on a plate. Serve it with mungbean noodle, cucumbers, dried shrimp powder and homemade vinegar sauce.

LEMPER (STEAMED CHICKEN GLUTINOUS RICE)

Where else can I find lemper in this far far away country, unless my homey kitchen room :). Yup, I made my homemade lemper, and it is really a good lemper, though this snack needs me to spend half of my day to prepare ALL the ingredients. But all of my efforts are worthed when I heard my hubby said, "It is good!" :)

Many thanks to Dapur Bunda for the recipe :).

Lemper

Ingredients:

A whole piece of banana leave

For Glutinous rice:

500 gram glutinous rice

500 cc coconut milk

2 pieces of bay leave

1 stalk of lemon grass, smashed

1/2 tsp of salt

For Filling:

4 pieces of chicken fillet - boil and shred

4 pieces of bay leave

6 pieces of kaffir lime leave

200 ml coconut milk

1 tbsp tamarind juice

2 tbsp vegetable oil

Spice Paste:

5 cloves of shallot

3 cloves of garlic

3 pieces of candle nut - panbroil

1 tbsp coriander - panbroil

1 tbsp sugar

Methods:

For Glutinous Rice:

Soak the glutinous rice for 2 hours, wash and drain.

Steam it for 15 minutes. Dish it out, set aside.

Boil coconut milk, bay leave, lemon grass and salt until boiling. Add in glutinous rice, cook it with low heat until the coconut milk absorbed by the glutinous rice. Set aside.

For Filling:

Stir fry spice paste until fragrant. Stir in coconut milk, shredded chicken, bay leave, kaffir lime leave and tamarind juice until cooked and no more left coconut milk. Dish it out and set aside.

Finishing:

Prepare a square pan, grease it with oil. Place 1/2 of glutinous rice, make sure it covers the pan.

Then, spread in the filling - spread well. Last layer, cover it with the remaining glutinous rice.

Steam it well. Cool it down before you cut it into square form. Wrap it with banana leave. Ready to serve.

SOP KEPITING ASPARAGUS (CRAB ASPARAGUS SOUP)

It's been long time I want to make crab asparagus soup by myself. As we know, this soup is very expensive in Indonesia, I guess, the asparagus and crab made the price of a small bowl soup is expensive.

Then, I found this recipe from here (thank's Esther for sharing the simple and great recipe ;)). I added shredded chicken and fish sauce, also I did a little changes on the recipe.

This is my first homemade crab asparagus soup, also, my hubby first soup :). And......he liked it so much!!

Sop Kepiting Asparagus (Crab Asparagus Soup)

Ingredients:

4 cups of chicken broth

1 can of white asparagus (328 gr) - cut each stem into matches sizes

1 can of white crab meat (170 gr)

2 pieces of chicken fillet, boiled and shredded

1/2 piece of carrot, shredded

1/2 tsp of salt

2 tbsps of fish sauce

2 tsps of oyster sauce

Pepper

Garlic Powder

5 tsps of tapioca starch

1/3 cup of water

2 piece of eggs, beaten

Heat up a 4 cups of chicken broth in a pan. Put in shredded carrot, white asparagus, chicken and crab meat. Then add salt, fish sauce, oyster sauce, pepper and garlic powder. Stir until all blended evenly. In a separate bowl, mix the tapioca starch with 1/3 cup of water, then pour into the hot soup while keep on stirring until the soup becomes thicken. Turn low the heat, keep on stirring and slowly pour in the beaten egg. Let the soup boils then ready to serve.

CHOCO SOUR CREAM MUFFIN

A very simple way to bake muffin when you are lazy but have to bake something for your family's snack of the day :).

Choco Sour Cream Muffn

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

1-1/2 cups sugar

1/2 tsp salt

4 eggs

1-1/2 cups sour cream

1 tsp baking soda

2-3/4 cups flour

150 ml milk

2 oz semi sweet chocolate, melted

Walnut, thinly chopped

Methods:

Mix all ingredients and divide into muffins pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon and powder sugar. Bake for 20 minutes at 350`F (180`C).

BIRTHDAY NOODLE

Today is my birthday...........my very first birthday since I arrived US, and my first bday as a wife :). This year, it is quite unique and different than years before. From got big surprise from my hubby until received loads of wishes from friends thru FB.

Anyway, this time I have no cakes nor candles to blow. The only "must do" thing is eating birthday noodle with those red (or pink) quail's eggs :). When my mom still alive, every morning on my bday, a bowl of birthday noodle were waiting for me when I woke up. So, today I made birthday noodle by myself.

How, why and what is birthday noodle? What is the difference between birthday noodle and regular noodle. Actually, its just fried noodle with additional red quail's eggs. In Chinese, when someone is bday, they must eat noodles, because noodles are long, so its like a wish or sign that the bday boy/girl having a long life ahead. And the red egg (for the red color) means prosperous and happiness.

I did post fried noodle before, so now I will share with you how to make red quail's egg....

Red Quail's Egg

Ingredients:

10 pieces quail eggs, boiled and peeled

1 tsp red coloring food

300 ml water

Methods:

Combine and boil red coloring food and water until boiling. Place in quail eggs, and boil for 3 minutes or until the whole eggs are red.

Dish it out and drain it. Ready to use.

NASTAR (PINEAPPLE TART)

Hmmmm actually, I don't really sure is it including cookies or cakes? Because the texture likes cookies but most of people called it "kue nastar" (pineapple tart).

Anyway, it is one of my mom's signature snack besides cheese stick and spekkoek. Why I said so? Because for our family and my mom's ex-customers, mom's nastar is the best. The nastar's texture is so soft yet crunchy.

When I was a kid, I get used to help mom everytime the order came. Usually our busiest times are on Christmas, Chinese New Year and Aidil Fitri. So, based on my experience helping my mom baking nastar, today I challenged myself to bake nastar (I think, last time I baked nastar about 5 years ago!). However, it's not that hard baking nastar, also the ingredients are very simple and easy to found everywhere.

Nastar (Pineapple Tart)

Ingredients:

For the Pineapple Jam:

2 big pineapple, peeled

200 gr sugar (depend on the pineapple, you need to use more sugar if the pineapples are sour)

4 pieces of kaffir lime leaves

Methods:

For the Pineapple Jam:

Wash pineapples and drained (do not wash it with salt, it will produce more juices)

Shred the pineapple, and filter it overnight until no more juice left.

Combine the shredded pineapple, sugar and kaffir lime leaves on a skillet. Cook it with low heat and stir it thoroughly until it form sticky jam (do not leave the pineapple while it is cooked if you won't get burnt jam). Cooling down before you keep it in the fridge. Ready to use.

CHAR SIU

Originally from Southeastern China, but since everyone like it so you can find it easily at everywhere, just go to Chinatown and I guarantee you can find it there.

This is my very first time make my own char siu, normally, I only buy it at chinese restaurant. Cos I like char siu a lot, it made me curious how to make homemade char siu, and its not that hard, pretty simple :).

Now, I guess those chinese restaurant will lose one customer ;).....

Char Siu

Ingredients:

2 pounds pork butt, boneless

3/4 cup pineapple juice

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup sweetend rice wine

1-1/2 tbsps angkak (optional)

1 tbsp minced garlic

1 tbsp minced ginger

2 tbsps Chinese 5-spice powder
1/3 cup honey

1 tbsp palm sugar

Methods:

Slice pork butt into strips about 2 inches wide and 5 inches long.
In a large bowl, mix together the pineapple juice, soy sauce, rice wine, honey, garlic, ginger, chinese 5 spice powder, angkak and palm sugar. Add the pork strips and marinate for overnight.
Preheat oven to 425°F. Add a rack to a roasting pan and fill the pan with water to come just below the rack. Wipe any excess marinade from the pork and line the strips up neatly in the roasting pan.
Place the pan in the oven and roast for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 325°F and roast for another 30-40 minutes, turning and basting frequently with the remaining marinade.

Cut into bite-sized pieces and serve.

OXTAIL SOUP (SOP BUNTUT)

Cold...cold....and cold....it's the time to eat hot foods or drink hot drinks :). And our choices for 'another' soup this week is......oxtail soup!! Yeayyyy...... :)

This is my second time cooking oxtail soup. My first one didn't as good as the second oxtail soup, because that time I didn't boil the oxtail long enough, so the meat was hard and sticking to the bone, and it made little bit hard to eat it :(.

But this time, I used my pressure cooker and everything is as per my expectation :). The meat is so tender, no more fighting and struggling with the bone when you eat it :). And the soup is so thick with beef broth.....hmmmm really a good choice in this cold season. My hubby lovedddd it so much :).

Also, this time I used different recipe (with a little bit modification). Though this one is more complicated (as I need to panbroil the garlic and shallot) but it is worthed!!

Oxtail Soup

Ingredients:

1 kg oxtail

1.5 liter water

250 gr potatoes, diced into big chunk

300 gr carrots, cut into big chunk

3 stalks of chinese celery, knotted

3 pieces of tomatoes, sliced

2 stalks of spring onion, cut into matches size

Spice Paste:

8 cloves garlic, panbroiled (don't peeled the skin)

10 cloves shallot, panbroiled (don't peeled the skin)

Herbs:

1 tsp pepper

1 piece of nutmeg (Belzy -- I used 1 tsp nutmeg powder)

5 pieces of clove (Belzy -- I used 1/2 tsp clove powder)

4 cm ginger, smashed

2 cloves of garlic, panbroiled with the skin, smashed

Salt and sugar (to tasted)

Additional:

2 tbsp chinese celery, minced

2 tbsp fried garlic

1 piece of lime, squeezed

Chilli, crackers

Indonesian sweet soy sauce.

Methods:

In a big stew pan, boil oxtail with boiling water, boil until the water boiling again. Drain the oxtail, throw the water.

Boil oxtail in another clean 1.5 liter boiling water and add in herbs, boil with low heat until oxtails are tender (approx. 5 hours if you use regular boil pan, but you only need 30 minutes to boil the oxtail if you use pressure cooker). If you use pressure cooker to boil the oxtail, after the oxtails are tender, remove the oxtail and broth into big stew pan.

In a skillet, stir fry spice pasted until fragrant, stir in carrot and potato. Pour in 300 ml oxtail broth, boil it until boiling. Then, remove them back to the big stew pan, re-boiling. Add in knotted chinese celery, boiled well until the carrot and potato are tender. Right before you turn off the heat, add in tomato and spring onion.

Serve it hot with lime squeezed, Indonesian sweet soy sauce, chilli, fried garlic and crackers.

Bon Appetite!!

GARLIC BREAD

What would you do if you get homemade french bread left? I guess, garlic bread is the right choice to make over this homemade bread, and it will become a good companion for the corn soup I made today.

Actually, the original name of this homemade french bread (that what I named it) is no-knead bread from J's Kitchen. No-knead bread??? Yup, same as me, when I read the words of 'no-knead' it made me excited to try this homemade bread.

I can say the bread itself is soft but a bit un-moisturize, and the skin sides are hard, so when you eat it, it feels like you are eating french bread which hard outside but soft inside. Unfortunately, yesterday I didn't cook any soup so the bread little bit neglected in my kitchen drawer. I only ate 2 slices and my hubby didn't eat at all :(.

But today, when I made over this bread became garlic bread....hoooooo.......once it came out from the oven, the smells of garlic and oregano filled our kitchen, and my hubby (right away) washed his hands, and sat on the breakfast table waiting for me to give him a try :). He ate the garlic bread with hot corn soup...........andddd he finished half of the bread :).

Garlic Bread

Ingredients:

1 loaf of no-knead bread (or you can use French bread), sliced (width: 2 or 3 cm)

4 tbsps margarine (Belzy -- I prefer blue band, it will make the bread more yellow)

3 cloves of garlic, pasted with mortar

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp granulated sugar Splenda

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp parsley

1/2 tsp basil

Alumunium foil

Methods:

Preheat the oven at 350`F (180`C).

Mix all ingredients, mixed well. Spread the butter mixture on one side of the bread only. Do it until no more bread left.

Arrange bread on the foil, then wrap bread. Bake it for 15 until 20 minutes, or until the margarine melted and the bread little bit brown. Serve it while still hot.

PORK SOUP NOODLE

Fall is here!! The weather is getting cold now, also since last week we have lots of heavy rains, and it made the weather cold evenmore. In this cold weather, the best thing to do is eating hot soups...yup that is my hubby's request for this season ;).

So, after 'another' wonton soup, I made pork soup noodle this time. Actually, it is same as chicken soup noodle or Hongkong style noodle. But, I combined pork and chicken broth together and it gave better taste for the soup.

It is extremely good especially we ate it in this cold weather. So, take a zip of this hot tasty soup and you'll know ..... ;)

Pork Soup Noodle

Ingredients:

1 pack of noodle (Belzy -- I used Taiwanese noodle)

1 bundle of cai sim, washed, cut into matches size (you can use any other green vegetables )

1.5 liter of pork-chicken broth (Belzy -- I used the combination broth, but any of them are ok)

For Gravy:

300 gr pork, diced

5 pieces shiitake mushroom, thinly sliced

3 cloves of garlic, finely minced

2 cm ginger, finely minced

2 stalks of spring onions, sliced

6 tbsps Indonesian sweet soy sauce

3 tbsps fish sauce

2 tbsps dark soy sauce (Belzy -- I used mushroom flavored dark soy sauce)

1 tbsp rice wine

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp tapioca starch

1/2 cup pork-chicken broth

Methods:

For Gravy:

Stir fry garlic and ginger until fragrant. Stir in pork, stir well until the color is changed. Stir in shiitake mushroom, stir well. Add in sweet soy sauce, fish sauce, dark soy sauce, rice wine, pepper, salt, sugar, spring onion and broth, stir well until boiling. Once it boils, add in tapioca starch, stir it fast until the broth thicken and boilings. Ready to use.

For Noodle:

Prepare a medium bowl, pour in 1 tbsp fish sauce, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp sugar and 1/4 tsp pepper. Set aside.

Boil 1/2 cup of broth and 1/2 cup water until boiling. Boil in cai sim and noodle until boiled and the noodle totally cooked. Drained it, and place it in prepared bowl. Mix the noodle with the spices. Add in the gravy on top of noodle. Pour in the hot broth. (or you can separate the broth in another small bowl). Ready to eat ;).

HONEY AND SWEET POTATO CAKE

This is my first sweet potato cake ever!! Actually, few weeks ago I was thinking to make a cake with sweet potato as the ingredient. I found myself attracted to sweet potato :), all this time the only food I made of sweet potato is biji salak and sweet potato balls (trans: bola ubi).


So, yesterday morning I asked Mr. Google for any cake recipe made of sweet potato, and his answer is this. The differences from the original recipe are I used more sweet potato and I skipped the honey (unfortunately, I have no honey available in my kitchen drawer), and the cake issss......SCRUMPTIOUS!! I do really like it :). What about my hubby? Oughh....this time I can't ask his opinion cos he is ill and lost his appetite.....:(.

However, this cake is highly recommended to try!! ;)



Honey and Sweet Potato Cake

Yields: 12 slices

Ingredients:
200 gr margarine or butter
50 gr palm sugar
50 gr granulated sugar
50 gr honey (Belzy -- I skipped it and substituted it with sugar)
100 gr sweet potato or yam, steamed and mashed (Belzy -- I used 250 gr yam)
5 eggs
250 gr all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
50 gr choco chip (Belzy -- I used 25 gr hazelnut and 25 gr raisin)

• Sift baking powder and flour on a bowl, set aside
• Prepare and grease a loaf pan with butter, set aside.
• Mix margarine, palm sugar and granulated sugar until soft with mixer. Mix in honey, mixed well. Mix in mashed sweet potato, mixed well. Add in eggs, one at a time together with sifted flour and baking powder, mixed well. Add in hazelnut and raisin, mixed well.
• Pour the batter into loaf pan and bake it in the preheated oven (190`C/375`F) for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 180`C (350`F) for 25 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cooling down before you cut it.

BOLU TAPE

Bolu tape is made of fermented cassava (trans: tape singkong). What is fermented cassava? It is combination between boiled cassava and sweet yeast, then by fermentation process (at least 3 days process) you can have fermented cassava.


This time I tried the recipe from NCC, and it tasted good!! It is really a sweet cake! So, if you dislike too sweet thing, you can reduce the sugar. Because the cassava itself is sweet already.

Let's try folks......;)


Bolu Tape

Ingredients:
5 pieces of eggs
3 pieces of egg yolks
200 gr sugar
1 tbsp cake emulsifier (Belzy - I skipped it)
200 gr all-purpose flour
300 gr tape singkong, mashed
200 ml thick coconut milk
1 tsp salt

• Prepare and grease pan with butter. Set aside
• Combine tape singkong with 1/3 coconut milk. Set aside
• Mix whole eggs, sugar, salt and cake emulsifier until thick with mixer. Mix in flour one at a time together with remaining coconut milk, mixed well. Add in tape singkong, mixed well
• Pouring the batter into baking pan. Bake it in preheated 180`C (350`F) oven for 30 minutes or until the inserted toothpick come out clean and the cake is brown. Cooling down before cut it. Its good for your tea time :).

LUMPIA

In US, lumpia known as snack from Phillipine. I need to reassure my hubby that in Indonesia we called spring roll as lumpia also. It's kinda sad when I know that people only know lumpia from Phillipine :(. So, this time I made lumpia to let the world know that lumpia is Indonesian snack too!! :).

In the past, I think I did post lumpia's recipe, but that was Shanghai Spring Roll which a bit different than my 'this time' lumpia :).

Hmmmm.....better we enjoy the lumpia first.....yummmm..........

Lumpia

Ingredients:

1 pack of spring roll skin

300 gr shrimp, peeled and deveined,

3 pieces of carrots, cut into matches size

5 pieces of shiitake, sliced

150 gr bamboo shoots, cut into matches size

150 gr cabbage, sliced

2 stalks of spring onion, cut into matches size

2 tbsp fish sauce

2 tbsp oyster sauce

3 cloves of garlic, finely minced

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp pepper

Vegetable oil

Stir fry garlic until fragrant. Stir in shrimp until the color changed to pink. Stir in the rest of ingredients, stir well and boiled. Cooling down before wrapping.

Place one sheet of spring roll wrapper on a flat plate. Scope 1 - 2 tablespoonful filling, then wrap it like wrap an envelope.

Heat oil on a skillet with high heat. Fry lumpia until brown and crispy. Serve it hot with chilli sauce.

MUN TOFU

Hiyaaaaaaaa.........this is our family fave dish, when I was a kid my mom loved to cook mun tofu (we called it mun tahu). Then, since my dad passed away and my older brother and sister were married and moved out to their own house, we are very rare cooking this dish. Yup that's true, its been long long long time I never eat mun tofu.

So, when I got married, for some reason, I'm kinda miss this dish, and I tried to cook it (and crossed my fingers and hoping my hubby likes it). And guess what?? He loved it!! So, this became another fave dish in our little family :).

When the first time I cooked it, I only depend on my memory of mom's mun tofu and add some other spices, and......wallaaaaa.....here it is the deliciouse mun tofu from my lil kitchen :)

Mun Tofu

Ingredients:

1 pack of silken tofu, cubed

300 gr tenderloin beef, sliced (other kind of beef is ok)

2 stalks of spring onion, cut into 1 cm length size

1 tbsp light soy sauce

2 tbsp oyster sauce

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tbsp shizhuan sauce (optional)

1-1/2 tbsp black bean (I used a ready-stock black bean in the bottle)

1 tbsp fish sauce

1/2 tsp pepper

Water

Vegetable oil

For Marinade:

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1-1/2 tbsp tapioca starch

Methods:

1. Marinate sliced beef with light soy sauce and tapioca starch, make sure all meats are coated by tapioca starch. Set aside for 10-15 minutes.

2. Heat oil on a skillet with high heat. Stir fry garlic until fragrant. Add in black bean, mashed it with spoon (half mashed). Stir in marinated beef, stir well and meat no longer pink in color. Add in tofu, stir thoroughly.

3. Then, add in soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce, shizhuan sauce (if desire), pepper and water, stir them until the water half thick, then stir in spring onion, stir well until the water completely thicken and boils. Ready to serve.

DEEP FRIED MEATBALL (BASO GORENG)

Since I moved to Seattle, I was tempted to make deep fried meatball made of pork as it's been long time I never eat deep fried meatball.

First, I got the recipe from my friend in Indonesia but for some reason, I never make it. Then, I saw this recipe from Esther's blog few months ago, but still something kept me from making this delicious finger food. Until today, at last.....I did it!! And only one word......DELICIOUS!

The only problem is I can't make the ball round and smooth....heez this always become my problem everytime I make meatball (same as my Beef Meatballs, the shape is crooked too). But it didn't lessen my satisfaction when I saw my hubby liked it :).

Deep Fried Meatball (Baso Goreng)

INGREDIENTS:
2 lbs minced shrimp (Belzy -- I used 1.5 lbs only)
1 lb minced pork
250 grams fish paste
250 grams tapioca starch (Belzy -- I used 175 grams only)
6 pieces of egg
2 teaspoons minced garlic (Belzy -- I used the whole bunch garlic)
1 teaspoon pepper
Fish Sauce
Vegetable oil

INSTRUCTIONS:
Mix all ingredients, shape it like balls then deep fried in the pan of vegetable oil. Wait until the balls turn into brown golden color. Then it is ready to serve. Good snack to eat at anytime of the day.

BACANG (ZONG ZI)

Bacang (or Zong Zi in Mandarin; Zhong in Cantonese) is traditional Chinese Food, made of glutinous rice, stuffed with different fillings (usually pork and salty egg yolk) and wrapped in bamboo leaves. They are cooked by steaming or boiling.

In Chinese, we eat bacang every fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar (we called it "Bacang Day"). But, nowadays, bacang is a common food for everyone, so you can find bacang anytime and everywhere. Also, the fillings are vary, some people substitute pork to chicken or beef.

This is my first bacang ever, and mine was made of rice, pork and shiitake (I prefer rice than glutinous rice). Actually, when I decide make bacang, am a bit worry the shape will not nice, as we know, the hard part making bacang is wrapping. But, suprisingly, my bacang turned so good and nice in shape. I learnt how to wrap bacang from here ..... *thank's dear for sharing it!*. And I found, it is not as hard as my thinking, the only thing needed is PRACTICE.

Myself, when I wrapped it, the first 4 bacang are messy, but the rests are ok :).

Anyway, it gave me satisfaction when I know I passed the hard part of making bacang :). It is not 100% perfect, but for a beginner like me, it is ok already :).

Bacang (Zong Zi)

Ingredients:

For The Rice:

1 kg uncooked rice, washed and soaked in the water for 1 hour

6 cloves of garlic, finely minced

1 tsp salt

6 tbsp vegetable oil (using pork's oil is giving better fragrant)

2 tbsp salty soy sauce

3 cups of water

For The Filling:

750 gr ground pork

100 gr pork's fat, diced (optional)

4 stalks of scallions, minced

3 tbsp salty soy sauce

1 tbsp mushroom soy sauce

6 tbsp sweet soy sauce (Indonesian soy sauce -- you can add it if you like)

2 tbsp oyster sauce

2 tbsp sesame oil

2 tbsp hong jiu (also named 'angciu')

6 pieces shiitake mushroom, small diced

1 tsp salt

1-1/2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tbsp tapioca starch

Spice Paste:

1 tbsp dried shrimp

10 cloves of shallot

6 cloves of garlic

Wrapper: bamboo leaves (Belzy -- I bought dried bamboo leaves @ Asian Market), soaked in hot water for min 1 hour, rinsed and drained before using it.

Methods:

For The Rice:

Heat oil on a pan and stir in garlic until fragrant. Stir in salt, salty soy sauce and uncooked rice, stir well until rice absorbed oil and spices. Pour in water, cook it with medium heat until the rice did absorb the whole water (the rice is 30% cooked only). Set aside.

For The Filling:

Heat sesame oil on a pan and stir in spice paste until brown and fragrant. Stir in ground pork until the color is no longer pink. Stir in the rest of ingredients until cooked. The last, pour tapioca starch, stir until caramelized and done.

For Wrapping Method: check here please.

Finishing: boil bacang for 3 hours or until thoroughly cooked. I used pressure cooker, and need 1 hour only. But please make sure all bacang are covered by water.

ES CENDOL

Es Cendol is Indonesian traditional drink made from rice flour and served with coconut milk, palm sugar and ice cubes (or shaved ice). For Indonesian people, usually we drink it as a great refreshment when the weather is hot. Also, most people like to drink it on Fasting Season when they finished their fasting on that day.

By living far away from Indonesia where its only few Indo restaurant selling es cendol, so I tried to make es cendol by myself. I never make cendol before, as in Indonesia, there are plenty of cendol available at supermarket or wet market. And, suprisingly, it is really easy to make it, not as hard as my imagination :). The only different from the normal cendol which is in small shape, mine is quite big, because I don't have cendol mold, so I used the rice cooker steamer which has big round holes.

Anyway, I'm so happy cos I can make cendol, and I served it with jackfruits. My hubby liked it, though it is not his fave :).

Es Cendol

Ingredients:

100 gr hunkwe flour (hunkwe flour = mung bean flour)

50 gr rice flour

100 ml pandan juice (100 ml water + 1/2 tbsp pandan paste)

600 ml water

1 tsp salt

1000 ml cold water

2 packs of ice cubes

Palm Sugar Syrup (boiled):

500 gr palm sugar

100 gr raw sugar

200 ml water

3 sheets of pandanus leaf

Coconut Milk (boiled):

1500 ml coconut milk (Belzy -- 800 ml water + 400 ml coconut milk "Kara")

1 tsp salt

2 sheets of pandanus leaf

Variation:

1 can of jackfruit, diced

Ice cubes or shaved ice

1. Mix hunkwe flour, rice flour, pandan juice, water and salt. Mixed well (make sure no more lumps in the batter).
2. Stir rice flour mixture on high heat until boiling and thick (paste-like)
3. Prepare cold water and ice cubes in a big bowl. Place the cendol mold on the bowl, then drain the cendol paste with cendol mold (or any kind of mold with round holes). Press the cendol mixture (it will go out of the mold as roundish short cendol). Let it soaked in the cold water to make it solid.

How to Serve:
Pour palm sugar syrup into a tall glass, add jackfruit, cendol and coconut milk (separate layers). Add ice cubes or shaved ice if desired.


Yield: 8 glasses