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