CHOCOLATE SOUFFLE

It was so soft, the taste is sooo chocolatey and when you eat it, it made you think you are eating pudding cotton-like dessert. After all, it was only one word....DELICIOUS!

Chocolate Souffle
Source: Julia Child

Ingredients:
7 ounces semi sweet baking chocolate, smoothly melted with 1/3 cup of strong coffee (Belzy - I used milk instead of coffee)
1/3 cup flour
2 cups milk
3 tbsps butter (optional)
1/16 tbsp salt
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
4 egg yolks
6 egg whites
1/2 cup granulated sugar

Directions:
Melt the chocolate, set aside. Grease souffle dishes with butter (five 1-1/2 cups and four 1 cup souffle dishes), and preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

In a medium saucepan, whisk the flour and milk together and boil slowly over medium-high heat for 2 minutes, whisking. Off heat, whisk in the optional butter, the salt, the vanilla, the egg yolks and finally the smoothly melted chocolate.

In a clean separate bowl with clean beaters, beat the egg whites to soft peaks, gradually sprinkle in the 1/2 cup sugar, and beat to stiff shining peaks.

Laddle the chocolate sauce base down the side of the egg-white bowl, rapidly fold the two mixtures together. Turn the souffle' into the prepared souffle dish.
Set the souffle' in the lower level of the preheated oven and turn the thermostat down to 375F. Bake it for 35 to 40 minutes or until the souffle' is risen and puffy. Do not tempted to open the oven while it is baking.
Serve it immediately and while it is hot. Enjoy!

Note: souffle' is sink-fast-dessert, so if you want to snap it, you need to prepare your camera and 'photos properties' before you dish out the souffle'. Also, for my taste bud, alot better to eat the souffle when its hot (just removed from the oven)

PHO BO (VIETNAMESE BEEF SOUP NOODLE)

Dang!!.....this noodle soup is really delicious. The first pho I ate was pho from Pho Hoa in Indonesia. Since that day, I knew I'm fallen in love with pho :). I remember, when I was preparing my thesis for my degree, I went to BEJ to collect some data and info, and it took me days to complete all the info that I needed. So, as the rule from the BEJ library that the library is closed at lunch time, my friend and I went to Pho Hoa to have our lunch there. Everytime we went to BEJ, we had pho as our lunch :).

Then, after I graduated and I'm no longer went back to BEJ, slowly, pho was forgotten by me. Until last few months when my hubby and I had our lunch at Pho&Thai, I ordered pho, and it reminds me to those old days when I was in Indo :).
Pho always has good taste. It because the soup rich of flavors.

By eating pho at the restaurant that day made me want to make my own pho, but, unfortunately, the desire was come and go :(. Until, there was a task to make pho so....here I am enjoying my rich of flavors homemade pho....:).

Pho Bo (Vietnamese Beef Soup Noodle)
Source : Cooking with Mommies

Ingredients:
For Soup:
2 medium yellow onions
3 inch ginger
3 litre water
4 lbs knuckle bones (Belzy -- any beef bones are ok, such as neck bone)
4 star anise
5 whole cloves
1 stick of cinnamon
5 tbsps of fish sauce
Salt and sugar, to taste

For Pho
1.5 pounds of beef sukiyaki
15 pieces of beef meatballs
1 package of rice noodle (Belzy -- the one that usually used : banh pho), soak it in hot water and let it sit in the water until the rice noodle is soft)

For Garnish:
Bean sprout
Cilantro
Thai Basil
Lime wedges
Chilli (if desire)


Directions:
SOUP:
Grill onion and ginger with open flame (I used electric stove). Grill it for 15 minutes or until the onions are soft and sweetly fragrant.
Remove it from the grill, and under warm water, remove charred onion skin, trim and discard blackened parts. For the ginger, if it is not puckered or blistered, peel the skin off with sharp knive. Set aside.

Boil bones for 2-3 minutes to allow impurities to be released. Drain the bones from the water (throw away the water). Rinse bones with warm water. In a pressure cooker, place bones and 1500 ml water (or until the bones are almost covered with water. Cook it for about 20 minutes. Turn off the heat, add in onion, ginger, star anise, cinnamon stick and cloves. Continue cook the bones for another 30 minutes.
Remove the pressure cooker from the heat. Strain the broth through fine strainer (throw away the bones and herbs).

In a stockpot, pour in the broth, return it to the stove, add in the rest of water, bring it boil, season with fish sauce, salt and sugar, to taste. Boil in sukiyaki and beef meatballs until cooked through.

PHO BO:
In a bowl, put noodle, sukiyaki and beef meatballs. Then, pour in the pho soup. Serve it with bean sprout, cilantro, thai basil, thai chilli and lime wedges.

SATE AYAM BUMBU KACANG (CHICKEN SATAY WITH PEANUT SAUCE)

Yum...yum....When I was living in Indonesia, there were plenty of chicken satay, and I think, you'll find this style of chicken satay in asia only. But for the taste, you'll find it in Indonesia only, because Singapore and Malaysia, they have this type of chicken satay, but the taste is really different.

In Indonesia, some sellers were not selling chicken satay only, but they also sell mutton satay which was tasted sooooo good :).

From the beginning of my posting, I kept saying "this type/style of chicken satay", what kind of type?? I am talking about chicken satay with peanut sauce, which you can find the taste more in the peanut sauce than the satay itself. The chicken was barely tasty. You can find it tangy tho. That's why you should eat it with the sauce.

Since it is hard to find this kind of indo chicken satay here, so I made it by myself, and I am satisfied enough with the taste :). My hubby is also like it, and he proved it by ate 3/4 portion, and left me 1/4 portion only :).



Sate Ayam Bumbu Kacang (Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce)

Ingredients:
For Satay:
5 pieces of chicken fillet, diced
Bamboo skewers

Marinade Sauce:
4 cloves of garlic, pasted
1 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of nutmeg
3 tbsps of Indonesian sweet soy sauce

Peanut Sauce:
2 cloves of shallots
3 pieces of thai chillis
3 pieces of candlenuts
150 gr of fried peanuts
100 ml of coconut milk
100 ml of water
25 ml of oil
3 tbsps of Indonesian sweet soy sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Marinate chicken with marinade sauce for 2 hour or more. Weave the chicken onto skewers. Grill it for about 10 minutes or more until both sides are cooked through.

Peanut Sauce:
Saute shallots and chillis until brown. Drain it from the oil. Put it into a blender together with candlenuts, peanuts and coconut milk, blend it until the peanut is smooth and soft. Transfer it into a bowl, toss in water and sweet soy sauce, season with salt and pepper, to taste. Serve it with the chicken satay. Enjoy!

STRAWBERRY CREME BRULEE

After I ate creme brulee at Ivar's last few weeks, I found creme brulee is quite delicious, but the only problem is I dislike too sweet food. Unfortunately, creme brulee is a sweet dessert.

So, I think of making my own creme brulee. Then, I found this great recipe from my new favorite chef, Bubba *thanks Bubba for sharing those great and delicious recipes*. His recipe is different than other creme brulee recipe. When the usual creme brulee using whipped cream, this recipe is using mascarpone and yoghurt.



And for me, instead of using mango, I used strawberry for the fruit filling, and it turned more delicious :). The sour taste from the strawberry were mixed with the sweet from the sugar, also, the crunchy burned sugar topping made it tasted heavenly :).



Strawberry Creme Brulee
Source: Bubba Cookle (with a bit changes by me)

Ingredients:
100 gr of fresh strawberries, rinsed and diced
250 gr of mascarpone
200 gr of yoghurt
1 tsp of ground ginger
1 piece of lime, squeezed the juice
1/4 tsp of lime zest
10 tbsps of brown sugar

Directions:
Place strawberries in the heat proof bowl (aka ramekin), set aside.
In a bowl, combine mascarpone and yoghurt, whisk it thoroughly. Whisk in lime zest, lime juice, ground ginger and 2 tbsps of brown sugar, whisk it until all ingredients are well combined.
Spoon the batter into prepared ramekin, tap the ramekin a little so the batter can fill the bottom of ramekin.
Keep it in the refrigerator for 2 hours. After 2 hours, take all creme brulee out. Pour 1 to 2 tsp of brown sugar, make sure the sugar is covering the top of batter. Carmelized the sugar with a burner, or you can bake it in the oven with 400`F for 3 minutes by putting the ramekin on the upper rack.
Keep it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or more before serving. Enjoy!

CHICKEN BUN

At last, I have my own Kitchen Aid standing mixer....yeayyyyy! I am extremely happy to have it because from now on I can make bread by myself, also, I can make any kind of dough easily :).

This time, I peeked this recipe from Dita, and based on her, originally this recipe is a fried bread recipe, but she tried to bake it, and the bread was still soft. Also, this bread which originated served as a wedding cake at Arabian's wedding was only for sweet fillings, but I chose to use chicken for the filling, and suprisingly, it tasted very good! I might wanna try with the sweet filling later, but right now I want to enjoy my chicken bun first...:)

Chicken Bun
Source: Dita - Yummy

Ingredients:
For Bun:
170 gr heavy cream, lukewarm
2-1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
11 gr (1 package) of instant yeast

For Filling:
3 pieces of chicken fillet, boil and shred
50 gr of frozen peas, defrost
50 gr of carrots, dice
3 cloves of garlic, finely minced
1 tbsp of oyster sauce
1 tbsp of Indonesian sweet soy sauce
1/2 tsp of pepper
1/2 tsp of salt
1/4 tsp of sugar
50 ml chicken broth
1 tsp of tapioca starch

Egg Wash:
1 egg yolk
1 tsp of milk

Garnish: fresh parsley, chopped

Directions:
Bun:
In a bowl, combine flour and yeast, whisk it. Pour in heavy cream in streaming mode while kneading it. Knead it until the dough doesn't sticky anymore. If you use standing mixer, instead knead it by hand, you just put all ingredients in a mixer bowl, and mixer it until the batter forming a dough. Turn of the mixer, knead the dough for 1 minute with your hand. Wrap the bowl with plastic wrapper, let it rest at warm place for 20-30 minutes, or until risen up.
Preheat the oven for 350`F. Divide the dough into six, then fill each dough with chicken filling, shape it into bun form. Put the bun into greasy baking pan. Brush it with egg wash, and sprinkle it with parsley. Then bake it for 30 minutes. Let it cool before served.

Filling:
In a skillet, stir in garlic with oil in medium heat until fragrant. Stir in carrots, peas, chicken, oyster, sweet soy sauce and chicken broth, season with pepper, salt and sugar, to taste. Cook until boiled. Stir in tapioca starch, toss it quick. Remove it from the heat. Cool it before use.

KOFTA

Here you are......a Lebanese Meatball! From the look, it was look like the Italian meatball that seen on top of spaghetti. But, for the taste, it was different. Kofta was tasted a little like kebab.
I got the recipe from my friend, Selly, and some addition spices from me.

This time, I made it from ground turkey which is alot healthier than beef or lamb. But, the originally this dish made from lamb.
It was good tho, eventually, I will have more various menu now ;).

Kofta
Source: Selly Malouf (with little changes by me)

Ingredients:
For Kofta:
250 gr of ground turkey
1 tsp of ground cumin
1/2 tsp of ground coriander
1/4 tsp of ground ginger
1/2 tsp of salt (or to taste)
1/2 tsp of ground cayenne (optional)
2 cloves of garlic, mashed
1 piece of onion, diced
3 stalks of parsley (the leaves only), chopped

For Sauce:
3/4 can of tomato paste
300 ml of water
a pinch of salt

Garnish:
2 tomatoes
a pinch of parsley

Directions:
Sauce:
In a medium bowl, combine tomato paste, warm water and salt. Toss it until the sauce is thickened. Ready to use.

Kofta:
In a big bowl, mix ground turkey, cumin, coriander, ginger, cayenne, garlic, onion and parsley until thoroughly mixed. Season with salt, to taste.
Shape it into ball form. Put it into baking pan. Pour in the sauce until all the meatball coated with the sauce. Top it with tomato slices.
Bake it in the preheated oven 350`F for about 20 minutes or until the meatballs are brown. Remove it from the oven, garnish it with parsley, if desire. Serve it with warm rice.

FETTUCINE ALFREDO

My fave pasta now!! Since I tried fettucine alfredo at Olive Garden, everytime I returned back to Olive Garden, for sure, I will order this dish! *beside Steak Gorgonzola with Alfredo Sauce*.
But, I warned you this dish is really fattening, because it used lots of heavy cream and cheese!! But, once in a while it's ok to eat it :).
This time I made it with turkey ham, and also, I used homemade heavy cream.
So, if you are the fans of alfredo, you can make it by yourself...at home!! Come...let me share the recipe with you ..... :)

Fettucine Alfredo
Source: Emeril Lagasse (with a little changes by me)

Ingredients:
1 lb dried fettucine
7 slices of turkey ham, diced
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 shallot, minced
1 cup heavy cream *recipe follows*
1 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (Parmesan-Romano)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
A pinch of fresh parsley, for garnish (optional)

For Heavy Cream:
1 cup of whole milk
1/2 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter

Directions:
Cook the fettucine in a pot of rapidly boiling salted water until al dente. Drain in a colander, reserving 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking liquid. Set aside.
Melt the butter and olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add shallots and saute until tender. Add in turkey ham and heavy cream and bring to a boil. Cook until sauce has reduced slightly, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.
Return the pasta to the pot it was cooked in, set over medium-high heat along with the reserved cooking liquid. Add the butter-cream mixture and half of the parmesan and toss to combine thoroughly. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Sprinkle with remaining parmesan and garnish with parsley, if desired. Serve immediately.

Heavy Cream:
Mix milk and butter together and heat it over low heat until butter is melted into milk. Do not boil.
Pour into blender jar and blend it in high speed for 3 minutes. Refrigerate for 24 hours or longer. Ready to use.

Also, I present this to Cooking Events with Mommies. Enjoy! :)

BOUILLABAISSE

This is my first time try bouillabaisse. What is bouillabaisse? Bouillabaisse is...fish soup!! Yap, fish soup. But, it tasted different than any other fish soup that I tried before. Don't think about singaporean fish soup or any other chinese kind fish soup. This one is really different *for me*.

Unluckily, I don't have fish broth, so I substituted it with water only, and it still tasted good. So, I can imagine how good this soup will be if I use fish broth :).

And, since the weather was really cold, eating this soup is really helped us to warmed our body :), also, it made the soup tasted good even more! My husband is my number one fans, of course he liked it :). He ate 2 bowls of soup for dinner yesterday.

It was an easy-healthy soup, you should try it .... ;)

Bouillabaisse
Source: Bubba Cookle

Ingredients:
400 gr fish fillet, thinly sliced
1 piece of yellow onion, finely minced
2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
700 ml fish broth (Belzy -- I substituted it to water)
6 pieces of tomatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 piece of lemon, squeezed
2 tsps of ground paprika
2 pieces of bay leafs
a pinch of fresh parsley, chopped
2 tbsps of olive oil
1/4 tsp of pepper
Salt to taste

Directions:
Stir fry onion and garlic with olive oil in a skillet until fragrant. Stir in tomatoes and ground paprika, stirring well. Pour in fish broth, and let it boiled.
Add in fish fillet, bay leaves, pepper, lemon juice and parsley. Season it with salt to taste. Toss it before you turn off the heat. Serve it immediately while its hot. Enjoy!

APPLE STRUDLE

Lately, I am falling in love with pastry! So, when I saw this recipe from Bubba, I decided to make it by my own.

The pastry itself was really easy. I made 2 apple strudles, I put too much crackers in 1 apple strudles, so it wasn't as moist as the other one (see the difference of the following photo. I put too much crackers at the first photo)

Also, I should baked it longer than I was, so the apples were not that mushy :(. But, it tasted good tho :). My hubby liked it so much! And, since he saw me wrote the recipe, he kept asking me when would I bake the apple strudle! :)

Apple Strudle

Source: Bubba Cookle (with little bit changes by me)

Ingredients:

For Puff Pastry:

200 gr of all-purpose flour

1 tsp of granulated sugar

1 tsp of salt

1 egg

2 tbsps of olive oil

2 tbsps of warm water

100 gr of butter

For Apple Strudle:

1 kg apples, peeled and sliced

2 sheets of puff pastry ( 25x25cm ), *recipe follows*

100 gr Honey Graham Crackers, crushed

4 tbsps of sugar SPLENDA

4 tbsps of walnuts, chopped

1 tsp of vanilla powder

2 tsps of ground cinnamon

1 piece of lemon, squeezed

3 tbsps of icing sugar (for garnish, optional)

2 tbsps of butter, melted

Directions:

For Puff Pastry:

In a big bowl, combine flour, salt and sugar until thoroughly mixed. Add in egg, oil and warm water, mix it well with spatula. Knead it with your hands until the batter form a dough. Shape it into ball form. Wrap it with plastic wrapper. Keep it in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour (better if you refrigerate it overnight)

Prepare a board or any clean surface and dust it with flour. Take the dough from the refrigerator, and unwrap it. Roll the dough on the floury work surface into 1/2 cm thickness, and roll it into long square form. Place the butter on the upper side of the dough, then fold the empty side up so the edge of the empty side meet the edge of the other side. Roll it a bit just to stick the edges only. Wrap it with plastic wrapper. Keep it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. Repeat it until 7 times.

Roll the dough into 2 mm thickness, make sure form it into square form. Ready to use.

For Apple Strudle:

Preheat the oven at 375`F. Mix apples and lemon juice, toss it well. Set aside.

Lay 1 puff pastry on a clean surface. Brush it with butter. Pour the crackers in the middle of the pastry (length side). Make layers of apples, walnuts, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla powder. Fold the empty sides of pastry into middle side, wrapping the filling.

Layer the baking pan with parchment paper. Roll in the apple strudle on the baking pan. Bake it for 45 minutes or until the pastry become golden brown.