FISH 'n CHIPS with TARTAR SAUCE

It's been long time since I never eat fish n chips, even though I stayed in the states which fish n chips are sold everywhere. So after I am done with the knowledge test for my driving license, I came home and prepared everything while my hubby went to a gun store with his friend.

Alton Brown's fish n chips is my choice this time, and as usual I made a little changes in the recipe. He used brown beer instead of water. You can't taste the beer tho. Also, I made my homemade tartar sauce ;). Overall, it tasted really good!! Do you wanna try? ;)



Fish 'n Chips with Tartar Sauce

Ingredients
For the fries:
1 gallon oil
5 large Russet potatoes
Kosher salt

For the batter:
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 bottle brown beer, cold
1 1/2 pounds firm-fleshed whitefish (tilapia, pollock, cod), cut into 1-ounce strips (Belzy - I prefer basa fillet or dori)
Cornstarch, for dredging

For the Tartar Sauce:
5 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon chopped parsley
1 teaspoon onion, thinly diced
1-1/2 teaspoons sugar (or if you like sweet, you can add more sugar)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 200`F.

Heat the oil in a big skillet over high heat until it reaches 320 degrees.

Slice the potatoes with the skin on into big chunks. Place in a large bowl with cold water.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cayenne pepper, and oregano. Whisk in the beer until the batter is completely smooth and free of any lumps. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. (The batter can be made up to 1 hour ahead of time)

Drain potatoes thoroughly, removing any excess water. When oil reaches 320 degrees, submerge the potatoes in the oil. Working in small batches, fry for 2 to 3 minutes until they are pale and floppy. Remove from oil, drain, and cool to room temperature.

Increase the temperature of the oil to 375 degrees. Re-immerse fries and cook until crisp and golden brown, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove and drain on roasting rack. Season with kosher salt while hot and hold in the oven.

Allow oil to return to 350 degrees. Lightly dredge fish strips in cornstarch. Working in small batches, dip the fish into batter and immerse into hot oil. When the batter is set, turn the pieces of fish over and cook until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Drain the fish on the roasting rack. Serve with tartar sauce.

Tartar Sauce: mix all ingredients and stir them well.

FRENCH APPLE TARTE

No egg, simple ingredients and simple methods :). I love this kind of recipe. My perfect recipe when I am lazy but want to make something for dessert.
I got the recipe from my dearly friend, Selly. She became my exchange-recipes-friend now :).

Don't worry, tho it didn't use egg, the tarte tasted good! If you are bored with sponge cake, I recommend this-without-egg-tarte. And, if you dislike apple, you can substituted it with blueberry, strawberry, chocolate chip or plain.

French Apple Tarte

Ingredients:
1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup fresh milk
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla powder
1 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 piece apple, peeled, cored, diced.

Methods:
In a mixing bowl, mix all ingredients except cocoa powder and apple. Mix until smooth and no more lumps. Mix 2 tbsps batter with cocoa powder until thoroughly mixed.

Add apple into the main batter, toss well. Pour cocoa mixture in the center of the batter, then swirl it with a chopstick (as you made marble cake)
Pour the batter into 8-inch baking pan, sprinkle it with cinnamon. Bake it in the preheated oven 350`F (180`C) for 30 to 40 minutes or until the toothpick inserted in the center of the cake come out clean. Cool it first before cut it.

TONGSENG KAMBING

When we went to 99 ranch market, suddenly, my hubby asking me can I cook goat meat. Then, after I assured him that I can cook the goat meat, he left me at the vegetables' aisle and came back with a pack of raw goat meat.

At home, I was thinking to make goat satay but unfortunately, my hubby chose the meat with bone, so I chose tongseng kambing (goat stew) to introduce the taste of goat meat to my hubby.

Some tongseng using coconut milk, but my hubby is not a fan of coconut milk soup or curry, so I used the recipe without coconut milk. And.....he liked the taste but he dislike the meat texture. He said, "It is too stringy, and it stucked between my tooth!"

Myself, I am not a big fan of goat meat because this meat is good for people who has low blood pressure only. For those who has high blood pressure and any other diseases such as, high cholesterol, diabetic, etc please do not eat this meat. And for healthy people, don't eat goat meat too much if you want to have a long life :).

Anyway, the tongseng itself is good, especially at cold/winter season. I got the recipe from Dapur Bunda, and I add some herbs to avoid the goat smell :).

Tongseng Kambing

Ingredients:
300 gr goat meat, with or without bone
1/2 piece napa cabbage, thinly sliced
3 pieces tomato, sliced
50 cc Indonesian sweet soy sauce
2 cups water
4 tbsps butter/margarine
2 piece lime, squeezed
4 cloves shallot, sliced
3 cloves garlic, sliced
2 pieces red chilli, sliced
10 pieces thai chilli
Salt and pepper, to taste

Spice Pasted:
2 cloves garlic, pasted
2 tbsps ground coriander, panbroiled
1 tsp ground cumin

Directions:
Drizzle goat meat with half of lime juice. Put the meat and water in pressure cooker, then tenderize it for 25 to 30 minutes.
In a big pan, stir fry spice pasted, shallot and garlic with butter until fragrant. Pour in the meat altogether with the broth. Bring to boil. Add in cabbage, cook until a big soft. Add in Indonesian sweet soy sauce, red chilli, thai chilli and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Add tomato 3 minutes before you turn the heat off. Drizzle it with lime juice. Serve it with hot rice and sambal oelek.

YOU TIAO (CRISP CHINESE CRULLER)

The best companion of rice porridge or just eat it with garlic-chilli sauce. In Jakarta, we liked to eat it by dip it in garlic-chilli sauce only, it tasted good! I taught my hubby to eat it with garlic-chilli sauce and he like it :). He said the texture became so soft. Indonesian people called it cakwe.

Actually, lots of asian markets sold you tiao, but it didn't as crunchy as if you buy fresh you tiao, and the you tiao sold at asian market is too oily. Perhaps, the you tiao doesn't fresh anymore.

Honestly, until now I still can't believe that I made you tiao, because when I saw the lady who sold you tiao is frying it, it seemed really hard. But, when I tried make it, it was not that hard.

So, are you dare to try?



You Tiao / Cakwe
Source: Melrose Flowers

Ingredients:
YOU TIAO:
500 gr all-purpose flour
400 cc water
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tsps baking soda
1-1/2 tsps salt
Vegetable oil for frying

GARLIC-CHILLI SAUCE:
6 cloves garlic, pasted
2 tbsps sambal oelek (or you can use 3 pieces red chilli, pasted)
2 tbsps vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
100 cc warm water

Directions:
For the you tiao:
In a big bowl, combine baking powder, baking soda and salt. Pour in water and stir it until free of lumps. Add in flour and stir it well. Let it rest 15 to 20 minutes. The dough's texture is little bit wet and sticky at this point.

Take the dough from the edge and fold it to the center of the dough, let it rest for 15 to 20 minutes. Repeat it until 3 or 4 times until the dough smooth and elastic.

Flip the dough over and brush it with oil. Let it rest for 1 hour.

Remove the dough into plastic wrap which is greased with oil. Form it into long square. Let it rest for 4 hours. If you make more than 500 gr, you should divide it and wrap it based on 500 gr only.

On a floured surface, using your hands, pull the dough slowly. The dough will be formed into very long square (length: 25 cm; width: 6 cm). Sprinkle it with flour.
Cut the dough into 1 cm width. Stack 2 pieces dough and press dough (middle length area) with a skewer. Then, pull it into 20 cm length. Dump it in a very hot oil and deep fry it until swell and brown on both sides. Serve it with rice porridge or garlic-chilli sauce.

OR, you can see this link for the steps of making you tiao.

For the garlic-chilli sauce:
Mix all ingredients, stir well.

CHOI PAN

Choi pan....choi pan....how I miss you!! That's true, since I lived in the states choi pan became something expensive. Why? Because the only way I can buy it by going back to Indonesia :).

Luckily, there is google and all the good technologies where everything is on your fingertips. So, I found the recipe of choi pan. Actually, I found 2 recipes that have similarity on the ingredients and the methods, the only different is the first recipe is using rice flour and the other recipe is using tang mien flour. And, I tried both recipe.

For the choi pan wrapper, it is better to use tang mien flour than rice flour. The texture of the dough is softer if you use rice flour, and very fragile *easy to tear up when I tried to wrap the choi pan filling*.
The filling and the chilli sauce are incredibly good!! I like it.....also my hubby :).

Choi Pan
Source: Ci Stella

Ingredients:
WRAPPER DOUGH:
180 gr tang mien flour (aka wheat starch)
50 gr corn starch
50 gr all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
450 cc water
50 cc olive oil

FILLING:
2 tbsps olive oil
6 cloves garlic, chopped
300 gr jicama, coarse shredded, squeeze if there is water in the shredded jicama
150 gr fresh shrimp, diced
100 gr dried shrimp, soak in the hot water for 10 minutes, chopped
1 tbsp sugar

GARLIC SAUCE:
20 cloves garlic, chopped
50 cc vegetable oil

CHILLI SAUCE:
50 gr red chilli, seeded, boiled and pasted
250 cc warm water
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsps vinegar
1 tsp salt
4 cloves garlic, pasted

Directions:
For the filling:
In a pan, stir fry chopped garlic until fragrant. Stir in the rest of ingredients until cooked. Remove from the heat, let it cool before using it.

For the wrapper dough:
In a saucepan, combine all dry ingredients, stir in gradually warm water while keep stirring until free lumps. Bring to simmer until the mixture turn into an elastic dough.

On a floured surface, shape a 35 grams dough into a flat disc, fill it with the filling, then wrap it into half-moon shape or shape it into pastel goreng shape.
Steam the ready choi pan over high heat for 10 to 15 minutes or until the choi pan is cooked thoroughly. Serve it warm with garlic sauce and chilli sauce.

For the garlic sauce:
In a small pan, stir fry garlic with olive oil over medium high heat until the garlic browned.

For the chilli sauce:
In a small bowl, mix all chilli ingredients. Ready to use

KIELBASA IN BRAIDED BREAD

This bread reminds me to a bakery shop in Jakarta. They sold braided sausage bread where other bakeries sold a classic sausage bread. Usually, I made the classic sausage bread (aka pig in the blanket), but this time, I tried to make the fancy sausage bread.

Since the fancy sausage bread is unusual, so I tried hard to find the way how they made it. And I saw ci Stella's blog which is posting this braided sausage bread, but unfortunately, she didn't post the steps of braiding. I asked her and she replied me, but I still can't picture it well.

At last, I made it based on 6 strands braided bread and insert the sausage pieces in the braided bread, and the result was not bad at all, tho it is not as nice as ci Stella's braided sausage bread.

For the bread, I used soft bread recipe from NCC which is became my favorite bread recipe. And, for the sausage, I made Polish-Type sausage or also known as Kielbasa. Originally this sausage is made of pork and beef mix, but I made it of beef only, and spicy ;). It tasted good tho :).

Let me share it with you...

Braided Sausage Bread

Yield: 4 big size sausage bread

Ingredients:
1 soft bread recipe

For Kielbasa:
3/4 lb beef sirloin
1/4 lb beef chuck
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp mustard powder
1/8 tsp ground white pepper
1/2 tsp marjoram
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp chilli flakes, optional (skip it if you dislike spicy)

Egg Wash:
1 egg yolk
3 tbsps milk (or evaporated milk)

Directions:
For the kielbasa:
Cut meat into small cube, freeze it until a half frozen.
Mix all spices, toss it into the meats. Grind with coarse (1/4-inch) grinder plate. After all meats are grinded, mix the meat mixture using paddle attachmentfor for approx.3 minutes.
Using sausage stuffer, stuff the meats into sausage casings. After that, simmer in 180F water for 15 minutes.
Pan fry the sausage until both sides are brown. Slice it into 1/2 cm wide. Set aside.

For the braided bread:
Weigh dough 30 gr each, and shape it into a small ball shape. Make strand from the small ball dough. Braid it base on 6 strands braided bread. Please go to this link for the braiding steps.
Insert sausage pieces all over the braided bread. Brush it with egg wash. Then, bake it into preheated 350`F oven for 20 to 30 minutes or until the breads are brown.

CINNAMON ROLLS with CREAM CHEESE ICING

My second attempt after the first one I made it without icing, and it gained complains from my hubby :).

And now I know why did he complain before, because cinnamon rolls were born to eat with icing, so without icing, it's like eating food without salt.

Just try this....;)

Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing
Source: Alton Brown

Ingredients:
Dough:
4 large egg yolks, room temperature
1 large whole egg, room temperature
1/4 cup (2 ounces) sugar
6 tbsps (3 ounces) unsalted butter, melted
6 ounces sour cream, room temperature (you can use buttermilk or plain yogurt)
4 cups (20 ounces) all-purpose flour, plus additional for dusting
2-1/4 tsps (1 package) instant dry yeast, approximately 2 1/4 teaspoons
1 1/4 tsps kosher salt
Vegetable oil or cooking spray

Filling:
1 cup packed (8 ounces) light brown sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
Pinch salt
1-1/2 tbsps (3/4-ounce) unsalted butter, melted

Icing:
1/4 cup (2 1/2 ounces) cream cheese, softened
3 tbsps milk
1-1/2 cups (5 1/2 ounces) powdered sugar (Belzy - I used 1 cup Splenda Sweetener)

Directions:
For The Dough:
In the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whisk the egg yolks, whole egg, sugar, butter, and buttermilk. Add approximately 2 cups of the flour along with the yeast and salt; whisk until moistened and combined. Remove the whisk attachment and replace with a dough hook. Add all but 3/4 cup of the remaining flour and knead on low speed for 5 minutes. Check the consistency of the dough, add more flour if necessary; the dough should feel soft and moist but not sticky. Knead on low speed 5 minutes more or until the dough clears the sides of the bowl. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface; knead by hand about 30 seconds. Lightly oil a large bowl. Transfer the dough to the bowl, lightly oil the top of the dough, cover and let double in volume, 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

For The Filling:
Combine the brown sugar, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl. Mix until well incorporated. Set aside until ready to use.

To Assemble:
Butter a 9 by 13-inch glass baking dish. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Gently shape the dough into a rectangle with the long side nearest you. Roll into an 18 by 12-inch rectangle. Brush the dough with the 3/4-ounce of melted butter, leaving 1/2-inch border along the top edge. Sprinkle the filling mixture over the dough, leaving a 3/4-inch border along the top edge; gently press the filling into the dough. Beginning with the long edge nearest you, roll the dough into a tight cylinder. Firmly pinch the seam to seal and roll the cylinder seam side down. Very gently squeeze the cylinder to create even thickness. Using a serrated knife, slice the cylinder into 1 1/2-inch rolls; yielding 12 rolls. Arrange rolls cut side down in the baking dish; cover tightly with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator overnight or up to 16 hours.

Remove the rolls from the refrigerator and place in an oven that is turned off. Fill a shallow pan 2/3-full of boiling water and set on the rack below the rolls. Close the oven door and let the rolls rise until they look slightly puffy; approximately 30 minutes. Remove the rolls and the shallow pan of water from the oven.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

When the oven is ready, place the rolls on the middle rack and bake until golden brown, or until the internal temperature reaches 190 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, approximately 30 minutes.

For The Icing
While the rolls are cooling slightly, make the icing by whisking the cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer until creamy. Add the milk and whisk until combined. Sift in the powdered sugar, and whisk until smooth. Spread over the rolls and serve immediately.