Cupcake for Baby Leandro

Maap ye penonton (huh kayak ada yg nonton aja bu..ga usah GR) postingannya kue fondant lagi. Mumpung aye masih semangat belajar oi :) The fondant topper weren't perfect yet but at least I practiced a thing or two. Para suhu mohon bimbingannya ya.




These cupcakes I made for one of my friend. She has just given birth to a handsome baby boy named Leandro. Gefeliciteerd met de baby ja :D

My inspirations: Yulia, Titi, Thata, Wilton Celebrate with Fondant Book, Wilton Cupcake Fun

Guacamole

A very nice dips with tortilla chips :)



Ingredients:
- 1 ripe tomato
- 1 avocado, very ripe but not bruised
- Juice from 1 lime
- 1 small red onion, finely chopped
- 1 red chili, finely chopped
- Handful coriander leaves and stalks, finely chopped, plus a few leaves chopped roughly to serve
- Tortilla chips

Directions:
- Use a large knife to pulverise the tomato to a pulp on a board, then tip into a bowl. Half and stone the avocado, (save the stone) use a spoon to scoop out the flesh into the bowl with the tomato.
- Tip all the other ingredients into the bowl, then season with salt and pepper. Use a whisk to roughly mash everything together. If not serving straight away, sit the stone in the guacamole (this helps to stop it going brown), cover with a cling film and chill until needed. Scatter with the coriander, if using.
- Serve with tortilla chips, or spicy wedges and sour cream.

Source: BBC GoodFood Magazine, February 2009

Kue Lapis Surabaya Cover Fondant (Surabaya Layer Cake with Fondant Cover)

I was craving badly, I mean really badly for kue lapis Surabaya. I missed the moist soft texture of the cake, the everything....I'm speechless. But one thing that made me wouldn't make my own cake was the baking pan. Original recipe called for 3 square baking pan, then you assembled the cake to make the layer. Not that I didn't want to buy a square pan but they cost each at least 10E here...sigh..But since I couldn't handle my craving anymore I had to find a way to make it with only one pan.

I came accross Ning Rachmah site and found a yummy looking Kue Lapis Surabaya. And as she is a real cake seller (not like me :P ) I completely trusted her recipe. But wait what to do since I had only 1 pan. After thinking hard for 2 days, no just kidding :p I decided to make the recipe 2/3 then cut it in half to make the layer.

Then what was that with the fondant cover? Was I trying to do something silly like humiliating myself with cake decorating which I know I couldn't do well. I've always wanted to learn fondant but haven't got the time (sok sibuk) but now since I got nothing to do I could have time to learn a thing or two about fondant. Ooh there's a silver lining after all for being jobless :p Oh and to make my learning process goes smoothly (not that I 'm a fast learner either :P ) I also joined Creative with Fondant, a forum founded by Indonesians real tukang kue :D

There's not much I can't tell you about the fondant. I made it with just rolling pin and Wilton cookie cutter. I also bought ready made rolled fondant but there was no purple color. Since I wanted to participate also in MFM2 and this month's theme was Nuansa Ungu, I had to color my own fondant with Wilton icing color. And you could see my amateur hand, the purple color was not spread evenly!!! Oh...

2/3 recipe

Ingredients:
- 20 egg yolk (yes you read it right I didn't type it wrong)
- 4 egg white
- 160 gr sugar
- 10 gr emulsifier
- 110 flour
- 30 gr coffee creamer
- 15 gr cornstarch
- 200 gr butter melted
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- Blueberry jam

Directions:
- Beat the egg and sugar on high speed with electric mixer until sugar has dissolved. Add emulsifier, beat shortly, slow the speed add dry ingredients, turn the speed high again. Continue beating until batter is thick.
- Turn off the mixer, add melted butter, mix well. Add vanilla essence and mix well.
- Pour batter in a greased and floured 24cm square baking pan. Bake in 160C oven for 35-40min or until toothpick inserted to the cake come clean.
- When the cake is done, take the cake out from the baking pan, cool in a cooling rack.
- When it's cold, divide cake into two and spread blueberry jam on both sides of the cake. Stick them together again to make layer. Carve the outside part of the cake as needed.

Source: Rachmah Setyawati

(Masbar) Rawon (Eastern Javanese Beef in Black Soup)

First of all I would like to dedicate this post to the loving memory of my two late mbah (grandmothers). Why?
The first mbah was my father's mother, she was a rawon seller in a small alley in Tembok Gede, Surabaya. If you live in Surabaya you may know this place. I remember vividly when I was small sitting in the warung bench, eating her wholesome rawon with salted duck egg and shrimp cracker. She died when I was 10 years old.
The second mbah was not really my real mbah but just an elderly relative but because I didn't have mbah who lived close by (in Bali) so I called her mbah too. She was a bean sprout seller. I still clearly remember her waking up at 3am to sell her bean sprouts at the market then came back at 10am to water the mung bean manually from the water well, every single day. She died when I was 12 years old.
Mbah, may you rest in peace and Allah forgive all your mistakes. Ameen.



For 4 persons:

Ingredients:
- 500gr beef brisket cubed
- 6 shallots
- 4 garlic
- 2 cm turmeric
- 2 red chilies
- 1 tbs coriander
- 8 pcs kluwak nut
- 2 lemongrass bruised
- 6 lime leaves
- 2 cm ginger bruised
- Salt
- Some oil

For Sambal Terasi:
- 1 red chili
- 4 bird's eye chili (more or less according to your taste buds)
- 1 small tomato
- 1/2 tsp terasi (dried shrimp paste)
- Salt

- Boil red chili, bird's eye chili, tomato.
- Grind all ingredients using pestle and mortar until smooth.

Condiments:
- Steamed rice
- 2 salted duck egg
- Short bean sprout (it's not available here so I made it myself, soak some mung bean in water overnight. The next day drain the water and put them in a strainer. Water it 2-3 times a day then after 2-3 days they will grow nicely :) )
- Shrimp crackers
- Sambal terasi

Directions:
- Grind red chili, shallots, garlic, turmeric, coriander, kluwak with a pestle and mortar or if you are lazy like me in a food processor :D
- Heat up some oil in a skillet and add the spice paste, keep stirring until the spice is fragrant, add lemongrass, lime leaves and ginger.
- Add cubed meat and continue stirring until meat turns color.
- Meanwhile boil some water in a pan (approx 3 litre). Add meat and spice mixture into the boiling water. Continue cooking in low fire until meat is tender. Adjust salt as you like.
- Actually it taste even better the next day :D
- Serve warm with all the condiments.

Source: My father

Batagor (Indonesian Fried Fishball Tofu Dumpling with Peanut Sauce)

I think there are many Indonesian's dish with peanut sauce :D and this is one of them. If you couldn't find king mackerel feel free to replace it with any other fish even white fish or combinaton of shrimp and chicken.



For 4 persons

Ingredients:
- 250gr king mackerel fillet, minced
- 250ml ice water
- 250gr tapioca flour
- 2 stalk of spring onion, sliced thinly
- 3 garlic, minced
- Salt
- Pepper
- Tofu
- Small spring roll skin
- Oil for deep frying

Condiments:
- Kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce)
- Chili sauce
- Kaffir lime
- Peanut Sauce

Peanut Sauce:
- 2 red chili (more or less depending on your taste buds)
- 2 bird's eye chili (more or less depending on your taste buds)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 garlic
- 5 candlenut
- 100 gr fried peanut
- 1 tbs shredded palm sugar
- 150 ml water
- 2 tsp vinegar

- Pound all ingredients in a kitchen processor until smooth.
- Add water until desired consistency.

Directions:
- Mix together minced fish fillet and ice water. Add tapioca powder, spring onion, garlic, pepper and salt, mix well. Divide into 3 parts, one for tofu filling, one for dumpling filling and one for fishball.
- Cut diagonally the tofu into 2 parts (triangle shape), make a hole in the middle. Set aside the mashed tofu and mix with the fishpaste. Fill the hole with the mashed tofu and fishpaste mixture.
- Take one spring roll skin and fill with fishpaste. Form into a dumpling.
- Heat oil for deep frying and fry all until golden brown.
- Take the last fishpaste part and with the help of two spoons, shape into small balls. Deep fried in the hot oil until golden brown.
- Arrange the fishball, tofu and fish dumpling in a plate, you may cut it into bite size pieces. Serve with peanut sauce, chili sauce and kecap manis. Give some squeeze some kaffir lime on top.

Source: Resep Dekap

Krengsengan Daging Sapi (Beef in Petis Sauce)

Usually this dish is made with mutton but it's also nice cooked with beef. Served with hot steaming rice...hmm..

For 2 persons:

Ingredients
- 250gr beef
- 3 shallots sliced
- 2 garlic sliced
- 1 red chili sliced
- 1 bird's eye chili sliced
- 1 tomato chopped
- 2 tbs kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce)
- 1 tbs petis (shrimp paste)
- Salt
- Pepper
- Some vegetable oil
- 150ml water

Directions:
- Heat oil in a skillet, add garlic, shallot, red chili and bird's eye chili, fry until fragrant.
- Add meat, stir until meat turned color.
- Add the rest of the ingredients, cook in low fire until all of the water almost evaporated.

Source: My mother

Round Up Announcement

My dear fellow blogger and non blogger, The (Almost) Forgotten Indonesian Culinary Heritage a Whittycute.com Foodie Event 2009 has ended and I'm sure you would like to see the round up.

Click Whittycute Foodie Event to view all entries.

Click Whittycute Foodie Event on Flickr to view the photos only.

Thank you very much for all entries and make sure to come back soon to check the winner.

Event Reminder

My dear fellow blogger and non blogger, do you still remember this event?

Time flies quickly and it's 5 days to deadline. What are you waiting for send your entry now!!!

For more info click here.

Valentine Cake

I didn't make this specially for Valentine's tomorrow but since it's tomorrow's event so why not. I actually made this to practice again about cake making. This was just a simple sponge cake with buttercream and fruit. And actually it was a "nekat" project since I didn't have lazy susan nor spatula. I used the cake stand as lazy susan and big long knife as spatula.

After asking here and there about good sponge cake recipe I followed Rita's advice by using Yongki Gunawan's sponge cake recipe, because she said it's the best and she was so right. The sponge cake was soft, bouncy, light just everything I wanted from a sponge cake. Then came the buttercream...tricky part number one was that people here don't really like the taste of buttercream, they only like whipped cream but whipped cream is difficult to work with. Number two there's no shortening sold here eventhough I did find one (in one and only TBK) in Rotterdam (or possibly Holland). But it was imported from USA therefore it was so expensive 5E/can :( Then there's also ready made buttercream frosting with nice taste but again it was from USA and also 5E/can. It was Duncan Hynes brand and the bules liked the tasted of that thing (I tried frosting with this before) What should I do then to make a nice tasting buttercream but still stiff enough to work with? Just keep on reading.



Yongki Gunawan's Sponge Cake
(This is half recipe only)

Ingredients:
- 5 egg yolk
- 2.5 egg white
- 5 gr emulsifier (I used TBM)
- 75gr sugar
- 50gr cake flour shifted
- 1/2 tbs powdered milk (I omitted this)
- 1/2 tbs cornstarch
- 75gr butter
- 1/2 tbs condensed milk (I omitted this)

Directions:
- Preheat oven to 180C, grease and flour a round or square cake tin.
- Melt butter in a saucepan.
- Whisk eggs, sugar, emulsifier, flour, cornstarch until thick, white and fluffy. (Only do this if your electric mixer is strong enough. If not then first whisk eggs and sugar until just thick add emulsifier continue whisking until it's thick, white and fluffy. Add flour, cornstarch, powdered milk).
- Add butter and mix well.
- Pour in the cake tin and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.


Simple syrup:
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 sugar
- Some drops rum (if you like)

- Mix water and sugar in a saucepan, heat in a low fire while keep stirring it.
- When it's just bubbling take it from the fire.
- Add rum.


Buttercream:
- 150gr unsalted margarine
- 50gr unsalted butter
- 2 cups confectioner sugar
- 100ml low fat cream (verse geslagen room)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp rum (if you like)
- Some drops Wilton white white icing colors

- Whisk everything in a electric mixer until fluffy and light (mine was 30 minutes or so).


Fruit:
- 1 can mandarin orange
- 100gr strawberry
- 1 kiwi
- 100gr raspberry

- Drain mandarin orange.
- Clean strawberry and cut into 4.
- Peel kiwi and sliced.
- Wash raspberry.


Garnish:
- Toasted almond slices

Finishing:
- Divide sponge cake into two parts.
- Brush each side with simple syrup, reserve a little bit of syrup for the top part of the cake.
- Spread some buttercream on both sides of the cake.
- Arrange 1/3 fruits in the middle cake.
- Lift the top part and close the cake.
- Brush the top part cake with the rest of the simple syrup.
- Spread buttercream all over the cake's surface, reserve some for decoration.
- Using pastry bag and decorating tips, decorate the outer top of the cake. I used Wilton 1M and made stars (boy it was 1AM and my mind was stuck :P)
- Arrange fruits on top and almond slices on the side of the cake.

Sponge Cake Source: Yongki Gunawan
Others: Me

I dedicated this cake to all of my friends out there, you know who you are :) Happy Valentine's Day!

PS: Don't forget to participate in my foodie event :D

Tempe Penyet Sambel Kencur (Indonesian Fried Tempe with Lesser Galangal Sambal)

I don't know what my life would be without sambal. Maybe it would be bland and not interesting ;) In Indonesia we have many kinds of sambal, it's more than fingers in our hands I think ;) here is one of my favorite.



For 4 persons

Ingredients:
- 1 block of tempe., cut then deep fried
- 1 red chili
- 3 bird's eye chili (more or less depending on your taste buds)
- 2 cm lesser galangal
- Salt

Directions:
- Pound all the spices except tempe with a pestle and mortar.
- Mash fried tempe on top of the sambal.
- Serve with steamed white rice.

Source: My mother

Event Reminder

My dear fellow blogger (and also non blogger). Aku datang menagih janji-janji kalian semua...

Where are your (Almost) Forgotten Indonesian Culinary? Come quick send your entry because it's 10 more days until the deadline!!!

For more information click here.

Tumis Tempe Cabe (Indonesian Stir Fried Tempe with Chili)

When I was still living in Indonesia, tempe wasn't my favorite food. Maybe because it was too common and you could find it easily. But now I'm loving every bite of my tempe and would try to get any opportunity to cook and eat tempe :)



Ingredients:
- 1 block of tempe, cut like small stick, fried half done
- 10 shallots, sliced thinly
- 4 garlic, sliced thinly
- 5 red chili, sliced diagonally
- 5 green chili, sliced diagonally
- 1 tomato, diced
- 1 salam leaf
- 1 cm galangal, bruised
- 1 tbs oyster sauce
- 1/2 tbs kecap manis (Indonesian soy sauce)
- 1/2 tbs palm sugar
- 1-2 tsp tamarind water
- Salt
- 1-2 tbs oil

Directions:
- Heat oil in a skillet, add shallot and garlic, fry until fragrant.
- Add galangal and salam leaf, continue frying.
- Add tempe, stir well.
- Add tomato, kecap manis, tamarind water, palm sugar and salt.
- Continue cooking until water has evaporated, adjust the taste into your liking.
- Add green and red chili.
- Continue cooking just until the chilies are slightly wilted.
- Serve with hot steamed rice.

Source: Herti's Kitchen

Strawberry Cupcake

I bought a package of strawberry for 1 euro at the market which meant that it was dirt cheap knowing now it's not yet the season for strawberry. So I decided to make something out of it. Where else to look for cupcake/muffin recipe but Vania's blog. Everyone knows she is the queen of cupcake/muffin ;)

Anyhow the end result of the cupcake was a bit too dense for my taste buds just as described by some reviewers at the Martha Stewart's website. Was it my fault or what :( but thank God the nice icing made it up, I used ready made vanilla icing by Duncan Hynes plus some pureed strawberry and it tasted nice like ice cream.

Ingredients:
- 2/3 cup whole fresh or frozen strawberries, thawed
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
- 1/4 cup whole milk, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 2 large egg whites, room temperature

Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners; set aside.
- Place strawberries in a small food processor; process until pureed. You should have about 1/3 cup of puree, add a few more strawberries if necessary or save any extra puree for frosting; set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a small bowl, mix together milk, vanilla, and strawberry puree; set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter on medium-high speed, until light and fluffy. Gradually add sugar and continue to beat until well combined and fluffy. Reduce the mixer speed to medium and slowly add egg and egg whites until just blended.
- With the mixer on low, slowly add half the flour mixture; mix until just blended. Add the milk mixture; mix until just blended. Slowly add remaining flour mixture, scraping down sides of the bowl with a spatula, as necessary, until just blended.
- Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Transfer muffin tin to oven and bake until tops are just dry to the touch, 22 to 25 minutes. Transfer muffin tin to a wire rack and let cupcakes cool completely in tin before icing.

Source: Martha Stewart through Vania

Pastel Goreng Sayuran (Fried Vegetable Indonesian Pastry)

I always like miss this one, then I found a real nice recipe from Lia, thanks ya buat sharing resepnya :)



Ingredients:

Pastry Dough
- 500 gr flour
- 100 gr melted margarine
- 1 egg
- 250 ml coconut milk
- Salt

Directions:
- Panbroil the flour until it's hot and dry enough, shift. Transfer into a bowl and make a hole in the middle. Let the flour until it's warm.
- Boil coconut milk and stir well, stir the coconut milk now and then to keep it's consistency . Turn off the heat and let it warm.
- Mix well the melted margarine, salt and egg. Pour into the hole in the warm flour, knead while pouring warm coconut milk bit by bit until a good consistency. Set aside for 15 minutes.
- Pastry dough is ready to be used.

Filling
- 250 gr carrot, diced
- 250 gr potato, diced
- 150 gr beef, boiled until tender, diced
- 250 ml beef broth
- 2 tbs Asian celery, sliced
- 7 shallot, sliced thinly
- 5 garlic, bruised and minced
- 3 tbs vegetable oil
- 2 tbs flour plus 1 tsp maizena diluted in some water
- Sliced of boiled egg (I used 4 eggs yield 20 parts)

Spices
- 1/2 tsp pepper powder
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg powder
- Salt
- Sugar

Directions:
- Deep fry the diced potato in hot oil until half dry. (Becareful not to let it too dry)
- Heat some oil in a pan, sauté shallot, garlic until fragrant, add carrot, mix well and add beef broth.
- Cook in low fire until carrot is half done, add potato, meat and other spices. Continue cooking until everything is done and water has evaporated, add Asian celery, mix well.
- Add the flour mixture, stir quickly until the filling mixture is done.
- Set aside and let it cool down.

Assemble:
- Divide the pastry dough into 20 parts or as desired.
- Flatten the dough with a rolling pin into a round shape.
- Fill with the filling and one slice of egg, shape into pastel)
- Continue until all the dough and filling is finish.
- Deep fry until golden brown.
- Serve with bird's eye chili.

Source: Lia's Blog

Event Reminder

My dear fellow blogger and non blogger, do you still remember this event?

Have you found your (almost) forgotten Indonesian culinary heritage? If so quickly send your entry because the time is flying and we are 2 weeks away from the deadline.

So what are you waiting for, grab your apron and camera. Send your food recipe, story and photo!!!

For more info click here.

PS: Thank you to Lidia of Bianca and Jordan's Mom for putting this event on her blog :)

Apple Strudel

I made this after drooling over Rita's Apple Strudel, but I didn't make my own pastry like she did :D Hmmm enak.......



Ingredients:

- Pastry dough
- 1 egg
- 1 tbs water
- 2 tbs granulated sugar
- 1 tbs all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
- 2 tbs raisins
- Confectioners' sugar (optional)

Directions:
- Thaw the pastry sheet at room temperature for 40 minutes or until it’s easy to handle. Heat the oven to 180C. Lightly grease a baking sheet. Beat the egg and water in a small bowl with a fork.
- Stir the sugar, flour and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Add the apples and raisins and toss to coat.
- Unfold the pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface. Roll the pastry sheet into a 16 x 12-inch rectangle. With the short side facing you, spoon the apple mixture onto the bottom half of the pastry sheet to within 1-inch of the edges. Starting at the short side, roll up like a jelly roll. Tuck the ends under to seal. Place seam-side down on the baking sheet. Brush the pastry with the egg mixture. Cut several 2-inch-long slits 2 inches apart on the top.
- Bake for 35 minutes or until the pastry is golden. Cool on the baking sheet on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with the confectioners' sugar, if desired.

Tip: Make sure to toss the apples and raisins in Step 2 until they're evenly coated with the flour mixture. The flour helps to thicken the juices released by the apples as they cook.

Source: Rita's Blog