Beef Kebabs for a Crowd

We went to Pawtuckaway State Park, Nottingham NH on Memorial Day's week end.

Jev was really happy, meeting people, playing with his friends.

This photo is the second round of his playing time. After cleaning up the first round, he ate his lunch, and then his friends came and they enjoyed their time together.

I tried to make kebab for our potluck picnik...but I think I need more to put more marinade sauce. I supposed to use ground cumin, but I only have whole cumin at home :-( .

I'm not happy with the result. I will try to do it better next time.

I tried to combine recipe from Big Food book by Elissa Altman and recipe spicy kebab from Alton Brown, Foodnetwork.

Marinade :

3/4 cup extra virgin oil

3 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

Juice of one lemon

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp cumin

Whisk all the ingredients in small bowl.

Kebab :

4 lbs of beef sirloin or top round, cut it into cubes

Small Onions cut into 4

1 pint of cherry tomatoes

2 large bell pepper, seeded, cut into large square

1 can chunk pineapple, drained the juice

(about 35 skewers)

Using long bamboo skewers, thread together kebabs in this fashion: Onion, tomatoes, beef, peppers, beef, pineapple.

Place skewers in large container, drizzle with marinate, double plastic wrap and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.

After the grill is ready, we can put the kebab on the grill, let it cook... Do we need to separate the veggie/fruit from the beef? I found the beef takes longer time to cook.

Cakalang Bumbu Manado (Manadonese Style Smoked Tuna)

Yippiiie...I got Ikan Cakalang Fufu (Smoked Tuna Fish) from Manado, North Sulawesi Indonesia. My mom told me to make a dish the same as she usually makes at home beside the chilli sauce (rica-rica). I asked her what is the specific name for this recipe..She couldn't remember. So I just called it Manadonese Seasoning Smoked Tuna Fish.

Ingredients :

500 gram Smoked Tuna Fish - Cut into chunk

1 big shallot - thinly sliced

2 green onion - thinly sliced

2 lemon grass - crushed the white part

2 kafir lemon leaves

1 cup coconut milk

white basil leaves

Put into a blender/food processor or grind it :

5-8 cloves garlic

5 -7 cloves candle nuts

2 cm ginger root

5-10 Thai Chili ( according to your preference)

salt & pepper

Direction :

1. Stir fry shallot until it fragrance.

2. Add minced/smooth seasoning, stir until the color changed.

3. Add lemon grass and also Kafir lemon leaves

4. Stir the smoked fish into the sauteed seasoning, mix it well.

5. Pour the coconut milk into the fish-mixtures, continue to cook it until the liquid reduced. Before the liquid reduced, add green onion and White Basil leaves.

6. Enjoy it with hot steam white rice.

Classic Marble Cake

This is my mother in law's recipe. My hubby loves it very much. So when I was in Indonesia. I asked her to teach me how to make it. Usually I will use melted margarine that is poured into the batter after eggs and sugar are beaten, but this classic recipe use margarine in room temperature directly mix and beat with the sugar and eggs.

The result is denser than usual cake , but still smooth and delicious.

Ingredients:

400 gram Margarine ( I use Blue Band brand)

400 gram sugar

8 egg yolks

6 egg whites

350 gram shifted flour + 50 gram powder milk ( I change it to 3 tbsp of condensed milk).

Directions:

Heat the oven 180 C/350 F

Beat Margarine, sugar and the egg until smooth and raised (use hand mixer about 15 minutes)

Add the flour, fold into the batter.

Pour the batter to baking pan that's been greased and floured.

Bake for about 50-55 minutes

Tropical Fruit Salad

Spring has sprung. The weather is getting warmer. The flowers are blooming.

Something fresh might satisfy our palate. I got the original recipe from a wholesale spring booklet. I modified according what I had in hands.

TROPICAL FRUIT SALAD

Fruits :

1/2 medium ripe papaya

1 mango

1 can pineapple - drained the liquid

2 kiwis

1 mandarin orange

Dressing

1 cup greek yogurt - I have lemon greek yogurt.

2 tbs honey

3 tbs coconut milk

1/4 tsp ginger powder

Direction :

1. Peel and cut the fruits according your preference, arrange in a plate

2. Mix all the dressing ingredients.

3. Enjoy the fruits with the dressing.