Banjir Dessert di Hari Ulang Tahun

I couldn't believe, I got so many dessert on my birthday...

Thank you everyone for your caring and thought. I can feel them while enjoying the food. It is good also to have friends and relatives who came to my house so I didn't enjoy them alone. I only make Tiramisu and Sweet rice porridge. I got two Oreo Ice Cream Cakes...^_^ oh my...They ruins my diet he.he..he..

Bolu Gulung (Roll Cake with fruits and cream)...

Lapis Buah (Layer Cake with fruits)

Wajid (Sweet rice cake and palm sugar)

My Tiramisu

Sweet Rice with Jackfruit and Toddy Palm

Btw, on Sunday, people in my church brought so many food for us for dinner...Unfortunately I didn't take the pics...Thanks again for all :-) You've made my day...

Sweet Rice Porridge with Jackfruit & Toddy Palm

I learned making this Cambodian dessert from my friend at aerobic class 3 years ago. It's super easy but delicious, suitable for serving a crowd. I brought this dessert last saturday when I visited my friend at Swanzey NH, 2 hours driving from my house. It was fun, making new friends, enjoying delicious food together.

INGRIDIENTS :

3 cups sweet rice --- soak in water 2 hours or more

2 cans of coconut milk

water

sugar

salt

Pandan leaves 2-3

2 cans of Toddy Palm and Jackfruit

METHOD :

1. Cook sweet rice, coconut milk, pandan leaves and water ( I used 6 quart pan, it's about 3/4 pan). Cook until soft, stir occasionally so the rice will not be sticky on the bottom of the pan.

2. Add sugar and a pinch of salt. Taste , adjust according to your preference.

3. Drain the syrup from Toddy palm and Jackfruit can. Pour out the fruits on top of the porridge.

4. Serve it warm or cool. I prefer cool porridge...yummm....

Tiramisu For my Birthday

Cooking on my bday? I chose something unbaked for my day.

I remember mba Ienas Tsuroiya Recipe. I've been using this recipe for many times.

It's good.... I changed rum into coffee liquor (Kahlua). I made two batches, one is in pyrex 13", and the other is in spring form pan.

Indonesian version for this recipe is HERE ( Tsuroiya.multiply.com : recipe without gelatin).

Here is my modification by adding gelatin to make it firm in my spring form pan.

INGREDIENTS:

6 egg yolks

1 cup sugar

16 Oz mascarpone cheese

1 envelope of gelatin, dissolve with small amount of water.

1 1/2 cup whipping cream

Rum/Kahlua

24 Lady finger

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup thick coffee ( mine : 1/2 thick coffee, 1/2 Kahlua)

Dutch Processed Choco Powder

METHODS

1. Mix hot coffee and chocolate chips, when it is cool enough, add the liquor, set aside. We will use this for soaking our lady finger.

2. Beat egg yolks and sugar, continue beat them on double boiler ( in case we are afraid of raw eggs). Beat until the mixture's color is pale. Add the rum/Kahlua ( about 2 tbsp or more up to your taste buds). Add Mascarpone cheese and dissolved gelatine, beat until well mixed.

3. In other bowl, whipped the cream until soft peak.

4. Put no.3 into no.2 , whipped just until it mixed well...do not over beat..

5. Soak lady finger to no.1, arrange on the bottom of the pyrex. Pour out no. 4 as the second layer. Repeat this step to make 2 layer of lady finger and 2 layer of mascarpone mixture.

6. Let it set overnight or at least 8 hour in the refrigerator.

7. Before enjoying your tiramisu, shift choco powder on top of your tiramisu.

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.

Food Can Bring Memories

Last year, on this date, my dad was brought to the hospital. And he had to be there for 4 months until he has to leave us forever. It's been a week I remember him more than usual. Too many sweet memories that we had together.

Many times food that we enjoyed together can bring all the memories back.

When I visited Bandung two months ago, my sister and I went to old bakery on Jl. Otista Bandung. They made the bread daily, without any preservatives and food additive. The taste of the bread is very 'natural' for me... Not to smooth ,but delicious. Just by seeing the old door and display, my mind was flying to my dad. He loves the bread from this bakery since 1967 when he moved to Bandung. He loves 'Roti Lima Rasa ( Five Flavour Bread) and Roti Frans Coklat ( Big Bread with Chocolate Filling).

Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera with me. So I don't have the bakery building's pictures. After we arrived home, I tried to make a picture of Roti Frans Coklat...

Every time I see this picture, I remember my dad's love for his family, he was very happy when we enjoyed the food he brought home, one of them is this bread.