Christmas 2012 Cooking and Baking

I haven't post anything for awhile.

It's a bit late, better late than never :)

  

Have been very busy with household and my cakes.

Here are some photos from our Christmas 2012 - mainly my baking and cooking.

 Plain cheesecake

 Jamie Oliver's Homemade ice cream, vanilla & chocolate.

The chocolate one was a hit!

The vanilla one was not so good.

 Kiwi and pineapple salsa

 Raspberries and Passionfruit pulps cheesecake

Blueberries cheesecake

 Steamed pudding in round shape,

my MIL's recipe, so simple and sooooo goooooddd!!

 Nigella Lawson's Guinness Gingerbread... YUM!!

 Mixed salad with green grapes

 Yoghurt and avocado salad dressing

so light, yummy & still creamy!!

 Apple crumble,,, i think i need to put more apples!

 Fresh pickles for Martabak Asin (below)

Indonesian Martabak Asin, this one with Veal & Pork

... thanks for looking :)  ....

How I Make Cake Balls

Made this just for my family.

Not the first time I make cake balls,

this time I took pictures of step-to-step

on how I make cake balls.

 Prepare the buttercream

 This was 6" Vanilla Bean Butter Cake

 Crumble the Cake

 Mix the cake crumble with buttercream

just enough to form a ball

 Melt the chocolate in microwave.

It will be too thick if it is just melted chocolate,

so I add a bit of Crisco

or if you live in Australia just use melted COPHA.

You can get CRISCO from USA FOODS Australia too.

 Dip the cake balls into melted chocolate mixture.

Vanilla Bean Butter Cake

with Peanut Butter Buttercream

covered with semi-sweet Dark Chocolate

decorated with melted white chocolate.

Made quite a lot, so I gave some to my friend :-)

...enjoy...

Spiced Meatballs and Tofu Soup

Spiced Meatballs and Tofu Soup


Ingredients:
300 gr minced turkey
1 tsp of coriander powder
1/2 tsp of salt
1 block of tofu, cubed
1 carrots, thinly sliced
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 small garlic, bruised
1 tsp of whole cloves
1 whole nutmeg
1 whole cinnamon stick
1 green onion
1 bunch of choy sum, chopped
1/2 tbsp of MASSEL chicken stock powder
about almost 1 litre of water
fried shallots

Method:

Fill a small sauce pan with almost 1 litre of water,
add bruised garlic, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon,
chicken stock powder,
celery stalks, green onion, carrots,
bring to boil.

In the mean time mixed together:
minced turkey, coriander powder and salt,
then form balls, keep in the fridge until water boiled.

Once boiled, add spiced meatballs,
and add cubed tofu too then
bring to boil again until meatballs completely cooked.

Scoop out green onion and garlic.

Serve with steamed jasmine rice,
garnish with fried shallots.


... enjoy ...

Sausages Fried Rice

My son love sausages,
especially Sausages Fried Rice

Best to prepare all ingredients first,
chopped sausages and long beans,
chopped shallots and garlic,
add chopped chilies if you like
I wish I could, this one without chilies for the sake of my son :-)
6 eggs well beaten,
all sauces such as oyster sauce, sweet soy sauce, light soy sauce, fish sauce,
and freshly cooked rice.

I never have problem making fried rice using freshly cooked rice.
I know some people advised to use overnight rice that was kept in the fridge,
but it is just a preference.  I use both.
Even when I use freshly cooked rice like today, the fried rice is not soggy at all.

Ingredients:
2 large shallots, chopped
1 small garlic, chopped
about 200 grams of long beans, chopped
4 sausages, chopped
6 large eggs, well beaten
1 tbsp of oyster sauce
a dash of fish sauce
2 tbsp or more of light soy sauce
1 tbsp of sweet soy sauce
ground white pepper

Method:
as usual, heat frying pan in high heat,
add 2 tbsp of oil, once hot
add shallots and sautee until fragrant,
quickly add long beans and sausages,
sautee until long beans softens,
quickly add eggs,
let it sit for about 30 seconds or 1 minutes,
add 4 big plate of rice,
add all sauces and white pepper,
mix all to combine
until all cooked through.
The longer you cooked the rice, the better the taste.

Ready to serve with
some fish or prawns or garlic crackers,
those crackers can be cooked in microwave too
faster and less greasy!
and slices of bird-eye chilis :-)


... enjoy ...

Stir Fry Spiced Minced Beef

Quick and Easy Meal

Ingredients:
250 gr of lean minced beef
1/2 brown onion, chopped
1 small garlic, chopped
1 green onion, thinly sliced

1.5 tsp of garlic powder
1/2 tsp of cumin powder
salt and pepper to taste
oil for stir-fry

Method:
Heat frying pan first in medium high heat,
then add oil, once oil is hot
add brown onion,
sautee until fragrant,
then add minced beef and garlic,
sautee until minced beef almost cooked,
add curry powder, cumin powder,
salt and pepper,
sautee until minced beef cooked completely.
Add green onion at last.

My son never like green onion cooked in this way, he won't eat it,
so I throw green onion in together with garlic and minced beef.

Once done.

Ready to serve.



... enjoy ...

Vegetable Fritters

Vegetable Fritters,

I did post many vegetable fritters before,
this one has coriander, garlic and ginger powder in it.

My little coriander powder jar,
bought it from discounted shop :-)

The Recipe:
1/4 cabbage, thinly sliced
1/2 package of bean sprout
1 tsp of garlic powder
1 tsp of ginger powder
2 tsp of coriander powder
1.5 tsp of salt
pepper to taste
Oil - enough for deep frying
3 heaps tbsp of plain flour
3 heaps tbsp of rice flour.
Water, enough to mix the flour and spices
- but not a runny mixture and not thick mixture either -
just in between before you add the vegies in it.
These 3 tbsp of rice flour already make these fritters crispy,
you can ommit plain flour and use only rice flour for a total crisp! :-)
You can add grated carrots too,
I usually did but this time, I just used whatever I have in the fridge.

Method:
simple - just mixed all ingredients together, except oil.
Heat frying pan until hot in high heat,
add oil enough for deep frying,
once the oil is hot,
spoon in fritters mixture
but not over-crowded,
lower the heat to medium,
fry until golden brown.
Repeat remaining mixture until finished.

... Enjoy ...

Fudgy Brownies

I have this recipe for quite sometime now,
probably about a little bit more than 3 years.

I think this is one of Huey's Recipes from Huey's Cooking Adventure
or now Huey's Kitchen.


The recipe is quite simple with not too many ingredients:
3 large eggs
250 gram caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
180 gr dark chocolate
180 gr butter
110 plain flour
150 gr walnuts -> never use this, I don't really like nuts on brownies
I add 1 tsp flat of salt.

Quick and Easy to Make too:
Preheat oven at 160C.
Put chocolate and butter in a microwave-proof bowl,
put into microwave for 30 seconds,
put into microwave for another 20 - 30 seconds
depending on your microwave.
Stir with silicon spatula (not wooden spoon) to combine, set aside.

Mix eggs, caster sugar and vanilla extract in a bowl,
whisk to combined,
then add chocolate mixture, mix to combined,
add flour, salt and walnut,
mixed to combined.

Pour into baking pan,
into the oven for 20 to 30 minutes.

Best to serve at room temperature...
so fudgy and yummy...


... enjoy ...

Homemade Spiced Chicken Nuggets

I love fried food, no doubt about that,
anytime, anyday, anywhere.

Bought chicken nuggets never attract me,
for me they are tasteless, and most of the time
can't even taste the chicken.  I mean how much chicken content in it?
Not to mention the level of sodium and preservatives.

So I made this homemade chicken nuggets
from chicken breast fillets.
I wish I could use madras curry powder
and add dried chilli into it, but then my son can't enjoy it.
You can add those if you like it spicy :-)
This one I made it without curry powder
and used coriander powder instead.


Here is the recipe

Ingredients:
1 chicken breast fillet

Flour Mixture:
1/2 cup of plain flour
1/2 cup of rice flour
1 tsp of very coriander powder
1/2 tsp of turmeric powder
salt and pepper to taste
Mix them together well.

Method:
Heat pan then add enough oil for deep frying,
once the oil is hot, lower the heat to medium,
Deep chicken breast pieces into flour mixture
and fry them, continue until finished
and do not over-crowd the pan.
Dry them on paper towel.

You can eat it just like that, or with tomato sauce or chili sauce.


... enjoy...

My Version of Nasi Gila or Crazy Rice

In Menteng area, Central Jakarta, Indonesia

there is a street food vendor that sell "Nasi Gila"

which literally translated as "Crazy Rice" in English.

That was the firs time I ate Nasi Gila.

There are few other places that sells Nasi Gila too not only in Menteng area.

It consists of sausages, lamb or beef, egg, and I think it has sweet soy sauce too.

Now, I am not a fan of red meat, so when the first time I went there,

my friend ordered for me, he said "it is good, you must try it"

when it came, I eat all but the meat.

Yesterday I had prawns, eggs, chicken sausages and button mushroom.

I was looking at them and thinking what to cook,

then I think OK, I will make Nasi Gila my style with no sweet sauce.

So I made it and my family (especially my son) loved it!!

So here it is:

Ingredients:

500 gr of prawns, peeled and deveined

4 eggs, beaten well

100 gr of button mushroom, sliced

4 chicken sausages, sliced

1 green onion, thinly sliced

1 small brown onion, thinly sliced

2 shallots, thinly sliced

1 garlic, thinly sliced

3/4 cup of sweet corn kernels

a touch of fish sauce

1 tsp of salt

pepper to taste

Method:

Mix eggs with salt, pepper and green onion. Set aside.

Heat wok in high heat and add oil,

once oil really hot,

add prawns, sautee until just cooked.

Moved prawns to a bowl.

Use used oil to sautee brown onion, shallots,

and brown mushroom,

sautee until mushroom just soften,

then add garlic and sausages,

sautee until mushroom is really cooked and soften,

add corn kernel and egg mixture.

Cook until the eggs are cooked on one side

and mix well, until all completely cooked.

Serve with warm jasmine rice

and garnish with fried shallots.

... enjoy ...