Now, two months after that, I thought I have to do something with the meat. It has been a long nap and they had to get out of the freezer. They did take a lot of space to store. I had been thinking to make this Dendeng Balado for quite sometime now but I always think about the hefty amount of work involved in making this dish. Now I convince myself and it is worth the effort.

Dendeng Balado is a traditional Indonesian dish. It comes from West Sumatra, Padang. West Sumatran cuisine is rich with its spice especially chilli and coconut. My family background (my grandmother) was born and brought up there, and she was the one who look after me when I was a kid. I was literally brought up eating the spicy and rich Padang cuisines and I absolutely love it.

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg gravy beef
• 1/2 tbsp whole coriander seeds, press them using the tip of knife
• 2 tsp salt
• water just enough to cover
• 500 gr red chilli, set aside 5 chillies for cutting
• about 5-10 small red chillies, depending on your preference of spiciness
• 20 gr shallot, 3-4 pcs extra depending on the size, for slicing
• 4 cloves garlic
• oil for deep frying and stir frying
• lime juice
• salt and sugar to taste

Instructions

1. Slice the gravy beef into 5 mm in thickness. Lightly salt and mix until combined.
2. Put the sliced beef in a pot and cover with just enough water (barely covering the top of the meat). Throw the coriander seeds on the pot. Bring them to boil and then turn the heat to medium low until the meat is tenderized.
3. Meanwhile, puree red chillies, shallot, and garlic in a food processor until fine. No need to achieve a perfect puree. Set aside.
4. Slice the shallot and cut the chillies into long strips. Set aside.
5. When the beef slices are cooked, take them out and reserve the juice.
6. Get the frying pan ready and heat the oil for deep frying. When the oil is hot, throw in the meat slices and browned for few seconds. The idea of deep frying is to brown the surface and dry them off slightly. Set them aside.
7. Get the wok ready and heat generous amount of oil for stir frying. Add the chilli mixture puree to the wok and turn the heat to medium low. Keep stirring occasionally to prevent burning.
8. Add the sliced shallot and chillies, stir to combine.
9. Add salt, sugar and lime juice to taste. Add them a little at the time and keep tasting. They should have a balance between sweet, salty and sour.
10. Add the beef and stir to combine.
11. Add about 1/2 cup of reserve juice. Depending on how wet you want them to be, or you could ignore the juice totally.

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You !!!

To satisfy his craving, I tried to make the chilli myself. I remembered my mom used to make this when she was visiting few years ago. The recipe is pretty simple anyway. So far, he loves it. When I made this chilli relish, I put it in the jar and store it in the fridge They could last for few weeks, but they never last that long in our fridge

Ingredients

• Grilled Chicken/Fried Chicken
• 1 small to medium size onion, peel
• 250 gr red chillies
• 20-30 small red chillies (more or less depending on your preference)
• 30 gr garlic, peel
• 60 gr shallot, peel
• 3 small to medium size tomatoes
• 25 gr terasi (shrimp block, you can get from Indonesian groceries), grilled on the pan for few minutes until the colour changed
• lime leaves
• lime juice
• sugar to taste
• salt to taste
• 2 tbsp oil

Instructions

1. Heat oil in the wok.
2. Do not cut or dice anything. Add onion, chillies, garlic, shallots, tomatoes to the wok. Stir fry them until they soften and changed in colours for about 15 minutes or so.
3. Using a hand held blender, blend everything plus the terasi until puree.
4. Then add sugar, salt and lime juices. Add them a little at the time and adjust the taste.
5. Cut the lime leaves into tiny pieces straight into the puree mixture.

Culinary tradition: Indonesian

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You !!!

My tips to this dish:

• Soak the satay sticks in the cold water for at least 30 minutes to prevent the stick from burning.
• Reserve the chicken oil whenever you cook the marinade chicken, so you can use it for grilling satay. You can freeze the oil too.
• It is best to marinade the chicken overnight.
• When you sticks the chicken onto the skewers, try to alternate the meat with the fat.

I haven’t include the peanut sauce recipe yet, simply because I never measure them every time I cook them. In fact, I rarely measures when I cook (don’t rely to much on my measurement ) Here are the step for making my peanut sauce (without measurement):

1. Using a wok, roasted peanut with skin on with low heat. It could take up to 30 minutes, depending on how much you have.
2. Peel the skin off the peanut. Try to rub them with your finger. The skin should fall pretty easily.
3. Puree the peanuts. You could leave some of them crush not puree.
4. Puree the bumbu (garlic, shallot, chilli).
5. Heat pan with oil. Fried the bumbu, lemon grass, lime leaves, bay leaves until fragrant.
6. Add the peanut and water (add as you need).
7. Add tamarind (diluted in hot water) and palm sugar and salt.
8. From this stage, you adjust the taste as you go along. They should be sweet and spicy with a slight saltiness and sourness.

Ingredients

• 500 gr chicken thigh fillets, cut into small pieces
• 5 cloves garlic
• 3 pcs shallot
• about 1 tbsp grated ginger
• 5 pcs candlenut, roasted
• salt
• chicken oil for brushing
• sweet soy sauce (kecap manis) for brushing
• satay sticks (to prevent the sticks from burning, soak them in cold water for 30 minutes or so)
• peanut sauce

Instructions

1. Using a blender, pureed garlic, shallot, ginger, and candlenut.
2. Marinate the chicken pieces with the pureed mixture overnight. Stick the chicken pieces into satay sticks.
3. It is best to use the charcoal BBQ,but you can still use the oven (like me). Grill the chicken at 200 C. Brush them once in a while alternately with chicken oil and sweet soy sauce.
4. Serve them with peanut sauce and cucumber or rice cakes (ketupat lontong).

Culinary tradition: Indonesian

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You !!!

This cake was Ok , but not great. It tasted like pound cake, quite heavy and make you feel like one slice is enough. In terms of the amount of eggs used i.e. 8 eggs, I feel it was a bit over. Imagine what you can do with 8 eggs to make cupcakes, you will produce dozens of cuppies. But I guess because this is Indonesian’s recipe, the egg used is still few compared to Lapis Surabaya (about 30 yolks for 19 by 19 cm square tin) or Lapis Legit (about 40 yolks for 19 by 19 square tin).

Can you see my melting buttercream? I was so sleepy and couldn’t wait to frost them. I thought I might don’t have time next day when my kids were awake. I waited for half an hour or so, but they still melted If I knew than that I would be the only mom who brought the cake to school, I wouldn’t bother making this cake. It turned out that I didn’t read the invitation clearly. It didn’t state that “we have to bring a plate of food to share” as usual. Furthermore, I hate being in the spotlight, where I was being the only one who brought something to the school gathering (or I think to much )

Ingredients

Recipe adapted from Passion: Cake Pandan Tabur Keju

• 150 gr plain flour
• 50 gr corn flour
• 100 gr unsalted butter, melted
• 200 gr caster sugar
• 8 eggs
• 1 tsp emulsifier
• 1 tbsp pandan paste
• Cheese Buttercream
• grated cheddar cheese
• glazed cherries for decoration

Instructions

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You !!!

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken, cut into small pieces (or you could use drumsticks or wings)
• 1 lime to marinate the chicken
• salt to marinate the chicken
• 4 medium potatoes, cut into wedges, deep fried
• 1 tbsp of mince garlic
• 3 shallots, sliced
• 3 tbsp Kecap Inggris (According to the web, it is similar to Worcestershire sauce. I never use one before)
• 6 tbsp Kecap Manis (add more or less)
• salt to taste
• oil for deep frying
• 2 tbsp of margarine (I used Blue Band brand)

Instructions

1. Marinate chicken pieces with lime juice and salt. Leave for at least 15 minutes.
2. Deep fried the chicken.
3. Heat the wok. Add in margarine.
4. When melted, add in garlic and shallots and stir until fragrant for about 2 minutes.
5. Add Kecap Inggris, Kecap Manis, and salt. Stir until combined.
6. Add in fried chickens and potatoes. Stir to coat evenly. More Kecap Manis can be added.
7. Serve with warm rice.

Culinary tradition: Indonesian

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You !!!

Nathan had 3 birthday celebration and it was just because we couldn’t book the function place soon enough. He had his first birthday on the 29th of August (his actual birthday) with me, his dad and little brother. His second birthday was on 31st of August at his kindergarten. It was only singing, blowing candles and eating cakes with his friends and teachers. Now the third celebration on the 18th of September was a big one.

Party Guest: 30 – 35 people

Party Menu:

• Nasi Tumpeng (Yellow Rice), 4 kg of rice
• Ayam Bakar Bumbu Rujak (Grilled Chicken), 5 whole chickens
• Sambal Terasi (Sambal with Shrimp Paste), 500 gr chilies
• Rendang (Beef Rendang), 5.5 kg beef
• Sambal Goreng Hati (Chicken Liver Sambal), 2 kg potatoes, 2.5 kg liver
• Tahu Tempeh Bacem (Fried Tofu and Tempeh marinated in palm sugar and herbs), 2 boxes of tofu, 2 packs of tempeh
• Perkedel (Fried Mashed Potatoes), 4 kg potatoes
• Mie Goreng Ulang Tahun (Fried Egg Noodles), 700 gr egg noodles
• Gado-gado, 1 lettuce, 1/2kg potatoes,1 box tofu, 1 cabbage, 4 cucumbers, 1 dozen eggs
• Peanut Sauce for Gado-gado, 1 kg peanut
• Strawberried Treasure Cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting

The cooking plan was thought through weeks ahead. Monday and Tuesday were for herbs and nuts pureeing and sambal terasi. Wednesday and Thursday were for cooking chicken, beef rendang, tahu tempeh bacem, and perkedel. They were all packed in an airtight container inside the fridge. I should actually took a picture of how my fridge look like. I didn’t have the time to take a photograph. My head and hands had been pre-occupied almost all the time. Friday was dedicated for the cake. The decorating part had to be done after the birthday boy fell asleep. Friday afternoon was for cooking sambal goreng hati.

Everything was as I planned and imagined by Friday afternoon. When my husband went home from work, I asked him to drive me to the groceries store. I wanted some chocolate coins to decorate the Pirate Ship birthday cake. I also had to buy some chillies for the peanut sauce. This chili thing for the peanut was something that I didn’t expect to happen, but I believed that it wouldn’t cost me my time. Well, my husband had another plan. He was hoping to get a parking on Friday night in the city so he could stop by the Apple store to get an Ipad. What a timing huh. We circled the city for few minutes. It felt like hours to me. Time was ringing TICK TOCK!!!  TICK TOCK!!!  inside my head. Well long story short, we couldn’t get the chocolate coins and by the time he got the parking, the Apple Store closed (LOL).

The birthday boy was asleep by 9 o’clock, but the baby kept waking up and asked for frequent breast feed. Well I think it was around 1.30 AM I was done with the cake decorating. A little story behind the cake. I was planning on making the Dinosaurs cake for a long time, but I couldn’t seen to get matching merchandise like goody bags, plates, toys and decorations. When I was hunting for them, I found lots of Pirate things instead, so we decided the theme is ” Ahoy there… YARGGGG Pirate”. Look at these goodies bags, aren’t they cute?

I searched through probably about hundred of pirate cakes on the internet to brainstorm my idea. They are almost have the same shape and I was kinda combining lots of different ideas that suits me and the decorations available. I designed (well it wasn’t really designing, but arranging stripes of red and white at Photoshop) flags and printed them few days before so that I wouldn’t rush at the last minute. The recipe used was Rich Chocolate Cake , because I think it was the easiest, simple and tasty cake. I made 5 layers of 30 by 30 cm. Having all the plan on how big the ship was going to be and drawn the template on the paper made the shaping of the cake so much faster. And Taaaa Daaaa….. here comes the cake.

If I could do something different, I would:

• Make 3 batches of Swiss Meringue Buttercream instead of 2. As seen on the picture, the cake was lacking on the water and wave.
• Not using the Astor (roll chocolate wafers), as the were too big and look a bit dodgy. I would chose something slimmer like chocolate wafer sticks.
• The chocolate wafers were started to brake because I stand them vertically. I should stack them up instead.

This was another Tumpeng platter I created (I am now starting to take orders, you could see the details on the “I SELL” page). I tried to improve my carving skills every time I had a chance to make one of these. The new addition of my creation is the cucumber, look at how the spread open. I am so pleased

These cupcakes were chocolate cupcakes with strawberry buried inside them, topped with cream cheese frosting, sprinkled with some brown sugar and had a cool pirate flag on each. I didn’t have a chance to take the picture of the inside, because they were all gone very quickly. I tasted one though, and they are so good with a very fresh taste from the strawberry and creamy taste from the cream cheese. Super duper yummy !!!

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You !!!

Well, back to the topic Kwetiau Siram. Kwetiau means rice noodles and Siram means pour, because the sauce is poured on top of the fried noodles just before serving. Because I never cooked the sauce before, I surfed the web to look for some clues. To my surprised, all the things I could found was that the rice noodle is boiled not stir fried. Hmm funny, I never seen the boiled style before in Indonesia and yet all the recipes pointing to that. I asked the Kwetiau Siram admirer (a.k.a hubby), and he said to stick with the stir fried style.

I posted the Kwetiau Goreng recipe before, so in this post I only post the sauce recipe.

Ingredients

• 500 ml chicken stock
• 500 ml water
• 1 egg
• salt to taste
• 4 cloves garlic, mince
• diluted tapioca flour
• oil

Instructions

1. Heat oil in the wok. Add in garlic and fry until browned. Set aside,
2. In the sauce pan, boil the chicken stock and water.
3. Add salt to taste.
4. Whisk the egg with fork slightly and pour into the saucepan. Do a quick stir.
5. Add diluted tapioca flour to the mixture to thicken the sauce. (You could add a little at the time and stop when the right consistency is achieved)
6. Pour the serve to the individual serving of Kwetiau Goreng. Topped it with fried garlic and serve immediately.

Culinary tradition: Indonesian

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You !!!

It is really hard for me to explain how to cook a very nice homely mie goreng in this blog. As long as you do your stir very quickly, then you got a nice mie goreng. I guess you have to use your senses. Good luck

Ingredients

• 300 gr egg noodles (treat according to the packet instructions)
• 100 gr chicken breast, slice thinly
• about 1 cup meatballs, slice thinly
• 1 tbsp mince garlic
• 1 medium shallot, slice
• 1 large carrots, julienne cut
• 1 small green capsicum, slice
• 1 stalk spring onion, slice
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp sweet soy sauce or just enough to achieve the light brownish colour
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• salt and white pepper, to taste
• oil for stir frying
• deep fried shallot to serve

Instructions

1. Heat oil in the wok. Add in garlic and shallot, and stir until the fragrance is out.
2. Add in chicken slices and stir until the chicken is almost cooked through.
3. Add in meatball slices and do a quick stir.
4. Make a well in the middle and break in eggs in the middle. Add in about 1 tsp salt (you could add some more later on if it is not salty enough). Do a stir  every few seconds.
5. When the egg mixture is still wet, add the carrots and stir.
6. Add the cooked egg noodles and green capsicum and stir.
7. Add in sweet soy sauce and fish sauce and stir.
8. Add white pepper and stir.
9. Now it is time to taste your noodle. Add salt accordingly.
10. Add in spring onion and switch off your stove. Stir.
11. Serve with deep fried shallot.

Culinary tradition: Chinese, Indonesian

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You !!!

Here are some notes and tips that you may consider before you try to make this cake:

• The original recipe doesn’t state the temperature, so I tried 170. Next time I preheat my oven around 190-200 C. (will keep you posted on this)
• Both of the cake layers weren’t rise as they suppose to be. One of the reason was because the oven wasn’t hot enough. The first layer that was bake sunk slightly after cooling down.
• When the first layer was cooked and removed from the tin, I quickly poured the remaining batter into the baking tin. What I found was breaking my heart. I found a thick residue of melted butter on the bottom of the mixing bowl. I just knew that the second layer wouldn’t be spongy at all. My conclusion, it is winter now and the recipe requests a melted butter. The melted butter just couldn’t wait to be butter again because of the weather. Next time I will divide the ingredients into two portions and whip them individually. Unless your oven would fit two baking tins at the same time, you better consider my suggestion.

Overall, the cake was pretty soft and spongy, but honestly the credit was all for the cake emulsifier. You have a peace of mind when you use cake emulsifier

Ingredients

Recipe adapted from Natural Cooking Club : Cake Pandan Vla Pandan, for details click here

• 6 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 200 gr sugar (I used 150 gr instead)
• 1 tsp cake emulsifier (I used 12 gr)
• 200 gr plain flour
• 100 gr butter, melted (I used reduced salt butter)
  
• 1 tbsp pandan paste
• Custard mix with a little bit pandan paste for in between the layer (or just omit the pandan paste)
• Swiss Meringue Buttercream to frost

Culinary tradition: Indonesian

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You!!!

My busy Monday started with preparing my oldest son morning tea and lunch box, then dropping him at kindy. Then off I went to the kitchen preparing this cake with few pauses because the little one waking up. Sorry baby, probably you are not used to the loud mixer sound, well you better get use to the sound as you will hear it most of the time in the upcoming future. I will post the recipe later with few notes and tips as I didn’t do so well with this cake.

How my oldest boy felt so happy looking at the cake. He always excited looking at cakes because he loves singing the birthday song and blowing off the candles. This time, he did like uncountable times of singing, blowing and clapping hands. I guess it was kinda like a little practice before his upcoming birthday at the end of August.

Tuesday was all about planning, scheduling and shopping. Garlic, shallot, ginger, turmeric, candle nut, lemon grass and chillies for pounding, grinding and pureeing. Banana leaves, garlic shoots, broccoli, spring onions, parsley and carrot for decoration. Glutinous rice and flour, coconut milk and cream, potatoes, tofu, chicken eggs and quail eggs, prawns, can of petai in brine for the ingredients.

Buzzz… grrrrrrr…buzzz…. grrrr, that was the sound of Wednesday. Oh not to forget the hwaaaaaa… ooowaaaaacccchhhhh… (baby crying) and mommy look at this… mommy I want this that and it goes on and on and on…

Thursday, let’s the kitchen war begin!!! YAY and hubby had a day off, meaning that lots of lots of help with my two boys. Early in the morning, hubby and the oldest one went to the embassy to renew the passport and that made me so much easier in arranging banana leaves on platter. This was my third attempt in making the platter.

• The first one was last year on my boy’s birthday. Result: unsuccessful because of poor time management.
• The second attempt was last December on hubby’s birthday. Result: unsatisfied because of lack of research on how to arrange and decorate your dishes on the platter.
• The third attempt: Satisfied, however still need to improve on decoration varieties and perhaps bigger platter will be result in a much more attractive looks.
• Note to myself: find a storage space in the tiny apartment to store a new big platter

Here are the dish starting from yellow rice clockwise: Nasi Kuning (Festive Yellow Rice), Sambal Udang Pete Balado (Prawns with Petai cooked in Sambal Chilli), Perkedel (Fried Mashed Potatoes), Telur Dadar Gulung (Rolled Omelet), Tahu Bacem (Fried Tofu Marinated in Palm Sugar and Herbs), Sambal Bajak Terasi (Sambal Chilli with Shrimpt Paste Bajak style in Tomato Basket), Mie Ulang Tahun (Fried Egg Noodles with Red Boiled Quail Eggs), Ayam Panggang Kremes (Grilled Chicken).

Conversation with Hubby while preparing those Tumpeng dishes around 4 PM:

Me: OMG we ran out of rice. We need to buy them ASAP.

Hubby: Ahhhh… I don’t wanna go out anymore today (answering with sleepy eyes, laying on the carpet)

Me: Oh well I suppose I could go tomorrow buying rice (25 kg) and chicken for Saturday (about 28 pcs of Chicken Maryland, those are for Theo’s one month things. We usually gave a packet of yellow rice with chicken, red egg, red traditional cake, and sweets to close friends and relatives. Traditionally, this thing is done to let them know that there is a new baby born in the family)

Hubby: Zzzzzzz… (snoozing already on the carpet while the toddler destroying the house with all of his toys all over the house)

Friday, lots and lots and lots of thing had to be done. First thing, feed all the boys then bath them and myself. Before we went out, it was already 12.30 PM. I was in a panicking zone. We all went to the city and darn it.. as usual no parking spot. Thank God I had a help that day from a friend. She watched the boys while I parked my car in a no parking zone (hoping that no parking office will pass and give me a ticket). I ran to the shop telling to the housekeeper that I need a 25 kg rice and then straight to the butcher asking him to give me 28 pieces of chicken maryland. I told them to be quick as I parked in the no parking zone. The porter carried the rice to the car, but there was no sign of the chicken from the butcher yet. I ran straight to the car and I was so lucky to spot a parking spot, although it meant that I had to drive backward about 5 metres on a busy zone. Back to the butcher asking him where the hell was my chickens. Surprisingly he handed me a big box of chicken.

Me: (still looking surprised) OMG how come you gives me the box? I only asked for 28 pieces of chicken.

Butcher: Yes 28 pieces of chicken maryland.

Me: (wondering how big those chicken pieces hidden inside the box) Mmm.. I need someone to help me carry this box to the car

Butcher: Okay.. no worries

Me: Hang on a second, I need to buy extra lemon grass

(Butcher kept going and went out of the store without me while I was paying the shopkeeper. Me following behind him and running)

(Me Arrived at the back of the car panicking and worrying that all those salmonella leaking and dripping from the wet box would contaminate my beloved car. I quickly placed lots of plastic bags on the car so the butcher could place that salmonella box on top.)

I think the box weighs almost 20 kg and don’t ask me how I get them all up to my apartment. A very hard work indeed. I had a very busy day and night after the chicken arrived on my kitchen station.Lots of chopping on the extra chicken fat. Lots of pinching the extra feather left on the huge chicken pieces. I wonder how big the chickens were when they were alive. I had to finish at 1.30 AM in the morning since my brain wasn’t really synchronized with my doing anymore.

All I can say about Saturday was busy hectic and kind of panicky, not so much for the cooking but for my two nagging boys. We started the delivery at 12.30 PM and arrived back home at 7.30 PM at night. What a journey, starting from inner west, eastern, northern, west, and city. Well thank God both of my boys was behaving nicely, especially the little one who slept all the way through and only woke up once for a fed.

This is one of the packet we delivered to relatives and close friends. I made 25 packets of them, each consists of Nasi Kuning (Festive Yellow Rice), Ayam Panggang Kremes (Grilled Chicken), Telur Merah (Red Boiled Egg), Kue Ku (Glutinous Rice Cake filled with Mung Bean Paste).

A little background story behind this pudding. When I was little, I remembered that our close family friend who owned a bakery back in Indonesia always send us this pudding on Chinese New Year. They usually delivered this pudding a day before the Chinese New Year and we (or at least me) can’t wait for tomorrow to come so I could have a big chunk for myself. Well you see, I slept at my grandparent house on new years eve because it was a big family dinner. My grandmother is a fussy woman (sorry ama, but you really are). She won’t let us touch all the cakes until the actual day of Chinese New Year. I never understand why or how she thinks, because she didn’t serve the pudding to the guests who visit her house anyway. She kept all of her grandchildren favourite foods in a safe place so no one could had them. So, why didn’t she let us have the taste before the day Ama? Oh well, I think she likes to have lots and lots of various foods serve on her table at the same time on the important day.

I did an attempt to make this pudding before with a recipe listed on some packet instruction (forget what is the product..) a long long time ago. I don’t think I need to describe how was it, because it was surely a big disaster, ended up with the whole chunk of mess in the trash. So, I am a little bit traumatized to try.

I found this recipe, read the instructions all the way through. I thought to myself, well I have nothing to lose because the egg whites is going to the trash anyway if it is unused. If you look at the original recipe (if you could understand Indonesian), you will notice that she whipped all the egg whites and mix it with the agar-agar mixture. Then she divide the mixture into three batches and mixing them with colours. Then she arrange it colour by colour. Well, I thought it was a chance to fail for me. I am not that big of a risk taker. So I decided to do two tins so I don’t have to weight the agar-agar every time I cook them. I am really surprised on how quick the layer set, and I am relieved that I didn’t do as the original recipe told.

Note to myself:

• Reduce the amount of milk so the texture is much harder.
• The sponge cake recipe is OK, but next time I will use sponge cake recipe from egg whites.
• The top layer is better with Nutrijel (jelly) as this agar-agar is too hard and break the colourful layer as you spoon them.

Ingredients for the Sponge Cake

Recipe adapted from dapur DiFa : Sponge Cake with Toppings, for details click here

• 4 eggs
• 80 gr plain flour
• 20 gr corn flour
• 100 gr sugar
• 50 gr reduced salt butter, melted
• 1 tsp cake emulsifier

Culinary tradition: Indonesian

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You!!!

Ingredients

• 1.8 kg or 10 pcs yellow tail fish, clean, gutted, and chopped into 3
• 1 lime, strain the juice
• 2 tsp of salt to marinate
• 1 1/2 tbsp of garlic puree
• 1 1/2 cup of red long chilli puree
• 1 tsp of salt or to adjust accordingly
• 1 tbsp of vinegar or to adjust accordingly
• 2 tbsp of sugar or to adjust accordingly (see note)
• 1 tbsp tomato sauce
• oil for deep frying and stir frying

My verdict on the cake is absolutely soft and spongy even without the cake emulsifier. Amazing really, how can it be that soft without the cake emulsifier. I still couldn’t explain the reason.

As the recipe suggested, do not buttered the baking tin. I wouldn’t be so sure about that. The side of the cake is not that difficult, but as for the bottom one, I rip part of my cake and left it on the pan. Next time I will definitely butter the pan very lightly especially the bottom of the tin.

Ingredients

Recipe adapted from Passion (Ibu Tio Blog) : Chiffon Chocolate White Egg, for details click here

• 125 gr plain flour
• 25 gr cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 25 gr corn flour
• 75 gr oil (I used 75 gr melted reduced salt butter)
• 75 ml full cream milk
• 100 gr egg whites (to be mix to the mixture)
• 400 gr egg whites (to be whipped)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 175 gr sugar (I used 150 gr)

Culinary tradition: Indonesian

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You!!!

This is one of my trial recipe. the recipe is definitely a keeper. The cake is super soft and has a beautiful texture. It is really different compares to the baked cakes. It is also beautiful in appearance. This steam cake is a sudden hit to my house members. When I asked my husband whether I should actually give some of the cake to my neighbor, he simply replied : “Hmmm… not this one, I think we could finish it very quickly”. He was right. We finished the cake in a day. My boy loves the pink one as it has a strong strawberry essence. My husband loves the green one. I love them all.

Ingredients

Recipe adapted from Passion (Ibu Tio Blog) : Bolu Kukus Pelangi, for details click here

• 500 ml egg whites
• 325 gr sugar (I used 300 gr)
• 1 tbsp cake emulsifier (I used 15 gr Ovalet Kupu Kupu brand)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 100 ml full cream milk
• 50 gr melted butter (I used reduced salt butter)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 250 gr plain flour
• 25 gr full cream milk powder
• strawberry essence + red colouring
• lemon essence
• mocha essence
• pandan essence

Culinary tradition: Indonesian

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You!!!

As usual, in making the bread, I rested the dough twice before baking them in the oven. The silliest and dummies thing that I did was by not resting the cake on the baking tray in its final stage. When they were ready, I had to carefully picked them up and moving them to a baking tray. A big NO NO, the dough just kind of shrunk and out of shape. So the dough ended up with three times resting time, which I think make the taste of the bread kind of yeasty. This is a very important lesson that I learned.

It is time now for the verdict. When they just came out of the oven, they tasted really good. Because of the butter in the middle, the middle texture that is close to the butter has a crunch bite to it. I ate two buns straight away. However the next morning, they didn’t taste as good ad they were warm. The topping became a little bit sticky. I think the stickiness was because I stored them in a tight container while they were still a little bit warm. In conclusion, I think it is best to finish all the buns on the day of  making.

As for myself, I like the buns and will be happy to make them again. However, since my family members especially my husband doesn’t like the thought of chunky butter in the middle of the bread and there is no chocolate involvement in this bun. There is a slim chance that I will be making this bread again in the future.

Ingredients for the Bread

Recipe adapted from Natural Cooking Club : Roti Empuk, for details click here

• 500 gr high protein flour/bread flour
• 100 gr sugar
• 100 gr butter (I used reduced salt butter)
• 11 gr dry yeast
• 1/2 tsp bread improver (I didn’t use this)
• 4 egg yolks
• 300 ml ice water (just use 200 ml first, and the rest is just in case the dough is not wet enough)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• cold butter about 10 gr each for each individual dough (for Roti Polo)

Ingredients for the Topping (Roti Polo)

Recipe adapted from Natural Cooking Club : Roti Polo, for details click here

• 50 gr icing sugar
• 50 gr palm sugar (I used dark brown sugar)
• 100 gr reduced salt butter
• 80 gr egg
• 130 gr plain flour
• 5 gr coffee + 1 tbsp hot water
• 5 gr coffee essence

Instructions for the Topping (Roti Polo)

1. Using hand held mixer, mix butter, icing sugar, egg until soft.
2. Add in plain flour and mix until well combined.
3. Add in coffee mixture and coffee essence and mix until well combined.
4. Using a triangle plastic decoration, the topping is ready to be put on top of the bread in a coral motion.

Culinary tradition: Indonesian

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You!!!