Ingredients

• Ready rolled puff pastry (I used Pampas brand)
• Ham
• Milk to brush

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven 180 C.
2. Divide the pastry into 4 long strips with approximately 5 cm in width.
3. Cut the round ham in half and arrange 3 pieces of halves ham in each pastry strip.
4. Fold the pastry in half to enclose the ham and twist them.
5. Brush milk on top and bake until golden.

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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

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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

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I never cook with Trout before. I am not really a fish person, not that I don’t like them, in fact I loves them. It is much proper for me to say that I am not really a fish cook. I don’t really familiar with how to cook fish coming from the sea as I grew up in the place with riverbank. Usually me and my grandpa had this fishing trip with his boat  on the weekend. My grandmother prepared our lunch early in the morning and she would just waited for us in the car while we were fishing. Then, we  had lunch on the riverside with our feet tapping under water. I wish I could turn back the time and go back there. Thank God, Indonesia doesn’t have as much crocodiles as Australia does.

The way we cook our fish was mostly in curry sauce (which need some tropical ingredients that is not available here), asam pedas (meaning sour and spicy, but different to tom yum), fried with or without chili, grilled with soy sauce or with thick coconut sauce. I think Asian cooking is really rich in their sauce and ingredients that sometimes we forgot the simplicity of cooking and the originality of the fresh taste itself. I can only recall the taste of the sauce rather than the fish itself. And this is where I am lacking much, I couldn’t cook something simple with few ingredients. The simple the food, the harder I find myself to cook with them. Or it is probably just in my head.

Well back to the topic, this ocean trout has a very similar texture and taste with salmon. I couldn’t really tell them apart. The distinction between them is that I found salmon has much creamiest taste compare to the trout.

Ingredients

• good cut of trout fillet
• salt and pepper to season
• lemon to season
• oil to coat
• Japanese Ponzu Sauce to serve
• Kecap Manis (Sweet soy sauce) to serve
• Salad to serve

Instructions

1. Seasoned fish with salt, pepper and lemon on both sides.
2. Coat the surface with enough oil.
3. Heat grill pan. Cook the fish skin side down for about 5 minutes. Then flip over to the other sides for another 5 minutes. (You can do it with less amount of time, but I like mine well done)
4. To achieve a much crunchier skin, I popped them in the oven for another few minutes.
5. Mix Japanese Ponzu Sauce and Kecap Manis. I used Kecap Manis to thicken the sauce a little bit.
6. Serve with salad on the side.

Culinary tradition: Japanese

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One fine afternoon, I just thought to pay a visit to my neighbor, Sydney Fish Market. I forgot the last time I went there. Getting a pram ready for Nathan and the baby carrier ready for Theo. We were on our way to the fish market. My shopping list were teriyaki eel for my unagi nigiri, salmon sashimi for my sushi rolls and nigiri, crab stick for california rolls and fish eggs for my sushi decoration.

We were there around 4 o’clock which was a bit too late because some of the shops were closed already. Thank God, I still got what I need. I bought the avocado as well in their fruit market because they were ripe and at reasonable price.

I had been researching on few websites on how to cook a perfect sushi rice. They say that the key to a perfect sushi lies in its rice. You need to do your rice right to have a decent sushi. I found this perfect website with great instructions and tips. If you would like the recipe, click here.

I took my chances on cooking the rice using a standard rice cooker not a sushi rice cooker. It turned out perfect, and I was relieved and happy as I could do my sushi quick and easy. Here are some photos of my first attempt sushi making. I did some tuna cucumber rolls, tuna avocado rolls, and chicken katsu rolls as well the next day but didn’t do the documentation.

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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

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Other thing that I made for my picky eater as a variation was this meatballs in satay sticks with drizzle of tomato sauce.

Culinary tradition: American

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I prepared all the ingredients in the afternoon while the baby was asleep and Nathan was watching his favourite TV show. I called my husband at work to buy some frozen chips from the supermarket on his way home to compliment my burger. I wanted to make the chips from scratch as well. I just didn’t have the time to make them. Well, there is always next time. I’ll save them for my next posted recipe like Fish and Chips (Australia Day maybe ).

This is my favourite burger patties creation so far. I did post burger patties last year. This time, I add shredded fresh wholemeal bread and parley. They are much nicer, moist, tender and juicy this time.



Ingredients

• 500 gr lean beef mince
• 1 small carrot, grated
• 1 small zucchini, grated
• 1 small onion, minced
• 4 cloves garlic, mince
• a handful of mince parsley
• 1 egg
• 2 slices of wholemeal bread, shredded
• 1 1/2 tsp salt or to your preferences
• cracked of fresh black pepper
• oil for grilling
• burger buns
• cheddar cheese
• slices of tomatoes
• lettuce
• mushrooms, slices
• onions, slices
• tomato sauce

Instructions

1. Using hand, mix beef mince, carrot, zucchini, onion, garlic, parsley, egg, wholemeal bread, salt, and pepper in bowl until well combined. Shape them into balls and refrigerate to firm the shape.
2. Using a non stick pan, toast the buns slightly.
3. Take one meat ball and flatten them slightly to a round shape.
4. Still using the same pan, add little olive oil to the pan and grill the burger patties about 3 minutes on each side or depend on the thickness of your meat. Take out the meat patties and set aside.
5. Add onion and mushrooms slices and cook it until caramelized. The mushrooms slices will be ready before the onions.
6. Build your burger as soon as all the items ready so that your cheddar could melt slightly.

Culinary tradition: American

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Ingredients

• a bunch of bok choy
• 2 cloves of garlic, mince
• salt to taste
• less than 1 tbsp of water
• oil for stir frying

Instructions

1. Heat a generous amount of oil in the wok. Add in garlic and stir until fragrance.
2. Add in the bok choy and stir to coat the oil evenly onto the bok choy.
3. Add salt and stir. You could add water if needed at this point.
4. Serve with rice or as a noodle side dish.

Culinary tradition: Chinese

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I ate this Kung Pao Chicken once in Chinese Restaurant in Indonesia. However, I don’t really remember how this meal supposed to taste like anymore. Well, I might just gave this recipe a  go. I didn’t really follow the recipe to the words though. I was sort of adjust it to the quickest and easiest way (according to me of course). At least they were good for our dinner variety.

Ingredients

Recipe adapted from Rasa Malaysia: Kung Pao Chicken, for details click here

• 600 gr chicken tenderloins, cut into bite size
• 1 tbsp corn starch, to marinate
• 1 tsp mushroom soy sauce Pearl River brand, to marinate
• 1 tsp light soy sauce Cap Dua Angsa brand, to marinate
• 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar, to marinate
• 1 tsp olive oil, to marinate
• 1 handful roasted cashew nut
• 2 long chilies, cut
• 1 tbsp grated ginger
• 1/2 tbsp mince garlic
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 1 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 tsp corn starch
• 1 stalk spring onion, chopped
• oil for stir frying

Instructions

1. Marinate the chicken pieces with corn starch, soy sauce, rice wine and olive oil for at least 30 minutes.
2. Heat oil in the wok. Add in garlic and stir until the fragrance is out.
3. Add in ginger, onion and chillies and stir for 1-2 minutes.
4. Add the marinated chicken pieces and cook until the chicken is almost done.
5. Add soy sauce and sugar and stir. Add a little bit of water if necessary.
6. Give a taste and add more soy sauce and sugar according to your preferences.
7. Add diluted corn starch to the mixture and stir.
8. Switch the heat off and add chopped spring onions.
9. Just before serving, add roasted cashew nuts.

Culinary tradition: Chinese

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He has been in preschool since March, and I guess he has been blending in with his friends including on eating yogurt and banana (finally something positive that he picks up a t school). Before, we had to buy the grand version of yogurt, the squeeze version that comes in tube, they are much much more expensive. Now, he is totally fine with the standard tub packaging. Now I have no problem on changing his morning tea menu from yogurt and cheese or banana on rotation (mostly I gave him variety of yogurt flavours).

I asked his teacher on what other kids brought to school for lunch. I thought I might prepare something similar so that he will eat as he watched others eat as well. It turned out that I gave him similar stuffs to what his friends had, like rice, pasta, noodle,and sandwich. The teacher said probably I should watch the portion as morning tea time is only one and a half hour difference from lunch time. I admit it that I usually gave him quite a lot but not as much as what he normally had at home (that was my argument to the teacher). Well I thought I gave it a try, reducing his portion and make his lunch much more eye catching, fun, and still healthy.

I did quite a lot of research on several websites. If you would like to check them out, click here and here. This is his morning tea and lunch for Monday and Tuesday. He loves it so much that he wanted the same lunch for Tuesday as well. Guess what, he didn’t bring any left over home. HAPPY MOM

Ingredients

• 2 pieces of bread
• 3 pieces of ham
• 2 pieces of cheddar cheese
• 1 egg
• tomato sauce
• strawberry jam
• round glass or round cutter
• scissors

Instructions

1. Make an omelet. Using a round glass, cut them into 2 round shapes.
2. Press a round glass on two pieces of bread. Do not press too hard as you cut through the bread. Use the mark pressure as a guideline to cut around the bread. Leave about 1/2 cm border. (see above picture)
3. Using pressure, cut ham and cheddar cheese using the glass.
4. Now assemble them in these order, bread, ham, cheese, egg, tomato sauce spread, egg, cheese, ham and bread.
5. Place a round glass on top of the bread and use a slight pressure to seal the sandwich. Flip them and do another pressure on the other side. Just remember do not press too hard as you cut the sandwich.
6. As for the ears, use the leftover bread to make a round shape. Remember to spread some strawberry jam in between.
7. For the ham hair, cut the strips in the middle of the ham, but not all the way through. Fold them in half and roll them to make a bunch. Place them in between the ears and spread them. (You could see the instructions here

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I usually cook my broccolini using an oyster sauce, or just as simple as using only garlic. You could add prawns with the garlic combination.

Ingredients

• 2 bunch of broccolini
• 1 chilli, sliced
• 2 garlic clove, minced
• 2 tbsp oyster sauce (more or less)
• water
• oil for stir frying

Instructions

1. Heat oil in the wok. Add in garlic and stir until the fragrance is out.
2. Add in broccolini and stir about 1-2 minutes..
3. Add in oyster sauce and do a quick stir (you could add more to add the saltiness)
4. Add water 1 tbsp at the time to prevent burning. Stir for 1-2 minutes and serve.

Culinary tradition: Chinese

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I found this recipe here. I read good comments on the website about this recipe so I thought I gave it a try. I think I must measure things wrong, as I only dis 2/3 of the recipe. The result was not as good as I expected. I usually like ‘not too sweet’ dessert and snacks but these muffins weren’t sweet enough. I used frozen blueberries and I think what I did wrong was squeezing lightly my thawed blueberries. Next time I will give it one more try using fresh blueberries. (I will keep you posted on the result)

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 !!!