Marbled Egg

Marbled egg is called Pindang Telor by Indonesian, if I am not mistaken, I think this is one of the Chinese influenced dish enjoys by many Indonesian. The Chinese version however is quite different because they are using a completely different spice and herbs. The only similarity is its cooking technique.
This kind of egg is very commons to cook on a special occasions or celebrations as a side dish. Back home my mom still making this if they have something to celebrate or we call it SYUKURAN (a special occasion of thanking God for all His Blessing by inviting people to enjoy some traditional dishes). And afterward they usually going home with a box of rice and so many side dishes, and this kind of egg is one of them.

Traditionally to cook this egg you'd need lots of red onion's skins and guava leaves to add some unique colors. But since I am lack of the guava leaves I am using teabag instead, works great!!
I enjoy this egg with some rice porridge or some Nasi Uduk (Indonesian Fragrant Rice).

MARBLED EGG (Pindang Telor)

1 dozen of eggs (or more)
Red onion's skins (as much as you have)
5 cloves of unpeeled garlic (whacked)
1 bay leaf
2 big slices of galanga
1 teaspoon turmeric powder

Method :

Boil the eggs with all of the other ingredients until the egg is cooked, turn the heat off, set aside and let it cool. Crack the egg shells but do not peel it, just enough so the juice can get trough and give its marbled pattern and color.
Reboil for another hour or so until the colors turned much darker. Set aside and let it cool, ready to serve.

I also put this egg in my son's bento, you can check it out here.

Apple-Strawberry Buckle

BUCKLE is a tender yellow cake with a fruit and streusel topping.
I adopted the recipe from the "Fine Cooking Annual" book. The original version is Apricot-Raspberry Buckle. But since I still have some strawberry left I better use it before it goes bad. I also use some diced apples that I sauted with some butter, fresh vanilla bean, cinnamon and sugar. Smells amazing!!
When hubby came home yesterday I asked him to taste it, and he just could not stop ...he even skip dinner. Need I say more??

APPLE-STRAWBERRY BUCKLE
Recipe adopted from the Fine Cooking Anual, modified by ME.
Serves eight to ten.

INGREDIENTS :

For the Streusel :
1/2 cup minus 1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar (I use cane sugar)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Fresh vanilla seeds from 1 bean (then I use the bean string to saute the apple)
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small piecies

For the cake :
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp table salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar (I use cane sugar)
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract (I use vanilla beans)
1/4 tsp pure almond extract
3 large eggs
3/4 pound apple (diced, sauted for 5 minutes with 1 tsp of butter, 1 tbsp of sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon and vanilla beans)
2 cups of fresh ripen strawberries

METHOD

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and heat the oven to 370F, butter a 9 inch square pan.

Make the streusel :
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Add the cold butter and cut it in with a pastry blender or two table knifes until the butter pieces resemble small peas. Refrigerated until needed.

Make the cake :
Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a small bowl
With a hand or electric mixer (use the paddle attachment) beat the butter on a medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add 1/4 cup of sugar and the extracts. Beat for 1 minute. Gradually add the remaining 3/4 cup sugar while beating on medium speed. Stop and use a rubber spatula to scrape the bowl and batter. Beat on a medium high speed until pale and slightly fluffy (the sugar will not be dissolved), about 3 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium and add the eggs, one at a time, mixing it until the batter is smooth each time.
Stop and scrape the bowl and the beater. On low speed, add the flour mixture and beat only until incorporated.
The batter will be thick. Add half of the apples and half of the strawberries to the batter and fold them in gently with a large rubber spatula. Some of the strawberries will be break when baked, the pinkish cast will disappear.
Spread the batter into the prepared pan and distribute the remaining fruit evenly on top. Sprinkle the streusel over the fruit. bake until the cake springs back in the center when lightly pressed and a toothpick comes out clean, about 45 to 50 minutes.
Let the cake cool in its pan on a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Strawberry Syrup

Still about strawberry .... :P ..I just don't like wasting that's why! :D
The boys got about 12lbs of strawberries last weekend when we took them for strawberry picking. We ate it freshly, made some smoothies, strawberry jam, and there are still so much left.
So this afternoon I made some strawberry syrup. I know my family would enjoy it with some pancake or waffle for breakfast.
The strawberry I use are very ripe and sweet, so I don't add some water to the recipe, as soon as the sugar dissolve the strawberry producing so much juices. LOVE IT!!!

INGREDIENTS :

4 cups of fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced
2 cups of superfine sugar (I used cane sugar)
1/4 cups of fresh lime juice (lemon juice would be great but I only have fresh lime)

METHOD :

In a heavy bottomed saucepan, mix together the strawberries, sugar, and lime juice. 

Stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to high, and bring the mixture to a full rolling boil.


Remove from the heat and let it cool. Strain the mixture and transfer into a bottle or syrup dispenser.

S C O N E S

This is my first time making scones, and I am quite pleased with the result.

To be honest I did not have any plan to make scones until one of the boys told me that we're out of bread, and they wanted to enjoy the strawberry jam I made yesterday.
So I go trough my cooking book collections and found out this scone recipe from one of the book. Then I checked the pantry and seems like I have everything needed. So here we go....

I have this book call THE HOME BAKER for a long time, but I never really pay attention on what's in it. If I am not mistaken the only recipe I have tried from this book is some butter cookies. But that was like 5 years ago .. LOL

INGREDIENTS :

4 tbsp butter, diced and chilled, plus extra for greasing
1 lb/450 gr all purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsbp baking powder
2 tbsp superfine sugar
generous 1 cup milk, plus 3 tbsp for glazing

To serve :
clotted cream
Strawberry jam (recipe suggested strawberry jelly)

METHOD :

Preheat the oven to 450F/220C. Grease a cookie sheet.
Stir the flour, salt, and baking powder together into a bowl. Rub in the butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. Stir in the sugar. make a well in the center and pour in the milk.
Quickly mix with a round-bladed knife to form a soft dough.
Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured counter and knead lightly.
Roll out to a thickness of about 1/2 inch/1cm. Don't be heavy-handed, scones need a light touch.
Using a plain 2 1/2 inches/6cm cookie cutter, cut out 10 - 12 circles and transfer to the prepared cookie sheet.
Brush with the milk to glaze and bake in the preheated oven for 10 - 12 minutes until well risen and golden.

Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool. Split and serve with clotted cream and strawberry jam.

NOTE:
To make fruit scones, add 2oz/55gr mixed dried fruit with the sugar. To make whole wheat scones, use whole  wheat flour and omit the sugar. To make cheese scones, omit the sugar and fruit and add 1/2 cup finely grated cheddar cheese to the mixture with 1 teaspoon mustard.

Strawberry Jam

Last week I took the boys for strawberry picking at Barbie's Berry Farm in Ferndale. Oh boys they have so much FUN and picked loads of strawberries.
We ate it fresh and it was like the best thing EVER!! it was so sweet!! the next morning I made some strawberry and banana smoothies and the boys love it so much.
Do not want to waste any I decided to make some strawberry jam yesterday.

A good friend of mine let me know that you don't really need a recipe for a jam, you can just mix whatever fruit or berries with sugar and that's it. The composition is 1:1.
I however reduced the amount of sugar by 50% and I add some fresh lime juice as well. Turned out great!!

INGREDIENTS :

4 cups of fresh strawberries hulled
2 cups of superfine sugar (I used cane sugar)
1/4 cups of fresh lime juice (lemon juice would be great but I only have fresh lime yesterday)

METHOD :

In a heavy bottomed saucepan, mix together the strawberries, sugar, and lime juice. 

Stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to high, and bring the mixture to a full rolling boil. 

Boil, stirring often, until the mixture reaches 220 degrees F (105 degrees C). 

Transfer to hot sterile jars, leaving 1/4 to 1/2 inch headspace, and seal. Process in a water bath. If the jam is going to be eaten right away, don't bother with processing, and just refrigerate.

Lemper Ayam

I am craving for this authentic Indonesian snack after reading a comment from an American student who came to Indonesia and becoming obsessed with this food call LEMPER AYAM. She also love mata kebo, but I already put the recipe of mata kebo HERE, I know it still in Bahasa Indonesia, maybe one day if I decided to make it again I'll post it in English with a better picture :P (Will see!)

Traditionally, Lemper Ayam is wrapped in banana leaves, the shape is round with some chicken fillings inside.  But since I live in the country where banana leaves only come frozen, somewhat prissy and a bit inconvenience (for me :D) so I choose to use wax paper instead :D
To save some time and process, I did not shape the lemper one by one with hands, instead I layered the rice and chicken and another rice, as you can see on the pictures.

LEMPER AYAM
Indonesian glutinous rice with aromatic chicken filling

Ingredients :
500 gr glutinous rice (soak it for at least 2 hours, I did it overnight)
500 ml coconut milk
2 Indian bay leaves
2 Kefir lime leaves
1 Pandanus leaf
1 stalk lemon grass (bruised)
1 tsp salt (or to taste)

Chicken filling :
350 gr chicken breast (boiled until cooked, then shredded)
2 Indian bay leaves
4 Kefir lime leaves
200 ml coconut milk
1 tbsp Javanese tamarind's juice
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp cooking oil

Grind into paste :
9 shallots (I used 1 big size of onion)
5 cloves of garlic
1 1/2 tbsp coriander powder
5 pcs roasted candle nut
1/2 tsp cumin
1 inch galanga
Salt and pepper to taste

Method :
1. Drain the rice, then steam it for 15 to 20 minutes, remove from heat, set aside.
2. Heat the coconut milk together with lemon grass, bay leaves, kefir lime leaves, pandanus leaves and salt until it simmers.
3. Add the rice into simmering coconut milk, stir and let it cook until done. Watch this process carefully, fold the rice to make sure you do not overcook the bottom part, but at the same time you do not want to over do it, you do not wanna ended up having one big clumpy sticky rice ball :). Remove from heat, discharge all the leafy herbs/seasoning and divided into 2 parts, set aside.
4. Heat the cooking oil in a large pan, saute the seasoning paste until fragrant. Add the shredded chicken and the rest of the ingredients. Stir until everything is well blended and no more liquid. Remove from heat and set aside.
5. Prepare a non stick square or rectangular baking pan such as pyrex, then layer one part of the rice and gently spread it all over the pan. Then add the chicken filling and spread it on top of the first layer. Last add the other part of the rice and spread it all over using spatula.
6. Steam until it's cooked. Remove from the heat and let it cool.
7. Release it from the pan, slice it as desire then wrap it with wax paper. Enjoy it!!

Risoles Ayam

Risoles Ayam is a very popular Indonesian snack or appetizer, some people enjoy it for brunch. The concept is similar to spring rolls but taste completely different. The wrapper uses for risoles has to be home-made. You can't subtituded it with a store-bought lumpia wrappers otherwise it will be called lumpia goreng.
It took whole day to make everything from scratch but it really was worth it, my whole family loves it! I packed some for my kid's bento the other day, you can check it HERE.

RISOLES AYAM

Skin/wrappers :

200 gr all purpose flour
1 tbsp corn starch
500 ml milk (fat free or 2%) --> you can use 150 ml of evaporated milk mixed with 350ml water.
4 eggs
1 tsp salt
75 gr melted margarine 

Filling :
100 gr ground chicken
150 gr carrots (julienne or diced) 
100 gr green bean (cut into small pieces)
2 stalks celery finely chopped/diced
4 cloves of shallots or 1 big onion, finely chopped.
2 cloves garlic, minced.
¾ tsp salt 
½ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp sugar
¼ tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup milk (chicken broth is optional)

1/4 cup all purpose flour
3 tbsp cooking oil (I use margarine)

Egg wash :

2 eggs mixed with 1.4 cup of milk
150 gr bread crumbs

Method :

1. For fillings : Heat the cooking oil/margarine in a large pan then saute garlic and onion until fragrant, add ground chicken and stir until the chicken turns white. Add carrots, green beans, and celery then keep stirring for about 5 minutes. Add salt, black pepper, sugar and stir until all blended. Add milk/broth, keep stirring until bubbling, then add some flour. Keep stirring until the mixture is thickened. Remove from the heat and set aside.

2. For the wrappers : Mix well all the ingredients, I like to do this ahead of time to make sure everything is well blended and set. You can use regular whisk or electric mixer but make sure there are no lumps in the batter, if there are some then you need to strain it.

Prepare a non stick pan, I use a small one like smaller than 8" so the final size of the risoles wont be too big. 
Brush the pan lightly with margarine, set the stove on medium low. Ladle the batter into a pan and kind a gently swirl the pan in a circle motion to make sure the batter is evenly covered the surface. This step is important to produce a nice thin skin that is gonna be easy to work with. 
Let it cook for about 1-2 minutes, just check at the surface if the batter is all evaporated then it should be done, at this point release the edge of the skin using spatula, then gently remove it from the pan. You do not need to cook the skin on both sides. Repeat the same process for the rest of the batter. 

3. Spoon a little bit of the filling in the upper center of the wrapper, fold the wrapper from the top then the left and right side like you do an envelope, then gently press it and roll it down.

4. Put the risoles inside the egg wash, then roll it onto some breadcrumbs, make sure all the sides are coated with breadcrumbs. And ready to fry.

5. Deep fry the risoles until golden brown and cooked, then let it sit on a paper towel. 

5. Ready to serve with your favorite chili dipping sauce. I personally enjoy it with raw Thai bird chili.

NOTE :

1. I did the step 2 and step 3 at once, I found this way to be very effective for me. So when one wrapper is done, I ladle the batter for the next one and let it cooked in low heat stove. In the mean time I do step 3. I always think if I stack the wrappers when it's still hot it will be all sticking together. But you have to be sure you are confidence with your speed, if you choose to make the whole wrappers at one time then you should put parchment paper in between the layers to avoid sticking.     


2. You can also use this below filling option for more variety flavors :

Cheese and smoked beef :

200 gr smoked beef, thin sliced.

4 hard boiled egg, quartered or cut into 6 pieces.
150 gr shredded cheese.