Poffertjes, Dutch style pillow pancake

Poffertjes are traditional Dutch style pancake .... the batter is very similar to pancake but it has pillow or ball shape instead of pancake's plate like shape. Other than the shape, poffertjes in contrast with pancake has more fluffy & spongy texture & often made with raising agent like yeast or baking soda. Usually, poffertjes served with powdered sugar & cinnamon, or in some restaurant for fancier taste its served with fresh fruit jam or ice cream.

To get the shape of pillow or ball, it need a special pan that has shallow holes similiar to takoyaki pan but smaller in size. My poffertjess pan will not perfectly create ball shape poffertjes, but it create round shape pillow, I think they are cute .....


This recipe belongs to Teh Uceu.

Ingredients:
200 gr flour
40 g cornstarch
100 gr Sugar
4 eggs yolk
2 Egg White
1/2 tablespoons yeast
1/3 tsp baking powder
300 ml of liquid milk
50 gr melted butter
1/3 teaspoon salt

In large bowl combine all dry ingredients except for salt. In other bowl combine eggs & milk as wet ingredient. Pour the wet ingredient to the dry ingredieny, whisk until smooth. Let it rest for half hour. Add salt & butter.

Heat pan to very hot, grease with butter or oil. Carefully pour the batter in to the holes until 3/4. When it half cooked turn add more batter to the holes & put the half cooked batter above the holes, so you get the pillow or ball shapes poffertjes. Or for easier method, you can put one half cooked batter above the other.


You have to excuse me, I cannot wait to have a bite .....

Rawon, the Indonesian Black Stew

Sometimes it's hard to imagine, there is a good food that has black in color. This Rawon for example, if you see rawon let say without sniff the aroma & you don’t know what that is, I think you will not feel tempted. But for me an Eastern Javanese, I already know this dish since I was little, so this stew never failed to tempt me, especially my mom’s rawon, is one of her master dish.

To those of you who don’t know, the black of rawon comes from one spice called Kluwak, some people called it the black nut, but I have to disagree with the “black nut” name … kluwak is kluwak … just kluwak or kluwak nut.

About Kluwak nuts

Kluwak nuts come from the kepayang tree (Pangium edule) of Indonesia & Malaysia, a member of the flacourtia family (Flacourtiaceae). The oily, hard-shelled seeds superficially resemble Brazil nuts. Meaty seeds are edible after the poisonous hydrocyanic acid is removed by soaking and boiling them in water. Fermented kluwak nuts become chocolate-brown, greasy and very slippery. Cooked seeds are used in a number of popular Malaysian and Indonesian dishes.

When harvested from the tree, the kluwak is not ready to be used. It needs to be fermented for sometime, due to its poison. The prosess of fermentation is done after the kluwak is boiled in hotwater for sometimes and then they are buried in the ground. The humidity of the soil helps the process of fermentation. When ready, the meat of the kluwak will change from white collor into black, and the taste of the good and ready to use should not be bitter.

– About Kluwak nuts - Source taken from Recipes Wiki -

Rawon it self is originating from east java, and is very popular in Surabaya. Usually it served hot with rice, salted duck egg, bean sprouts, and shrimp cracker. & once again, an Indonesian cannot leave the chili sauce behind; for rawon traditional chili sauce is best suite.



This is the recipe:

500 gram of beef rump cut in cube
700 cc water
3 Shallots
4 garlics
1/2 tea spoon white pepper
6 kluwak nuts
4 bay leafs, torn
2 lemon gras
Galangal
4 keffir lime leafs, torn
Salt
4 table spoon palm oil

Boil the beef rump, until cooked. I use a pressure cooker it take about half hour. Mean While blend shallots, garlic, kluwak, salt, & white pepper. Heat pan, saute the blend ingredient until it become fragrance, add lemon grass, galangal, keffir lime leaf & bay leaf, continue stirring. Add all to the boil beef rump, cooked till it boil once again.

Serabi, Indonesian style Pancake

Serabi, Indonesian style Pancake, yes I would say that, coz serabi actually very similar with pancake in the making process. The different is that serabi use coconut milk instead of regular milk, this makes serabi taste so different with western pancake. And also the original recipe, it uses the rice flour … but some people doesn’t like the texture of it, so the modern style of serabi some recipe replace the rice with regular flour. For me, I like to use the mixture of rice flour & regular flour, to get softer texture, but still keeping its traditional sense.

Ingredient:
150 grams flour
125 grams of rice flour
1 egg
350 cc coconut milk
5 grams yeast
1 teaspoon salt
75 grams of sugar
25 grams margarine, melted
3 tablespoons salad oil

Mix together all ingredient except for salt, margarine & oil. Let it rest for 20 minutes. Add melted margarine & salt, whisk until all combine. Heat serabi pan till it's very hot, grease with oil, add the serabi batter, when it start to create small holes, cover with the lid, wait till cooked for about 2 minutes.

Brown palm sugar sauce:
100 grams javanese palm sugar
150 cc coconut oil
1 table spoon cornstarch
Boild sugar & coconut milk add cornstarch, stir until it boil once again.

Martabak Telor

Martabak or Mutabbaq (Arabic: مطبق‎) is a dish which is commonly found in Saudi Arabia (especially the Hejaz region), Yemen, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and Brunei. Depending on the location, the name and ingredients can significantly vary. The name mutabbaq (or sometimes mutabbag) in Arabic means "folded".

Murtabak originated in India, during the Delhi Sultanate (1206-1526). Through traders, murtabak has been brought to numerous countries in Muslim Southeast Asia during the reign of the Delhi Sultanate, and has continued to be a popular meal in many of these nations.

Martabak telur, or egg martabak, is a crepe-like dish which mainly comprises vegetables. It also includes chicken or duck egg for the batter - up to six eggs for a large one.Martabak telur is made by spinning pastry until very thin, like filo pastry, then shallow-frying it in a custom made flattened heavy wok. The ingredients are added, then the pastry is wrapped around the ingredients to make a parcel. Usually, it is cut into squares afterwards for consumption. It is often eaten with slices of cucumberand a dark brown sauce made of vinegar and palm sugar.

-Source – Wikipedia –


Here in Indonesia, martabak is one of the most popular street foods …. You can almost find it through out the country. In Jakarta it self, near my house you can find 3 martabak sellers in only 15 meter radius.

I have to admit that I cheating on this recipe coz I use the kulit lumpia pastry I bought at traditional market, instead of making it my self. But hey, it tastes the same. Beside there is no way I going to do the acrobatic action of “spinning the martabak pastry, the down side is that my martabak is smaller than the original. But size doesn’t matter on this one … beside the big martabak will be cut also …

But if you want the martabak to be bigger I suggest you make the “real” martabak pastry or for the cheating way you can join 2-4 the kulit lumpia pastry with some water & flour mixture. For me, I like the small one.

Ingridient:
10 Kulit lumpia pastry

Filling:
2 table spoon of salad oil
200 gram minced beef
2 shallots, finely chopped
4 eggs
1 cup diced spring anion
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon curry powder

Heat oil, stir fried the chopped shallot till it become fragrance. Add minced beef & curry powder; cook thoroughly till the beef looks dry. Whisk eggs; add salt, diced spring anion, & the beef.

Take 1 kulit lumpia pastry, add filling, fold like envelope than fried in hot oil till golden brown.

Spaghetti Bolognese my way

I don't think this is the right recipe, but it's absolutely satisfy my Indonesian tongue. We Indonesian, like most asian loves food with the strong taste. & as a moslem I don't use any wine ... Most of the people that ever taste my bolognese sauce loves it .... & really I don't think of showing of .... ;p

300 grams of minced beef
100 gram grated carrot
1/2 can of tomato paste
300 cc of tomato puree
1 chopped anion
1 chopped garlic
1 tea spoon dried basil
2 tea spoon dried oregano
1 table spoon sugar
3 table spoon salad oil
250 grams of spaghetti, cooked till aldente

Heat the oil, add chopped anion, stir until it goes translucent than add garlic continue stirring. Add minced beef, cooked until meet goes brown. Add tomato paste, tomato puree, carrot, basil, oregano & salt. Bring all in boil, turn the heat down & simmer, for about 45 minutes. Add sugar.

The key of this sauce are first the addition of carrot, it's not to give more volume but to give some kind of "sweetness", second it's the 45 minutes of simmering in low heat. Without this two the bolognese sauce will not taste good....

Serve the spaghetti with the bolognese sauce , springkle with a bit of parmesan cheese ... & of course for Indonesian you cannot leave the chilli sauce behind ...

Dorayaki

I think Doraemon will be proud of me .... ;p.


Recipe from 52 Kue Popular by Sedap

4 eggs
100 grams sugar
2 tablespoon honey
1/2 tea spoon salt
250 grams cake flour
1 teapoon baking powder
120 cc milk

My version of filling
100 grams pealed green bean
75 gram sugar
150 water
1 tea spoon pandan paste

Beat egg with sugar & honey, until pale & sugar dissolved. Add flour & baking powder alternating
with milk. Preheat pancake pan, pour the batter, brown in one side only.

Filling:
Boiled the green bean, until soft. Blend until smooth, add sugar & pandan paste. Cooked until it become a thick paste.

Finishing
Make pairs of dorayaki and put a scoop of filling between them.

Klepon

I don’t know any Indonesian that said that klepon is their favorite snack …. But I don’t know any Indonesina that would stand to let any klepon left untouched …..

I would say that klepon is one of the “gone in no time” snacks …. You would not realize how much you eat it until you see that your plate is empty …..

The recipe is relatively easy but a bit tricky … the key is not to give to much filling …..




1/2 tea spoon of salt
1 tea spoon air kapur sirih
1 tea spoon pandan paste
175 cc warm water
250 gram glutinous rice flour
100 gram javanese palm sugar for filling
200 gram fresh grated coconut for coating
1,5 water to boil

Mix salt, air kapur sirih, pandan paste & warm water set aside. Pour the water mixture to rice flour knead until all well corporated. Make small ball, fill with a bit of javanese palm sugar, throw the dought to the boling water, boiled until klepon balls are floats to the surface. Roll the klepon balls on the fresh grated coconut.

Pancake a La Pancious ....

I never been to Pancious, so I cannot really tell ... This recipe a bit difficult, coz you beat the egg white separatly .... but I guess this makes the pancake really soft even when its cold ...



270 grams flour
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs; separated yolk and white
2 cups buttermilk
2 tablespoons butter

1. in large bowl A: mix flour, sugar and baking powder
2.B: In another bowl, beat the egg whites with a mixer until foamy soft peak
3. in the bowl C: Beat the egg yolk, buttermilk, and butter. then mixed with ingredients that are mixed in the bowl A. mix well
4. Add in three stages add the egg white, fold
5. Heat the pancake pan, greased with margarine, pour in 1/4 cup of batter. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

In the time when I feel Small ......

One evening at my office basement parking ......

Look at that big giant car .... doesn't it makes you feel a bit intimidate ???

Nasi Kuning .....

Commonly in Indonesia Nasi Kuning or Yellow Rice is served during special occasion or celebration.... but actually is very easy to make & very nice for breakfast ... fried chicken for companied, some shrimp cracker or just plain yellow rice with fried slice shallot …. Perfect !

½ liter of Rice
½ liter of coconut milk
1 table spoon fresh grated turmeric
1 teaspoon lemon water
1 pandan leave

Put all in your rice cooker ….. Serve while steamy, companied with anything you like …

Note: The lemon water not going to give sour taste, it’s only help to make the color stronger.

Pandan Cheese Roll Cake

Roll cake is big deal to me .... coz it's cost me a lot of experiment just to make the perfect roll .... roll n roll n roll it again & again .....

To newbie like me this recipe is perfect .... first of all, it use just 4 egg & second, it use the chiffon method so the cake is easier to roll ......

I got this recipe from the roll cake book of sedap ... the original recipe is coffee roll cake ... but I make it as pandan cheese roll cake, coz pandan is one of my favorite aroma ....


Ingredient:
100 gram of low protein flour
30 gram of confection sugar
60 gram of salad oil
75 cc of milk
4 egg whites
4 egg yolk
75 gram sugar
pinch og salt
1/2 tea spoon of pandan paste
Filling: 100 gram grated cheddar cheese & 75 gram of butter cream

Method:

1. Preheat oven 180 C
   
2. In large bowl mix the flour & confection sugar, sifted if necessary
   
3. In Another bowl mix the milk, oil, egg yolk & pandan paste
4. Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture, mix until all is well incorporated
   
5. Beat the egg white & sugar untill softpeak
6. Agg the beaten egg white to the flour mixture, fold in 3 stages
7. Pour the batter in 28x28cm pan, bake for 20 minutes
   
8. Wait until it cool down, roll with the filling

The Chocolate Oracle Says .....

The Chocolate Oracle Says You're Powerful

You are intense, powerful, and dramatic.
People respect the things you do...
And they're not sure if they could do them!

You are friendly, witty, and likable.
You charm is overwhelming. People are enchanted by you.
You have a comeback for anything. Because of this, you seem flippant at times.

You love the feeling of accomplishment. You enjoy doing what's important.
You feel lost when you have to do frivolous tasks or hang out with shallow people.

The Chocolate Oracle Says

Cireng .... Fried Sago Snack ...

Ravioli? Oh no no …this is Cireng … one of the Indonesian fried snack, that is the picture before frying ……

Cireng … actually stand for aCI – digoRENG … literally mean fried aci. Aci it self is sundanese language for sago flour. Funny huh? The sundanese people always have interesting naming convention for their food, there’s plenty of them … such as combro stand for onCOM – dijeRO (mean oncom inside) … I wonder where the B come from … or colenak stand for dicoCOL – Enak (mean delicious for dipping).

Okay, enough for the naming … I got this cireng recipe from Mbak Camelia blog, but since I don’t have any tuna, I use chicken as the filling … if you don’t have it then use whatever available in your fridge…

The filling:
150 minced chicken
1 chopped garlic
1 table spoon oyster sauce
1 tea spoon fish sauce
½ tea spoon salt
½ tea spoon white pepper
5 table spoon water
1 tea spoon flour
1 table spoon oil for stir frying

Sauté the chopped garlic with the heated oil, add in the minced chicken, continue sauté until the chicken change color. Add in oyster sauce, salt, pepper, fish sauce, & water. Add flour, continue mixing until all cooked.

Cireng Dough:
350 gram sago flour
1 tea spoon of salt (I found it not salty enough, so I use 3 table spoons)
3 table spoon of cooking oil
1 table spoon margarine
250- 300 cc of boiling water

Additional: 1 egg, beaten.

Mix in salt, water & oil, and then set aside. In large bowl mix in the sago flour whit the water mixture. Knead until all become shapeable dough. Last add the margarine, continue kneading.
Roll the dough for about 2 mm thinness. Cut it with cookie/cake cutter with the shape you like, I use ravioli cutter for making rectangle shape.
Brush with beaten egg, add the filling, and cover with another sheet of cireng dough. Seal the filling tightly with the dough. Deep fried until cooked. Serve when warm … coz is hard to chew when it’s cold ... ;p

BitterBallen, cute little creamy meatballs .....

It's been"funny" weather in Jakarta for the last 2 weeks . It's sun shiny morning, burning afternoon & suddenly heavy rain - almost stormy - evening.

I think is a good time to spend weekend at home watching TV & snacking I guess .... some fried snack, serve it on cold rainy evening .... hmmmm perfect !!!

Checking on my refrigerator & my recipe book I thing Bitterballen is a good choice .....

According to Wikipedia "Bitterballen (plural of 'bitterbal') are a savory dutch meat-based snack, typically containing a mixture of beef (minced or chopped), beef broth, flour and butter for thickening, parsley, salt and pepper. This is also called ragout .... They are typically served with a ramekin or small bowl of mustard for dipping."

Of course in Indonesia we use chili sauce instead of mustard .... We Indonesian use chili sauce in almost about everything ... ;p

This recipe I got from Nova tabloid with few modification by my self .....

200 gram minced beef, stir fried without oil until cooked & dried.
100 gram margarine (I use butter for creamier taste)
150 gram cake flour
450 cc milk (I use 300 cc milk & 150 cc beef stock)
1 anion, finely chop
1 teaspoon salt (as you like)
1/2 tea spoon pepper (as you like)
1 tea spoon freshly grated nutmeg (as you like)
1/2 teaspoon sugar (as you like)
2 egg beaten, Bread crumb & oil for deep frying
Heat just butter in a frying pan and sauté the onions until browned, add the flour, keep on sauté until all flour absorb the butter, add milk & beef stock, add salt, nutmeg & pepper , continue stirring to make very thick sauce. Add minced beef stir til combine. Set it till cool, make small balls with to spoon then role in egg alternating with bread crumb twice. Deep fried till golden brown.