MASHED POTATOES

As I wrote on my other blog: http://www.muziekforeveryone.com/2012/08/in-rememberance-dad.html, today is the anniversary of 10 years my dad passed away.

His favorite western dish is mashed potatoes especially the dutch style. However in many cases when my mom too busy in preparing other food for us, the  Betty Crocker - Real Mashed Potatoes would also be fine :)


Please find herewith the link of nice creamy mashed potatoes recipe: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/11/delicious_creamy_mashed_potatoes/

Miss you so much daddy, time was never enough. You must be rest in peace with Him now.
Pray for us who are still struggling in this world.

RUM CAKE

Seeing those ingredients on a rack hanged in a small bakery - especially the MYERS RUM bottle, reminded me of my childhood time.
My father who traveled regularly (Denpasar - Jakarta area - Denpasar) very often brought us Rum Cake made by a famous bakery in Bogor - West Java.

I still remembered there are 3 level of intensity of the rum cake. Soft, medium and strong Rum Cake. My father always bought the strong one. We like it very much. You know......., the strong Rum Cake giving a slightly dizzy feeling after having 2 big cuts to a kid (read: myself!) :-D

Last week, I really missed the cake, unfortunately I could not have it anymore since I am leaving 1.5 hours flying from the place ........ oh my!

"Why not making a rhum cake myself?" the idea just popped up on the way to my office.

And............, I purchased a bottle of MYERS RUM last Friday and made a rum cake straight away that night. The result.................. what a yummy rum cake, just like what I had on my childhood time (psssssssst..................., actually it is not good for kid eating a rum cake, isn't it?"

Here it is a recipe that I got from the internet, this one works well! Originally they said the recipe was developed by BACARDI, but as a substitution to Bacardi Dark Rum, Myers is OK! I could not get Bacardi as my first choice that Friday, out of stock said by the supplier.










RECIPE:
1 cup chopped, toasted pecans or walnuts (I don't have pecans nor walnuts, I substituted with pistachio)
1 18-1/2 ounce yellow cake mix
1 1-3/4 ounce (4-serving size) instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup cold milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup Barcardi dark rum (substituted by Myers Dark Rum)

Glaze:
1 stick butter
1/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup Barcardi dark rum (substituted by Myers Dark Rum)

Cake: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Sprinkle nuts on bottom of pan. Combine all cake ingredients. Beat for 2 minutes on high with electric mixer. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool in pan. Invert on serving plate. Prick top with fork. Drizzle glaze over top of cake. Use brush or spoon to put extra dripping back on cake.

Glaze: Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in water and sugar. Boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in rum. Note: The rum will cause steam. Be careful not to burn yourself.

CHOCO CHIP

Went up to Bedugul last Sunday, ended at Roti Bedugul, my favorite bakery on the remote place. Besides their super quality croissant, they sell several lines of cookies too.
First time visiting Roti Bedugul, Pak Ketut - the chef, asked me to try their choco chips.

"This is an American style choco chips. American said that it has to be deep into coffee if you want to eat it! That is the best way to enjoy choco chip."

His explanation brought me to a documentary movie......., Mad Labs I think? On that movie was described the best way to deep your cookies into coffee or tea? What a weird subject! But still very interesting to know, since I also found difficult to get the just right deep. If you deep too long, you will easily lost a part of your cookies, if too short................, it will still hard! Oh my.......................














Promising good friends of mine in Ubud - Roti Bedugul's choco chips, reminded me of Mrs. Fields.

Mrs Fields? Who is she???

Ok...., ok...., let me tell you. Mrs. Fields was an ordinary housewife who finally becoming a famous business lady by selling her choco chips! And chocolate is the main ingredients in her bakings.

I can't even remember how did I get to know Mrs. Fields. I only remembered finally I put an order to Amazon for Mrs. Fields recipes book, and then be stunning when receiving the books and see the picture inside. So mouth watery! You don't believe me? No?? Just see the picture of Mrs. Fields website? Still don't believe me? Ok....., visit: http://www.mrsfields.com

Well......what about if I am living in her town? Oh no.........., maybe will be really difficult to maintain shapes!

Here it is a video from youtube.com on HOW TO MAKE A CHOCOLATE CAKE!

NASI GORENG

The most popular choice amongst Indonesian culinary besides Satay is Nasi Goreng. I try to find from where originally nasi goreng is, but could not find any information related to it. Below is the information I got from wikipedia about nasi goreng:

Nasi goreng is an Indonesian and Malaysian version of fried rice - that is what it means in both languages. The dish has hundreds of variations, but it is often accompanied by additional items such as a fried egg, fried chicken, satay, or krupuk (fried crackers / chips made of shrimp or vegetables). In many restaurants, when accompanied by a fried egg, it is sometimes called as nasi goreng spesial.

Although nasi goreng can be eaten at any time of day, most Indonesian people often eat nasi goreng during breakfast, and mostly ingredients are given from the leftovers from the dinner the previous day. The rice should be cooked ahead and let it to go cold to make, and this is why the leftover dinner is used because the rice is preferably taken from day before. Nasi goreng is a complete meal but sometimes it is also part of a banquet.

The main ingredients for the plain nasi goreng include pre-cooked (and preferably cold) rice, soy sauce, garlic, shallot and some spring onions for garnishing. For the special one, add fried egg, a cracker, some slice of raw tomatoes and cucumbers. When the main ingredient (rice) is replaced by noodle, the dish becomes mee goreng (fried noodle).

Nasi goreng can also be found in restaurants in western countries, mostly in Chinese and Indian ones, but with local adaptation. For instances, by adding some curry seasoning. In the Netherlands, several Indonesian-Chinese restaurants offer nasi goreng with selected original spices to suit the Dutch taste.

I was just a kid (about 8 or 9 years old), when my father often played a song titled "Gief Meej Maar Nasi Goreng". Somehow, that song sticked on my memory up to now, maybe as many Indonesian food mentioned on the lyric like, nasi goreng, onde-onde, krupuk, sambal etc. When writing this post, I tried to find who is the singer of that song, and YIPPEEEEEE! I found it. The name of the singer is Wieteke van Dort (http://www.wietekevandort.nl/ - unfortunately it is in Dutch) If you wish to hear to that unique song, please visit http://urno.multiply.com/music/item/56 Back to nasi goreng. Near my house there is a busy hawker food stall which specialized in Nasi Goreng Petai (Parkia Speciosa) - a kind of bean with stinky smell but taste good to its lover (I am one of them LOL!). They also have Nasi Goreng Jawa (Jawa = Java), which using shrimp paste as one of the ingredients and slices of big chilly. It is not hot but has a very special smell. Kind of sambal smell very tempting. One varian of nasi goreng which categorized unique, I found in Jogjakarta last year. It was cooked over a traditional brazier which caused it has a smoky smell. Besides that, they also have a dish, a combination of Mee Goreng and Nasi Goreng which named "Magelangan" style. Magelang is a name of a small city in Mid Java - near Jogjakarta. Which varian of nasi goreng is your favorite?

Food Supply for School Time

I had a chit-chat with a friend yesterday evening. She dropped at my home to pick up her son, the eldest of 6 brothers! I never have a thought of having more than 2 kids now days and maybe for other career women they will think the same too.

I was preparing my florentine cookies when she arrived, we had our conversation in my kitchen while the kids were happy barbecue-ing outside.

Then after talking and talking we entered mom's subject........, preparing food supply for the kids to be brought to school! I asked her what happened if each kid asked for different kind of food supply? I can't imagine, preparing 6 different food supplies in the early morning..........wow

But she said that her eldest son acted like the commander for his little brothers, and he is the one who decide what food will be prepared for the next morning!

Here I shared the recipe of the florentine cookies I made yesterday:
INGREDIENTS:
Based:
230gr unsalted butter
230gr sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp almond extract
300gr All purpose flour
150gr Oatmeal

Topping:
150 g mixed peel
200 g dried apricot
100 g orange peel
200 g almond flakes
100 g unsalted butter
100 g Castor Sugar
120 ml honey

INSTRUCTION:
Beat the sugar + butter, put in the egg, almond extract and finally the flour & oatmeal. Mixed thoroughly.
Keep the mixture in the refrigerator until set. Roll the mixture into 6 mm thickness.
Put in a pan which already based with baking paper. Oven for +/- 5 minutes. Put aside.

Topping:
Cut all dried fruit into small pieces and mixed together.
Heat the sugar, honey and butter until butter dissolved put the dried fruit mixed in and stir smoothly.
Put the mixture on top of the base and oven at 180 degree of Celsius for 15 minutes.
While it still hot, cut into the shape you like and cool.

Hot Sweet and Sour Soup

I noticed since last year the weather is unpredictable. Scientists said it caused by the global warming. It is quiet cold lately in Bali. Temperature at the afternoon time in Denpasar showed about 29 deg of Celcius. At night we do not need air condition. The water is also very cold.

In November there will be a big international meeting related to the global warming issues held in Nusa Dua Convention Centre in Bali. Hope the meeting will run successfully and bring a solution to overcome the environment problems.

Since the weather was quiet cold last week, my love ones asked me to cook hot sweet and sour soup to warm themselves. So here it is I shared the recipe for you:

INGREDIENTS:

2Ltr Chicken Broth
Medium size Ginger - peel and crushed
1/2 Onion - slice thinly
200gr Shrimp – clean, peel and cut into cubes
150gr Beancurd - cut into matches shape
150gr Black Fungus (tree Ears) – Slice thinly
150gr Pork Luncheon – cut into matches shape
150gr Canned Bamboo Shoot – cut into matches shape
150gr Konyaku – cut into matches shape
100gr Streaky Bacon – slice thinly
50 – 75 ml Black Vinegar - to your taste
5tbs Vinegar
2tbs Chinese Cooking Wine
3tbs Soy Sauce
2 tbs Sesame Oil
2tbs Sugar
1 ½ tsp Salt
1 tsp Pepper
1 – 2 tbs Bottled Chilly Sauce (used the one that still contain chilly seeds)

INSTRUCTION:
Fry without adding cooking oil the streaky bacon, until crisp. Put aside.
Fry the onion with the oil produced from frying streaky bacon. Put aside.
Bring to boil the chicken broth + ginger
Put in the shrimp and wait until the shrimp turn red.
Put in the black fungus, bamboo shoot, konyaku, fried streaky bacon + onion, konyaku, beancurd, and pork luncheon.
Put in the seasoning.
Bring to boil once more.
Serve hot.

SEAFOOD

I like seafood especially fish so much. Sadly, I read in many reports through internet, newspaper and from the television, most of seawater fish nowadays has been contaminated with toxin and metal.

One of my nice had an intoxication of metal from seawater fish that she had had during her early years which caused her of having a slightly autism behavior. She took a long process of medication because of it.

Now, I do be very careful in choosing fish to cook. My love one likes to do fishing and he knows where he can still get nice healthy fish. And the place is at Nusa Penida Area.

Nusa Penida is a small island located southwest of Bali. Why I believe the fish from there is not contaminated? Let me explain the topography of Nusa Penida. The island has many crags. You can see from the place you stand on the top of crag the base of the sea! The water is sparkling during afternoon hours and you also can see fish, turtles swimming. In that ecology like that, I believe the creatures live inside still not get contaminated.

I attached here picture of seawater fish of Nusa Penida (look at the colors! You will agree with me if I said those fish are very fresh and healthy!) and also the view of Nusa Penida. (this picture was taken by my friend Darmo, thanks for let me using your work!)

A freshly caught fish cooked with a simple seasoning like Chinese – Styled Steam Fish is the best. The freshness of the fish still can be tasted just because of its simplicity.

Here I share the Chinese – Styled Steam Fish recipe I often use.

1 medium size of snapper

4 cloves of garlic – slice thinly

1 medium young ginger – slice thinly

1 stalk of lemongrass

2 tablespoon rice wine

1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil

Salt and Pepper

METHOD

Clean and wash fish. Dry well with kitchen towel. Make 2 or 3 incisions on both sides of fish crosswise. Rub with salt and pepper to your taste. Set aside at least 15 minutes to let the salt and pepper absorbed.

Preheat the steamer for 10 – 15 minutes.

Put the fish on a plate (use one which is not to flat, since the fish will be a bit watery).

Rub the fish with rice wine and spatter the sesame oil on both sides.

Arrange slice garlic and ginger on top of the fish by turns.

Put the stalk of lemongrass on the fish.

Steam for 15 minutes.

Serve hot with rice.

BANANA CHEESE CAKE

I like this cake so much. The rich flavor of bananas combined with cheese give you a sensational taste. Serve for your tea time!

CAKE:
150g All Purpose Wheat Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
50gr Cheddar Cheese - grated
10 pcs Sweet Banana
7 pcs Cheese Slice
10 Egg Yolk
2 egg white
1tsp Vanilla
100gr Castor Sugar
100gr Butter - melted

SPREADING:
25gr Butter
50gr Cheedar Cheese - grated

INSTRUCTION:
Line tray 22 x 22 x 5 cm with baking paper, spread margarine over it thinly. Preheat oven to 180°C.

Cake: Sieve flour + Baking Powder, add grated cheese, mixed thoroughly, put aside.
Peel sweet bananas. Take 4 bananas and mash. Put aside. Slice elongated the remain bananas into half, and slice again into 2 or 3 parts depending on the length of each banana.
Arrange cut banana covering the bottom of the tray.
Put cheese slice on top of the banana.
Give 1 cm gap from the edge of the tray. Put aside. Mix Egg Yolk, White Egg + Vanilla using electric mixer on a medium speed until foamy.
While mixing, put in sugar in several stages. Mix until thick and expand.
Put in flour in 2 or 3 stages, mix gently using wooden or rubber spatula.
While mixing, put in mashed banana. Add in the melted butter slowly, mix well.
Pour the mixture into the tray slowly on top of banana & cheese slice layer. Please be careful when pouring, keep the banana & cheese layer un-moved.

Bake for ± 60 minutes. Take out the cake from the oven and cool. Finishing: Turn the tray upside down on a wooden cutting board. (Banana & Cheese layer at the bottom)
Move the baking paper, trim the edge of the cake. Remove the hardened part.
Spread margarine on top of the cake and spread grated cheese over it.