apple pie party

          

          Memasak adalah panggilan jiwa saya. Terdengar sangat menjanjikan ya?. Mungkin, karena saya juga tidak terlalu yakin apa passion saya. Semacam terlambat untuk menyadari apa panggilan jiwa saya yang sebenarnya. Tapi saya selalu berada di titik kebahagiaan tertentu ketika saya sedang memasak. Jadi harus dinamakan apa ini?. 

            Saya memasak sebagai hiburan batin (boo-yeah!). Sesederhana itu, karena ada  harga yang tidak bisa dibayar ketika melihat ekspresi bahagia dari orang yang menikmati masakan saya. Target yang paling dekat adalah teman-teman. Dengan prinsip, ya iyalah siapa yang ga suka dikasih makanan gratis dan (sukur-sukur) enak. Jadi, sebagai hiburan ulang tahun yang tertunda, saya memutuskan untuk membuat apple pie di rumah yang didukung dengan kehadiran sahabat-sahabat saya. Konsepnya sih cooking class tapi yang ada malah saya yang masak, mereka yang makan. Oh..terkecuali untuk Adrina dan Yudha yang masih bersedia memberikan kontribusinya. 

asisten 1

asisten 2

              APPLE PIE RECIPE

     Sugar Dough

• 200 gr mentega
• 150 gr gula halus
• 1 telur
• 350 gr tepung terigu   

     Filling

• 1 kg apel hijau
• 220 gr gula
• 2 batang kayu manis
• 25 ml air jeruk nipis
• 100 gr kismis
• 50 gr tepung maizena
• 3 tbsp ovalette/cake emulsifier
• 500 cc air

          Method of Cooking

      Sugar dough :

• Kocok mentega dan gula halus hingga mengembang dengan kecepatan medium
• Masukkan telur, aduk rata
• Masukkan tepung, aduk rata lalu angkat
• Simpan adonan di dalam kulkas hingga padat
• Giling adonan hingga setebal 2-3 cm.  Oles loyang pie dengan mentega, atur sugar dough pada loyang , ratakan dengan jari lalu tusuk-tusuk adonan dengan garpu agar pie crust tidak menggelembung ketika dioven. Sisakan adonan untuk menutup permukaan pie.
• Panggang dengan suhu 200ºC selama 18 menit atau hingga adonan sudah berwarna kuning kecoklatan

 my almost 20 years old mixer

           Filling :

• Kupas apel hijau, belah jadi empat lalu iris tipis. Rendam dalam air es agar warna tidak berubah.
• Rebus irisan apel selama 4 menit, lalu sisihkan
• Buat karamel dari gula, tambahkan kayu manis dan air jeruk nipis, kalau sudah kekuningan masukkan 400 cc air, rebus hingga mendidih
• Kentalkan dengan tepung maizena yang sudah dilarutkan dengan 100 cc air, tambahkan kismis dan apel yang sudah direbus, aduk sampai mendidih dan dinginkan

 apple filling

           Finishing :

• Siapkan sugar dough/pie crust yang sudah dipanggang, lalu masukkan filling ke dalamnya. Tutup permukaan pie dengan sisa adonan sugar dough yang sudah ditipiskan
• Oles atasnya dengan campuran kuning telur dan air (egg wash)
• Oven dengan suhu 180ºC selama 30-45 menit
• Dinginkan, lalu sajikan.

ready, set ...

 GO !

 VOILA !

           Sesi Hip-Hip Hura-Hura

highschool classmates and friends for life

Whawha and my guitar

I love you, mates!

 guitar clinic 

 cooking class batch 1

mucheese cream soup

          I love having comfort foods for my supper. Yes, I choose supper rather than dinner. My favorite choice of comfort foods is a bowl of hot cream soup with toast bread. The thing is I rarely make my own cream soup, so I use ready to serve cream soup. I often buy campbell's or royco's. Again, it feels so common to make your cream soup with only adding plenty of water and some salt and pepper and strring it up for several minutes then you're ready to eat it. I always and always add some additional ingredients. Few days ago, I made Mucheese Cream Soup and mucheese stands for mushroom and cheese by the way.


           Main Ingredient :

• 1 can of campbell's soup (any kind of condensed soups) or 1 pack of Royco's cream soup

           Additional Ingredients :

• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 can of champignon mushroom, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 ½  cups of grated cheddar cheese
• Cilantro

            How To Make :

• Prepare a saucepan. Saute onion and garlic with olive oil and butter until it's fragrant. Then add the mushrooms
• When the mushroom turned into brown colour, add water. Stir it well
• If you happen to use Royco's cream soup,  prepare a bowl, place the cream soup  and mix it with some water from the soup. Pour it to the pan and stir it gradually. It'll getting thickened after 3-4 mins. 
• Add 1 cup of grated cheddar cheese and cilantro. Turn of the heat or you can let it simmer so the cheese will melt in the soup.
• Place it in a bowl, add some chopped cilantro and add grated cheese on top of the soup. Voila, it's ready to eat!

           You can toast one or two whole wheat bread to serve it with the soup. You'll feel the warm and comfor feeling when you eat the soup and the crispy toast wheat bread. Don't forget to brush your teeth before you go to bed. Bon appetite!

chocolate high

     
         This is my second experiment of this week. I don't really like chocolate to be honest but sometimes I could be so crazy craving for it. My auntie bought me a kilo of almond slice which I don't know what I'm supposed to do with it. But hey, what could go wrong with chocolate and almond as a combo for tart?. So I reunited with my hand mixer and flour and eggs and butter and so on. As usual, I start to make it after I got home from work. I thought my 3-days-without-sleeping condition would aggravated my tart but thanks God it's not  :)  I've had a lot of fun in the kitchen.

            Crust :

• 6 tablespoons flour
• 150 gr butter, chilled
• 4 tablespoons caster sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 or (max.) 3 tablespoons cold water

           Dough :

• 2 tablespoons flour
• 5 tablespoons caster sugar
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 100 gr melted dark chocolate
• 90 gr almond slice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

           Additional :

• Dark sweet cherry in heavy syrup

            How to make :

• Prepare the crust. Choose a marble table to make the pie crust. First, mix all the dry ingredients (flour, salt and sugar). Place the butter in the middle of the flour, mix 'em well with fork then add 1 tablespoon cold water gradually until it forms a dough. Clean the table, smear a bit of flour, place the dough and roll it until it's 0.5 cm thick. It's actually could be anything you want. Thin crust or thick one. When it's done, place the crust in the pie pan ( I used foil pie plate because that's all I have). Put it in the freezer for 1,5 hours before you bake it.

• Take out the pie crust and pre heat the oven to 160º C. In a bowl, mix all the dough ingredients starting with sugar and flour (dry always comes first) followed by eggs, almond slice, melted chocolate, vanilla and salt. I used hand mixer because I want to mix it well. Place one or two dark sweet cherry in the middle of pie crusts, pour the mix into it and bake them for 45 minutes. When you timer's beeping, turn the temperature down to 145º C and let it for another 10 minutes. I did that because the tarts bloats and I don't want to deflate it. After 10 mins, take it out, let it cool down and it's ready to eat. Bon appetite !

 

chic chick chicken

          My buttermilk chicken experiment has a happy ending. I was over marinated it but the result is still good. I've promised to post the recipe so here it is..


          Main ingredient :

• 4 skinless chicken breasts, cut it the way you want. Strips, chunks etc

          Marinate :

• 250 ml buttermilk (if you can't find buttermilk, the alternative is mix the milk with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and let it sit for 2 minutes)
• 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 tablespoon chilli sauce
• 2 teaspoons oregano & paprika powder
• 4 teaspoons chilli powder
• salt and pepper

          Crumbs :

• 100 gr corn flakes, crushed
• 50 gr parmesan or cheddar cheese
• 2 teaspoons oregano

           How to make :

• Prepare the marinate. Mix all the marinate ingredients, rinse the chicken breast and dry it with paper towel. Next, dip them in the marinate, put it in the fridge and leave them for 8 hours. I love doing the marinating at night and bake them the next day for a better result. Trust me, the more over you marinated it, the way it's better. 
• After the chicken is perfectly marinated, you have to prepare the crumbs. Make sure the corn flakes are really crushed. Mix them equally.
• Before you bake, pre heat the oven to 200º C. Get the chicken out of the fridge and roll them around the crumbs one by one. It have to crumb neatly.
• Prepare the baking tray and smear a bit of olive oil on the surface, so the chicken won't stick to the tray. Place the chicken on it with a lil' space. If you want it to fragrant, place butter on it just before you put it into the oven. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

           You can serve and eat the chicken with a plate of rice or mashed potato. Anything you like. Good for me, I find cooking as the best therapy. Bon appetite!

chitra's recipe

a day to embrace

          I haven't slept since my last post and it's been..uumh, 27 hours?. Amazingly, I didn't supported by any kind of caffeine. Hoo-rah! Today was just another good day, well I have to keep it in mind, everyday is a good day for me. I'm getting sick with my weight-loss, my hair-loss and not to mention that I am seriously ill. But today I did something that I love, something that I considered as my mental therapy and it's cooking !

          I've got some ideas what to cook for brunch, lunch, light meal and dessert yesterday. God bless my attempt to make dessert  :)  and so with everything left in my fridge etc, right after I got home from work this evening I started to make Spicy Buttermilk Baked Chicken. Actually, I haven't cooked it but I marinated the chicken so they can rest for a night before I bake them tomorrow. I will post the recipe later. After I'm done with marinating the chicken, I made Kiwi Jelly Panna Cotta  *sigh*. I'm not really into sweets but I need it. Since panna cotta is easy ( I think so), I have no choice but to make it. That was my very first attempt to make a 'serious' dessert. I made cupcakes before but that's a piece of cake for me than keeping my eyes to the boiling cream and milk. It's still in my fridge, waiting to be set and I hope for a good result. We'll see.

           What I did last night...til the morning comes

           Today was start with raining. Taken at the last minute before I went to work. Guess the sky was crying for me, maybe  :)

marinating the chicken

         Waiting to be set. Hope I made it   :p

           The next dessert experiment will be ........  Chocolate Cherry Almond Tart!

            My body's trembling already. Gotta go to sleep and ready to welcoming February  :)  Cheers!

(not) live long and (no) prosper

        Bulan Januari sudah mau selesai. Time flies,uh?. Tahun baru dan Imlek juga sudah lewat. Bicara tentang Januari, tahun baru 2012 dan Imlek (as known as Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year), pasti kita familiar sama seasonal productnya McDonald's kan?. Junk food of the month is surely Beef Prosperity. Kenapa saya bilang surely?, pada dasarnya karena orang-orang di sekitar saya pada ribut banget ngomongin makanan yang keluarnya setahun sekali ini. Bahkan di tahun 2012, McDonald's Indonesia mengeluarkan dua varian Beef Prosperity yaitu single dan double. Whoa! welcome big tummy  :D

            Kemarin saya sempat ke salah satu gerai McDonald's di Surabaya karena ada titipan dari orang rumah buat beli most wanted burger ini. Jawabannya yang saya terima adalah, "maaf, Beef Prosperitynya lagi ga available,mbak." Oke deh, saya pikir cuman di satu tempat saja. Sampai pada akhirnya di gerai yang ke sekian, staffnya ngomong kalo masa beredarnya Beef Prosperity sudah habis alias expired. The end..

            Di jalan pulang saya sempat kepikiran betapa overratednya makanan ini. Saya paham konsep seasonal product yang bertujuan bikin customer pada kangen tapi dengan banderol harga yang sedikit tidak lazim (and since it's McDonald's after all..), baik untuk harga a la carte ataupun harga paket sepertinya nama Beef Prosperity ini kurang pas. Simply because its price brings no prosper for you. It's moderately high for a burger with local ingredients. Me personally crazy for Starbucks Cranberry Scone but I didn't eat it like everyday though I know it's seasonal product. Saya masih punya batas toleransi pada hal-hal kesukaan saya (dengan kerja keras menahan hawa nafsu, tentunya). I was trying to understand the concept of different people, different perspectives. I do love junk food..oh well, I do love salted french fries only....and BK's double whopper, Mushroom & Swiss Burger, Hershey's Sundae Pie yadayadayada  @_@ . I can't believe my eyes the first time I saw Beef Prosperity's ad on tv. They made it!. Mereka sukses jualan dan menggoda lewat mata pemirsa se-Indonesia Raya. Masih kebayang kan how juicy and luscious beef meatnya, empuknya roti burger and last but not least those tasty black pepper sauce?. I have faith that all have drawbacks and advantages.

            After all, tidak apa-apa juga sih kalau mau mengkonsumsi junk food selama tidak berlebihan (oh yea, I am so cliche) dan masih mampu..dan kepepet  :)  Karena tidak jarang saya juga masih kepikiran pasti ada aja orang yang willing to do anything to get it. Repot kan kalo akhir bulan udah ngebet banget pengen makan Beef Prosperity tapi keuangan lagi dalam kondisi ga prosper?, uang belum ada, ngutang bikin malu dan masa promonya juga keburu habis. Yang ketinggalan cuman ngenesnya aja deh. :p 

            Cheers!