Citra's Home Diary: January 2011

Hearted Eggless Tiramisu

Unlike my previous post of tiramisu, this time I made it egg less and I use lady finger instead of sponge cake. Although without egg, I guarantee this tiramisu just yummy as it should be and also delicate .... And your family member will love it.

I prefer use cream cheese rather than mascorpone cheese in this recipe and also of course non alcohol. You can also reduce amount of coffee if you don't want your kid consume more coffee.

To decorate the tiramisu, it required your unlimited creativity and imagination, so you can make any creation with your tiramisu. I made my tiramisu with heart shape and I decorate it with heart shape dark cooking chocolate too. Sprinkle more with drop chocolate... hmmm.. Perfect dessert isn't it?

What you need:

For pan 9 " size
* 400 grams of lady finger
* Cream cheese 350 gr
* 2 + 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
* 200 ml double cream
* 1 cup powdered sugar (for me it's sweet enough, but you can add it more as your taste)
* whip cream powder 75 gr
* 1/2 cup cold milk
* 3 tablespoons instant coffee
* 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
* 2 cups warm water
For the garnish and topping
* cocoa powder
* dark cooking chocolate
* chocolate chip

Method:

1) Make coffee liquid mixture. Mix and stir instant coffee, sugar and warm water. Set aside up to room temperature.
2) By using hand whisk, beat cream cheese, butter, double cream and powdered sugar until smooth and no lumps. Set aside and keep in refrigerator.
3) Mix whip cream powder and cold milk. Beat until thick. Combine with cheese mixture. Mix until well blended and no lumps. Keep in refrigerator for about 1 hour.

Assembling Tiramisu:
Wet the lady fingers with coffee mixture, arrange in heart shape (If you like) springform pan, pour tiramisu mixture. Stacking with coffee wet lady fingers again and pour tiramisu mixture again. And so on until finish.
Keep in refrigerator at least 3 hours before serving. Sprinkle the surface with cocoa powder and garnish with chocolate chips or dark cooking chocolate before serving.
:: Note
To make a heart shape chocolate, melted dark cooking chocolate over double boiler and make heart shape on baking paper to prevent sticking. Let it chill until it ready.

Today's Top 9 by Foodbuzz on Jan 1st 2011

http://www.foodbuzz.com/top9?date=2011-01-01

Tiramisu is a layered dessert, consisting of alternating layers of coffee-soaked Savoiardi biscuits and sweet mixture of mascarpone cheese and eggs and sugar. Cocoa powder is sifted on top (and sometimes between layers) as both a garnish and a bitter counterpoint to the sweetened cheese mixture.^[7]

To prepare the biscuit layer, Savoiardi (light, finger-sized sponge cakes, commonly known as ladyfingers in the United States) are soaked in espresso or strong coffee, often with an addition of a flavorful liquor such as sweet marsala wine or dark rum.

For the mascarpone cheese layer, a mixture of egg yolks and sugar is first prepared: egg yolks are mixed with sugar to form a thick cream to which the mascarpone cheese is added, then the egg whites are beaten stiff and folded in to the mascarpone/egg cream. This mixture is spread over the coffee-soaked biscuits (often a liquor such as Rum or cognac will be added to the coffee for soaking the biscuits). The layer is then topped with a dusting of cocoa powder, and more layers are added.

Countless variations for tiramisu exist. Some cooks use other cakes or sweet, yeasted breads, such as panettone, in place of ladyfingers.^[8] Other cheese mixtures are used as well, some containing raw eggs, and others containing no eggs at all. Other liquors are frequently substituted for the traditional Marsala wine in both the coffee and the cheese mixture, including dark rum, Madeira, port, brandy and cognac

Source: Wikipedia

Homemade Soy Milk (Membuat susu kedelai di rumah)

Beside of main ingredients for making "tempeh" and tofu (Tahu-Indonesian), soy bean also can be processed into milk or soy milk. Making soy milk has been developed in China in the 2nd century BC. and went into Japan then Southeast Asian countries after World War II.

Soy milk has a protein content and amino acid composition similar to cow milk. Soy milk also non cholesterol. Protein content in soy milk are influenced by soy varieties. Soy milk can be used to improve the nutritional value of food protein in rice and other cereals.

There are many benefits of soy milk, such as reducing blood cholesterol levels,Prevents Arteriosclerosis, Hypertension, Coronary Heart Disease and Stroke, Prevent Diabetes Mellitus, Anti-Cancer. and other benefits can we get from this soy milk.

Unfortunately with those all nutrients and benefits on soy milk, lots of soy milk made from genetically (non-natural) soybeans which is absolutely not healthy and dangerous.

If we want to get the maximum benefit from this soy milk, we can make our self at home with natural soy ingredients of our own healthy choice. So, my don't we try this healthy way, Homemade. @(^_^)@

Tools We need:

- Blender
- stainless steel pans
- Filter and cheesecloth (I just use thin cotton fabric)
- Clean Bottle to keep soy milk

Ingredients:
- Soybean
- Warm water

Method (You can also see illustration picture):

A. Soak soy bean at least 8 hours or overnight. Give much water because it will expand twice.
B. Wash Soy bean many times so that the soy milk later does not smell musty.

C. Drain the soy.
D. Using a blender, puree soybean with warm water, on ratio 1 : 2 (1 for soybeans and 2 for water)
E. Filter and separate the soy milk from the waste using a filter coated with cheesecloth.
F. And you get the soy milk as in illustration (F).
G. Heat over medium heat while stirring occasionally until boiling.

Let it chill. Store and keep in refrigerator. Better consumed not more than 1 months.

Sausage Pastry

From Pastry basic batter we can vary many kind of pastries... like this one, I fill it with sausage, as my husband favorite.

It's simple and ready anytime for breakfast or afternoon tea...

Ingredients:
- 1 recipe pastry dough Or you can use ready use pastry dough
-800 Grams of sausage. Slightly slices the surface
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 egg yolks
- Sesame black or white sesame seeds for topping

Method:
- Boil 1/2 liter of water add salt and pepper. Put sausage and cook until the spices marinated the sausage. Set aside.
- Roll pastry dough using rolling pin approximately 1 cm thick and cut them into squares (adjusted with the size of the sausage). Then wrap the sausage into triangle form.
- Preheat oven to 160 deg C. rubbing the surface of a sausage pastry with egg yolk and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake until golden yellow.

Smoked Sweet Paprika Chicken Grill

It was almost perfect Sunday. Almost. The temperature outside reach 19 deg C, Sunny, no cold wind. So me and hubby decide to make something to grill for lunch and dinner. So I prepare fish grill burger and sweet paprika chicken grill. But forgive me I just can post the sweet paprika chicken grill cause the fish grill burger couldn't survive for picture taking ..hahahhaa... we couldn't wait the fish burger getting cold d(^_^)b.

Maybe next time I can share by posting here also.

Sunday barbecue time as I said almost perfect, except suddenly cold wind blew bring sudden rain during we grilled the chicken...

But overall, our weekend grill was great and fully tempting, especially for this cat. I think he waited for our grill fish and chicken done... @(^_^)@

Cat is waiting our fish and chicken grill done I think

He is ready to jump to our balcony to get his share ^_^

Things to Prepare to make Sweet Paprika Chicken Grill:

- 1 kg chicken thighs (about 7 ~ 8 pieces chicken thighs). Stab/ Pin-prick with a fork.
Marinate with these seasoning :
- 3 cloves garlic (or more-if You like), grated / puree.
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tbsp smoked sweet paprika powder
- 1 tsp black pepper powder
- 2 ~ 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tsp chili powder (If you like more hot spicy, you can add as much as you want)
- 2 tsp dried thyme
- 2 teaspoons dried basil
- salt to taste

Soak chicken in marinade at least 3 hours or overnight. Grilled over coals until done.

Enjoy your Sweet Paprika Chicken Grill. I dip my chicken grill in hot thai Chilly sauce.

Cheddar Cheesecake with Fruits Topping

Selam everybody..Merhaba from Turkey.

my another Cheddar Cheesecake post. My previous post was Cheddar cheese Cupcake . After succeed with Cup cake trial, I was trying to make a bigger dessert, cheddar cheese cake. I use mix fruit as topping. Beside pomegranate jam I also use fresh kiwi and fresh navel oranges. But of course topping your cheese cake is about your own style and taste. Just be more creative and have fun with it d(^_^)b

The ingredients and method is almost the same with the cupcake, only you will need 7" fixed based baking pan (If you are using springform pan, make sure it's wrap tidily with heavy duty-aluminium foil to make it waterproof). You also need bigger pan for water bath baking. Fill it with hot water. Set a side.

Ingredients A:

- 1 fully press cup grated unsalted cheddar cheese.

- 130 ml whole milk

- 40 gr unsalted butter

Ingredients B:

- Sifted ¼ cup all purpose flour.

- Sifted ¼ cup cornstarch.

Ingredients C:

- 4 medium egg yolks

- 1 tsp lemon zest

Ingredients D:

- 4 medium egg whites

- ¾ cup caster sugar

- 1 ½ tsp lemon juice

Castle Cross-stitch Handicraft (Karajinan tangan Kristik- Gambar Kastil)

Cross-stitch is a popular form of counted-thread embroidery in which X-shaped stitches are used to form a picture. Cross-stitch is usually executed on easily countable evenweave fabric called aida cloth. The stitcher counts the threads in each direction so that the stitches are of uniform size and appearance. This form of cross-stitch is also called counted cross-stitch in order to distinguish it from other forms of cross-stitch. Sometimes cross-stitch is done on designs printed on the fabric (stamped cross-stitch); the stitcher simply stitches over the printed pattern.

Cross-stitch is one of the oldest forms of embroidery and can be found all over the wold. Many folk museums show examples of clothing decorated with cross-stitch, especially from continental Europe and Asia.

If you are interesting to do this crafting you can googling or visit some nice page to know and learn more about this fabulous craft like http://www.dmc.com/majic/pageServer/1z010000hy/en_US/What-is-Cross-Stitch.html

http://www.alitadesigns.com/cross-stitch/patterns/logos.php

This is another crafting hobby that I love to do to kill my boring time beside cooking. This cross-stitch project I finished about 3 or 4 months.

Making your own POMegranate Jam (Membuat selai Delima)

Pomegranate. I love it. I love the color and I love the sweet (slightly sour) taste. And do you know that pomegranate also can prevent prostate cancer and very much good for your heart?

Yes.. healthy and yummy at one packet! (^_^)

Few days ago I made my own pomegranate jam and it goes along lovely with some of my desserts, like Cheddar Cheese Cake with fruits Topping, Brownie Tangerine Cheesecake, Cheddar cheese cupcake. And I bet it will be suit with your other dessert too. In fact I'm planning to make some more dessert using this beautiful and healthy and delicious Pom jam :D

Cheddar Cheese Cup cake

It's like Japanese Cheesecake style except I use unsalted cheddar cheese instead of normal cheese cream and I made it as cupcake. Pretty cute though. The texture's so light and as soft as cotton. You can eat them with or without your favorite jam. But mostly cheesecake (cheese cup cake) is better goes along with fruits jam.

Here I use my pomegranate jam as topping and adding the flavor.

Things You will need and how to make that cute yummy cupcake:

Preheat your oven at 160 deg C. We will need a pan for a water bath, fill it with hot water. Careful not too much water to pour. simply estimate your muffin pan will not sink or float much.

Ingredients A:

- 1 fully press cup grated unsalted cheddar cheese.

- 130 ml whole milk

- 40 gr unsalted butter

* Double boil all ingredients A until melted. Quick stirring while doing this melting work. remove from heat and let it slightly warm.

Ingredients B:

- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

- 1/4 cup cornstarch

* Mix ingredients B into cheese mixture. Stir well until smooth and no more lump

Ingredients C:

- 4 medium egg yolks

- 1 tsp lemon zest

* Mix in all ingredients C. Set aside after everything well blended.

Sate Ayam Bumbu Kacang (Indonesian Chicken Satay with peanut sauce)

Originated in Java, Indonesia, Satay gradually spread its appeal over the entire East Asian and Southeast Asian peninsula, before becoming a hot meal of choice among the whole world of gastronomists. While applauding the refined and luscious taste of this dish, how many of you have really wondered about the brilliant blend between the satay and the accompanying sauce? Curiously, this sauce is called by the gourmets simply Satay Sauce, without knowing, that this is in fact a variant of peanut sauce.

I think now everyone is familiar with sate/ satay. One of Indonesia's most popular traditional foods and become every one's favorite. I personally really really really am number one fans of satay . In Indonesia it self there are many types of satay from various regions and of various ingredients. For example, from Padang city (Sumatra), I like satay Padang. There are also "sate kelapa" (beef satay wrapped with grated coconut-My best favorite)-it's mostly from Madura Island, quail eggs satay, clam satay, 'tempeh' satay and there are dozens of other types of satay (which is nearly I have eaten already). For mutton/ lamb satay you check here for the recipe

Beside of many variations of satay, satay usually also served with various sauces. "Sate Padang" has different sauce from most general one--You can check recipe here . There is also satay with sweet soy sauce (kecap manis) here the recipe . This time I made chicken satay with peanut sauce--the most common and popular sauce among of all.

Things you will need:

- 2 boneless chicken breasts. Diced 2x2 cm, puncture on satay skewer.
- kaffir Lime or lemon
- Sweet soy sauce/ kecap manis
- Some shallots, finely sliced , set aside, sprinkle when serve.

Sup Buntut Goreng (Indonesian Oxtail Soup)

Oxtail Soup, Famous and favorite of everyone in Indonesia :p . This time I also fry the oxtail after being cooked and serve it separately from the soup (just like my favorite). Actually you can serve it right away without fry (or roasted) it. Usually served with "sambal Kecap" or sweet soy chilly and squeeze with lemon juice to give fresh flavor.

Ingredients:
-1 kg oxtail, wash and cut into pieces to taste. Bring to a boil in 2 liters of water until completely soft.
- Fresh Ginger (tip of the thumb size). Crushed.
- 3 ~ 4 pcs dried cloves.

Image via Wikipedia

- 4 ~ 5 carrots, peeled and cut into round.
- 1 large size potato, peeled and diced
- Leek, cut roughly.
- A few celery sticks. Tie them together.

Make ground spices from ingredients as follows:
- 3 garlic
- 3 small shallots
- 1x1 cm fresh ginger
- 1 tsp peppercorn
- A small piece of nutmeg.
You can use pestle and mortal or small blender to do this.
>Complement:
- Lemon juice.
- "Sambal kecap" or sweet soy sauce chilly (*see note below how to make it)

How to cook:

Brownie Tangerine Cheesecake

I'm enjoy going and walking around in Farmer market. I can see many various color from fruits, vegetables, local (traditional) ready food and local hospitality. Mostly people see me in curious way with smile in their face, yes, it's because my Asia look among Them :D

Start early winter I can find many kind of orange or other fruits that mostly we find it in winter. Like this mandarin orange (tangerine orange), I bought 5 kg for 5 Turkish Lira (around US$ 3.5). Pretty much to make many kind of food or dessert. Well.. maybe I can try to make Cheesecake with tangerine... and voallaa... Before the cake really ready, my mouth already watering :)

I served it with my Pomegranate jam as sauce...hmm...Yummy!

This cheese cake I made brownie as base instead of biscuit crumb.

Ingredient and how to make brownie base:

1) Prepare your 7" springform pan. Grease with margarine. Preheat oven on 180 deg C.

2) Melted 80 gr dark cooking chocolate together with 50 gr unsalted butter over double boiler. Remove from heat. whisk in 1/2 cup caster sugar, 2 eggs one at the time. Whisk until sugar dissolve.

3) Whisk in 1 tablespoon whole milk. Mix in 1/2 cup flour. Whisk just until everything well combine. Pour in springform pan and bake 10 ~ 15 minutes. Let your brownie base cool.

For the cheesecake:
- 450 gr Cream cheese. softened on room temperature.
- 1 cup caster sugar.
- 3 large eggs
- 40 ml juice from tangerine orange.

Pumpkin Pie...It's My Weekend Dessert... (^_^)

Nothing is more fun than spending whole day in weekend with family. Just doing nothing, lazy time on warm sitting room, watching TV all day, hot tea, playing card with husband... :D

Nothing really special for lunch and dinner. But I made this Pumpkin Pie for our dessert this chill weekend. I already made the pie crust last Friday, so it's ready to bake by this Saturday morning as I planned before

Have a nice weekend Everyone !!! @(^_^)@

What you need:
- 1 recipe single crust pie dough. Roll with rolling pin and set to 22 cm pie pan, pin-prick the bottom with fork. Bake on preheat oven 190 deg C about 30 minute or until done.

- 1 cup + 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- Tip of teaspoon ground cloves (if it's too much it'll give bitter taste)
- 1/2 tsp fine salt
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (grated from whole nutmeg)
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
- 2 tsp cinnamon powder
- 3 eggs. beaten.
- 2 cups pumpkin puree
- 1/3 cup whole milk
- 200 ml (1 cup) heavy cream

Pie Crust Basic Dough (Adonan Dasar Pie Crust)

This Pie crust recipe making double crust pie (around 22 cm each). So if you want to make single pie crust, you can make it half recipe. But as my habit, for any basic dough I don't mind make it a little bit more because you can wrap it tightly with plastic film and keep in in freezer, anytime you need it, just grab it and you are ready for your dessert

Ingredients for double pie crust and how to make it:
- 2 and ¾ cup (310 gr) all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 250 gr unsalted cold butter. Cut in small pieces.
- pinch of salt
- 80 ml very cold water

If you use food processor (like I did): Combine sugar, flour, salt. Mix in butter until well combine. Mix in water, do not add all- just do it carefully, and process until everything become like crumbs.
Take it out from container and Roll with rolling pin on lightly floured working surface.
Or you can use butter cutter if food processor doesn't available in your kitchen. Just try not to touch the dough too much with your bare hand otherwise your crust will be hard (less crunchy).

Your pie crust is ready to go !

Pizza with mix topping

Sometimes I make and stock some pizza dough in case I need to make something quickly and I have no time. Just like Pizza. Once you have pizza dough on your refrig, you can grab and topping it as fast as your family order, bake it and voallaa... serve it hot immediately

Prepare your Pizza basic dough here. You might need only half recipe if you want.

For the sauce:
-2 cloves of garlic. crushed and finely chopped
-1 small onion. very finely chopped
-1 tablespoon dried basil leaves
-1 tablespoon dried thyme
-3 tbsp tomato paste (I mix with chilly paste). Dissolve in 1 cup warm water.
-salt and pepper to taste
- enough cooking oil (I use 2 tbsp olive oil)
For topping
- sausage, cut to taste
- sweet corn
- 1 tomato medium size. seeded and dice finely
- bell pepper, seeded and dice finely.
- cheddar cheese as much as you like. shaved
- mozzarella cheese as much as you like the. shaved

Method:

Almond Chocolate Swiss Roll Cake / Bolu gulung cokelat almond

For me making roll cake was very tricky. Sometimes end up with "cracking" in some part, other time end up 'shrinking' after comes out the oven. And after some bad experiences, finally I learn something for making this good looking cake.

Type of cake to make this roll cake is "airy" foam cake like sponge cake base recipe because it's flexible enough to being roll. So if you find "crack" on your roll cake it means your dough isn't moist and flexible enough when it being roll. Sprinkle your towel/napkin surface with icing sugar can help moist still during rolling process. And more important thing to make your dough moist is egg beating. The air 'trap' in the batter make cake flexible and moist. One more thing is baking condition. Do not bake it too dry but correct heat to make cake perfectly done. Tricky? NO, Just don't stop learning things d(^_^)b

My wish now, I can have very BIG steamer to make steamed roll cake .. *pray mode on d(^_^)b

Ingredients:

- 6 eggs. Separate the yolks from whites.
- 1/2 cup caster sugar
- 100 gr dark cooking chocolate. Melt over double boiler.
- 1/2 cup almond meal (ground almond)
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- a pinch of fine salt
- Enough icing Sugar for dusting over napkin/ towel.
For cream and garnishes:
- Enough whipped cream ( I use about 400 ml) whipped until stiff
- Canned Cherry
- Cocoa powder (optional)

Method:

My papertole

paper tole picture is built by cutting out certain parts of different prints of an identical image, then by shaping, layering, and gluing the pieces to the base print using neutral cure silicone, a 3 dimensional effect is created. The option of applying a lacquer or glaze to selected areas on your paper tole is open to highlight the 3 dimensional effect.

It's only one of my hobbies in my very spare time and feeling crafting.. If you want to learn more about this beautiful and fun craft you can googling for the papertole craft.. It's fun and it'll turn awesome ! @(^_^)@

TOM YUM GOONG (Spicy sour Shrimp Soup)

Tom Yum soup or Spicy sour shrimp soup, is a soups originating from Laos and Thailand. The Royal Lao version includes a pinch of rice in the soup, whereas other typical Laotian and Thai versions do not include rice as an ingredient. Tom yum is widely served in neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, and has been popularized around the world.

Tom yum is characterized by its distinct hot and sour flavors, with fragrant herbs generously used. The basic broth is made of stock and fresh ingredients such as lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, galangal, limejuice, fish sauce and crushed chili peppers.

Tom yum is usually made with prawns (tom yum goong or tom yum kung), chicken (tom yum kai), fish (tom yum pa in Laotian and tom yum pla in Thai), or mixed seafood (tom yum thale or tom yum po taek) and mushrooms - usually straw mushrooms or oyster mushrooms. The soup is often topped with generous sprinkling of fresh chopped cilantro (coriander leaves).

The less popular, and relatively more modern, variety of tom yum is tom yum nam khon (Thai: ต้มยำน้ำข้น), where coconut milk is added to the broth. This adaptation is not to be confused with tom kha - where the galanga flavor dominates the soup. Tom yum nam khon is almost always made with prawns, whereas chicken is often used in tom kha (called tom kha gai, "chicken galanga soup"). Its other cousin is less well-known outside Thailand - tom khlong. Sometimes Thai chili jam (nam phrik phao, Thai: น้ำพริกเผา) is added: this gives the soup a bright orange colour and makes the chili flavor more pronounced.

Commercial tom yum paste is made by crushing all the herb ingredients and stir-frying in oil. Seasoning and other preservative ingredients are then added. The paste is bottled or packaged, and sold around the world. Tom yum flavored with the paste may have different characteristics from that made with fresh herb ingredients.

Source: Wikipedia

It's sunny but very cold Sunday morning,2nd January 2011, about 5 degrees outside. This New Year celebrations I still passed it in Turkey, very much miss the celebration among families in Indonesia ...hopefully, the celebration next year I could be in Indonesia.

And this one, is only my little cure in this chill early 2011 day...

Ingredients needed:

- 1 kg of shrimp. Clean and separate shrimps' head and tail for making broth.
- 1/2 Kg fresh button mushrooms. Cut into pieces
- 1 + 1/2 lt of water for broth
- 2 stalks lemongrass. Crushed.
- 3 kaffir leaves.
- Galangal. Crushed.
- lemon juice to taste
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce

- 1 tablespoon soy sauce

- Coriander leaves for sprinkle/ garnish
- Enough cooking oil for sauteing.
Make puree from these Spices:
- 1 red onions (if you have small one, use it 3 or 4 pcs)
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon shrimp paste
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 large red chilly,seeded. (to give red color of soup)
- some cayenne pepper (if you like more hot spicy, you can add the amount)
- 3 kaffir leaves
- salt and sugar to taste
You can use blender or food processor