Citra's Home Diary

Beef Saute in Pita Bread

I made Pita bread yesterday. And for filling I make beef saute with cumin for our iftar (breaking fast) menu today. Hubby said, why don't you try to make meatball for the filling next time?

Eh, why not.. ^,^ But I make this beef saute because inspired by döner kebab that he like so much. I slice the meat in very thin and wide, so it's döner look like (*_*), with strong cumin flavor which I like.. I'll bet You will get great menu for your lunch or dinner with this pita bread...

served 4~6

Ingredients for beef saute and how to make:
• ± 350 g beef, thinly widely sliced .
• 2 medium onions, finely sliced half-ring shape
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed & finely chopped
• 1 medium size tomato, cut into small squares
• 2 carliston pepper, seeded, sliced lengthwise
• ½ teaspoon pepper powder
• ½ tsp all spice powder
• 1 ½teaspoon ground cumin
• ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp salt or to taste
• Small amount of sugar
• Enough cooking oil for sauteing

Making beef saute:
Heat oil in a skillet, cook beef until tender--If necessary add small amount of water and cook until water dried again. Stir in onion and garlic, saute until fragrant and wilted. Combine tomatoes and carliston biber, continue stir frying until wilted. Put all other spices, check the taste. Remove from fire.

Other ingredients:
• 4 pieces of Pita bread (you can see recipe here), halved each
• Sliced onions
• Sliced tomatoes
• Lettuce
• Chili flakes for sprinkle on top

How to serve:
Arrange the salad inside slice of pita bread, give beef saute and sprinkle with chili powder/ flake if you like.

Serve warm immediately.

Pita Bread

Pita bread is a round pocket bread widely consumed in many Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, and Balkan cuisines. It is prevalent from the Balkans through Turkey, the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula. The "pocket" in pita bread is created by steam, which puffs up the dough. As the bread cools and flattens, a pocket is left in the middle.

Originated in the Middle East and were traditionally cooked in tandoor ovens.

Yield 8 ~ 10 breads.

Membuat susu kental manis sendiri I / Homemade Sweet Condensed Milk I

Selam everybody....Merhaba from Turkey.

Have you ever think to make your own sweet condensed milk? Maybe for you who can find it easily around corner in your place, making it at home will consuming a lot of effort and not practical at all. But for those who's just like me, finding this product is like finding a water in desert :))

Maybe because in Turkey not many people know and use this sweet condensed milk. And indeed, provide need demand, right? ^,^

In my homeland, mostly people using this, we call it "susu kental manis". Even you can find in economic packet for you to bring anywhere ^,^

Well, anyway... If you like to make everything by homamade, or you can't find it in your place, or you just want to try to make it.. here it is my recipe for homemade sweet condensed Milk

Yield ± 250 ml

What you need and how to make it:
 50 gr unsalted butter
 ¾ cup granulated sugar
 ¾ cup water
 1 cup powdered milk

Pandan and Coconut Steamed Cake

Pandan or Pandanus amaryllifolius one kind of tropical plant. The plant is rare in the wild but is widely cultivated. It is an upright green plant with fan-shaped sprays of long, narrow, blade like leaves and woody aerial roots. The plant is sterile, flowers only very rarely, and is propagated by cuttings.

used widely in Southeast Asian cooking as a flavoring-wikipedia

Beside can give such a nice flavoring in foods, some kind of pandan can give beautiful natural green color, I just love it.

This pandan we can plant it either on garden yard or inside pot. Too bad I don't have it in my home here. I have no idea even if I can bring this plant here, whether it can survive in 4 season country like Turkey. I remember my mom plants this pandan in pot at our house in Indonesia.

Last time my friend brought me pandan paste from Indonesia and give me 1 small bottle. I was so happy cause I miss it's fragance and I miss some Indonesian food (mostly dessert and cake) using this pandan falvor...

So here it is my 1st Pandan cake in Turkey @(^,^)@

You can try to find this pandan paste in Asian grocery store in your country/ city, maybe you'll get lucky to have one...

Ingredients A:
• ¾ cup grated coconut (fresh or dried)
• 2 tablespoons caster sugar

Ingredients B:
• 3 medium eggs
• ¾ cup caster sugar
• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tsp vanilla powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• pinch of fine salt
• 1 ½ tsp pandan paste
• 100 gr unsalted butter, melted and mixed with ½ cup olive oil

Friendly Tag... I'm in

I've been tag by My dear foodie friend Ping. Hai Ping..! thanks for tagged me and be part of this friendly event. Here I just copy paste the rule to enliven this event from her page.

This tag is all about your own stuff. I think it's a great idea to highlight some long forgotten posts or some lonely, neglected, uncommented recipe ... especially during one's early days of blogging. I'm happy to be tagged by Ping, from Ping's picking to take part in this 7 - Link Challenge. That's 7 of your own posts in relation to the categories and then to nominate 5 victims bloggers to join in. No extra cooking or baking required.

2 simple rules:

A) publish links for the categories below (1 link per category)

I'm not sure exactly when the post should be published, so I just choose my posts only publishes in 2011

Here are my links:
1. The most beautiful post:
Steamed Chocolate brownies with Sun Flower decoration

I consider this one to be most beautiful post in this 2011 until I felt pity to cut this cake ^,^

2. The most popular post:
Popular post based on google search this year, goes to:
Pırasa Böreğı

3. The most controversial post:
Frankly speakıng I don't really understand what ıs most controversial post is. 1st in my thought, controversial means, I post something, then suddenly somebody else claim it as his/ her post ..hehehehehe...anyway, then I decide my LAHMACUN to be controversial post. Why? I read on my tweeter some people claim this food came from their country, not Turkey. I know, some countries in same area (middle easter and mediteranean) have similarity in food and culture. Just like in south east asia, we have some similarity in food and culture, between, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore. Every country has differential and it's own characteristics :)

4. The most helpful post:
I think it will go to: Ayran-Cold yogurt drink

5. The post that was surprisingly successful:
Goes to: Cheddar cheesecake with fruits topping

6. The post that did not get the attention it deserved:

I know, most of you probably unfamiliar with this food, but once you try it.. you will like it. it's healthy vegetable snack during your empty hour :))

Meet: Ote-Ote/ koheci/ Weci/ fried vegetable snack

7. The post that I'm most proud of:
Tiramisu Cheesecake is the most I proud of. It's new for me also and I'm surprisingly amazed how great when Cheesecake mix with tiramisu flavor ^,^

B) nominate up to 5 bloggers to take part

And my next 5 nominees are.....

1. Erin - Dinners, Dishes, and Desserts

2. Kelly - Eat your self skinny

3. Madeja - Cranberry Jam

4. Akheela - Torview

5. Sizuka - The Cat, The Rabbit & The Hedgehog

Chicken Cardamom with Bulgur Pilaf

Selam everybody.....Merhaba from Turkey.

Who doesn't like cardamom? If you don't like it, you better try it.

If you are looking for dinner or lunch menu idea, I recommend this one. Quick and easy to make but the result isn't as simple as how it's prepared. I guarantee it will be repeatable menu for your family.

I made this bulgur pilaf deliberately simple so it can go with your other favorite meal.

Served 4 .

Cardamom Chicken Ingredients:
 4 pieces of chicken thighs, stab at some places with a fork
 1 medium onion, grated
 3 cloves garlic, grated
 2 tsp cardamom powder
 1 teaspoon ground cumin
 ½ tsp pepper powder
 ½ tsp powdered ginger
 ½ tsp chili powder
 4 tablespoons canola oil or other vegetable oil
 1 tablespoon molasses (can be replaced with honey)
 1 ½ tsp salt or to taste

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe

Selam Everybody....Merhaba from Turkey

This chocolate chip cookies is really really become favorite treat during our tea time at home since 1st time I made them. I made them many few batches already start from last week and all of them could not survive more than 1 day ! this is the latest batch I made and survive for the picture and post in my blog d(^,^)b.

Mom, let's try it also at home.. and let's the family

Yield: about 60 cookies.

Ote-Ote / Koheci/ Weci/ Bakwan sayur / Indonesian Vegetable fritter

It's one of traditional Indonesian snack-favorite one. In some places people also eat them as side dish accompanying their main dish. Some areas have different name for it, some call it "Ote-ote" while other area call it "koheci" or "weci" or mostly people call it Bakwan sayur.
Content of mostly vegetables with flour to make thickened, some area put shrimp in it. But generally it's fried vegetables. Serve it warm is always better way to enjoy it, with sambal petis (dark shrimp paste sauce) and birdeye chilly

Ingredients:
• 1 cup fresh shrimp, discard tail and head
• 1 cup bean sprouts
• 1 cup julienn cut cabbage
• 1 cup roughly shaved carrot / cut into matchsticks
• 1 cup celery leaves chopped
• 1 ½ cup flour
• 1 small egg, beaten
• Enough water
• Enough Cooking oil for frying

Puree/ ground these spices:
• ½ medium onion (or 4 small red onions)
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 ½ tsp peppercorn
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar (or to taste)
• Salt and sugar to taste

How to make:
1) mashed/ puree: onion, garlic, pepper, salt and sugar. Puree also shrimp heads and tails into it.
2) In a large bowl, combine all vegetables, flour, baking powder, ground spices, shrimps and eggs. Give enough water slowly~just enough for wet the flour and all ingredients (not too watery). Stir it all until blended, sample a taste, give the broth flavoring if desired.
3) Heat oil over medium heat, fry the dough a spoonful after spoonful. Fry until pink and cooked through.

Note: if you want to have round shape like mine, heat serving soup spoon into hot oil, make sure the ladle is really hot (if not, the dough will be sticky on it). Then put the dough onto hot ladle, place shrimp on top and dip into the hot oil until the dough is separated by it self from the ladle.

Serve warm with chili sauce or birdeye chillies.

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