Citra's Home Diary

Liebster Blog Award

“Liebster” is a German word that means “Dearest”, it also means ”Favorite”. So, in a way the award not only recognizes these bloggers as amazingly gifted in their own right but also as your very own personal favorites.

I received this "Liebster Blog" award from my new blog friend "Red Shallot" few days ago, but forgive my late to post it in my page and pass it right away. So thanks to "Red Shallot" for gave me such lovely award.

Please do Visit Red Shallot Kitchen It's content with nice recipes and great pictures, guaranteed to inspire you to get busy in the kitchen.

Here are the rules:
1)Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.
2)Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you.
3)Copy and paste the blog award on your blog.
4)Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed. (Some say just 3 or more blogs of less than 200 followers each)
5)Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog.

And now I must pass this lovely award to my other 5 favorite up and coming blogs ( I wish I could pass more than 5 ...).
They have so far filled my days with support, inspiration, enjoyment and and the love for food. Congratulations to my blogger friends :

1) Kiri at Healthy Foodie Travels

2) Ridwan at Ridwan's Kitchen/ Asian Spices Mix

3) Ping at Ping's Pickings

4) Lena at Frozen Wings

5) Junia at Mis Pensamientos

Happy blogging. Hugs..! @(^,^)@

Three tone Yogurt "Cheese" Chocolate mousse (Labneh Chocolate mousse)

Anyone does not like chocolate? well .. it seems no one who does not like chocolate ya .. especially my husband .. Whatever dessert he requests there must be Chocolate things in it .. so you'll see a lot of chocolate recipes on my page... do search more.. ^,^
While I do not really like to eat plain yogurt .. I always mix my yogurt with something, such as fruit jam, syrup or chocolate... ^,^

And for the dessert menu this weekend, I made something simple but "very chocolate"...

And let me tell you ... this is super Yummy!

Serve: 4

Ingredients:
 Dark chocolate, semisweet chocolate and white chocolate each 100 gr. And more for garnish
Note: you can mix white chocolate and dark chocolate for semisweet chocolate with ratio 70:30 gr (white:dark)
 1 ½ cup strained yogurt (you need to drain yogurt to separate the water in cheesecloth-lined strainer for at least 24 hours before)
Note: From 4 cup yogurt you will get about 1 ½ ~ 2 cup strained one (depend on how thick your yogurt)

Strained yogurt

Gulai Ikan Asam Pedas / Indonesian Spicy Sour Fish Curry

During my pregnancy, until this week 16th, my appetite has not returned to normal yet. My weight dropped to 2 pounds at last check. Nausea is also occasionally appear suddenly, especially when I'm cold.

I can not eat any Turkish food (or other food) as usual--even just only I remember it, I could be wamble! something which very strange and unreasonable by my husband .. But what can I say .. my body and feelings can not lie.

I just can eat my own (Indonesian) foods even though not all Indonesian meals I want to eat. Especially sour and fresh things are all I want ... plus February is still frozen (winter this year is colder winter than previous years).
So I made this spicy-sour fish curry to appetite myself in this cold February. If you want to try it also, you could check my recipe below.

Ingredients:

• 2 medium-size mackerel (or cod or salmon or pompano), cleaned and cut according to taste. Give a squeeze of lemon juice to prevent fishy smell
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 ~ 3 cm galangal, lightly crushed
• 1 medium green or red tomato, sliced crescent shape
• 1 tablespoon tamarind paste (or you can soak dried tamarind with little hot water)
• A little cooking oil for sauteing

Mash/ blend the ingredients:
• 5 ~ 6 shallots
• 5 ~ 6 garlic
• Few bird eye chilli to taste (if you do not want to be too spicy, you can just slice them)
• 2 ~ 3 long red cayenne pepper / red paprika pepper
• 2 cm fresh ginger
• 1 cm turmeric (1 tsp turmeric powder)

How to cook:

Heat enough oil in a pan, saute mashed spices, galangal, and bay leaf. Saute until fragrant, pour hot water (± 1 ½ liters), add tamarind paste, salt, and sugar, taste it. Put in fish, cover the pan, cook over medium heat for several minutes until fish is cooked (± 15 minutes). Last put in tomato slices a few minutes before being removed from heat.

Serve warm with white rice.

Kumpir in Portion

This is another version from my previous Kumpir recipe. Basically the recipe same, only I put them in small portion in occasional having some friends or family visit. And believe me, it's repeatable menu for your family too....

Prepare 4 large potatoes, wash clean. Prick in some parts with a knife, wrap with aluminum foil and bake in oven until cooked and soft. The time required can vary according to the size of potatoes (it took me about 60 minutes)

Hot Chocolate (Our fave beverage during winter)

This January I think the peak of winter, the snow seemed never stopped since beginning of new year's eve. Just few days to stopped, then continue snowing again for another nights. I am almost reluctant to leave my house because it was so freezing outside. I was born and raised in tropical country where the coldest weather ever there is only about 16degC, and that's even if we go to higher place.

almost never stop snowing

I almost did not leave my house during this January without any emergency purposes or very important thing to do, plus my current condition, I would immediately nausea and vomiting when I were in cold.

One alley corner near my home

Anyway, in freezing weather like this we always make something that can warm our self. Beside Turkish tea which has already become a habit in our house, this hot chocolate is also always my huby's request and other family member if they visited our home.

serve 2
Ingredients and how to prepare:
 2 cups of milk
 2 ½ dessert spoons Dutch process cocoa powder
 4 ~ 5 (or to taste) dessert spoons granulated sugar
 ± 80 g dark (or semisweet) cooking chocolate
 Whipped cream (optional) and chocolate saved for garnish

In a small saucepan, stir together milk, sugar and cocoa powder, heated over very low heat and stirring gently bring to simmer and foamy. Mix in the cooking chocolate and continue stirring gently until the chocolate is melted and dissolved.

Serve hot with whipped cream and a sprinkle with chocolate as a garnish.

Ikan Bakar sambal Dabu-Dabu (Grilled fish with "Dabu-Dabu" sambal)

Sambal is a chili based sauce which is normally used as a condiment. Sambals are popular in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the southern Philippines and Sri Lanka, as well as in the Netherlands and in Suriname through Javanese influence. It is typically made from a variety of chili peppers and is sometimes a substitute for fresh chilis. It can be extremely spicy for the uninitiated. In Indonesia it self, we have many kind verieties of Sambal. One of it is "sambal Dabu-Dabu".

Sambal dabu-dabu It comes close to the Mexican salsa sauce, origin from Manado (east Indonesia). It consists of coarsely chopped tomatoes, calamansi or known as lemon cui or jeruk kesturi, shallots, chopped bird's eye chili, basil, vegetable oil, salt.
Today I made grilled fish served with sambal dabu-dabu, famous dish not only in Manado but also become favorite everybody across Indonesia. If you are fish lover, you should try this also and experience Indonesian flavor in you family dinner table once in a while.

Ingredients and how to prepare:

Drink Milk !! Good for you.

Women who do not drink milk regularly during pregnancy is likely to have babies with low birth weight or allergies and impaired growth in womb, according to expert opinion. A team of researchers compared babies birth weight of mothers who regularly drank milk at least one cup a day during pregnant with mothers who are less or not drink milk regularly. It turned out that infants of mothers milk drinkers have a better weight.

From total 300 women in research, published in Canadian Medical Association Journal, they are non-smokers and have healthy lifestyle during pregnancy. A quarter of those mothers are reported routinely not to drink milk every day.

A team of experts headed by Kristine Koski, director of the School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition, McGill University in Montreal, Canada, said that the study is important because increasing numbers of women who do not consume milk during pregnancy will have a lower fat intake, weight gain limited and allergic disorders, because the habit of drinking milk during pregnancy is to prevent lactose intolerance.

The mothers and health professionals need to know that milk dietary may restrict essential nutrients and negatively affect fetal development.

Mothers who were studied are those with aged 19 to 45 years and who perform prenatal in three hospitals in Calgary between May 1997 and June 1999. Among them 72 women who did not regularly consume at least one glass of milk per day.

One cup of milk a day containing 2.5 micrograms of vitamin D, this number is highly significant value of 5 micrograms of vitamin D are recommended each day.Vitamin D is essential for growth and bone strength. Calcium from the mother is needed by the fetus which is channeled through the umbilicus.

Previous research conducted by experts from the University of Southampton explains that children who come from mothers who are deficient in vitamin D during pregnancy have lower bone growth compared with normal bone mass, it can cause the risk of fractures due to osteoporosis later in life.

Nevertheless the nutrients contained in milk can be replaced with other foods or supplements.

Dietary advice for pregnant women should be done every day at least consume one serving of milk, cheese and yogurt.

Source: kalbefarma.com

For this winter, I think it will be nice to make hot chocolate milk like this recipe

Cap Cay (Indonesian style mix vegetable saute)

I am not a vegetarian, but most of my favorite and dish choice is vegetables, all kinds of vegetables. Vegetables have many benefits and most of the vitamins which our body needs. So if you do not like eating vegetables, start to think twice and try changing tastes and your mindset about these rich sources of vitamins and minerals.

It should be noted also, to gain maximum benefit from vegetable, cooking methods is also noteworthy. Several types of vegetables will actually lose their vitamins and minerals contained if cooked too much (too long). If your vegetables need to be cooked , try to cook it only as needed, not too long. I am even prefer eating some kind of raw vegetables as a salad.

This time I made Cap cay or Mix vegetable saute with Indonesian style. You can vary vegetables you want (add fresh green pea will do) to make this dish as well as other additional ingredient like shrimp or squid.

Serve: 4 ~ 6 servings

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