Red Velvet "Yogurt Cheese" Swirl Brownies for #nccbrowniesweek

I looovvveeee brownies ( who doesn't?) ... and more even I love red velvet.... I don't know, I kinda admire those red velvet color on my dessert... so pretty and yet appetites .. Don't you thing so?

Beside this Red Velvet brownies you can check my previous post with this adorable red velvet. I had made Steamed Red Velvet brownies with cream cheese topping, check it here.
And not so long ago I also made Red Velvet cake for my wedding anniversary, you can check that post here.

And my post today is Red Velvet Brownies with Cheese Swirl. Beside my craze about Red Velvet...I made this brownies also to join and celebrate "Natural Cooking Club (NCC) Brownies Week"

A little about NCC Indonesia, it's a club and forum for all culinary lovers. The group mainly in Indonesian language, but if you want to join, it also open for you with English language. I heard about this group from long time ago before I dare to join it lately. 

They have many great culinary events which dare your baking and cooking addict become more fun. And this month they have Brownies Week event that I eagerly join to ^,^

Please do check other members' post for this Brownies event here.

Now, let's talk about my red velvet brownies. For the brownies recipe I adapted from here and for the swirl cheese I use my homemade "yogurt cheese" and make a little modification. To have "yogurt cheese" you can drain/ strain one or two cups of thick yogurt a day before (or at least over night). You can check my other post using this yogurt cheese in my previous post: Yogurt Cheese souffle, Yogurt Cheesecake, Three tone yogurt "cheese" Chocolate mousse... and wait..I'll have more experiment with this healthy "cheese" ^,^

Note: For bigger batch of this yogurt cheese you need to drain plain thick yogurt to separate the water (whey) in cheesecloth-lined strainer for at least 24 hours before. From 1 kg yogurt I get about 860 ~ 900 gr drained yogurt 'Cheese' (it depends the thickness of yogurt you use)

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Lamb/ mutton Fried Rice / Nasi goreng kambing

Nasi Goreng or fried rice is one of Indonesian national food with rice as main ingredients, stir- fried in margarine/ butter or cooking oil generally cooked with Kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce), shrimp paste, sambal (chilly), shallots, garlic, egg or other variety spices and ingredients. 

In 2011, an Internet poll conducted by CNN International and attended by 35,000 people put fried rice (nasi goreng) on the second rank in the list of '50 most delicious food in the world 'after rendang.

Fried rice spread to Southeast Asia brought by Chinese immigrants who settled there and created a local typical fried rice which is based on the difference in the spices and stir-fry way. Fried rice actually comes from several properties in the Chinese culture, which did not like the taste of cold food and also remove the leftovers a few days earlier. Hence, the cold rice and then fried to be served back.

There are different kinds of fried rice recipe but the main element is rice, cooking oil, soy sauce. In addition, many other extras that may be included, ranging from vegetables, meat, until the chili, sauces, crackers and fried eggs. Fried rice in Indonesia and in other countries can have its own variations depending on the region of origin and seasonings or ingredients used. This variation is usually influenced by the foods commonly used by local communities.

My today's post is one of fried rice' variant, it calls Nasi goreng Kambing. This fried rice is different from common fried rice since it has distinctive aroma because use many aromatic herb to get a long with lamb/ mutton meat.

Give a try and have some more Indonesian flavor in your family dinner table ^,^

Lamb/ mutton fried rice serve with shrimp cracker and pickle

Make 4 portions

Paste spices:

• 5 cloves of garlic
• 5 shalots
• 2 red chilli
• chilli padi (optinal if you like it spicy)
• 2 pcs of cloves or pinch of powdered one
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder (or 1 cm fresh turmeric)
• 1/4 teaspoon caraway (or 1/4 tsp caraway seed)
• 2 cardamom 
• salt to taste

*pure all ingredients above.

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Ekşili köfte / Turkish style Sour Saucily meatball

In Turkey, meatball known as köfte and one of the famous dishes of Turkish cuisine. Here they have many kind of köfte variations. According some sources, it has about 291 köfte variants but from all those variants the most popular are  Tekirdağ köftesi, İnegöl köfte, Akçaabat köftesi,Adapazarı Islama Köfte, İzmir köftesi, Çiğ köfte and Biga köftesidir.

You can check my other köfte recipe:
İçli Köfte/ Domates Fesleğen Soslu İçli Köfte
Inegöl Köfte
Izmir koftesi
Marcimek koftesi, and
Pideli Kofte

And today I made this Ekşili köfte ( Sour Saucily meatball). It's one of Turkish traditional daily meal. It's small meatballs cook in tomato sauce with potatoes. Some people also add carrot in it sometimes. One of comfort food which has sour and fresh flavor, really suitable in any occasion in any weather.

Serve: 4~5 portions

Ingredients:

• 2 medium potatoes (wedge or cubes or round shape like mine)
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 1 Tbsp tomato paste (pasta tomat)
• salt and sugar to taste
• enough cooking oil for sauteing
• Beef broth / hot water around 1,5~2 lt
• chopped parsley (for serve spread over)

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Putri Mandi (mendut) #Indonesianfood / Glutinous balls with thick coconut sauce

Putri mandi is one of Indonesian traditional snack (Jajan pasar). It's glutinous rice ball fill with sweet coconut then flash with creamy coconut sauce. In (east and middle ) java island mostly people call it also "mendut"

In my homeland-Surabaya- this mendut mostly warped with banana leaf before steamed. But since I can not find banana leaf here in Turkey, so I make a little modification on cooking it.. and here it is my Putri mandi or mendut 's version don't worry, it's just as good as the original version :)

Check category Indonesian Snack (jajan pasar/ kue) for more Indonesian Kueh or snack.

Ingredients for filling:

• 2 cups roughly grated coconut (you can use fresh or dry one)

• 1 pandan leaf (you can use vanilla if you don't purchase pandan)
• Pinch of salt
• about 200 gr* gula jawa/ palm sugar-->finely shredded (you can use dark brown sugar too)
• 1 cup water

(*)you can add more sugar if you like sweeter version

In medium pan, stir water and gula jawa/ palm sugar until all sugar dissolve. Add other ingredients and cook over medium heat until it thickened. Cool it and shape them as small as marble (slightly smaller then the skin dough you will make later)

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Homemade Egg Noodle and simple fried noodle / membuat mie telur sendiri

Noodle.. in Bahasa Indonesia I call it Mie [read: mee] . Is a long, thin rolled dough and cooked in boiling water. Arabic, Chinese and Italian claimed that they are noodles' inventor, although the oldest written about mie come from the Eastern Han Dynasty, between AD 25 and AD 220. In October 2005, the oldest noodles estimated 4,000 years old was found in Qinghai, China. (source:Wikipedia)

Anyway, regardless of the first inventors of noodles ... let's us make our own egg noodles at home ... this might be the first favorite in your home. And for more how to use (cook) this homemade noodle, I also include one simple fried noodle recipe below. 

Before making favorite noodle recipe you have.. let's make our egg noodle. I have my pasta rolling machine to help me doing rolling and cut the noodles. But don't worry if you don't have one, you can just simply roll the dough with rolling pin and cut the dough with sharp knife. You can see my other homemade egg noodle post without pasta rolling machine here.

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Gulai / Kare Kambing Berempah / Indonesian style Spiced Lamb Curry

First I'd like to say Happy Eid al Adha (feast of sacrifice) for all muslim readers. Bayramınız Mubarek Olsun.

Muslim’s today sacrifice a sheep or a goat, the meat of which is shared among friends, family, and the poor, with each receiving a third. People sacrifice animals but are required to make arrangements to ensure it is slaughtered humanely.
The Greater Eid also marks the end of Hajj, the five-day religious journey that takes Muslims to the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

This year 2014 we celebrate Eid al Adha at Friday 3rd October. Eid al Adha is one of religious holiday that Muslims celebrate each year beside Eid al Fitr. For you who wants to know more about our Eid al Adha you can visit this page to have more knowledge.

Elhamdulillah, this year my husband's family sacrifice few goats. Beside we shared to whom in need, we also get some part of it. Unlike years before, this time I didn't make satay as my "a must food" in every sacrifice feast. But this food also mostly make and served during sacrifice feast in Indonesia together with satay. You can check my lamb satay recipe here.

For some Indonesian friends who visited us I made this Spiced Lamb Curry. If you search on google about this "gulai" you might find many kind of different recipe of it. Yes we have many kind of "gulai" some of them are in yellow colored and some of "gulai" have different spices and taste depends on local area. What I made here is spiced gulai cause I use some spices which is dry fried/ toasted (without oil) then grinded into fine powder. This recipe actually I copied from my mom. And as home "chef" she couldn't mentioned about how much exactly the ingredients being used.. She just said this A"about this much" or that B"more or less" bla..bla.bla..  So I must try to measure it by my self and adjust the taste exactly like my mom made :)

Make about 15 portions.

Ingredients:

• 800 gr lamb/ mutton meat (you can add some ribs and bones too) / daging kambing dengan tulang
• about 700 gr mix offal such as heart, tripe, lung (optional) / jerohan
• 1 tbsp tamarind water (dissolved a thumb of tamarind in 1/4 cup of water ) / asam jawa, larutakan dalam 1/4 cup air
• 1 stalk lemongrass, crushed / sereh digeprak
• 1 cinnamon stick (about 5 cm) / 1 (5cm)batang kayu manis
• star anise 4 ~ 5 / bunga lawang
• 2 Indonesian bay leaves /daun salam
• 2 cm fresh ginger / jahe
• about 1 1/2 tbsp sugar (to taste) / gula sesuai selera
• about 2 tbsp salt (to taste) / garam 2 sdt atau sesuai selera
• about 1/2 cup of cooking oil / minyak goreng
• about 500 ml thin coconut milk / santan encer
• about 1 cups dried / fresh grated coconut. Toasted and finely grind. Set a side / 1 cup kelapa kering (bisa juga yg segar), sangrai hingga kering dan kecoklatan, lalu haluskan dan sisikan.

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Sawi Putih tumis Kembang Tahu / Stir-fry Napa cabbage with beancurd skin

I bought this napa cabbage 2 weeks ago in farmer market downtown. Pretty expensive though since summer is over at last September. Before summer and during summer I can get this napa cabbage around 2 lira (approx 2 USD) per piece but last two weeks ago they sold 4 lira/ pc. So I bought 2 pieces with had no idea what will I do with those later. I was planning to make another Kimchi or other salad.

And today I cooked one of them this stir-fry mix with beancurd sheet. I just love it. It's simply and quick dish to make and comfort me enough during "getting cold" days in this fall in Turkey.

Make 2~4 portions

Ingredients:
- About 300 grams napa cabbage, roughly cut (I separated middle stem from leaves)
- 1 sheet of bean curd, soak in water for 5 mnts, drain and roughly cut in smaller pieces.
- About 150 grams of chicken breast/ leg, cut lengthwise 
- Chicken / beef / fish meatballs 4 ~ 6 pieces, cut into chunks 
- 1 small onion, finely chopped 
- 5 cloves garlic, crushed and finely chopped 
- 1 teaspoon black pepper 
- 1 tsp salt (to taste)
- 1 tsp sugar (to taste)
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce 
- 1 tbsp sesame, plus for sprinkle when serve 
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil 
- 1 tbsp sesame oil

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Indonesian Honeycomb Caramel Cake / Bolu Sarang Semut (cake karamel)

Selam everybody..Merhaba from Turkey....

Sarang semut mean ants nest in Indonesian or others call this bolu karamel (caramel cake). I think you already get idea why it calls "ants nest" :)

Before  put into the oven, I let the batter about 3 hours so "the crater nest" or honeycomb will perfectly formed. 

And beware cause this cake is kinda addictive cake. Once you eat it, you gonna love it and you will make it more and more.... ^,^ real story!

Making this actually really simple. But for some people might be a bit tricky especially making caramel correctly and not burning it. So for you who already make caramel-like dozen times, I think it wouldn't be a problem for you.

Sorry for this post I didn't put step by step photo cause I'm kinda bit busy doing something else while making this cake. Maybe next time I'll add some step by step picture to guide you more clear. Meanwhile bookmarked this recipe cause you gonna love this cake!

Make 1 loaf pan

Ingredients:
      for caramel

• 250 gr caster sugar
• 200 ml hot water

      Ingredients B

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