Spaghetti Shrimp Scampi

Hello Everybody..Hello December... (^,^)

Nothing can break cold situation between two strangers but talking about weather, right? I mean when you meet somebody totally new in same room, you don't know each other and you both have nothing to do but waiting something which is boring us. What do you think? What would you do or say if you were in that situation above?

Well...talking about weather, it was soft and cold rain welcoming December here in Bursa, Turkey...I mean the rain continuously since a day before. Not heavy rain though..just soft. I think the snow will come very soon. I didn't have any intention to go out or what so ever. Unfriendly weather for me (as tropical person) and especially for my kid. What to do.... nothing than play with my daughter inside as usual and made us one easy yet simple food for our self ^,^ . 

Beside I made hot chocolate drink mix (which I will post here very soon) I made this Spaghetti with shrimp scampi. Cloudy outside makes me a little hesitate to make more complicated meal than this ^,^

Serve 3

Ingredients:

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Gurame Asam manis /Carp or sea bream in Sweet and sour sauce

Resep dalam bhs İndonesia ada dibagian bawah



Merhaba from Turkey...Selam.

I love this November, many celebration, many happy occasions and more.... it's a hectic, busy yet fun and full of challenge... Challenge? Yes...those many things came to me, I considered as a challenge... Challenge to be better, challenge to dare  my self to become better one in anything I do.

Talking about challenge event for my blog you can scroll down to see what else my previous post on challenge post. And if you moms, guys, dearly blogger friends who will make any fun cooking and baking event for blogger..hey..just let me know! I would love to join too ^,^

And now I dare to challenge my self for join another event from Indonesian Food Blogger Community (IdBF) . Last August'14 I also joined one of their challenge event-cookies. This month IdBF makes an event challenge together with one of Indonesian food magazine publisher call "Kreasi Dapur Bersama Sajian Sedap", here is the link on how to join. This event will hold during this November 2014.

For this event I make this Gurame Asam Manis or Carp fish in Sweet and sour sauce. And this recipe I copy from Sajian Sedap--I rewrite the original recipe below from original source. I made some adjustment from the original recipe cause it didn't mentioned about to stir in the vegetables. My recipe base on my experience in my kitchen.

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Crunchy (brined) Fried Chicken

After rain for few days the temperature drop faster than I thought. The sky so grey and still some dark cloud hanging there ready to pour their heavy snow I think.... Well, winter I guess knocking the door already. Even I can see peak of mount  Uludağ(*) already white covered by snow

Well.. what can we do? It's weekend and weekend should be our "go out side" time. But I can not risk my kid for having bad depressingly cold weather before the snow really come. Because as you know how bad the cold air before snowing, it's dry and unpleasant cold.

I knew that we would not "go out side" this weekend, so I prepared to make something that can cheer us up a little. We couldn't eat outside so I made this crunchy fried chicken instead. With fried potatoes and homemade orange juice..well I brought "restaurant" in home ^,^

Make 10 or 12 delicious crunchy chicken 

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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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