Kandil Simidi / Turkish shortbread bagel

Selam everybody....Merhaba from Turkey.

İt's late post. Since İ had been a little busy with my cleaning schedule at house  before and after kandil night^,^. My today's post is about Kandil simidi. 
Kandil Simidi is a traditional Turkish simit pastry, which is eaten during the Kandil religious holiday. It is ring-shaped and coated in sesame seeds cookie-look alike. 
During the five nights of Kandil, these pastries are baked and offered to neighbors and relatives.

There are five kandil night celebration in Turkey. Kandil taken from word candle from the time of Sultan Selim II who had candles lit in the Mosques Minarets to mark the holy evenings.
The five holy evenings on the Muslim calendar are called Kandil. During the Ottoman Empire Sultan Selim II of 16th century lit candles on the minarets of the mosques in order to announce these holy nights to the public. Since this calendar is calculated with the revolution of the moon around the earth the dates of the Kandils differ every year.
Mevlid Kandili (Mawlid an-Nabi) - The birth of Prophet Mohammad
Regaip Kandili – The night of Muhammed's conception
Miraç Kandili (Lailat al Miraj) – Prophet Mohammad's rising to sky
Berat Kandili (Mid-Sha'ban) – The forgiveness of the sins
Kadir Gecesi (Laylat al-Qadr) – The Koran's first appearance to Prophet Mohammad

And as follow the tradition here in Turkey İ also made this Kandil simidi. Different from my other simit İ post before here, this kandil simidi has more or less like shortbread. And here the recipe for you who want to make, just accompany your tea or coffee.

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Opor ayam kuning / Indonesian food recipe: Yellow Chicken braised in coconut milk

My first post in 2015. İt's İndonesian style yellow chicken braised in coconut milk. İt's been quite sometimes İ didn't eat anything made by coconut milk. Beside coconut milk is very rare and expensive thing here in Turkey, also İ'm not really fan of meal in coconut milk-- İ mean as main dish or side dish. İ like coconut (any part of it, e.g coconut water, coconut milk, fresh coconut flesh) but as dessert. İndonesia as part of Asia country has various dessert with coconut as main ingredients ( check my other post about İndonesian dessert and snack).

This Opor ayam kuning recipe İ get from my mom. She normally uses free caged chicken ( we call it ayam kampung) which have tastier meat. And in my hometown we make fresh coconut milk from fresh coconut which easily found in any corner of our alley... How İ miss my hometown.... 

Well...anyway..İf you want to experience İndonesian home cooking meal..here İ write down my mom's recipe

Serve about 10~12

İngredients:
1 chicken-better free caged one- (about 1,5 kg)
1 kaffir lime (İ use lemon), juice it

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How to Decorate Anniversary Cake

All are edible except those toothpick :)

Maybe this is my last post in 2014 and also 1st post on 2015. Because İ was planning to post this lemon cake decoration for #YKMK challenge #8 for their 1st anniversary.

As İ mentioned in my previous post about this YKMK (Your Kitchen My Kitchen) is a Foodie community based in İndonesian language. 

And this very early 2015, 1st Jan.. they celebrates their 1st anniversary. And for celebrating it they gather an event challenge calls "B'day Cake". Every contestant should present 1 decorated cake--widely range from any cake decorating idea and ingredients e.g fondant, butter cream, ganache, whipped cream, etc... see the rules for joining this event... Hurry.. it's just starting and will end on last January 2015.

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MOİST LEMON CAKE and tip how to bake cake flat

İf you want to make a cake to decorate later or even stack them later. You don't want to remove too much uneven risen swell cake to form it flat, right? Nice and even surface cake is everybody's ideal cake to decorate with.
İ saw on internet you can use a pan with a lid to make even your cake surface during baking. Or there is "strip bake even" from w*lto*. This strip you can Wrap around your pan during baking.

So İ want to have that nice flat surface too on my cake but İ don't purchase those things. So İ saw some people make their own strip.. yes, That's it. İf you don't have ready to use (and fancy) w*lto* "strip bake even" you can make it by your own. All you need is just old kitchen towel. Cut lengthwise (depend on your pan size)-- give some spare, you can always adjust the length later. Just before baking dump that towel with water and Wrap it around your baking pan.  And other thing you will need is a pin to secure the towel after you Wrap it on your pan. That's it...try it..and you will get perfect flat cake.

Now let's talk about my moist and yummy lemon cake. Today İ bake a lemon cake for decorate later. Easy yet delish cake you'll ever bake..
Let's go to the kitchen.... ^,^

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Lemon Curd Recipe II



Salam everybody. Merhaba from Turkiye.

My today post is my favorite one.....lemon Curd. Yes, this is my fave for anything. İ use it for jam on my soft bread. İ use as filling on my choux pastry, or my donut. And İ dip my croissant  in it ! Believe me, that so good! ^,^

This lemon curd is also my second recipe beside my other one here. And my today lemon curd İ use recipe from  here... İ think both recipe are great... you can use whatever you want if you will try to make your own lemon curd.

İ love lemon. No question about it cause İ know if you do love lemon too..you know how this shiny yellow fruit can give you many good things. Use it for infused water lemon--Like İ do every morning. Or put inside your hot tea (Love it!). Drink lemon juice with hot water and rock sugar=healthy . And İ love to make them in my cake recipe. Check my previous lemon cake recipe here.

Okay..okay ... you all know many benefits of this yummy sour fruit..now let's make this lemon curd.. try it also and tell me how you like it.

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Apple Strudel recipe from phyllo sheet

İ love apple.. specially green one..there's sour a bit sweet in it. Back few years ago.. İ remember İ ate green apple almost everyday before İ eat anything in my breakfast time. That's why there was always apples stock in my fridge. Nowadays İ still love to eat apple but if it's not season you hardly find any apple here... there is, but with triple or four time more expensive than when it's season.

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Kimchi / 김치

Kimchi (hangul: 김치 Korean pronunciation: [kimtɕʰi]; English pronunciation: /ˈkɪmtʃi/), also spelled kimchee or gimchi, is a traditional fermented Korean side dish made of vegetables with a variety of seasonings. It is often described as spicy and sour. In traditional preparation kimchi is often allowed to ferment underground in jars for months. There are hundreds of varieties of kimchi made from napa cabbage, radish, scallion, or cucumber as a main ingredient.

The earliest references to pickled vegetables in East Asia are found in the Chinese Xin Nan Shan 信南山 poem of theShi Jing (詩經), which uses the character 菹 or 葅 (Korean "jeo", modern Mandarin Chinese "ju1"). The term ji was used until the pre-modern terms chimchae (hanja: 沉菜, lit. soaked vegetables), dimchae, and timchae were adopted in the period of the Three Kingdoms of Korea The word then was modified into jimchi, and is currently kimchi.

Early kimchi was made of cabbage and beef stock only. Red chili, a New World vegetable not found in Korea beforeEuropean contact with the Americas, was introduced to Korea from Japan after the Japanese invasions (1592–1598) and became a staple ingredient in kimchi, although its use was not documented until the 18th century. Red chili pepper flakes are now used as the main ingredient for spice and source of heat for many varieties of kimchi. In the twelfth century other spices, creating flavors such as sweet and sour, and colors, such as white and orange, were added.

Kimchi is Korea's national dish. During South Korea's involvement in the Vietnam War its government requested American help to ensure that South Korean troops, reportedly "desperate" for the food, could obtain it in the field; South Korean president Park Chung-hee told U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson that kimchi was "vitally important to the morale of Korean troops".It was also sent to space on board Soyuz TMA-12 with Yi So-Yeon after a multi-million dollar research effort to kill the bacteria and lessen the odor without affecting taste.

Source: Wikipedia
For more information about Kimchi you can visit here.

For my Kimchi post today İ copy from Maangchi.com (Cooking Korean Food) with minor adjustment.

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Churros with Chocolate sauce

Frankly speaking İ never eat churros before, even there are some counters in Jakarta, cıty İ was living in before, İ didn't had intention to taste it. But after some my FB friends make by them self recently it finally tickling me... So İ'm very much curious about it. İ search what churros is.. how's the recipe and try to find out some people opinion on their blog describe how it taste.... And again-as always- wikipedia become my source to find it more ^,^

During my recipe searching İ found some recipe claimed Mexican churros while some other write about Spanish Churros.. According to wikipedia the origin of this churros is unclear. One theory is they were brought to Europe by the Portuguese. The Portuguese sailed for the Orient and, as they returned from Ming Dynasty China to Portugal, they brought along with them new culinary techniques, including modifying the dough for You tiao also known as Youzagwei in Southern China, for Portugal. However, they modified it by introducing a star design because they did not learn the Chinese skill of "pulling" the dough (the Chinese Emperor made it a capital crime to share knowledge with foreigners). As a result, churros are not "pulled" but rather extruded out through a star-shaped die.

Another theory is that the churros was made by Spanish shepherds, to substitute for fresh bakery goods. Churro paste was easy to make and fry in an open fire in the mountains, where shepherds spend most of their time.

And about the taste and texture, some people it's refer to donut taste with cinnamon. But after check mostly recipe -- and finally İ made by my self-- İt's more on fried pastry with sugar cinnamon... What do you think?
Anyway, in fact now İ like churros and definitely it's perfect friend during my chill day and best friend accompany me during my 'book time' alone after my kid sleeping, with hot coffee latte, in silent night :)

For my first adventure of churros I decide use recipe from mowielicious.com here. No spesific reason. İ saw many recipe almost same in ingredients and method. Maybe next time İ will try Martha Steward's which use milk instead of water. 
And here the recipe....

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