Monday, March 26, 2012

idfb Challenge #4 : Sambal Pencit / Unripe mango sambal

Did I ever mention that I like hot food a lot ? For me, eating without sambal is not complete ! It's like something is missing. During my childhood, making sambal for family dinner was my responsibility. Shrimp paste sambal (sambal terasi), tomato sambal (sambal tomat), tempe sambal or tofu sambal (sambal tahu). The last two are my dad's recipes. His tempe sambal and tofu sambal is the best. :)

(Homemade) - Unripe mango for sambal pencit

Grinding chilies together with sambal ingredients using mortar and pestle is still my preference rather than using blender. It's traditional yet the sambal has a specific texture. The basic ingredient of sambal is, of course, chili. Mixed with any of various ingredients, like tomato, shrimp paste, kaffir lime, shallot, garlic, peanut, etc. Each region has its own sambal with particular style.

(Homemade) - Sambal Pencit / Unripe mango sambal


Pencit is Javanese language for unripe mango. Sambal pencit or unripe mango sambal can be eaten with grilled fish, grilled duck or grilled chicken. I remember of a restaurant that sells grilled fish with tomato sambal and sambal pencit. I love the combination of sour from unripe mango, hot from chilies and a little of sweetness from sugar.

pencit4

This post is my entry for IDFB Challenge#4 "Sambal" and IFP (Indonesian Food Party)

 

Enjoy.....

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Chocolate to try : Chocolate Prune Truffles

Whisk and melted chocolate

Long busy weeks ! I planned to post this recipe last week but alas I was too busy with all schedules. Organizing trip to Cisarua with my colleagues, my son's homeschool project, finishing my project at the office (gosh, this one has taken my energy, so time consuming and I'm mentally tired !).

(Homemade) - Chocolate Prune Truffles

So, last week, I went to Indonesian Safari Park in Cisarua, Bogor.  I'm going to leave you for awhile and enjoy my souvenirs from the trip !

Bird
Bird 2
bungacampur
Bird 3
Monkeys

My "chocolate to try" recipe for this month is Chocolate prune truffles. With a little help from 3 kids (my son and nephews), we made these ball-shaped chocolate. We were happy, our hands were full with chocolate and got dirty together :D. They all just couldn't wait to eat the truffles.

(Homemade) - Chocolate prune truffles
truffle7

I modified just a little bit from the original recipe, only on the filling and coating. You could also do experiment with your truffles, replace the filling with nuts or marshmallow or anything you like. As for the coating, cocoa powder, crushed nuts or crushed biscuits could be one of your option. Fun, isn't it ?

Don't forget to check my Chocolate to try series every month. I'll cook anything with chocolate in it just for you. My lists are getting longer, so I'll choose selectively. Just wait what I will cook next month.

Click to enlarge
I served my homemade truffles to our guest and they liked it ! My cousin said "why don't you sell something like these ? This is gonna be a hit !". 

truffle8

Enjoy.....

Monday, March 5, 2012

My breakfast with simple pancakes


(Homemade) - Simple pancake

What I eat for breakfast is very important. Why ? First, I don't eat dinner, then I would I wake up hungry. Second, I need energy to move me at least until lunch time. I can't think with empty stomach. :D

Today is like any other day, I woke up hungry and out of the blue I craved for pancake. This was my not-so-ordinary breakfast. Light and sweet. I usually eat soto ayam (Indonesian chicken soup), rice porridge, fried rice or nasi uduk (Betawinese scented coconut rice). You see, I eat anything with rice for breakfast.

pancake2

That morning I was so lucky because I had all the ingredients on hand, except for the maple syrup and chocolate sauce. Serving pancakes in my house for breakfast is totally bizarre. This is not our Indonesian style breakfast. But try something different from our routines is fun.

First time I made pancake, it was in small size and flavourless. After that, whenever I want pancake, I just go to a pancake restaurant and order the best one for myself. But when I saw the picture of a little girl whisking pancake batter on a kid's recipe section in a magazine, I almost screamed to myself "see that little girl, she made her own pancake !". With all my gratitude to the little girl, I made these pancakes with her recipe.


How I started my day last Sunday morning ? I started with 3 pancakes !!  :D

Enjoy...

Friday, March 2, 2012

Guest Post : Coconut Jaggery Crepes with Kithul Treacle from Farwin Simaak of Love and Other Spices

I come back with a lovely guest post from my friend Farwin Simaak of Love and other spices. She's one of many friends I met through food blogging world. Though we live miles apart but we have a connection, our love of yummy foods, we have same passion in food photography and (of course) we love blogging. :) Every country has traditional dishes, and knowing that Farwin come from Sri Lanka, I offered her to do a guest post and this sweet lady said yes without a doubt. With all humility, I plead to her to cook something traditional from her country. After waiting in curiosity, I received her mail of the post in my mailbox ! She cooked a Sri Lankan dish, Coconut Jaggery Crepes with Kithul Treacle. It's a Sri Lankan crepe with coconut filling. Sounds very interesting.

For more Sri Lankan recipes, please head over to her blog. Thank you for the post and beautiful photos, Farwin. This is lovely, indeed. Now, let's begin the journey to the first Sri Lankan cuisine on my blog.

******************************************************************************
 
coconutjaggerypancake1

When Tika asked me to do a guest post on her site about a traditional Sri Lankan dish, I was thrilled. I met the talented Tika in Facebook and instantly drawn to her site. Her food photography is amazing and her passion for it shines through each and every one of her photographs. And this warm and generous lady has another blog dedicated to food photography tips for aspiring newbies like us. Thanks Tika for this opportunity, I'm honored to be here.

Love and other Spices is my journal, where I document my love for food and cooking, from the exotic Sri Lankan dishes to the modern bakes and goodies. Although I had several traditional recipes in mind, I wanted to feature this sweet dish I absolutely loved growing up.

A thin crepe roll filled with coconut, jaggery and nut filling and served with treacle on the side. This is a breeze to whip up and was a regular during our tea time snacks. I remember coming home after playing outside with friends asking a snack to munch with my tea. My mom or aunt would then hurry to the kitchen to crush the jaggery, my granny would grate the coconuts and within minutes the filling is made. While the coconut mix is coming together on the stove, the batter for the crepe is whisked and a spoonful of batter is swirled to coat a heated pan. Once the crepes are cooked on both sides and dropped on to a plate, my job is to keep the filling and roll it tight and stack it neatly to serve.

coconutjaggerypancake2

The treacle is served along side to drizzle on the crepes, if you prefer a bit of extra sweetness. This is a completely sugar free and healthy recipe if you can swap the white flour to whole wheat flour.

"Kithul" jaggery and treacle are our natural sweeteners. We use it in almost all our desserts."Kithul" is variety of palm tree growing in the Asian tropics. The sweet sugary sap obtained by tapping the young "Kithul" flowers are then used to make a unique and aromatic syrup called 'Treacle' which is similar to maple syrup. The treacle is heated up to make molds of caramelized treacle called 'Jaggery'. Coconut shells are used as molds,so the jaggery takes the shape of half sphere. The hardened jaggery is then crushed,grated or shaved for use.

If you don't have access to jaggery, you can use brown sugar. Use about 1/3 of a cup in the beginning and increase accordingly to suit your tastebuds. The Kithul treacle can be swapped for any kind of treacle or syrup.

coconutfilling

Coconut Jaggery Crepes with Kithul Treacle

Ingredients:
Batter
1 cup All Purpose Flour
1 cup milk
1 egg
pinch of salt

Filling
1 cup fresh grated coconut
125 g grated jaggery
few pods of cardamoms crushed
pinch of salt

Chopped nuts of your choice(I have used pistachio and cashew nuts)

Treacle to serve

coconutjaggerypancake3

Method:
Measure the flour and sift it into a bowl. In a separate bowl,whisk the milk and egg together. Mix the wet ingredients with the flour and whisk till you get a clump free batter. Add salt.
Heat a non stick pan and spray with some oil. Add about 3 tablespoons of batter to the pan and swirl it to coat the pan. Once the crepe has been cooked flip onto the other side with a spatula and cook till light brown spots appear. Remove from fire and repeat with the remaining batter.

For the filling,heat the grated jaggery in a saucepan over medium fire. Once the the jaggery starts to melt, add the coconut and cook till the mixture comes together. Add the cardamoms, pinch of salt and cook further for 5 minutes. Add the nuts and remove from fire.

To assemble, lay the crepe and place the filling on a side. Don't place the filling all the way up to the edges of pancake lest it should fall from the sides. Roll the crepe tightly.  Serve with more nuts on top and with a drizzle of treacle.

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