Hiatus again

Heyhooo!!!

I have to admit that cooking for a blog and studying accounting are totally different activities *yaiyalahhh:D* *except for calculating the grocery shopping budget and counting the ingredients:p*. I can’t do it all at the same time.

I am surrendered.

Well, I am not a good multitasker. I prefer to focus on one thing at a time.  Cooking for a blog means preparing the ingredients, cooking, taking photos, writing the recipe, translating into English, editing and proofreading *mostly all by myself* *jadi kalo ade sale2 kate maapin aje hehehe* while studying accounting means reading, counting, writing, understanding and memorizing.

They are indeed time consuming.

So, I have to say goodbye again to my lovely kitchen. See you after I finished study.

Till we meet again,

Atika

Fried Vegetable Soup

Dear vegetable lovers,

This soup is so light and cholesterol free! Like this soup so much! If you are vegetarian, you can substitute Royco with vegetarian seasonings.

Ingredients:

1 corn, cut the corn kernels

2 potatoes, cut into small cubes

1 squash, cut into small cubes

1 tofu, cut into small cubes

4 carrots, sliced

1 liter water

4 shallots, chopped

2 garlics, chopped

1 tomato, diced

2 red chillies, sliced

1/2tsp salt

2tbs vegetable oil

3 scallions, cut coarse

3 small celery, cut coarse

1 Royco

Directions:

- Boiled water in a pot, then add potatoes, corn kernels and tofu.

- Saute or fried garlics and shallots with vegetable oil until golden, then add tomato, red chillies and salt.

- Add a little water, then pour it to the pot.

- In a pot, add carrots and squash, wait until tender.

- Lastly put scallions, celery and Royco, stirred well.

- Boil the soup up, and serve.

Thanks mom for the yummy recipe! *hugs & kisses*

Happy cooking & eating,

Atika

Sambal Kangkung

Dear kangkung lovers,

Do you know the best salad I ever eat? Of course you know that, I have put on the title of this post hahaha. Yes, kangkung *water spinach* with sambal terasi *shrimp paste condiment* as a dressing. It is actually one of Indonesian salad. Please take a look at below recipe! You will gonna like it.

Ingredients:

8 bunch kangkung *water spinach*, removed the stems from the leaves, boiled

150gr bean sprout, soaked in hot water, drained

2 big tofu, boiled, cut into 4, fried

Kerupuk putih *white crackers*

Sambal:

2 terasi udang ABC *shrimp paste*

2 tomatoes, halved

100gr red chilies, cut into 3 *supaya ga meletek pas digoreng*

14 cayennes

6 shallots

100gr Javanese palm sugar

Salt to taste

1/4 lemon, squeezed

Directions:

Sambal terasi:

- Fried shrimp paste, then tomatoes, red chilies, cayennes and shallots, until cooked and tomatoes become tender.

- After that grinded in order: shrimp paste, salt, red chilies, cayennes, shallots, Javanese palm sugar, tomatoes and lemon squeezed.

Notes:

- Serving: put water spinach, bean sprout, tofu, kerupuk putih and sambal terasi in a plate. Enjoy!

- Tahu kuning *yellow tofu* is more delicious *my mom didn't find it in the market at that time*.

- It is finger licking good, so no need to use spoon or fork.

- I ate it as a main course, don't follow me if you are still hungry hahaha.

- Wash your hand before and after eating, and don't try to eat it an hour before meeting with client. It's a big no no, because your hand will smell terasi hihihi.

Cheers:)

Atika

String Bean & Baby Corn Saute

Dear vegetable lovers,

As always, I wanna say that this is one of my favorite food. Easy and simple to cook. Here it is the recipe. Of course from my lovely mom;)

Ingredients:

250gr string beans, angle sliced

500gr baby corns, halved and cut into 2 stems

15 meatballs, sliced

3tbs cooking oil

2 garlics, chopped

5 shallots, sliced

1 tomato, diced

20 green chilies, sliced

1 finger galangal, bruised

2 bay leaves

1/2 glass water

Soy sauce to taste

Javanese palm sugar to taste

1/2tsp salt

1 sachet Royco

Directions:

- Heat cooking oil in a wok, saute garlics and shallots until fragrant.
- Add tomato, green chilies, galangal and bay leaves.
- Then add meatballs, string beans and baby corns, wait until soft.
- After that, add water, soy sauce, Javanese palm sugar, salt and Royco, stirred well.
- Wait until cooked and water become absorbed.
- Served while hot with rice.

Happy cooking:)

Atika

Almond Chocochips Cookies

Dear chocochip cookies lovers,

Lebaran is not complete without yummy and delicious cookies. Must-eat cookies in Lebaran day are kastengels, sagu keju, cheese stick, nastar, lidah kucing and putri salju. Those are my favorite cookies when Lebaran comes. But for about 2 years until now, I made and sold PennyLane’s Chocolate Cookies. The incredible cookies from Ms. Riana when I tried it for the first time at Halal bi Halal NCC in 2008. 

It's just accidentally happened, one day I tried the recipe and then some of my friends at the office like it *lagi kelaperan kayaknya waktu itu hihihi tapi sumpah enak banget loh* *jujur*. So they ordered to me that cookies. For two years, especially on weekend at the fasting month, I always made these cookies until I didn’t have time to make must-eat cookies. But, that’s OK, I took it as an experience as a tukang kue. I called these cookies with Almond Chocochips Cookies.

Making these cookies, it’s not as easy as making kastengels or other cookies. Because the amount of chocolate is more than the amount of flour. The cookies turned out larger or melted in the oven. So we need to be patient while baking. Lots of dough makes you wanna through it to the river hahaha. Don’t make the cookies turn out burnt and crumble easily. The best part is your kitchen will smell chocolaty when you are baking, sniff it in a fasting month, isn’t it fun?:p

The most important thing is I have to learn it from the masterchef itself. Ms. Riana. I wish I have time to learn all the cookies recipes again *sigh*.

By the way, this is the recipe from Ms. Riana’s blog with some of modification *udah dimodif mbak Riana eh dimodif lagi hihihi*

PennyLane’s Chocolate Cookies
Original source: Joy of Baking
Modified by: Riana

60 grams cake flour (low protein flour)

1 teaspoon baking powder
450 grams bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped *I used 400 grams colatta dcc and 50 grams colatta white chocolate*
60 grams unsalted butter or margarine *I used orchid butter salt*
200 grams granulated white sugar *I used 250 grams sugar*
4 eggs, room temperature *and 1 teaspoon emulsifier*
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 gram instant coffee powder (2 sachet @ 2 grams), diluted with a few drops of hot water *I used nescafe classic*
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
175 grams semisweet dark chocolate chips
175 grams white chocolate chips *I used all Tulip dark chocolate chips because I didn't find white chocolate chips, anyone can help me?*
200 grams your favorite nuts, coarsely chopped and toasted (I used 100 grams almond slices and 100 grams kenari nuts – what is kenari nut in English? Canary nut? Not walnut, mind you, they’re different. Some people refer it as Java Almond, if that could be of any help. Otherwise, just use whatever nuts you fancy).

How-to: 

1. Mix together the flour and baking powder. Set aside.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter/margarine in a stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and set aside.
3. In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the sugar, eggs and salt, emulsifier until pale yellow and thick, about 5 minutes. Beat in the melted chocolate mixture, coffee and vanilla extract. Sift the flour mixture above the batter and fold it in. Mix only until incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate the batter until firm, about 30-60 minutes *I used this time for washing the dishes and greasing the pan with margarine*
4. Preheat oven to 170-180 degrees Celcius and place rack in center of oven. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mat. *I don't have it, someday I will buy it*
5. Using ice cream scoop, small or medium – whatever you prefer, scoop and drop batter onto prepared cookie sheets, spacing evenly. With moist fingers, press batter a little bit. Bake cookies about 10 - 12 minutes or until the tops of the cookies become dry and cracked, but are still shiny. Do not overbake these cookies.
6. Remove from oven and place baking pan on a wire rack to cool. When cookies are firm, remove from baking pan and let completely cool on rack.

Note: 

• The time you need to let the batter harden in the fridge could be varied, depending on the chocolate you use. One chocolate could make the batter thicker or runnier than the other one. Check every 30 minutes, just until the batter is easy to scoop and drop without spreading.
• When you found your batter is too hard to scoop, or the cookies are too flat, it means the batter is too cold to begin with. Let it stand at room temperature until it reaches right consistency, then continue baking. The cookies should not be too flat.

That’s my story. You must try it, it is very very yummy and hot! *if you are waiting the cookies near the oven hihihi* Or you can order to me if you are too busy or too lazy to make it:p. Thank you so much Ms. Riana and my loyal customers.

Good luck,
Atika 

Ketupat

Happy Idul Fitri 1432 H,

Idul Fitri or Lebaran marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadhan. In Indonesia tradition, muslims visit to their elders' home, especially grandparents and forgive each others. Beside that, we also serve many many greasy and yummy food. One of them is ketupat. Ketupat is substitute of rice. It can be eaten with rendang or opor ayam or semur or sayur pepaya (special food during Idul Fitri). They are all using coconut milk. Of course full of cholesterol hihihi. That's OK if you eat it once a year. Here it is the ketupat recipe, taught by my lovely mom.

Ingredients:

40 medium ketupat shells, soak for a while 

2,5 liter rice, wash and set aside to dry

20 liter water to boil ketupat

1 pandan leaf, tie knot

1/2tsp slaked lime *kapur sirih*

Directions:

- Fill rice into 1/3 ketupat shell. Do it one by one.

- Dump filled ketupat shells in boiling water in a large pot, put pandan leaf.

- Fill the pot with water until all the ketupat are completely submerged, and boil for 3,5 hours.

- Ensure that ketupat covered with water at all times, refill water when the water level goes down.

- After 3,5 hours, remove the ketupat from the pot, soak for a while in water that filled with slaked lime. Then hang them to dry.

- To serve, halve ketupat lengthwise and then cut into 4 sections to make rice cubes.

- Ketupat ready to serve with rendang or opor ayam or semur or sayur pepaya.

Minal aidin wal faidzin,

Atika