Bolu Kukus

Bolu kukus, or steamed cake is one of the toughest cake I have ever tried to make!! When reading the recipe, it look very simple. In reality, it's NOT that easy! There are lots of hidden trick to it in that cake that not many people can explain. When a friend of mine, Sally showed off her beautifully cracked bolu kukus on her blackberry picture, it reminded me of my mom's bolu kukus when I was a kid. It's been more than 20 years since the last time I ate my mom's bolu kukus.  So I tried making it, since it look so simple.

- First attempt, total failure. The cakes beatifully cracked inside the steamer BUT when I opened the lid, it shrunk and become so tough it's not even edible. Fate: trash can.

- Second attempt, another total failure, same result as first attempt.

Then I ran to my mom for help. She gladly made the cake for us but, since she is into au naturale, mom didn't use any kind of emulsifier so the cake has flat top, but at least it tasted good and didn't end up like my cakes.

- Third attempt, i used my mom's recipe, followed every single step EXCEPT I added more soda as per recipe that Sally used which came from NCC Indonesia website but I didn't add emulsifier. Result, same as first and second attempt. Fate: trash can.

There were couple more attempts that end up with the same result. So I got so fed up with it I almost gave up using steamer. Thinking that oven is my best friend, and not fated to use steamer. When I found out that NCC has a basic cake class and reading the course description, I decided to join and learn how to make cakes using emulsifier and steam cakes. That class is my life saver and enlighten me on what to do with steam cakes. Yay!! So I rushed home and try making the cake again.

- Nth attempt no 1 : cake didn't shrink, but end up like my mom's with flat top. Okay... not exactly the result I was looking for.

-Nth attempt no 2: cracked open a tiny bit, still not the result I was looking for but at least it's a little improvement.

Then it got me thinking. The recipe said to put all the ingredients in the bowl and just mix it. Since I followed my mom's step of beating the eggs and sugar together, then add flour then the soda, maybe that's why. So I tried using the same recipe again.

- Nth attempt no nth: same as Nth attempt no 2. Turns out I didn't beat it long enough and my mixer didn't mix the ingredients really well when i found some unmixed residue at the bottom of the bowl as i was pouring the batter into the molds.

Then, I decided to look for other recipes on the mailing list archive. Found ibu Fat's new recipe that she hasn't post on her blog. So, I decided to give it a try.

- Nth attempt no nth square: Finally!!!!! It blooms and cracked beautifully! Yay!!! I was sooo happy! O-M-G!!! I love ibu Fat of NCC! After Nth attempt and god knows how many kg of flour, eggs, sugar, and soda that I used, it gave me the beautiful bolu kukus result. Hip hip hooray!!

Enough of my long rant, here is the recipe.

Bolu kukus ibu Fat

225 gr sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp emulsifier
250 gr flour
1 tsp baking powder
150 ml soda
1 tbsp coco powder (optional)

1. Put all the ingredients together in a bowl, except for the coco powder. and beat for 10 minutes until very thick and pale.
2. In a small bowl, mix the coco powder with water. Add a little bit of the batter and mix with coco powder mixture.
3. Pour batter into molds and top with chocolate batter.
4. Steam for 10 minutes.

Note: You don't have to use chocolate for topping. Any color and flavoring wont effect the result but it's for aesthetic purposes. Colorful will make it look pretty. Good luck!!

Taro Chiffon Cake

I've been frustrated trying to conquer bolu kukus. So, after endless failed experiment, I've had enough with the steamer. Time to go back to my oven. It's been a very very very long time since I made chiffon cake. Remembering my husband's request for taro chiffon cake, I figured why not make one. It came out of the oven beautifully puffed. One thing though, I had to replace coconut milk with milk since I didn't have coconut milk in hand. It would've taste better with coconut milk. When I took the cake out of the pan, my family ate half of it right away, not giving me a chance to take picture of it. Hence why in the picture I only get to take picture of half the cake. hehehe...

This is an old recipe I found on the internet and I can't remember where I got it from. But this one is definitely fool proof and never failed me since day one.

Chiffon Cake

8 egg whites
175 gr sugar
6 egg yolks
250 gr all purpose flour, sift
100 ml oil
150 ml coconut milk
150 gr sugar
1 tsp baking soda
Taro paste, as needed (you can substitute taro paste with any flavoring of your choice)

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C.
2. Sift flour and baking soda into a bowl and set aside.
3. Put egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and mix well. Add oil, coconut milk and flour mixture, and continue mixing
4. Meanwhile, beat egg whites, add sugar in three additions. Beat until stiff peak.
5. Fold egg whites into yolk mixture, pour into angel food pan and bake for 1 hour.
6. Once the cake is done in the oven, invert it and let cool before taking the cake out of the pan.
7. Slice and enjoy.

Bill's Scrambled Eggs

Today is Saturday and scrambled eggs is the perfect breakfast for me. Bill Granger has the best scrambled eggs in the world (in my opinion). It's rich, velvety and delicious. Well, my version doesn't include bacon, sausage, baked tomato and friends, since I don't have any in my fridge. But buttered toast is a must with this dish.

Since Gwynnie has been refusing to eat her boiled eggs for breakfast, I might as well try giving her baby version of Bill's scrambled eggs.

Bill's Scrambled Eggs
2 eggs
1/4 cup cream (or milk)
dollop of butter

1. Beat eggs and cream, add salt and pepper.
2. Melt butter on non stick pan over high heat
3. Pour the egg mixture and let the edges set. Stir with wooden spoon and bring the eggs to the center.
4. Serve with buttered toast and other sides like bacon, sausage, baked tomato, hash brown, whatever you like.

Junior Scrambled Eggs
1 Free range chicken egg
2 tsp cream
1 tsp butter

*Cooking direction same as above

Rice Krispies

Few days ago when I had conversation with a friend of mine about sweet treats we used to eat as a kid. Rice krispies came up in the conversation and it makes me want to have some. I can't remember when was the last time I had rice krispies, must be ages ago. Anyway, went to Kellog's website and found the simple, delicious, yet sinful recipe. It's so easy to make, even a 5 year old can make it.

I added vanilla in the marshmallow mixture to add the nice vanilla smell that I love.

Rice Krispies Treats

3 tbsp butter
10 oz marshmallows
6 cups rice krispies
*1 tbsp pure vanilla extract (optional)

1. In a saucepan, melt butter and marshmallow on low heat. Add rice krispies and mix well. Put the mixture inside a square pan lined with parchment paper. Press tightly into the pan and let cool for 30 minutes.
2. Cut into bars and enjoy :)

You can add nuts, chocolate chips, syrup or whatever topping you like into the mixture. I'm thinking of adding M&Ms next time.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Marshmallow Frosting

I have been on Junior Masterchef marathon since weekend. Those kids are amazingly good cooks! Can't believe my eyes when I saw the dishes they made. Their creativity is out of this world, especially the cooking skill which, in my opinion is on par (or almost) with professional chefs.

When they had to make Donna Hay's 4 layers chocolate cake, it looked really good. So, I decide to give it a try. I don't use chocolate cream cheese frosting as the recipe suggest, but I use marshmallow frosting instead. It's so fluffy like a cloud sitting on top of the chocolate cupcakes.

You can find the original layer cake recipe here. This one is my version for cupcakes.

Donna Hay's Chocolate Cake

1/2 cup (125ml) water
60g butter, chopped
2 tablespoons cocoa, sifted
1 cup (150g) plain flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, sifted
1 cup (220g) caster sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup (60ml) buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 150'C fan-forced.

2. Place the water, butter and cocoa in a saucepan over medium heat and stir until the butter has melted. Place the flour, bicarbonate of soda and sugar in a bowl, add the cocoa mixture and whisk to combine. Add the eggs, buttermilk and vanilla and whisk to combine. Divide mixture into muffin tin lined with cupcakes liner. Bake for 20-25 minutes.


Marshmallow Frosting

Some people and intimidated with the thought of making their own marshmallow. It's not that hard, in fact, very easy to make. The only tools you need are electric mixer, spatula, and candy thermometer.

2 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup light corn syrup
2 tsp gelatin
2 tbsp cold water

1. In a small saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup and water. Cook until sugar reach soft ball stage (118-120 C). Remove from heat and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, bloom gelatin with cold water until dissolve. When Sugar mixture has cooled down, add the gelatin into the syrup.
3. Whip egg whites until soft peaks, pour syrup into egg white, add vanilla, and continue beating until stiff.

When you are icing the cupcakes, work fast, otherwise the marshmallow will harden and you won't get the pretty and smooth fluffy top.
Broil in the oven for 10 seconds or until top is golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool.

If you can't be bothered to make your own marshmallow frosting, you can do it the quick and instant way.

Quick Marshmallow Frosting

1 bag of store bought marshmallow

1. Put marshmallow into a heat proof bowl and put it in the microwave until it melts. Frost quickly on your cupcakes.

 Yum yum...

(REVISED) Basic Chicken Vegetable Puree

I finally found the original basic recipe of chicken and vegetable puree for babies. Digging through my computer, finally I found it burried inside my non-recipe folder *duh*.

Chicken Vegetable Puree

1 free range chicken leg, skin removed (ayam kampung)
1/4 tomato (pick big, red, sweet and juicy), diced n deseed
1 shallot
1/4 onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic
1/4 stick carrots, sliced
2 red potato, sliced

1. Using butter, brown shallot and onion, followed by garlic, add tomato, stir until soft.
2. Add boiling water to about 1/3 of saucepan, then put potato and carrrot. Let simmer for 15 minutes.
3. Last, add chicken leg, cover with more boiling water until barely covering the chicken.
4. Turn up the heat to high, cover. Once boiling, switch to low heat and simmer for another 2 hours. Let cool, take out chicken, debone, discard bone, put meat and everything else into blender and puree. Steam 15 min before serving.

Note: you can replace water with chicken stock

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

It's been more than a month since my last post. A lot of things happened. My lil Gwynnie was sick, i was sick, hubby was sick, gazillion things to take care of... anyway, i was in the mood for something sweet and sour. What is better than lemon meringue cupcakes? I love anything with lemon in it, even though some people can't stand the sourness (including my dear husband).

I baked this cupcakes and share it with my fellow lemon fan friend, Kiki. This cupcakes are a little dense but very moist. It has lemon curd filling inside and a meringue frosting.

Cupcakes:

1 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C
2. In a bowl, sift flour, baking powder & salt, set aside.
3. In a bowl, mix butter, sugar and eggs until well blend, add vanilla and continue mixing. Add flour mixture and lemon zest.
4. Divide into cupcake liners and bake in the oven for 20-25 min or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool inside the tin.

Lemon Curd:

1 cup lemon juice
6 egg yolks
1 cup sugar (or more if you don't like lemon's sourness)
30 gr butter

Combine lemon juice, egg yolks and sugar in a saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring continously, especially the sides to prevent eggs curdled and turn into omelet :p Continue cooking until it become thick and glossy. Remove from heat and add butter, stir until all butter has melt. Let cool and set aside.

Meringue:

3 egg whites
1 cup sugar

1. Beat egg whites in an electric mixer until foamy, add sugar in 3 additions and beat until stiff peak.
2. Transfer egg white into a piping bag with round tip (or star, whichever tip you prefer).

Assembly:

1. Cut holes into the cupcake, fill with 1-2 tsp of lemon curd, close the top with cupcake cut out.
2. Pipe meringue on top of the cupcakes and let broil in the oven for 10 seconds or until golden brown.

The finished product

Baked chicken nugget

I've been making little bite size food for Gwynnie so she feed herself using her hands. So far, she loves it and keep on stuffing it inside her mouth. You can also make dips for the nuggets. I normally go for yogurt-avocado dip, plain yogurt or homemade ketchup (will post the recipes for you). This recipe is very simple, fast and easy to make.

Baked Chicken Nugget

1 boneless chicken thigh
1/2 cup panko crumbs
1 egg
1/8 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp italian seasoning

1. Preheat the oven to 150 C
2. Set the bowls for coating in this order: flour, egg, panko. it will make your work so much easier.
3. cubed the chicken, then dip the meat into flour, egg and panko. Lightly spray with oil and bake for 20 minutes.

Salmon Pie

Today is Gwynnie's salmon day! I was scratching my head, trying to find of something that she never tried before and i can hide vegetables in it. So I came up with salmon pie. It's not hard to make, you can use the ingredients that you have in your fridge.

 

Salmon Pie

150 gr salmon

1 large shitake mushroom, diced

brocolli, cut into florets, as needed

1/2 large potato

1/4 cup milk

1 egg, beaten

grated cheddar cheese as needed.

1. Preheat the oven to 150 C. Prepare and butter two small ramekins (about 7-8 cm in diameter).

2. Bake salmon in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Once it's done, flake it.

3. Soak shitake mushroom, remove the stem and diced into little pieces. 

4. Steam brocolli and potato until both are fully cooked. Once both are cooked, cut the brocolli florets and put in a bowl. Peel and mash or puree the potato, add half of the beaten egg and mix well. Mix the other half of beaten egg with milk. Leave a little bit of egg for the egg wash.

6. Put salmon, mushroom, broccoli florets and little bit of cheese inside the ramekins and pour in milk-egg mixture until barely covering the meat and vegetable. 

7. Top the ramekins with mash potato and brush with beaten egg for egg wash. You can sprinkle some cheese on top of the potato. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

You can use any kind of vegetable with this pie. It doesn't have to be mushroom and broccoli, other vegetables will do :)

Oatmeal Cheese Biscuits

After buying store bought baby biscuits for months, it suddenly hit me, why don't I try making my own biscuits. Since I love baking, why not just tweak around some old recipes and I came up with this one. It's simple, don't require much ingredients and the only thing u need to do is mix everything in a food processor. No fancy mixers or anything like that. The only thing I really wanted to use in this recipe is whole wheat flour. Unfortunately, I can't find any supermarket in Jakarta that sells whole wheat flour so I used organic unbleached all purpose flour instead.

I cut the dough into rectangles since it's Saturday and I just can't be bothered to cut it using cookie cutter. hehehe...

Oatmeal Cheese Biscuits

1/2 cup oatmeal
1 1/4 cup organic unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup grated cheese (I use Gouda, but any kind of old hard cheese will do)
100 gr cold butter, cut into cubes
100 ml milk, cold

1. Preheat the oven to 175 C
2. In a food processor, ground oatmeal until it become fine powder. Sift the ground oatmeal together with flour and baking powder into a bowl.
3. Put flour in a food processer, add cold butter, little bit at a time and pulse until it resembles a coarse meal.
4. Add cheese, and continue pulsing. Pour milk, a little at a time until mixture turn into a ball.
5. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough between two sheets of parchment papers until it's about 5mm thick, and put it in the fridge for 20 minutes.
6. After 20 minutes, cut the dough into bite size pieces using knife, or various shapes using cookie cutter.
7. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until golden and crunchy.

Tip: if using cookie cutter, dip the cutter into flour so the dough won't stick to your cookie cutter.

Nori-less Salmon Sushi

Happy Chinese New Year!! Today was a very busy day. We had to visit both my relatives and my husband's. Since we have little Gwynnie in tow and keep on moving from one place to another, her meals had to be something simple, light and easy to eat. After so much thought, Sushi came to the rescue. In this salmon version, I used thinly cooked omelet instead of nori sheets. The picture may not look that great since I took it in the car. hehehe...

Nori-less Salmon Sushi

Omelete sheet:
2 eggs, beaten

Filling:
1/2 carrot, grated
2 big shitake mushroom, thinly sliced
15 gr salmon fillet

Rice:
1 cup white rice
1 tbsp mirin
1 tsp sugar

1. For the omelete, pour little bit of the eggs into the pan until it form a thin omelete. Cook throughly and repeat with the rest of the eggs.
2. Mix rice, mirin and sugar, set aside
3. Preheat oven to 180 C and bake salmon for about 10-15 minutes. Cut into little pieces.
4. Steam carrot & mushroom for about 15-20 minutes

Assembly:
1. On a sushi roller, put the omelete sheet and spread some of the rice on top.
2. Put carrot on one corner of the sheet, then put mushroom and salmon on top of the carrot.
3. Roll until it forms a log, cut, and serve.

You can always be creative with the sushi filling by using different kind of meats and vegetables. The possibility is endless!

Orange Chicken Experiment

I've been wanting to try making orange chicken for a while but haven't get around to do it. It's always haunt me how to get it right, the right combination of ingredients, etc. Finally, I decide to make one and see how it turns out. Well, I have to say it's not bad! Next time around, I will probably add a lil bit more orange juice and honey. As for the chicken, it's suppose to be cubed, but my maid minced it without asking me so minced it is.

Orange Chicken

3/4 cup orange juice (About 2 Navel oranges)
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 tsp orange zest (optional)
2 tsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp honey (i use manuka honey)
1/4 tsp mustard powder
2 deboned chicken thigh, cubed
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 small onion, minced
1 1/2 tbsp ginger, finely minced

1. In a heavy bottomed saucepan, mix orange juice, half of chicken stock, orange zest, honey, mustard powder and soy sauce. Cook over low heat until it reduced to half. Strain and put it aside.
2. On low heat, sautee onion until translucent, add minced ginger and sautee until fragrant and last, add garlic and sautee for about 30 seconds.
3.  Once the garlic is cooked, add chicken cubes and orange sauce immediately. Let it cook for about 1 minute, then add the other half of chicken stock. Once the chicken is done, let it simmer until the sauce thicken.
4. Let it cool, serve with plain white rice.

Chicken Vegetable Puree

When I was having a hard time feeding Gwynnie and every mealtime was a major battle.  My friend, Shera gave me this recipe. It's a wonderful recipe and a life saver. I don't have a picture of the puree since Gwynnie has moved on from puree to toddler food by the time I started this blog. Sorry about that! But please do share the picture if you decide to make one for your baby.

This recipe is amazing, it has very nice aroma that even made my husband and I wanted to take a bite of it.

Disclaimer for this recipe: the quantity of the ingredients (except for the chicken) are not exact, it's a rough estimate. I always approximate how much vegetables i have to put in this dish.

1 chicken thigh
1 cup chicken stock
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
1 clove shallot, thinly sliced
1/4 onion, minced
1/2 big red tomato
1/3 small carrot or butternut squash
1 small potato or sweet potato
celery
1 tbsp butter

1. In a heavy bottomed saucepan on low heat, melt butter and sautee onion until translucent, add garlic & shallot, cook for about 1 minute.
2. Add tomato, sautee for another minute. Add carrot, potato & celery, sautee for about 2 minutes.
3. Pour the chicken stock until it slightly cover the vegetables. Let it simmer for about 3 minutes. Add the chicken thigh and add more stock barely covering the chicken.  Put on the lid and let it simmer for 1 hour or until the meat comes off from the bone and stock has reduced more than half.
4. Remove bones from chicken and let it cool before putting it in food processor.
5. Puree and serve.

You can always replace the vegetables with any vegetables you want to put. Mushroom, celery, broccoli, you name it. I used to change the vegetables selection every 2-3 days.

Salmon Bites

This is a very simple and delicious recipe. I started making bite size pieces for my daughter when she didn't want to eat anything else other than her Gerber's puff. So I figured if I make her food in bite size pieces, she will think it's one of her snacks and eat it. It worked and I never looked back.

Salmon Bites:

150 gr salmon
1 cup flour
1 egg
1 cup panko flour
1/2 cup parmagiano reggiano cheese, finely grated

1. Heat the oven to 175 C
2. Prepare 3 bowls for the flour, egg and panko
3. Mix panko and parmagiano cheese
4. Cubed salmon into bite size pieces
5. Coat the cubes in this order: flour-egg-panko paramgiano
6. Put the bites in a baking tray lined with parchment paper and bake for 15 minutes.