old time memories..

Bring back my old time memories ! that what i try to do before eid fitri celebration coming this Tuesday - Insya Allah . My mom used to sew clothes for me and my sisters before eid clebration a very long time ago. Yup, she sew clothes for everybody , not only for us but for neighbor too.  She made money with her skill.  And a couple days before eid , she will be busy in the kitchen too .  She baked, she cooked , she prepared everything , the smell of cookies filled the air, sometime made us hungry and couldn't wait to taste .. to bad, we must to obey what she said, wait until fasting break.  And than she will give us a little amount of cookies to try and kept the rest for eid celebration day. Oh, that memory is always come to my mind especially during ramadan like this time.

Soon we will celebrate Eid fitri too, like my mom did , this time i do the same to my little one, i sewing a simple dress for her just to remind me how happy i was wear a new dress and walked around neighborhood. As you can guess, a fabric stores is more like a big playground to me. I will forget about the time while I'm in there. Silly me, while others enjoy been around jewelry store, i chose fabric store instead LOL. 

look what a beautiful fabrics i bought , oh well.. 

And baking an old time style cookies for celebration is another exciting moment to me too.  I choose one of my mom recipe with a different shape of cookies off course , we call Nastar .  Nastar is a small cookies filled with pineapple jam, delightful snap through the day, and become the most famous and the most wanted treats on big holiday such as Christmas, New Year eve and Eid in Indonesia.

NASTAR // Pineapple Tarts Recipe

Pineapple Filling


Ingredients:
4 large pineapples
300 g sugar
1 clove
1 inch cinnamon stick

Method:
1. Slice and grate pineapples till fine. You can use a food processor do grate it.
2. Strain the grated pineapple till dry.
3. Let it simmer in a wok toll the juice has dry up. Add sugar and, cinnamon stick and clove.
4. Stir till the pineapple filling is thick, sticky and dry.
5. Leave to cool and shape into small balls.

Note : make the filling in advance and refrigerate it.

Pastry

Ingredients:
500 g butter (or mix between butter and margarine is ok too)
100 g powdered sugar
4 egg yolks
700 g all purpose flour
200 gr edam cheese, granted
4 tbsp milk powder
1 tsp vanilla essence

Egg Brush
1 egg yolk plus 1Tbsp water


Method:
1.Preheat oven at 150° C.
2.Cream butter and sugar till white.
3.Add in egg yolks and beat at low speed for 1 minute.
4.Fold in flour gradually.
5.For pineapple cookies basket like mine : just roll a small dough between Ziploc bag, cut into a circle shape and put into a small pie cup. Or the simple way just make like a small ball.
6.Put the rolled pineapple filling onto the pastry
7.Brush with egg brush.

8.Bake for 30 minutes or when tarts is light golden brown in color.

When my arms can’t reach people close to my heart.

I always hug them with my prayers.

May allah’s peace be with you.

A very happy eid mubarak to you, my friends

Bento Lunch Box




Ayam Pentul+Coconut Rice wrap with a slice of egg-omelet with carot / her's fav.fruit !

My daughter start her kindergarten school this week , for full day which is she will stay at school since 9am to 4pm .. oh dear, even school is a pretty close to our home, but still i feel sad too.  Home feel so quite. Sometime i wish she wouldn't have grown up so fast but then i realize that is so selfish I am, she need to be grow as a young lady. :) 

Try to wake her up early and prepare everything for her is a new 'chaos' at home today, but after a week seem everything  going on the right track. No fighting between mom and daughter LOL.  And I find another interesting moment too, preparing her lunch box menu and snack !!  I never thought this is gonna be an interesting and exciting moment for me, and i learn from many 'bento' moms .  And next, all the bento products just drive me crazy, they are so cute !!!  oh my..

Here is  just a sample of one of my daughter's bento lunch box. Can't compete with others 'bento' mom.. i just a beginner, but everything is just fine, as long as my daughter happy and eat whatever i put on her lunch box. I made Indonesian's Chicken Drumstick as known as Ayam Pentul. and write in indonesian, if you interest just let me know i will translate for you.  Try to prepare everything since night and fry it in the morning so no more chaos morning :D

Ayam Pentul
Bahan:
10 bh sayap ayam // chicken drumlets

Bumbu :
2 sdt garam halus // salt
1 sdm bawang putih bubuk // garlic powder
½ sdt lada halus // white pepper
½ sdt chicken powder // chicken stock powder
1 sdm olive oil
1 sdt gula pasir // sugar
1 sdm air jeruk nipis // lime juice
2 sdm susu evaporated // evaporated milk
1 sdt ketumbar bubuk // coriander powder

Bahan lain:
300 gr tepung terigu // all-purpose flour
2 btr putih telur // white eggs
Tepung panir kasar // Japanese Bread Crumb // Tempura Crumb

Cara membuat:
1. Potong sayap ayam, ambil bagian yg banyak dagingnya, kerat urat ujungnya, kumpulkan daging ayam pada bonggol sendi-nya sedemikian rupa sehingga bentuknya menjadi spt drum stick.
2. Campur semua bumbu halus, lalu ratakan pada sayam ayam. Diamkan lk. 15 menit.
3. Gulingkan sayap ayam pada tepung terigu, lalu celupkan di putih telur yang dikocok lepas supaya agak encer. Gulingkan lagi pada tepung tempura. Kepal-kepal agar tepung tempura menempel kuat. Bekukan dalam kulkas lk. 1 jam
4. Goreng hingga kekuningan, dengan api sedang, hingga matang.
5. Sajikan bersama saos botolan.

1. Cut chicken drumlets, with sharp knives bring all the meat from the top to the bottom part of bone, and you will see it will look likes a drum stick.
2. Mixed all the spices + milk + chickens into the medium bowl. Set a side, +/- 15 minutes
3. Roll the drumstick into all purpose flour , than dipp into white egss, and last roll into tempura crumbs. squize little bit harder so all the crumb will stick together.  Keep it cold in the icebox for 1 hours - me : sometime I keep into several ziploc, frozen and when i need its easy to take out from freezer.
4. Fry it with medium heat or bake 350 F for 45 minutes.
5. Serve with ketchup.

Strawberry Jam Roll Cake

Still 15 days to go before we celebrate Ied Fitri - I'm just like others moslem who so exciting during Ramadan, and following my mom's step that always have a sweetest stuff on the table every afternoon, so every family member can enjoy a simple snack and a cup of sweet tea for iftar (fasting break).  This time I just like to practice baking roll cake, actually a pretty much easy than I tought :P 

If i can make, you can make too.. here is the recipe

STRAWBERRY JAM ROLL CAKE

Ingredients :

4 eggs, separated

3/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla

3/4 cup cake flour, sifted

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Garnish:

Confectioners' sugar, for dusting, sifted

1 cup jam or jelly, stirred well

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small bowl beat egg whites until stiff but not dry and set aside. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks until light. Gradually add the sugar and vanilla, and mix well. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the sifted flour mixture to the egg yolk mixture. Fold in the egg whites into the egg mixture and pour the batter into a 15 by 10 by 1-inch jelly roll pan lined with waxed paper. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until the cake is golden.

Loosen edges of cake, invert cake onto a towel dusted with confectioners' sugar. Gently peel wax paper off cake. Trim 1/4-inch of hard crust off each long side of the jelly roll cake. Begin with the narrow side and roll the cake and towel up together. Cool cake on rack, seam side down, for 10 to 15 minutes.

Once cake has cooled, gently unroll and spread cake with jam or jelly and re-roll. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar

Marhaban Ya Ramadan

Ramadan is coming on summer day this year, it's quite hard to do fasting during HOT summer days this time, the temperature is reached 95 - 100 F every day. But I feel excited about Ramadan. I don't prepare much , but I try to be more focused on what’s really important in life and hoping to be a better person with every passing year.

And to all my moslem friends, may the light that we celebrate at Ramadan show us the way and lead us together on the path of peace and social harmony. Wish you a very happy Ramadan Mubarak