and still growing ..

I feel run like crazy .. too much too do, so little time .. here is one of the reason too, sneak peek from my last project. Piles of my quilting blocks, and still growing ..

I will be back soon..

Pisang Molen Keju // Banana Wrapped in pastry

It's only me or others feel the same like I do ? I always miss my home town, my extended families especially during Ramadan. I miss the moments while we were a little, mom prepared snack - a sweet's stuff for iftar before we continue with together pray.
Actually I don't really care to make dessert for iftar (the evening meal for breaking fasting during the Islamic month of Ramadan) especially when summer like this, our fasting is getting longer than others. We start since 4.30am till 8.30pm. So, no time to snacking off course.
But not this snack that I've been craving since see the recipe from my talented fellow blogger, mba Hesti - thought I gain 1 lbs everytime visiting her blog .. *grin*

Here is the copy of recipe I got from her. You can use ready to use puff pastry instead but to me, I always want to get as close as the original taste, so it's fine for me to spend more time for preparing to get a very delicious Pisang Molen Keju as like I always get from bread store at Bandung area a very long time ago.

PISANG MOLEN KEJU

250 gr tepung terigu
30 gr gula pasir
2 kuning telur
125 gr butter + 1 sdm butter (Hesti using 125gr korsvet)
1/2 sdt garam (skip if use salted butter)

Filling
Pisang Raja yang matang (kukus, potong-potong)
Keju (i used cheddar slice)
gula pasir atau susu kental manis
1 kuning telor + 1 sdt madu untuk olesan

Cara Membuat :
1. Kulit Pastry campur terigu, gula, garam, aduki rata, tambahkan kuning telor dan air, aduk kembali . Terakhir tambahkan 1 sdm butter. Bulatkan, simpan di kulkas selama 15 menit.

2. Keluarkan dari kulkas , giling membentuk persegi panjang,isi dengan 125gr butter dingin, Tutup dari bagian yang tidak mencapai butter ke tengah lipatan. Giling lagi , dan lipat kembali seperti cara pertama. Lakukan sebanyak 4x lipatan. Simpan kembali di kulkas.

3. Giling tipis adonan , potong kotak (exact square) taburi tengah adonan dengan gula pasir atau susu kental manis sedikit, beri potongan pisang raja, beri irisan keju (Fitri : pakai setengah irisan keju cheddar slice), Beri gula sedikit diatas nya. Lipat seperti amplop. Oles dengan kuning telur yang telah di campur madu.

3. Letakkan di baking pan, beri jarak, panggang sampai kuning ke-emasan. (Fitri : 350 F selama 20menit)

Note :
- if you need translation of this recipe, please send me message.
- I've been tried short cut before using 'ready to use, puff pastry' the result was puff very nicely on the oven, 10 minute after left oven.. the pastry is shrink.. eeeerrr.. so, to me, the best way is made from stratch.

Kebab wrapped in eggplant baked in tomato sauce

This recipe remind me about my husband cousin, she is such a talented artist. Her painting are amazing. I met her and her family for the first time last year when we traveled to Germany. We probably just spent 3 hours at her family home before we continue our journey to France, not much time off course but their hospitality were so amazing. I love them since beginning. But too bad, I didn’t speak Farsi and the other hand she is not speak English, she speak Germany fluently so I need much help from my husband to translate almost every ting she said.

She served dinner for us, she cooked a lot of Persian Food. And one of my favorite menu was Kebab wrapped in eggplant with tomato sauce. Oh, my I felt regret not asking her how to cook those menu at that time. Everybody were busy ate delicious foods. Until couple days ago, I harvest some eggplants and tomatoes from my garden. And *cling* I decided to make those menu. Good thing about Internet, I search and found recipe from my beloved blogger, mba Elra –

And here is the recipe , and to my taste, I add several ingredients. And please with my experience I suggest you to using a fresh tomatoes , well.. you still can use can tomato but believe me you won’t find the “sexy” taste when you use can food.

Kebab wrapped with eggplant in tomato sauce

Main Ingredients:

4 eggplants (sliced lengthwise to 1/8 inch)

salt

olive oil

2 bell peppers (I used green and red pepper, sliced into 1 inch strips)

kebab meat (see below)

1 batch of tomato sauce from 10 big fresh tomatoes (chopped or simply just put into food processor) - see note

Fresh oregano leaves (optional)

Fresh basil leaves (optional)

Directions:

1. Salt the eggplant and let sit for 30 minutes.

2. Rinse the salt from the eggplant and pat dry.

3. In a large skillet, fry the eggplant lightly just enough to soften them. Drain on a paper towel to get rid the excess oil.

4. Place some of the tomato sauce in the bottom of a baking dish.

5. Place one slice of eggplant across another and place some of the kebab meat in the middle.

6. Wrap both sides of the lower eggplant up and over followed by the sides of the outer slice of eggplant.

7. Place the eggplant wrapped kebab parcels into the baking dish and top with more tomato sauce, slices pepper. Put tooth pick between the eggplant so, the eggplant wont feel off during baking.

8. Spread fresh oregano leaves and basil if use

9. Bake in a preheated 375F oven until the tomatoes and peppers are nice an roasted and the sides are bubbling, about 45-60 minutes.

Spiced Lamb Kebab Meat

Ingredients:

1 pound ground lamb or beef meat

1/2 cup herbs such as parsley, mint, cilantro (chopped)

4 cloves garlic (chopped)

1 onion (chopped)

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon curry powder

1 teaspoon paprika powder

salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Mix everything, cover and let sit in the fridge while you prepare the eggplant.

Follow this step by step on how to make the eggplant parcels

For Tomato Sauce:

10 big tomatoes, put into foodprocessor or you can use 1 (28 oz) can  whole tomatoes, roughly chopped

¼ cup finely chopped onion

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

½ cup chicken stock, or chicken broth, or water

1 tbs olive oil

salt and pepper

Directions :

Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat, add onion, and fry until soft, add garlic and fry for another minute. Add the tomatoes including the juice, stir, pour the chicken broth or the chicken stock, season with salt and pepper. Cook for about 15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Turn of the heat.

Ramadan Mubarak

Happy Ramadan to All. May Allah bless you in this holy month.

Almond Blackberry Cake

My 6yo daughter is having summer break for almost 3 months, she spent 6 weeks on summer camp, and the rest, mom must to entertain her. I tell you, is not always easy, she always asking 'what should I do next' or she will say 'oh.. I getting borred'

Before she said that I always giving her many activities, every night I always thinking what should I give for her next day. Either she is doing crafting with me, or I let her baking with me.

This is one of cake she bake, well..I help for some stuff too, but overall this is a pretty simple baking especially when you don't need mixer at all, just mix every ingredients on food processor. She was so proud with her baking skill, and told her dad how she spent the day with me. You can do with your kiddo, too.

Almond and Blackberry Cake
Recipe from : Stephanie – Dessert for Breakfast

for cake:
3/4 (105 g) + 1/4 (35 g) all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 (250 g) sugar
8 oz (225 g) almond paste
1 cup (8 oz/225 g) butter, at room temperature
1 tsp orange blossom water
1 1/2 tsp almond extract
6 large eggs, at room temperature

for topping:
12 oz. blackberries
1 Tbsp sugar
juice of half a Meyer lemon
1/4 tsp orange blossom water, opt.
bittersweet (72%) chocolate curls

Directions :

1. for cake. Preheat oven to 325° F. Butter and flour the insides of an 8 x 3-inch round cake pan. Line the bottom of the pan with a parchment round. Set aside.

2. In a bowl, whisk to combine ¾ cup (105 g) flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the remaining ¼ cup (35 g) of flour, sugar, almond paste, and butter. Process until the almond paste is finely ground and well-combined with the butter.

4. Add in the orange blossom water and the almond extract and pulse briefly to combine.

5. Add the eggs, one at a time, processing well between each addition. Continue to process until the mixture is smooth and light.

6. Add the flour mixture to the batter in two additions, pulsing briefly after each addition just until combined, but do not over mix.

7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake in the oven for 60 – 65 minutes, until the top is brown and the sides are just beginning to pull away from the pan. Remove from the oven, let cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack.

8. Run a thin knife around the edge of the pan and turn the cake out. Place upright on a wire rack and let cool completely.

9. for topping. In a bowl, gently toss to combine the blackberries with the sugar, Meyer lemon juice, and orange blossom water, if using. Let sit for 10 minutes. Top the cake with the blackberries and sprinkle liberally with chocolate curls before serving.

I got the blackberry from Eckert's Farm , their were so sweet so I skip the sugar for topping.

 

Peach Picking

Oh..my, I never been so relief when temperature reach 98 F - weather just so crazy, we had 106 F for almost 10days. No rain but 2 days ago.. 2 hours rain almost, gave wet on the ground little bit. But again, can't complain since people in other state still struggle without power during heat wave.. :(

We try the best not to get much heat, but I said 'Yes' when my husband, asked me to go for peach picking over the weekend. The place we visited was Eckert's Farm - it's about 1 hours drive from where we live. The Eckert's Farm is a family farm that you can pick your own fruits, depending what the fruit season is, eat as much as you can in the farm, but pay the rest of fruits that you bring home . It was a nice experience for my little one, well.. another fun day she spent for summer break.  This time we be able to picked peaches and blackberry. Really, the peaches got benefit from HOT weather, their become more sweeter than ever.  But not for apples, what I heard from the farmer that they will get trouble with apples if no rain.  Oh.. so sad

I made an ice cream from some peaches we bought. What a perfect way to cool off from summer heat.

Peaches Ice Cream

Ingredients

3/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/8 teaspoon table salt

2 cups milk

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 egg yolk

1 cup peeled and coarsely chopped peaches

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

Preparation

Whisk together first 3 ingredients in a large heavy saucepan. Gradually whisk in milk and whipping cream. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, 10 to 12 minutes or until mixture thickens slightly. Remove from heat.

Whisk egg yolk until slightly thickened. Gradually whisk about 1 cup hot cream mixture into yolk. Add yolk mixture to remaining cream mixture, whisking constantly.  Cool 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, cook peaches and corn syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring often, 4 to 5 minutes. Coarsely mash, and let cool 30 minutes. Stir peach mixture into cooled cream mixture (i using mixer to get more smoother effect)

Place plastic wrap directly on cream mixture, and chill 8 to 24 hours.)