Food Photography Event: Oozed

Flickr food photography event hosted by Daring Baking Club (Klub Berani Baking/KBB). This month theme is OOZED. So we have to photograph food that oozed out and dripping out.

To participate to this month event, I was actually not really in the mood. Lots of works and less inspirations. Few day before ending day, I just tried to photograph egg. First I made soft fried egg. When I did the shoot, the sun light was on and off as you know I work with natural lighting. So it didn't work with the picture. Blamm, went to the trash.

Second day, early in the morning when I was going to make my breakfast, sun shined, plenty natural light through my kitchen windows. Straight I got an idea to boil soft egg. Then prepare the table, setting and camera to make a shoot. Many pictures were taken here. Only the few last pictures did work as I wanted it. Then straight edited in lightroom and photoshop, posted in flickr. End of the month, we got the result of the most voted photo as favorite and claim as a winner. Guess who...???!!!! My oozed soft boiled egg. Yaaaiiiiii.... I feel like my dear friend Cheri would say, "I would dance half-naked on the roof".

Weekend Baking: Banana Cake With Chocolate Chips

Adapted from local magazina called Libelle, I tried to bake this cake today. Wow it was succeeded. I didn't know it would be so easy and so delicious. The whole family loved it. I will definitely bake this again!!



Ingredients:
150 gr butter
80 gr sugar
2 ripe bananas, fine-meshed
3 eggs
180 gr flour
1 pack dry yeast
70 gr almond powder
100 gr chocolate chips


Directions:
1. Mix the butter and sugar until white and fluffy, then add meshed banana in it.
2. Add the eggs in butter-mixed, beat well.
3. Then pour flour and yeast, and mix well.
4. Add almond powder and chocolate chips in the mixture. Pour in the baking pan.
5. Bake in the oven 200°c for 10 minutes, then another 35 minutes on 160°c.

Pastel Goreng (Indonesian Fried Pastry)

This is my favorite snack... fried pastry filled with vegetables, egg and chopped meat. You see the filling is quite heavy, so sometimes I eat this as my lunch.

Ingredients:

Pastry:
250 gr flour
60gr Butter
60ml Cold Water
1/2tsp Salt
1 tbsp Oil
1 Egg

Filling:
Oil to fry
Boiled potatoes, finely chopped
2 Carrots, finely chopped
100 gr Chopped meat
3 Garlic, finely chopped
Bean thread vermicelli (so-un)
2 Hard-boiled eggs, finely chopped
Salt
Pepper
Sugar

Instructions:
1. Make the filling first. Heat oil and fry the garlic until fragrant.
2. Add meat & carrots. Fry until meat and carrots done.
3. Then season with salt, pepper and sugar.
4. Add so-un and potatoes, then last one, add hard-boiled eggs. Mix well and leave aside to cool.:


Pastry:
1. Mix the flour with margarine, egg, and salt.
2. Knead well and then add water little by little. Let it rest for 1/2 hour. Then put a tablespoon of Oil and knead again until smooth.
3. Roll the dough into paper thin. Cut the dough into circles 8 cm in diameter.
4. Take a tbsp of filling and place in center.
5. Fold pastry over to make half circle and crimp at edges.
6. Deep fry in hot oil until golden brown.

Recipe adapted from Bogasari.

Sayur Putih Nangka Muda (Indonesian Young Jackfruit In Coconut Sauce)

Jackfruit or known as Nangka has very special taste. Unripe or ripe jackfruit can be consumed in the dishes. The ripe jackfruit has very strong smell and is very sweet. We consume it as dessert or as fruit. The unripe one, we consume it in a dish. Because it's still raw, it has to be cooked quite long to make it tender. I love to eat jackfruit, a raw or ripe one, in a dish or as a dessert. Both ripe or unripe can be found at the asian grocery and packed in a can.

This recipe is to serve for approx. 10 people.

Ingredients:
500 gr meat
250 gr unripe jackfruit, cut into small pieces, cook until tender
750 ml coconut milk
1 ltr water
1 tsp sugar
2 daun salam/bay leaves
1 cm lengkuas/galanga, bruised

Paste:
4 red onions
3 garlics
1 tsps ketumbar/coriander powder
1/2 tsp white ground peper
1/4 tsp jinten/cumin
1 cm jahe/ginger
2 tsps salt
1 tsp sugar


Directions:
1. Boil the water and meat until the meat tender. Remove from fire, cut the meat into small pieces. Measure the meat broth to the level 750 ml.
2. Heat the oil in the cooking pan, fry the paste ingredients until fragrant.
3. Add the jackfruit, meat broth and meat. Stir and leave it until boiled.
4. Add daun salam, lengkuas and sugar.
5. Pour the coconut milk, let it boiled again then remove from the fire.

Nasi Kebuli (Indonesian Spiced Rice)

This rich of spices rice dish is cooked and served only during special occasions and has influences from Middle East and from Indian moslems.

According to the beliefs of old town folks, when cooking this traditional dish, it is vital that the cooks ensure that the ingredients are mixed in the right proportion and follow strictly according to the recipe.

And more importantly, besides the correct proportion of the ingredients, the cook or cooks must be properly dressed in clean and decent attire!! This, local folks say, is to ensure that when cooked, the rice or dish will not turn out to be tasteless and aroma-less!

Well, Nasi Kebuli is rice cooked with coconut oil and mixed with chicken. Sometimes lamb or mutton is used instead of chicken as the meat for this traditional food.

Ingredients:
2 esps butter
1/2 kg boneless chicken, cut in cubes
3 cups chicken broth
1 tsp salt
2 cups rice, washed and well-drained
1/2 pineapple, peeled and cut in small pieces

Spices:
13 red onions -}
7 garlics -} sliced into thin pieces
2,5 cm ginger/jahe -}
1 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp white groundpepper
1/2 tsp cumin
Grated nutmeg
1 cinnamon stick
4 cardamoms, bruised
2 cloves
1 lemon grass/sereh, bruised


Directions:

1. Heat the butter in the pan. Fry the mix spices for about 2-3 minutes until fragrant.
2. Add the chicken and cook again for about 3 minutes until the chicken turning colored.
3. Pour the chicken broth and cook the chicken with low fire until the chicken is soft.
4. Remove from the fire and seperate the chicken and chicken broth. Pour the chicken broth into other bowl.
5. Put the rice in ricecooker or heavy pan, pour the 21/2 cups of chicken broth in the rice and let it boiled. Put the lid on the pan and let it cooking slowly until the rice is almost done and dry.
6. Add the chicken in the rice and cook on low fire until the rice is done.
7. Serve with fried onions and small slices pineapple.

Some texts adapted from here.

Gulai Ayam (Indonesian Spiced Chicken)

This chicken dish I made for our Lebaran dinner, accompanied by nasi kebuli and acar.

Ingredients:
1 chicken, cut into small pieces
750 ml coconut milk
2-3 esps dessicated coconut, roasted, pounded
1 lemon grass/sereh, bruised
3 lime leaves/daun jeruk
1 esp tamarind juice
1/2 nutmeg, bruised
1-2 cardamoms, bruised
3 cloves
3 cm cinnamons

Spices paste:
8 red chillies
2 tsps ground coriander, roasted
1/2 tsp cumin seeds, roasted
1/2 tsp ground pepper
3 garlics
7 red onions
1 tsp chopped ginger/jahe
1 tsp curcuma/kunyit
2 cm galanga/laos


Directions:
1. Heat the oil in the pan. Fry the spices paste, sereh, lime leaves, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom until fragrant.
2. Add the chicken and dessicated coconut in the pan, stir well until chicken colored.
3. The pour the coconut milk and tamarind juice.
4. Cook until the chicken is tender and the gravy becomes thick.

Iedul Fitri 1429H in Belgium

As people know after the end of Ramadhan, we are all muslims celebrating Iedul Fitri. I live in Belgium far from my own family which are all living in Indonesia. So to celebrate Iedul Fitri, I celebrate it at the Indonesian Embassy Brussel. Most of Indonesians from Belgium, Netherland and Luxemburg come here to celebrate it.

The day is started with Sholat Ied at 10 o'clock in the morning. After that people are asking for forgiveness by shaking hands or hugging each other. Why asking for forgiveness? Well, sometimes as a human being we make some mistakes such as talking bad about other people, or being so nasty to others, or just being forgotten to act polite.. and sometimes those things happen without any purpose but can hurt some people feelings. That's why at Iedul Fitri day, we try to forgive each other and start all over again with new and clean attitudes.



After praying people can go to have lunch at the ambassador house. This time the menu is lontong (rice wrapped in banana leaves), sayur lontong (vegetable in coconut milk), opor ayam (chicken in coconut milk), Oseng-oseng sayur udang (stir fry vegetables with shrimp) and asinan (mix vegetables with peanut sauce). There are also Lebaran cookies served on the table, together with some fruits and puddings. While eating and drinking, people can enjoy live music. Some people come to participate to sing a song on the stage too. Then we do some dances too to make ourself comfortable. Our stomach are full and still doing some exercises... but it was really fun!!!!

Back home, I prepare Lebaran dinner for the whole family. Our dinner menu is so humble but we still enjoy it. So I make Gulai Ayam, Nasi Kebuli, some lebaran cookies and for dessert Chocolate Milk Pudding.



Well until next Ramadhan and next Iedul Fitri...............