Apple Salad

This is what they say: An Apple A Day Keeps The Doctor Away!!

The recipe of this apple salad, I found it again from an old cooking book which I bought 15 years ago. The book itself is already broken here and there, but I still can manage saving most of the recipes which make me really happy because most of the recipes are still original as my (grand)mother(s) used to cook. It's really a treasure for me.

This salad fits together very well. The sweetness comes from the honey, the freshness comes from the apples and the creamy yoghurt and whipped cream make it rich yet light and not to mention the crunchy nuts it between... so yummie and refreshing!!


Apple Salad
(source: Book "Dapur Pintar")

Ingredients:
1/2 kg apples
100 cc whipped cream
100 cc yoghurt
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon lime juice
50 gr cashew nuts, roughly chopped
50 gr peanuts, roughly chopped


Directions:
1. Peel and dice apples. Marinate in salt water to keep the color stays good. Put aside.

2. In a bowl whisk the whipped cream, yoghurt, honey and lime juice together.

3. Pour the dressing over the apples and scoop everything together. Finally sprinkle with peanuts and cashew nuts.

Watercress Salad

It's summer time but we have more rain than sun. It's really boring for the children who are having two months holiday and not being able to play outside. Eventhough it rains a lot, the temperature is quite high, it makes me sweeting to cook. Most of the time I just cook something easy and fast which doesn't require plenty time standing in the kitchen. For lunch I make more salads and eaten with sandwich or bread. Like this watercress salad, it's a bit bitter from the watercress but at the same time it's also refreshing and juicy from the orange. Really worth it to try... I'm sure you will like it.

I'm placing the ingredients exactly like in the book, while I prefer to make it in random, just according to my own taste. Mine here is without slices of celery, chives and nuts since I'm allergic to nuts. I like to put more oranges in the salad. For the dressing I use vinaigrette from a bottle. If you have time, use the dressing recipe here, I'm sure it's much delicious.

This is my entry for Jugalbandi click photo event for the month July 2009 with the theme Bi-Colour.


Watercress Salad
(source: Book "Dinner with friends")

500 gr watercress
3 sticks white celery
1 cumcumber
3 oranges
1 red onion, slice in rings
35 gr chives
60 gr chopped pecan nuts or walnuts

Dressing:
60 ml olive oil
60 ml lime juice
2 teaspoons rasped orange skin
1 teaspoon coarse mustard
1 teaspoon honey

Directions:
Take the watercress sprigs and discard the thick stalks away. Cut the celery into strips 5 cm long. Peel the cucumber, cut it horizontally in half, remove seeds and cut it into thin slices.

Peel the oranges and remove the white, divide it into segments and remove the sheet. Put everything in the refrigerator until use.

Whisk the dressing oil, lemon juice, blood orange, mustard, honey and freshly ground black pepper together.

Put all the ingredients except the nuts in salad bowl. Pour the dressing over it and scoop everything together. Finally sprinkle the pacannoten or awalnoten on it.

zoeken

Strawberries Romanoff

Strawberries Romanoff, a delectable concoction of strawberries macerated in sugar, orange liqueur and fine shreds of orange peel. The strawberries are served with sweetened whipped cream.

This dish, although typically French, has Russian origins. It was named for the royal family of Imperial Russia, at whose court French food was invariably served.

Strawberries Romanoff

1/3 c. + 2 tbsp. sugar 1/3 c. Grand Marnier or Cointreau 1 orange 3/4 c. heavy cream

1. Remove the stems from the strawberries. Rinse well and rain. pat dry with paper towels.

2. Place the strawberries in a bowl and add 1/3 cup of the sugar and the Grand Marnier.

3. Using a swivel-bladed potato peeler, cut around the orange to produce a very thin spiral of peel. Do not cut into the white pulp. Cut the peel into wafer-thin shreds. Add to the strawberries and fold together gently. (Use the orange in another dish.)

4. Cover the bowl and refrigerate until ready to serve.

5. Whip the cream and flavor it with the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Serve the cream with the strawberries. 8 servings.

**Text and recipes from here.

Mixed berry yoghurt cake

This is extremely simple recipe which will not require you to spend hours in the kitchen. This cake can be made using a variety of flavours and as final touch I like to sprinkle with raspberry coulis.

Mixed berry yoghurt cake
(source: Simply Irresistible French Desserts by Christelle Le Ru)

125 gr natural yoghurt
250 gr sugar (I used 200 gr)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
3 eggs
1 lemon rind
230 gr flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
50 ml vegetable oil
mixed berry jam

Topping:
Fresh mixed berry
Icing sugar

As final touch I added raspbery coulis

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 160°c. Grease a 25 cm ring tin or cupcake tins.

2. Beat the yoghurt, sugar, vanilla essence, eggs and lemon rind together in a mixing bowl.

3. Whisk in the flour, baking powder and vegetable oil and mix until well combined.

4. Pour half of the mixture into the prepared tin(s), spoon the mixed berry jam on top and cover with the remainder of the batter.

5. Bake for 35 minutes or until a fine skewer or toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool.

6. Before serving, place the cleaned mixed berries in the centre of the cake and sprinkle with icing sugar and raspberry coulis.

Malaysian Fish Curry

I just realise that I haven't been posting a lot about preparing food with fish. Actually I have a very good fish curry recipe that I haven't posted here, i.e. Malaysian Fish Curry. I have eaten this fish curry few years ago on a plane flying to Jakarta. Since then I was searching to find the exact recipe but without success.

Until someday my hubby bought me "Wok Cooking Book" which has the recipe of this fish curry. When I tried to make it, it tasted exactly the same as I've eaten on that plane. You can imagine how happy and satisfied I was at that time. And since then this dish became our favorite fish dish, served with steamy rice... :p

Malaysian Fish Curry
(source: Wok Kookboek)

Ingredients:
Paste:
4 cm ginger
3 red chillies (1 teaspoon sambal ulek)
1/2 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 stick lemon grass
1 teaspoon terasi/shrimp paste (can be deleted)
2 tablespoon oil

1/2 tablespoon curry powder
125 ml coconut milk
1/2 tablespoon tamarind water
1/2 tablespoon kecap manis (dark sweet soy sauce)
125 ml water
1 teaspoon chicken broth powder
250 gr fish fillet
1 tomato
1 tablespoon lime juice


Directions:
1. Use the blender to blend the paste ingredients until smooth.

2. Stir fry the paste for about 3 minutes, then add with curry powder. Stir well.

3. Add the coconut milk, tamarind water, kecap manis, chicken broth and water in the pan. Lower the heat and continue to simmer for another 5 minutes.

4. Add in the fish, slices tomato and lime juice, continue to cook until the fish done.

Another Banana Cake

I already have three different recipes of banana cakes, i.e. Simply Banana Cake, Banana Coconut Cake and Banana Marble Cake. Amazingly they all have different taste and characters and I love them all.

This new recipe of banana cake is from here. Instead of making cupcakes, I made it as big cake by measuring all the ingredients doubled. This banana cake is not really sweet since it will be topped again. I subtituted the caramel and heavy cream with honey, vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. It's really delicous... really worth it to try. The ice cream won't be seen on picture, since it's really hot here and it's melting straight away by the time I'm going to make picture.


Another Banana Cake
(source: foodie blogger StrawberrySays)

Ingredients:
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
12 tbsp butter, softened
4 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup self-rising flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp allspice
1 medium mashed overripe banana
1 cup sour cream (I didn't use)
6 tbsp milk

For topping I:
1/2 cup heavy cream, whipped until thick, mix with 3 tbsps caramel sauce
grated dark chocolate
1 or 2 medium banana(s), thinly sliced
OPTIONAL: Peanut butter, chunky or smooth

For topping II:
Whipped cream
Vanilla Ice Cream
Honey



1. Pre-heat oven to 150°C.
2. Beat butter, sugar, and eggs in a blender until light and fluffy.
3. Stir in sifted dry ingredients, bananaand milk. Pour mixture in baking pan.
4. Bake for approximately 50 minutes, or until golden brown. Turn cakes onto wire rack to cool.
5. Optional to use any topping.... they're both delicious.