BAKSO!

Bakso... Mungkin untuk yang tinggal di indonesia ngga ngeh betapa "mengangenkannya" makanan satu ini.. Living faaar away from indonesia, one thing i really miss from my beloved country is.... the food. Nasi goreng kampung, soto2an, sate2an, tekwan, pempek, nasi uduk, dan pastinya... BAKSO!! kanggeeeennn banget sama bakso.. tapi satu2nya cara kalo mau makan bakso di sini, harus buat sendiri!huhuhu..
the amazing thing is bakso is my husband's favourite indonesian food. he could eat bakso everyday when we were in jakarta. Bakso abang-abang, bakso es teler 77, bakso lapangan tembak,, di mana ada bakso dia pasti mampir. and when we finally moved to Yemen he kept asking me to make bakso. he always said, you are indonesian. you must now how to make bakso... my first reaction was.. whaatt..??? it is not easy to make bakso!! in Indonesia you can buy frozen bakso in supermarket or bakso from traditional market, ready bakso, you just have to make the soup. Here, there is no bakso. people here don't even know what bakso is!

Seriously, i never imagined myself making bakso from zero, you know from the fresh meat! i've tried making bakso a year ago when i have indonesian maid here. the thing is, there is no tapioca (tepung kanji) here, which is the most essential thing of making bakso. My maid said, you can substitue it with corn flour (maizena flour).. we tried, and... Gagal total!!! Hahahahah the meat didn't form a ball and seperate when i dipped into the boiling water. we tried again, again again,,,, the taste was also tasteless... until... we gave up.

our next visit to jakarta, i bought tepung kanji, and one day i decided to try again. i looked for bakso recipe from the net... i found some interesting fact, about you should mix the meat with ice cube while you mince it in food processor. really? i found two blogs mention that. i chose the recipe i found in sexy chef blog from masakmasak.blogspot.com, cand... thanks to her... finally.... sukses!
here is the recipe
Bahan :

Bahan	Persen %	Jumlah (gr)
Daging Tapioka STPP Garam Merica Bubuk Bawang Putih Es Batu	100 10-20 0,25 4 0,25 1,5 20-30	500 50-100 1,25 20 1,25 7,5 100-150

*STPP : sodium tri poli phospat : pengenyal daging, dalam pembuatan bakso ini saya tidak pakai ini, karena ga tau juga beli dimana, ada yang tahu?*

Dengan bahan dasar ini rasa bakso sudah memadai tapi kalau mau lebih variatif dapat ditambahkan :
▪2 sdm bwg goreng
▪2 bh daun bawang cincang halus

Cara membuat :
■ potong2 daging hilangkan lemak2nya
■ masukkan daging ke meat mincer, sambil digiling masukkan juga es batu sedikit demi sedikit
■ lakukan penggilingan minimal 5 kali supaya tekstur halus
■ campur daging giling dengan semua bahan
■ giling lagi supaya adonan tercampur rata
■ setelah itu buat bulat2an daging dan langsung masukkan ke panci yg sudah diisi air dan sedang mendidih

and.. here is my bakso!

when my husband tasted it, he said, "now finally it is the REAL bakso!"
wow. i am so proud of myself! lol,, it is so easy to eat bakso in jakarta as you can find it everywhere. and now i made it by myself! started from a fresh meat!! mince it with food processor, mix with other ingridients, dan pastinya,,, bikin bulet2an bakso itu pake tangan... and my daughter likes it too!! she kept asking, "bakso! nau bakso!"

now i make bakso once a week. 500gr meat, i can store the rest in the freezer, for nasi goreng, nasi gila, even sometimes at night my husband ask indomi with bakso for dinner.

if you live in jakarta or somewhere in indonesia, just buy bakso from gerobak abang2 or any store. it is much much easier. lol. unless you are looking for something healthy for your kids, this is a good choice. add bakso to their foods, like soup, nasi goreng, capcay, or any stir fried, the kids would love to eat. well, at least it works with my daughter.
if you live abroad and you miss bakso, i reccomend you to try this!!

Dessert : Cappuccino Brownies

I am not good in the kitchen. Seriously. When i first came to Yemen, far from my family, no maid, i had no idea how to cut chicken, how to bake, the only thing i can make was rice. and indomie. lol.
My husband never pushed me. We ordered foods from restaurant everyday, until we had enough of yemeni street food, and the thing is... i missed indonesian food!! the only way to eat indonesian food is that you have to cook it by yourself! i kept telling myself that. There's no way you can get indonesian food here. Then i started cooking. from the simple one, nasi goreng.

Then now i know what people say "learning by doing". That's how i learned. with books and internet, i collected recipes, and starterd "working" in the kitchen. OH, and there's no brownies in Yemen. So, yeah, brownies was my first choice to bake. First time, of course, failed. i don't know how many times i failed, until finally i baked real brownies that we can really eat and enjoy.haha..

and of course, as a beginner, i chose simple and easiest recipe always. when i saw this recipe, first i thought this would be complicated as it is 3 layers. brownies, cheese and chocolate topping. But when i read the instruction, i was surprised that i seems easy, so i gave it a try.

the recipe i got from www.recipegirl.com. She has lots of recipes, all kind of foods. and for this one i didn't modified as it was perfect that way and the recipe call for 8-inch pan, which is my favorite size pan of baking. not too much, enough for my little family.

Cappuccino Brownies

BROWNIE LAYER
4 ounces fine- quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), chopped
¾ stick (6 Tbsp.) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 Tbs instant espresso powder, dissolved in ½ Tbsp. boiling water
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
½ cup all-purpose flour
¼ tsp salt
½ cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

CREAM CHEESE LAYER:
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
3 Tbs unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup powdered sugar, sifted
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp ground cinnamon
GLAZE
3 ounces fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened)
1 Tbs unsalted butter
¼ cup heavy whipping cream
2¼ tsp instant espresso powder, dissolved in ½ Tbsp. boiling water
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour an 8-inch square baking pan, knocking out excess flour. (Or line the pan with parchment, letting the parchment come up the sides and hang over- then spray the parchment.- this is recommended as it’s easier to get the brownies out of the pan cleanly.)
2. In a heavy 1½-quart saucepan, melt chocolate and butter with espresso mixture over low heat, stirring, until smooth and remove pan from heat. Cool mixture to lukewarm and whisk in sugar and vanilla. Add eggs, whisking well until mixture is glossy and smooth. Stir in flour and salt until just combined and stir in walnuts (if using).
3. Spread batter evenly in pan and bake in middle of oven 22 to 25 minutes, or until a tester comes out with crumbs adhering to it. Cool brownie layer completely in pan on a rack.
4. Make cream cheese layer: In a bowl with an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar, vanilla and cinnamon and beat until combined well. Spread frosting evenly over brownie layer. Chill brownies 1 hour, or until frosting is firm.
5. Make glaze: In a large pyrex measuring cup or glass bowl, place chocolate, butter, cream and espresso mixture. Microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring, until melted and smooth. If glaze is steaming hot, let cool a little bit. Pour glaze carefully over cream cheese layer.Chill brownies, covered, until cold (at least 3 hours).Yield: About 24 squares

and this is how it looks like;

all this time cooking and baking, i'm still not good in "presentation". seriously. sometimes my husband has a doubt to try my cookies, cakes, brownies, because they look weird, not "pretty". haha..
This one, trust me, they taste good.and easy.
yummmmm

My favourite breakfast ; Baked french toast

As this will be my first posting about food/recipe, i will start with my favourite.
about 2 months ago i was browsing recipes, and i found some great food blogs, one of my favourite is the pioneerwoman . i found many great recipes there, and what makes it even better is that she also posted step by step, so it's like tutorials.

My favourite recipe from pioneerwoman is cinnamon baked french toast. Now i have it printed and stand by in my kitchen. Now i am enjoying breakfast even more.click here for the link of the recipe.

 

 Cinnamon baked french toast

Ingredients 

FRENCH TOAST

• 1 loaf Crusty Sourdough Or French Bread
• 8 whole Eggs
• 2 cups Whole Milk
• ½ cups Whipping (heavy) Cream
• ¾ cups Sugar
• 2 Tablespoons Vanilla Extract
• Topping
• ½ cups All-purpose Flour
• ½ cups Firmly Packed Brown Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• 1 stick Cold Butter, Cut Into Pieces
• Fresh Fruit (optional)

Preparation Instructions

Grease 9 x 13-inch baking pan with butter. Tear bread into chunks (or cut into cubes) and evenly distribute in the pan.
Mix together eggs, milk, cream, sugar, and vanilla. Pour evenly over bread. Cover tightly and store in the fridge several hours or overnight.
In a separate bowl, mix flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Add nutmeg if desired. Add butter pieces and but into the dry mixture until mixture resembles fine pebbles. Store in a Ziploc in the fridge.
When you’re ready to bake the casserole, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove casserole from oven and sprinkle crumb mixture over the top. (If you’re using fruit, sprinkle on before the crumb mixture.) Bake for 45 minutes for a softer, more bread pudding texture. Bake 1 hour or more for a firmer, less liquid texture.
Scoop out individual portions. Top with butter and drizzle with maple syrup.

My review & version:
this recipe is for 12 servings. I have only my husband and my 2 year old daughter here, so i have to cut the ingridients.
for frensh toast:
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1Tbsp cream (sometimes i ommit this if i don't have one at home, and it's just taste the same for me)
1-2 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
topping:
2 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp cold butter

Ever since i have this recipe, i have it for breakfast at least once a week. sometimes twice. i've tried many other way or some variations with this. i tried to replace sugar with brown sugar (for the french toast mixture), and the result is more caramel taste, which is nice. Once i tried to melt the butter for the topping. It worked too, but with cold butter it's more crumble and crunchy, which i like.I tried to make it in the morning and put in the oveb straight away, and i tried a night before so the next morning i just put it in oven, and both ways taste the same for me. i I also tried with different kind of breads. french bread, slice bread/toast bread, and burger bun. And you know what,, my favourite is with burger bun!
here are some pictures from my breakfast this morning;

burger bun and the milk-egg mixture

chunks of burger bun

enjoy!!

i like to eat this with mapple syrup and butter. But for my husband it's just perfect and sweet enough so he didn't add any topping.

last comment:
This is really easy to make and you can make it one night before. great for weekend breakfast. You just put in oven, then go have shower or other morning routines, by the time you are finish, breakfast is ready!!
the recipe calls for 45 minutes in the oven, but for me 30 minutes enough.
worth to try!!
oh, one more thing, after browsing many recipes, the topping they called it streussel topping. you can use this topping for muffin, cupcakes, cakes (new york cake topping).

Posted by Ree on May 9 2010