One Pan Pasta & Homemade Patty

This one pan pasta has become our favorite lately. Got the recipe from my friend Kyra, who got it from Martha Stewart's website. The original recipe was so simple and lite, no use of meat in any kind. But then Pak Teddy got back from Papua and brought a whole lot of those big, fresh, sweet Papuan shrimps, so that one weekend I decided to add some into the pan. The result was oh so marvelous. Love it even more! Oh, and because of this particular recipe, I had a new found love of cherry tomatoes. ;)

When there's no linguine around, I just simply used spaghetti. And I also like to replace the salt-pepper with some peperoncino herb, so I get the salty taste from the parmesan cheese. 

That weekend, after I made one pan pasta for breakfast (yes, for breakfast!), I really in the mood for cooking, so I decided to try another recipe, Patty Burger from Annabel Karmell (I copy and post it below). It wasn't exactly Goods Diner's Coffee Rub Burger, but the result was pretty good.

You will need:

1 red onion

1 tbsp olive oil

4 tsp soft light brown sugar

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

4 sprigs thyme

200 g lean minced beef

40 g fresh breadcrumbs

1 egg yolk

2 tbsp milk

1 tsp soy sauce

salt dan pepper

sunflower oil for frying

How:

1. Peel and chop the onion into small pieces. Heat the oil and gently cook the onion for 8 minutes or until it's soft. Stir in the sugar and balsamic vinegar.

2. Turn up the heat and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes until onion caramelizes (the sugar on it turns light brown). Stir in the thyme. Then transfer the mixture to a bowl and leave to cool.

3. Add the beef, breadcrumbs, egg yolk, milk, soy sauce, salt and pepper, mix everything together lightly so the burgers stay soft and moist when they cook.

4. Divide the beef mixture into four servings. Roll each one into a ball, then flatten slightly into a burger shape. Cover and chill in the fridge.

5. Oil a frying pan lightly, and cook the burgers over a low heat for 4 to 5 minutes each side.

The Ultimate Nutella Sandwich

Entah bagaimana, Aira dan Aidan menemukan cara membuat The Ultimate Nutella Sandwich, or so it was claimed. Jadi, pada suatu akhir pekan saya dan Pak Teddy disuguhi sarapan buatan dua anak ini. Enak banget rasanya. Dan harus enak memang, mengingat rotinya Vineth, menteganya Lurpak, dan tentu Nutella. Obviously nothing could go wrong with Nutella. x)

Easy-made Cheesecake Bars

It was a gloomy morning that welcomed me when I woke up on Saturday. By default I knew that it was going to be a lazy day, but I craved for something sweet and slutty, like a cake or something. It was a breezy day, a good day to do some baking. So I browsed for a simple recipe, since I don't like complication when it comes to cooking or baking, and I found this perfect recipe of Slutty Cheesecake Bars on Baker Royale. Here's my version of the recipe, there's some alteration that I did on the ingredients due to availability & the measurement since I used larger pan. I love the result, just perfect for a lazy gloomy day at home. :)

Ingredients:
- 1 pack of ready-made cookie dough (of course I was too lazy to make my own, so I used the ready-made from Betty Crocker)
- 1 egg + butter if you used Betty Crocker cookie dough like me
- 16 Oreos
- 500 gr cream cheese
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1,5 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping:
- 2 bags of Chic-choc chocolate
- 6-8 Oreos

How:

1. Heat oven(I only used the bottom heat & low top heat), line pan with a foil sling, grease lightly with butter
2. Prepared the cookie dough, roll out in the pan using your fingers approximately 1 cm thick, bake until crisp
3. Place the 16 Oreos on top of the cookie crust
4. To make the cheese filling: place cream cheese, sugar, egg & vanilla, in a bowl, beat until blended. Pour the mixture over Oreos.
5. Sprinkle chopped Oreos and Chic-choc on top. Bake for about 30-40 minutes
6. Remove from oven, cool completely & put into freezer for a couple of hours before cutting.

There's a reason these are called Slutty Cheesecake Bars. Hello, look at the piling going on: chocolate chip cookie crust, cheesecake filling stuffed with Oreos and then topped with more Oreos and crushed Whoppers. So, yeah, we are pretty much looking at a bar that contains, 2 type of cookies, cheesecake and candy - slutty for sure. ~ Bakers Royale

Killer Breakfast, Dexter Style.

In my opinion, Dexter opening sequences is one of the best ever, the song included. And I had been obsessed with Dexter's kind of breakfast for a while now. A couple of days ago Pak Teddy and I finally prepared our breakfast Dexter style. Of course there was some alteration, since we don't eat pork and bloody orange, the kind of orange used by Dexter, couldn't be found in Jakarta. I figured that the meat on the scene was either pork chop or ham, so we used thin cut of beef sirloin steak instead. Bloody orange replaced by sunkist orange, and we used the only kind of coffee that available at home, grinded Italian. I used a press pot to make the coffee, of course. The easiest part had to be the egg. Add some sauce, and  there you go, a killer breakfast, Dexter style.

              

Milkshake Coffee Jelly

Kami sedang senang-senangnya minum minuman yang pakai topping pudding atau jelly (baca: Chatime & Quickly). Jadi, waktu saya iseng-iseng buka website Sahabat Nestle dan ketemu resep minuman dengan coffee jelly, saya langsung coba buat. Hasilnya enak, tapi terlalu manis menurut saya. Jadi saat berikutnya saya buat lagi, banyak takaran  saya sesuaikan dengan selera saya. Rasanya lebih pas.

Kemarin, pulang sekolah, Aidan mau buat. Saya yang menyiapkan bahan-bahan dan menakar, lalu Aidan yang buat sendiri. Dia bangga sekali, minta difoto. Segelas diberi untuk saya sambil bilang, :Ayo Bunda bilang apa, kan udah dibuatin sama aku." x) Terima kasiiiih Aidaaan! Sorenya Aidan buat lagi, kali ini buat dia dan Kakak Aira. Prosedurnya sama persis, Bunda takar, Aidan buat, Kakak Aira foto, lalu bilang terima kasih, kemudian minum. Malamnya sekali lagi, untuk Ayah. Yang kebagian minum berarti harus foto lalu bilang terima kasih ke Aidan. Kalau mau buat, ini dia resepnya. x)

Coffee Jelly:

• Campur 1 bungkus agar-agar coklat, 500 ml air, 100 gr gula pasir, 3 bungkus kopi saset (yang tanpa gula jika tidak mau terlalu manis).
• Masak sambil diaduk sampai mendidih.
• Tuang ke cetakan, diamkan hingga mengeras.
• Potong-potong jelly, lalu sisihkan

Milkshake (untuk 2 gelas):

• Siapkan 1 bungkus Milo 3in1 saset, susu kental manis sesuai selera, 1 gelas air matang. es batu sesuai selera.
• Masukkan semuanya ke dalam blender, proses hingga halus.
• Tuang milkshake ke gelas, lalu tambahkan jelly.

Chu-chu-churros!

Kami sekeluarga suka sekali churros. Dulu, waktu restoran fast food Popeye's masih ada, kami suka beli churros disana. Lebih duluuu lagi, saya suka beli churros di depan binatu 5 a sec. Lalu di 5 a sec tidak jual lagi dan kemudian di Jakarta Popeye's punah. Kami sempat beli beberapa kali di semacam kios kecil di Grand Indonesia yang memang spesialisasinya churros. Memang enak, tapi agak mahal harganya untuk churros yang ukurannya kecil dan kurus. Jadi kami hanya beli sesekali, apalagi Grand Indonesia lumayan jauh dari rumah kami.

Kalau lagi blog hopping atau menyusuri foto-foto di internet, saya sering ketemu resep dan foto-foto churros. Sampai akhirnya saya naksir berat sama foto churros di sini, dan ternyata ada resepnya. Bahan-bahannya mudah saja, dan kebetulan sebagian besar sudah ada di rumah, jadi pada suatu sore saya memutuskan untuk coba membuat churros sendiri. Dibantu oleh Aira dan Aidan tentunya. Hasilnya tidak mengecewakan. Enak. Aira suka sekali sampai bisa dibilang semua churros yang kami bikin hari itu dia yang makan semua. Aidan makan sebuah, saya 2 buah, sisanya Aira semua. Si Ayah yang belum pulang kantor saja sampai gak kebagian. x)

Untuk churros:

- 75 gr butter

- 250 ml air

- 1/4 sdt garam

- 140 gr tepung, diayak

- 3 telur, dikocok

- 1 lt minyak, untuk menggoreng

Untuk taburan:

- 2 sdm gula castor

- 1 sdm kayu manis bubuk

Untuk chocolate dip:

- 200 gr dark chocolate 60%

- 200 ml whipped cream kotak

- 2 sdm maple syrup

Cara membuat:

1. Panaskan butter dan air di dalam wajan yang tidak lengket, sampai mendidih. Masukkan garam dan tepung. Aduk merata sampai semua tercampur menjadi satu adonan. Matikan api. Masukkan telur dan terus diaduk sampai adonan tercampur rata lagi dan menjadi adonan yang halus dan kental. Masukkan ke dalam piping bag dengan menggunakan ujung yang berbentuk bintang.

2. Panaskan minyak di wajan besar sampai mencapai minimal 170 derajat celcius.

3. Sementara menunggu minyak panas, campur gula dan kayu manis di piring besar. Sisihkan. Buat chocolate dip dengan memanaskan coklat, cream dan maple syrup. Aduk perlahan sampai meleleh. Sisihkan.

4. Perlahan keluarkan adonan dengan piping bag sepanjang 10-15 cm ke dalam minyak panas. Goreng selama 1-2 menit setiap sisinya. Angkat dan tiriskan.

5. Baluri churros dengan gula dan kayu manis di piring selagi masih hangat. Tuang chocolate dip ke mangkuk kecil.

Recipe adapted from http://www.mowielicious.com/, I changed some ingredients due to availability & our personal taste.

Making Daigaku Imo

I was in the mood for some easy cooking this afternoon, so I made daigaku imo, Japanese style candied sweet potato. I saw the picture & recipe from Yummy Corner, browse a little more and got another one from here. I changed the recipe a bit though, to suit my taste. It was so easy to make and great as afternoon snack along with a cup of hot tea.

Ingredients:

- 1/2 kg of Japanese sweet potato (the original recipe use satsumaimo sweet potato, but all I could find here was the one called Japanese sweet potato, I had no idea if it was the same kind or not)

- 1/3 cup of brown sugar

- 2 tsp of soy sauce (the original recipe use 1 tsp, but I like mine a bit sweet & salty, so I add more soy sauce)

- 2 tbsp of water

- sesame seeds & black sesame seeds (I like to mix both)

- Oil for frying

How to:
- Cut the sweet potatoes into bite size.
- Heat the oil & deep fried the sweet potatoes, until cooked & golden. Drain on paper towel.
- Mix water, soy sauce, & sugar in a large skillet. Simmer on medium heat until it thickens.
- Stop the heat & quickly stir fried the sweet potatoes into the sugar sauce.
- Sprinkle some sesame seeds over it.

Original source from here.