Martabak Manis - My Tower of Shame

Imagine a Hollywood movie trilogy.
The Martabak Manis (Thick Indonesian Pancake) Disaster Series - by Mochachocolata-Rita
I. Martabak Manis: Thin & Burnt - yet Delicious (published and was quite a hit)
II. Martabak Manis the sequel: Thick, not Burnt - yet NOT yummy (not published, went straight to recycle bin)
III. Martabak Manis the triquel: My Tower of Shame (now showing)

My tower of shame? Why?

This is my third attempt, and I've been given the ultimate deliciousness martabak manis recipe, complete with tireless online guidance (thank you sooo much, Lidia! ^_^), and I still managed to f*cked it up. Un-freaking-believable!

Ehm well, I had only myself to blame. Let me summarize my failures:
First Attempt
What happened: did not follow recipe properly, set the heat too high, and left the pancake unattended (surely, a recipe for disaster)
Result: thin pancake, burnt bottom (doesn't look as sexy as it sounds)

Second Attempt
What happened: trying a good recipe, skipped hand mixer, just used a whisk to beat the heck outta the batter, frying was done using IKEA non stick pan
Result: batter didn't raise as high as it should've, texture was all wrong, disgustingly soft, tasted off

Third Attempt

What happened: trying the good recipe again, used a hand mixer, frying was done using IKEA non stick pan, I didn't know when I should stop cooking (!!!)
Result: the batter raised beautifully, towering all high and proud, the texture and taste wasn't bad (but not that good), and again, the ever so unsightly, unsexy burnt bottom!!!

What have I learnt from my multiple failures? What's my next action plan?
- Contemplate never to try making a martabak manis again. Like, ever
- Buy a proper pan with a thick bottom. That thin and cheap IKEA pan just won't work
- When back to Indonesia, get an internship with a martabak manis vendor
- Failing that, flirt outrageously with him to get the recipe
- Failing that, propose marriage to a martabak manis vendor
- Try to import a martabak manis vendor into Hong Kong
- Heck, just have Aphin Martabak Manis phone number on speed dial and order every night before going back to Hong Kong

I am anything but persistent, eh? Duh, this trilogy is so not a blockbuster material.

Nasi Goreng Sambal Ijo - The Fried Rice that Screwed Up My Diet

I am sure you have heard of the term "slowly but sure". It's good for something you're hoping for, such as success or achievements, but not so great for weight gain. Hehe. Plus, weight gain is normally not exactly slowly but sure, it's more like rapid and unstoppable (at least mine is).

The last few weeks when I realized that none of my pants fit, I had a crazy idea to start an extreme dieting. Skipping meals, eating almost nothing, starving myself to stupidity and the like. How silly of me to think that I'd succeed. The first day I skipped breakfast I felt pretty happy with myself, by the time I successfully had a very minimum lunch of healthy sandwiches I was pretty smug, thinking, I could totally do this. Summer swim suits, here I come!

I went home after work planning to skip dinner and attend an exercise class. Before class, I was preparing lunch boxes for the day after. Something simple. Just putting together a spicy green chilli sauce I made previously, and leftover rice. Everything was going well as planned...

....until I tasted the
Nasi Goreng Sambal Ijo (Spicy Green Chilli Fried Rice)

...and everything went downhill from there.

Recipe
(serves 4)
- 2 cups rice, cooked, refrigerated overnight
- 1/2 lbs minced meat
- 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 1/2 onion, chopped
- 8 large green chilli, chopped
- ground cumin, ground corriander seeds, salt, pepper, sugar, fish sauce, pepper, olive oil

Saute garlic, chilli and onion in hot olive oil, add ground cumin and ground corriander seeds, add rice, mix well, season with salt, pepper, sugar, fish sauce, and serve.

It might look all simple and humble, but it is fragrant and super tasty. It kinda reminds you of eating hot steamy rice with Padang restaurant's sambel ijo. Yum!

I ravenously downed at least two meals worth of the evil fried rice (super gurihhhh) - ohhhh carb! and the only exercise I could do after that was lying on my couch clicking the remote control watching some bad TV.

So much for extreme dieting. Folks, do not try this at home (the diet, not the fried rice ^_^)

Chickpeas, Cheddar & Sausage Cakes- My Blogging Beginning

How did I end up blogging?

This question sent me back to sometime before Chinese New Year 2008. *Whoosh...time traveling*
Damn...I've totally missed my first bloggiversary without realizing it, just like how I've missed uncountable anniversaries, birthdays, and other special occasions of my loved ones. My bad.

I have always been an online exhibitionist. I love sharing what I ate, what did I do, where did I go, documenting, posting and ranting about every mundane trivia, torturing whoever happened to come across my (pre-blogging) Friendster/MSN Space page/Picasa Web Album/Facebook page.

Last year, when I started cooking, my friends and I would talk about recipes etc, and I found that it'd easier to just post what I've cooked, including the recipes in my Facebook photo albums, than repeating the same story again and again via various Instant Messaging mediums (I should join IM-holic Anonymous).

When I was looking for recipes online, I came across Su Yin's blog, The Journal of A Girl who Loves to Cook, and from there, all hells broke loose. I read every single post in her wonderful blog, feeling every moment she documented, and clicked all the links my eyes could see. Her blog led me to Jaden's hilarious blog, Steamy Kitchen, and again, I devoured everything, feasting on the drool-worthy food photographs, rolling on the floor laughing.

Inspired by them, my food descriptions in facebook photo albums was getting longer and longer, soon enough, one album grew to two albums, and I thought, what the heck, let me start a blog just for fun.

Great. And now look at me...totally hooked!

Let me spare you from a never ending nostalgia, which is a more accurate indicator of old age compared to wrinkles (wrinkles can always get ironed by cosmetics, botox, and the best of all...photoshop, but the tendency to blurt out repeated stories of nostalgia doesn't lie)...and share this with you...

Chickpeas, Cheddar & Sausage Muffins

Recipe
(yields 8 cakes, 6 in muffin tray, 2 in ramekins)
- 1 can of chickpeas, drained, pat dry, mash approx 3/4 of them
- 1 & 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1.5 tsp salt
- a dash of black pepper
- a bit of dried mixed herbs (oregano, thyme, rosemary, sage)
- 1 tsp chicken stock powder (optional)
- 6 mini sausages, sliced
- 1/3 cup (or more) cheese (I used cheddar, cut into cubes)
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 180C (350C), season mashed chick peas with a pinch of salt and pepper. Keep sausages, cheese and chickpeas on the side. Mix all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix all wet ingredients in a bowl. Mix dry and wet ingredients well, add chickpeas, sausages and cheese, pour batter into greased ramekins/cake mould/muffins, bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Hearty and savory deliciousness, perfect with my morning coffee or afternoon tea.

Now, tell me what led you to this addiction?

Quick Indonesian Rawon and Baked Perkedel

Did I just click "Publish" before typing anything? Sorry guys, accidents happen. Oooops. (This is not the first time, and probably ain't gonna be the last time :p).

I have a situation.
- There is a Rawon event, hosted by my blogger friends
- I love Rawon (Indonesian Black Beef Soup)
- I want Rawon
- now I really really want Rawon
but
- I have no time to make Rawon from scratch
- I don't have the ingredients to make Rawon from scratch
- I am lazy to make Rawon from scratch
- Heck, I don't know how to make Rawon from scratch

What to do?
Thank God for Indofood Rawon Instant Seasoning Mix!
Background music: Handel's Hallelujah Chorus

...what else can I do to make
Indonesian Beef Rawon
more of a weekday quick dish?
- Change the beef chunks with Sukiyaki style beef for record-breakingly quick cooking time
- Remove most of the frills which aren't readily available in my pantry (beansprouts, salted eggs, prawn crackers)
- Change the chilli sauce to just freshly chopped chilli
- Try to modify the fried perkedel (potato cake) side dish to the baked version, and fail miserably


Recipes
Quick Beef Rawon
- 1 lb sukiyaki style sliced beef (if possible with nice marbling)
- 1 cm ginger, crushed
- 1-2 packs of rawon instant seasoning mix (depends on how intense you want the flavor to be)
- 200-400ml hot water (depends how soupy you want it to be)
- olive oil
- lemon
- red chilli
- fresh corriander
Saute ginger in hot oil, add beef, when the color turns (it happens really quickly), add hot water, rawon instant seasoning mix, bring to boil. Turn the heat off, squeeze some lemon juice, garnish with fresh corriander, serve with steamed rice and additional lemon slices and red chilli on the side.

Baked Perkedel (Indonesian Potato Cakes)
- 2 large potatoes
- 1/2 small clove of garlic, finely chopped/grated
- salt, pepper, sugar, nutmeg
- 1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 220C. Wash potatoes, peel skin off, dice to about 2x2 cm cubes, pat dry, microwave until soft (I did on high, for about 7 minutes), mash, add finely chopped garlic, season with salt, pepper, sugar and nutmeg, form into small shapes (they are originally in a slightly flattened disk shape, but I also did small balls and ovals, just for fun). Line baking sheet with foil, brush with olive oil, lay the perkedels, brush with egg wash, bake until golden brown (mine was about 20 minutes), remove from oven to let cool, serve.

Mine turned out much lighter and fluffier than the normally firm perkedels. They taste alright, but they are a gadzillion miles away from the authentic perkedel T_T.

My friend, Lily, suggested boiling the potatoes until soft (with skin), drain, pat dry, peel skin off, mash with a bit of milk, roll into shape, dip in egg white, roll in breadcrumbs, pan fry quickly and pop in the oven to crisp. I am sooo gonna try this method next time.

You can also add minced meat/spam/ham/bacon/shrimps/fish or just the classic fried shallot and chopped spring onion in the mashed potatoes before rolling.

Gosh. My perkedels rants kinda stole the limelight from the Rawon, didn't they? Opppps (again).

This post is for the folks at Masak Bareng (Cooking Together) Event (February 2009 Edition): my apologies for being such a lazy ass and using instant seasoning mix. Opppps (I realised that saying "oppps" too many times did not make me any cuter or more forgiven hihi)

Shrimps, Beef & Eggplant in Spicy Satay Sauce - Do You Like Dishwashing?

Remember those days when your mind went blank? When you had absolutely no idea what to cook? When you asked yourself "what do you wanna eat" and the answer is an annoying mental shrug?...and when you asked someone else hoping for an easy answer, you were always given the ever so helpful up-to-yous? (Damn, I hate up-to-yous).

Yep. I had one of those yesterday.

Then I remembered, when in doubt, drench anything in Lee Kum Kee's Satay Sauce, and everything shall taste delicious! OK, I got the sauce covered. Now...what would "anything" be?

I wandered around the market and nothing said "buy me, eat me"....finally, I got a pack of minced beef, since it tastes especially good with satay sauce; a pack of peeled shrimps, because no defrosting, no peeling, no deveining necessary (convenience wins me all the time), and the fragrance of shrimps on this dish? Unbelievable!

Gosh, I still needed some kind of vegetables. Does eggplant count as veggie? OK, I don't care. No soaking, no peeling, no fine chopping necessary; it soaks up sauces like a sponge; it's soft and creamy; and heck! The purple would look really nice with the orange of the shrimps. Thus...

Shrimps, Beef & Eggplant in Spicy Satay Sauce

Recipe
- 1 pack of minced beef (about 0.7 lb)
- 1 pack of peeled shrimps (about 15 pcs)
- 1 long eggplant (cut into bite sized chunks and pop in the oven with some olive oil until softened, I used 250C for 10 minutes)
- 6 cloves of garlic, crushed
- half an onion, chopped roughly
- 3 red chilli (with seeds for the heat)
- 2 dried lime leaves (optional)
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- a bit of grated lemon zest
- 1 pack of Lee Kum Kee Satay Sauce for Hotpot (I prefer this, its liquid form makes it easier to handle, but add bit by bit and adjust as it can be too tasty)
- a bit of kecap manis (optional)
- olive oil for sauteeing

Saute garlic, onion, and chilli in olive oil, add beef, cook until almost done, add softened eggplants, add sauce, lime leaves, grate lemon zest, add shrimps, when the shrimps are just done (pink, curled and no longer transparent), turn off the heat, drizzle lemon juice, kecap manis, and serve with steamed rice. Important: never ever overcook the shrimps.

The cooking was a blast, and now the dreaded part begins...

There were times when I really thought I was so twisted and actually enjoyed washing dishes.
I was wrong.
Who the heck loves washing dishes? Oppps, maybe there are people who really find dishwashing theurapetic, soothing, calming, the bubbles are fun, even turning them on (hello, dishwashing fetish), whatever. NOT. ME.

I just hated the idea of piles and piles of dirty dishes towering in my kitchen sink. Thus I did them, even tried to enjoy it, without success.

Will these cake shaped dishwashing sponge cuties make dishwashing more enjoyable? Aren't they just so adorable?

I just wanted to bite that chocolate cake off its rack...or maybe the green tea swiss roll...


...or take a bite off that piece of watermelon?...

Whatever it was....they did not make me feel like washing dishes. SC, dish washing is yours, suck it up.