[ENG] Soft Matcha (Green Tea) Cookies with Matcha Chocochips Filling

In the previous blog post i wrote about how i made my matcha chocolate chips, so it's time for the cookies! The original recipe actually use white & milk chocolate for the filling but i'm gonna use matcha chocochips instead since i want them to be super matcha-ey. If you're a huge matcha fan, you gotta try this cos they turned out amazing! Well, aside from the texture issue, which i'm gonna tell you at the end of this post, the flavour is super good. 

But, it's really important to use a really good matcha powder for this, so try your best to find the best quality matcha powder :) I got mine from a famous matcha store in Japan (it costs about 10 USD for 30 grams, and it's only the food grade one). I also tried to make the cookies with a cheaper matcha powder from a local online shop, but they're not even nearly as good.  

[ENG] Matcha (Green Tea) Chocolate Chips

I'm quite a hardcore matcha fans, when it's come to matcha sweets, either if it's chocolate, ice cream, cookies, etc, i always expect intense matcha flavour in them. I got 2 cans of really good matcha powder straight from Japan so i'm really excited to explore & make various sweets with them! 

I searched for recipes on Youtube and found this Country Ma'am Soft Matcha Cookies by Ochikeron. Country Ma'am is a quite popular soft cookies brand in Japan, but i never get to try their matcha one though ^^ It's basically a soft matcha cookies with bits of chocolate inside. But i personally don't like to mix my matcha sweets with any other flavour like chocolate or even anko (sweet red bean paste), so instead of white & milk chocolate i'm gonna make matcha chocolate so these cookies will be super "matcha-ey" yeayy....!

I actually got the matcha powder from my bf, he's studying in Japan so i asked him to get me a really good matcha powder when he was going back to Indonesia for holiday. It costs about 10 dollars for 30 grams, kinda expensive but worth it :)

And it's really important to use a good quality matcha powder if you really like the intense matcha flavour in your chocolate.  Each of these chips is like a tiny burst of matcha flavour & it's super good!

You can also make matcha chocolate (not chips) in the similar way i guess, just pour the melted matcha chocolate into a chocolate mold & let it harden. Well actually if you wanna do it "the right way" you have to temper the chocolate, which is kinda complicated, but if you just make it for your personal consumption, it doesn't really matter ;)

Homemade Vanilla Extract - The Taste Test

click here for the english version of this post ;)

Sekitar 5 bulan yang lalu gw melakukan "eksperimen" bikin vanilla extract (ekstrak vanila) pake vodka & vanilla beans (buat yang belom baca post-nya, bisa dibaca disini). Sebenernya gw cuma harus nunggu 2 bulan sampe vanilla ekstraknya jadi, tapi gw lupa dan 5 bulan berlalu... lol Tapi gapapa sih, soalnya di resepnya dibilang boleh ditaroh lama dan makin lama malah makin enak rasa vanilanya hehe...
 

[ENG] Homemade Vanilla Extract - The Taste Test

About 5 months ago i did a little "experiment" on making homemade vanilla extract using vodka and some vanilla beans (if you haven't read the blogpost, please read here). Actually i just had to wait for 2 months for the extract to be ready but i totally forgot about them and 5 month passed... lol But it's all good since the recipe tells me that i can "age" them as long as i want and it'll get better & more infused with the vanilla flavor.  

[ENG] Pancakes with Waffle Recipe

Do you like waffle or pancake better? For me, it's definitely waffle. One day i was really craving for waffle. I was home, and too lazy to go out, but i don't have a waffle iron to make the waffle myself. But then i thought, what if i make the waffle batter, and just cook it like pancake, how will it turn out? 
And it turned out really good! The texture is more like pancake, but taste better than any pancakes i ate. I think it's because this waffle recipe has more butter in it than some pancake recipes. And since then i've been using this recipe whenever i make pancakes. I still can't find a good, thick waffle iron though so i still can't make my own waffle but hey, i found a really good pancake recipe! :D

 

Original recipe from Laura Vitale - Homemade Waffles

[ENG] Gyoza 餃子 - Japanese/Chinese Dumpling

Gyoza! one of my favorite japanese/chinese food. I've tried 3 different  recipes and this one's my favorite! It does have an extra step, which is making the chicken stock "jelly", but it's worth it. The chicken stock not only makes the gyoza more juicy but also add depth to the flavor. It tastes amazing and i really love it! But recently i found another recipe from one of my favorite japanese food vlogger, Papadesuyo777 and it also looks really good, (he also used chicken stock, and more, homemade gyoza wrappers!), so maybe i'll try that out too and then decide which one is the best :)

Actually i made this like, a month ago, but i was just too freakin lazy to write this post -.-" and it happens all the time in my blogging history lol

Original video recipes from Papadesuyo777 - Chicken-bones soup♪ 鶏ガラスープの取り方♪ and Ngswcook - Gyoza(Chinese meat dumpling) recipe カリカリ＆ジューシー餃子のレシピ・作り方

[ENG] A Little Bit About This Blog and My Life

Note: please excuse some grammatical error in this post ^^

Actually, i'm not sure whether to write this post or not, well, who's gonna read it anyway?  maybe just me and a few of my fb friends who accidentally click the link lol... But i decided to just, post whatever i like haha

And that's what actually i wanted to explain, about writing whatever i wanna write and how this blog now isn't only about food & stuff i baked. Is that even necessary to explain? lol But i thought i should, so yeah, if u're curious please keep on reading ;)

Cara Bikin E-Paspor

Bulan Desember nanti aku mau jalan-jalan ke Jepang, dan karna pasporku udah expired, jadi mesti bikin baru lagi deh! Kali ini aku mutusin untuk bikin e-paspor, karena kalo dengan e-paspor ini kita bebas visa ke Jepang, jadi bisa hemat uang visa dan gak perlu repot bikin itinerary hehehe... (walau tetep mesti lapor dulu ke kedutaan sih -.-)  

Aku udah coba untuk daftar online, karna katanya sih gak perlu antri lagi. Tapi aku dah berkali-kali coba dan gagal terus, ntah sebenernya masih bisa atau nggak daftar online (ada juga yang bilang kalo yang bisa daftar online cuma untuk paspor biasa, bukan e-paspor). Trus aku tanya temenku yang udah pernah bikin e-paspor, kata dia sih langsung dateng aja bisa, tapi memang ada kuota 50 orang. Dan walau udah daftar online pun kamu tetep mesti ngantri tergantung kamu dateng dari jam berapa. Jadi aku putusin untuk langsung dateng ke kantor imigrasinya aja :)


Nah ini langkah-langkah bikin e-paspornya...

Hunting Tiket Pesawat Murah ke Jepang di Garuda Travel Fair (September 2015)

image source: Facebook Garuda Travel Fair

Note: Walaupun gw biasanya nulis blog pake "gw-lo", di postingan kali ini gw bakal pake "aku-kamu" karna gw pengen semua kalangan tua-muda bisa baca hehehe... Dan review ini bener-bener honest opinion aku, bukan mau promosiin pihak-pihak tertentu :) dan maaf kalo gambarnya gak lengkap karna aku baru inget foto pas udah di dalem hehe

Tanggal 27 September 2015 kemaren aku (bertiga bareng bapak & kakakku) dateng ke Garuda Travel Fair buat cari tiket murah ke Jepang, soalnya rencananya aku pengen ke Jepang bulan Desember akhir atau April awal. Travel Fair ini diadain di Jakarta Convention Center, tiket masuknya Rp 30.000/orang, tapi gratis untuk pemegang kartu kredit BNI or BRI. Nah kalo mau masuknya gratisan, bisa juga ajuin permohonan bikin kartu kredit yang tersedia di stand BNI or BRI di depan venue. Ini aku bukan promosi kartu kredit lho, tapi lumayan kan masuknya jadi gratis apalagi buat kamu yang cuma pengen liat-liat aja dan belum tentu beli tiket hehehe...

[ENG] Bibimbap

I suddenly wanted to eat rice with gochujang, but i know it wouldn't be that good with just rice & gochujang so i decided to make bibimbap!  It's pretty simple, but requires  a bit of time & patient to cut & cook all the veggies. And i really love it, it's really tasty and also healthy. It has lots of veggies, so it has become my "vegetable delivery system" since i'm so lazy to eat my vegs by its own lol

I didn't follow the recipe 100%, i just used the veggies that i can find easily at the fresh market, so please  refer to the original recipe for the full measurement (i put the link above the ingredients list). You don't have to use all the veggies listed in the recipe, but at least use 3 kinds of veggies.

By the way, if you're making it for you and your family, you may want to consider doubling (even tripling!) the recipe. Because after all the hardwork cutting & cooking all the veggies & beef i think you'll want to be able to store it and eat at least twice. (or am i just the only one being lazy here? lol) The 1st time,  i made 1 recipe, it's gone in a flash. Then the 2nd time, i doubled the recipe, it's still gone in a flash -.- The 3rd time, i tripled the recipe, it's still gone in just two days... orz

[ENG] Toasting Sesame Seeds At Home

This is not a recipe actually, since it's just toasting sesame seeds lol. Toasted sesame seed is widely use in korean cooking, usually i just skipped it, but since i make quite a lot of korean food, and wanna make many more in the future, i decided to not skip it anymore. I couldn't find any store-bought toasted sesame seeds that's why i just buy the raw one and toasted it at home.

For the toasting method, i watched a youtube video from one of my favorite korean cooking vlogger, Maangchi. I pretty much just follow the instructions. And also Maangchi said that the seeds will start to pop while they're toasting but mine didn't pop at all i don't know why :( But i'm pretty satisfied with the result so it's all good kkk...

[ENG] Strawberry Syrup + How to Make Strawberry Soda & Strawberry Lemonade

Hi everyone!! After almost two month write not even a single thing on this blog, i'm finally back! lol Last month, there were soo many things i wanna do, but i ended up doing nothing -.-" 

Anyway it's been really hot these days and it makes me wanna drink lots of delicious cold summer drinks. And as i always do everyday, i watched youtube & found some summer drinks recipes from Foodwishes (my fav food vlogger!). This one is really simple to make, it's literally just strawberry, water & sugar. No food coloring, the gorgeous red color of the syrup is all comes from the strawberries!!

You can make lots of different summer drinks with this, strawberry soda, strawberry tea, strawberry lemonade, just use your imagination & try some different combinations. But,  the simplest & actually my favorite is, just mix the syrup w/ water & ice cubes :) pure strawberry flavor!! 

Kolak Pisang Campur

Ada yang gw suka dari bulan Ramadhan. Banyak yang jualan kolak hehe... Walaupun gw bukan muslim & gak puasa, tapi selalu ikutan makan kolaknya. Dan ntah kenapa kalo udah bulan Ramadhan pasti bawaannya pengen makan kolak terus. Kalo gak mau repot sih bisa beli, dimana-mana pasti ada yang jual. Tapi kalo pengen yang rasanya bener2 sesuai selera sendiri, ya paling enak bikin sendiri. Atau mungkin yang lagi gak di indonesia, mau gak mau bikin sendiri karna gak ada yang jual hahaha... kasiann :P

Dan ini kolak bikinan nyokap gw, walau gw dulu sering ikutan bikin, pasti selalu lupa takarannya. Jadi sekarang buat gw sendiri & mungkin orang-orang yang belom bisa bikin kolak, gw catet takarannya di blog ini. Mungkin resepnya agak lebih ribet sih dari resep-resep kolak pisang yang lain, soalnya nyokap gw sukanya  pisangnya dikukus bukan direbus. Tapi santai aja, pokoknya sesuain aja resepnya dengan selera kalian gak usah diikutin 100% banget :)

[ENG] Salted Caramel Sauce

Original recipe video from Foodwishes - Salted Caramel Sauce

Ingredients:
1 cup (200 g) sugar
5 tbsp (70 g) butter, cut in slices
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp (140 ml) heavy creamsea salt to taste

[ENG] Vegetable Stock

This is the vegetable stock i made for my Pumpkin Soup, i found the recipe on Youtube (link below this post), i didn't really follow the measurement but i think it turned out okay. So actually i also had to put some fresh herbs, but i couldn't find any in the local fresh market, so i just used dried bay leaves. Well basically i just used what i could find at the market ^^ 

[ENG] Pumpkin Soup

So, after i made my Korean Pumpkin Porridge, i feel extra challenged & decided to make my own pumpkin soup! I love pumpkin soup and i've been wanting to make this for so long. It's more challenging than the korean pumpkin porridge because i have to make my own stock since i can't find a good store-bought vegetable stock here. After youtube-ing for a simple vegetable stock, i finally found one, and ready to make my first ever pumpkin soup!

This soup isn't that hard to make, but you have to be a little patient, since it takes time to make the stock and roast the pumpkin, but actually all you have to do is wait. Wait for the stock to simmer for about 2 hours, and the pumpkin to be soft for 2 hours in the oven. I also youtubed for the pumpkin soup recipe, and found the recipe from Sorted Food which looks really good.

[ENG] Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Chunks Soft Cookies

Last week i've been craving for really good soft & chewy cookies. They don't really sell soft cookies here in Indonesia (well maybe in some special supermarkets, but not the local ones), so i decided to make it my self. I found this awesome recipe on TheSquishyMonster Channel on youtube. It's really interesting recipe since she uses brown butter and the cookies are stuffed with chocolate caramel candy! I did end up going to the special supermarket to get the brown sugar & the chocolate (strangely they don't sell local brown sugar here, but palm sugar is everywhere), but hey, freshly baked homemade cookies will taste even better than a store bought one! I also replace the vanilla extract with a vanila bean, just because i have many left from my previous vanilla extract experiment.

And they turned out amazing! I did think the texture will be soft & chewy, but they turned out to be more cakey than chewy, so it's a little minus for me there, but the overall flavor was beyond my expectation. They're so so good. This recipe also requires you to mature the dough for at least overnight, so i had to be real patient, but it's definitely worth the wait! I think i can easily eat the whole batch on my own, within a day lol

[ENG] Korean Pumpkin Porridge

This korean pumpkin porridge is more a dessert than an appetizer. Unlike the pumpkin soup, it doesn't used any chicken/vegetable stock, so the flavor is pretty much pure pumpkin flavor, and it's also a lot sweeter than a pumpkin soup. The first time i ate this was at a korean restaurant. It has a gooey, thick texture, sweet  with some small mochi on top. And i really like it!

[ENG] Ayam Betutu Gilimanuk (Balinese Spicy Braised Chicken Dish)

This is my mom's take on the famous Gilimanuk's Ayam Betutu. It's not the traditional Balinese Ayam Betutu, it's more like the easier soupy version of it, but it's really super delicious.

So, if you ever been to Bali, you may or may not have tried the famous Men Tempeh's Ayam Betutu Gilimanuk. It's super spicy, the chicken meat is really tender & has absorbed all the goodness of the spices, it's just super delicious. But yeah, it's not for people who can't eat spicy food! The massive amount of chili padi in it is one of the key element of the dish that makes it really good, and you can't order the non-spicy version, there's no non-spicy version. But it's basically heaven for people who loves spicy food. 

image source: http://yummyliciouss.blogspot.com/2012/12/betutu-ayam-men-tempeh-pedasnya-mantap.html

image source: http://bali.panduanwisata.id/restaurants/pedasnya-ayam-betutu-men-tempeh-di-gilimanuk/

It comes with sambal matah (balinese spicy raw shallot relish), sambal terasi (fermented shrimp paste sambal), pelecing kangkung (balinese spicy water spinach dish) and fried peanut, that makes it even more delicious and spicy. I really recommend you to go to this restaurant, even it's quite far from Denpasar (about 2-3 hours by car), it will worth the effort ;)

The other key ingredient to make this is the ayam kampong (kampong chicken). Using ayam kampong instead of regular chicken will make quite  a different. This recipe may not as good as the original (and of course nothing can beat Bali's tropical island- atmosphere), but i would say it's 80-90% there. And it's still is super yummy! Pair it with sambal matah, and welcome to paradise! 

[ENG] Sambal Matah (Balinese Spicy Shallot Relish)

Ingredients:
1/4 kg shallots
1 tsp terasi (indonesian fermented shrimp paste)
1/2 stick lemon grass
5 chili padi (or as spicy as you want it to be), thinly sliced
1 tsp sugar
coconut oil

[ENG] Cream Biscuits

Another simple yet really awesome recipe from Foodwishes! These biscuits are more on the savory side than the sweet side, flaky on the outside, soft on the inside buttery goodness. And they're so freakin simple to make! In fact, the only step i kinda hate about making this was actually cleaning my work surface for rolling out the dough -.- it's just too troublesome, maybe i should get a nice big wooden chopping board or silicon mat. 

Original video recipe from Foodwishes - Cream Biscuits

Ingredients (for 10 biscuits):
2 cups (250 grams) self-raising flour (or 2 cups/250 grams all purpose flour + 1 tbsp baking powder + 1 tsp salt)
1 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 cups (375 ml) heavy cream
2-3 tbsp butter (melted)

[ENG] Lemon Curd

If there's any dessert recipe with lemon & butter in it, i probably gonna make it. Lemon bars, lemon meringue pie, lemon macaron, and now lemon curd. Well, it's not really a dessert though ^^ it's more of a sauce 

I made lemon pie filling before for my lemon macarons, and compared with the gooey jelly-like texture of the lemon pie filling, this lemon curd is more like yogurt or sour cream. Both taste great but i like the texture on this lemon curd better, it's just so smooth & silky.

I'm gonna make some scones or biscuits to eat the lemon curd with, but i have to resist to not eat all of it because it's really good, refreshing and addictive! And it's like eating nuttela directly from the jar, with a spoon, i can just eat it like that. In fact, the next time i make it i probably gonna eat it just like that ;)

Making Homemade Vanilla Extract

click here for the english version of this post ;)

Gw hampir selalu pake vanilla ekstrak buat bikin kue, buat gw ini bahan yang penting banget dan membuat segalanya jadi lebih enak. Tapi sayangnya ini agak susah nyarinya, bahkan di toko bahan kue (TBK) yang gw sering pergi dia kadang ada kadang gak ada (seringan sih gak ada -.-), dan di indo emang lebih banyak dijualnya vanilli dan vanilla essence (perisa vanilla), yang katanya sih dibuatnya gak dari vanilla bean alias imitasi gitu. Dan kalo ada juga harganya mahal karna barang impor. Jadi gw memutuskan buat coba bikin sendiri, sapa tau berhasil jadi gw gak perlu susah2 cari lagi dan harganya pun lebih murah ;)

[ENG] Making Homemade Vanilla Exract

I almost always use vanilla extract in every baking, for me it's such a crucial baking ingredient that makes everything tastes even better. Unfortunately, it's quite hard to find it here, even at my baking speciality store that i always go to, sometimes  it's available, but most of the time it isn't.  And it's quite pricey. So i decided to try making my own vanilla extract, and if it works, i don't have to worry about where to find it anymore. Plus, it's cheaper! :D So this is more like a fun project, and if i fail, i'll just drink the rest of the vodka *teehee*

Classic Pancakes

click here for the english version of this post ;)

I love pancakes. Who doesn't? Dan bikinnya ternyata simpel banget, sekali lo coba bikin, lo gak bakal lagi beli pancake mix instan (kecuali lo orangnya super males hehe...)
Sebenernya ada 2 resep pancake yang gw suka, kalo dulu gw selalu pake resepnya Nigella Lawson. Tapi trus gw coba resepnya Chef John (Foodwishes), dan ternyata gw sedikit lebih suka rasanya, karna menteganya lebih banyak.  Penampakan pancake-nya, dengan resep Nigella jadinya pinggiran pancakenya lebih bulet dan mulus, kalo resepnya Chef John agak keriting pinggirnya.

pancake yang gw bikin pake resepnya Nigella

Gw juga suka nambahin vanilla extract ke adonan pancake gw, mnurut gw sih rasanya jadi lebih enak ;)

[ENG] Classic Pancakes

I love pancakes. Who doesn't? And it's actually very simple to make, once you try it, you'll never buy those premade pancake mix again (unless you're super lazy lol).

I actually have 2 pancake recipes that i really like, I used to make pancakes with Nigella Lawson's recipe all the time, and it works great every time. But then i tried Chef John's (Foodwishes) recipe and it turned out i like the taste a little bit better since it contains more butter. Apperance-wise, Nigella's recipe produces more round & smooth edge pancakes while Chef John's recipe produces kinda "curly" edge pancakes.

the pancakes i made using Nigella's recipe

I also love to add vanilla extract to my pancake batter, i think it just makes everything taste even better :)

[Food Review] Pasar Santa Food Experience - Part 2

Another food review at pasar santa! :D Ini ketiga kalinya gw main ke pasar santa, gw udah sempet nulis review ttp kunjungan pertama gw, dan bisa lo liat disini. Kali ini gw pergi bareng 2 temen gw dan pas weekday jadi relatif sepi dan gak perlu ngantri2 ;) Tapi klo weekday si gak enaknya gak smua kios buka, ada beberapa yang tutup tapi cuman beberapa koq, rata2 yang rame pas weekend juga buka pas weekdays. Btw hampir semua foto credit to temen gw, Mona, krn gw terlalu (selalu) males bwt ngefoto2 makanan hahaha...

Oiya, btw lagi rating makanan yg tertera di review ini sifatnya subjektif yah, ya iya lah orang cuman gw yg ngasi ratingnya :P 

[ENG] Ebi Furai (Japanese Deep Fried Breaded Shrimp)

Ebi furai is basicly a japanese deep fried shrimp, and it's pretty popular both in japan and worldwide. It's a simple & tasty dish but it requires few techniques to make it right. I got a request from a friend to make this, but actually i had made it just once before, and it wasn't really that successful since i overcooked the shrimps lol

So, this time i watched many ebi furai recipe videos & decided to try 2 different recipe and see which one is better.  I'll refer it by #1 recipe and #2 recipe in the steps below. It's actually almost the same, the only difference is in step 4. 

And it turned out quite successful! :D I think the key is actually to not deep fry the ebi furai too long, cook it until it just turn golden (maybe about a minute) to get that soft on the inside, crunchy on the outside delicious ebi furai like the one you eat in a restaurant ;) It's a pretty simple recipe, you only need to be a bit patient when peeling and deveining the shrimps, especially if you're doing quite a large batch. I made about 20 shrimps and it took almost an hour to peel and devein them ~.~

[ENG] Macaron Failed. But It's Lemon!

I've been wanting to make macarons since last year, but there's something about it that makes me kinda  "scared" so that i've been postponing it for so long. I was excited but really nervous at the same time, because from what i read there are dozen things that could go wrong when making macarons. And even the only sad thing when i failed is, i can't eat proper macarons, it's major lol 

I decided to make the lemon one, even if i never had lemon macaron before, i really love lemon in my dessert, like lemon bars, lemon meringue pie, i already can i imagine how good it will turn out. 

First, i made the lemon curd for the filling. Well, it's actually a lemon pie filling recipe because most of lemon curd recipes use whole eggs instead of just yolks. I wanted to use only yolks since i will use the whites for the macarons. So, i decided on the recipe that only use yolks, and i've actually made before, so i know that it's a good one.

[ENG] Prawn Aglio Olio e Peperoncino with Italian Herbs

Aglio e Olio! Recently my mom made this a lot and i love it! It's not the classic aglio e olio since she add italian herb seasoning & shrimps, but it's even greater! I already love the classic aglio e olio but when you add shrimps, it just takes it to another level ;) We also use the italian herb seasoning instead of fresh parsley, and i actually like the italian herbs a little bit better .

And even though she use frozen peeled shrimps, it still works really well! Make sure though you use good quality one if you wanna use  frozen shrimps too. My mom also tried to make it with tuna flakes instead of shrimps, but i like it far better with shrimps. Btw i don't really know the different between prawn and shrimp, i just use "prawn" on the tittle because it sounds cooler lol

I'll give you the recipe for 2 servings, but actually i made it for about 3-4 servings so you may notice that the amount of pasta, etc in the pictures are too much for 2 servings ^^

[ENG] Basic Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients (for 3-4 servings):
2 large potatoes
1/2 stick (60 g) of butter (or more)
few splash of milk
salt & pepper to taste
italian herb seasoning for garnish (optional)