Siomay Bandung

Siomay (or shu may) is a popular snack in my hometown, Bandung. I think this food originally from China or so. It's a steamed dumpling with the fish or mixed of chicken/pork and shrimp filling. 

I think you can find Siomay in most of the cities in Indonesia, but I still feel that Siomay in Bandung is the best you can get :P

When I was in Bandung, my favorite siomay is sold in Jalan Gardujati and Cibadak, i guess it's because I went to a church in the same area. 

Siomay also became my favorite food when I visit Evy,my high school friend. She always order about 50's everytime we have a reunion at her home. Yeah, we hardly cook in Indonesia, mostly we buy food :D

Ingredients:

Siomay:
300 gr shrimps, shell intact, deveined, cleaned, chopped
300 gr chicken/pork fillet, chopped
150 gr tapioca flour
1 eggs, slightly beaten
5 garlics
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp ground pepper

Salt to taste

tofu, divided into small triangle forms
1 pack wonton skins

Method:

Siomay:
1. Mix shrimps and chicken meat in the food processor. Blend until smooth. 
2. Add tapioca flour,oyster sauce, sesame oil, salt and pepper. Process until incorporated. Add beaten egg, process it for about 2 minutes.
3. Spoon two teaspoon of mixture and place in the middle of wonton skin. 
4. Scratch the bottom part of tofu. Fill in with the siomay mixture.
5. Place both siomay and tofu in steamer pan. Steam it for about 30 minutes. Remove from the heat.

6. Serve with hard boiled egg, peanuts sauce and kecap. 

7. You can fry the siomay and tofu as alternative; we called it batagor for fried tofu dumpling.

Source: Keluarga Nugraha

Copyright © 2012 Ovie Ober_Marbun

Chocolate Delice with Salted Caramel

I always want to make this dessert since I saw The immunity test challenge on Masterchef Australia 3 between Dani and Eamon Sullivan;the winner of  Celebrity Masterchef Australia. Not just he's good looking sporty guy but he can cook, bless all good looking guy!    The dessert is so delicate,delicious and pretty. It's not like a  circusy over the top  Zumbo's dessert but still not an everyday dessert.

Last wednesday is hubby birthday, so I make this instead of the common birthday cake like sponge cake or black forest cake. Special cake for extraordinary person in my life :D

I made half of the portion from the original recipe. The recipe using g measurement instead of ml, if you use as much as you have in the recipe, you'll need about 1500ml cream.

Ingredients:

Creme Brulee:

375g Thickened Cream  (I used double cream)

135g Milk

1 Vanilla Pod  (Can't find it in the store, used 2 Tbsp Vanilla extract)

7 Egg Yolks

1 Whole egg

60g Caster sugar

Biscuit Base

250g Plain Flour

150g Unsalted butter

100g Caster sugar

1g Salt

1 Egg

Choco Cream

190g Thickened cream

190g water

150g Caster sugar

60g Dark cocoa powder ( I used Cadbury)

125g Dark Chocolate (64% - 70%)(I used Lindt Dark Chocolate 81%)

15f Leaf Gelatine (I used 5 leafs Dr Oetker Gelatine)

Base Delice

400g Choco Cream (Made as above)

350g Whipped thickened cream

Chocolate Glaze

340g Dark Chocolate (64% - 70%) chopped

230g Thickened cream

165g Light corn syrup (I used Golden Syrup)

Toasted Almond Flakes

75g Almond flakes

White chocolate stripes

150g White chocolate buttons (I used 100 gr Tesco White Chocolate)

Salted Caramel Sauce

250g Caster sugar

25g water

150ml Thickened cream

150g Unsalted butter

Salt to taste

Method: 

Crème brulee
1. Pre heat oven to 140°C.

2. For crème brulee, combine cream, milk and vanilla beans in a saucepan over a medium heat, bring to the boil and remove from heat. Remove vanilla beans from cream mixture and discard. (I mixed the vanilla extract with the cream)

3. Mix egg yolks, whole egg and sugar together, without incorporating too much air.

4. Slowly whisk in hot cream and strain. Pour approximately half the mixture into a baking paperlined slice tin to a depth of 6-8mm. Place in a bain marie and bake for 15-20 minutes or until firm and set in the centre.

5. Chill immediately and freeze.Once frozen, cut out 4 discs with cookie cutters that match the size of the cake rings and put back in the freezer until ready to use.

Choco cream
6. For choco cream, pour cream, cocoa, water and sugar into a saucepan over a medium heat and bring to the boil, stirring regularly. Add chocolate and stir until melted.

7. Squeeze water from the gelatine leaves, add to warm chocolate mixture and whisk to combine. Sieve and chill over ice, refrigerate until cool.

8. Whip cream to soft peaks and gently fold through 400g of choco cream until combined taking care not to knock out too much air. Refrigerate until assembly.

Biscuit Base
9. For biscuit base, increase oven temperature to 180°C.

10. Place flour, butter, sugar and salt in a food processor and process to a fine breadcrumb. Add egg and process until mixture starts to come together. Tip mixture onto a clean chopping board and press into a smooth dough, wrap in cling film and rest for 10 minutes in the fridge.

11. Place pastry between two sheets of baking paper and roll out to 2-3mm thick. Cut out 9cm circles and place on a baking paper lined baking tray. Blast chill for 1 minute. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden and allow to cool.

Chocolate glaze
12. For chocolate glaze, pour cream, corn syrup (i used golden syrup) and water into a saucepan over a medium heat and bring to the boil. Pour over chocolate and stir until melted and mixture is smooth.

Salted caramel
13 For salted caramel, make a caramel with sugar and water. Whisk in cream until incorporated. Add butter a few pieces at a time, whisking between each addition and stir in salt. Continue to whisk to a thick glossy sauce.

White chocolate stripes
14 Spoon the melted chocolate into a piping bag. Keep warm or reheat in a bowl of warm water when ready to use.

To assemble
15. Place 2 x 10cm cake rings on a baking paper-lined tray. Place cooked biscuit bases in the centre of each cutter and top each with a circle of frozen crème brulee. Pour chocolate cream mixture over each cutter and spread over each stack so that it fills the gaps down the sides and the tops are level. Chill until it's frozen in the freezer.

To prepare the delice
16. Place frozen rounds on a cooling rack set over a baking tray and gently remove the moulds using a blowtorch. Pour chocolate glaze generously over each frozen round so that it covers the sides and drizzle with white chocolate in stripes. Arrange toasted almonds around the edges.

To serve: 
Spoon salted caramel sauce onto a serving plate, sprinkle with salt and top with a delice.

A tiny modified from Masterchef Australia and if you want the detail you can find it at Eamon Sullivan page




Copyright © 2012 Ovie Ober_Marbun

Crème Brulee

I love to have this for my dessert when i was in Paris or when I dine in at any place in France.It's so creamy and really perfect with my coffee :)

I always push myself to try to cook some of International food, so when i found this recipe from Masterchef Australia website, i just give a try. From the comments on the website, it seems some people has a lot of difficulties in making this dessert. But i found this recipe is just perfect!

Ingredients

600ml thickened cream ( I use 2 pack  250ml double cream)
1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped ( I use 2 tbsp vanilla extract)
6 egg yolks (i  use 5 egg yolk)
¼ cup caster sugar
120g demerara sugar

Method

1.Preheat oven to 120°C.

2.Place the cream, vanilla bean and seeds in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to scalding point, then remove from heat. Remove vanilla bean and discard. (I mix vanilla extract to the cream)

3.Whisk together egg yolks and caster sugar in a bowl for 2-3 minutes or until pale.

4.Pour hot cream over egg yolk mixture, continuing to whisk until well combined. Strain mixture into a jug, evenly divide between 4 x 200ml ramekins.

5.Carefully place ramekins in a deep roasting pan lined with a folded tea towel. Pour boiling water into pan to come halfway up the sides of ramekins. Cover pan loosely with foil.

6.Bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until the custard has just set. Remove ramekins from the water bath, and set aside to cool.

7.Sprinkle demerara sugar evenly over the surface of the baked custards. Run a kitchen blowtorch over the custards, or place under a preheated grill until the sugar bubbles and caramelises. Serve.

from: Masterchef Australia

Empal Gentong (Cirebon's Beef Stew)

I was living in Cirebon for about 1.5 year because of my job. It's a small city in the north of West Java with a very rich cultures and culinary. I stayed in a rented house close to Kanoman Palace so I can see a lot of happening around there. 

I don't mind to visit Cirebon again for the food and local produce over there. One of the food that I really like from Cirebon is Empal Gentong. It's a beef stew with a rich spices taste. I don't remember if I ever buy this stew in a special place, I think I always bought this in any street vendor :)

Ingredients:

400 gr beef (you can use brisket)
1500 ml water
2 bay leaves
2 cm galangal, crushed
2 lemongrass, crushed
1.5 tsp salt
4 tbsp cooking oil
2 tsp cinnamon powder
3 tsp cloves powder
500 ml coconut milk ( i mixed 400ml canned coconut milk and 100ml water)

Spices (ground)
6 shallots
2 cloves garlic
2 toasted candle nuts
2 cm ginger
4 cm turmeric + 1 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp toasted coriander
1/4 tsp toasted cumin
4 cardamom
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Topping
2 tbsp sliced chives
2 tbsp fried onion
dry ground chillies

Method

1. Boil the meat in water together with the bay leaves, galangal, lemongrass, and salt until the stock is reduced to 1250ml. 

2. Remove the meat from the water and cut into 1x2 cm size.Put the  beef back to the gravy. 

3. Heat oil on a wok, saute the ground spices. Add the cinnamon  and cloves, stirring, until fragrant and cooked, remove from heat. Put the cooked spices to the pan. Pour the coconut milk, cook until boiling, stir occasionally to prevent the coconut milk from curdling, remove from heat.

4. Serve the stew with chives and fried onions. Add some chili powder if you want a spicy stew.

*i always add extra turmeric powder for the color as i found the turmeric here didn't give enough color to the food.

The recipe inspired from Vania Blog