Foodie Event : (Almost) Forgotten Indonesian Culinary Heritage

My foodie fellow, Rurie is inviting us to join a foodie event. It's not just foodie event, it's a contest too. Share your food knowledge and photo, and get the prizes. So, what are you waiting for? Come and join to "know your Indonesian culinary heritage".

The food that we have to share is Indonesian cuisine that is almost disappeared from the market and society. Let me make it clear here, you may notice when you were a kid, you had that food/beverage so often. You might eat them from your grandmother's kitchen. As you grew up, you barely see the dish or it is only seen once a while in a special/traditional feast or ceremonial. The dish can be rice, fish, meat, and vegetable. Dessert, snack and beverages are acceptable too. It doesn't have to be an extravagance dish, show us what you have got in your hometown (or used to have) or may be a childhood memory dish that your grandmother used to make but nobody hardly make it anymore.

For more information, please click here

CLICK : January 2009 - RED Chili Sauce

Many Indonesian can't live without sambal or chili sauce :D. We usually make our own fresh sambal not the kind packed in a bottle. There are countless recipes for chili sauces in Indonesia (sambal kacang or nut chili sauce, sambal kemiri or candlenut chili sauce, sambal bawang or onion chili sauce, etc). Indonesian sambal usually come as a thick paste, and are used either as a dipping sauce or in stirfrying.

One of the most common sambal recipe use these ingredients : bird eye chili, sometimes cayenne, dried shrimp paste (terasi), coconut sugar, tomato and salt.

And here's my entry for CLICK : January 2009 - RED



Another shots of Red Chili Sauce :

KBB # 8 : Bitter Chocolate Peppermint Biscuits

Honestly, this is not my kind of cookies/biscuits. Even my kids don't like them. But a task is a task since this is KBB's challenge.



And I am not enthusiastic enough to do the task, because it's difficult to find peppermint essence, here in Kuwait. But that's the challenge, I have to think hard to find a way to make a homemade peppermint essence.

So I made the essence by boiling water and put mint leaves in it. Let it cool and use the water to make the filling. But heeyyy...it didn't work so well because I didn't get the cool sensation from the mint water :(.

Actually I love the biscuit itself before it dipped into chocolate. It reminds me of Danish/Le Monde biscuit. Delicious butter cookies! After it dipped, no one in my home would eat that :(.

The final conclusion : sorry guys....I'm not really satisfied with the recipe.

And thanks to Ellen of Chicken's Kitchen for hosting this round.

Bitter Chocolate Peppermint Biscuits
Source: Donna Hay for Canvas, NZ Herald.



Ingredients :
185g butter, softened
1 cup caster sugar
1 egg
2 cups plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
1 cup icing sugar
1 tsp peppermint flavouring (dita- I used mint water)
2 Tbs water
200g dark chocolate (70 per cent cocoa)
1 cup cream

Directions :
Preheat the oven to 180˙C. Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and creamy, add the egg and beat well. Sift the flour and baking powder over the egg mixture and fold through.



Gently knead the dough to bring together. Roll the dough between two sheets of baking paper to 2mm thick. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Cut out 36 x 7 x 5cm rectangles. Place on baking trays lined with baking paper and bake for 5-6 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool on trays.

Combine icing sugar, peppermint flavouring and water, and mix until smooth. Set aside. Combine the chocolate and cream in a saucepan over low heat and stir until chocolate is melted and smooth. Set aside.



Sandwich three biscuits biscuits together with peppermint icing. Repeat with the remaining ingredients. Lightly grease a wire rack and place over a baking tray. Place the layered biscuits on a fork, dip each one into the chocolate mixture, place on the rack and refrigerate for 2 hours or until set.

Home Food Photography # 4 : Konsep - The Round Up

Wiihhhh seneng banget liat antusiasme temen-temen untuk belajar Food Photography. Mohon maaf sebelumnya karena Round Upnya jadi mundur.

Seneng banget melihat deretan foto-foto yang "hidup" bukan sekedar foto makanan benda tak bernyawa. Seperti yang gue bilang di sini, bener kan kalo kita udah mikirin konsep sebelumnya, proses memotret akan jadi lebih mudah kan? Gak perlu mati gaya lagi.

Owiyah, sekedar input pengiriman entry. Wooaaahhhhh masih banyak yang "bandel" nih :D, ngirim entrynya gak sesuai format *juling deh ik!*. Next time tolong diperhatikan lagi ya tata cara pengiriman entry.

Buat yang merasa udah ngirim tapi belum ke round up, ngacung. Maaf nih kalo ada yg ketlisut, mudah-mudahan sih nggak ya?

Sekali lagi terima kasih banyak untuk temen-temen semua atas partisipasinya di HFP#4 : Konsep. Semoga di sini kita bisa saling belajar satu sama lain.

Untuk saling memberikan input, komen dan masukan terhadap masing-masing karya, silahkan menuju pada blog masing-masing.

1. Ayin - AG's Food

Penjelasan tentang konsep Balinese Style di sini.

2. Rurie - Just a Thought

Penjelasan tentang Autumn is Here di sini.

3. Arfi Binsted - Through My Lens

Penjelasan tentang Outdoor Brunch di sini.

4. Rita Bellnad - Eyes of Me

Penjelasan tentang Spring, please don't go di sini.

5. Fitri - Rumah Manis

Penjelasan tentang Spoiled Myself di sini.

6. Vierly - Berbagi warna-warni cinta

Penjelasan tentang In Red di sini.

7. Pepy Nasution - The Art and Science of Food

Penjelasan tentang Teri's party di sini.

8. Ema Yudistira - My Explorations

Penjelasan tentang Cahaya Pagi dalam Inspirasi di sini.

9. Sefa Firdaus - Food is Love

Penjelasan tentang The Old Days di sini.

10. Dyah Wahyu - Dyah's

Penjelasan tentang Indonesia Gue Banget di sini.

11. Restianti - Mamanyanaiya

Penjelasan tentang Snack Time for Naiya di sini.

12. Mindy Jordan - Mindy di Caracas

Penjelasan tentang 10th Anniversary di sini.

13. Hernik Widowati -Lot 621 Jl.8

Penjelasan tentang Teman Nonton di sini.

14. Yohana - Foot Print

Penjelasan tentang Bandung di Kala Hujan di sini.

15. Mae - A Piece of Photograph

Penjelasan tentang Piknik di sini.

16. Agnes Tri Harjaningrum - Mengenal diri berbagi inspirasi

Penjelasan tentang Autumn morning di sini.

17. Zita - Simplicious

Penjelasan tentang Tea Time di sini.

18. Lia - Dapurgue

Penjelasan tentang Kehangatan dan Eksotisme dalam Kuliner Indonesia di sini.

19. IPOET - My Dreams and My Creations

Penjelasan tentang Bekal Sekolah di sini.

20. Regina Budiardjo - *Estudia.14*

Penjelasan tentang Party di sini.

21. Rachmah Setyawati - Ordinary Woman with Great Obsession

Penjelasan tentang Nuansa Hijau di sini.

22. Dwiana Porter - The Adventure of My Cooking Diary

Penjelasan tentang Enjoying Halloween Moment di sini.

23. Roossy Ong - My Life, My child and My Food

Penjelasan tentang Picnic in November di sini.

24. Endang Loranty - Lia's Home

Penjelasan tentang Cupcake for Birthday Party di sini.

25. Abby Handayani - Abby's Kitchen

Penjelasan tentang Spooky Orange di sini.

26. Elny T. Rahman - All to THE GLORY of GOD

Penjelasan tentang Have a Break di sini.

27. Elsye - Dari Dapur Saya

Penjelasan tentang Mari Memasak di sini.

Related Links :
1. HFP # 1 : A Tiring Job! - The Round Up
2. HFP # 2 : Gila Properti! - The Round Up
3. HFP # 3 : Studio - The Round Up
4. Home Food Photography # 4 : Konsep

SHF-Spice Up Your Life : Favourite Boiled Fruit Cake

I still remember very well when I was a kid, my grandma always made delicious fruit cake for Idul Fitri. But I never knew the recipe until now.

And a couple of weeks ago, my KBB friend, Lina, was asking the recipe of English Fruit Cake on the mailing list. Ine Sena recommended us the famous Rea's recipe. I was so curious and dared everybody in the klub to make this cake ;).

And ta raaaa I've made it.....Girls, you must try this recipe! Enjoy my fruit cake!! I love it. Thanks Rea. I just couldn't stop myself for a second bite ;). This one is as scrumptious as my grandma's.



As you know me, I'm Dita I'm a spice girl :D, so with a lil' reworked from me, I added some kind of spices (the original recipe doesn't use anykind of spices).

And it's been a long time since I participated on the last SHF event. Now, I'm going to bring this cake to Sugar High Friday - Spice Up Your Life hosted by Anita of Dessert First.

Favourite Boiled Fruit Cake
adapted from Kue Bali by Rea

Ingredients :
375g sultana, chopped
250g raisins, chopped
250g currant
75g mixed peel
75g glazed cherry, halved (dita - I couldn't find glazed cherry, so I skipped it)
75g dried pineapple, chopped
50g dried apricot, chopped
250g butter
200g dark brown sugar
125ml brandy (dita - I used pineapple juice, another juice will do. You can even use milk)
100ml water
6 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp orange zest
1 tsp lemon zest
250g cake flour (dita - I use all purpose flour)
50g self-raising flour
½ tsp baking soda
(dita) 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
(dita) 1/2 tsp ground ginger
(dita) 1/4 tsp ground clove
(dita) 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
(dita) 1/4 cup cashew nuts for the topping



Directions:
Mix fruits, butter, brown sugar, brandy and water altogether in a large pan. Cook without boiling until sugar has dissolved. Stir frequently. Bring to boil in low heat (put the fire only bit above the minimum level) with closed lid for +/- 10 minutes. Remove from stove. Set aside and cool (dita - I let it cool overnight).

Grease and double lined a 20x20cm or Ø24cm cake tin including its all sides. Let about 5cm extra of parchment paper out from the tin level.
Add eggs, honey, lemon zest and orange zest to boiled fruit mixture, combine well. Add sifted dry ingredients. Pour in to the prepared cake tin. If you like, you could make ornaments using nuts and glazed cherry on top. Bake at 150°C for 2 ½ hours (dita - my cake only took 1 1/2 hour, depend on the pan that you use). Wrap cake with aluminium foil, let it cool.



Note : wrap around the pan with parchment paper or newspaper during baking.



Spice Up Your Life with these recipes!

ITB : Fruits and Nuts - Carrot Pineapple Walnut Upside-Down Cake

Fruit and veggie based cakes are always my favorite. Especially the ones with a touch of spices such as cinnamon, clove and nutmeg.

When I saw this recipe at Vania's, I raised my eyebrows. Pineapple and carrot? Sounds weird. But I was really curious because Vania said, "enak banget!" (means "so delicious!") *I always rely on your taste bud, dear :D*.



And yes indeed! This cake was so delectable. I love it and I assume an addition of ground cinnamon would make it perfect.

I want to bring this cake to In The Bag-September : Fruits and Nuts hosted by my dear friend, Scott of realepicurean. But ohh la la...I just realized that I'm late :( *kamana wae neng?*, I forgot the deadline date is Oct 5th. Then I told Scott that I'm sorry I cannot participate on this event. But he still counting me in and asked me to submit my entry *thanks Scott, how generous you are ;)*



Carrot Pineapple Upside-down Cake
Source: Better Homes and Gardens India, April 2008 (copied from Vania's)
prep: 30 min, bake 45 min, cook 35 min.

Ingredients :
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp water
6-8 1/2 inch thick slices fresh pineapple, cored and halved
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar (dita - I used light brown sugar)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup milk
3 carrots, finely shredded (1 1/2 cups)
(dita - I added 1/2 cup walnut)

Directions :
1. Preheat Oven to 350F. Lightly coat a 9x9x2 inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray or oil; set aside.
2. In a small sauce pan, combine brown sugar, 2 tbsp butter, and water. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture comes to boiling and is smooth. Pour in prepared pan; tilt to evenly coat bottom. Arrange pineapple slices over top.
3. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg; set aside.
4. In a large mixing bowl, beat 1/2 cup butter on medium-high for 30 seconds. Gradually add granulated sugar, beating until combined; beat 2 minutes more. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Alternally add flour mixture and 3/4 cup milk; beat on low after each just until combined. Stir in carrots. Add walnut (dita). Spread batter over pineapple.
5. Bake 45 minutes or until golden and wooden pick inserted in centre comes our clean. Cool in pan on the rack for 5 minutes. Invert on platter. Cool 30 minutes.

Home Food Photography # 4 : Konsep

Home Food Photography datang lagi dengan seri # 4-nya! Maaf lama absen soalnya bulan-bulan kemaren banyak kesibukan (yang sok dicari). Mohon maaf lahir batin sebelumnya buat temen-temen yang merayakan Idul Fitri, maaf kalo pernah ada salah-salah kata, salah-salah ketik dan salah-salah round up :D.

Terus terang, belakangan ini gue makin bangga dengan eksistensi Foodie Blogger Indonesia (FBI) di antara para Foodie Blogger dunia. Karya-karya foto temen-temen dan sahabat-sahabat FBI bener-bener gak dipandang sebelah mata. Makanya jangan heran, sekarang kalo masuk ke event-event food photography macem CLICK, DMBLGIT (Does My Blog Look Good In It) atau Inspiring Food Photography, kita bakal menemukan salah satu karya FBI bersanding dengan manisnya di antara jajaran pemenang. Sebutlah sahabat-sahabat gue Arfi Binsted, Elsye Suranto, Irma Rode, Dwiana Poter (Dwi, kenapa blog lo gak bisa diliat?), Sheila, Mindy Jordan, Sefa Firdaus, Eliza, Vania, Pepy Pattern, Ema yang karyanya boleh dibilang sudah diakui foodie blogger dunia.

Silahkan mampir ke FLICKR KBB (yang isinya karya foto para FBI) untuk membuktikan tulisan gue ini, bahwa kemampuan FBI dalam bidang food photography boleh dikata gak diragukan lagi. Khusus temen-temen KBB, gue semakin bangga dengan karya-karya kalian yang dari hari ke hari terus menunjukkan kemajuan dan pantang menyerah belajar (walopun gak punya DSLR tapi semangat memaksimalkan fungsi kamera sakunya, walopun gak punya fancy studio tapi bisa menghasilkan foto-foto bagus).

Nah, ngomong-ngomong soal foto bagus....relatif ya memang sifatnya, soalnya hubungannya sama selera. Paling nggak dari foto-foto juara temen-temen kita bisa belajar, kira-kira foto seperti apa yang layak dikatakan bagus. Kenapa foto-foto mereka bisa keluar sebagai pemenang di event-event online dunia. Karena motretnya gak asal!! Yak becul!! Gak asal jepret. Semuanya dipikirin. Nih, bocoran dikit....apa sih komponen-komponen yang diperhitungkan dalam event-event online food photography itu?

Ini nih beberapa komponen yang harus diperhatikan :
KONSEP, KOMPOSISI, LIGHTING, KOMUNIKASI, STYLING

Niat??? Emang iya! Harus! Kalo kita berangkat motret gak pake konsep, mana bisa punya nyawa fotonya, secara yang dipotret benda mati, MAKANAN.

Mungkin buat sebagian orang, ngapain sih capek-capek? Tinggal jepret makanannya (karet kali) masukin blog udah deh cerita selesai. Heeyyy...we're talking about a bunch of people yang punya interest di sini. Sama aja deh kayak orang yang punya hobi tertentu. Kadang suka melakukan hal-hal yang dirasa gak masuk akal :).

Mungkin emang capek ya kalo setiap motret kita harus mikirin konsepnya. Kadang gue juga suka kehabisan energi atau mati gaya gak tau musti gimana dengan obyek foto gue. Jangan salah, banyak juga foto-foto gue yang gak pake konsep :D. Biasanya kalo udah kejer setoran postingan. Karena udah diburu-buru pingin nge-post, akhirnya foto juga dibikin cepet-cepetan.

Nah, lewat HFP # 4, yang kali ini mengambil tema KONSEP. Udah baca seri "Sharing Food Photography" yang ini? Yuk kita praktekin dan belajar dikit-dikit gimana menghasilkan foto yang punya konsep/tema. Susah? Gak lah. Katanya mau belajar. Kan misi utama event ini buat sama-sama belajar bukan sekedar lucu-lucuan.



"Assignment"-nya bikin satu buah foto dengan tema tertentu yang diinginkan (bebaskan imajinasi). Ngomongin konsep gak bakal lepas dari komposisi, komunikasi, lighting dan styling yang diinginkan. Jadi silahkan cerita foto yang disubmit konsepnya apa berikut komposisi, styling dan lighting yang dipilih.

Ini pancingannya :D :



Gue mengambil tema pagi yang indah dan penuh semangat untuk foto di atas. Untuk menggambarkan suasana makan pagi yang cheery dan cerah, perlu elemen-elemen yang sifatnya optimis dan happy. Misal : gue sengaja pilih warna pink untuk kesan ceria di pagi hari dengan sentuhan tanaman berwarna hijau di belakang dan bunga di pink di meja untuk memberikan kesan "hidup". Cahaya yang gue gunakan adalah natural light dengan pemilihan backlight yang menghasilkan cahaya dengan efek over exposed di background sehingga terkesan light/airy. Sementara bagian depan sengaja lebih sedikit gelap untuk mendapatkan kesan homey dan hangat. Sengaja diambil medium shot supaya terlihat ambiance di sekitar obyek. Mudah kan?

Ini masih satu seri dengan foto di atas :



Seperti biasa format pengiriman entry (HARAP DIPERHATIKAN BAIK-BAIK YA, supaya gak bolak-balik terjadi kesalahan) :
Nama :
Nama blog dan alamat blog :
Judul dan URL post :
Foto (ukuran gede boleh)
Please do make a link from your post to this post
Kirimkan ke charmawendi AT gmail DOTCOM dengan subyek : HFP # 4
Logo silahkan comot dari atas.

Event dibuka dari tanggal 9 Oktober 2008 sampai 10 November 2008. Round Up seperti biasa 3 hari sesudah deadline, syukur-syukur bisa lebih cepet :P.



Related posts :
1. HFP # 1 : A Tiring Job!
2. HFP # 1 : The Round Up
3. HFP # 2 : Gila Properti!
4. HFP # 2 : The Round Up
5. HFP # 3 : 'Studio'
6. HFP # 3 : The Round Up
7. Komposisi dan Styling