Tuna Macaroni Cheese Balls for your kids

Many people asks me about my surface I use in my food photo. "Where did you buy them ? Did you paint them by yourself ? How to make the pattern as the ones you have ?" and so on. Okay, I always paint my own wooden surface for my food photos. I have plenty of boards with various types and sizes. I painted them according to my imagination and sometimes I combined more than one color. If I don't like the color or the pattern of my board, all I need to is re-paint it again with white paint then start again.  I prefer to make my own board because it looks more personal.

Guest Post : Fried Sweet Potato Balls for "Joy From Fasting to Feasting VII" event

My special Ramadhan guest post for Yummy Food before Ramadhan ends. Bola-bola ubi goreng or Fried sweet potato balls that you can enjoy as your iftar snack. Lubna Karim has been posting Ramadhan recipes on her blog for almost a month since the first day of Ramadhan. On its seventh year, Joy from Fasting to Feasting become a solid place for Muslim bloggers from different country to introduce their popular food or drink during Ramadhan. I salute you, Lubna and I hope I can participate again next year.

Guest Post : Spicy Cheese Sticks for Sonia from "Oggi pane e salame, domani..."

My latest guest post for my Italian foodie friend, Sonia. A simple recipe that can be made by everyone. Cheesy, spicy, fried and I made it gluten free. 
 

Sonia offered me to write two blog posts for her blog Oggi pane e salame domani... (Bread and salami for today, tomorrow... , in English). The first post is about recipe and the other one will be about behind the scene. The complete story and recipe of Spicy Cheese Sticks can be seen on her blog. 

See you there... !

Resto Review : Tempura Cooking Class with Ten Ten Restaurant and my homemade Shrimp Tempura

It was a beautiful sunny Saturday morning in Jakarta. My camera bag was fully loaded with camera, lenses and other stuffs. Felt so much ready to meet my friends from idfb (Indonesian Food Blogger) at Ten Ten Restaurant, Plaza Indonesia. Boga Group once again sponsored food bloggers gathering with an event called Tempura Cooking Class by Ten Ten Restaurant.

It wasn't hard to find the Japanese tempura restaurant on Basement Level over there. A stylish, casual and warm place with Japanese style and ornaments. Before you move your step further into the restaurant, feast your eyes on some fake foods/drinks on the display near the entrance.

Ten Ten Restaurant comes with a concept, Tempura House, offer you more than 164 choices of menu. Salad, small bites, ala carte, main course, drink and dessert. Customers can choose one from 5 variant flavors of tempura (original, spicy, black pepper, curry and seaweed). The tempura is cooked with special technique in a special fryer machine. As a Tempura House, Ten Ten also has signature menu, Tendon - a bowl of dish with ebi tempura, kisu fish tempura, green bean tempura, sweet potato tempura, pumpkin tempura and oba leaf tempura on top and served with miso soup -

Find 2 outlets of Ten Ten Restaurant - Tempura House at Plaza Indonesia and Pondok Indah Mall 1.

When a group of people who loves to cook and eat meet in a good place with good foods, then nothing matter anymore. Together me and my foodie friends (Vania, Sefa and Elsye) cooked Tempura Omurice. Chef Dian let us impovised our Omurice in Omurice cooking competition. We didn't win, but we sure had so much fun together. Imagine this, four of us love to cook, we have food blog, but that time was our first time ever cook together in one place. :) As a bonus, we can eat our Omurice together. Yum...I love the Demiglace Sauce.

My natural lunch time alarm was ringing when Ebi Yose Katsu served on our tables. Continued with lunch and drinks orders. As the dessert, I was fortunate enough to try Cookies and Cheese Cup. Not too sweet, cheesy and creamy. Love, love, love it !

 Tendon Sauce (left) - Rika Fardani from BOGA Group (right)

 

Chef Dian Kusyanto shared tips and trick how to make good tempura and Tempura Omurice

Our team cooked Tempura Omurice on a Cooking Class

The appetizer, Ebi Yose Katsu (right)

I ordered Spicy Beef Kinoko Don (left) - Cold Green Tea (right)

 The other two main course, Tendon (left) - Tenbara (right)

Desserts, Foret Noire cup (left) - Cookies & Cheese cup (right)

That gathering is memorable, therefor I thank Ten Ten Restaurant for the good food, nice place and warm people. The knowledge I learned from there is a lifetime souvenir. That's why I challenged myself to make Shrimp Tempura at home. It's pretty easy ! The only bad thing is cooking shrimp tempura (preparation time included) take longer time than eating it !! :P

Please check the recipe below.

Churros

Over the past few days, rain has poured down heavily in Jakarta and left puddles up and down our road. It made the traffic jam even worst ! Stressful and very time consuming to be on the road like that. So take care of yourself, be healthy and watch what you eat and drink.

That afternoon, I was thinking of making snack for the whole family. For me, it's always nice to cook something for our family afternoon snack. Something light, sweet and warm to munch in cold windy afternoon. We can enjoy the rest of the day by reading book, watch TV or discuss something.

Curiosity was the only reason why I made churros. This fried choux pastry, also known as Spanish doughnuts is a popular and loveable snack in Spain. Churros can be eaten plain, rolled in cinnamon sugar or dipped in chocolate sauce. Since I have made choux pastry once, so I feel confident to give it a try. I adapted the recipe from Joy the baker. She has step-by-step photos on how to make churros and it's easy :)

Only a few days left to join my giveaway event for 3. I have 3 cute food props for three lucky person. Hurry and good luck !!!

Enjoy....

Guest post : Ayam Penyet / Crushed fried chicken with sambal for Lisa of "From my Lemony Kitchen"

One more guest post from me on From my Lemony Kitchen. How lucky I am to have finally found the recipe of this sambal since I had it for the very first time maybe five years ago and I had been trying to make the sambal all this time.

This special request came from Lisa, she wanted Ayam Penyet for the guest post. Since I love Ayam Penyet for lunch and I had never been to make it by myself, I took the chance. I won't let myself ramble away for now. Please kindly visit and check the complete story also the recipe of Ayam Penyet (Crushed fried chicken with sambal) on From my Lemony Kitchen.

Bye now... :)

Fried flaky pastries stuffed with tuna

Although it was more than 2 weeks late, I want to greet all Muslims "Ramadhan Mubarak". May Allah accept our deeds and forgive our sins. Aamiin. Ramadhan is like home and it's good to be home again. I'm sure all Muslims feel the same way as I do.

I've been busy recently and has left me with limited time for updating my blog, Facebook and twitter but I checked my mail couple of times everyday. But due to the hectic schedule, guess my tiring days, weeks or probably months are not over yet at least until the end of this year ! Yes, my life is like a roller coaster at the moment.

Do you remember my posts of Chinese flaky pastry ? The first is Green tea flaky pastry and second is Chocolate flaky pastry. This time I made fried flaky pastry, no bake ! This kind of snack is something we usually call pastel in Indonesia. The filling can be varied from vegetables, fish, chicken, egg or beef.

The original pastel (fried pastry) skin is made from thin pastry with half-moon shape and crimped edges. I remember when I was a kid I learned to make pastel crimp with play-dough and look, it helped me a lot when I make the real ones.:D

Enjoy....

My craving for tahu petis (Deep fried tofu with prawn paste filling)

Petis udang or prawn paste is made from fresh prawn shells. It's popular in East Java, Indonesia and some of Asian countries, we add it to the dishes in order to create unique flavor. I should tell you that this prawn paste has strong fishy smell, so not everyone loves foods with prawn paste mixture inside.

I'm over excited to post this recipe on my blog. Why ? Due to my craving for tahu petis and I cooked it totally out of the blue. My hubby's friend gave me petis paste for free and it has been kept in my fridge for a week or so. Then I was lucky enough to find a tofu seller on my way home after morning jog. So yes, it was without preparation. One other thing .... *grinned* I just couldn't wait to use my new planks.

If you think I bought it, you're wrong ! I found it abandoned in an alley. Call me crazy, but I think those planks were screaming out for help. Hence, I brought it all the way from market place to my office and I brought it home. I washed and scrubbed those planks and sun dried them for 2 days. Now they look pretty ! Time and weather have made them look very natural. However, it worth the pain in my biceps for bringing those planks from market place to office and from office to my home :D

Enjoy ....

Fried banana with caramel sauce

Even though I love cooking, but I prefer to cook something simple yet delicious. Something I will enjoy for afternoon snack with a cup of tea. Relax and no hurry ! There was a time that I wished I had more than 24 hours in a day to do more things. But I got the answer when I was watching my favorite serial movie "The Mentalist". A brief and clear answer that made me smile. Patrick Jane said, "You have exactly the same number of hours in the day as Albert Einstein had. Thomas Jefferson. Louis Pasteur. Ghandi". :D How true that is !

Never underestimate an old recipe magazine ! Never cross my mind I would find this interesting recipe of fried banana in an old recipe magazine. Different kind of fried banana compared to the ones I often eat. For this fried banana recipe is quite simple because I don't need to make the batter. The sauce is also special with caramelized coconut sugar. I should tell you, it's a perfect pair ! 

Two days left to enter Sambel Pecel Kemangi giveaway event. Have you leave comment to win Sambel Pecel Kemangi yet ? It's open for Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Philippines residents. Wanna enter but still don't know how ? Read the details here. Hurry up ! 

Enjoy....