Cold Brew Coffee

Have you  heard a quote that says "You can't buy happiness, but you can buy coffee and that is pretty close" ? In some ways, some people describe that drinking coffee makes them happy or at least they drink a cup of happiness. Either the first one or the second one fits for you better, or you probably have your personal quote to show your love of coffee, but now coffee has become a culture, a ritual before a person start the day in the morning. We can see how coffee affects mood.

Keep calm & drink rose buds water

I really enjoy my time every weekend making myself a cup of rose buds water. It's a fragrant simple drink, enjoy it sip by sip while watching TV. It gives me a feeling of calmness, relaxation and soothing to my body. Especially on rainy days like these days. Rain accompanied by strong winds almost every day. Puddles throughout the city make the inevitable traffic jams everywhere ! One word to describe it, STRESSFUL !!

Tamarillo Smoothie

Juice or smoothie ? I misinterpreted the meaning of those words all along. According to some sources I've found on the internet, juice and smoothie are different and they produced from different machines.

Juice is fruits and/or vegetables extract. By using a juicer you will get fresh liquid from the fruits or veggies. It's because juicer separates juice from the pulp. While smoothie is a blended of whole fruit (please remove skin and seeds before you blend it in a blender) and/or vegetable (or could be a mix of fruit and vegetable). The consistency of a smoothie is thick and rich in fiber. Based on the above explanation, the drink I made this time is a smoothie.

Hi everyone, good to be back again here. Been away for some photography projects and still have an upcoming project with my friends. I can't imagine how to manage my time with another extra activities and responsibilities, the hectic and the busy schedule. But deep in my heart I'm happy and very grateful for everything. I wish everything will work out for the best in the end. Aamiin.

I had been coughing for days when I decided to make this smoothie. My energy had drained from my body after I finished the photography project with my friend. Lacking of sleep and skipping lunch break made my condition even worst ! Do you know that lack of sleep can make you a little bit foggy ? I've been there and that is so true. :D

To boost my energy and immune system up, I need vitamin C from natural sources. The richest vitamin C sources are of course from fruits and vegetables  We can find an easy and healthy way to enjoy mixed fruits through juice or smoothie. This time I made tamarillo smoothie with a little bit honey, milk and ice. So freaking fresh !! This one is an amazing healing drink.

Tamarillo or terong Belanda (Dutch eggplant) is an egg-shaped fruit native to South America. It has a unique flavor, a combination of tomato and passionfruit. Tamarillos are high in vitamin C and nutritious. 

Enjoy....
 

Freshen up your day with Honey Mint Lime Water

What do you want to drink in a hot summer day ? Personally, I do prefer something fresh icy cold drink with twist of fruits. Though so many artificial juice drinks out there, a homemade summer drink is much better and healthier. Because it doesn't consist artificial flavor, artificial color, artificial sweetener nor preservatives. So, it's safer for our body.

When I was a kid, my mom used lime juice and soybean ketchup for cough remedy. And, I use that method too to my son whenever he has cough. Like any other mother, I choose natural remedies for my family. I always keep in my mind to be more aware to the signs given by my body. Tired or achy, just go to bed early and take a nap. It's probably my body need a rest. Then I will feel fresh and better when I wake up.

If you're a hot spicy food lover, this drink will sooth your throat. Just like Sundanese foods I ate last week, sayur asem, deep fried salted fish, bean sprout stir fry and spicy shrimp paste sambal with squeezed lime. I ordered iced lime water for my drink, my son and I liked it. So, I made the healthier version by replacing sugar with honey. I checked some lime water recipes before finally making this one. I love how people combined lime water with ginger, lemon grass, soda, cucumber and fruit slices. Since this was my first attempt, I tried with only honey, mint leaves and no soda. It came out nice and I plan to make it again with a twist.

Enjoy......

Setup Rambutan / Ice Rambutan with cinnamon syrup

Hi...how are you all doing ? I'm so excited to be here again with new recipe. I promise to keep update with minimum a post each month. I feel soulless lately, not really in the mood to post anything. But as you can see, I made few changes here and there in this blog. Do you see my new logo on my blog header ? Hahaha...I accidentally made it for my 3rd belated blogiversary, where it supposed to held in January.

I'm not fully back again into blogging and cooking things at the moment. I lost my passion every time I want to cook something. I know my dad's death really affects my mood. I just go with the flow and try not to fight it. Family is still my top priority above all. I have filed my resignation from "Rasa Indonesia" Online Magazine where I was one of the author for Food Photography articles. It was such great opportunity and experience to work with Arfi Binsted of HomemadeS. Although we worked together for only a short time, I learned not only about photography but also how to improve my writing skill. Nevertheless, I thank all contributors in "Rasa Indonesia" Online Magazine (Yulyan, Yulim, Hesti, Turida and Pepy). Hope "Rasa Indonesia" Online magazine will grow even bigger than before in the future.

In my lovely tropical country, we can easily find various kind of tropical fruits. One of so many is rambutan. We call it rambutan or hairy fruits, because its rind is covered with hair. While the white flesh has sweet and mildly acidic flavor. The fact is, canned rambutan in syrup is available in most of grocery stores. But since I can make it my own, then it would be a healthy one and of course with no preservatives added. 

Enjoy.....

Good news and Thai tea

Hi all, at this moment I want to share my happiness with all my readers. My blog has won as the first place winner on Sekar Magazine blog contest. I was thrilled and surprised to hear my blog being announced as the first place winner. Alhamdulillah. Glad to know people appreciate my work and who knows they'll find an inspiration from this blog. Later on my next post to show my gratitude, I will be giving away "something" for three lucky person. Keep your eyes open !

Enough with the good news and here comes the bad news (haha...kidding !). As a person who loves eat well and drink well, I truly enjoy myself tasting new foods or drinks.  I taste them, I smell them and I feel them, if it meet my personal  taste then I put it to my "worth to try recipe" list. My list is getting longer and longer especially after I add more and more yummy recipes from foodgawker everyday.

This Thai tea (my version of Thai tea, only because I made it without following any specific recipe) is a favorite for my hubby and my son. I make it every weekend and nothing left in the bottle, they absolutely looove it. When the first time I tried Thai tea, I thought it was made from my usual tea leaves and pour some milk to produce the orange color. But then I was wrong, Thai tea is a mixture of black tea leaves, star anise and other spices.

I use milk instead of sweetened condensed milk to make it more creamy and thick. Add some ice cubes and feel the freshness and the exotic tea. Believe it's not just tea !
Here's the Thai tea mixture I used in this recipe.

Enjoy....

idfb Challenge #3 : Lunar New Year and Wedang angsle

One of my best friend had bought herself a new DSLR camera. She looked forward to go out some place so we can take pictures together. Then one day, we (me, my friend N, H and A) went to Chinatown in Glodok. We planned to see Chinese Lunar New Year activities over there and take some pictures.

The Chinese ethnic in Indonesia has been allowed to celebrate their ritual openly. Thanks to Gus Dur (Indonesian former President) ! We can see Dragon dancing or Barongsai and we can learn how Chinese people celebrate Chinese New Year. When I was taking pictures outside of the temple (vihara), I was impressed by their hospitality. They let me in to take pictures inside the Vihara. People devotedly prayed to their Gods.  There were red giant candles everywhere, statues of the Gods and Goddesses and of course the thick smoke from the incense sticks. :D

Here are some photos I snapped during Lunar New Year. Enjoy the photos !

Yet another new challenge from idfb (Indonesian Food Blogger) with "Indonesian Beverages" as the new theme. Hopefully, I could see more traditional beverage recipes through this challenge. Indonesia has various kind of hot and cold beverages. Bajigur, pokak saripu, bandrek, es teler, wedang ronde, wedang sereh, es kacang merah, es palu butung, es pisang ijo, es cendol and many more. So, I had drowned in a whirlpool of ideas.

In the rainy season like these days, I personally like something warm for my body. The soupy drink that has strong ginger flavor. The using of ginger in Indonesian traditional beverages is very common. Ginger is good for your health especially during cold and flu season. The traditional wedang ansgle which originated from East Java has white color and sweet taste sauce.  It usually served warm with bread pieces, steamed mung bean, putu matang (noodle shaped flour cake), roasted peanut and tapioca sticks. It's slightly similar to sekoteng.

To Indonesian Food Blogger, here's my entry. Good luck !

Click to enlarge

Enjoy.......

Simple eggnog

When my son suddenly came rushing into my room and said, "I want to make eggnog !", I was really surprised. What is eggnog anyway ? And how did he know about it ? So, I just answered him with "Okay". Google is always be my hero in that situation. All I need to do is only type the right keywords, and voila.... :)

Eggnog is egg-based drink with milk/cream, sugar, liquor and a sprinkling of ground cinnamon and nutmeg. In US and Canada, eggnog is popular and associated to Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations. Since it consists raw eggs, I search for the simplest and not using too much eggs. Some recipes using only egg yolks, so I just have to skip that (I don't want to waste too much egg whites).

Simple eggnog
(adapted from http://www.savvyhomemade.com/homemade-eggnog.html)

Ingredients:
- 4 eggs
- 5 tablespoons sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 4 cups milk
- 2 tablespoons brandy (I don't use this)

How to :

1. Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a large bowl until the sugar is dissolved.
2. Whisk in the vanilla extract, half of the nutmeg, milk and brandy.
3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill.
4. When you're ready to serve, pour the eggnog into glasses and sprinkle a little nutmeg across the top to serve.


Enjoy......

Cendol, a guest post from Marvie @Lekkericious

I proudly present to you, the first guest post on my blog ! Let's say it's an exchange post. After my guest post on her blog few months ago, and now it's her turn to write something on my blog. :D Marvie Yap from Lekkericious is a dear Filipino friend who has a lot of activities. From Software QA Engineer, make-up artist, cook, cat rescuer and food blogger. I can imagine she is extremely busy. :) Though we never met, but we still can be best friend. This is one of the reason what makes me happy for having friends from around the world.

Once Marvie told me that she loves cendol on my photo of cendol on Flickr but she couldn't find the seller near the neighborhood. So, I appreciate that she finally tried to make it. Nothing can beat homemade ! Without further ado, I welcome Marvie to show her cendol feast.

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I first learned about cendol in Holland, during my summer visit in 2009. It was funny to have the first taste of this asian delicacy in a western country, when I have lived all my life in Asia. Es Cendol is a green, worm-like jellies made from rice flour, tapioca flour and mung bean flour served with coco palm sugar syrup, coconut milk and shaved ice, topped with jackfruit - a very popular drink/dessert in Indonesia. Cendol was a love at first taste experience. I was in constant search for it here in Manila, but unfortunately, it's not available anywhere. I find it odd that I could never find it in any of my favourite Asian restaurants around the city when it is super popular in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, our neighboring countries.

So I did a little research how to make it for myself and for my husband who also loves this Indonesian delicacy.

Finding the right ingredients was a bit of a challenge for me though - gula jawa and mung bean flour in particular. I scoured all specialty Asian shops for these and didn't have any success. Nevertheless, I found coco sugar, the closest alternative I can get for gula jawa, although in my opinion, gula jawa's sweetness complexity still is the best. I gave up on mung bean flour and settled for the rice flour and tapioca flour combo - which ended up in a disaster. My cendol just melted a few minutes after it's submerged in the ice water. Although most Indonesian cendol recipe say it's just rice and tapioca flour, for some reason I couldn't succeed. So I thought the mung bean flour was the only key, and I don't have it.  After numerous attempts with rice flour and tapioca flour in different proportions, I finally called it off and decided to wait on my cendol dreams. But thanks to Tika, she revived my cendol hopes and sent me that precious mung bean flour. I finally made my first successful cendol!

Cendol

In this recipe, I only used mung bean flour

Ingredients:

Cendol Jellies
- 80g mung bean flour
- 500ml water
- green food coloring
- pandan leaves (or pandan flavor)
- 3 tbsp white sugar
- iced water in a bowl
- colander

Coconut Milk
- Kara Coconut Cream (or better, fresh coconut and get the "kakang gata" or the first milk)
- pandan leaves
- salt

Syrup
- 250 coco sugar, or coco palm sugar
- 250ml water
- Pandan leaves

Cendol Jellies Preparation :
1. Dissolve the mung bean flour in 500ml water.
2. Add few drops of green food coloring until you reach the color of electric green. You may also use pandan leaves to make the color natural.(To do this, put pandan and 500ml of water in a blender. Sieve and
take the liquid extract and use that to dissolve the mung bean flour).
3. Add sugar and 1 tbsp of pandan flavor, stir until dissolve.
4. Set your stove in low heat and begin stirring the mixture in a pot. Continuously stir until it thickens.
5. When it's paste like and super thick turn off the heat and get ready to mold!
6. Put the colander on top of the iced water.
7. Pour the cendol thick mixture on the colander and start scraping back and forth with a use of a spatula. The holes in the colander will serve as your mold to make that little green worms. DO NOT WAIT TOO
LONG, otherwise when it gets cold it will be hard to mold.
8. When done, set aside.

Syrup Preparation :
1. Combine coco sugar and 250ml water in a pot, in low heat.
2. Stir until sugar's dissolve.
3. Make a knot out of about 4 pandan leaves and simmer it together
with the sugar. If you don't have pandan leaves, just add 1 tbsp of
pandan flavor.

Coconut Milk Preparation :
1. Heat the coconut cream (kakang gata) in a pot using low-heat.
2. Add about 2 tbsp. pandan flavor, or make a knot out of pandan
leaves and put it in the milk.
3. Add a dash of salt.
4. Turn of the stove when it starts to bubble.

To serve:
In a glass or bowl, layer it with coco sugar syrup, cendol jellies,
crushed ice, and coconut milk. You can top it with fruits like langka
(jackfruit) or banana. Add more cendol jellies on top if you wish.

Horse mango for dessert

I don't know if you are familiar with this fruit or not, but I will explain a little bit about it. Horse mango or kweni or kuweni or kuwini is a mango variety often found in Guam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The fruit is light orange in colour and juicy sweet when ripe. The tree flowers throughout the year and the flowers too are strongly scented with its fragrance. The sap on unripe kweni fruits is poisonous. (Wikipedia)

This Horse mango sorbet is one of Indonesian traditional dessert from Madiun, East Java. I know I'm not a sorbet kind of person. But this sorbet is not like any other sorbets you've known (I mean in presentation !). You don't need to make puree from this fruit and also you don't need to freeze it in the fridge before being served.

Horse Mango Sorbet
makes 4

Ingredients :
- 3 (400 gr) ripe horse mango, washed, peeled and seeded
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 150 gr sugar
- 1 liter water
- 400 gr shredded ice

How to :

1. Cut the horse mangoes into small cubes. Set aside.
2. In a sauce pan, boil water, salt and sugar still evenly until sugar dissolved. Remove from the heat. Add the horse mango cubes if the water is warm enough. Allow it to cool.
3. Serve with shredded ice.

Bahasa Indonesia

Serbat Kweni
4 porsi 

Bahan :
- 3 buah (400 gr) mangga kweni, kupas dan pisahkan dari biji.
- 1/8 sdt garam
- 150 gr gula pasir
- 1 liter air
- 400 gr es serut untuk pelengkap

Cara :
1. Potong-potong kecil mangga kweni. Sisihkan.
2. Rebus air, garam dan gula pasir sambil diaduk sampai gula larut. Biarkan hangat. Masukkan mangga. Biarkan dingin.
3. Sajikan dengan es serut.

Enjoy ....

My craziness of yoghurt

No, I don't make my own yoghurt. But I've been crazy in love with plain yoghurt lately. I could eat 250 gr of plain yoghurt all by myself within two days !! Yes, I do crazy with the sour taste of it. I just need to snack something which is fat free :D

This time, I combined my yoghurt with kumquat compote that I already made the day before. Not bad, though. At least I have new flavor for my yoghurt. The recipe of Kumquat Compote is here. The mixture from the ingredients makes this yoghurt more liquid so I could just drink it. The taste also not too sour as if I eat plain yoghurt without any additional flavors 

Ingredients :

- 5 tbsp plain yoghurt
- 1/2 tsp sweet condensed milk
- 3 tbsp water
- 6-8 ice cubes

How to :

Put all the ingredients in a blender (ice cubes on top) and blend on high speed until smooth. Put kumquat compote in a glass then pour the yoghurt to the glass. Serve.

Enjoy....

Avocado Juice

Avocado juice or jus alpukat is very famous drink/dessert in Indonesia. You can make it on your own or buy it in a fresh fruit juice stall (here in my country, you can find fresh fruit juice stalls everywhere). Considering the cleanness standard, I'd rather to make my own avocado juice. The best for my family !

In Indonesia, we usually served avocado juice by mixing avocado with water, ice, sugar and also chocolate condensed milk. Sometime I add coffee powder to taste and it taste more yummy !!! :D

Avocado Juice

Ingredients :

- 2 ripe avocados, halves and flesh removed
- 3 tablespoons of sugar
- 100 ml water
- 1 cup ice cubes
- 2 tablespoons of chocolate condensed milk

How to :

Blend them all together in a blender until smooth. Before you pour it into the glass, rub chocolate condensed milk on the inside wall of the glasses. When you finished, pour avocado juice. Ready to be served.

Enjoy.....

P.S : to read behind the scene story click here.

Green tea smoothie

Holidays ..... who hates holiday ? Students, kids, fathers, mothers, even me who works as an employee loves it. So, when holiday come, I took my son to one of mall in South Jakarta, to play ice skating. This was his first chance to try it. He had so much fun there.

You can feel the Christmas atmosphere everywhere, even though I don't celebrate Christmas. Snow, white, holiday, vacation, happy, those are what happen when end of the year is coming. Enjoy and have fun, before back to our daily routines. (I really need long time getaway with my family)

I always love holiday, after 5 days doing things on my work, I can relax myself with cooking, photographing and also spending time somewhere with my family. Nothing compares to that.

At my own tiny kitchen, I'm improvising to make anything with green tea powder. Green tea smoothie. Once I drink my first green tea smoothie was at Oh La La Cafe. I like the sensational taste of green tea. I love how it smell. Magic powder.

My version of green tea smoothie is a mixture between milk, sugar, green tea powder and ice cubes. Then blend all the ingredients in a blender until smooth. Serve it in a glass. Grab a book, sit relax on a couch, take a deep sip of green tea smoothie. Yum !!

Do you see that green color ? Fresh ! For my eyes and also my throat. Just try, I hope it gives freshness to you as well.

Enjoy...

You can read behind the scene story here.