Casetta dell' Angie

Saucijs Brood

2010-11-01T23:45:00.009+07:00

Mom has been talking about Saucijs Brood from Annie Rose Bakery again lately. So when she went for a meeting at church this morning, I quickly look for a good recipe and baked some. The result was slightly different from what she had in mind though =P she wanted a thicker pastry skin, unlike the one I made, which was very thin. I used a store bought pastry sheet for this. I guess next time I will have to make it myself.

It's pretty good for a first try, although next time I won't use Kraft Quickmelt cheese again. The cheese in the centre melted to a gooey state, when I cut it in half the cheese oozed out a bit. I should've used a regular cheddar cheese instead. Still yummy though... =D

Saucijs Brood

Ingredients
For the skin:

puff pastry sheet
1 egg yolk, to glaze

For the filling:

1 onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
200g ground beef
100g chicken liver, steamed, pureed (I used leverworst)
3 slices white bread, outer skin trimmed
100ml milk
2 eggs, beaten
100g cheddar cheese, grated
2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt (to taste)

Additional:

2 eggs, boiled, each cut into 4 slices
cheddar cheese, cut into rectangles

Directions

Filling: mix all ingredients. Set aside.
Roll the pastry out, about 20x20cm, and lay it on a baking sheet. Spoon a bit of the filling paste onto the pastry sheet. Place 2 slices of egg and 2 slices of cheese onto the paste. Cover with more filling paste.
Fold the pastry over into a neat parcel. Trim off any excess as you need to. Brush with the egg glaze.
Heat the oven to 200C and bake for about 30 to 45 minutes, or until the pastry is crisp and browned.
Let it cool down for a while before serving.

Enjoy!

Strawberry Cheese Cake I

2010-10-29T15:28:00.009+07:00

Who doesn't love strawberry cheese cake? Well, at least I know I do... it's my ultimate weakness. The one I loved most is from Seven Grain, a bakery about 45 minutes drive from home. I've been craving it for quite some time now, but haven't got the time to go and buy. So I decided to make it myself.

For the first trial, I tried to make a No Bake Cheese Cake. It turned out okay, but not exactly as I expected it would be. Probably the 'light' cream cheese I used. The cake tasted less cheesy and wasn't thick enough. There was a problem with the whipping cream too. The one I used didn't rise properly when I whipped it.

Nevertheless, I was quite happy with the result and will try making it again next time, using regular cream cheese and better whipping cream.

No Bake Cheese Cake

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup finely ground digestive biscuit
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp sugar
450 gr cream cheese
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped
1/2 cup sliced strawberries (optional)

Directions

In a bowl, mix together crushed biscuits with melted butter and the 3 tablespoons sugar.
Press into a 7 inch springform pan. Place in refrigerator until ready for use.
In another bowl, beat cream cheese, 1/3 cup of sugar and lemon juice.
Whip cream, and fold into cream cheese mixture.
Spread into pan.
Top with sliced strawberries (optional). Freeze for 1 hour, covered with foil.
Place in refrigerator 30 minutes before serving.

Salmon En Croute

2010-08-23T19:19:00.003+07:00

Salmon en croute is one of mom's favourite dish, so I wanted to try my hands on making it. To my utter surprise, it was actually simple to make.

We had it with roasted baby potatoes and pan-seared broccoli.

Salmon En Croute

Ingredient

1 salmon fillet (about 600 - 800 gr)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp dill
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 sheet puff pastry
1 egg, beaten

Filling

1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp unsalted butter
70 gr onion, chopped
100 gr champignon, minced
200 gr spinach, boiled until half cooked & chop
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Sauce

500 ml heavy cream
3 tsp fresh dill
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp sugar

Direction

Season salmon fillet with lemon juice, salt, pepper and dill. Set aside.
Filling: Heat oil and butter, fry onion until golden brown. Add in chopped champignon and fry for a while. Add chopped spinach, season with salt and pepper, and mixed together. Set aside.
Roll the pastry out and lay it on a baking sheet. Place salmon in the middle. Spoon the filling onto the salmon and spread evenly.
Now fold the pastry over into a neat parcel, making sure you don't have any thick lumps of pastry as these won't cook through properly. Trim off any excess as you need to. Make 3 neat cuts in the pastry to allow steam to escape and make some decorations with the off-cuts to disguise the join if you like. Brush with the egg glaze.
Heat the oven to 200C and bake for 1 hour or until the pastry is crisp and browned. To test whether the salmon is cooked, push a sharp knife through one of the cuts into the flesh, wait for 3 seconds then test it against the inside of your wrist; if it is hot, the salmon is cooked.
Sauce: Mix all ingredients and cook over medium heat.
Serve salmon en croute with sauce.

Potato and Broccoli Soup

2010-06-07T20:18:00.002+07:00

I had this as side dish for Salmon with Herb Butter... but it can also be a good hearty meal during rainy season. The broccoli were cooked with the potatoes and then pureed to form a creamy base. A final touch of grated cheese adds a kick to the soup.

Potato and Broccoli Soup

Ingredients

2 tbsp butter
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
800g broccoli, thick stems peeled and diced, tops cut into small florets
700g boiling potatoes (about 5), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3 cups chicken broth
3 cups water
salt
black pepper
1/2 cup grated cheese

Directions

In a large pot, melt the butter over moderately low heat. Add the onion; cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 5 minutes.
Addgarlic, broccoli stems, potatoes, broth, water, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the vegetables are almost tender, about 10 minutes.
In a food processor or blender, pulse the soup to a coarse puree. Return the soup to the pot and bring to a simmer. Add the broccoli florets and simmer until they are tender, about 5 minutes. Stir 1/4 cup of the grated cheese into the soup, and serve the soup topped with the remaining cheese.

Enjoy!

Salmon with Herb Butter

2010-06-06T10:58:00.010+07:00

Hmm salmon.... my family loves salmon. Most of the time we eat it as sashimi, but Jess, my sister in law, was breast feeding, so she's not allowed to eat raw food. Therefore I wanted to try something new and fancy looking for once =P hehehe...

I saw a cooking show on television the other day that serves salmon with green herb butter. I thought it looked very delicious, so I search the web for the recipe... and voila! I found it... Salmon with Herb Butter. It was as delicious as it looked. Jess was happy, even though I had to cook her salmon very well done.

We had it with pan-seared asparagus and sparkling grape juice... delicious!

Salmon with Herb Butter

Ingredients

For the salmon

a drizzle of olive oil
salmon fillet, skin-on, about 170g each
salt
black pepper

For the herb butter

unsalted butter, softened
small handful fresh parsley
small handful fresh chives
lemon juice

To serve

lemon wedges
a few sprigs of parsley

Direction

First make the herb butter. Place the butter in the bowl of a food processor.
Chop the herbs roughly. Place the herbs into the bowl with the butter. Process until the herbs are finely chopped, scraping down the bowl with a spatula once or twice if necessary. (If you don't have a processor, chop the herbs finely, then beat into the softened butter.)
Scrape the butter onto a sheet of silver foil, pat into a sausage shape, roll up and chill in the fridge until needed. (Herb butters can be frozen for up to a month.)
For the salmon, add the olive oil to a non-stick frying pan and carefully wipe up any excess oil with kitchen paper - you don't want a lot of oil in the pan. When the pan's hot, add the salmon, skin-side down first, and cook for 2-3 minutes, depending on the thickness of your salmon, without moving it around at all. This will ensure the skin doesn't stick to the pan.
While the salmon is cooking, remove the butter from the fridge and slice off four discs with a hot knife (using a hot knife creates a clean cut).
Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, then turn the fish over and cook for a further 1-2 minutes or so, until the salmon is cooked but still has a line of translucent, darker pink flesh in its centre. This slight 'undercooking' keeps the salmon moist and tender.
To serve, lay the salmon on warm serving plates and top with a slice or two of green butter. Tuck a lemon wedge in on the side and garnish with the parsley, if you like.

Enjoy!

Angie Onigiri

2010-05-30T21:21:00.002+07:00

I wasn't feeling well today.. and I've been craving for some onigiri lately. So for a late lunch, I decided to make some onigiris... and ate them with some leftovers from last night. Yummy...

Itadakimasu!

Gyoza (Japanese Potstickers)

2010-05-29T23:28:00.008+07:00

Today was my boyfriend's mom's birthday... so my boyfriend asked me to accompany him buy a birthday cake for her. He came to pick me up at around 1 pm. His house was about 45 minutes drive from mine... plus the traffic, I was looking at an hour and half drive. But, since I had promised my family to cook for dinner, I had to rush back home before 5.30 pm. I felt so awful to his family for paying such a short & rushed visit... but I promise to make it up next week.

So to make up for the lack of time in the evening, I prepared the gyozas in the morning before I left home. It's really best to make gyoza on a free day, as it can be quite time consuming to make. I stored it in the fridge to be fried in the evening. A word of caution for storing gyozas in the fridge... be sure to place a clingwrap between two stacks of gyoza, this will prevent them from sticking to each other and get torn. It's better to immediately fry the gyozas after making it.

I got home almost at 6 pm... and since I had to quickly rushed making tonkatsu and miso soup, my boyfriend helped me pan fried the gyozas... the result turned out great thanks to him. (Thanks Hun!)

Gyoza

Makes 50 pieces.

Ingredients

400g ground pork
50g prawn, minced
150g cabbage, minced
100g onion, minced
100g chives (kucai), minced, boiled half cooked

50 gyoza skins / wonton wrapper
2 tbsp sesame oil

condiments

2 tbsp soy sauce
3 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
pepper
2.5 tbsp sake / cooking wine
1 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp corn starch
1 tbsp grated garlic
1 tsp grated ginger
2 tbsp oyster sauce

Cooking Directions

In a bowl, mix ground pork with minced prawn and all the condiments, and knead the mixture thoroughly.
Add in minced cabbage, onion and chives. Stir until evenly mixed.
Cover with clingwrap and let sit in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Take out the meat mixture. Scoop a little and spread it at the center of a gyoza skin.
Wet the edges of the gyoza skin with water.
Fold the skin in half and form pleats only on one side.
Heat oil in a frying pan (I used paper towel to spread the oil on the pan) over medium heat.
Line up the gyozas in the pan and pour over boiling water until they are half covered.
Put the pan lid on and cook over medium high heat for about 5-6 minutes.
When the water has evaporated, add a bit more sesame oil between gyozas.
Replace the lid and cook for 1-2 minutes more, until the bottom part of the gyoza is golden brown.
Serve the gyozas bottom side up on a plate.

Notes: You can find a round gyoza skin in japanese supermarkets. If you can't find it, you can use wonton wrappers instead. I used wonton wrappers and individually cut it using a round cookie cutter... This was another reason why I said making gyoza can be time consuming.

Douzo omeshi agatte kudasai!

Tonkatsu (Pork Cutlets)

2010-05-28T22:45:00.000+07:00

My dad was finally back from a six day photo hunting trip to Gui Lin, China last wednesday... but he will be going off again to Bali tomorrow morning for another four day trip. So tonight (this was after being postponed for several nights), I was finally able to cook him a japanese style dinner: Tonkatsu served with japanese rice, Gyoza and Miso soup.

Below is the recipe for Tonkatsu, I'll put the Gyoza recipe in another post.

Tonkatsu

Makes 4 servings.

Ingredients

4 pork chops
salt
pepper
flour for dusting
egg, beaten
breadcrumbs
vegetable oil for frying

Cooking Directions

Season both sides of the pork with salt and white pepper. Let it marinate for an hour in the fridge.
Dust the pork loins with flour, making sure the entire surface is well dusted, then shake off the excess. Dunk the pork into the egg, then coat liberally in breadcrumbs.
Heat oil to medium heat and fry for 2-3 minutes on one side, then flip once and fry for another 2-3 minutes on the other side, until both sides are golden brown and crispy.
Drain well on paper towels, then cut into bite-sized strips.
Serve with Japanese rice and tonkatsu sauce.

Tonkatsu Sauce

You can buy a ready made tonkatsu sauce at the supermarkets (japanese / korean supermarket) or you can make your own. I couldn't go to a japanese supermarket yesterday, so I made the sauce from scratch... it turned out really good. The tangy flavour of the sauce added a kick to the crispy yet juicy tonkatsu.

4 tbsp BBQ Steak sauce
2 tsp tomato ketchup
1/2 tsp chili sauce (to taste)
1 tsp soy sauce
3 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp sesame oil

どうぞおめしあがり下さい。

Chicken Cordon Bleu

2010-05-21T22:51:00.008+07:00

I went to Lotte Mart with mom yesterday and a saleslady came to promote Knorr Demi-Glace Sauce Mix... The sauce is basically a brown sauce, which can be used as it is or mixed with other condiments (for example, if you mix it with black pepper, you get a black pepper sauce.) Since my mom has been asking me to cook chicken cordon bleu, we bought the sauce. Yeeyy!

So tonight, I made chicken cordon bleu for mom. Unfortunate for dad though... He went to China early this morning, for a photo hunting trip with his photography club friends.

Tonight's menu: chicken cordon bleu in brown sauce, served with fries, garden salad and mushroom soup with roasted garlic croutons.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Makes 4

Ingredients

4 chicken breast fillets
salt
black pepper
2 slices smoked ham (each cut into 2... use 1/2 slice for each chicken)
4 slices kraft quickmelt cheese
1 cup all purpose flour
1 large egg, beaten
bread crumbs
oil for frying

knorr demi-glace sauce mix
mayonnaise

Cooking Directions:

Season chicken with salt and black pepper, and let it marinate in the fridge for an hour.
Pound chicken until rather tender. (At this point, it is very important that the chicken is dry... if not, before pounding, dry it with paper towel.)
Place 1 cheese slice and 1 ham slice on top of each chicken, and roll it up.
Dust each chicken roll with flour, making sure the entire surface is well dusted and then shake off the excess.
Now deep it into the egg, then coat liberally in breadcrumbs. Repeat step 5 again to get a thicker coat.
Deep fry over low heat until golden brown and chicken is no longer pink.
Serve with brown sauce and mayonnaise.

Bon Appétit!

Kare Pan (Japanese Curry Bread)

2010-04-30T16:35:00.011+07:00

During my trip to Japan, I happened to buy kare pan in Tokyo... it was quite a struggle just to ask how much it cost, since none of the salesgirls can speak english (-__-') ...anyway, lately I've been craving for it, but I couldn't find it anywhere in my neighbourhood. So today I decided to make it myself... I found some kare pan recipes from the web, but the recipe below has been adjusted to my taste. The process is quite time consuming, so if you're planning on making kare pan, I suggest you do it on a day off. Also, it's best if you make the curry from the night before... that way it will be softer and tastier.

The bread turned out so good... The golden brown crust was nice and crispy, and the inside was soft and moist. I of course ate them while they were still warm... hehe... Each bite was a crisp, soft, warm, and tasty moment of utter enjoyment. I suddenly felt like Kuroyanagi from Yakitate! Japan... the part where he tasted Azuma's bread and burst into tears of joy (^o^) hehe...

Kare Pan

Makes 10 buns.

Ingredients

for the filling

1 tbsp olive oil
250 g ground beef
80 g onion, thinly sliced
80 g carrot, thinly sliced
240 ml beef broth / water
1 tbsp curry powder / garam masala (to taste)
1 tbsp chili sauce (optional)
2 tbsp cornstarch solution
salt to taste
black pepper to taste

for the dough

370 g all purpose flour
7 g dry yeast
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
160 ml milk
40 g butter, at room temperature

for the coating

egg
milk (1 tbsp for every egg)
bread crumbs

Cooking Directions

Let's start with the curry. Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat.

Add the sliced onions and fry until lightly browned.

Stir in ground beef and cook for about 5 minutes.

Stir in the sliced carrot and saute for 1 minute.

Pour in the broth and bring to a boil over high heat.

Add in curry and chili sauce.

Continue to cook, stirring occasionally until the liquid is reduced by half.

Stir in the dissolved cornstarch and cook until thickened.

Season with salt and pepper.

Set aside to cool completely.

Make the dough. Put all the dry ingredients into the food processor bowl and whiz to mix.

Add the eggs, and while the machine is running, slowly add the milk until the dough forms a ball around the blade.

Stop and add the butter in pieces, process for about 5 minute.

Take it out and knead it briefly to form a ball.

Place the dough in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 60 minutes until doubled in size.
Punch down the dough and knead for 2 minutes.

Place the dough back into the bowl and let rise again.
Punch the dough down again and knead again for 2 minutes.
Take it out and divide into 10 pieces.

Roll each piece into a ball, and let rest for about 15 minutes under a piece of plastic or a damp kitchen towel.

Combine egg and milk on a plate, and prepare the bread crumbs on another plate.

Start forming the buns. With a rolling pin, roll out each piece into an 15cm round.

Put a tablespoon or so of curry in the center of the round.

Fold each of them in half to enclose the filling in a semi-circle. Pinch the dough all around to seal well, like making a dumpling. Be sure that the seam is well sealed.

Dip the formed bread into the egg wash and then dip them into the bread crumbs to cover.

Place the bread into the oil and fry over low heat until golden brown on both sides.

Drain the curry bread on a rack or paper towels.

Enjoy!

Potato Donuts

2010-04-28T18:03:00.007+07:00

Last night after dinner, my sister in law had a craving for potato donuts. So today I tried making some and the result was pretty delicious for a first try. I used my mom's food processor to make the dough, instead of kneading by hands. Don't you just love technology?

Potato Donuts

Makes 28 donuts

Ingredients

500 g bread flour
50 g powdered milk
11 g dry yeast
200 g potatoes, boiled, mashed and let cool
100 g sugar
75 g unsalted butter
1/2 tbsp salt
4 egg yolks
100 ml iced water
powdered sugar

Cooking Directions

Mix together bread flour, sugar, powdered milk and instant yeast. Add mashed potato, egg yolks and iced water. Knead until the dough is half smooth.
Add in butter and salt, and keep kneading until the dough is perfectly smooth. Cover with plastic and let it rest for 20 minutes.
Divide the dough into a 40g balls each. Let it rest again for another 20 minutes.
Make a hole in the center of the dough balls to shape it like a donut. Deep fry over low heat until golden brown.
Drain well and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Enjoy!

How It All Began

2010-04-27T12:52:00.002+07:00

I'm finally back in Jakarta after being away for almost 5 years. It's good to be home... I sure miss being with family again
I've been back for a month now, yet I'm still not used to being jobless. So I'm channeling my boredom to cooking (mostly to satisfy my family's craving of foreign food) and travelling.

I promised my friends to blog more often... but being the forgetful me, I always forget to take photos... of everything. I guess I should try and be more camera ready next time...