I was away for a week in Central Java in February to meet with a furniture manufacturer and see some shops and producer. It was a beautiful trip, I saw so many imperfection, but they are so beautiful in their imperfection. It is a bit difficult to explain, I guess you’ll just have to scroll and see the photographs:)
My trip started in the morning, flight from Denpasar to Surabaya (East Java) then to Semarang then 2 hours car drive to Jepara with my cousin. We went to Bandengan beach after arriving in Jepara, there was nothing there, the sand was not white, it was very windy, we just sat there peacefully, sipping ginger teas, watching this man collecting wood and waiting till sunset.
Then we headed home, took shower and went to have dinner at Flamingo Joe’s Japanese restaurant. Very fresh sushi and nice cold bintang. Wonderful. I went to bed smiling :) (more…)
March 16th, 2011 |
7287pwkr
It was raining so bad last night, I was very worried about my garden, not my flower garden, but my baby veggie garden. I planted the seeds with my gardener and his wife four days ago and kind of worried that I don’t have a green thumb…I visited the garden everyday to see if anything has grown. Nope.
So this morning I opened my window, just for checking because I was very worried that the rain would destroy the seeds but instead I was greeted by these. THESE BABIES!!! Whoa!
The awesomest of the awesomeness in the world! Super! I am sooooooooooooooooooooooo happy!
It really reminds me of my favourite film from Hayao Miyazaki: My Neighbor Totoro that I really really like. Specifically of this scene:
this is when they kind of magically grew the seeds over night but of course mine is not done by magic but a bit of hard work :) we planted snake beans, morning glory, chards, tomatoes, lettuces, peas, broad beans…emmmm what else…many more, I really hope all of them will grow, otherwise I need Totoro to come here and help me haha :D
February 23rd, 2011 |
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Yes, it is cake again :) I guess I am in the mood of cake these days. Last week it was this chocolate cake, before that I kept going to Bali Buddha almost everyday to get their carrot cake (super good!) and this week, I made Kim Boyce’s rosemary and chocolate olive oil cake. I have been intrigued by this recipe since I saw it on Luisa’s blog, then Heidi’s. I was not so sure in the beginning about the chocolate and rosemary combination, but I tried and fell in love with pan de ramerino when I was in Tuscany, which was rosemary and raisins = savoury and sweet, so I gave this cake a try and I must say I really really like it, and Marco said it’s delicious too.
Kim Boyce Rosemary and Chocolate Olive Oil Cake
Olive oil for the pan
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (the original recipe called for 3/4 cup spelt flour and 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, but I don’t know how to find spelt flour here so I only used all purpose flour)
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp sea salt
3 medium eggs
1 cup olive oil
3/4 cup whole milk
1 1/2 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
150 grams chocolate, roughly chopped
Preheat the oven to 175C and grease a 22 cm tart pan with olive oil
Sift the flour into a mixing bowl, then mix it with the rest of dry ingredients
In another mixing bowl, whisk the eggs thoroughly, add the olive oil, milk and rosemary and whisk again then fold the wet ingredients into the dry, gently mixing just until combined, add the chocolate. Pour the batter into the pan and spread it evenly
Bake for about 40 minutes, or until the top is domed, golden brown, and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean
The cake can be eaten warm or cool from the pan, or cooled, wrapped tightly in plastic, and kept for 2 days.
February 18th, 2011 |
7287pwkr
Two days ago, I read a post on Susi Johnston’s blog about Karen Waddell’s blog being the first food blog in Bali (Susi then kindly edited the title of her post). And of course my first reaction was commenting that I thought that’s not possible, that many people had blogged before Karen started. Then she replied that she didn’t seem to be able to find any. So I tried. And, funnily, it is true, I can’t really find any Bali based food blogger.
Strange. Is it really only me, Carla and Karen who blog about food here in Bali?
I really hope not.
Anyway, since I am here, I want to share one place I love to go to get my fruits and vegs in Ubud: Ubud organic market every Wednesday (less packed with people) and Saturday (packed). There are usually too many people that it is hard to take photographs there, so I shot some of the things I got there at home.
Organic soy milk from Dle. They sell plain, palm sugar soy milk and chai soy milk. To be honest I prefer mine, but you know, on one of those lazy days… :)
Definitely the best passion fruits I ever ate in my life. They are from Bali Rungu by Gede Green :) I bought a bag then brought them home, tried it, and immediately returned to buy the whole batch! :) Then tried to make jam, but not so successful as I like it to be, so more excuses to buy more this wonderful organic purple passion fruits!
Our typical breakfast: coffee made with moka and toast with butter and jam.
Well, that’s all for now. Wish you all a verrrrryyyyyy relaxing Sunday!
February 13th, 2011 |
7287pwkr
Remember when I told you: want to do everything and nothing at all, well, that was two days ago. Yesterday, I kind of did almost everything. Almost. Starting with doing all bureaucratic things in the morning, followed by visiting some manufacturer for my design project, grocery shopping in three different shops, cooking for dinner, cleaning the dishes and when I thought I could relaxed, the craving began. The craving. Oh gosh. I had to choose from these three: banana cake/banana+chocolate brownies/chocolate cake…I actually want all of them, but in the end chocolate cake won :) simple everyday chocolate cake, well, just with tiny bit of drama: the oven ran out of gas while I was baking it I didn’t realise it until the time I thought the cake was done, checking the oven and found it was actually not baking…fortunately we had a spare one, but meaning I had to wait twice longer! When the cake was done, around 1 AM! I was too tired and decided to sleep, but I couldn’t, the whole house smelled chocolate-y…you know what I mean? I really HAD to eat it and it was one moist+warm+crumbly on top chocolate cake…super! I returned to bed and dreaming that a big monster caught me, cooked a big pot of the yummiest chocolate on earth, dipped me into the chocolate and ate me…ouch! I guess they are right when they tell you: no meal right before bed :D
Here is the recipe which I adapted from Deb’s everyday chocolate cake which she adapted from Magnolia Bakery At Home book.
everyday.chocolate.cake
big mixing bowl.
180C oven.
buttered and floured 28×16 cm baking pan.
put andrew bird’s oh! the grandeur album.
press play.
not too loud if you bake in the middle of the night…
ready?
of course you are.
so.
add these to the mixing bowl:
120 gram butter, softened
1/4 cup coconut sugar
1/2 cup unbleached cane sugar
mix.
add:
2 medium eggs
mix.
add:
1 cup buttermilk
1 vanilla pod, scrap the beans, add to the mixture
mix well.
sift and add:
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup chocolate powder ( I used van houten)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
add:
1/4 cup ground chocolate (I used monggo chocolate from yogyakarta)
a pinch of sea salt (I use Balinese Kusamba Fleur de Sel)
mixed everything well, but do not over mixed.
pour onto the pan.
bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted come out clean.
wait 30 mins before you cut the cake.
enjoy.
ow, and please…don’t eat them too much before bed time :)
sharing.is.better
:)
hugs!
February 11th, 2011 |
7287pwkr
Don’t we all feel like this sometimes?
February 9th, 2011 |
7287pwkr
I just realised, the translation of polpette con piselli to Indonesian language is quite funny: bakso Italia dengan kacang polong :) Anyway, that was what we had for lunch today. I have been making polpette for Marco for ages, but never really had them myself, and never really measure the ingredients. But today I did both: ate and measured because I want to share this with you. First of all, the bread. People usually use a stale bread, but I use any kind of bread I have, stale or not. The difference is that with stale bread you have to soak it longer in milk. If you are lactose intolerant, omit milk and replace with water.
As you can see, I still haven’t got a scale, I don’t know how many grams needed for this, so I measured it with the ruler. You can replace it with any bread, I used baguette today because I had them in hand, I’ve used normal white bread, ciabatta, brown bread and everything worked well.
I forgot: 1 tsp of sea salt and pepper to taste. Cover the mixture and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes, then take out, add 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil in a small bowl, use it to moisten your hand and form a 3cm ball, it will make more or less 20 polpette. Since we are only two here, I usually cook 10 and freeze 10. Then add another 1/2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil in a pan, fry the polpette on medium-low heat for 10 minutes and set aside.
Then, thinly sliced 1/4 of onion, add another 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil to the pan, and fry the sliced onion on a low heat until soft and a bit browned, turn up the heat to medium, add two handful or peas (fresh or frozen), fry for 5 minutes, add 1/4 cup of water, let simmer, add the fried polpette, lower the heat, cover and let simmer until there is very little liquid left. Season with sea salt and pepper, add 1 tsp of chopped parsley and stir well. Divide into plates and enjoy!
January 4th, 2011 |
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Such a long title, no? :)
But hey, (although my tummy is rumbling and I want to make crepes so bad but there is no flour in the new kitchen: need grocery shopping asap) I am in a good mood to write now, a rarity these days. First of all, it just felt so good to be able to wake up, go to my kitchen, open the window, and say: selamat pagi semua!!! (good morning all!!!)
Loud and clear. Yeah!
Then cooking my first decent breakfast: a bowl of 5 grains porridge with slices of fresh mango, honey and cinnamon plus making a cup of java coffee. It felt…great! There are still many works need to be done in my new house, no furniture, the lighting is crappy, the windows are still covered with news paper, no hot water, we eat on the floor and my work place is on the top of the moving boxes, but I just love it. Lovelovelove it.
And we got our first guest too: kuro, our neighbour’s puppy who keeps visiting us since the first day we moved :) I called him kuro (means black in japanese) without knowing that his real name is really kuro. Super cute and curious. We are happy enough to have kuro here sometimes, as we are not ready yet to add a new fury family member since we lost charlie.
He really likes hanging around in our kitchen and garden, kind of hoping marco would pass him a tiny bit of that delicious salame from florence :). Btw, our kitchen is the only finished part of the house, I have transferred most of my kitchen equipment here, it felt like a victory! Such a hard work! Unwrapping all the pieces, and washing them one by one. Now they are sitting cleanly+neatly in my kitchen drawers :)
And the last thing: a simple granola recipe :) I promised to give this recipe to my friend Intan a while ago but kept forgetting about it. Sowie!
Hope you all have a good breakfast, everyday!
Hugs!
A Simple Granola
4 cups of rolled oats
1 cup of mixed natural nuts (I used almond, cashew and walnut), chopped
1 cup of dried fruits (I used raisins and dried apricot), chopped
1/2 cup of honey
1/4 cup of olive oil (I use coconut oil sometimes, when I can find a good one, like the one made at my village)
Opt: I like also to add one cup or two of puffed kamut, to give an lighter feeling to my granola :)
Preheat the oven to 150C
Line a baking tray with baking sheet, combine all dry ingredients in a big bowl, mix well. Heat the honey and the olive oil in a small sauce pan over a low heat, stir well then pour over the dry ingredients and mix well until everything is well coated.
Transfer to the lined baking tray. Bake, stirring every 5-10 minutes (so it will browned evenly) for about 35 minutes. Cool completely.
Note: I don’t like my granola too sweet, I always feel you can add a drizzle of honey or so when you eat it with yoghurt or milk if you are feeling on the sweeter side.
December 28th, 2010 |
7287pwkr
When I say this is one mean spanákopíta, I really mean it. Yes yes yes, my dear friend Aliki made one mean mean mean spanakopita :) It is a Greek spinach pie, spanáki means spinach and píta means pie. I really like the word spanákopíta. I think it is very cute.
We made it on one of those windy+cloudy+gray day in Milan, and it was just perfect. Thank you Aliki for sharing the recipe.
Spanakopita
2 medium leek, washed and finely sliced
500 grams of fresh spinach, washed well, blanched, drain very well
2 x 250 grams puff pastry
150 grams feta (or 200 grams if you really like it)
1 organic egg
some dill
sea salt and black pepper
Fry the leek on low fire with a few glugs of olive oil until soft but not coloured. Turn off the heat.
Preheat the oven to 250C.
Add the spinach and crumbled feta and dill, season with sea salt and pepper. Let cool abit, then add the egg, mix well.
Put one of the puff pastry on a pie pan, add the spinach mixture, then lay another layer of puff pastry on the top, trim the egg, and stab the surface with fork to avoid cracking.
Brush the pastry surface with olive oil then splash it with a few water.
Put in the oven for 20-30 minutes (until it turns golden)
Share+enjoy with friends!
Buon apetito! :)
December 7th, 2010 |
7287pwkr
I have been going to Singapore since 1995 and every time I return to my country people always ask me: did you try the chilli crab? and the answer has always been: no no no. This time, the answer will be: yes.
Basically, this time, I didn’t want to carry my camera, I just want to savour the experience (plus I was still jetlaged, and so tired), so sorry, no photos, next time when I return I will.
I have three places that I HAVE TO try (one of them is chilli crab):
1. Long Beach at Dempsey Hill for chilli crab
2. Ippudo Tao Ramen at UE Square because my sister works there and because many people said it is the best ramen.
3. Tatsuya at Scotts road for sushi
So, for number 1: Yes, I tried it, two days ago. And, it was…some kind of a torture for us. Well, first of all, none of us (me, marco and my sister) like crab. We are just toooooooooooo lazy to peel it. Then, I am not a big fan of spicy food. We went to the famous Long Beach restaurant at Dempsey Hill. We could not finished the food. For three we ordered the fried banana and scallop (strange combination, bad opening for us, not recommended), then chilli crab (1,2 kg), black pepper crab (1 kg) and 2 portion of fried bread and a small bowl of rice. The waiter looked very disappointed, but we couldn’t help it. It was not our cup of tea. That was the first and the last time I eat chilli crab. My conclusion is, don’t eat chilli crab if you:
1. Don’t like peeling crab
2. Don’t like spicy food
3. Are too hungry
4. Still jetlaged :)
We are those three. So, you can imagine. One more thing, the dinner was kind of funny. Seriously. It started with that fried banana scallop thing, that tasted so strange, so I told my sister: “if the waiter come and ask me about the food, I wouldn’t know how to answer it” then a minute later the waiter came and asked me: “how’s the food?” I couldn’t help laughing :P Then when the crab arrived, the waiter tried to help me cracking the crab, ended up splattering the sauce everywhere including my t-shirt, I wasn’t angry, it was just toooooooo funny! :D Then we tried, and the crab sort of ‘jumping’ everywhere. We made such a mess. I think they were relieved when we left. So were we.
For number 2: It was simply the best ramen I ever ate. Superb! The first time I went there was when we had a 8 hours waiting time at Changi airport, waiting for the flight to Milano, so we decided to go out and said hello to my sister. We had shiro ramen and I love it. Shiro is basically a tonkotsu ramen. We also tried the pork bun and the gyoza, it was so great. The portion was big, it was hard to finish it myself, I was toooooo full, almost couldn’t walk to the MRT to take the train back to the airport.
The second time I shared the kuro ramen and had lots of that skewer bbq food (forget the name) and always with the gyoza and pork bun. The best dessert is the cream caramel and they have 5 kind of umeshu, but the best is just the plain old choya umeshu. Ow, and the sakura tea was great too. Recommended.
3. Tatsuya. No word. SUPER. Amazing. Love it. Definitely my place. The sashimi was superb, melt in the mouth, and the sushi was great. All the fish are from Tsukiji fish market Tokyo and Fukuoka. Reservation is recommended. And you have to try the home made umeshu, it was heavenly. For the dessert we had cheesecake, it was simple buy yum! Loving everything. We went for lunch, but will come back for dinner for sure. Love love love.
Long Beach Seafood
Blk 25 #01-01 Dempsey Road
Tel: 6323 2222
Ippudo Tao Ramen
207 River Valley Road, #01-55/56 UE Square
Tel: 6887 5315
Tatsuya
22 Scotts Road
Goodwood Park Hotel
Tel: 65 6887 4598
December 3rd, 2010 |
7287pwkr
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