Mom's Breakfast Buns

It was around 7 in the morning, just as the sun ray peeked through the window, when I accidentally woke up from my slumber. I was planning on having three more hours of sleep, but a deal is a deal: the moment I wake up, I am not going to put myself to sleep again.

My eyes were still half closed, my voice was rough, and I couldn't even walk properly. Mom was surprised by the fact that I woke up THAT early. She is used with having me waking up an hour past mid noon. "Lho, kok tumben jam segini udah bangun," she said, "mau ke mana?" which then I replied with a, "Mau sarapan yang enak, Tie." 

So, Mom made me these light and savory breakfast buns. Using the leftover burger buns from the fridge, that were about to expire, she toasted them and topped them with bacon, scrambled eggs, and melted cheese. Boy, it was a sight that made my eyes popped in the early morning.

I finished three buns and they were awesome! But, I do think they were missing a cherry on top: a nice drizzle of sweet and sticky maple syrup.

Ikan Tenggiri Balado

Siang ini Ibu gue masak Ikan Tenggiri Balado, lho. Enak banget, suer! Daritadi gue berpikir keras gimana caranya menuangkan kata-kata ke dalam postingan blog siang ini mengenai masakan Ibu gue yang satu itu, tapi ujung-ujungnya cuma bisa gue hapus lagi dan hapus lagi. Enaknya bikin bego. 

Ikan Tenggiri Balado ini adalah salah satu masakan Ibu gue yang gue doyan banget. Padahal beliau alergi seafood, kecuali cumi-cumi, tapi masakannya tetap enak meskipun nggak dicicip selama proses masak. Dan, kelihatannya nggak begitu rumit untuk memasak makanan yang satu ini: hanya tinggal goreng ikannya, dimasak dengan racikan sambal balado, dan voila! Nggak susah, kan? 

Ujung-ujungnya, gue cuma bisa duduk bego, kekenyangan, dan berjuang keras untuk mengucapkan, "Tie, enak banget ikannya." setelah selesai makan.

Smoothie Bowl Sore Tadi

Sore ini pun gue bikin smoothie bowl juga, lho! Tadi siang, sehabis ngurus SKCK yang belum kelar sehingga gue harus balik ke polsek lagi Senin besok, gue dan Ibu gue mampir ke Total Buah Segar yang baru buka di daerah Kalimalang. Di sana kami belanja buah banyak banget, saking banyaknya sampai ada yang ketinggalan di mesin timbangan dan nggak kebayar. Sedih.

Sekali lagi, takarannya masih ngasal, tapi kali ini gue nggak menambahkan air sedikit pun. Hasilnya masih agak terlalu encer, sih, tapi nggak seencer kali pertama gue coba. Gue pakai campuran pisang Sunpride, buah naga merah, dan apel merah yang besarnya nggak lebih besar dari bogem gue. Dan, seperti yang gue duga, rasanya didominasi oleh pisang. Lucky for me that's what I like~

Platting skill gue pun masih perlu diasah. Tapi, ya sudah lah, ya..

Gue Bikin Smoothie Bowl, lho!

Ternyata mood mempengaruhi pembawaan menulis seseorang, ya. Selama gue di Bali, rasanya lancar terus setiap ngeblog. Sehari bisa tiga sampai empat postingan gue jabanin dan, rata-rata, semuanya ditulis dengan waras dan pemilihan kata-kata yang cukup manusiawi. Tapi, semenjak pulang ke Bekasi kemarin, hasrat gue untuk menulis kok jadi berkurang, ya? Apa mungkin karena lagi sedih? Ah, pasti karena itu.

Selama di Bali, gue berusaha untuk menjaga pola makan gue, walaupun akhirnya gagal juga. Gue berhasil detox apel selama tiga hari - yang membuat mood gue acak-acakan, badan gue lemas, dan lancar buang air besar. Don't get me wrong, it was good in so many levels, but it was not as easy as I expect it to be. It was fine while it lasted, though. 

Setelah program detox gue berakhir, gue masih mencoba untuk menjaga makanan yang gue konsumsi. Berniat untuk menjalani no-carbs and no-sugar diet, tapi sayangnya gue secinta itu dengan nasi dan roti, apalagi roti-roti Eropa. Gagal sudah rencana untuk mengonsumsi hanya protein dan serat setiap harinya. 

Tapi, untungnya rencana gue nggak sepenuhnya gagal karena terbantu oleh hasrat gue untuk membuat smoothie bowl sendiri di rumah. Ketimbang harus keluar uang berlembar-lembar demi bubur buah seiprit, mendingan gue buat sendiri, ya, kan? Bahan-bahannya pun nggak rumit, hanya buah dan blender, tok. Selain gue bisa mencari kombinasi rasa dan melatih platting skill, berat badan gue cenderung menjadi konsisten dan nggak naik-naik amat untungnya. Tetap aja berat, sih..

Waktu itu gue masih punya sisa beberapa buah Apel Malang dari program detox gue dan sebongkah buah naga merah yang besarnya hampir seukuran kepala gue - entah buahnya yang bermutasi, atau kepala gue yang terlalu kecil - dan keduanya gue pakai untuk membuat smoothie bowl. 

Karena gue nggak peduli pada takaran buah dan air, jadi aja gue masukin semua ke dalam blender. Potong apelnya, potong buah naganya, kasih air sedikit, blender sampai menjadi bubur, dan voila! smoothie bowl gue keenceran. Seharusnya, gue nggak perlu menambahkan air lagi karena buah naga sudah mengandung air yang cukup banyak. 

Yang paling gue suka dari smoothie bowl adalah topping hiasannya. You can never go wrong with your toppings. You just have to let your imagination do the magic and, there you have it, your own creation of smoothie bowl. Nggak perlu mahal-mahal keluarin duit berwarna merah jambu untuk dikembalikan dalam bentuk dua lembar uang ribuan, kan, jadinya.

Gue masih harus berlatih lebih keras lagi dalam hal plating karena keahlian gue dalam menghias makanan belum begitu bagus. Masih berantakan, masih nggak seimbang, masih suka-suka hati. Tapi, toh, yang makan diri gue sendiri, kan? Dan, toh, semua yang ada di mangkuk itu nanti akan kecampur juga di dalam perut, betul, bukan? 

Kebetulan, gue juga punya segayung low-fat yogurt di kulkas. Asli, sebanyak volume gayung buat mandi, gue nggak bohong! Tadinya mau gue pakai sebagai hiasan juga, dicampur dengan bubur buahnya dan dibikin motif yang cantik, tapi gagal karena tekstur dan kekentalannya berbeda. Ya udah aja gue ceburin di situ.

Mengenai granola yang gue pakai, gue belinya di Coco Mart seharga sekitar Rp65.000,00 satu kantongnya. Dari semua pilihan granola yang ada di supermarket tersebut, granola produkan East Bali Cashew's ini adalah yang paling murah, lho! Variannya ada macam-macam. Gue beli yang ini karena tergiur dengan potongan pisang kering yang seharusnya ada di dalam kemasannya. 

Granola ini rasanya manis dari cane sugar-nya, yang sedikit mengingatkan gue akan teh tarik di Warung Bu Nana. Banyak banget komponen yang ada di dalam kemasan ini, dari potongan kelapa, kacang mede, oat, potongan buah kering, dan beberapa lagi yang bentuknya gue yakin lo juga nggak bakal ngenalin. Digadoin pun enak! Tapi, kalau dimakan terlalu banyak tanpa pendamping yang bisa netralin rasanya, lo bakal mual saking manisnya. Emang cocoknya dipakai sebagai topping smoothie bowl, sih, gue rasa. 

Abis ini mau lanjut nulis lagi, ah. Kayaknya kumatnya pelan-pelan hilang dibawa nulis.. 

Woke Up at Five to Bake

I woke up at five to the sound of my dogs barking, giving commands for me to open the door that leads them to the backyard so that they can do their thing after a night of being kept inside due to the heavy rain. It has been raining hard these days in Bekasi. The sky is cloudy even as I am typing down right now, and I'm guessing it's going to be stormy later on the evening. So much for hoping somebody will pay me a visit.

I woke up and I couldn't get myself to continue my slumber. It's not that I woke up feeling fresh and all pumped up, no, but I just couldn't get myself to sleep. So, I figured, why not make myself happy with some baking action in the kitchen.

I googled recipes on how to make date cake since I have this box of dates that Mom brought from Doha, Qatar, which I'm not a big fan of due to its' peculiar texture. I finally found one that caught my interest. Sourced from an Australian cooking website named Taste.com.au, I prepared all of the cooking utensil and ingredients needed to make the cake and immediately try to pull it off. Here, is the link to the Sticky Date Cake with Caramel Sauce.

I'm not a pro at baking, but I do enjoy it. I have baked brownies for a few times and they didn't always end up the way I wanted them to be. At one point, I tried to bake this Milka-based brownies that came out as hard as a brick. I could probably hit somebody with it and he would passed out.

I didn't have high expectation on how my date cake will be, so I just went with the recipe and hoped for the best.

In the recipe, two cups of boiling hot water was needed to make the chopped dates tender. Then, I have to combine the date mixture with the cake mixture that has egg in it. Now, I know how an egg mixture will be destroyed if I were to put another mixture with high temperature in it. The heat will cook the egg up, leading to a disaster. It took me a while to figure this out. I ended up putting the date mixture in the freezer for around five minutes until the boiling water cools off, then I mix it together with the egg mixture. I turned out fine, thank God.

Combined the mixture, poured it into a cake pan, put it in the oven, and let it bake for 45 minutes. I occupied myself with some house chores as I waited for my Sticky Date Cake to finish baking.

The cake turned out, unexpectedly, fine and gorgeous. It didn't show any uncooked batter as I poked some holes into it with a toothpick, the edges didn't stick to the cake pan, the surface felt firm despite the texture being soft and tender. All in all, it baked all the way through, woohoo!

The recipe said that I am supposed to eat it with some caramel sauce. Unfortunately, I didn't have the ingredients to make one, so I settled with some butter.

The date cake was moist, similar with how a sponge cake should be, but not crumbly. It had a strong date flavor and a bit of date bits as well, which was okay for me. It was sweet to the point of making me nauseous when I ate too much of it, but the butter helped to ease down the sweetness.

It was okay. The cake was okay.

The problem is, I don't have people to give the cake out to. Help!

Homemade Choux

Today, I received a batch of homemade choux from Baruna, my adoptive junior - also known as adik asuh here at the institution. He made the choux all by himself and, boy, did he do a great job at it! 

The homemade choux was puffy and very light - it had this kind of texture and appearance that would deffinitely make me fall for it if someone were to tell me that the choux was bought at some bakery or cake shop. My batch of choux were made yesterday, which explains why the pastry was slightly flabby. 

They were filled with sweet cream that was very sweet and foamy. For me, the cream has this sickening kind of sweetness if you consume it too much. Yet, for Gita (my dorm mate whom I share the choux with), it was fine and dandy. The inner part of the choux was soggy from making contact with the cream. A bit disturbing because I don't like soggy pastry, but it was still enjoyable and delicious.

I'm giving a 7 out of 10 for these homemade choux! I would definitely add another one and a half if the choux was served fresh from the oven and the cream was thicker and more custardy. 

P.S. Happy Belated Birthday, Baruna! I wish you all the good things in the world. And thank you for the homemade choux, they were lovely! 

P.P.S. Pardon the lack of good quality in those pictures I used in the post. The lighting in my barrack did no justice to the choux. 

First Attempt at Making Eggs Benedict

So, today, I made my very first Eggs Benedict, woohoo!

I have been dying to try making this American breakfast since yesterday. I don't know what came up to me, but there was this sudden urge to make this dish. I surfed the website for its' recipe and watched some how-to videos on YouTube to ease the curiosity. And, then, I stumbled upon a particular video of Gordon Ramsay, a British chef famous for his deadly remarks in Master Chef and Hell's Kitchen, making Eggs Benedict under five minutes. I became more obsessed to make the dish. 

The ingredients used to make Eggs Benedict is not that complicated, as well as the process to make it. First, you need to make the Hollandaise Sauce - a mixture of egg yolk, vinegar, salt, pepper, and melted butter - then you will have to poach your egg with a water and vinegar mixture, which when nicely poached will then be placed on top of your choice of ham, or smoked beef, and English muffin. Pretty simple, right? "Meh, if Ramsay could do it, then I can do it," I said to myself. In the end, I ended up consuming approximately two hours to make a five minute dish. 

I almost screw up my Hollandaise Sauce. My egg mixture didn't get enough heat from the pan with boiling water underneath, so it didn't thicken up. Thank God, Mom came to the rescue, resulting in a thick and creamy soft yellow sauce. The consistency of my sauce was similar to Chef Ramsay's and I was happy with it. 

As for the taste, I squeezed to much lime juice into the mixture, which ended up making the sauce dominated with a sour taste. And, on the one hand, I was supposed to use lemon instead of lime, but, because I didn't have any lemon, a lime would have to do. I also didn't have enough butter, so I just used the remaining leftover that I found in the fridge. 

When I was done making the Hollandaise Sauce, I was hoping for a slight acidic and sour mixture - with a hint of saltiness and peppery effect - but what I got was a very sour and eggy sauce. Not sure if I hit the right flavor, for I have never taste a Hollandaise Sauce before in my life. 

Pouching the eggs was my favorite thing to do when making Eggs Benedict. The thing is, we have to pouch our egg inside a water and vinegar mixture. The vinegar helps the egg white to stay intact, instead of tearing apart like they do when they are pouched with regular water. 

I did exactly like Chef Ramsay did in the video: crack the egg and put it inside a cup, stir the boiling water before you put in the egg, and pour the egg in using the cup to prevent it from running around inside the pan. The trick was very helpful. My egg stayed on the center of the pan and the egg white started to enveloped the egg yolk without tearing apart allover the place. 

I pouched two eggs, one was around 3 minutes, while the other was cooked two minutes longer. I was more satisfied with my second egg because when the egg white is nicely cooked, the egg yolk was gooey and runny. 

Since I didn't have any English muffins at home, I used a regular bread loafs instead. I shaped the loafs with the mouth of a glass, resulting in a round shape bread that looks similar to an English muffin. I toasted the bread, just so that I would get the crispiness on the edges. I also used smoked beef instead of ham because, well, it was the only layered meat available in my fridge. 

When all the ingredients are cook and prepared, it was time to decorate the plate. Simply put your toast on a plate, then top it when smoked beef, pouched egg, and Hollandaise Sauce. Add a wee bit of pepper to lighten up the party and voila! your very own Eggs Benedict. 

What do you think of my presentation? Ain't too shabby, right?

Again, making Eggs Benedict is very simple and not the slightest bit complicated. As long as you follow the recipe and instruction on how to make it, then you will not stumbled upon obstacles like I did. Remember, there is no wrong way to make Eggs Benedict, yet "If you must fail, fail spectacularly!"

Homemade Es Teler

Es Teler is a well known traditional fruit cocktail in Indonesia. You can mostly find this dessert at every Indonesian restaurants. It is very simple to make this fruit cocktail, as you just need to combine various fruits with condensed milk. The basic ingredients to make Es Teler are avocado, coconut meat, cincau (or grass jelly), jackfruit, coconut milk, condensed milk, syrup, and sugar but it's okay if you want to use other ingredients like I did. 

In this post, I will show you a super easy step-by-step tutorial on how to make one for yourself. Do take notes that I didn't include any measuring of the ingredients because I just made the dessert based on my liking. Don't be afraid to experiment!

Ingredients:

- Avocado

- Coconut

- Kolang-kaling

- Syrup

- Condensed milk

- Ice cubes

How to Make:

- slice the avocado into two and scoop out the meat into a bowl

- prepare your coconut by separating the coconut water and the coconut meat into different bowl

First, you cut the upper part of the coconut, then pour the coconut water into a big bowl. Then, cut the coconut into two, and scoop out the meat. 

- prepare your kolang kaling

It doesn't have to be kolang kaling. I used this particular canned fruit because I couldn't find any grass jelly and jackfruit at the Supermarket. It worked just fine, and it tasted delicious as well.

- make your punch 

Simply mix the condensed milk with sugar, water, and syrup. You might want to be careful when you combine the ingredients because you have to taste the punch whether it tasted creamy and sweet, or tasteless because you pour too much water in it. 

When all of the ingredients are all prepared, take out your bowl and put everything in it. Put in the avocado, coconut meat, kolang kaling, the condensed milk mixture, and some ice cubes and voila! your very own Es Teler. Very easy to make, right? 

SepotongKue

SepotongKue, a dessert shop located at Pasar Santa, is famous for its' fluffy homemade choux, or puff pastry - which I have to admit was very delicious and insanely addicting. I visited SepotongKue when it opened a booth at Monas during Anlene Moveathon's even on December 8th. Since I didn't get to try its' famous dessert when I visited Pasar Santa, I quickly grabbed me some rupiah and got myself some pastries.

One of SepotongKue's best selling prouct is its' Special Choux. This is, by far, the fluffiest and most scrumptious choux pastry I have ever tasted in my hometown. It was very light, not that airy, and it had this different kind of taste that distinguish it from any other pastry I have ever eaten before. Can't tell what it is, but it's a good one! The choux was filled with a spoonful of thick custard, then topped with slices of fruit, usually kiwi and strawberry. 

Took my first bite of my Special Choux and I fell in love immediately. I just love how the pastry was filled with just the right amount of custard - not that overflowing, yet not too few either. I love how creamy and sweet the custard was, which went well with the savory pastry. The fruit on top was like a cherry on top of a sundae, it completed the dessert. Yet, it was very unfortunate that with just a couple of bite more, the choux was completely gone from my hand. 

Wouldn't you like some of SepotongKue's famous Special Choux? 

The second best selling product from SepotongKue is its' Ice Cream Choux. There are three varieties of ice cream, which are Vanilla Tella, Choco Jaffa, and Green Tea - all of the are homamade. I got to pick a flavor for my ice cream, so I went for the green tea ice cream to ease my curiosity. Made with fresh milk, non-dairy cream, and the best quality green tea, this dessert deserves a two-thumbs up! Not to mention it goes very well with a hint of Nutella on top. 

The ice cream was very creamy and thick. Its' matcha flavor was very rich and strong, yet wasn't that sweet. I was a bit disappointed with my choice of ice cream because it didn't blend quite well with the choux, as both element was lacking of sugary goodness, so, it was just okay. But, the ice cream itself was nice though!

The breakfast of champions

If you would like to get a bite of SepotongKue's delicious Special Choux and Ice Cream Choux, you ought to visit its' stand at Pasar Santa. You can even get in touch with its' owner via Instagram and website, and get some information about where she's going to open up a stand at an event or two. 

SepotongKue

Pasar Santa - Upper Floor #119

Jalan Cipaku 1, Kebayoran Baru

Jakarta Selatan

Opening Hours: 

Wednesday to Sunday

From 1 PM to 8 PM