White, Blue and Fishes.

Last week, me and my sister finally decided to come out and see people after a long week stayed inside and cooked or baked or, in her case, glued to a DS playing the everlasting rpg Harvest Moon.

We took Lulu for a nice afternoon at PVJ and had dori fish for our late lunch at Azzura, my favorite restaurant. Food aside, I really love the theme ot the restaurant and the colors it uses. White and Blue. Hm, is it time to hit the beach? (Our chose of dish, the fish, made it perfect!)

Azzura Restaurant
Paris Van Java Mall
Sukajadi, Bandung
(next to Pancious, which by the way, didn't allow pet - even at the outdoor area!)

Burger Queen

One of my favorite fast food is burger, but little did I know that making one is actually pretty fast too. One new thing I learned from adapting this recipe from Jamie's book, is that you need breadcrumb to make burger. The ground beef was the leftover from the Bolognese sauce I had made earlier.

This was actually my second attempt and the first one had been a success too! Well, I actually made a mistake in the second attempt, because I liked how mustard taste, I added too much of it to the beef. It was okay, but I was thinking to add some soy sauce to tame the saltiness. (I'll try it tomorrow)

This dish is actually great and I'm kinda understand why it has fast food as its label. You can make the burger, then store it in the fridge, just fry it when you want to eat it. Put between good buns ( I bought mine at Roti Gempol, but you need to order it one day in advance to get your buns), add some chili sauce, mayo, mustard (again!), pickles, lettuce, cheese, whatever. 

And midnight craving problem is solved! Fast!

ingredients and how to cook the burger : ground beef, mustard, parsley (finely chopped), pepper, salt, breadcrumbs, egg (beaten). Mix up all ingredients with your hands // shape into roundish shape // drizzle with olive oil // store in the fridge if you don't want to eat them straight away, and actually it'll help the meat to firm up // heat your pan on high heat for 4 mins, turn down into medium heat // put burgers on pan, press them down with burner, make sure they are in full contact with the pan // cook them until your liking on both sides (mine usually 3 - 4 mins).

Adapted from Jamie's Food Revolution : A Cracking Burger ( p. 146)
Ps : on the book, instead of breadcrumbs, Jamie used smashed saltine crackers.

Bitter & Sweet

Abadi Bakery Chocolate Meringues

Hot Plain Sosro Tea

in the company of a best friend.

Perfect afternoon.

Ping Me!

When I googled some recipes for dessert,  I always wanted to try something with berries. And it's not exactly dessert, but muffins are my favorite cake. So when Sasa, my cooking companion / sister, suggested to make something out of blackberry we bought, I thought : I want muffins! 

You know that those links that you can click on the left side of this post have some amazing recipes for muffins, but nothing is quite..basic and I needed something that just for the beginners, kinda muffin for idiots. I found some good sites that have tutorial in baking muffin : Culinary Arts in About.Com  (the basic plain muffin) and also the blueberry muffin (from the same site). I also found video for how to make muffin from Videojug then after you carefully read and watch those site, open this for side tips in making the perfect muffins from Simplebites.net. 

I'm so proud of myself!! This was my first encounter with baking powder and I kinda nailed it. By nail it I mean I successfully made my muffins fluffy!

Oops moment :

1. I was being impatient and poured the cold milk into the warm liquid butter. It caused the mixture to glob, I put the mixture back to microwave and everything was okay then.

2. I took the batter from the oven too soon. Well, I did inserted a toothpick to the center of it and it came out clean, but maybe I should wait 10 more minutes before turned the oven off.

3. My sister accidentally pour sugar when it supposed to be salt. LOL. But it's only a pinch, so it was okay.

I will try to make another, for sure! We had a really good time in the kitchen. :)

What can I do with Ground Beef

After I had Jamie's book : Jamie's Food Revolution, I couldn't help it but wanted to try everything on it. Problem was, I had limited budget so I needed to choose carefully what I wanted to try. Instinctively I wanted to try all those dishes with meat (I just love meat so damn much), but a chunk of tenderloin costs about 40.000 - 50.000 Rupiah and it just serves one. So I decided to try something with ground beef. I bought half a kilo of ground beef for 50.000 rupiah and decided to use half of it to make Bolognese sauce. 

Bolognese Sauce, adapted from Jamie's Food Revolution cookbook.

Homely Ground Beef : Bolognese Sauce ( p. 165)

Result : I felt proud I actually made this famous sauce from scratch, not the ready-to-eat in the supermarket! But, I added too much tomato puree so the beef's flavor didn't really come out. Probably because I was too cheap, I supposed to use 1/2 kg of ground beef, but instead I only used 1/4 kg. 

It was still okay though, not like a big disaster. From the leftover I made Lasagne and oh it was amazing. But I was unsure was the amazing feeling came because I was proud I can actually cooked lasagne or was it because it was actually good. Hendra said that it still tasted too tomato-ey, but my Dad, bless him, said it was great. I think half of the great comment came because he was bewildered to see me in the kitchen. 

Anyway, I've tried to find the link to the Bolognese sauce recipe in Jamie's site but I couldn't find it, I found another in Simply Recipes, just click it. I haven't tried that one but when I read through it, the basics are almost the same, only it used more complicated ingredients. I really wanted to try it too. 

By the way, if you just happen to learn to cook like me and if you want to spend your money on a really good cookbook that teaches lots of basics, try Jamie's. I love it. It has detailed step-by-step instructions with picture during the cooking process, so you have ideas what the food's gonna look like during the cooking. Plus some of the recipes have the how-to video on his website. 

Something new I learned : 

1. don't be cheap with beef
2. 1/4 kg of ground beef only needs 1/2 can of tomato puree
3. Basil is kemangi in Bahasa Indonesia
4. The stalks are the important part in herbs. 
5. When pasta is cooked, drizzle some oil olive to avoid it to get sticky.

Inside the nest of Hummingbirds

This past ten years, Bandung has been changing fast, especially in culinary area. In every corner of the street new cafes or restaurants or bars pop up. Lots of them are good, most of them are pretty good, but only a few are actually great. The thing with culinary business in Bandung, it seems views and ambient are more important than the food itself, owners spend lots of money to decorate their restaurants with fancy menus and extravagant interiors. 

But I have some that I consider great, and Hummingbird is one of them. Opened almost two years ago, this restaurant has what it takes. Great menu with various choices, amazing interiors, open for breakfast, and most importantly : they serve good food that suit their image really well. I think there will be more posts about Hummingbird, so I won't write much. Here are some of my favorite on their menu :

Soon they will open their new branch at Kuningan, Jakarta. If you have never been here before, my advice are: go there during weekdays and avoid lunch time. On the 1st and 15th every month they usually open later in the day than usual, meaning no breakfast served on those dates. Because I often have breakfast there with my friends and two times I arrived only to find out that they were close, I kinda unintentionally memorizing their schedule.

Hummingbird Cafe

Jalan Progo 14 

22-4212582

Bandung

Being Organized

I think some of the lessons I've learned when I started this dangerous risky business is that I'm trying to be better at organizing. I'm not a clutter but also not crazy about tidiness. My ex-colleague Daniel always tease me on my level in desk-tidiness. 

Another lesson : Don't rush in buying ingredients! Sure those bottles and jars in the cookbook pages look tempting. You want to create something beautiful and you need beautiful stuff too. I don't know if it's just me but my favorite part of cooking is actually shopping for ingredients! I want to fill my kitchen so it looks like it's taken from Ikea catalog. But those spices and herbs can be really expensive, if you buy it in one whole bottle it can cost a lot. BUT, thank God for Toko Setiabudhi (at least blogger from Bandung can thank God for this supermarket). For unknown reasons, they sell ingredients in these small packaging and it's really cheap! If you buy it in one bottle or can, one spice or herb can cost you 30.000 - 40.000 rupiah, but when it comes in this small package, it just costs you 4.000 - 6.000 rupiah!

then I bought this lock and lock plastic container, 22.900 rupiah for four small containers. Just perfect for my spices!

Those stacked plastic containers sit neatly on my kitchen counter. It makes me want to create something out of them!

Have you got any tips to save money or to save the kitchen from a total mess? Please share, of course funny stories are always welcome! :D

The Perfect Steak

Cooking steak is the last thing on my to do list. I think I have some fears toward cooking meat, it looks that it takes a really hard work to serve a steak. I had to grit my teeth and smile (this is something I become better at) when my meat was so hard to chew, even Alf the Saint Bernard feel asleep after chewing those rubbers. Poor dog.

So I tried to find some tutorial through youtube.com  that might be helpful. Then I found Jamie. I mean, I know who he is, but I never really pay attention to what he does, I just considered him as the leader in the flocks of mutant on the cooking shows. But then I know why he's so popular. He makes cooking looks so effortless and he shows it in a very warm and lovely way. He says stuff like, 'this is fantastic!' when referring to a baby potato and 'you've got to give this a try' , referring to a boiled trout. Plus, he's just so cute! I grow obsession toward Jamie and I think so does my mother.

Here's the video :

although in the video Jamie didn't say anything about marinated the meats, I did though. I had fun putting all those herbs and spices and marinated it for about 3 hours. I think the meat will taste better if I leave it overnight, haven't tried that though.

Here's how I did it, and please remember : this wasn't my first attempt (and surely, won't be the last).

1

Choose the meat, go to your supermarket and ask for a tenderloin or a sirloin. I bought mine at Toko Setiabudhi, but the best meat section in a supermarket belongs to Riau Junction (Sorry, for Bandung blogers only this piece of info is useful). I'm like a five years old who doesn't want to leave the candy store. However, if this is your first time, it's better if you just buy the local meat, Australian's costs twice the local's price and let save that when we master the art of cooking the perfect steak.  

2

To marinate your steak, you can put almost anything in it. I tried olive oil, dried oregano, garlic, fresh rosemary, pepper and salt. For my third attempt I tried to use Worcestershire sauce too. Leave it for three or more hours after you smear those ingredients on your meat. Leave it longer if it's possible.  

3

Cook your meat! carefully watch Jamie's video above and don't be lazy to take notes. Have a personal notebook and jot down things that might you need. I think personal notes which you use your own language are really helpful for your next attempt.

4

Served with veggies. I love asparagus, but you can put mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli, french fries, anything. You can use mayonnaise or thousand island for a quick fix (the truth is, I did try to make a french dressing and failed big time). 

That's it, after 3 attempts, I got it (almost) correct. Hendra and her brother are my gourmets and have been giving me helpful insights. I think now I'm ready for an Aussie meat. 

Have helpful tips for cooking (the perfect) steak? Feel free to leave comments or share your experiments here!

Hold Your Thought

This blog might not help you with your cooking (but maybe will make you feel like a better cook after you read my posts). Reason why I make this blog / journal is because when you ask me two months ago if I like to cook, I will come back with : only if that's the only way to survive on earth. 

I can list of things why, in my 28 years of living, I don't feel like cooking :

1. I always have somebody who cooks for me. My maids who doubled as our cooks or my mother.
2. I can always buy some food. Here in Indonesia, finding good food is amazingly easy. You can go to street vendors or small restaurants in your area, we even have merchants with food carts strolling down our street 24/7. Name all kind of courses : appetisers, main, desserts, snacks, drinks. Food is everywhere here. My next door neighbours sell food too! 
3. Delivery. If you feel like couch potato-ing and too lazy to get out from the house to buy food, dial up! All those fast food restaurants deliver anywhere, and  my favourite is Pizza Hut's Tuna Melt.
4. Instant food. Indonesia has thousands of dishes you can possibly imagine. It says that the world's best dessert and food are from Indonesia, but most of the population here just can't get enough of Indomie, our world-famous instant noodle. I'm not kidding, this stuff tastes ridiculously good! Although it takes more effort than point 3 and 2 - because you actually cook something here , you can add scrambled eggs, poached, corned beef, some veggies and chili - it makes the whole real cooking idea seems absurd.Think I'm exaggerating this Indomie thingy, check this review.
5. Cooking show. Despite the goal of the show to make cooking easier for common people, the mutants on TV (aka chefs) make cooking seems like a rocket science. ( Until I discover Jamie, but that's another story). I like to watch Australia Junior Masterchef and sometimes I like to believe that those kids are robots. I guess it's true that some say, cooking shows are like porn, most of the actions happen on screen are never happen in real life. 
6. I'm busy. (Yes, I know that this is used for answering questions when the real answer actually is I'm lazy). I worked as a teacher in a language school and usually get home from work around 10 or 11 pm. I'm just too tired to even hold a fork. But maybe that's just an excuse.
7. I don't give it a chance. I always say that I don't like it and make myself think that I won't be good at it. I grow afraid of the idea. I guess this is the hardest obstacle and the first every cook has to conquer. Sadly, I can't tell you how. Some get it while watching someone else's cooking, others while in a desperate situation. Well, this is how mine happened :

Because of my tight schedule of crazy children (and sometimes adult), I really look forward for my days off. I don't have Saturday because it's the busiest day of the week so I have Sunday and Monday off, which are pretty good because having Mondays off feels so good when everybody's complaining about Monday. 

I usually spend them with movies, couch and pizza delivered to my door step. I swear the lady on the phone knows exactly what I want because I always call at the same time and order the same thing. If not that, I spend it with my guy, Hendra. Movie night on the cinema and dinner before that. Until one weekend he said what if we just stay at home and watch movie on DVD since he had bought some new movies. I thought, yea.. maybe I can fried some nuggets or karage (another instant food I love!) and dip it with chili and thousand island, but then.. I stumbled into this book

I bought this months ago for my little sister. Of all the three girls (and four counting my mom), she's the only one who shows interest in cooking - especially dessert and chocolate. Plus, this was on sale. Originally it was around 500.000 rupiah, but I got it for around 100.000. I know zero about cooking and reason why I bought this because I fell in love with the graphic design.

All the recipes in it were written simple and short, not intimidating. Of course it was also a trap to put common people like me into thinking that French cooking was a piece of cake. 

So, I was really in the mood to play 'a good cook' that week and decided to buy the groceries and cooked! Long story short, we had a really good time and bad food. It was so bad that we decided to give  all the meat to Alf, his Saint Bernard. And spent the rest of the night laughing cause we decided to do point no 4 : cook Indomie.

Back home, I thought.. those groceries we bought would be a waste if I didn't use it, of course I could always hand that to my mom and she'd be happy but.., there was something in me that said " I won't give up that easily you Ginette Mathiot! I can prove it to you that I can cook!" Although of course, I have no idea who she was. 

So the day after I was back to Hendra's kitchen and also the day after, too. I think he was a bit surprised to see me really wanted to cook. He knows better than anybody else that I despised cooking. He was really supportive though, didn't really mention all the meat I've burnt, milk I've wasted and the kitchen I've messed.  

All the things I post here mostly about how I discover the world of cooking. I learn a lot in these past few weeks, not only new vocabulary and phrases, but also how to be fearless and like Julia Child's quote on her book My Life In France :

Maybe the cat has fallen into the stew, or the lettuce has frozen, or the cake has collapsed. Eh bien, tant pis. Usually one's cooking is better than one thinks it is. And if the food is truly vile, then the cook must simply grit her teeth and bear it with a smile, and learn from her mistakes.  ― Julia Child, My Life in France 

Eh bien, tant pis. Oh well, too bad.