Doi Chaang Coffee Jelly

My husband was the 1st person to introduce me to the wonderful taste of Doi Chaang Coffee (www.doichaangcoffee.com). 

Since then I knew immediately that this coffee will be great to make dessert with. Doi Chaang coffee sweet Arabica smell always tickles my brain to come up with some different style of coffee drink rather than just an expresso or Americano.  

So this coffee jelly is another attempt to make the best of delicious taste and smell of Doi Chaang coffee and this doesn't disappoint me at all. In fact, it got me more addicted to that sweet Arabica smell :)

Oh by the way, Doi Chaang Coffee beans is organic and comes from Chiang Rai in Thailand. It is 100% Arabica, beyond Fair Trade, world class specialty coffee and the one I use for the jelly is the single estate. 

The ingredients:

• Half can of Condensed milk (not in the photo. I forgot to include when I took this photo)
• 1 packet of clear Swallow brand jelly powder 
• 2 shots Doi Chaang expresso 
• 600ml warm water
• 40g brown sugar (or depends on how sweet you like it. You can put more or less sugar)
• 2 pandan leaves
• A pinch of salt (or to taste. The salt is just to balance the taste. You can omit it)

To Make:

1) Mix with water and bring to boil. 

2) Add pandan leaves and a pinch of salt before the mixture boils. Stir until the pandan soft. 

3) Cools it down for a while before adding half can of condensed milk and 1 packet of jelly powder. Stir well.

4) Bring it to boil again while continue stirring it.

5) Cools it down for about 5 minutes before you pour the mixture into a jelly mold. 

6) Then let the jelly firms up and you can put it in the fridge and serve it cold. 

It is very delicious! You can enjoy it with Vanilla ice cream or just cream. Hmmm...Yummy! 😍👍

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Spicy stir-fried bitter gourd and eggplant

Beef Rendang (Malaysia - Indonesia style)

I was visiting the Indonesian Embassy website when I read the news about World's 50 most delicious food (Reader's Pick) by CNNgo  and was very proud to find out that Indonesian Beef Rendang was picked as the no. 1 World's most delicious food... :-)

I love beef Rendang so much! The Indonesian beef rendang is originated from West Sumatera. This beef rendang is also very famous in Indonesia because it's full of spice and very delicious indeed. You eat it with plain rice or rice cubes. I enjoy this beef rendang better with Indonesian yellow rice.

It's easy to find beef rendang in Indonesia, especially in my hometown, Jakarta. But, since I've been away from Indonesia for nearly 20 years, I've been learning to cook this delicious dish by myself so that I can always enjoy this dish where ever I am in the world.

Lucky for me as I am married to a Malaysian. Beef rendang is also famous in Malaysia because of the similar culture and heritage with West Sumatera. So, my passion in beef rendang is shared with my Malaysian husband...;-)

After many times eating and cooking beef rendang from both countries (Indonesia & Malaysia), I'm finally able to come up with my own recipe that combine the good of both sides to make my own beef rendang even more irresistible. 

I'm happy to share my secret recipe with you all so that you can also taste this delicious dish even if you are not in Indonesia or Malaysia. I modify my recipe for my friends in Philippines. Have fun cooking!

Beef Rendang (Malaysia - Indonesia style) 

Preparation time: 30 Minutes

Cooking time: 2-3 hours

Serves: 4-6 people

Ingredients: (Not pounded)

1kg lean beef (cleaned and cut into a 2 by 4 cm rectangular size or a 2.5cm-cube)

Salt and pepper to taste and to marinate the meat

900 ml thick coconut milk

2 tbsp ground pan-toasted coconut (kerasik) 

2 stalk lemon grass (tanglad/serai) - cleaned and crushed

2 kaffir lime leaves (you can buy Dried Kaffir Lime in a bottle by Thai Heritage from South Supermarket)

1 turmeric leaf (shredded) – but I can’t fine turmeric leaf here in Philippines so I don’t use this ingredient

Ingredients: (Pounded/crushed)

2-3 chilies (depending on how spicy you can handle). The original Indonesian/Malaysian recipe will use about 12-15 chilies

5 cloves garlic

15-20 shallots (Thai onion) or you can also use 4-5 big red onions

2.5 cm galangal (langkawas) – peeled and grated

2.5 cm ginger – peeled and grated

1.3 cm turmeric (yellow ginger) – peeled and grated or you can also use 2 tsp turmeric powder. The original Indonesian beef rendang recipe does not use this ingredient, but the Malaysian one uses it. 

2 tsp salt (or depending on your taste)

Direction to cook:

1. Season meat with salt and pepper. Leave aside for 20-30 minutes or boil the meat until the meat a little bit tender. Use a fork and poke the meat to test the tenderness.
2. In a big pan, mix together the thick coconut milk and ground ingredients. Place over medium heat and keep on stirring slowly to boil (this is important to keep the coconut milk consistency)
3. Add meat and continue to stir to boil for about 10-15 minutes. 
4. Put in tanglad, kaffir lime leaves, and season with salt to taste. Continue to stir slowly.
5. Reduce the heat to low, simmer until the meat is tender
6. When the color changes to dark brown, add 2 tbsp kerisik (ground pan-toasted grated coconut) and mix again.
7. Simmer again until the gravy becomes oily.
8. Remove from the stove.
9. Serve with plain rice or yellow rice.

My Dragon New Year Fondant Cake

Every Chinese New Year, I remember my mother-in-law always telling me that there should be a sweet dish as our dessert on the table so that the new year will bring the sweetness in our life and she always makes sweet snow white fungus dessert (see recipe here: http://coffeeliqueurrecipes.blogspot.com/2007/01/sweet-snow-fungus-dessert-with.html?showComment=1230676020000#comment-c4327047256211051078). I love the dessert so much, but unfortunately, it's not easy to find the ingredients here in Philippines.
So, to welcome the new water Dragon Year, I decided to make my own dessert: Dragon New Year Fondant Cake.

I used 4 ready-made mini round sponge cakes with 3 different tastes (melon, yam, and pandan) to be decorated. The decorations are all made of marshmallow fondant that I made by myself. I like to use the marshmallow fondant better than the commercial fondant I bought from the store because marshmallow fondant tastes better.

A day before I started to decorate the cakes, I made the toppers first. I made 2 dragon faces, 2 mandarin oranges, 2 golds, and 2 Chinese character for Fu (Good luck symbol), but I only took photo of 1 Fu. I hand-shaped everything by myself, except for the Dragon mane. I used a star-shape cookie cutter.

On the day I decorated my cakes, I started at around 8 o'clock in the morning by creating the Dragon cake. For the Dragon cake, I used 2 sponge cakes; 1 cake is for the head and the other one I divided into 3 pieces to make up the long body of the Dragon. For the tail, I used marshmallow fondant that I hand-shaped.
The main color of the Dragon is red. But since I made my own red fondant, the redness is not too bright like the commercial red fondant. The secondary color for the Dragon is yellow. I hand-shaped the body after I covered the sponge cake with fondant. Before the sponge cake was covered with fondant, I spread the pineapple jam that I made to 'glue' the fondant to the cake. I prefer to use the jam instead of icing cause the jam will enhance the taste of the cake. If I use icing, the original taste of the cake would be gone.

The Dragon cake was the hardest to make for me. But once it's done, the other 2 cakes were really a piece of cake! :-D

The second one I made was the Fu cake. I used pandan sponge cake that I spread with pineapple jam all over it. I covered the cake with red fondant, made the top smooth, then I cut the extra fondant cover on the side of the cake. I put the Fu topper that I 'glued' with water. Then I started to roll a long yellow fondant, cut into same portions and shaped it into small balls. I put the small balls around the cake.

And then, the last cake was the New year table cake. I used melon-taste sponge cake. Just like the other cakes, the first layer was the pineapple jam, then the next layer was the red fondant. This time, instead of cutting all extra fondant on the side of the cake, I shaped the extra fondant to make it look like a table cloth. Then I put 2 mandarin orange toppers on top of the cake and a Fu topper. I also put 2 golds on the side of the 'table', and it's done! The next thing to do was to take good pictures of my creation... :-)

I completed my work at around 4 o'clock in the afternoon with 2 times stop in between to cook breakfast and lunch.
When my 3 year old daughter saw the completed Dragon cake, she was so excited she wanted to eat the cake right away. I told her to wait for 1 day until the New Year came. So, on the new year day, she woke up so early and got all excited to eat the Dragon cake. She took out the cake, put it on the table, and enjoyed it. She was more interested in eating the decorations instead of the cake. She gave the cake to her daddy, and  she ate the decorations.

Now the cakes are all gone. This was my 3rd time using marshmallow fondant to decorate a cake.
I will post more stories about my fondant cake creations when I have more time, especially for my 2nd fondant cake, which was my son's 7th birthday cake. In the meantime, you can read the story about this birthday cake here: http://coffeeliqueur.blogspot.com/2011/12/my-sons-angry-bird-7th-birthday-party.html

Angry bird bento

Spicy prawn with winged beans

This is my husband's favorite dish.
It's sweet & spicy.
There are 3 main ingredients: prawn, winged beans (kacang botol), chilies.

Preserving the tradition in foreign land

On my birthday I woke up so early exactly at the same time when the sun rose that day. I felt so fresh and so full of energy I could run in the park longer than I usually do. Then I heard my cell vibrated indicating that someone was texting me. It was from my friend wishing me Happy Birthday. I was so surprise that he woke up so early but it turned out he was on his night shift at work so at that time he was still in the office.

I went downstairs and called one of my maids to accompany me to go to wet market. I never got a chance to go to wet market so early like that day. When I arrived in the market, I was so happy because all the vegetables were still complete and very fresh, and so were the fishes and everything else. Suddenly I saw a big round rattan tray like the ones the Indonesian always uses to make nasi tumpeng. In Indonesia it's called tampah but in the Philippines it is called bilao. So I bought the biggest one. I thought of making nasi tumpeng for my own birthday party. It would be great surprise for everyone because I never tried to make this thing before and no one in the house has ever seen a nasi tumpeng. I have bought the other ingredients a day before. Oh, before I forget, nasi tumpeng is an Indonesian yellow rice (turmeric rice) cone shaped buffet style dish served on round rattan tray. The cone shaped yellow rice is usually surrounded by 7 kinds of side dishes that represent the wealth, dedication, and the glorious time. The side dishes usually are chicken, prawn, perkedel (mashed potato with corned beef fritters), mixed vegetables, eggs, mixed fried peanut and anchovy, and some kinds of tempe (soya bean cake) dish. But there is no tempe in Philippines so I didn't cook that one item.

With the recipe from my beloved mother that she sent through smses, a picture from an old Indonesian recipe magazine that I brought to Philippines, I was determined to complete this nasi tumpeng for lunch birthday for me and my family.

At 7am, I started the work together with the maid I took to wet market. I chose her because she has passion for cooking. She is a Filipina and never knew and never saw a nasi tumpeng before. I had to give her very clear instructions and had to make sure that she could follow through properly so that the result would be just like the picture.

Since I didn't plan ahead, I didn't do any preparation nor making any decoration for the tampah for this nasi tumpeng. I understood that nasi tumpeng is a very complicated Indonesian dish. It was an elaborate complete Indonesian dishes in one tray but I still wanted to do it. My mom was a champion of nasi tumpeng creation. She won an award for making the most beautiful nasi tumpeng in the competition of nasi tumpeng during one of Indonesian Indepence day celebrations when I was only 10 years old. I witnessed how she created all. I wanted to be like her. She was so excited too when I informed her about it. She kept on texting me with so many tips.

Finally, at around 12.30pm, everything was completed and fully decorated. I had done my magic in the kitchen and it was time to show off the result...:)
Everyone was so surprised, especially my husband. Everyone said the nasi tumpeng was very unique and beautiful. The candles were lighted by my husband. He gave me 2 dozen of red and pink roses for the birthday gift. He also bought 2 boxes of Collete's buko pie to compliment my nasi tumpeng. My Tagalog teacher and my 2 maids were present too. After we sang happy birthday for me, I blew the candle with the help from my beloved son. Then I gave the honor to my husband to cut the peak of the cone rice. Everyone said the nasi tumpeng was a blast. The dishes were delicious and beautifully presented.

I was so happy and satisfied with the result. I could not believe I did it without any preparation. I know that my first nasi tumpeng is far from perfect but the pride I got from being able to preserve the tradition in the foreign land for non-Indonesians to enjoy was hard to describe, especially tomorrow is the Indonesian Indepence day. In fact, this nasi kuning was not the only tradition/culture of Indonesia that I carried to Philippines, I also introduced batik attire. I wore batik once to the Parents and Teachers Association meeting and I had many compliment from my filipina friends that my batik dress was very beautiful. I felt so heroic for I managed to introduce my Javanese tradition in The Philippines. No matter how far I am from my country, I still love my Indonesia. Although in my family, I am the only  Indonesian and I do not live in my country for many years, Indonesia is still in my blood and my way of life. Merdeka! Happy Independence day, Indonesia! Selamat Hari Merdeka Indonesiaku tercinta!

To end this post, I would like to write down the lyric of the beautiful song that always reminds me of Indonesia that was composed by Ismail Marzuki:


Indonesia, tanah air beta (Indonesia my homeland)
Pusaka abadi nan jaya (greatest long lasting heritage)
Indonesia, sejak dulu kala (Indonesia since a long time ago)
Tetap dipuja-puja bangsa (is always be praised by other nations)

Disana tempat lahir beta (it was the place I was born)
Dibuai dibesarkan bunda (raised and sang lullabies by mother)
Tempat berlindung di hari tua (it is the place for my retirement)
Tempat akhir menutup mata.(it is the place for me to rest in peace)

Sungguh indah tanah air beta (What a beautiful my homeland)
Tiada bandingnya di dunia (nothing compared to it in the whole world)
Karya indah Tuhan Maha Kuasa (Beautiful creation of God the Almighty)
Bagi bangsa yang memujanya (for the people that praise His Holy name)

Indonesia ibu pertiwi (Indonesia the motherland)
Kau kupuja kau kukasihi (I adore you I love you)
Tenagaku bahkan pun jiwaku (My energy and even my soul)
Kepadamu rela kuberi (I give them to you all willingly).





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I'm sorry if the English translation is not perfect.