Som Tam (Thai Papaya Salad)

Do you know the best way to eat long beans? Eat it raw with dressing !
Not so long ago I just realized the real taste of long bean when I eat it raw. It is plain, crunchy, and it got a distinct taste which I can't describe.
And when it comes to veggies and salads, I'd say yes, me- love salad. Thanks to my Sundanese father, I could eat a whole plate of lalap with sambal oelek all by myself :-).

This recipe has been in my list for quite some time. I love Thai food, they are similar with Indonesian food. What I love most about them is the combination of sour -from the lemon zest, hot -from the extremely hot bird's eye chili/chili padi, and the aroma -from the lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, and galangal.

Even this salad, it is very "thai", spicy and fragrant. Really like the dressing, the dried prawn (ebi) combined with chilli, lime juice, garlic, and the fish sauce made it rich yet fresh.

Som Tam (from Chef Wan's Simply Sedap cookbook)

3 cloves garlic, peeled

30 grams dried prawn, soaked in water and drained

4-6 bird's eye chillies

85 grams cup peanuts, roasted

3 tbsp grated palm sugar or brown sugar

2 tomatoes, cut into wedges

1 tbsp tamarind juice from 1 tsp tamarind pulp

2-3 tbsp nam pla (thai fish sauce)

juice of 1-2 limes

350 grams peeled, shredded green papaya

long beans

Method

Pound the garlic, dried prawns, chillies, peanuts and palm sugar until coarsely ground. Add the tomatoes and continue pounding to make the mixture smooth.

Add the tamarind juice, nam pla and lime juice. Stir and transfer to a salad bowl.

Add the papaya and mix well. Serve with raw long beans.

Birthday Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for Rifqi's first birthday. Vitri, my-late-night- chatting-over-YM-partner :)), recommended Martha Stewart's One Bowl Chocolate Cupcake recipe, posted by Vania in her blog.
It is kind of classic chocolate cake recipe, where you put all the dry ingredients together and then we mix with all the liquid ingredients. Simple indeed. I think this could be the first cake recipe I would teach my daughter, if I had one :))
The cupcakes turn out just nice. Moist, very chocolatey, not too dense, just nice.

Martha Stewart's One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups Dutch-process cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 large whole eggs plus 1 large egg yolk
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/4 cup warm water

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line 2 standard 12 cup muffin pans with paper liners.Into the bowl of an electric mixer, sift together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Attact bowl to mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; add the eggs and yolk, the milk, oil, vanilla and warm water. Beat on low speed until smooth and combined, about 3 minutes; scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.Divided batter evently among the muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full.
Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center of a cupcake come out clean, 20-25 minutes. Transfer pans to a wire rack to cool slightly. Invert cupcakes onto the rack; then reinvert and let them cool completely, top sides up.
Frost cupcakes with buttercream, swirling to cover and garnish with chocolate curls.
Cupcakes can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 day.