Blueberry Cheesecake

I've got 3/4-full can of blueberry pie filling in the fridge and didn't have any plans to make blueberry pie coz I don't like it. So after looking for danish cream cheese in Phoon Huat and only found one package after two weeks, I bought Philadelphia cream cheese. Eventually. And why is that? because danish cream cheese is much cheaper, of course, what else?

But no regrets whatsoever, because I knew all along Philly tastes sooo good, and halal (yay..). It is true though, price comes with quality.

Honestly, I prefer New York style cheesecake than blueberry cheesecake. NYCC is creamier and cheesier. Hubby, on the other side likes blueberry cheesecake better because it is more dense in texture yet lighter in flavour.He could eat two slices at once. What? two slices at once? yep, that's savouring cheesecake the barbarian way ;))

I only made half batch of the recipe, enough to satisfy our cheese craving. This recipe is top markotop dah...try it your self, the next time you pass Starbucks, you won't have to drool over their cheesecakes anymore :))

Blueberry Cheese Cake (Recipe by Fatmah Bahalwan)

250 gr biskuit oreo

100 gr margarine lelehkan

1/2 sdt vanili bubuk

200 gr gula pasir

4 butir telur

1 kg cheese cream

250 gr sour cream
250 ml whipped cream

1 sdm gula pasir

250 gr selai blueberry

Cara membuat:
Siapkan loyang bongkar pasang 22 cm olesi mentega, sisihkan.
Hancurkan oreo hingga halus, lalu tuang margarine leleh dan vanili bubuk, aduk rata.
Masukkan adonan biskuit pada loyang, ratakan dan tekan-tekan sampai padat, oven sebentar [5-10 menit] angkat, sisihkan.
Kocok gula dan telur hingga kental, masukkan cheese cream dan sour cream bergantian sambil dikocok terus.
Tuangkan adonan ini ke atas adonan biskuit, lalu oven dengan cara au bain marie [diletakkan di atas loyang yang sudah diisi air] selama 90 menit.
angkat, dinginkan di suhu kamar, hingga benar-benar dingin.
Kocok whipped cream dan gula pasir hingga kental, oleskan di atas cheese cake, lalu bekukan dalam kulkas selama 4 jam.
Keluarkan, ratakan selai blueberry di atasnya, hias sesuai selera.
potong2, sajikan.

Lumpia Semarang

I was wandering through the wet Pasar Tekka in Little India when I spotted those bamboo shoots. They were already julienne-sliced and were young too! Still soft and juicy, just nice to make Lumpia Semarang filling.

If there's one thing that I don't like about bamboo shoots is their smell. They got pungent smell which can't be fully omitted. The only thing I could do to reduce the smell is to cook them in water two or three times (change the water, of course). I'm not sure whether they still got nutrition value after that :))

The original Lumpia Semarang is more of a sweet, rather than a savory snack. The filling, and the sauce. Sometimes I'm overwhelmed by its sweetness. But that's what makes it, actually. Usually I just make saltier version of it. As much as I have a sweet tooth, I dont want things to be too sweet .

Here are some fun facts about Lumpia Semarang I just found out:

It was created by a Chinese immigrant in Semarang ( I thought so!) and was introduced as snack at GANEFO Olympics in Semarang during Presiden Sukarno's era. The word 'lumpia' was from the word 'Olimpiade'. Lumpia,olimpiade....creative, isn't it. (Khas orang endonesa yang suka plesetan :))

Lumpia Semarang (from Femina Primarasa)

200g bamboo shoots

150g prawns, shelled and finely sliced

75g chicken fillet, cooked, sliced

50g dried shrimp (ebi)

4 cloves garlic, finely sliced

8 onions, finely sliced

4 sprigs of onion springs, finely sliced

ready made popiah skin

Mix together (filling sauce):

2 tsp sesame oil

1 tbsp salty soya bean sauce

2 tbsp sweet soya sauce

1/2 tsp white ground pepper

1/2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

For the sauce:mix, boil over low heat until cooked

3 crushed cloves garlic, 25 g gula jawa, 1 1/2 tsp vinegar, 1 tbsp sweet soy sauce, 1 1/2tbsp tapioca flour, and 250 ml water.

Garnish: Lokio, acar mentimun and chili padi kampong (rawit , coro endonesane)

Heat 5 tbsp oil, stir fry garlic and onions until fragrant, put in prawns. After changed color, put in chicken, dried shrimps, and the filling sauce. Cook until the bamboo shoots are done.

Put in onion springs. Remove from heat, set aside. Divide the filling into 12 parts. Put 2 tbsp of bamboo shoots filling in the popiah skin and roll. Glue with white eggs (water would do as well). Deep fry until golden brown. Serve with the sauce and garnish.

Churros

Churro is a fried dough pastry based snack originated in Spain. It is called churro due to its similarity to shape of the horns of Churro, one of the breed sheep reared in the Spanish grassland. It often sold as street snack and served as breakfast in Spain.
In my house, I call it 'reluctant' snack because I never deliberately make churros. I only make them when I got small portion of leftover choux pastry dough I'm too lazy to bake. I thought, why waste more electricity with my big-consuming-electricity oven :)), so I just grab a star tip and form the dough right in the fry pan.

Sieve icing sugar all over fried churros and a bit of cinnamon -heck yes I am a big fan of this spice-. With that you already have a sumptuous snack. Light airy fried pastry with sugar and cinnamon dusting. But if you have more time and have a stock of cooking chocolate in the fridge, melt some and just dunk the churro in it. Gosh, why do I want churros now, in the middle of the night?

The recipe, umm, I usually use my usual choux recipe. I think any choux recipe will do (too lazy to type one).

Barbie Cake

I've been wanting to make a Barbie cake. I think it is challenging in terms of decorating techniques. I always imagine Barbie wearing the royal princess kind of gown, full of ruffles and flowers all over. Making Barbie cake indeed is an opportunity to practice my ruffles:)).

The base cake is Lapis Surabaya, 10 egg yolks for every layer. Only that I used bigger pan so the cake is thinner. For the Barbie gown is strawberry sponge cake. I made one batch of sponge cake recipe, but it turned out that the batter didn't enough to cover the pan, so I made another half of it. As the gown was quite heavy, about 2 kg,I was worried that the base cake couldn't hold the gown and sink. Luckily, it was allright.

For the butter cream, I used Wilton's recipe. I am not a big fan of butter cream actually, probably because of the taste of the shortening. Wilton's butter cream was OK, the taste of the shortening was a bit covered by a big amount of confectioner's sugar. And what I really like about Wilton's butter cream is that the cream was stiff and it is not oily.

The birhday girl, Natasha, loves pink so pink is the main color. For the gown, I used tip no 104, for the ruffles and the plain garlands. There's one type of garland using tip no 16, the rest is open star, still using tip no 16

What, you're not expecting a recipe, are you ? :))

Cinnamon Cake With Chocolate Ganache

You could never go wrong with chocolate and cinnamon. They go along perfectly well ..

This is my favourite butter cake recipe. Normally I prefer sponge cake than butter cake. But this one is an exception, even my hubby who is not really a cake fan, likes this.

The recipe is mbak Fat's basic butter cake recipe. Instead of spreading the cinnamon powder all over the baked cake, I practically put the cinnamon powder into the batter so I could get more 'cinnamony' flavour. And yes it is cinnamony alright. It is good even without the chocolate ganache. But if you want a little something extra to go with your cinnamon cake, chocolate is the perfect pairing.

Cinnamon Cake (Fatmah Bahalwan)
120gr mentega
½ sdt vanili
250 g gula pasir
2 butir telur
200 g tepung terigu
1 sdt Baking Powder
150ml susu segar

Bahan pelengkap:Gula bubuk dan bubuk kayu manis secukupnya

Cara membuat:

Kocok mentega, gula, vanili hingga mengembang dan pucat. Masukkan telur, kocok lagi hingga tercampur rata dan mengembang.
Masukkan tepung dan susu secara bergantian, sambil diaduk hingga rata.
Oven hingga matang (lebih kurang 30 menit untuk loyang kotak 22 cm, tinggi 3-4 cm).
Angkat, dinginkan. Taburi gula bubuk dan kayu manis, potong-potong.

Sambal Tumis Tempoyak Udang

Tempoyak is condiment made from fermented durian. Originated in Sumatra, tempoyak also popular among Malays in Malaysia and Singapore.
Tempoyak usually made into sambal, combined with petai and ikan teri/bilis.

To make the tempoyak, we need to take out the durian seed, put aside the flesh and pour a dash of salt onto it. Mix with fork and keep it in a clean glass jar for several days until a week.

Durian with salt sounds a bit strange to me. I couldn't imagine what it would be like until I accidentally lick the fork with a sexy gesture a la Nigella Lawson (huehehe mungkin gak seeeh). Heee...consider that possible, it actually taste good. Strange, but good. What can I say.

I got the recipe from Malaysia's Appetite Magazine. Although it doesn't use onions, garlic, and galangal just like Indonesian stir-fry use to, but it doesn't lose spicey flavour. But if you want more flavour, feel free to add them. Next time I cook this, I will.

I think this could be kampong-style one dish meal. It got veggie, prawns, and sambal. All you need is a plate of warm rice. Well that's if one plate is enough :))

Sambal Tumis Tempoyak Udang

5 dried chillies

2 fresh red chillies, sliced

3 tbsp oil

3 tbsp tempoyak

1 cup water

20 petai kernels

150g medium size prawns, shelled

1 cup pumpkin shoots or tapioca shoots, finely sliced

1/2 small turmeric leaf (daun kunyit) finely shredded

4 daun kaduk, finely sliced

2 daun cekur, finely sliced

Snip dried chillies into one cm lengths and soak in warm water for about 15 mins until softened. Drain the water then rinse chillies and dry. Pound dried and fresh chillies together to make a fairly fine paste. In a wok, heat oil and cook chilli paste over low heat until the oil starts to separate. Stir in tempoyak and cook for two to three mins before adding water. When the mixture boils, add petai and cook for two mins then add prawns, pumpkin or tapioca shoots and the shredded turmeric, daun kaduk and daun cekur. Cook until prawns are firm and the leaves wilted. Season to taste with salt.