Know and Understand Your Kitchen Appliances

Hi! How are you all?

I know I promised to post some of my experiences with "pudding" this week on my twitter.. But, before I post my pudding experience, I want to share some interesting experience that I had a couple days ago.. It's about your "best friend"..

What is every Cooks or Home Cooks's best friend? for me, my "Kitchen Appliances" is my best friend! My stove, my oven, my mixer, even some small appliances like double boiler, spatulas, whisks are my kitchen's best friends! Why? This is I what I want to share with all of you now..

2 years ago, one of my friend asked me to teach her how to make Brownies at her house.. The first thing I asked to her is, "do you have an oven?" and She said, "of course, my Mom loves to bake too!" (then I don't know why didn't her asked her Mom to teach her.. I'm sure her Mom has a better experience than me.. humm..) So, I made it!

My oven is actually my Mother's oven.. it's a one set stove and oven.. She had use it a year before I born, which mean it's already 26 years old.. So, I need 50 - 60 minutes to make a beautiful Brownies.. but, when I tried to make the Brownies at my friend's home, I need one and an half hour.. I kept checking every 10 minutes since it became 45 minutes but still not cooked.. I checked the heat, it's a same temperature like I usually used at my house.. then since that time, I know that "YOU NEED TO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND YOUR OVEN!"

you should know the age of the oven.. you should know the quality of your brand.. you should know their standard temperature.. you should understand how to bake every cake, cookie, bread with your oven.. different oven, different temperature, means you need different time to bake it..

no, this is not the end of my story, yet..

the next interesting experience is when I tried, tried and tried to make a perfect pudding recipe.. I'm so happy when I've finally found the best recipe I need.. so I have an idea to make it at my boyfriend's house for their dinner's dessert..

I use a same recipe, but... if I use a metal whisk and an aluminium pot to make the pudding at my house, then I use a plastic whisk and a 'teflon' pot at my boyfriend's house.. at first, I get worried because it's been 5 minutes but my pudding is still watery.. then when it came to 15 minutes, it started to thick.. I kept whisk it, then after next 5 minutes it finally boiled and I still use the next 2 minutes to stir it before I transfer it to a pudding mold, and keep it in a refrigerator for an hour..

the result is, it's not thick and smooth.. it's thick enough, but not really smooth..

so I got a new lesson.. even a different pot and whisk could change your food, especially for dessert! a metal pot cook your food faster than the 'teflon' one.. a metal whisk more pervade heat than the plastic one.. so once again, be careful with your kitchen appliances..

KNOW it and UNDERSTAND your Kitchen Appliances!


Happy Cooking, all! ;)

Indonesian Food : Stir - fry Bean Sprouts with Baby Corn and White Oyster Mushroom

I used to don't like vegetables.. really don't! even carrot, no! I just could eat spinach and kale.. I don't like it.. Every vegetables taste bitter for me.. I could crying if anyone forced me to eat vegetables.. But, this last 8 months, I started to could eat vegetables.. Why?


If people say "love could change you" or "you'll do anything for love", then it's right! hahaaa..

My boyfriend loves vegetables.. I still remember it, the 2 days after we've been a couple, I came to his place and He ordered "Gado-gado" for our lunch.. "Gado-gado" is one of Indonesian mix vegetables with peanut sauce.. I thought like, "Oh God.. I even can't eat carrot, how could I eat all of this bitter vegetables??" and like a sweet new couple (hahaa..), He fed me the "Gado-gado" into my mouth.. I was really wanto to crying that time.. I didn't want to chew it.. I was wondering if I could just swallow it.. and that time, my boyfriend realized that I hate vegetables.. and from that time also, He pushed me to eat vegetables in every my eat time.. at least 2 times a day..

Ok, so here I am! after 8 months, I even could make my own vegetables food now! hoorraayyy.....

This is one of my favorite vegetables food.. Salad identical to a fresh vegetables that we eat with dressing and some complementary like fish, chicken, or bacon.. but in Asia, we cook our vegetables.. we make it as a soup, or just stir-fry it.. My Mom loves to cook me many kinds of stir-fry vegetables.. and this is one of  that She taught me.. It's "Stir-fry Bean Sprouts with Baby Corn and White Oyster Mushroom"..

I like many kinds of stir-fry vegetables food.. because it easy to make, but has a really good taste.. 

So, this is my recipe!

Stir-fry Bean Sprouts with Baby Corn and White Oyster Mushroom

250 gr            bean sprouts (washed and drained)

250 gr            white oyster mushrooms (washed and drained)

5 pieces           baby carrot (sliced, washed and drained)

2 cloves          garlic (sliced)

1 cloves           shallot (sliced)

2                     red chili (sliced)

1/2 tsp            salt

1 tbs                olive oil

2 tbs               water

1. Heat your pan on the stove to medium-low heat. Put in the garlic, stir until it turns golden. Put in the shallots and chili. Stir until you could smell the flavor of its.

2. Put in the baby carrot. Stir for 1 minutes, then put in the mushrooms. Stir for 30 seconds.

3. Taste your carrot, if it already becomes tender, then put in the bean sprout. Stir for a while. Season it with salt.

4. Give 2 tbs of water, stir, then close your pan. Wait for about 1 minute.

5. Taste the bean sprout. If it'a already soft, turn off your stove and move all of it to a small bowl.

And this is it! This is my Stir-fry Beans Sprouts with Baby Carrots and White Oyster Mushrooms!

I always make some stir-fry vegetable foods when I'm in hurry.. 

Let's try it and enjoy it for your lunch..

Happy cooking! ;)

Indonesian Food : Orek Tempe

Do you know what is Tempe? If you're Asian, I'm sure that you know what is Tempe..

Tempe is one of Indonesian food.. for me, it's more like a main ingredient like meats, fish, or chicken because you could make many foods with Tempe.. Tempe made by fermented soybean..

If anyone asks me, "if you just could choose one food to eat, what would you choose?" I'll confidently answer, "TEMPE"!

For me, Tempe is a kind of food that I can eat in any situation, weather, place, country, mood... anytime! There's a small and traditional restaurant called "WARTEG" in Indonesia.. It's a Javanese small restaurant from Tegal.. if you come to Indonesia and go to any WARTEG here, you will find that every single WARTEG here must sell any food by Tempe! and it sounds odd for me if there's any Indonesia who doesn't like Tempe..

Anyway, Indonesian food is not as complicated as what people have said out there actually.. like "salt and pepper" for western food, Indonesian food have "garlic" as our secret recipe.. My Father said that "garlic" is like the "Goddess" of our foods..

The key of Indonesian kitchen is, "don't leave your kitchen without garlic and shallot!" yup, garlic and shallot are some must ingredients that We should always have in our kitchen.. ;)

and for some western and eastern Indonesian foods like Sumatran, Sulawesi, Manado, we love chili so bad! and me? I'm definitely Sumatran combined with Javanese.. that's why I love sweet - spicy food!

so the point is, I will ever leave my kitchen with this 3 main ingredients.. Garlic, Shallot, and Red Chili.. sometimes I put some Cayenne Pepper also if I want to make "Sambal" (I'll post later my Sambal recipe)..

Ok, enough with the "Indonesian food's secret ingredients".. let's back to Tempe!

What's the best food You could make from Tempe? It's definitely OREK TEMPE! It's sweet, spicy, but yet a little bit sour.. it's the best moment when you chew the Orek Tempe and feel every taste in your mouth.. and if You're a vegetarian, then this one is really good for you!

Actually, if you search "OREK TEMPE recipe" on the internet, you'll find some recipe that used "galangal", bay leaves, brown sugar (gula aren), tamarind, and lime leaves.. I know it's some ingredients that hard to find in out of Asia.. and it's expensive.. and for me, it's really complicated to use all of that ingredients..

So here, I have a really simple recipe that for my "Orek Tempe" sytle! I've used this recipe since I wan in high school.. It's a really simple ingredients, and simple way to make! Check it out!

OREK TEMPE recipe :

500gr           tempe (chopped)

3 cloves       garlic (finely sliced)

1 cloves       shallot (finely sliced)

3                   red chili (finely sliced)

150 ml          cooking oil

2 tbs             sweet soy sauce

1 tbs             ketchup

2 tbs             chili sauce

a pinch of     salt

1. Pour the cooking oil into a big pan or pot in the stove with medium heat. Fried the Tempe until it's golden. Drain.

2. Pour the used cooking oil into your oil can, but leave about 2 tbs on your used pan to make the "Orek Tempe".

3. Put back the pan on the stove. Turn on the stove to medium low heat.

4. Put in the garlic until you could smell evaporated. Put the sliced shallot and red chili. Stir-fry for 10 seconds.

5. Put the sweet soy sauce, ketchup, and chili sauce. And give it a pinch of salt. Give a little stir-fry, and wait for about 20 seconds.

6. Put the fried Tempe into the sauce, stir it until blended.

7. Pour the Orek Tempe into a bowl.

Voila! It's done!

Some people used to slice the Tempe.. but me prefer to chopped because it makes me to could feel the tender from the Tempe..

So, it's easy right? You don't need any complicated ingredient.. you could find the ingredients in my recipe everywhere..

Let's try to make it, and give it to your family as for lunch!

Happy Cooking! ;)

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE PECAN BROWNIES

What better to share a beatufiul Sunday with your family than with Brownies? :)

No, the fist cake I ever made is not a Brownies.. it's even a Chocolate Mousse Cake.. but somehow, Brownies becomes a best cake I love to share with my family.. It's simple, classic, but it feels best to share a chitchat, laugh, breakfast or even an afternoon teatime with your family with many slices of Brownies.. yup, many.. because You won't could eat Brownies just for one bite.. It won't be enough!

I love Chocolate Brownies.. no, I mean I love anything chocolate! One day I brought sme Chocolate Brownies to my boyfriend's house and His Mom took some of its.. She really loved it! Then She asked me to make Chocolate Brownies for Her, but She requested to pun in some nuts into the batter.. I thought, why not??

Actually I never put nuts into my Chocolate Brownies because I thought not every people like nuts (this Chocolate Brownies is one of my cake that I sell in my on line Cookies's shop "Spatula Cookies")..

Then here We go! I made some Double Chocolate Pecan Brownies for my boyfriend's Mom.. and I made on more for my Father, because He loovvess nuts so much!

Actually, you just need to know how to make a Chocolate Brownies.. it's the basic.. If you already could make the classic Chocolate Brownies, than you just can put whatever you want into the batter.. nuts, fruits, or even more chocolates..

I always make Double Chocolate Brownies, because like I've said before, I really love chocolate! trust me, I never skip a day without chocolate! and for this Brownies, I just need to put some nuts into the batter.. I chose Pecan for this one, because for me Pecan is more "simple" and "humble".. but You can use another kind of nuts if you want, like hazelnut, walnut, pistachio, but I haven't tried to use "red bean" yet.. hahaa..

Ok then, here is the recipe! Check it out!

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE PECAN BROWNIES

80 gr       unsalted butter (melted and cooled)

1/3 cup    unsweetened cocoa powder

2/3 cup    sugar

2              eggs

1/2 cup    plain flour

1/2 tsp     baking powder

1/2 cup    chocolate chips

1/2 cup    pecans (chopped)

1. Preheat the on 180 degrees Celsius. Lightly grease a 23cm square shallow tin with butter or vegetable oil spray, spread some flour, and line the base with baking paper.

2. In a large bowl, sift in the flour and baking powder, along with a pinch of salt, than mix well. Add the chocolate chips and pecans, and stir to combine.

3. In a small bowl, combine the melted butter, cocoa, and sugar, followed by the eggs. Whisk it.

4. Pour the wet ingredients, into the dry ingredients. Mix well with you rubber spatula (just fold it until combined. Do not fold too much because it could make your brownies stiff).

5. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 30-40 minutes (until just firm).

6. Allow to cool in the tin (it would be better if you put the tin on a cooling rack). Then cut into pieces.

Voila! Our Brownies is ready!

It'd be good to enjoy the Brownies with a glass of milk or coffee.. My Father said, it's one of the best Brownies He ever ate..

Let's make it and let your family taste it..

Enjoy your baking time! ;)

WELCOME TO MY KITCHEN

Hi! Welcome to my Kitchen! Before I posted my experiences in my kitchen, I want to share about my self here first..

My name is Irin but my friends use to called me "Kiwel".. Yup, it's because of my curly hair.. I'm 24 going to 25 years old on next October.. and I'm still trying to finish my college at Jakarta Institute of Art.. I take a Film and Television Production there.. but trust me, I don't want to back to my "shooting days" life.. what do I want to do? I want to make people smile by my food.. yes, I want to cook!

I fell in love with cooking, especially pastry, since I went to Sydney on 2010 - 2011.. It was my bad year.. I got so many trials of life during 2009 - 2011.. so in order to refreshed my mind, my parents let me had a vacation to Sydney.. I lived with my friends and his family there.. For me, my this friend is already like my little brother because He's younger than me..

One day, His sister asked me to accompanied her to buy some ingredients.. She wanted to make cheesecake.. then after go to a supermarket, I helped her to make the cheesecake at their house.. and that's it! When I made the cheesecake, I felt something in my guts.. I felt something warm there.. something that made me feel better, happy, and relief.. So when I came back to Jakarta, I told to my self that "I want to be a patissiere!"

My first cake I ever made actually is "Chocolate Mousse Cake".. I made it when I was in Junior High School.. I got the recipe from my brother.. He loves to make cakes too.. and the first cake that I ever given to someone is Tiramisu..

It's been 2 years since I went to Sydney.. and right now, I feel like I want to share my kitchen's experience with many people who love food.. who loves to eat, to cook, or even take a photo of some foods! hahaa..

So, please fasten your seat belt, and enjoy my kitchen's vacation.. :)