Just a simple update on my contribution for UMU Magz #3, a mountain climbing e-magazine. Having said goodbye to personal projects and ultimately made peace with it, hopefully have stopped being in denial trying to convince myself that one day, one fine day, one good bright sunny day, I would go back to those good old times, I happily share one of my favorite simple dish invented back in those days.

For you mountain climber, ultra light packing is definitely essential. Kecipir or winged bean is one of the wisest choices when it comes to picking light ingredients. It has minimum amount of water so it is very lightweight, as it is with rebon. Rebon is dried small shrimp. And when I said small, I mean veeery small! It acts not only as a punching seasoning, but also the source of protein during your climbing. Small space in your carrier, big impact on your palate.

The recipe I wrote for UMU Magz is in bahasa, so here I trouble you with the english one, like you can easily find winged bean and rebon in english speaking countries. This is a very simple recipe, sure you can throw in any additions you like. Be it mushrooms, chillies, tofu, tempe, pretty much anything. But if you don’t have much in your logistic, this only, with hot steamed rice, is delicious to the top of Mahameru!

Kecipir (Winged Bean) and Rebon Stir Fry

A handful of kecipir (winged bean), wash, cut aslant
5 garlic cloves, bruised or thinly sliced
2-3 Tbsp rebon (dried small shrimp)
3 Tbsp cooking oil

How-to:

1. Heat the oil on a pan. Saute the garlic until fragrant. Add rebon, stir fry until cooked and fragrant.
2. Throw in the winged bean, stir fry until cooked and all are covered with rebon, garlic and oil. Add enough water if necessary.
3. Serve with hot steamed rice. Yumm!!

Very Indonesia. Yep, tanah air beta.

In my confusion of whether or not Blogsome is ending its service (so I double-posted this to my old Blogsome blog), I found myself sitting by my kitchen table one afternoon. Tea with honey. And some sweet nibbles. I remembered wanting to post this but something always got in the way. Like my procrastination habit, that is.

Kenny, a senior writer of Lifestyle+Travel magazine in Bangkok, emailed me one day. He was compiling food blogs for an article in their food-inspired issue and wanted to mention this blog and used some photos. An over-excited me, agreed in a split second .

Lifestyle+Travel magazine is an English-language travel magazine distributed mainly in Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Malaysia and Cambodia, with media representatives spreading in Vietnam, Japan, the Middle East and Australia.

The article went into the November-December 2011 issue which you can browse on its website here: www.lifestyleandtravel.com. It has a flipable e-magazine you can flip like you do hard copy. So very cool. Turn to page 36-37, and there the excerpt of myFemale Coffee, Wedang Ronde and Baklava. Or you can use the easy tabs on the side of the magazine, click on “The Buzz” and start browsing on “Blog A Petite” story. For those of you facebookers, their Facebook page is on www.facebook.com/lifestyleandtravel.

The wonder of internet realm never ceases to amaze me. I’m humbled by its limitlessness and feel so blessed. Thank you, Kenny. It looks gorgeous .

Happy Monday to you all. I hope Blogsome is postponing the closing forever.

This new place is still a mess right now, I dunno if I ever get it together, knowing that I needed one whole year to complete the old design in blogsome.com. Hopefully I can break the curse!

The design, of course, will be changing. I still want my “egg” to be up there

So, yeah. I hope you stay around.
(i meant: don’t leave me!)

Love,

Lalampa, Kue Pisang Kenari, Ikan Bumbu Asam, Ikan Woku Belanga, Guraka, Bubur Manado

Just got back from 2 weeks voyage across Ternate – Raja Ampat – Banda Neira – Ambon, where I went crazy for Kue Pisang Kenari, Guraka, Terong Saus Kenari, Cinnamon Tea and Nutmeg Jam!

Adventure-wise, I had an unforgettable journey of a lifetime. Food-wise, I’m deeply in love.

Do you see the flaming red peeking from inside the nutmeg? It’s mace. Banda produces premium quality of mace for the whole world. The whole islands are covered in Nutmeg and Kenari trees. The Kenari trees are often very big and old, as old as decades, even hundreds of years.

Pak Rizal Bahalwan and his wife, who own Mutiara Guesthouse in Banda Neira, served us with Cinnamon Tea and Nutmeg Jam every morning. I often make my own cinnamon tea, but this cinnamon tea tasted and smelled way much better. I’m not sure whether it was the brewing composition or the cinnamon itself. Unlike in Java, cinnamon peel in Banda is gigantic in size, more somky and sutble in aroma, yet a little goes along the way.

Nutmeg jam is another story of beauty. It is sour, sweet, smoky, spicy. A burst of nutmeg joy in your mouth!

They also have the best collection of books we gulped like a bunch of hyenas everyday. Breakfast time was always something we look forward to. You know, after a morning walk around Benteng Belgica.

Almost everyday we took a walk to Benteng Belgica. Spent one afternoon having our tea and speculaas biscuits among its stoned walls while admiring the majestic Gunung Api and looking down at the stunning view of charming sea of Banda. Couldn’t get any more romantic!

Tunas, buras, lemang, suami, cakalang asap, nasi kuning, kasbi, jambu air

Every morning we passed by the wet market of Banda Neira on our way to the dock. Every time I indulged my culinary sense and curiosity. You see the cone shaped white plastic bag tied on top? It is Suami. No, it’s not “husband” in Bahasa . It was made from cassava that was shredded and steamed and served as a replacement of rice. It is the same thing as Kasuami of Wakatobi.

Tea time @ Benteng Belgica, photo by Mohamad Darocky

Aside from the already-popular Halua Kenari, Bangket Kenari, Bagea Kenari and Roti Kenari, I brought home a bag of flaming maroon mace, a bag of gigantic cinnamon peel, and a jar of nutmeg jam. What can I say, I’m just a girl in love.

The Turkish delight! The one that keeps me craving night, after night, after night! After night!

This is a middle eastern sweet nibble that comes not only in large variety of fillings, but also the country where it claims to be the origin of. I saw this dessert many times on television shows, fell in love with everything about it. One day my good friend brought me one, and it was the sweet joyful wonderfully crunchy yet beautifully moist thing I put in my mouth. I crave for it ever since.

If you searched on the net, as I mentioned earlier, you’ll come up with lots of nuts variety for the filling. Pistachio, almond, walnut, hazelnut, cashew, macadamia, peanut, along with unlimited combination of them. Use whatever you fancy of, or whatever you have easier access to, don’t worry, you can’t go wrong with all these delicious nuts. For me, almond is the cheapest around, it is now even cheaper than Kenari. It’s funny, because Kenari is of Indonesian origin. I wanted pistachio and walnut, but the they are unbelievably expensive in Jakarta, I might as well wait for anyone coming from middle east to bring me some pistachios. Anyone?

I tweaked some recipes into one that suits my preference. First attempt was too sweet, I suffered sugar high all night. The second attempt was p-e-r-f-e-c-t, it was gone in a minute I couldn’t even have a chance to take any photos. This was the third and it got better everytime. What so great about this recipe is that, not only it uses minimum amount of sugar and is dead easy to make, but also, unlike most baklavas, it has just the right strength of sweetness because I didn’t pour all the syrup at once. I drizzled only a couple tablespoons over the hot baklava, just enough to let it drip onto the sides of every squares and wet the bottom layer. This ensures your baklava will be sweet enough, moist enough without losing its crispiness, but not heavily immersed in syrup that would make it too sweet. You can always serve the rest of the syrup alongside the baklava for additional sweetness.

Gotta speak about the syrup here. It was soooo gorgeously magical! Apparently, the concoction of honey, cinnamon, cloves and orange peel creates a magical potion you can’t resist. Seriously, I’m under spell now. My friend said it was, “Slurping good!”

Baklava
Adapted from many recipes on the net

1 pack phyllo pastry

Filling:
150 gr ground almond
100 gr sliced almond, toasted
50 gr sugar
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
150 gr unsalted butter, melted

100 gr extra melted butter for brushing

Syrup:
150 ml honey
150 water
1 stick cinnamon
1 fresh orange peel
7 cloves

How-to:

1. Preheat the oven at 180 degree celsius. Make the filling: combine all ingredients, blend well.
2. Cut phyllo pastry to the size of your pan. This recipe fits nicely to my 15x20x4 cm ovenproof ceramic pan.
3. Brush the bottom and sides of the pan with melted butter. Put the the first phyllo on the bottom, brush generously with melted butter. Layer another phyllo, brush it again with melted butter. Make 5-10 layers depending on the depth of your pan, brush generously with butter between layers. I layered 5 phyllos. I wanted 10 or even 12, but my pan was not deep enough.
4. Spread half of the filling on the phyllos. Start layering again, make another 5-10 layers, brushing with melted butter between layers.
5. Spread the rest of the filling. Layer again with another 5-10 phyllos. Don’t forget to brush in between. Brush the top of the phyllo with melted butter.
6. Using pointy sharp knife, cut into diamond square shapes all the way to the bottom of the pan. Bake for about 60 minutes until golden and crisp.
7. While baking, make the syrup: bring all ingredients to boil, turn down the heat and let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes or until the syrup is slightly thicken. Let cool.
8. Take out the baklava from the oven, let it rest for about 5-10 minutes. Cut again through the cuts you made earlier to make sure the syrup will drip along the sides of each squares and also to make it easier for you to lift every square. Drizzle 2-4 tablespoons of the syrup over hot baklava and let it sit for at least 4 hours –if you can .
9. Serve the cooled baklava with the rest of the syrup. Drizzle more syrup before spooning, it’s so good!

Notes:

• Do not substitute margarine for butter. Never. Na-ah. Big no-no. You do that, expect the hard downfall: the whole flavor will be ruined.
• Be generous on brushing the phyllo with melted butter. It will turn it into these gorgeous golden crisp layers and add moisture to the filling.
• Be creative on the filling. I plan to make another one with the mixture of Kenari, peanuts and cashew. Sounds good?
• You can strain the syrup if you want. I didn’t. *lazy baker*

Wassalamu’alaykum, life is indeed sweet!

An entry for idfb challenge #1: Food By It’s Country of Indonesian Foodblogger group

Video by Pinot

Ooh, yeah! I can’t wait to announce this!

Ok, here we go. Once upon a time, 4 female foodbloggers, met online and got to know each other via blogs and emails. Two of them live in Kuwait, one lives in New Zealand, one in Jakarta, Indonesia. They were bonded by two things they’re really passionate about: food and photography. One sunny day, they decided to write a book about the two: food photography. They worked on it for about 8 months, and now the book is on its way to the bookstores in Indonesia!

They call themselves EmpatRana, which translates as Four Shutters. They are Arfi Binsted, Dita Ichwandardi, Irra Fachriyanthi and me, Riana Ambarsari

Here how the cover will look like:

Here, we talk about food photography in simple, easy to understand terms, the way we learnt it in the first place. We reveal our humble home studios, which are basically a table, a source of light, some help from reflector and props, and more little help from our children .

The book is projected to be available at bookstores in Indonesia this July 13rd, 2011 at the latest. So stay alert, you will wanna have this, trust me!

Oh, well. Found the photo in my hard drive and suddenly realized I never published it except in my own head. You think I’m a little ‘cuckoo’, you might be right. Are you scared? *grin*

What I love about these cookies is that, first, it was cinnamon and nothing but cinnamon. Second, it used wholewheat flour instead of white flour. To my palate, whole grain has more layers of flavour than the plain white one. And third, again, it’s cinnamon.

Was it good? My God, yes. Perfect for the coming Ramadhan and Idul Fitri.

I took the recipe from HillBilly Housewife, but I think it was very similar with the recipe from Allrecipes.com except that it uses butter instead of margarine. Use whichever you fancy since it doesn’t make much different. I’ll use butter for the second time around, not that margarine will make it bad though. Now, let’s roll.
 
Wholewheat Snickerdoodles
Recipe adapted from HillBilly Housewife

1/2 c margarine or butter
1/2 c sugar
1/4 c palm sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 c wholewheat flour

To roll the dough in, mix:
2 Tbs sugar + 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Instruction:

1. Preheat the oven at 190 degree celsius.
2. Beat margarin/butter with sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla extract until well blended.
3. Add the dry ingredients, stir well with wooden spoon.
4. Ball the dough, roll in the mixture of sugar and cinnamon. Arrange on a lined or greased cookie sheet, flatten with bottom of a glass.
5. Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool on a rack, transfer to your.. mouth!

 
Happy baking.
And happy Ramadhan.
*weeping happily*

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I always love Nigella right from the very beginning I saw her television program. I love everything about the show: the pictures, the photography, the flow, the concept, everything. The recipes are so-so, but i don’t know why that flaw, if it is actually one, doesn’t really matter to me. To me, recipes are more like ideas that we adapt freely from time to time rather than some sort of instruction sets. As long as they are not totally fraud, I appreciate and cherish them as the treasures I am obliged to explore more. And I love the simplicity and throw-your-caution-to-the-wind attitude she boasts which I think is more important than batting yourself with perfection. So far, I managed to try out some of her recipes, and even though I think the Triple Chocolate Brownies was not really a champ, I love her Cardamom Macaroons I wished I could have them everyday.

When I saw this book, I knew I would adore all the photos exactly like I dreamily stare at every frame, shot by shot in any television programs of her. They were the first thing I looked for in this book. But then I read it, and the writing,.. I heart! I enjoyed her narration so much I found myself taking notes of words I love . I love her way of thinking incorporating gadgets and equipments, not only the ones that work for her, but also those that, in her words, “languished gathering dust in a cupboard under the stairs before being sent, defeatedly, off to the thrift store.”

I think I owe the adoration and religious loyalty of sitting in front of my TV set everytime she’s on to the fact that I simply see myself in her. Capturing imperfection as fun, enjoying kitchen mess like it is the most interesting decoration reflecting live and liveliness, I even agree with her idea about banishing kitchen drawers in any way other than for storing mugs!

So, from me, five stars

View all my reviews

As with the last book, I worked with two of my colleagues, Citra and Nadrah, to help me with the styling. And it was one of the smartest decisions I made in life, beside quitting office work and getting myself a good handblender stick .
 

 
We wrapped up the whole thing in 3 all-day photo session. Not bad at all. And I tried not to be too ambitious this time, but they were! So, yes, 3 days only .

The sorting and editing process, I took my time with it. Unlike the 3 previous books, this time I slowed down my rhythm ‘coz it started to literally take my sanity away. So I happily finished everything in like 1 whole week, instead of the usual ambitious 3 days, then sent all 5 DVDs –the photos were all in TIFF format, around 50Mb each, what do you expect?– to our editor.

Enjoy a few photos here. I hope you’ll buy the book

Love, Riana
 

 
Food styling by Citra Anggraini Kusuma & Nadrah Shahab

However, you know, I was born a crafty hand. I inherited it from my late beloved Mom, who fixed her own sewing machine and would climb up the roof and saved us from fluttering potentially tumbling tiles tragedy. So I grew up not only adapting some fixing skill from my Mom, but also in deep appreciation toward this craftsmanship and the zeal that goes along with it. I figure if I live in western countries it would be very useful for us to master this skill. I know my Mom still needed a repairman to fix her oven, but I think if she didn’t have 7 kids hanging on her back 24 hour a day I’m pretty sure she would’ve taken the matter into her own hands.

I came across this website about 2 years ago, PartSelect, it sells spare parts of almost all appliances you could possibly have at home. I know it doesn’t make your jaw dropped, but here is the catch: what if it tells you how to fix your appliances?

Yes, the site is equipped with installation videos, that are basically videos that show you how to install things to get your appliances right back to function again. The videos are currently available on 105 of their available parts with more being shot every week. There you can see Steve, the repair technician, installing each part step by step. This obviously of huge benefit for anyone looking to do their own repair.

Onto the cooler thing, and this was just launched a few months ago, is the Virtual Repairman – essentially a free tool that instantly helps homeowners figure out what’s wrong with their appliance. How it works is amazing. It diagnoses the symptoms of each individual model of the broken appliances and connects the data with the parts that fix each symptom. I mean, really, it is like you have your own crazy scientist in your own basement lab!

Here is an example of an installation video of dryer belt, as well as installation instructions, which are provided by their very own customers. You’ll see the 3 minutes installation video just below the price that shows how to install that particular belt. Below the video, you’ll see a section of installation instruction which are sent in by the customers after they have installed the part. Customers can rate how useful the instructions are and each includes the tools required for the repair as well as difficulty and how long it took.
 

 
To check out the Virtual Repairman –which I think is the coolest feature, you can search, say, LAT9206BAE –or even a model number from your own appliance, try it! This will take you to a list of symptoms this model experiences and clicking on one of those, such as Leaking Water, will take you to a list of parts that will fix that specific problem, and how often it does, for your specific model. Tell me what is cooler than that? Your own crazy scientist at work!
 

 
On the conservative side, you can search for a model right from the homepage which gives you several ways to locate the part you need: by symptom, by searching for its name, and by location –which gives you exploded diagrams for each section of the appliance.

Aside from the value each of these tools provide, what makes them so special is that the site will be the only one in the industry that helps customers at every stage of the repair: diagnosing the problem, figuring out the part needed, getting the part, and then installing the part.

Seriously, these features, are such treasures, not to mention rare. Doing our own home repairs is a survival skill, just like cooking. Repairing a home appliance not only saves money but it is also great for the environment and can be very empowering. Trust me on that.

I say this PartSelect site, is totally a hero. ‘Nuff said.