Nasi Kucing Traditional Indonesian Food

Rice cat (or in a language known as Java "sega cat") is not a menu but rather a presentation on how to wrap a lot of rice found in the stalls Angkringan. Called "rice cat" as presented in the portion of the (very) few, like the menu to feed a cat. Nasi kucing rames rice is of the same shape, with a diverse menu: tempe dry, teri goreng, sambal goreng, tripe, milk, gut, head or Paw sate chicken and egg puyuh, the more favors if you burned briefly before first presented.

Rice that can be presented in the form of rice and ordinary rice tasty (rice Uduk) and in the portion of the little side dish is given a pirate sambal (chilli fried first), and a small piece pindang milkfish fry. If accompanied eat drink warm ginger-based (brown ginger, ginger coffee, tea and ginger) all the headaches - a cold will disappear by itself.

Rice cat known in various places in Central Java (including Yogyakarta) and is very popular among students because of the rather cheap price size bag for children kos, besides it also fit the tongue in India.

Indonesian Food in Amsterdam

Amsterdam is a wildly cosmopolitan city with no shortage of quality restaurants, and not just traditionally Dutch ones. It’s harder to find a place serving Dutch food (whatever that is) than Italian, Indian, or Indonesian. In fact, it’s Indonesian fare that’s the highlight of the city’s culinary scene.

Due to the Netherlands’ one-time colonial presence in the Indonesian islands, Amsterdam houses the largest Indonesian community in Europe, and consequently, the best concentration of their unique food. The most reductive description would be to say it’s a sort of mix between Thai and Indian, but that really doesn’t do justice to a cuisine of a 6,000-island country that’s adapted the influences of South Asia and Southeast Asia, China, the Middle East, and Europe. Indoensian food tends to be seasoned with a bold and exotic mix of spices and is heavy on noodles, coconut milk, and peanut sauce.

But describing food is a tease; best try it yourself if you have the chance to visit Amsterdam (or, um…Indonesia.) This was basically my top priority on my visit to the Dutch capital and after repeatedly begging my friends, “Can we get Indonesian food yet? Can we get Indonesian food yet?” we picked — at random — an excellent, affordable spot I’d go back to in a second. Called Puri Mas, it’s located a few steps from the busy Leidseplein. The interior is placid, quiet, and soothingly decorated. The kind of place where extremely friendly staff help take your coat off for you, which kind of makes me uncomfortable, but whatever. The menu consists of a la carte items (around 15 euro for a meat dish, which is served with tasty noodles or rice), or, if you want to indulge properly, the “Rijsstaffel,” an endless series of exquisite “small plates” that allows you to sample the breadth of Indonesian dining. The least extravagant Rijsstaffel was 20 euros; those who want to really splash out can drop 40 euros for a true feast. I wasn’t that hungry, so I was content with tender roast pork in a coconut milk sauce and the aforementioned noodle dish, almost a meal in and of itself.

Blue Pepper is another restaurant, specializing in “contemporary Indonesian cuisine” and often hailed as one of the premier spots in the city. Accordingly, it’s much more expensive. The Rijsstaffel starts at 50 euro and goes up to 70 euro for a 20-dish smorgasbord featuring such delicacies I can only dream about as “lamb cutlets with lilyflowers” and “quail eggs in a hot curry.” The innovative menu is a carefully selected mélange of both Javanese and regional influences and modern and traditional techniques.

A more budget-friendly option is Bojo, also on the Leidseplein, and perfect for late-night dinners or post-party munchies. Order either a la carte or get the Rijsstaffel; there are several dozen items on the menu, generally not an indicator of good food, but for the price, Bojo tends to satisfy.

PennyLane's Chocolate Cookies

If you're looking for that Perfect chocolate cookies, you've certainly come to the right place. Did I say perfect?? Yes, with a capital P! No doubt.

This is my kind of cookies. Crispy on the outside, fudgy on the inside with a hint of white chocolate chips (please please don't omit this item. I know...I know...for some people including me, white chocolate is not a chocolate but this time it's exceptional. It's there to strengthen the taste of the dark chocolate) mixed with nuts and chocolate chips.

Nuff said, I lost word and my mouth is full. I couldn't stop nibbling on all of these cookies *now I become a cookie monster*. I don't even care about my waistline and my digital scale. Sorry Arwen and Leia, you have to share them with mommy :D

To my dearest friend, Mindy Jordan, you should put this recipe on the top of your baking list this week ;). Must try!

5 stars to this recipe! Thanks for sharing the recipe, mbak Riana. Damn girl, you're so genius! This is the best chocolate cookies ever.

PennyLane’s Chocolate Cookies
Original source: Joy of Baking
Modified by: Riana

Ingredients :
60 grams cake flour (low protein flour) (dita-I used all purpose flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
450 grams bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
60 grams unsalted butter or margarine
250 grams granulated white sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 gram instant coffee powder (2 sachet @ 2 grams), diluted with a few drops of hot water
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
175 grams semisweet dark chocolate chips
175 grams white chocolate chips
200 grams your favorite nuts, coarsely chopped and toasted (dita-I used walnut)

Directions :
1. Mix together the flour and baking powder. Set aside.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter/margarine in a stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and set aside.
3. In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the sugar, eggs and salt until pale yellow and thick, about 5 minutes. Beat in the melted chocolate mixture, coffee and vanilla extract. Sift the flour mixture above the batter and fold it in. Mix only until incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate the batter until firm, about 30-60 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 170-180 degrees Celcius and place rack in center of oven. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.
5. Using ice cream scoop, small or medium –whatever you prefer, scoop and drop batter onto prepared cookie sheets, spacing evenly. With moist fingers, press batter a little bit.Bake cookies about 10 - 12 minutes or until the tops of the cookies become dry and cracked, but are still shiny. Do not overbake these cookies.
6. Remove from oven and place baking pan on a wire rack to cool. When cookies are firm, remove from baking pan and let completely cool on rack.

* The time you need to let the batter harden in the fridge could be varied, depending on the chocolate you use. One chocolate could make the batter thicker or runnier than the other one. Check every 30 minutes, just until the batter is easy to scoop and drop without spreading.
* When you found your batter is too hard to scoop, or the cookies are too flat, it means the batter is too cold to begin with. Let it stand at room temperature until it reaches right consistency, then continue baking. The cookies should not be too flat.

Banana Cake with Chocolate Chips

Any cakes with banana are always my favorite. Especially with the ripe ones. This is a really quick easy cake to make. The result isn't that moist. The texture is dense and crumbly. More like muffin or banana bread.

Banana Cake with Chocolate Chips

Ingredients:
150 gr butter
80 gr sugar
2 ripe bananas, mashed
3 eggs
180 gr flour (dita - 130 gr all purpose flour+50 gr custard powder. The custard powder will make your cake look yellowish)
1 pack dry yeast
70 gr almond powder (dita - I didn't use almond powder but substitute it with grated parmesan)
100 gr chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Mix the butter and sugar until white and fluffy, then add mashed banana in it.
2. Add the eggs in butter-mixed, beat well.
3. Then pour flour and yeast, and mix well.
4. Add almond powder (dita - grated parmesan) and chocolate chips in the mixture. Pour in the baking pan.
5. Bake in the oven 200°c for 10 minutes, then another 35 minutes on 160°c.

[Indonesian Traditional Food] Es Brenebon - Red Beans in Cocoa Syrup

(North Sulawesi, Indonesia).

Es Brenebon - Red Beans in Cocoa Syrup

Ingredients :
1 kg red beans, soaked for 2-24 hours, boil the beans until soft
90 gr cocoa powder
2 cans chocolate condensed milk
750 gr sugar
water

ice

Carrot Cake with Pineapple and Coconut and Brown Butter Rum Cream Cheese Frosting

I had some flopppy carrots and a half bar of cream cheese that needed to be used up so the obvious choice was a carrot cake. My original idea was to spice things up by adding currants instead of the traditional raisins because I hate raisins. But Trader Joes, my go-to source for quirky ingredients, no longer carries currants and I wasn’t about to go to Whole Paycheck and drop $10 on some fancy heritage currants from the South of France. Instead I got the next best thing, pineapple. I’ve actually never purchased a can of pineapple before or any canned fruit for that matter, so the first step was locating the canned fruit aisle in grocery store, an aisle I avoid like the plague. Who knew there were so many ways you could cut and can a pineapple—crushed, tidbits, chunks, rings? Many recipes call for crushed but that stuff looked a little too beaten up for my tastes, whereas the chunks were way too big. I wanted discernible pieces of pineapple in my cake so the tidbits were perfect. After adding pineapple, the logical next step is to add coconut (another leftover ingredient that needed using up) and of course you can't have pineapple and coconut without some rum.