(Ingredients)

• 1 kg cassava, peeled and grated
• 2 ripe tanduk (horn) bananas, peeled
• 200 gr granulated sugar
• 200 ml water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• food coloring, according to preference
• heat proof plastic and aluminum foil for wrapping
• 300 gr young coconut, grated and steamed with 1/2 tsp salt & 1 pandan leaf for about 15 minutes

(Directions)

• Squeeze out and throw away 100ml liquid from the grated cassava.
• Mix grated cassava, granulated sugar, water, vanilla and salt. Knead until smooth and sugar is dissolved.
• Put the food coloring and mix well. If you don't like to use food coloring then you can skip this step.
• Place the cassava dough in the middle of a heat proof plastic. Flatten the dough about 1/2cm thick and as wide as the banana length.
• Add 1 whole banana and place it at the end of the dough.
• Start rolling the dough and banana from bottom to the top. Don't roll the heat proof plastic inside the dough. Remember to only roll the dough and banana with the help of heat proof plastic to tighten them.
• Wrap the rolled dough and banana with the heat proof plastic and aluminum foil. Secure the both ends so the dough won't come out from the sides.
• Repeat the process until the dough is used up.
• Steam the wrapped dough for about 45 minutes - 1 hour until done.
• Remove and leave to cool.
• Cut diagonally to a thickness of 1cm, roll in grated young coconut and serve.

(Ingredients)

• 80 gr unsalted butter, softened
• 280 gr caster sugar
• 240 gr plain flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 240 ml whole milk
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs

(Directions)

• Preheat the oven to 190C (170C fan). Line a mini cupcake tray with cupcake cases or cupcake liners.
• Using a hand-held electric whisk or a freestanding electric mixer with the paddle attachment, slowly beat together the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt until the ingredients are well mixed in and resemble fine breadcrumbs.
• Mix together the milk, pure vanilla extract and eggs by hand in an another bowl with the whisk. 
• With the mixer still on a low speed, pour three-quarters of the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well, scrapping down the sides of the bowl to make sure all the ingredients are fully incorporated.
• Add the rest of the milk mixture and beat again, now on a medium speed, until the batter is smooth.
• Spoon the batter into the 24-holes mini cupcakes tray, up to two-thirds full.
• Pop in the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes or until the toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Leave to cool slightly before removing from the tin and placing on a wire rack to cool completely.
• Use a cupcake corer to make a whole (not to deep) in the center of each cake and fill with the matcha condensed milk before serving. Alternatively, you can just put matcha condensed milk  in a small dish for dipping.

(Matcha Condensed Milk Filling)
1 tsp matcha
1 tsp hot water
1/2 cup condensed milk

Mix the match and hot water and stir briskly until the paste becomes smooth. Add to the condensed milk and stir until blended.

 (Ingredients)

• 225 gr unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 200 gr caster sugar
• 200 gr soft light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 240 gr crunchy peanut butter
• 340 gr plain flour
• 2 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 75 gr dark chocolate, chopped

(Directions)

• Preheat the oven to 170C (325F) Gas 3.
• Put the butter and sugars in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and cream until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well and scraping any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula after each addition. Turn the mixer down to slow speed and beat in the vanilla extract and peanut butter.
• Add the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt and mix well until a smooth dough is formed. Stir in the chocolate until evenly dispersed.
• Arrange 6 equal amount of cookie dough on each prepared baking tray. Make sure that the cookies are spaced apart to allow for spreading while baking. Bake in preheated oven for about 10 minutes, or until golden brown around the edges and quite flat. Leave the cookies to cool slightly on the trays before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely. The cookies should be soft and chewy.

Makes 24 | Recipe taken from "The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook"

Ellena is the author of Cuisine Paradise blog. She is one of the famous foodie bloggers from Singapore. She is a very talented lady and you can find many delicious recipes in her blog. I love to read her delicious blog and learn some cooking or baking tips from her. She also makes bento for her son, maybe because of this reason then we finally got to know each other online. Last week, she asked me to do a guest post for her blog. I was thrilled as she has so many readers on her blog, at the same time I was very nervous because my blog just have a few posts since I started on My Bloglicious. Hope my guest post won't let her down. And if you would like to check on my guest post there, please go to Cuisine Paradise to read more.

I feel guilty for not being able to make regular update on this blog. I think I won't be able to juggle between 2 blogs everyday. So perhaps I will only make post for this blog every now and then. When I 'retired' from My Bentolicious, I will start making a regular post on this blog. I baked some banana cookies for the kids and hubby couple days ago. Lucky, I got some left kept in a small jar so I can take the picture. What I love about these cookies are that they are very soft, they melt in the mouth. I love baking cookies because my kids always take them to the school and share them with their friends. And baking cookies are not as hard as baking cake, right?

(Ingredients)

> 175 gr unsalted butter
> 75 gr granulated sugar
> 1/4 tsp salt
> 200 gr ripe banana, mashed
> 1 egg yolk
> 220 gr all-purpose flour
> 20 gr corn starch
> 30 gr milk powder
> 1/4 tsp baking powder
> 1 tbsp poppy seeds or more

(Directions)

• Preheat oven to 150C.
• Beat butter, sugar, and salt with an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy.
• Add banana and egg yolk, beating until well mix.
• Shift in flour, corn starch, milk powder, and baking powder. Mix just until incorporated with spatula.
• Stir in poppy seeds.
• Scoop or pipe the dough on the baking sheets or cookie sheets.
• Baked about 15-20 minutes until pale golden.
• Let cookies cool slightly on sheets. Transfer cookies to wire rack, let cool completely.
• Cookies can be stored in an airtight container up to 1 week.

(Note)

I use an electric oven with fan, so you might want to adjust your oven. And I use Wilton's Insulated Aluminum Cookie Sheet which is very good to prevent the bottoms from burning. Highly recommend it!

Love the saltiness in black beans. Honestly, I didn't use them a lot in my home cooking partly because my husband is not a big fan of black beans and my kids always scream that it looks like bugs. I did some trick though for my kids. Usually I will chop the black beans so it won't look like little black bugs lol ... I tried to cook this dish very carefully by putting a small amount of black beans and added 2 teaspoons of soy bean paste to give a rich flavor of this steamed spare ribs. You can adjust the black beans and the soy bean paste to your taste. What I love about cooking this dish is because it is very simple to prepare. So while this dish is steaming inside the steamer, I can prepare another dish for our dinner.

(Ingredients)

> 500 gr spare ribs, cut into bite size

> 2 tsp fermented black beans, rinse

> 2 tsp soy bean paste

> 1 big red chili, chopped

> 2 cloves of garlic, minced

> 1/2 tsp sesame oil

(Seasonings)

> 1 tsp dark soy sauce

> 3 tsp light soy sauce

> 1/2 tsp sugar

> 2 tsp corn flour

> 2 tbsp water

(Directions)

• Marinate spare ribs with seasonings for 30 minutes - 1 hour.
• Mix in other ingredients and steam for 30 minutes.
• Served it with rice.

I was asked by Pepy from Indonesia Eats to make a guest post for her wonderful food blog. I feel honored given that chance. And since she gave me a theme to cook something from my hometown then I cooked Asam Chicken for the post. You can read my guest post including the recipe there. And if you check my guest post at Indonesia Eats, please check other great recipes too from Pepy. Especially if you want to learn about Indonesian cooking. She put a lot of information on her blog that I'm sure will be a benefit for all readers of her blog. Enjoy your Monday! Have a great start this week all!

Talking about the King of Fruits then we are talking about durian. A 'controversial' fruit that is very easy to find in South East Asia. Our family just loves durian and the fragrant of this fruit. But some people will find that the fragrant is too strong and turn off by it; so we always say "Smell Like Hell Taste Like Heaven". Beside our local durian, we got some types of durian from Thailand that are very popular like monthong, kanyaw, and chanee. As this fruit is a 'hot/heaty' fruit, one must never eat durian and drink alcoholic drink at the same time. It is a serious thing and I don't mean to scare you, that lethal combination can put you in coma. People with high blood pressure and pregnant woman are usually advised not to consume this fruit. My parents  always say to eat durian moderately then drink a lot of water after you eat this fruit. Sometimes we eat durian accompanied with mangosteen, known as the Queen of Fruits. As mangosteen is a 'cold' fruit, so eating mangosteen after durian is like yin and yang. Just to make the balance between hot and cold in our body. 

So, I was craving for durian yesterday that I finally bought durian kanyaw from the fruit store near home. I got the durian cake recipe from a friend and decided to give it a try last night for baking. I used 30 mini cupcake cups for this one recipe. And I was happy with the texture that came out very soft, the fragrant and the flavor of durian just kept me coming back for more. I put some chilled durian spread on the top even makes it even better. But this is an optional if you still have some leftover durian flesh. Just put the durian flesh in the airtight container like Tupperware or Lock & Lock so your fridge won't smell durian. Chill it overnight if you bake at night. I didn't mixed it with butter on cream so remember to put the spread just before you serve it.

(Ingredients)

> 150 gr cake flour, sifted
> 150 gr unsalted butter, room temperature
> 150 gr castor sugar, divided by 2 (@ 75 gr)
> 200 gr durian flesh, mashed with a back of the fork
> 100 gr durian flesh for spread, mashed with a back of the fork
> 20 gr milk powder
> 6 egg yolks
> 4 egg whites

(Directions)

• Preheat oven to 180C or 160C (fan).
• Prepare 30 mini cupcakes cups and arrange them on the top of the baking pan.
• Put the butter and the half portion (75gr) of sugar in a mixing bowl, beat it with an electric mixer until soft and creamy.
• Add egg yolk one by one until mix well.
• Add sifted flour, durian flesh, milk powder and mix well.
• Put white eggs in a another clean mixing bowl, beat it with an electric mixer until egg whites are foamy. Then add the half portion (75gr) of sugar, continue beating until egg whites become glossy with stiff peaks.
• Add egg white mixture into the other mixture and fold in lightly with spatula until incorporate completely.
• Pour the batter into a large piping bag, pipe batter into prepared mini cupcakes cups.
• Bake for about 20 minutes or until the toothpick inserted come out clean.
• Cool on a wire rack.
• Put durian spread on the top just before serving it.

Sunday on 12 June, together with a few other foodie bloggers, I was invited by Goorme to participate in a food tasting event held at the Paradise Dynasty Restaurant Jakarta. This restaurant is a Singapore based from the Paradise Group and was brought to Indonesia by Boga Group (Sushi Tei, Sushi Kiosk, Rakuzen, Bakerzin, Pepper Lunch, Ten-Ten). It will be opened for public on 14 June, 2011. It is located at Plaza Senayan on the 5th floor, just the opposite of Cinema XII. The interior of this restaurant has a touch of contemporer design with the concept of casual dining. We could see their big open kitchen when entering the restaurant at the corridor.

The most special dish from their menu is the 8 Signature Dynasty Xiao Long Bao - which is their specialty dish. I preferred to call it as the Colorful Xiao Long Bao. With its 8 different colors and 8 different tastes, this dish was truly a feast to the eyes and was very tempting to be consumed. To really enjoy the signature dish Dynasty Xiao Long Bao at its highest potential, we were recommended to enjoy them in sequence start from the Original flavor (white), then the Ginseng (green), Foie Gras (light brown), Black Truffle (black), Cheesy (yellow), Crab Roe (orange), Garlic (grey), and the last one Szechuan (red). But don’t worry if you can’t remember the sequence if you decide to go to this restaurant. The restaurant provided a standing card on the table for you to remember. Well come to think about it, it made sense to enjoy the dish in that order. You start from the original taste, then move on to the milder one and finished with the spicy one. You can if you want to swap the sequence of course, but starting it from the Szechuan would ruin your taste palate. It would hinder you to enjoy the rest of the 7 Xiao Long Bao to their maximum taste. Among the 8 Xiao Long Bao that I tried, my favorite one beside the original was the Cheesy Xiao Long Bao. I had never imagined the other taste before other than the original flavor, which I often tried at other restaurants. I think the Cheesy Xiao Long Bao was really a brilliant invention in combining the taste. Foie Gras dan Black Truffle were on my next favorite ones. Crab roe and Ginseng were just okay for me. The rest which were garlic and Szechuan were the last on my list. It was perhaps the Garlic and Szehuan peppercorn were too strong for me. But if you are a Garlic lover or Szehuan peppercorn, you might like them. Halal Xiao Long Bao was also available if you don't eat pork. So everyone can enjoy it. Overall, I was very happy to try this Xiao Long Bao from Paradise Dynasty. Compared to a few other Chinese restaurants that also offer similar Xiao Long Bao, I could say that Paradise Dynasty’s Xiao Long Bao is the best so far. Their Xiao Long Bao was juicer with good taste of Xiao Long Bao skin, and had the right thickness. The meat inside the Xiao Long Bao was very tender, very well seasoned and had the right taste combination.

Beside their signature Xiao Long Bao dish, Paradise Dynasty also served other signature dishes such as La Mien in signature pork bone soup which so tasty with the refreshing broth and the Szechuan style La Mien with the combination of Szechuan pepper. The La Mien itself had a smooth texture. They also offered other types of la mien in several taste variations. Other foods, desserts and drinks were also available with the price range from IDR12,000 – IDR108,000. I think the prices were quite reasonable for this class of restaurant in a prestigious mall. Below are some of the photos that I took from this food tasting event. I don't want to spoil all the pictures, so you can come and check it by yourself. A lot of dishes that you can try to satisfy your palate. I hope Paradise Dynasty can keep the good quality of the foods and the service to the top. Can't wait to take my family and my friends to enjoy the foods there.

 

PARADISE DYNASTY

the legend of xiao long bao

Plaza Senayan Level P5 Unit CP 512-CP513 (accross Cinema XII)

Phone : +62 21 57900146

Just returned from 1 week trip from London last Sunday. I tried to sleep at normal hours when I got back so I would not have jet lag. But since yesterday, I got the flu and sore throat. Luckily, my kids are still on the school holiday as the Grade 6 students are having final exam from the Government. They will be back to school this Friday and I can have a rest at home. I love prawns! But sometimes I could get allergic reactions from them but that's not keeping me from eating prawns. I always have at least 1 allergic pill in my bag, just in case my eyes started to look weird after eating the prawns. My family also loves prawn dish very much. This afternoon, I cooked prawns with crispy garlic & ginger. I removed the shells so my kids can easily eat them. You can cook with the shells on, just remove the head and devein the prawns. But I think I will skip this dish until my sore throat is getting better.

(Ingredients)

> 600 gr medium sized prawns
> 100 gr ginger, chopped
> 50 gr garlic, chopped
> 1 cup oil for deep-frying

(Marinade)

> 1 tsp shaoxing wine
> 1/2 tsp salt
> dash of pepper
> 1 tbsp corn starch

(Seasoning)

> 1/4 tsp salt or to taste.

(Chili Sauce)

> 3 big red chillis, chopped
> 1 big green chillis, chopped
> 1/2 tbsp garlic, chopped
> 1/2 tbsp ginger, chopped
> 2 tbsp tomato sauce
> 2 tbsp sugar
> 1 tbsp rice vinegar
> 1 tbsp black vinegar

(Directions)

• Remove the shell and the head. Cut a slit on the back of the prawn and remove the vein. Leave the tail on.
• Mix prawns with marinade mix and marinade for about 15 minutes.
• Heat up oil, deep-fry chopped ginger and garlic at medium heat until crispy and golden brown. Dish, drain and mix with salt to taste. Do not over fry the ginger and garlic as they will taste bitter.
• Heat up the remaining oil, deep-fry prawns until golden brown and cooked thoroughly. Dish and drain.
• Arrange the prawns onto a serving platter and sprinkle the crispy mixture over the prawns and serve.
• For the chili sauce : combine all ingredients and mix well. Serve as dipping sauce.