Five-minute cheesecake

Ingredients

Digestive biscuits or ginger biscuits (2 biscuits per person)

A packet of berries of your choice 

A packet of mascarpone 

A spoonful of white sugar

A bar of chocolate

 

Method

1.    Crush 4 biscuits. An easy way to do this is to place the biscuits in a clean piece of cloth and wrap them into a bundle. Whack it on the bench until the biscuits have been well crumbled.

2.    Put the mascarpone cheese in a bowl and mix it well with sugar. You may add more sugar if you like.

3.    Divide the biscuit crumbles evenly into glasses. This will be the base of the cheesecake.

4.    Do the same with the mascarpone and pour it over the biscuit.

5.    Add three or so berries and pour more mascarpone over it.

6.    Make sure your chocolate is still cold and hard. Turn the chocolate so that it is showing the smooth side. With the back of a knife scrape the chocolate towards you to make chocolate rolls. Carefully sprinkle those chocolate rolls on top of the glass.

7.    If you like you can put your cheesecake in the fridge for several hours or you may just enjoy your cheesecake right away!

 

 

 

 

My First Attempt

Yes I admit I haven't taken good care of my blog. Ever since high school I could not manage to write very often and the fact that I don't really capture much images of my food makes this blog even more deserted. I haven't really make much use of my dslr camera recently simply because I find it more convenient to capture moments with my iPad instead. Not to mention the handy photography applications that follow. Although I cannot really depend on the quality of the pictures from my iPad, I love it more than my Nonac (a nick name I gave to my Canon dslr when I first purchased it :p)

Last Sunday I managed to visit the Jakarta Culinary Festival with my favourite man in my life -- my papa. I invited my brothers to come along but they could not make it due to the upcoming test week. I  was hoping to meet George Calombaris and Andrian Ishak but no they weren't there :( What made the visit exciting was trying the turkish icecream which costs 25k but really delish!!! And I watched a chocolatier's masterclass who tried to invent a pumpkin chocolate (forgot his name) I did not try the chocolate as my dad needed to return home tad earlier than what we planned.

Before I went home though I visited the merchandise corner. As I walked along the corner, my eyes were immediately struck to the Jamie Oliver book which sat idle on the "sale" rack of the Times Books stand just right opposite to the merch. I ran to the book and my eyes were shimmering as hell as I saw the price (was just fuckin 99k!!!) where else can you find a JO book with a $10 price? I was really happy and bought the book immediately.

I flipped through the pages of the book and found a recipe that I'd love to try first. It's actually a pasta salad but I made extra Bruschetta to compliment it aand I also substituted some of the ingredients of the recipe. This is my first attempt making a pasta salad and turned out to be surprisingly good.

A Tshirt I bought from the JCF merch section

pasta salad and bruschetta

moi  99k JO book *proud*

Simple Pasta Salad with Tomato, Prawns and Edam Bruschetta

Ingredients for the pasta salad

1 cup of small shelled pasta

ripe red cherry tomatoes - as much as you like

a good handful of basil - finely chopped

half of a cucumber or one small one

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp any vegetable oil of your choice

seasonings to taste

a clove of garlic - grated

Ingredients for the bruschetta

a loaf of baguette

2 prawns for each bruschetta

large leaves of basil

edam cheese

2 tbsp of lemon juice

one clove of garlic

about 4 tbsp of olive oil

i.

Boil the pasta in salted water according to the packet instructions. While the pasta is boiling, mix well the balsamic vinegar, oil and garlic in a large bowl. Cut the tomatoes in halves and chop the cucumbers until they have the same shape as the tomatoes. Drain the pasta when it is ready. Leave some of the pasta water to keep the moisture of the pasta. Mix the pasta with the chopped veggies, basil and the dressing. Your pasta is ready to serve.

ii.

Pour the lemon juice in a bowl and season the juice with salt and pepper. Marinate the prawns in the lemon juice mixture and leave. Cut the loaf of baguette slantways. In a saucepan pour 2 tbsp olive oil and wait until the oil is hot. Fry the baguette until golden brown and crispy. Leave the baguette on kitchen paper. In the same saucepan pour 2 tbsp of the oil and then fry the prawns until they changed color. Then put the prawns on the golden brown baguette along with large leaves of basil and shaved edam cheese. 

I can't care less about how annoying it is to know the fact that I haven't posted anything in my sacred blog for almost three months now! Besides my busy school days, I decided not to post anything I have cooked for the last few months because of my poor presentation *hehehe* AND I didn't find it legitimate to post only recipes. So yeah.

Well I guess I have reached the emergency point to write another silly post. And I want to share something with you readers. Nope, not food. But something related to food. Guess what? I am planning to make a mini restaurant in my room!

Haha it sounds stupid I know.. But when this project finishes, I swear it will be a winner. I have a huge space in my room, and I just hate seeing it worthless and lifeless. So I decided to make a super tiny restaurant, just for about 6 persons or so. For now, I am only inviting my close friends over because I need victims to taste my experiments (don't tell them!)

The plan is, to make a restaurant with fusion dishes. And I have decided to name my little baby Locavore. Locavore basically means people who likes eating local food. My food is just simple Western - Indonesian mix, combined with harmony :)

I'll share the picture of my old room and my restaurant-y room in my next post.
Bye!

An Epiphany

Reading two realistic posts made by my auntie and her friend gives me a sudden insight of the condition of this damaged world. If you have been following the news in recent years, most of the headlines are in the criminal boundary; corruption, bombs, assassinations, sexual harassments, even between father to daughter have gradually started to become usual to this world. What is ironic about this is that after having the knowledge of how terrible this world has transformed into, most of us would not respond like we care.

Being one of the young generations living, I honestly have little empathy to the world. What I observe is that people will only care, or get interested to what they want in life; happiness, money or whatever, without even having a damn to any of the poor conditions happening. People drink, laugh, eat, or do any of their other routines like nothing is barely wrong to this world.

Sometimes I wonder why do Indonesians have to learn Pancasila by hard if the words mean nothing. Is it really necessary to practice the words every Monday for the ceremony if we have minor morals? Hearing the word "Indonesia", and what immediately comes to our mind is never far from "corruption."
They always say my country needs the young to smash the reality, transform it 180 degrees and build a brand new, developed, very well-organised, and corruption-free country. But is it that easy?

We have to believe in the fact that only little of the young in this era are open minded, and have great concern to the world. The rest, believe it or not, are not far from pathetic puppy love stories, stuck at school works, or could be, frienemy problems. Yes, I too believe it is normal. But sometimes what we need to do is look outside our comfort zones, look beyond what we have not looked before. Our mini help and our tiny concern, would mean a significant result to our momma earth.

I Love What You Did To Me

Never have I thought that a really short introduction conversation can be a very special moment. Yes, it was undoubtedly a stiff and an awkward one, but that was what made it special. I could never think that someone like you would ever start a conversation with a peculiar looking person like me, and what's even bigger is that this type of conversation did not happen only once.

I hate the fact that I tried to become somebody else whenever you were around. You know, that trying-to-impress attitude always showed every time we interact. Your attractive look, that soft tone when you reply to my conversations, and your sweet and warm behavior -- altogether made that image of a perfect figure in my mind. Every bit of you automatically made me transform to be someone more of you just to attract you.

It is amazing how you have greatly influenced me from our talks. Your smart choice of words, the way you narrate me about your interesting perspective of life, your cheesy jokes...won't ever fail to light up my day. And oh I love what you did to me, how you bring positive impact and successfully encouraged me to become a better being.

Above all, thank you very much for what you've done, well what you've literally done. 

<3

Supermarkets and Red Onion

My ultimate favorite place to be after my kitchen is the supermarket. As a matter of fact I have visited three different supermarkets in different days this week! I love to be somewhere filled with variations of fresh, aromatic and colorful vegetables and fruits, somehow refreshes my mind after a dull day. My mother luckily loves to accompany me to shop for organic ingredients, and therefore I do not need to spend even a cent for my groceries.

After my gazillionth time visiting supermarkets, this week happened to be my first time buying red onions. I always got fascinated by the vibrant red-purpley colour of the onion and was always curious about the taste. The only onion I ever used for cooking was the yellow onion, and I've always wondered if both of the onions have similar flavors. I bought three enormous red onions which cost quite a lot, (but it does not really matter as it was my mom who paid :P) and thought of making a simple dish with the red onion as the base.

And so one afternoon I got really hungry and craved for pasta. I decided to make linguini with tomato sauce and prawns.

Linguini with prawns, tomato sauce and basil

Ingredients

Dried linguini

3 tsp olive oil

for the sauce:

½ red onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 tomatoes, quartered

1 tbsp pasta sauce

150ml chicken stock

1 tsp dried oregano

a small handful of fresh basil, chopped

for the prawns:

2 tbsp olive oil

½ red onion, finely chopped

7 - 8 prawns of your choice (you can always remove the head/shell if you want to)

2 tbsp butter

salt and white pepper

a small handful of fresh basil, chopped

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a sauté pan and sauté the red onion and garlic until translucent (in low heat). Don't brown them. Increase the heat and put in the pasta sauce, tomatoes and oregano. Stir well. Add the chicken stock. Crush the tomatoes until the juices come out and combine with the stock mixture. Put the lid on and let the mixture reduce for about 17 minutes. After the mixture has been reduced, add the fresh basil. Turn the heat off. The sauce is ready.

2. In another pan heat the oil and fry the onion until caramelized for about 5 minutes in low heat. Add in the prawns and toss the prawns so that the oil and onion is distributed evenly. Season with salt and white pepper. Let the prawns fry for about 3 minutes. Add the butter to give creaminess. At the end of the cooking time, stir in the chopped basil. 

3. In a saucepan pour in water and let it boil. Season the water with salt. Pour in the dried linguini. Boil the pasta for about 9 minutes until al dente. Drain the pasta and add olive oil to the pasta so that the pasta do not stick. 

4. Serve the pasta with the sauce and prawns. Scatter around fresh basil for garnish.

Hi.

You know how I've always hated people who got extinct right after they had published only several posts in their blogs? It annoys me at some point. And somehow that reflects me. And that annoys me. How I badly abandon my blog.... 

I just wanna spill my heart out;

Have you ever felt like you don't know what the heck you're doing and no one can ever bring you back to the right path? Or people just seem so stupid to understand the way you're feeling? Everything I've done, and what I'm trying to do, just feels wrong. That feeling when you're heart is empty and you don't know where to go, or what to do. You know when you're just so desperate, you just want to restart everything from zero and be happy for what you have?

I just can't lie to myself.