SPRING CLEANING !!! (Continued)

Serving the Pie

The mixed herbs were useful; indeed, they flavoured the pie and the beef, which was a good enough roast dish,  but it could have been better.  Roast cooking can be tricky, depending upon the cut, the size and the right technique to do it.  I come to a realisation now that I may have to stay with the lamb for a family roast.  The eye round cut was large enough, but because it's too lean, the meat was not juicy and tender as I would have expected.
No rice was served; instead we had baked potatoes, baked pumpkin, boiled peas, it was simple cooking.

No, we did not do the 'spring cleaning', but cleaning up for the garden was necessary to make a safe place for the young kids and for us to be in.
It was good to see that the four grandkids were all well, and were happy running around in the backyard.

In the backyard
 The four grandkids, Mary Rose, Thomas, Henry and Lily.

After all the cleaning up, the outdoor furniture was not used.  The grandkids were happy enough to be playing outside, and Mary Rose loves the garden, she said that we have a beautiful garden.

Pasta making was one of the activities inside the house, the grandkids and their mother had fun to make homemade fettuccine.  It was a long process from start to finish, and the cleaning/clearing up was done by Mel.  The pasta was so delicious, the grandkids loved it, in fact, Thomas and Mary Rose had second helping.  Well done, Melanie!!!  Thanks to Jane for keeping the pasta machine at our storing cupboard, at last, it was useful.

Pasta Making

Melanie with Henry, Lily and Mary Rose

Melanie, Thomas, Henry and Mary Rose

Mary Rose is rolling -slicing the pasta sheet.

The fresh fettuccine

It takes three minutes to boil the fresh pasta.

The last spoon of fettuccine served with tomato sauce,
 it was delicious.

Recipe for the pasta as I remember it: four hundred grams of plain flour mixed with four large eggs. Mix the ingredients together, knead it until smooth and silky.  Rest for a few hours.  Knead it again lightly, cut the dough into eight, roll each dough into thin sheets and work it through the pasta machine to make more delicate, flat sheets.  Cut through the machine to make the fettuccine.  Cook in boiling water-added with salt for three minutes.  Amazingly it was not a lot of mess and cleaning up,  but Melanie did them all.

Meringue with fresh fruits

Other cooking were sweets and one of the family favourites 'bakmi goreng'.  The pie was excellent, especially all the fresh vegetable and herbs are from our garden.
The cooking preparations were done before they arrived, I am blessed to have the time.  Spring feast, indeed it was, everyone loved it.

Vegetable and Cheese Pie with Water Pastry

Vegetable and Cheese Pie is ready to bake.

The Pie-Freshly Baked

The preparations and tidying up the garden were beneficial and fruitful.  The four grandkids had fun and enjoyed the visit.

I am sure they are having fun for the rest of the school holidays, it is a big time for all parents to entertain their children.  They do well, don't they!

Snap Shots 

 MAKING   FACES

They have gone back to Melbourne, they have more places to visit, friends to play with and more reading and assignment for Mel to be done.  Enjoy.


The word Cleaning is Daunting to me, more so Spring cleaning.   But we can enjoy the season, the beautiful Spring times.







Until Next Post
Susy

SPRING CLEANING !!!

Is it  spring cleaning ? . . . . . No, not quite.  We are getting ready for the grand kids to come for a visit during the school holiday.  They love to play in the backyard, and when the weather is good, we like to have our meals outdoors.  The table setting was so dirty, not acceptable to be used, so cleaning up was taking place.
No, not a spring cleaning, we need to do it, not only cleaning inside the house but also cleaning up the garden.

They are clean, after a good wash

.
The grandkids are always enthusiastic about coming to stay, especially they are so pleased that they will be sleeping over.  Bedrooms are aired, allowing fresh air to come in to make the rooms cleaner and fresher.

In the Garden . . . . Indeed we started to clean, to weed, to tidy up and we got the rewards already, a bunch of pretty flowers, and fresh vegetables, self sewed Swiss Chards from last year, and my goodness there are plenty of seedlings popping up everywhere.  There will be more greens this Summer.
Spring in the garden is work, " Spring Cleaning", I mentioned it to a friend before, but Spring in the garden can be fun and joyful.


Viva Vegies is the theme of our cooking this time.  Healthy and happy food for happy grandchildren.

Vegetable cheese pie, I am sure is going to be delicious, more so the pastry is the homemade water pastry.

Vegetables are easy to harvest, but it takes time to wash to get them clean from the dirt; however I am so pleased that we got them fresh from our own backyard.

Wash and clean them thoroughly, cook quickly and stored them properly.

Water pastry dough

Special water pastry I prepared today, it is added with an egg to get extra light and crispy.

Resting the pastry for half an hour is necessary before rolling out to make a finer sheet of pastry.

Spring feast is happening right now, cooking for Spring is always exciting, it does not take time, and it is fresh and not too greasy.   HHHHMMMMM, spring - lamb or roast beef with herbs is on the menu.  Javanese spices, or Middle eastern I must choose.  Both are superb to be served with Rice, just see.

Mixed Fresh Herbs

Fresh herbs and Lamb Lettuce are freshly picked from our backyard.







To Be Continued.




Until Next Post
Thank you for visiting
Susy

Soto Ayam-Chicken Soup (Javanese Cooking)

Soto Ayam is chicken soup Javanese style. It is mixed cooked vegetables, meat, vermicelli noodles and other garnishes added with hot flavoursome and aromatic broth.

It can be ceremonial to serve the soup, it brings family and friends together.  Place the broth in a large bowl and put it in the middle of the table with the chicken, vegetables and garnishes around.  Everyone helps themselves to assemble the soup, by putting what you like to eat in a deep serving bowl, followed by adding the hot broth and fresh herbs.
It is a delicious, fresh hot clear soup to be enjoyed throughout the year, even on a hot summer day.

Herbs and Spices for the Soto

Kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass, garlic, shallot, ginger, white pepper and turmeric.

Add salt, sugar and lime juice, season until well balanced.

Herbs and Spices for Soto

The Broth

Using chicken stock or any stock that you like.  Pan fry the shallot, garlic, turmeric in a little oil for a few seconds, add in the chicken stock and bring to simmer.  Put crushed lemongrass, ginger, and kaffir lime leaves and also ground white pepper and continue cooking over low heat for 45 minutes, until the herbs and spices impart the flavour. At the last stage add in the sugar, lime juice and season with salt to make a flavoursome broth.

The flavoursome broth for Soto

This Soto content of vermicelli noodles, cooked cabbage, carrot, and mung beans

Garnishes: are perkedel (fried potato dumplings) boiled eggs, sliced meat, tofu or even tempeh.

Recipe for Perkedal

Perkedel Kentang (Fried Potato Dumplings)

Ingredients

1 kg potato, rub with some oil

(Put in a baking tray)

Peeled cooked potatoes

Baked potatoes

2 large eggs

100 g mincemeat

½ teaspoon salt

Grated nutmeg

Ground white pepper

Vegetable oil for frying

Method

Place the prepared potato in a hot oven to bake until soft.

When cool enough, peel the skin off, and mash them up until smooth.

Add in salt, pepper, meat, eggs and mix all together

Make into round balls then press them a little to make roundish but flat shapes.

Fry in hot oil, five at the time (depending on the size of the fryer) until golden brown.

To serve

Serve together with other side dishes in a banquet.

 And also. It is a part of Soto garnishes.

Make smaller balls to garnish ‘Soto ‘ (Javanese soup)

Small perkedel to garnish Soto

To Serve The Soto

Put some vegetables-cooked carrots, cabbages, fresh bean shoots, sliced chicken, and perkedel (fried potato dumpling), fresh chopped parsley in a deep serving bowl.  Ladle the flavoursome broth.  Garnished with fried shallots.  Serve at once

Assembling the Soto, 

Soto is Served

Other Variation of Soto:  Soto Tofu

Soto garnished with Tofu (my own style)

Rice vermicelli, cooked carrots, mung beans, sliced tofu
chopped parsley and fried shallots

Hot Soto with tofu is served.

Chili Sauce and Fried Shallots

Commonly Soto is served with steamed white rice, place the rice in a separate bowl, or put the rice in the serving bowl together with all the garnishes on top before adding the hot Soto broth.


Pho (Vietnamese soup) is almost similar to Soto, in terms of the preparation, but it has a different flavour. Putting the cooked ingredients in a serving bowl,  garnish with fresh herbs then adding the broth onto it.  The good things about soup to be prepared this way is that it stays fresh, and it can be personal, as everyone can help themselves as they like it.


Soto can be the remedy of a common cold too by adding extra lemon juice, especially vegetable Soto (it is not traditional), but it can be tasty also, use hot water instead of the meat broth.

There are varieties of Soto in Java. Depending on the regions.  My Soto is based on cooking from the town of Yogyakarta.

Frozen chicken stock

To cut the preparations time, make the stock first- the base ingredient of the broth, and freeze it.

Anytime you wish to have the Soto, what you need is only preparing the vegetables and garnishes, you can have it within ten minutes.  Isn't good!






Now you have another Javanese cooking as promised.  You may like to try the recipe, have fun and happy cooking.

Until Next Post

Thanks for Visiting

Susy

SPONGE - SOUP. . . . . . for

Winter has just gone; unfortunately I got a common cold, and it is very unpleasant.  All the symptoms are a nuisance, from having temperature, headache, sore throat to bad coughs, the whole well-being disappeared and almost unbelievable that you will ever get better.  It has been three weeks since, and the fact that an antibiotic was prescribed for me, it must be needed, I never get sick, am in good health most of the time.

A dash of Grand Marnier for the fruits

sliced watermelon, rockmelon, pineapples
a segment of oranges, sliced strawberries are

Feeling tired, thirsty and lacking in appetite are among the discomfort that I have.  The hot drink helps, so does a cold drink. Sweets and fresh fruits are excellent to have, in fact, that is the food that I can eat quickly right now.  It got me thinking about how about a sponge cake with a lot of fruits.  Is it the right diet for me right now?  I know that I long for fresh fruits and sweet flavour.

Fresh fruits are always here in the bowl, ready to cut up.
When you are not well, eat what you like and what you can enjoy.

Fresh Fruits with Sweet Sponge Cake

The Sponge Cake

I was fit enough to bake sponges, it's good to be busy for me, especially I was by myself for at least a couple of hours, as Rayner was seeing his specialist.  I checked the pantry, and I had the ingredients, only I was aware that the sugar was not sufficient for the cake, but I could do it, and I believe the sponges will work.

I did my preparation without any expectation of a  perfect result, but I know that I will have the cake.

Now I am sharing the recipe of this 'hand on sponge' cake,  which I dedicated to all who wish to have a treat while feeling not too well, sponge cake with lots and lots of fresh fruits.  Extra yoghurt to serve is recommended, instead of cream.

Fresh Fruits and Plain Yogurt To Serve the Sponge

Sponge Cake with Lots of Fresh Fruits

Sponge Cake for the Sick

(measurements are only for this cake, you may find that it is not very conventional)

Ingredients

1 cup mixed self-rising flour, corn flour and custard Powder, approximately one-third of each.

2 teaspoons cream of tartar and ½ bicarbonate soda add in the flour mixtures

(Sift these ingredients a few times thoroughly)

5 small eggs

½ cup caster sugar

Method

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C a fan forced

Line and butter two baking tins

Beat the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy about 11 minutes or even more

Fold and stir in the sifted flour mixture, and do it gently (use a metal spoon)

(I could not find mine, I use a plastic spatula)

Divide the mixture into two, pour it in the prepared baking tin

Bake in the preheated oven for 11-12 minutes (it worked in my oven)

Take them out and leave in the tins for 6 minutes

Turn them out and cool in a cooling tray and keep them away from draft.

Note: I had to wait for the oven to be ready for the next baking, as another cooking was still in progress, so I parked the sponge for about 7 minutes.  The sponge baked beautifully.

I managed to take pictures for you of the steps in the making for the sponges.

The Preparation 

Sugar and eggs - ready to beat for 10 minutes

In the meantime, sift the dry ingredients at least three times.  Do it thoroughly

Beating the eggs and sugar until thick and fluffy

Two 20 cm round tins, lined and buttered.

Cake mixture on the tin

Freshly baked sponges

The cake mixture sitting in a tin and ready to bake

Cooking sponges on a cooling tray

For two weeks  I have not been able to taste and enjoy food, but this morning I wished to have something sweet with lots, and lots of fresh fruits.  This is the reason how the sponge for the 'sick 'was born.  It may not be a perfect sponge, though, but I am happy enough.

The Sponge Cake

We enjoyed the cake, and it was not bad, the sponge was not dry, and the fruits celebrate the sponge, it's so fresh, and the plain yoghurt was the perfect garnish.

More liquids, more drinks, more fresh vegetables.  Soups for the Sick, soups for the remedy for  'illness, ' chicken soup, as our mums told us, yes they are right, but other soup can be good too.  I simply love vegetables soup cooked in their own juice and water added for the broth, they are light and fresh.

SS  -  Soup for the Sick

The clear soup is excellent for the common cold, you don't need meat stock or chicken, but fresh vegetable is a must.  Cauliflower soup with thyme.  Thyme is a herb which is excellent to help and reduce the cough, you could have it in your tea, add some sprige of the fresh thyme in a cup, add hot boiling water, let it steep for a few minutes before you drink it.

A very tender and soft cauliflower soup, spiced with cracked white pepper and fresh herbs is delicious. Cut the cauliflower in wedges, braise until tender over low heat (to keep their shape), add lots of water and season well.  Serve hot with fresh herbs.  
The soft cauliflower melts in the mouth, and the fresh broth brings the flavour to it.

Cauliflower Wedges in Clear Broth.

Other soup with crunchy texture is clear broth with bean shoots and fresh herbs, it brings me back to my childhood that similar soup is always served in my parents' home, but they added some spinach.

We all experience flu, common cold and the feeling of weariness, and the help of remedies is a lot of rest, eating healthy food, fresh fruits and also to have plenty of liquid. 

It is OK to have a treat now and then.
Have fun to try the sponge recipe and happy baking.



To Mel, Jane and Susan, the soups are excellent for the daily meal, good for you and the family.  Keep well girls. xx





I will be back with Javanese cooking, stay tuned.
Until Next Post
Susy