RECIPES???

NO, there are no recipes in this post.  Who needs the recipe anyway.  This cooking encourages you all merely making the best of ingredients you have in your kitchen.  Most recipes that I share are only guidance, and at the end of the day,  everyone can do what they want.

Braised Pork.
I cooked this dish to reminisce of the cooking I did when I was living in Java. The pork was not readily available, but when I could get the excess of the meat, I celebrated.   A lot of shallots were added, but this time I cooked the shoulder pork with sixty-six small onions as I cook chicken with forty cloves of garlic. The dish turned out alright, in fact, it was delicious.

The pork was braised in a slow cooker, the small onions were blanched for a few minutes before they were added to the meat. And for the spices and flavour I added: sliced apple, salt, white pepper, sugar, vinegar and white wine, it's braised in its own juice for seven hours.  It created enough gravy to dress the pork, and the meat was so tender and succulent.
Cooked sweet carrot, green broccoli to garnish the dish, but I prepared fresh fennel and radish salad, as I got them ready.

Fennel and Radish salad with Iceberg Lettuce.

Soft and Fluffy Plain Scones
A leftover cream and whipped cream I had.  Fresh scone would be perfect to have.
One of the bad bakings this one, the scones dry and overbaked. NO, not soft and fluffy at all, yes I was too busy doing other things, and I forgot about it.  Five minutes over baked scones is a no-no.  I served the scone with jam and cream, of course, still eatable as it was fresh.  I will use the rest to make tasty crumbs.

The Baking and Preparation

The Ingredients

The scones dough, these are ready for baking

Over Baked Scones-Hard and Dry

It could have been light and a fluffy scone to have if I was with it.
I don't waste it,  though, I made plain crumb and herbed crumb for my future cooking.

Crumbs of over-baked scones

Javanese resoles I cooked, and I used the crumbs.  It is braised mixed meat and vegetables wrapped in a pancake,  coated with the bits and fried, a delicious snack. I liked to eat after school, and got it from this particular shop 'Mirota'.   I will use the crumbs for fried stuffed mushrooms, croquette and so forth.

Javanese Crumbed Resoles

Javanese Resoles
Pancakes with meat and vegetable filling 

Vegetables

One day I found silverbeet growing in between rose bushes, I pulled them out, and I would make use of this green vegetable for exceptional cooking.  Steamed eggs with herbs, and also to wrap for heating up cold rice.
You could do it with spinach too.


First, I cut the stems and wash the leaves and blanched them for a few minutes.

A small pot is lined with the blanched leaves.

 The filling is enclosed by the overhanging leaves and buttered
  over the top, before steaming

Steaming for 22-25 minutes

Turn over the warm dish over to serve

Steamed egg in silverbeet leaves

It worked well, and the family agreed.

Meringue
To dress meringue topped with whipped cream and fruit is ideal on the day it is served.  The meringue will still be crunchy. I did that, and I do that always.  Only last week we had meringue topped with raspberries which it has been in the refrigerator for overnight and surprisingly was good.  It may be, it has only enough fruits, instead of fruits medley which create more humidity; as a result,  the meringue became soggy.

Meringue topped with Raspberries.

Pretty Meringue Topped with fresh Raspberries.

Extra fresh fruits to serve the meringue topped with raspberries.

Prepare mixed fresh fruit to serve the meringue, it helps to cut the richness of the cream and the sweetness of the meringue.

Ricotta Cheese
The cheese is always ready in my kitchen, I use it for cooking savouries and sweet dishes, or add into salad leaves.  I baked ricotta cheesecake in short pastry.

Baked Ricotta Cheese

My ricotta cheesecake in short pastry has some sultana and candied peel.  Simply place the mixture onto a lined dish with bought short pastry and bake in a medium-hot oven for 45 minutes.  Let it cool, transfer to a plate then refrigerated.  Take it out and keep at room temperature to serve.  Garnish with honey or dust with icing powder and some fresh fruits.
The ready-made short pastry is convenient to have, I learned.

When the apples are in season, I braise them and keep in jars, but last year Rayner's apple tree did not do well; however I bought some from the market.  I cut, preserved them in various shapes, from thinly sliced to rounds,  keep in syrup, and refrigerated.

Light open apple pie using quick pastry made out of self-rising flour, it is sweet and so light.  The pastry is actually a rich scone's dough, so you could make it easier.

The Last Drop.
We use milk daily, and when it is almost used up,  the last drop of the bottle can be mixed with water and use it to spray rose plants,  it keeps the plants and leaves healthy.  Thank you for your advice, Irene!
How about the last drop of oil?  It is not easy emptying a little oil of a bottle.  This is what I do. I add in 1/2 cup of warm water, shake it well and transfer to a cup. The warm water mixture can be added to flour to make water pastry.  Mix it with a cup of plain flour and a little salt to make water pastry.

The Water Pastry

185gr water pastry

I did it, and it made eight large thin rounds pastry sheets.  I used five of them for baked layer sweet crispy pastry.  The other three sheets were for cooking martabak, popular street food in Java.

The Sweet Crispy Pastry.

Roll each pastry to a thin pastry sheet, place one on a buttered baking dish and scattered with castor sugar,  put another layer on top, do up to the fourth, cover the last with the fifth pastry sheet and brush with melted butter.  Bake in a hot oven for 11 minutes.

Thin pastry sheet brushed with melted butter.

Layer upon layer of the thin pastry sheets
with castor sugar in between

Freshly Baked Layer Crispy Pastry

Layer Crispy Pastry, Dusted with Icing powder, and
add with fresh blueberries on top.

Wedges of Sweet Crispy Pastry

How good is that, pretty looking and sweet, light and crispy, the blueberries indeed did it!
We enjoyed hot tea for yesterday late afternoon.

Martabak

Egg mixture with shallots wrapped in thin pastry and pan-fried in oil is martabak, a savoury dish which is readily available in the street or market in Java.  One of my favourite savouries.

Filling Mixture

Pan-frying Martabak

Cooked Martabak

A platter of Wedges Martabak

Martabak is delicious, it is a treat to have.  It does need a lot of preparations,  from the homemade pastry to the wrapping and frying, which is a very delicate process.

Rice

Lazy Rice, I love this dish.  It is flavoured rice with meat or vegetable and cooked in a pot. The lazy rice I did was with vegetable.  Half cup rice with mushrooms, carrots and herbs.

Lazy Rice with Mushrooms

Lazy Rice garnished with a pretty salad
and chilli powder

Pretty Salad

To celebrate my vegetable garden, pretty fresh salads to garnish the Rice.  We love chillies, I sprinkled the dish with chilli powder.


















Harvest from my garden is always fun to cook with; swiss chards cooked for pies, apple and nectarines are for cakes, pies, tarts and muffins.  Lately, I did an open pie using my preserved apple in syrup and was shared for a morning tea.

Last night I got a message from my daughter - Jane, who lives in the Netherlands, for face time, she needed instructions on how to cook Javanese kroket or croquette.  So we did, what she meant was Javanese Resoles.  Anyway, she gives me the inspiration to do the kroket, and here it is.
Cooking Kroket Susy's Way.
I cook the potato by boiling them instead of frying, it is my way,  not Javanese way.
The filling is tuna and carrot, could be chicken or beef.

Cook and boil the potato with the skin on until soft, about 35 minutes.
Peel them while still hot, and mash them up right away.

Make sure that the mashed potato is smooth.

Add in softened butter, eggs, and mix together to a smooth paste,

Divide this mixture into 12 to make round balls. The balls are ready to fill with the filling.

12 mashed potato balls

The filling: carrot, tuna

The filling: tuna, carrot, and celery.

Making the kroket, filling up the balls with the filling

Fill the kroket, put aside until all finished.  Have a lightly beaten egg white, breadcrumbs mixed with butter, and extra-fine breadcrumbs ready.
Preparation of kroket for baking: take a kroket ball, roll it onto the egg white, and roll in the breadcrumbs mixture.  Do all the rest!

Bake, the kroket at 160 degrees C a fan, forced oven for 18 minutes.  Turn it once (after 10 minutes baking) to make even colour and golden brown.


Kroket is ready to serve, with a sauce or without.  You may garnish it with fresh whole red chilli.

I thought of you Jane, now you could do the kroket Javanese style at home, and have fun!

It has been fun to share ideas with you all, it is not hard to create or to try cooking new dishes, what you need is time and spirit to do it.

I close off with these pictures from my garden - potted hippeastrum.  This year the flowers are amazing.



Have Fun in the Kitchen!

Until Next Post
Susy