At Home.

Cooking, Gardening, Bless Our Home.

Spiced eggplant, hot chilli chicken and rice pilaf that are among of my cooking, sometimes I share the recipes, but most of the time I am happy enough giving the idea what you do with simple ingredients to make delicious food through my cooking.  Birthday, Christmas, and Easter dishes I do, and maybe you will try to do the same, especially if you love home cooking.

Christmas Time

Doughnut Filled with Pecorino Cheese

 Eggplant with its deliciousness.

Tomatoes: peel tomatoes for easy eating.  Using the peeled tomatoes/

Dress with olive oil and herbs served as a salad, mixed with pasta and cheese.

Relaxing in the backyard

Pasta with tomato and fresh herb, and Pecorino Cheese

Resoles, Sponge, Green  Wajik

The useful gadget, the kitchen helper

Easter Time

Easter Crown

A pretty place, so peaceful.

Beautiful Thing to mark Beautiful Day.

 Quick mix bread 

The proud baker

Glorious Food

The best beast-rare roast beef.

 Sourdough Bread with Walnuts

Loukoumades filled with Turkish Delight

Meat lamb and vegetable Croquette.

Birthday cake 

Rice garnished with opor ayam.

Easter Crown

Our Easter Crown for the Easter Brunch 2015

In the Kitchen

Summer sponge cake

Silk Scarf

Fresh Fruits Sponge

Gardening for Hoya, and the Pink Cymbidium Orchid

Rice and Tempeh, my favourite

The essential red meat

Cakes and Bubbles

Working in the Garden

A Bouquet of Sixty Long White Roses

Green Grass.

Fresh Fruits

When you are cooking scone, make the best of the heat to bake the pot pies.

Quick Bread-Green Tomato Herb Bread

The food fit to serve for a crowd

 Dressed Dandy Carrot Cake

Sunny Day in the Backyard

Late Season Tomato

Use for Tomato Cocasse to add to Spaghetti 

Anchovies, tomato and fresh herbs to add to pasta are simple but sweet, it's family favourite.

Celebrate Zucchini

 Rice and the Garnish

 Tea Cake

Working for the Dough

Fun Baking-Sourdough Bread

 

Love These Beauty.

Time is precious, use it wisely. Everyone has their own routine to fill up the days,  for us who no longer in the job force, day to day is different from everyone else.  From the basic daily need such as cooking, cleaning and gardening if these are your routine work, it can be done smoothly by job sharing between the member of the family.  Cooking is fun for me, and it is an important part of my days, whether cooking for a daily meal or for a special occasion.  

I am so proud that I or we have been working in a team as long as I remember, and the chore around the house is not different either for a girl or boy, our home duties run well that way, everyone is satisfied, we are at peace.  

Housework such as washing the dishes, it is quickly done by hands.  Ah, it is boring and must have a break, so a washing machine has to have. Indeed, even with the machine, we still have to work together. You know what all these dirty dishes, pots and pan cannot walk themself and sit on it to be washed and become clean.  No, those things need us, someone, willing to put and fix in the washing machine.  Well, of course, in a family, the time table has to be sat up, everyone has a turn.  We do it very quickly as only the two of us, we are lucky to have twin dishwashers so we can have one each, we do not need to fight.  It's a good idea to have them when the family comes home for a visit, the job could be done quicker and more comfortable.

This time I am talking mainly about the domestic duties, it got to be done regardless.  Not far from this world that people depend on other people just to do housework or to do the garden, or even the grocery shopping, lucky you that can do so.  Time is money that one of the reasons.  Only recently, I learned that one of my siblings has a security person to open and close the gate. Could you believe it?  What is that, modern slavery? It would be better to have an automatic gate opener powered by electric.  I don't need to understand what she does.

The pictures above, taken randomly from my files, and it is good to look back that the times were filled with good fun, also to add other beautiful pictures of my survival kits.   These days I cook less and less, only when the family comes home.

As long as we are in good health, day to day is never get bored, we like to create events or a new activity to make life more exciting. This way we could forget our physical pains, obviously you would not know if you don't have any.

I hope you are all busy and enjoy your days with eagerness, keep on smiling, greet the morning sun with joy, the time is yours.

*****************************

Here I leave you a tip on how to make a perfect pot tea.

HOW  TO   MAKE  A  PERFECT  POT  OF  TEA

Empty your kettle, then fill it with freshly-drawn water from the cold tap.

1. Put the kettle on and, just before it comes to the boil, pour a generous dash of the hot water into your teapot (glazed china of earthenware for preference), swirling it round and round inside the pot before pouring it away. (Warming the pot is not a meaningless ritual, but ensures that the water stays at the boiling point when it hits the tea, encouraging the proper opening of the leaves.)
2. Dole out one heaped teaspoon of tea leaves for each person, and one for the pot, straight into the warmed teapot. (Large-leafed teas are comparatively light for their volume, so add an extra spoon or so of these.)  The kettle will have reached a galloping boil by this time, so pour the water over the tea.  Take care that the water is not long boiling; over boiled water loses its oxygen and results in a bitter muddy brew of tea.
3. Allow the tea to stand and brew for anything from three to six minutes according to the leaf size (less time for small leaves, more for large ones).
4. Give the tea a good stir and pour it using a strainer to catch leaves.  If you take your tea with milk, you should add it to the cup, cold and fresh, before pouring the tea.

P. S.  Tea bags are never a good idea.

The tea they produce is simply not the same. Also, try not to add sugar to tea as it vitiates the taste.  As Fielding wrote, 'Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea.'

Based on The Art & Pleasures of Taking Tea by Helen Simpson.

Until Next Post

Susy

THE BEST !!!

Ginger Fluff.
The best baking ever, this ginger fluff sponge cake that I bake today is amazing, the recipe based on Lorraine Elliott.  A few changes I did, and still working well.
The recipe says, using duck eggs is better.  Filled with whipped cream and golden syrup.
The quantities of the Ingredients
3/4 corn flour or 2/3 corn flour plus 2 tablespoons custard powder
2 tablespoons plain flour
3 teaspoon baking powder
6 large free range eggs
2 teaspoons cinnamon powder
2 teaspoons ginger powder
2 teaspoons cocoa
1 tablespoon golden syrup


I am not sure how I dress mine,  I have overnight to think and to decide. One thing for sure, it is going to fill up with whipped cream.

The Preparation and The Baking

Free range egg, flour - corn flour, plain flour, sugar and spices, golden syrup.  Mix the flour and the baking powder, spices-ginger, cinnamon, and cocoa, sift together a few times.

Beat the egg white with the half amount of the sugar until light and fluffy, add the egg yolk and the rest of the sugar until thick and triple size, add the dry ingredient, fold in gently add little by little until all combine evenly. Use a metal spatula to mix, divide to equal and pour into the prepared tins.

 Line the tins with baking paper and butter the tins generously, pour the cake mixture and bake the cake at the preheated oven at 160 degrees C fan forced oven for 28 - 30 minutes.

The cake is ready when it starts to come away from the side of the tin and it springs back when touched lightly in the centre. Take it out from the oven, let it cooler on the tin for ten minutes, transfer on cooling tray afterwards.  Let is rest and cool completely, before wrapping them up.

Gorgeous looking freshly baked ginger fluff sponge, high and handsome.

Wait until cold, to wrap in paper and foil and place it on an airtight container to store.

UPDATED

The cake baked well, very high in height but not really as huge as a giant, so I changed the title of the post.  However, I am so pleased, and hopefully, it has good crumb and cut well.

To Dress the Cake
It is me, cannot afford to miss the fresh flower and cannot go without, here it is.  Sponge Cake for Sweet Saturday.

For the Filling:

Whipp 225 ml thickened cream with 2 tablespoons golden syrup for the filling.  Add little by little in the cream during the process until it is thick and smooth.

The fresh flower and herbs are ready.  Crystalized ginger for extra garnish.

Gorgeous Ginger Fluff Cake
Our celebratory cake.

A sweet Saturday for us, forty-five years ago in 1974 was exactly the same day as today 'Saturday"  A good flight from Brisbane, Sydney to Melbourne.  It was a very pleasant ride to Hamilton.  It was the family of three and now has grown to be fourteen of us.  We are Blessed.

Sharing time with friends.

Have a lovely weekend Everyone!

Have a good break for the long weekend holiday, Labour Day in Australia.

Susy

RICE

Cooking Rice
Step by step how to cook steamed rice my way is easy, based on Javanese cooking style.
Use any heavy-based pot to prevent the rice from sticking and also to stop rice burning on the bottom of the pot.


Steamed White Rice  (Nasi Putih)
I don't have a steamer; instead, I do it in a pot with a heavy base.

Recipe:
1 cup heap full of long-grain white rice (Jasmine)
2 cups of water
Place the rice and water in a heavy based pot
Cook over medium heat, uncovered
Bring the rice to boil, stir and cook until the liquid is absorbed

Stir around, and gather the rice in the middle of the pot, put them back as before, let it be evenly spread on in and put the lid on, continue cooking on the same heat for 2 minutes, reduce the temperature at a shallow setting, and continue cooking for 8 minutes.

Open the lid, stir the rice lightly.  Replace the lid on.  Fluff the rice properly before serving.  Keep the lid on ( cover ) to keep it moist.

It is easy enough to do, and the rice is cooked well and fluffy.  The right and accurate temperature are essential to avoid sticking and burning.
Now, if you won't bother to cook the rice this way there is a rice cooker that you can purchase,  you cannot go wrong, simply follow the instruction, how to use it. Put it on, and in no time you have cooked rice.

The Javanese Style
Cooking boiled rice is never added salt, garnished with the side dishes to serve.  The rice is the vehicle to taste the flavours of the garnishes.

There are specific cooking of rice and added with salt. They are Nasi Gurih, Nasi Kuning, and Nasi Goreng.  Please look at the older posts.


Serving Rice
Often to be presented as a rice cone with the vegetable - Nasi Tumpeng & Sayur

Rice Cone with Snake Beans dressed in Coconut

The Side Dishes.
Pictures from the older posts.

double-cooked chicken, sauteed beans, spicy eggplant




gudangan, gudeg with chicken and eggs, sambal goreng bean and prawns.



empal, vegetable trancam, and sambal goreng kobis

gulai kambing-goat curry, acar, tahu bacem


terik telor,  telur gulung with prawns and telur pedas


panggang Ayam, opor Ayam and Ayam pedas-hot and spicy chicken

sayur lodeh-braised vegetables in coconut milk,  tahu salad and keringan-crispy spiced fried tempeh

Family Meal

Nasi Rames.  Steamed white rice with garnishes, semur telor, sambal goreng telur, acar, bergedel etc.

Javanese Dishes for Family Gets Together

Javanese Banquette.  White Rice and garnishes.  You could have five or ten garnishes or even more.

A Banquet for Milo

Today is the first day of Autumn, here in Traralgon Victoria is very hot, as it is summertime.

It was wise to be outside in the morning. We enjoyed the rest of the day inside the house, relaxed and comfortable.

Enjoy the new season, maybe you like to try to cook rice my way and serve it with Opor Ayam-chicken dish in which posted only recently under the heading of Cooking Lesson.  You will have a delicious meal, and the Autumn weather is perfect for it.

Welcome Autumn, and Have a Good Season Everyone.

Susy