Revenge!!

I spent half my weekend (Saturday and Sunday) in my research lab. It was kinda stressful. On Sunday I went to lab at 1 and came back home at 7:30 pm. That was tough.

I was really hungry. I thought of dining outside. I didn't think I have enough energy to cook anymore. But as soon as I got home, I thought of cooking something fancy.

there we go, Indonesian nasi kuning.

Yellow rice

My dinner on Sunday

and my lunch on Monday

Pretty simple to make. 

Yellow Rice

Recipe:

- 2 cups long grain rice

- 4 teaspoon turmeric powder

- 1 teaspoon ground white pepper

- 1/4 teaspoon ground clove

- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

- 1 teaspoon chicken powder

- 1/2 can coconut milk

- 2 bay leaves

- 2 orange leaves

Steps:

1) Rince rice in water twice.

2) Fill the water line in the rice cooker to slightly below the line for 2 cups of rice.

3) Add the rest of the ingredients. Mix well.

4) Turn on the rice cooker and wait until it cooks.

5) Serve hot.

Ayam goreng ketumbar (corriander fried chicken)
Recipe:

- 2 pieces chicken thigh, chopped into 2

- 1 tablespoon turmeric powder

- 1 teaspoon black pepper

- 2 tablespoons ground corriander seeds

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 1/2 teaspoon ground clove

- 1 teaspoon lime juice

Steps:

1) Marinate chicken with the rest of the ingredients for 1 day in the fridge.

2) Heat 2 cups of oil (enough to submerge the chicken) with medium-high heat (5 out of 9)

3) Carefully put marinated chicken into hot oil. Be careful of oil splashing out.

4) Cook for ~15 minutes

5) Drain and serve when hot.

WARNINGS: I never follow the recipe, so the above ingredient measurements are just estimates!!!

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Bread Bowl

It's getting colder and colder, so I guess it's almost time for soupy meals again.

Shrimp and scallop creamy tomato bisque on bread bowl

I got the bread from Panera. Or rather, I got it from one of my food science class because we were talking about bread and cheese production and my very nice professor brought us 4 different types of bread and 3 different types of cheese. We had quite a lot of leftover so I brought this one home.

But I left it too long inside a paper bag, so the bread has gone really dry!! Yes, the air outside is getting really dry too.

I found a can of Campbell soup in my kitchen cabinet, and decided to make shrimp and scallop bisque.

Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 3 shrimps, chopped
- 3 scallops, chopped
-1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice

- 1/2 can tomato bisque (Campbell's)

- a round bread with thick 'skin'

Steps:

1) Heat olive oil on saucepan. Add minced garlic and sautee until golden brown.

2) Add shrimp, scallop, black pepper and lemon juice and cook until shrimp and scallop is not transparent.

3) Add tomato bisque. Stir and heat for 10 minutes.

4) In the meantime, cut the top part of the bread so that it's wide enough to be a bowl. Scoop out the insides of the bowl using a spoon but be careful not to dig too deep and break the bottom part of the bread.

5) Pour soup into the bread bowl. Serve hot.

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Sleeping Bento

The leaves have started to turn red, but the temperature was around 29-30C today, so it doesn't feel like Fall has come. I was talking to my friend today, and I just realized that it has been 2 months since the start of this semester!

I only have 3-4 bento photos so far. That's sad :( I had more last year...

So the theme for today is "I still want to sleep..."

I think everyone has at least experienced this before: the alarm clock rings, you try to reach it and find the snooze button, wishing for another 5 minutes of sleep... which could potentially end up with you waking up late (at least that has been my case LOL).

Recipe is self-explanatory. The beef curry was actually my dinner left over :3

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Checkered Cookies

Hello again! I'm back to surface. As you probably have known (if you know me or you follow this blog), I don't like sweet stuffs. But I can't resist cuteness attacks, so I've decided to bake checkered cookies. I was actually inspired by my friend's photo. She made black and white cookies for Valentine's day.

Before baking

After baking

It wasn't that hard to do. Basically, it was the same as shortbread cookie recipe, but with altered flavor. I got the original recipe from here:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pistachio-Chocolate-Checkers/Detail.aspx

But I modified it slightly because I simply don't like cookies that are too sweet. So instead of 1 1/2 cups of sugar, I used only about 3/4 cups of sugar. I added 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract for the white one, and then about 2 teaspoons of matcha powder for the green one.

BUT!

I ran out of all-purpose flour, so I had to resort to self-rising flour. So the cookie is a little fluffy. But I guess that's okay; it's just that the cookie kinda became fat (LOL).

Anyways.

It's getting colder and colder. Everyone seems to hate the cold down here, but I prefer this than the hot, scorching sun.

I've started the "One Thank-You per Day" on Facebook, and I'm glad to hear that some of my friends thought this idea is very inspiring.

I don't go to bible studies, and I'm not as religious as probably most of the Christians down here. But what I want to do is to spread the love to the community - to spread the message that there is always something to be thankful about as you live every day. Life does not suck; at least for me, and that's what I want to believe.

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