Cuban Marinated Roast Pork

If you like strong herbs, this is something for you. While roasting it, my whole kitchen surrounded with cumin and garlic smell

10 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup each orange and lime juice
3 lbs. pork roast

Prepare the marinade by grinding the garlic, salt and peppercorns into a paste with a mortar and pestle or knife.

Put garlic paste and all other ingredients except for the pork in a large ziplock bag and whisk carefully.

Remove any excess fat from the roast. Pierce the meat all over and add to the bag with the marinade. Refrigerate overnight, turning to ensure that the marinade reaches all the roast.

About 3 hours before dinner, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove roast from bag and place fat side up in a roasting pan. Keep the marinade for basting.

Roast pork, basting frequently, for 2 1/2 hours or until desired doneness is reached. Remove from oven and let rest several minutes before slicing and serving.

Sour Cream Cinnamon Rolls

A little twist from “normal” cinnamon rolls, still the same goodness

I omit the icing to cut some calories

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
8 ounces sour cream
3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons organic shortening
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
3 to 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
For Filling:

2 Tablespoons butter, softened
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 heaping teaspoon ground cinnamon
For Icing:

3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 to 4 teaspoons water
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract (could use a little more if you wanted)
How to make it:

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water.  In a small saucepan, combine sour cream, granulated sugar, shortening and salt.  Heat gently over medium-low heat, stirring, until warm (about 120 to 130 degrees F.) and shortening is almost melted.  Stir in baking soda.
Stir sour cream mixture and egg into yeast.  Mix in 2 1/2 cups flour.
Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately soft dough.  Cover and let rest for 5 minutes.  Lightly coat a twelve cup muffin pan with cooking spray.

On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into an 18×12-inch rectangle and spread with softened butter.  Combine brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle evenly over dough.

Roll up, jelly roll style, and slice into twelve 1 1/2-inch wide pieces.  (Using unflavored dental floss the best tool for this.)  Place each bun, cut side down, on baking tray.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Cover and let rise in a warm place until 1/4 to 1/2-inch above top of cups, about 45 minutes to an hour.

Bake for about 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove buns from pan.  (You can freeze at this point and then re-warm before icing and serving.)
Combine confectioners’ sugar, vanilla and enough water to make an icing, of drizzling consistency and drizzle over rolls.  Eat them warm.

Oatmeal Caramel Steam Cake

The basic of this recipe is Indonesian traditional steam cake. I made a little twist by adding oatmeal and use caramel instead of caster sugar

Ingredients:
3 medium eggs
50 gr caster sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
350 gr sugar, make caramel with 400 ml of water (be careful not to burn it)
400 gr all purpose flour
100 gr oatmeal
200 ml vegetable oil

Directions:
Sieve together flour, baking powder and baking soda.
Beat sugar and eggs until very thick and pale, stop only when your mixer already makes trail on the dough.
Add all other ingredients to the dough a little by a little while mixing it.

Pour the dough in little ramekins which already lightly oiled until almost full.
Steam on high heat for about 25-30 minutes (or more, depends on the size of your mould) until done. Make sure you cover the lid of your steamer with cloth to prevent the water from dripping down to your cake.

Greek Tea Cookies

This is easy to make, if you like it crunchy, bake longer and vice versa

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups of flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup finely chopped almonds
1/3 cup powdered sugar to roll cookies in when baked

Directions:
Beat butter, powdered sugar, and the vanilla in a large bowl.
Stir in flour and salt and almonds. Shape dough into 1-inch balls place about 2-inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake at 400° F. for 9 to 12 minutes.
Immediately remove from cookie sheet and roll in powdered sugar.
Cool completely on wire rack. Roll in powdered sugar again.

Oatmeal Shrimp Patties

I’ve been putting oatmeal in almost everything I made, from cake, cookies, meatloaf  to this patties

The reason is because I know oatmeal is healthy and I want to give something good to my family. They don’t like oatmeal in its basic form, oatmeal porridge, so I have to figure out how to hide it in food they’d eat

These are what you need to make this easy cake:
500 gr shrimp
100 gr oatmeal
1 egg
1 tbsp shao xing wine or dry sherry (you need this to reduce the “shrimpy” smell )
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 garlic or more if you like
1 spring onion, finely chopped
salt and pepper (I added a bit of chicken powder to improve the taste)
1/2 tsp sugar

Directions:
Pulse all ingredients in food processor until well blended.

Form it into patties, baked in a pan until done. You can bake them with oil or without oil.

If you want, you can also coat them with bread crumb and egg wash before bake them.
Serve warm with choice of salad.

Opor Ayam – Indonesian chicken stew in coconut milk gravy

This is an all time favourite for Indonesian. Don’t let the list of ingredients scares you, it is actually easy to make, you just need to prepare the herbs then dump all of it in a pot

Ingredients:
500 gr whole chicken, cut in pieces, marinate in lemon juice for about 20 minutes then wash to clean
800 ml thin coconut milk
300 ml thick coconut milk
salt and sugar to taste

Herbs:
1 lemongrass
4 kaffir lime leaves
5 cloves
5 cm cinnamon stick
2 salam leaves, you can omit this if you don’t have it

Make it into paste:
7 shallots
4 garlic
2 tsp coriander seeds, roasted
½ tsp cumin seeds, roasted
½ tsp white pepper
½ tsp nutmeg
4 candlenuts, roasted
5 cm fresh ginger
Direction:
Boil the thin coconut milk, add the chicken pieces and herbs.
Sautee the paste ingredients until fragarant, add into the chicken mixture, stir frequently . Add salt and sugar to taste.
After the chicken’s done, pour in thick coconut milk, cook for another 10 minutes, stir frequently.

The chicken is ready to be served with warm rice and fried shallots.