Lupis/ Packed Sweet Glutinous Rice with Palm Sugar Syrup

This sweet sticky rice could well be one of my favorite breakfast items growing up. I don't have much of sweet tooth, less so for breakfast food, I rarely eat pancake or sugary cereal for breakfast. Lupis is an exception. It's no fuss no pretend sort of food. Very peasant dish, if I may. Basically it consists of sticky rice, palm sugar syrup and grated coconut.

99.99% of time, it comes in triangular shapes. Sometimes you will see cylinder/ log shaped lupis, but ....that's just not right!! :) It also has to have a tint of green on it, which primarily from the banana leaves wrappers. I guess it won't have any green tint if it's wrapped in foil or plastic. However, my favorite lupis stall actually tint hers with pandan extract. She sells the regular kind too (no pandan extract ones) but boy, the pandan kind is my favorite! I love love the smell of pandan leaves. Somebody should make it into potpourri!

I prefer lupis being packed in banana leaves, not only for the earthy smell of it, but also the beautiful faint green color it lends to this sticky rice. Unfortunately, my last batch of banana leaves went to Pepes Ikan and I haven't been to Asian grocery store since then. So, foil it is then, which actually make the process much easier. I added pandan extract..mmhh..to recreate the ones I used to eat for breakfast. Also, to get the green color on it. I am a firm believer that we feast through our eyes first.

The combination of coconut and pandan alone can make my day. Add to that, palm sugar syrup. Mmmhhmmhh!! Growing up, whenever I saw my mom/grandma was about to make something with palm sugar, I'd just stand there with eyes fixating to chopping block and pick on cubes or shavings of this sweet block. It's heavenly.

What:
- 1 cup glutinous rice, rinse well and soak in water for about 45 minutes, drained.
- pinch of salt
- 1 tbsp slaked lime water
- 1 pandan leaf, make into a knot (optional)
- 1 drop of pandan extract (optional)
- 5-6 6" foil square, make into triangular pouch/ cone shape

Syrup:
- 1/2 cup gula Jawa/ palm sugar
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 pandan leaf, make into knot
- 1/2 cup unsweetened grated coconut

How:
- After draining rice, toss in pinch of salt, add slaked lime water to rice. Stir. Add 1 drop of pandan extract. Mix well.
- Take 1 piece of cone foil, fill with 1/3 - 1/2 cup rice. Fold the sides and crimp. Pack it in such way that it resembles equilateral triangle, all equal length three sides.
- Put triangles in pot and cover with hot water. Boil for 2 hours. Check every so often and add hot water if necessary. Drain and let it cool.
- To make syrup, just toss in sugar, water and pandan leaf into saucepan. Stir and let it comes to thick syrup. I like my syrup pretty thick, add more water for thinner syrup.
- Once the triangle bundles cool down, dredge on grated coconut.
- Pour syrup on top of it. Actually, dump the syrup on it!! :) Both posted photos show only some drizzle, simply because I don't think glob of dark syrup would look very appetizing. In real life though, with fork in hand, syrup pouring, folks!

I wanted to say slaked lime water is optional, but at the same time, it is sort of alkali that makes the unique texture of lupis and other similar sweet dishes. I am scratching my head here trying to describe it better. Slaked lime water is sometimes used for fried food/crackers to maintain its crunchiness. In lupis though, it gives identical character of 'crisping' up the stickiness of rice so that it is more solid rather than too chewy and soft. It has certain 'give' when cutting and biting to it, think...al dante in pasta. However, if it comes to it, sudden cravings and all, then I would careless about whether there is slaked lime water or not. :D

That said, I am so submitting this to this month - Waiter, there's something in my..Indonesian, hosted by Wine.Scribbler.

Savory Asian Rolls

Having a work-session at our place this weekend. Depressing enough that we needed to work on weekend, on top of that, the weather was not the best - gloomy, humid, semi-raining, semi-sunshine! So everybody decided to bring some snacks to keep going and motivated (to keep eating). I decided to make some rolls - bread rolls and spring rolls!

I have been thinking a lot about baking rolls/bread, especially after religiously checking out Elra's blog! Something about bread baking has always been somewhat intimidating. Which is rather silly due to the fact that I grew up watching a lot of dough kneading and some involved slapping dough to air and counter top - still not quite sure whether it was some anger management session taking place or that type of high level slapping was truly needed?!! Ooh, we don't do any fancy breads, just simple basic savory/sweet filled buns and rolls - I loveee coconut buns!!! And occasionally, some Chinese steamed buns. In short, I should feel okay with the bread ordeal, yeah? But I am just not.

However, enough whining, so I leafed through family's recipe and realized that there is another reason why I feel reluctant!! High protein vs low protein flour?!! Most of these recipes combine both. And I suddenly remember that in Indonesia - they kinda use the brand name to identify it, isn't it? Or that's just my silly judgment? Cakra as high protein (typically used for bread making) and Segitiga as......low protein? Or is it just all purpose flour? It's for everything kind of flour, yes? Can I just use bread flour then? King Arthur? One day I will figure this out and my oven will be spitting out toasty delicious rolls and buns like no tomorrow! :)

Then I came across another stash of recipes that I kept from random sources and this one sounds good. The picture in magazine looks like what I have in my head, savory filled buns. Big plus it only calls for all purpose flour. Bigger plus, it does not seem too demanding - effort and time.

Savory Asian Rolls
adapted from Korean Spiced Beef and Cabbage Rolls, Cooking Light, January 2008.

Filling:
- 1/2 cup chopped green onions
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp chinese cooking wine
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1/4 tsp fresh ginger
- 1/4 tsp minced garlic
- 1/8 tsp ground red pepper
- 1/2 lbs ground chicken

Dough:
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tbsp baking pwder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/3 cups water
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 tbsp canola oil

Eggwash:
- 1 tbsp water
- 1 large egg white, lightly beaten

How:
- Heat a little oil in pan. Toss all filling ingredients together. Cook until chicken is done. Remove from heat and cool completely.
- Combine dry mixture in one bowl: flour, baking powder, and salt, stir with a whisk. Combine 1 1/3 cup water, honey and canola oil, whisk. Add water mixture to flour mixture, stir until a soft dough forms.
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic about 5 minutes. Cover and let stand for another 5 minutes. (This is where I jumped into making this recipe, 10 minutes in a making just sounds extremely doable, isnt it?!)
- The recipe calls for rolling the dough into a 16 x 12 rectangle, 1/4" thick, on lightly floured surface. Cut dough to 12 squares. But with limited counter space, I just eyeball and portion out 15 dough-balls. Rolling each ball to a 1/4" disk.
- Cover dough with damp cloth. Work with 1 square/disk at the time, spoon about 1/4 cup filling into the center of dough. Moisten edges with water and bring corners to center. Pinch to seal.
- Place rolls, seam side down on baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Mix lightly beaten egg with water. Brush top of dough. The recipe suggests sprinkling sesame seeds on top of dough. But..I don't have any, so plain top it is.
- Bake at 375° for 25 minutes or until rolls are lightly browned.

Well, the outcome is not too bad. Not exactly great either. The dough part is somewhat bland and has crusty/crispy top as opposed to pillow soft like. Not quite what I wished it would turn out to. But maybe if I want these rolls to be the type that I want them to, I should have used the recipe that is meant for it, right?! :) To say the least, for such little time it took to make these mini rolls, I feel quite happy with the result. Plus, there was no leftover, so I really can't complain much.

Now that I am blogging this, it just occurred to me that I did not take any photos of the fillings!!! It was the best part of these small buns. Geez!

Cheddar Chives Scones

There is this one TV commercial about iced cappuccino. Two people happen to bump into each other, one of them has a cappuccino on his hand and the other person was just so mesmerized by it. Something along that line happened to me earlier today. As I got out from a building, an older lady almost bumped into me, some 'sorry/pardon/excuse me' being exchanged but all I care at that time was this huge scone in her hand. Hmm!! I am not sure whether the familiar baked goods smell from the bakery nearby or the visual image of the scone that just made me think of scones all the way coming home!!

I knew I'd making a small batch of it as soon as I got home. First I was thinking about sweet kind of scones. A quick look to the pantry - hm..nothing exciting for sweet scones in there. I ended up doing what I usually do, looking at the back of fridge, the drawers, whether any small bits I can use. Few strands of chives. Some cheddar. Very basic cheddar and chives scones then!

I prefer my scones almost biscuit like. Hard crust outside but still has some flakiness inside. From all things I bake, scones rank pretty high up in easy and fast category. It's really quick and effortless. Perfect for quick breakfast. Or, in our case today, afternoon snack. I have always loved herbs flavored scones, it works beautifully with cheeses. Even plain herb scones works wonder with a smear of butter on it.

What:
- 1 cup of flour
- 1/2 tbsp baking powder
- 5 tbsp of unsalted butter, cold, cubed
- 1/2 cup shredded old cheddar
- 1 tsp chives, finely chopped
- 1/3 tsp minced garlic (optional)
- 1/3 cup light cream
- pinch of salt and pepper

How:
- Mix flour, baking powder, salt and pepper in a bowl. Add butter and using pastry blender to make a coarse butter-flour crumbs. Using fingers to rub butter into flour just work as good.
- Add cheese, chives, and garlic to mixture. Toss gently just until combine.
- Pour cream on top and stir slowly to make a loose dough.
- Dump dough onto floured surface and gently knead for a minute just until it does not crumble. Gather into a ball. Pat to 1" thick disc. Cut to wedges or cut to rounds using cookie cutters. I just cut mine to 4 big wedges. Easy work. :D
- Bake in preheated 400°F oven for about 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Eat it as is, warm from oven. Or with some spread. Or for sandwich. Or with soup! The options are endless. What I like about this type of scones (hard crust outside and still has some flakiness inside) is that it keeps better than the harder version.

Camping: Peach Coffee Cake

Very easy coffee-cake and have never met anybody who doesn't like it! Original recipe called for apricot preserve as filling, but any preserves can be used. I have one jar of peach preserves that Vik thinks it's too chunky and tart to use as spread. So I thought it'd be perfect to use it for this recipe.

I can't remember the magazine where I get this recipe from. I just have a copied version of it, but vaguely, I think it's Southern Living or magazine along that line.

Instead of original 13x9x2 baking dish, which I don't have, I usually use round 10 inches, or two loaf pans. My mom even tried it on muffin cups. Below is the 'full' size recipe, but for the camping weekend, I just made half recipe that yield 2 small loaf pans.

What:
- 1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking pwder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 jar preserves (try not to use jelly or smooth type jam)

Topping:
Mix together:
- 1/3 cup butter, softened
- 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 cups flaked coconut

How:
- Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in bowl. Set aside.
- Beat cream cheese, butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Add milk and vanilla, mix well.
- Add flour mixture to creamed mixture. Beat until just moistened. Don't overbeat.
- Spread half batter into greased baking dish (I like to line mine with parchment paper).
- Carefully spread filling/ preserves over batter. Spread remaining batter on top of preserves.
- Bake at 350 until golden brown, about 35-40 minutes. Or less if using smaller pan.
- Take cake out from oven. Spoon topping over the cake. Gently press down the topping. Broil for 1-2 minutes until topping turn golden brown.

Bluberry Scones

On weekdays, usually our breakfast ranges from variety of eggs with toast, mixed berry cereal, oatmeal, french toast, or pancake. Things that take less than seven minutes to make. So, most weekends, I try to make something nicer for breakfast. We kinda like to sit outside our balcony, cup of coffee, in our pjs.

I grabbed a pint of blueberries from farmer's market across the street the day before, thinking I'd use it for the scones, see. But Vik managed to eat them, and only left small handful of it. Little things he does all the time, half eaten cookie left in the jar. Two grapes in the bowl. So, I got to mix in some of frozen blueberries.

What:
- 2 cup of flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup cold unsalted butter, diced
- 3/4 cup cold heavy cream
- 1 egg
- 1 pint fresh or frozen bluberries

How:
- Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar into large bowl.
- Using pastry blender or 2 forks, cut in diced butter. The mixture should resemble coarse crumbs.
- Mix cream and eggs together, then add to flour mixture. Mix until everything just blended. Do not overmix or overwork the dough. Fold in bluberries. Dough will be sticky.
- Drop dough by spoon to parchment lined cooking sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the bottom of scones are golden brown, in preheated oven.
- Serve with preserve or whipped butter.