Got confused by the title? Don't be! If you are my readers on my multiply, you will know that I have been posting twice.

First story of my Focaccia bread was starting at work. I was reading a recipe of Focaccia bread, I had to make them for the supper and I asked Dan to show me how to make it at that time. Dan told me that the recipe is too complicated and he showed me the easiest way. I was looking up a recipe that is closed to Dan's direction, and I found a recipe from epicurious.com. Most recipes call for olive oil, here I modified by using grapeseed oil.

The second story was just because I still had fresh rosemary. I tried a little different touch for the top, sprinkling garlic over. While I made the second one, I didn't use my heater for raising the dough as my first one. I turned on my oven, let oven door open and sit the dough bowl on the door.

Rosemary Focaccia Bread

The recipe

Ingredients:
2 cups warm water (105�F; to 115�F;)
2 tsp dry yeast

4 1/2 cups (about) all purpose flour
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar

3 tbsp grapeseed oil
4 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
4 cloves garlic, minced (omit this for Rosemary focaccia bread)
salt (coarse, Kosher snd sea salt are preferably)

Garlic Rosemary Focaccia Bread

Directions:
Place 2 cups warm water in large bowl. Sprinkle dry yeast over; stir with fork. Let stand until yeast dissolves, about 10 minutes.

Add 4 1/4 cups flour, sugar and salt to yeast mixture and stir to blend well (dough will be sticky). Knead dough with a food processor that has a dough blade or a mixer with a dough hook or on floured surface until smooth and elastic, adding more flour by tablespoonfuls if dough is sticky, about 10 minutes. Form dough into ball. Oil the dough ball. Put in a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in warm area (I put it closed to my heater) until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours. Punch down dough; knead into ball and return to same bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in warm area until doubled, about 45 minutes or less

Coat 15x10-inch baking sheet with 1 tablespoon oil. Punch down dough. Transfer to prepared sheet. Using fingertips, press out dough to 13x10-inch rectangle. Let dough rest 10 minutes. Drizzle 2 tablespoons oil over dough. Sprinkle chopped rosemary and salt evenly over. Let dough rise uncovered in warm area until puffy, about 25 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375�F. Set rack in center of oven. Press fingertips all over dough, forming indentations. Bake bread until brown and crusty, about 30 minutes. Serve bread warm or at room temperature.

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After making for the third time, I finally got the right texture that I want. There are two recipes of Roti Maryam that I found, Tabloid Nova and mbak Lia of Dapur Gue. First time I made with Tabloid Nova's recipe, it didn't turn as good as I want, even the taste was good. The second time I used mbak Lia's recipe, still didn't turn really well in texture. I finally combined those two sources and turned really good in texture. I guess it takes more time for letting the dough stand, while in Nova's recipe only 30 minutes and mbak Lia's for 3 hours. I let them stand for more than 12 hours.

Roti maryam is one of popular food in Arabic village of Surabaya (Indonesia), Ampel. Served with gulai kambing kacang hijau (goat and mung bean curry). Lately, roti maryam is also popular as snack, topped with cheese or spread with butter/margarine or jams.

Roti maryam itself is influenced by paratha, a flatbread that originated in the Indian subcontinent. A word "roti" means bread in Bengali, Hindi, Indonesian, Malay, Pashto, Punjabi and Urdu.

This recipe is my entry for bread baking day# 7 : Flatbreads, and my first time to join this event. Hosted by Cascabel of Chili & Ciabatta and created by Zorra.

Ingredients:
500 g (about 4 cups) bread flour
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 tsp salt
100 - 150 g margarine
150 ml warm water
vegetable oil to fry

Directions:
1. Put flour in a mixing bowl. With the spoon, make a hole in the center of the flour pile.

2. Beat eggs, egg yolks and salt. Pour egg mixture in this "well". Start incorporating the flour by making very small then larger circles from the center of the dish.

3. Add 25 g margarine and mix well again. Add water a little at a time until you get a pliable dough which is not runny. Knead until smooth and no longer sticky.

4. Cover up the bowl with plastic wrap. Let sit more than 3 hours. Base on my experience, you will be easier to flatten the dough to get very thin and transparent layer if the dough sit more than 3 hours or so.

4. Divide dough into 15 equal pieces. Prepare a table and drizzle with a small amount of oil over. Take one piece, roll out with a rolling pin until very thin and transparent (just like martabak skin). Brush 5-10 g margarine one one side. Twist and roll dough into a long, finger shaped noodle. Give the first portion a spiral shape (see the spiral shape of roti maryam's dough). Repeat this procedure until all dough done.

The spiral shape of Roti Maryam's dough

5. Gently roll out the spiral into a 0.2 cm thick circle. Repeat for all dough.

6. Place a flat pan on medium flame. Place the roti maryam on the pan. Fry and flip until golden brown.

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Potsticker is a term for kind of dumpling in North America, for Gyoza in Japanese, Mandu in Korean, Guotie in Chinese. Whatever you call, these potstickers were served in red sauce. The red sauce was made by mixing sesame teriyaki ginger sauce and gochujang (Korean chili paste).

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After having some Western style food, I miss my Asian food style. Last night, I browsed around Tabloid Nova, a women tabloid in Indonesian. I found a recipe of Kwetiau (English: wide rice noodles). I had all the ingredients, except Kwetiau, but I had bihun (English: rice vermicelli). I substituted for bihun and added mushroom soy sauce in.

It was quick to make so my husband could bring for lunch today.

Ingredients:
150 g rice vermicelli
3 tbsp oil
1 can flaked tuna in water, drained
2 tbsp sesame and soy oil ( you can use regular sesame oil)
4 red chilies, discard the seed and angle cut
1/4 cup frozen ground lemongrass (original recipe uses 1 fresh lemongrass, then finely sliced)
8 green onions (original recipes uses kucai or Chinese chives or nira chives), cut into 4 cm length
250 g fresh shittake mushroom, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp mushroom soy sauce
1 tsp ground white pepper
Directions:
1. Bring water to boil and remove from heat. Add rice vermicelli and soak for 1 minute. Drain, add 1 tbsp sesame and soy oil and mix well.
2. In a skillet, combine oil with 1 tbsp sesame and soy oi; heat up at medium- high. Saute garlic, lemongrass, red chillies, and mushroom; stir evenly. Add tuna, green onion, ketchup, mushroom soy sauce, white pepper; stir evenly.
3. Add rice vermicelli, combine until well-mixed. Remove from heat and transfer into serving dish. Sprinkle fried shallot over.

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It's such a beautiful name of herb, Rosemary. I felt in love with this herb and have been using for some of dishes, bread, lamb, escargot, soup etc. Enjoy the beautiful rosemary, folks!

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Have you ever heard about konyaku, shirataki or iles-iles before?  Konyaku is a traditional Japanese jelly-like health food made from a kind of potato called "Konnyaku potato" and calcium hydroxide or oxide calcium extracted from eggshells.  I my self didn't know that konyaku potato and iles-iles were the same plant, which I heard about iles-iles before when I was in school. The konnyaku potato (Amorphophallus sp.) is native to Indonesia.  Amorphophallus sp goes by several unflattering names in English (Devil�s tongue, Voodoo lily). In Japan , this plant is cultivated for food purpose only, but wild forms grow naturally in Southeast Asia and China.

Many of our modern foods are acid foods.  Konnyaku, on the other hand, is a uniquely alkaline food. It is said that modern people had better eat more alkaline food in order to keep healthy. Therefore, Konnyaku is an ideal health food for us.

Through this website, I found so many benefits in konyaku.  Konnyaku is a marvellous health food and an ideal food for weight control and prevention of obesity because low in calories, no fat, rich in mineral and full of dietary fibre.  It means it helps maintain our health and ultimately, it prevents against bowel cancer and haemorrhoids.  I also found in this website, that iles-iles a.k.a konyaku potato is also added for smoothing skin looking in cosmetic industry.   If you want to see the plant's picture, please go visit http://www.humanflowerproject.com/index.php/weblog/comments/563/ , http://food.3yen.com/2007-09-04/konnyaku-jelly/ .

I had been craving for mango pudding since I saw Pippi�s post.  It reminds me of mango pudding at dim sum restaurants which is served by pouring evaporated milk on top.  I remember I still have several package of unflavoured and flavoured konyaku powder, also unflavoured agar-agar powder that I bought when I was on vacation to Vancouver.  While I was looking for my konyaku powder in my pantry, yayyy I had the mango flavoured one .

Mango Flavoured Konyaku Jelly Powder

Asian pudding is slightly different with Western pudding. In Indonesia, pudding�s recipes is used unflavoured or flavoured agar-agar powder or konyaku powder, which has similar texture to gelatin.

Agar-Agar Powder

I prefer use the fresh mango than canned mango. Good thing! I saw fresh mangoes were on sale at the store. I still had 3 fresh oranges, might as well combined those fruits together. Recipe was modified from Pippi's recipe. Thank you, Pi!

Konyaku's information and mango orange pudding is my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging this week, hosted by Ulrike of Kuchenlatein.


Mango Orange Pudding
modified from Cerita Pippi's recipes

Ingredients:
1 1/2 fresh ripe mangoes, peeled, discard the pit and chopped; yield about 500 g.
3 fresh oranges, grate the skin, squeeze, you will get about 1/4 cup of combining orange juice with pulp and orange zest
1 package mango flavoured konyaku powder ( I used Indonesian brand �Nutrijell�), this package will come with fruity acid powder*
1 package unflavoured agar-agar powder (I used Indonesian brand �Bola Dunia�)
� cup sugar (you can add more sugar if you like sweet taste)
1200 ml water

evaporated milk for the sauce

Directions:
1. Blend mangoes, orange juice and pulp, orange zest and sugar together until smooth in a blender.
2. In a medium pot, add water, blended fruit mixture, unflavoured agar-agar powder, mango flavoured konyaku powder. Bring to boil and stir ocassionally until done. Remove from heat. Let stand for 3 minutes, add fruity acid powder, and stir until dissolved.
3. Wet jelly molds with water before using. Pour into prepared jelly molds. Cool down until set, unmold puddings, place on dessert plates and pour evaporated milk on top.

*Fruity acid powder is optional, you can add into or just omit it.

Source of Konyaku's information
- http://www.shakespeare-w.com/english/konnyaku/whatis.html
- http://iptek.apjii.or.id/artikel/pangan/IPB/Iles-iles.pdf

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Last Wednesday was so cold, windy, -47 degrees Celcius. The good part, I was off as my schedule so I didn't have to go work. That kind of temperature makes me always crave for Asian style hot and spicy soupy noodles. I picked to try Sutah Ramen, another favorite of Korean instant noodle. I used to have Neoguri seafood or kimchi udon. The biggest reason why I love Korean instant noodles? It's spicy hot without adding more hot sauce, but for me I still add more chili powder not Indonesian hot sauce, I just don't want to ruin my soup taste.

I enjoyed this noodle with pangsit goreng (known as fried wonton in English). I made these pangsit goreng a month ago with homemade basa fish paste as filling then kept them in freezer.

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