Cooking and Baking Laboratory: steamed

Showing posts with label steamed. Show all posts

November 15, 2008

Steamed Rainbow Sponge Cake (Bolu Kukus Pelangi)

This cake is very famous kind of steamed sponge cake in Indonesia. People usually call it Bolu Kukus Pelangi. Pelangi or rainbow is presented by its colorful batter. I’ve seen people add various food coloring such as red, green, yellow, and blue. But, I choose to make it not so colorful and add some raisins.

Ingredients:

3 low cholesterol organic eggs
⅓ cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cake emulsifier
½ cup wheat flour (medium protein/all purposes flour)
100 ml low fat milk
A drop of cocopandan pasta for red color as much as necessary
A drop of pandan pasta for green color as much as necessary
2 tablespoons raisin

Instructions:

Set the cake pan. Cover with thin layer of margarine. Set aside.
Set the steamer. Assure the steamer has enough steam before put the cake in.
Beat eggs and sugar until the sugar well dissolve and the color turn pale/white. Add cake emulsifier.
Add baking powder. Mix it until well improved or become smooth.
Set the mixer in low speed.
Add flour and milk little by little alternately. Mix it only for a while just to make sure the batter is mixed homogenously.
Separate the batter into 3 parts. Give part 1 the red color, part 2 the green color, and part 3 give it no color (I try to reduce using food coloring/additive).
Pour the part 1 into cake pan. Steam it for about 5 minutes in medium heat.
Pour the part 3 into it. Spread the raisin. Steam it for about 5 minutes.
Pour the last part, that green batter. Steam it again for about 20 minutes.
Turn off the heat. Take it out. Cool it in room temperature then unmold it
Slice it and ready to serve.

(fit for 8-10 slices)

Caution:
If you can’t use glass steamer cover, you need to wrap the cover with a clean napkin to prevent water flecks drop onto your cake surface. The flecks will cause your cake surface become billowy.

November 12, 2008

Urap (Boiled Vegetables with Chili Spiced Grated Coconut)

This is very simple veggie food in Indonesia. Simple, if you have the ready cooked spiced grated coconut in your storage. I do not know where it originally comes from. I find this kind of salad in West Java, Central Java, Jogjakarta and East Java. I also find urap in Bali Island, but with different chili spiced. In Bali, people use spiced coconut milk. People use the similar spiced grated coconut in Java Island, however the taste and the appearance definitely differs from each other.

This urap below is my mother recipe. Maybe this is urap from East Java, but I don’t know exactly. If someone know its story, please tell me..okay :)

Ingredients:

150 grams spinach
75 grams long pea (kind of legume), diced
50 grams cabbage, sliced
75 grams bean sprout
(You can also use finely sliced carrot)
750 ml Water
A pinch of Salt

Instructions:

Boil the water. Pour some water into bean sprout. Soak for 1 or 2 minutes. Remove the bean sprouts and drain it.

Keep the heat in medium. Add long pea to the boiled water, add a pinch of salt, stir. Wait until gentle enough or about 5 minutes.

Add spinach, for about 3 minutes then add cabbage. Then take them out of the water and drain.

You can also boil the vegetables separately, one by one with different boiled water. That will take some extra time, of course.

I choose to mix them because at the end they will be mixed too, just for practical purposes.

Spiced Grated Coconut:

½ coconut, grated
4 Chilies
3 Cloves onion
5 Shallots
1 inch Kencur (greater galingale, Kaempferia galanga)
2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon palm sugar
Jeruk purut leaves
1 teaspoon sugar
Banana leaves

Intructions:

Boil water in steamer.
Grind all spices with stone mortar or processor. I prefer to use stone mortar.
Mix with grated coconut.
Wrap in banana leaves.
Steam it for about 30 minutes.

Serve urap by mix boiled vegetables with spiced grated coconut.

(for 2-3 peoples)

September 20, 2008

A Classic Steamed Brownies

Brownies is a dark brown sweet and sticky cake. People usually bake the batter. However, people in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia, popularize the brand new brownies, Steamed Brownies. This recipe below adapted from Ny. Liem’s recipe book. To reduce its calory I have made some modifications.

Ingredients:

3 large organic eggs
110 g granulated sugar
½ teaspoon Vanillin powder
¼ teaspoon cake emulsifier (I used VX)
65 g wheat flour (medium protein)
25 g chocolate powder
6 tablespoon canola oil
1 teaspoon maizena flour
50 ml low fat liquid milk, thickened (add maizena flour, simmer and stir well, when it is thickening, cool it down)
50 g dark cooking chocolate, melted, mix with canola oil

Instructions:

Set the brownies pan (4 x 10 x 15) cm, cover it with cake paper (silicon paper is necessary and long term reusable)
Set the steamer. Assure the water is boil and has enough steam before put the brownies in
Whisk eggs with hand mixer in low speed
Add sugar. Mix until the granulated sugar is well dissolved
Add VX , continue to mix it until well improved
Add wheat flour and chocolate powder, stir with spatula gently and slowly

Pour the mix of melted dark cooking chocolate and canola oil to the batter. Stir with spatula gently and slowly
Pour ⅓ part of the batter to different bowl. Add thickened liquid milk to it. Stir well with spatula (let’s call it batter A)
Pour another ⅓ part of the batter into brownies pan. Steam this first layer for about 7 minutes on medium heat
Pour batter A onto first steamed layer for about 7 minutes.
Finally, pour the left batter you have onto those two steamed layer. Steam it for about 15 minutes or until it well risen and firm
Turn off the heat. Take it out. Cool it in room temperature then unmold it

Slice it and ready to serve

Caution:

If you can’t use glass steamer cover, you need to wrap the cover with a clean napkin to prevent water flecks drop onto your brownies surface. The flecks will cause your brownies surface become billowy.

September 5, 2008

Steamed Sponge Cake: Indonesian Bolu Kukus

This is my first try…

I added soda water too much. Thus, the batter was so watery..and the outcome was so embarrassing..hehehe. They didn’t blossom at all.

And below, my second try. Not so good but yeah it was okay I think. I poured the batter to tin cups fully without considering they would blossom so large like that. Whatsoever is too much is not beautiful indeed.

This is my mother recipe with some modification:

Ingredients:

200 g white sugar
2 large low cholesterol organic eggs
1 teaspoon cake emulsifier
250 g wheat flours with medium protein
½ teaspoon vanillin crystal
50 ml low fat diluted milk plus 100 ml soda water
1 teaspoon chocolate powder

(Result: 16 cups, but it depends on how much you pour the batter)

Instructions:

Cover tin cups with cake paper or parchment paper
Boil the water in steamer. I’d rather use steamer with glass cover, so I can watch what happen inside. When you use glass cover steamer, you do not need cover it with napkin to prevent water dropping to the cakes. The glass will prevent it for you
Stir well egg yolks. Add sugar until the color turn into white or pale color
Then add cake emulsifier (I used ovalet) and vanillin crystal, mix until the batter turns into a smooth one
Put in turns half portion of flour and half of milk with soda water, back to back. Mix well. Stop when the batter turns into appropriate texture or consistence which is the batter not only too watery but also not too sticky
Take about 10 tablespoon of the batter, put it in a bowl. Then mix it with chocolate powder
Pour the uncolored batter into covered tin cup. Not too much, until ¾ cup. Pour the top with chocolate batter about 1 or 2 teaspoon
Steam them for about 15 minutes with medium heat. Lower the heat for about 5 minutes
Turn the heat off and they ready to serve.