THE COOKING PLAYDATE #6

Ever since one of the Cooking Playdate members, Dinda, left for Amsterdam and each one of us also had trips abroad, we haven't found the time to meet up and cook again.  The last time we did a cooking get-together was 31 October of last year!!

Anyway, as we were all back in Jakarta and a long weekend was here, we decided it was high time to cook and eat again, gather the kids to play and spend a whole day eating and chatting. Here's what came out of that day:

These chicken cornflakes balls above were a great hit with the kids (and even the parents!) because they were crunchy on the outside. It's actually very easy to make and healthy because it's baked instead of fried. I found the recipe on this website.

The Enoki Beef Rolls were made by Tarra, who had previously made them at home. It's actually quite simple. First, you sautee in a pan the enoki mushrooms with a bit of olive oil, butter, salt and pepper but careful not to overcook them. Then, marinade your beef sukiyaki slices with Kikkoman and teriyaki sauce (or try oyster sauce and soy sauce if you don't have Kikkoman). Wrap your enoki mushrooms in a slice of beef (see above) and fry in a flat pan with olive oil and a bit of butter. Make sure your beef slices are cooked, but again, don't overcook them.

photo taken from Jamie Oliver's website

The other main course we had was Spaghetti Aglio Olio Tuna and that is really easy to make. Obviously, the photo above is not the result of my cooking, but we were so happy to have this Cooking Playdate after all this time, that we forgot to take pictures :)

You can find the entire recipe for the Spaghetti Aglio Olio Tuna on our Cooking Playdate website (coming soon).

photo taken from Flickr

Last but not least, I had some organic beetroot from the YUM Organic Farm so I decided to mix with canned chickpeas/garbanzo beans and green salad. I cooked the beetroot in water between 20-40 minutes depending on the size, then cut them in small pieces.

My salad dressing was just: olive oil + white wine vinegar + mustard + mayonnaise + salt + pepper + honey.

HALLOWEEN COOKING PLAYDATE

I've been wanting to post something about our last Cooking Playdate session but just didn't find the time to write down the recipes. 

Our last session was so much fun! Having our minds more set on our halloween theme, and some of us had to catch the Tame Impala concert in the evening, so our cooking experience became more an "eating" experience with each of us coming prepared with something previously cooked. However, we will share recipes in the Cooking Playdate blog, don't you worry :)

Ranie made us a delicious orange punch with fresh sunkist oranges, nata de coco, jellies and sprite. Yeah, she definitely rules the drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic!)

The food included lasagna (homemade by Sandri & me), barbecued chicken by Dinda, fresh salad from Tarra, spaghetti with corn by Dinda, pumpkin soup by me and topped off by an apple tart made by my lovely mother :)

What started out as lovely decorations were soon mutilated and carved into frightful halloween pumpkins (see below the adults having fun).

Et voila, the result of our hard labour!

And here we are below (minus Dinda, who had to leave early):

THE COOKING PLAYDATE #4

We haven't been doing our monthly Cooking Playdate for quite some time now. First came the summer holidays, then back to school, and of course Ramadhan. We finally had some time early this month, but just in a casual sort of way, so the kids could play together as well as us getting some cooking done.

The theme we had was real simple cooking, with a healthy twist. We decided to make Spaghetti with vegetable bolognaise sauce, a peach tea (with real peaches) and Strawberries with Vanilla Honey Yoghurt dip. 

Did a lot of chopping for the vegetable bolognaise (even Sandri joined us!)...hehehe...

The result of mixing a little bit of minced meat, garlic, onions, mushrooms, celery and carrots, all diced in small cubes (you'll find the recipe in The Cooking Playdate blog).

This peach tea is always a hit whenever Ranie makes it. Just use tea (make black strong tea in a pot of boiling water), add ice, mix with real peaches and it's juice (in a can) and a little bit of sugar.

These strawberries were also a big hit, especially with the kids. I had got some strawberries from Cipanas the days before and they were really juicy. The dip was made with: Cimory natural yoghurt + vanilla essence + honey. Just try it out before you serve to make sure it's not too sweet or not sweet enough.

Here's an additional photo of the day: the kids were totally wet after being sprayed by Sandri & Arka. They loved being soaked!

THE COOKING PLAYDATE #3

These Cooking Playdates are quickly becoming the highlight of my month! I have such a great time cooking, sharing tips and laughing with the great women in the group :)

We started off this session with a theme which was: no oven! Yes, that's right, so far, we have been making dishes that mostly require using the oven and we realized that not many people own an oven so we need to change our cooking methods. So this time around, our recipes were "oven-free": Creamy Mushroom Spaghetti, Rosti and Chocolate Pudding.

First on our list was to make the rosti and we had such a good laugh and learned so much while making this. You see, Dinda had prepared all the ingredients in advance and after explaining all the steps needed, she started to heat up a pan and start frying the rosti. Unfortunately, they became all sticky and burnt! After using 5 different pans (yes, I kid you not!), we realized that a) the oil was probably not hot enough and b) the rosti preparation probably needed to spend more time in the fridge before frying so that the cheese wasn't gooey and all sticky when put in the frying pan. So you see, our sessions don't all end in perfectly presentable dishes but I can assure you that the rosti (though unpresentable) was delicious :)

The creamy mushroom spaghetti was super easy to make; a mixture of mushrooms, garlic, spaghetti, cream and parmesan cheese. Nothing could have gone wrong there! And it indeed turned out to be as delicious as we thought it would be.

Our dessert was something that I made and found in Laurie David's cookbook "The Family dinner" and I'll post it here since it's real simple:

Chocolate Pudding Fast

You need:

½ cup sugar

2 tablespoon cocoa powder

3 tablespoon cornstarch

3 cups regular milk

120 grams good quality milk or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon salt

How to make this:

Stir the sugar, cocoa powder and cornstarch together in a medium-size saucepan. Gradually stir in the milk. Heat, whisking constantly, until the sugar dissolves and the mixture begins to boil and thicken, about 10 minutes.

Add the chocolate. Turn off the stove. Gently whisk until the chocolate is completely melted.

Stir in the vanilla and salt. Pour into small custard cups. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 6 small or 4 generous servings

The Cooking Playdate now has a blog of it's own, slowly being updated with the full recipes so check it out: http://thecookingplaydate.blogspot.com/. I'll post the other recipes from this session very soon so wait for it!

Why don't you start a cooking group of your own? If we can inspire you to learn to cook, share recipes and talk about food with your friends, family and kids, the world could be a happy, healthier place :)

THE COOKING PLAYDATE #2

"Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all"

- Harriet Van Horne

If cooking relieves stress, then eating the food and eating it amongst friends is like the cherry on top of a chocolate sundae... it makes the whole experience even sweeter! Yesterday, we had the second session of the Cooking Playdate, this time with 2 newcomers: my cousin Sandri and her friend, Ranie :)

We made several things together, starting from Ranie's Fresh Orange Fizzy Drink, which was highly enjoyed by everyone, especially Amal and Jiri (who is obsessed by oranges hehehe). Since we're trying to make healthy, nutritious yummy food that can be enjoyed by kids, I thought that Healthy Chicken Nuggets would be a good idea to try out -- I'll post the recipe in another post.

What I'd like to post today is Dinda's delicious Spinach Lasagna because everyone loved it. You'll see the recipe at the bottom of this post :)

As for dessert, I showed everyone to make the really simple Apple Crumble that I've already posted in this blog. See here for the recipe. All in all, another fun day cooking and talking about life & kids. I was amazed to see that Jiri could finally walk since the last time I saw him, he was still learning :)

Our challenge for the next Cooking Playdate: recipes that don't require using the oven! Wait for it and in the meantime, enjoy trying the Spinach Lasagna and the Apple Crumble...

SPINACH LASAGNA

Ingredients:

Lasagna noodles - for medium sized pyrex, about 6-8 sheets

Spinach - 2 bags (the organic veggie bags, if possible)

Garlic - about 3 small cloves

Onion - 1 medium, chopped finely

Tomato, diced - about 3 medium

Tomato paste - 1 can

Basil - to taste

Oregano - to taste

Brown Sugar - to taste

Mushroom, Eggplant, Paprika (optional)

Bechamel Sauce : melt 1 part butter and whisk in 1 part flour, cook until golden brown, whisk in milk until cream consistency

Ricotta - 1 tub of Yummy brand

Mozzarella - 1/2 block, grated

Parmesan - a handful, grated or shaved

Butter

Method:

1. Boiling lasagna and keeping them from sticking together is tricky! Do the lasagna filling first, before you boil the noodles. Even then, what I do is keep them in water up until the moment I put them in the baking dish.

2. To make filling : boil spinach until just slightly wilted, drain* and set aside -- sautee garlic and chopped onion with olive oil until fragrant and onions are clear, add chopped tomato, tomato paste and water until forming a sauce.

*) Save the spinach water to boil lasagna, although you probably will need to add more water.

3. Season tomato sauce with pinch of salt, brown sugar, basil, oregano. Set aside about 1/2 cup of tomato sauce for lasagna topping.

4. Add spinach into the rest of tomato sauce and cook for about 5 whole minutes, then set aside.

5. If using other veggies, sautee and set aside, don't immerse in tomato sauce. You will use the other veggies in the layers.

6. Start boiling the lasagna, remove from heat after 5 minutes, don't drain, keep in water.

*) Pre-heat the oven to max

7. Smear the pyrex/glass dish with butter.

8. Put some ice or iced water in the lasagna water so it is cool enough to handle.

9. Pull out two sheets of lasagna and place on bottom layer of dish. Spread spinach 1/2 spinach mixture on noodles. Spread 1/2 tub ricotta on spinach.

10. Place two more sheets of lasagna on ricotta and repeat one more layer.

11. Place two more sheets of lasagna on ricotta and spread bechamel on the noodles.

12. Use the 1/2 cup tomato sauce you set aside and pour on top of the bechamel.

13. Sprinkle mozarella and parmesan for the final topping.

14. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, then switch to top heat for 2-3 minutes while watching closely so cheese topping does not burn.

15. Let the lasagna sit/cool for 15-20 minutes before serving.

THE COOKING PLAYDATE :)

Cooking has always been a great passion for me, but combined with hanging out with girlfriends & Amal getting a playdate is even better! :)

I always like to surround myself with friends who have the same interests as mine, not just interest but excitement to be more precise. So when Dinda (mom of the cute Jiri on the first photo below) told me she was thinking of gathering some girlfriends to share recipes, cook together and talk about life, I jumped on the occasion!

Our first get-together took place Sunday, 13 March 2011 and I played host. We were supposed to be around 5 women, however we ended up the 3 of us which was probably a good number for the first session since we're still figuring out how we're going to organize these gatherings. Besides Dinda and the cutesy Jiri, there was also my good friend Tarra and her 2 adorable girls, Mabel & Sabine. Amal was ecstatic because he gets along well with Mabel, who is in his class this year.
Dinda made a Couscous Salad in advance for lunch and showed us how to make a Cauliflower Gratin (with buttersquash & carrot puree to make it more nutritious). Tarra made Herb Marinated Chicken Breasts and I shared my Carrot Cake recipe. The theme of this gathering is sharing recipes that are healthy, nutritious and can be enjoyed by our children. The kids were divided as to which food they liked best but they ate everything so that's a good sign :)
The plan is to have these gatherings once a month and hopefully our initial 5-6 girlfriends will be able to join in the next session. After contemplating on this first gathering, all 3 of us felt it was a huge success!