Tag: unique

KLAPERTART

dessert

KLAPERTART

Klapertart is a popular baked custard pudding, which uses young coconut flesh  to give it a trademark  taste. The origins of this pudding are  in Manado,  Sulawesi regions of Indonesia, again the Dutch influence is Dominant here. Its a pretty simple and delicious dessert.

Having had a sweet tooth since childhood I loved this pudding when I first had it in Jakarta, a very familiar taste of the custard which my mom made when we were kids, of course my mother made custard the Indian or sindhi way, adding banana and chickoo.

This baked custard has a lot of other ingredients like coconut, raisins, almond flakes and not forgetting the main flavours of rum and cinnamon. These flavours come together and form a unique tongue tickling tasty pudding.

Ingredients for klapertart

• 300 ml milk
•
• 150 ml whipping cream

• 150 gms sugar

• 30 g all purpose  flour

• 15 g cornstarch
•
• 25 gms butter

• 1/4  tsp salt

• 3 eggs yolks

• 150 g young coconut meat, ( from drinking coconut)

• 25 g raisins ( optional to soak in Rum for few hours, I soaked for 2 hours)

• 25 g almond, chopped, or flakes( i used flakes)

• 3 tbsp rum or 1 tbsp rum essence

• 1 tbsp vanilla essence

Top layer

• 3 eggs whites
• 50g sugar
• 1 tbsp flour

Topping

• 25 g raisin

• 25 g almonds flakes

• 2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preparation of klapertart

Step 1

• In a small container, mix a portion of the milk (around 100 ml) with flour and cornstarch. Set aside.

• Heat the rest of the milk with sugar. Keep stirring.

• Slowly pour the mixture of milk and flour, stirring continuously. Bring to boil and then turn the heat off. Add butter and mix well. The custard will be very thick at this point.
•
• Whisk the cream untill soft peaks are formed, add in the milk flour sugar mixture, and the egg yolks. Mix well and finally add raisins, almond flakes , coconut and essence.

• Pour the mixture into a greased  pyrex dish

• Bake at 160° C for about 25 minutes in a preheated oven.

Step 2
Whisk egg whites till soft peaks are formed, add sugar and flour, whisk again till stiff peaks form.

Remove the custard from the oven and pour the  egg white mixture over the custard, neatly.

Step 3
Finally, sprinkle almond flakes, raisins and cinnamon powder over the egg whites.  Bake once more for 20 to 25 minutes in the oven at 160°C until golden brown.

Cool, and refrigerate until serving time.

** I divided the pudding into 2..

Indonesian steamed cake aka Kue Pepe

dessert

Kue Pepe or Indonesian steamed cake

This 9 layered cake is very popular in south eastern countries, every country has its own take on this. Mostly its pandan flavour based. The proof of a good made KUE is the ability to peel off the layers, . This traditional  cake is easy, but a little time consuming. 7 mins between each layer, and a final 25 mins to finish off. The texture will be glutininous and a bit sticky. This kue uses no oil. Its available at most markets and bakeries. Cut into slices and wrapped neatly in plastic.
The satifaction in making  it at home is awesome.  Pls do try it.
Because I made it with mocha flavours, it resembles the goan cake Bebenica.
But I understand that Bebenica is baked. This is steamed.

Recipe credits go to my son Karan who made it for his youtube channel

.https://youtu.be/0Y1lxTavKRg

I will share the step by step photos in comments.
Ingredients.
The recipe is –

– 200 ml thick coconut milk
– 400 ml water
– 150 gms tapioca flour

– 75 gms all purpose flour
– 200 gms sugar
– 1 tsp vanilla powder (can substitute vanilla essence if you prefer)
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 1 heaped teaspoon instant coffee ( dilute with 1 tbsp hot water)
– 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder( dilute with 2 tbsps hot water)

Method
Mix together tapioca flour, all purpose flour and sugar and salt, and vanila powder.
Now mix coconut milk and water, and add to the dry ingredients slowly, mix well till it forms a smooth batter.  ( can strain to make sure there are no lumps).
Divide the batter into 3 bowls. Following the ratio 2:1:1.

Now keep the bigger bowl aside.
Into remaining 2 bowls add diluted coffee and diluted cocoa powder.
Grease a rectangular container properly.

Heat a steamer, when its hot, place the container in it, and put 2 ladles of chocolate batter. Cover and steam for 7 mins. Next add 2 ladles of white batter. Steam for 7 mins. Now add 2 ladles of coffee batter. Steam for 7 mins. Keep alternating flavours till the last layer. Steam for 25 mins.
Remove the container and let it cool completely for few hrs, gently loosen it with a spatula and overturn on a chopping board which is covered with a plastic sheet.( important).
Next wrap the knife in a plastic and then cut the slices.( we find this easier)  Can try greasing the knife too.
Enjoy 

The sindhi beeh(lotus stem) pakora

snacks

The Sindhi kitchen revisited!  Sindhi food is rather simple to make , in the sense that basically onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic and chillies is what would be required to start cooking and dish, we normally don’t have complex pastes made of various spices and the usage of cream or nuts is kept to the minimum while cooking. All the recipes handed down in my family are very simple and sometimes I myself get surprised when the food turns out to be delicious in its simplicity. Growing up in Pune , where most of my mom’s family used to live, we frequently visited my mami kala’s home, which was the headquaters of the mohinani family, many  beautiful memories are attached to the nanaron( nani’s home) at kanyashala road.. those lazy afternoons where all the aunties and cousins gathered  for scrumptious lunches arranged by my aunt, the wonderful aromas wafting from the kitchen where the cooks (bhaiyas) literally cooked up a feast, everyone just laughing and  talking,memories of that bygone era are beautiful .Those were the days when the only way to have a group chat was to meet..:) and of course the admin was aunty kala. The snacks were  more often than not fried, but no one cared, we just enjoyed the delicious food and company.

Today I would like to share a recipe of beehyan ja pakora  with you , which is not commonly served nowadays. This snack is quite simple to make and is my mothers recipe, making use of lotus stem or beeh as we call it in sindhi. My amma(paternal grandmom) was fond of this snack and would ask my mom to make it. This vegetable was served on special occasions   at home, especially when some  important guests were invited for lunch and dinner. Mom always cooked it in a rich onion gravy, topped with raw onion slices and a squirt of lime and some sev sprinkled over the curry, and served it with bread buns or pao, to make it easier to dunk into the delicious gravy.  Lotus stem on its own is a rather bland vegetable , but it blends and adapts the taste of any spice that it is cooked with.

Lotus stem is easily available here in Jakarta because a lot of chinese people also use it for cooking. In Pune it was a seasonal vegetable, because i remember the man who used to bring lotus stem and  pabharees( seeds of the lotus plant) all the way from Pimpri a small satellite town of pune. Nowadays it is more easily available throughout the year.  In those days I was not really too fond of the vegetable but have grown to rather like it. so here is the recipe, do try it and enjoy it.

Bheeyan ja pakora

Ingredients for the besan batter(chick pea flour)

1 cup besan ( chick pea flour)20161109_123703

1 tsp each cumin seeds/ ajwain(thymol seeds)

1 tsp red chillie powder

salt to taste.

1/8 th tsp of soda bi carb

Method..

Make a smooth batter of all above ingredients by adding cold water, make sure the batter is smooth and of dropping consistency. keep aside for half hour.

Ingredients for the beeh wada

I beeh stem about 25 cms long, peeled , cut into thick circles and boiled till tender.

1 tsp each ginger/ garlic/ green chilie paste

finely chopped corriander leaves

1 boiled and peeled potato

1 tsp corriander powder

1 tsp garam masala powder

1/2 tsp amchoor powder

1 tsp shah jeeri

salt to taste

Method

Take a big bowl and roughly crush the boiled potato and the boiled beeh(lotus stem) , the beeh(lotus stem) and the potato should be chunky,  add all the dry spices, salt  and the ginger, garlic and green chilie paste and the corriander leaves

Make small balls and keep aside

Heat a wok half filled with cooking oil.

Now, dip the lotus stem balls in the besan batter( chick pea) and slide gently into the hot oil.. fry the balls until just light golden in colour, remove and keep aside.

When you want to serve the snack,  press each ball gently between your two palms until flattened and cracked.. now deep fry the flat wadas till golden brown and crisp.

Serve hot with cold mint chutney.