very own Bakso

So it was during winter in Norway, the weather was so cold and all I could think of was a bowl of nice and hearty soup to warm my body..
Missing home at the same time, I decided to make my very own Bakso from scratch. 

What is Bakso? It is Indonesian word to call beef balls (sometimes chicken or pork, but mostly beef) usually served with bee hoon or yellow noodles and flavourful bone broth. I like to eat it with ketchup, a lot of kecap manis (sweet soya sauce) and LOTS of chilli. *drools*

So, I was browsing through internet for recipe but none provided recipe in small portion. This means it is either I have to roughly gauge or I should just convert everything. 
I decided to do both ;)

Ingredients:
250gr minced beef (and pork, beef is expensive in Norway)
Tapioca flour
Garlic
Salt
Pepper

How:
Prepare boiling water
Mix ingredients in a bowl (try to dirty your hands? it mixes the dough evenly!)
Shape the meat dough into balls and THROW THEM HAPPILY into the water


"Anyone can cook" -Chef Gusteau

First ever cupcakes

made cupcakes for Tsuyoshi's farewell dinner when I was in Norway for exchange programme.

wasn’t very successful for the first attempt but I am quite happy with the buttercream frosting. for the cakes, I used cocoa powder mixed with twinnings four red fruits tea. Yep, tea and cocoa. It tastes and smells like chocolate ice cream but the chocolate is not strong enough. My friends say it tastes good even though it looks just okay.. oh well, next time I should stick with using better quality dark chocolate or cocoa powder. for the buttercream, I mixed a bit of cocoa powder and a little espresso. I love the mocha cream although it is so fattening. But one thing to note is I was not able to make the butter cream stiff enough to hold its shape and hence it melted. I was in a hurry so I put a separate bowl for the butter cream and let my friends decide how much they want to put in their individual cupcake. eat at your own risk haha :p

Recipe:

Flour 120g
Baking powder
sugar 60g
egg 1
milk 60cc
butter 40g

beat egg until fluffy, put in melted butter. then put in sugar and baking powder. beat until evenly. add in milk then mix. then slowly add flour, do not overbeat.

thanks, Misa for the recipe. ;)