Eskimo Neapolitan Ice Cream

I recently thought of making Neapolitan Ice Cream that my family used to buy from Eskimo Ice cream shop in Surabaya. All of us love this ice cream. The rum flavour in vanilla part and the roasted peanut mixed with sugar on vanilla layer are so unique. I can't find this kind of ice cream here.

So, I did some research on many Neapolitan ice cream recipes on the net and my ice cream book. It took me a while to decide which recipe will give the closest result to what I want. I finally came up with my own recipe. Hah!! This is always the outcome if I got confused. Let's do it my way and I'll take the risk if it doesn't work.

My recipe is very simple but it took three days to complete since my ice cream machine needs pre-freezing. I made one flavour each day, starting with strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate. I didn't have high expectations on my first attempt of Neapolitan ice cream recipe but I was very glad with the outcome. It was sooo close to the real Eskimo style.

If you like non-creamy ice cream, then this will be the one for you as I used less cream and avoided egg yolks in my ice cream.

Ingredients:

• 600 ml thickened cream (whipped, divide to 3 bowls)
  
• Strawberry layer: 1 punnet strawberries + 1/4 cup white sugar + a dash of lemon juice
  
• Vanilla layer: 1/4 cup condensed milk + 200 ml warm water + 1 tbs rum + 1 tbs vanilla extract
• Chocolate layer: 3 tbs Blooker cocoa powder (sifted) + 200 ml water + 1/4 cup white sugar
• 6 tbs Roasted granulated peanuts and 2 tbs caster sugar (mixed)
  

Preparation:

1. Pour thickened ice cream to a large bowl and whip until the mixture holds its shape
   
2. Divide evenly the whipped cream into 3 medium-sized bowls
3. Strawberry layer: Put the strawberries, white sugar and lemon juice in a blender and process to form a puree. Pour the strawberry mixture to one bowl of the whipped cream and mix well. This layer should be slightly tangy.
4. Vanilla layer: Mix vanilla layer ingredients and pour into the whipped cream bowl. Mix well and keep in the fridge. This layer is purely sweet.
5. Chocolate layer: In a saucepan, mix chocolate layer ingredients (If small clumps are present, you can use a sieve when pouring the chocolate mix to the whipped cream). Mix well and keep in the fridge. This layer should have the bitterness from dark cocoa powder.
   
6. Using an ice cream machine, start preparing the strawberry layer. Pour the strawberry ice cream into a loaf pan covered in baking paper. Let it freeze overnight
7. Next day: prepare the vanilla layer using the ice cream machine. Freeze for 2 hours. Add mixed roasted peanuts and sugar on vanilla layer evenly. Let it freeze overnight
8. Last day: prepare the chocolate layer using the ice cream machine. Freeze overnight.
9. Slice the ice cream. Serve with fresh fruits.
   

 

 

Yakitori Chicken

It has been 2 years since we moved to Waterloo, Sydney. I love this suburb as it is close to the city and a reasonably quiet area. There are also many factory outlets around Waterloo. This is very enjoyable during weekends when we have no plans on what to do. Wandering around factory outlets! The recent one that we went was a book factory outlet called "Book Margins". There were plenty of cooking books in this shop and the prices were really good.

As I haven't got a proper Japanese cookbook, I chose "Taste of Japan" by Masaki Ko. Her home-cooking style is very simple and easy to follow. So, I spent last weekend trying a recipe from this book: Yakitori Chicken. I added asparagus salad served with the yakitori sauce. Thu and I were very happy with the result!

Ingredients:

• 6 chicken thigh fillets (cut into chunks)
  
• 1 red capsicum (cut into medium-sized squares)
  
• 1 green capsicum

Yakitori sauce:

• 150 ml soy sauce
• 0.5 cup sugar
• 5 tsp sake
• 1 tbs plain flour

Salad:

• 1 bunch asparagus (cut into 8 cm segments)
• half red capsicum (minced)
• alfalfa sprouts
  

Preparation:

1. Stir the soy sauce, sugar and sake in a small sauce pan to make the sauce. Bring to boil and add the plain flour. The sauce should be quite thick.
2. Marinate the chicken chunks with 2/3 of yakitori sauce for 15-30 mins.
3. Blanch the asparagus in the boiling water (with added salt and oil) for 2 mins. Wash with cold water and drain.
   
4. Thread the chicken and red/green capsicum alternately to the bamboo skewers.
5. Grill under medium heat for 15 mins or until the chicken is cooked but still moist
6. Dilute 1/3 of the yakitori sauce with warm water until the sauce consistency is thin. Add this diluted yakitori sauce to salad and the kebabs.

 

 

 

Jasmine Agar with Fruit Salad

This jasmine agar is very easy and cheap to make. Only two main ingredients you need to buy: a packet of Lobo Jasmine Agar dessert mix (available in any Asian grocery stores) and a can of fruit salad. I added some strawberries on the agar for a slight variation.

 

Did you notice my colourful agar moulds? I got them from "Let's Cook" in Melbourne last Christmas. The whole set of 6 costs only $9.95. Very cute and I like the opening at two ends. I saw the giant version in Woolworths recently and contemplated if I should buy it or not. I thought it would be too big for the two of us!

 

Preparation (shown in photos below):

1. Pour agar dessert mix to a small pot with 3 cups of water. Mix well and bring it to boil.
2. Put the mix to agar moulds. Wait until set for at least 2-3 hours.
3. Serve with fruit salad and any fresh fruits.

 

 

 

 

Pastel Tutup (Indonesian Potato Pie)

I remember that my mum used to take me to different cafes as our resting points during a long day of shopping. I often ordered an ice cream or a chocolate drink or "pastel tutup". Any of them was just perfect after we shopped around. I hardly can find "pastel tutup" in Sydney. Not many Indonesians know this food, it seems to be popular only in Surabaya.

I recently got an idea to make pastel tutup faster and easier to prepare. I separated the potato top layer and made them as mashed potato balls. It tasted the same as the original "pastel tutup" when you served the pie filling and mashed potato balls on a plate. You need quite a bit of patience to prepare this dish as there are a lot of chopping required. If you got some helpers, this won't take you long at all. 

Ingredients:

 

Pie filling

• 3 pieces chicken thigh fillet (cut into cubes)
• 3 thin frankfurts (cut into cubes)
• 2 carrots (cut into cubes)
• a handful of dried black fungi (soak in cold water for 2 hours, then slice thinly)
  
• 1 can of garden peas
• 2 small packs of green bean threads vermicelli (soak in hot water and then drain)
  
• a few cloves of garlic (minced)
• a few cloves of dried shallot (slice thinly)
• 3 tbs of margarine
• 1 tsp salt
• 0.5 tsp white pepper
• 1.5 tsp nutmeg
• 1 cup of soy milk
• 0.5 cup water

Mashed Potato Balls

• 6 medium sized potatos (peel, cut into big chunks, boil in hot water until cooked but not too soft, drain)
• 0.25 cup soy milk
• a pinch of salt 
• 1 tsp freshly ground blackpepper
• 1 egg 

 

Decoration

• 1 hard boiled egg
  
• parsley

Preparations:

1. After finished chopping the pie filling ingredients, prepare mashed potato balls. I used food processor to soften the boiled potato chunks. Alternatively, you can use a wooden spoon. Either way works fine. Add soy milk, salt and ground blackpepper. Shape into balls and brush with egg. Bake in the oven at 160 deg C for 30 mins or until they turn golden in colour. 
2. While you are baking the mashed potato balls, start cooking the pie filling. Heat the wok, then add margarine, garlic, dried shallot. Stir until they are aromatic, add the cubed chicken thigh. Keep stirring until the chicken is fully cooked. Add water, soy milk, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.
3. Add carrots and frankfurts, keep stiring for 3 mins. Then add black fungi, garden peas and finally vermicelli. The pie filling shouldn't be too dry. If they look dry add a bit more of milk.
4. Serve the pie filling and mashed potato balls on a plate. Add a slice of boiled egg and parsley on the pie filling. Garnish the pie filling with chopped parsley.
   

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

I have been hunting for large fresh strawberries recently to make chocolate dipped strawberries in tuxedo or bridal dress. This idea was from a video in YouTube. It seemed very easy to make when you watched the video. Honestly, my heart was beating so fast when I was preparing them.

I slightly modified the style of the bridal dress by adding pink chocolate dots (add 1 little drop of red colouring to the white chocolate). I also mixed dark and milk chocolate (1:1 ratio) to balance the brown colour. I made some fruit kebabs to entertain my taste buds.

For all of you who need to have fun, try making these strawberries. You can modify the idea as you like. Let your imagination run wild!

Here are some photos to show you the steps involved: