Es Sarang Burung (Bird Nest Ice)

This weekend was very special since we invited our close friends to celebrate Ave's birthday. I was so excited to prepare the food. Most importantly, all of us had a great time together sharing our stories. Yeah...we joked a lot about Tea Inn boarding house where Thu, Ave and I met. The dodgy entrance door with graffiti, rat in the kitchen and crickets in Thu's bedroom door!

Theme for the dinner was Indonesian. So, we had es sarang burung for the drink; deep fried soft-shell crab, sambal terasi, lalapan, pepes udang, pepes tahu, and soto ayam for the mains. I also baked kue pandan for the birthday cake. Here is a photo of our dining table with the food prepared (the cake was still hiding in the kitchen).

Es sarang burung is one of the easiest Indonesian drinks to prepare. I actually planned for es cendol but cendol dough was overcooked so it completely failed. Well... it didn't matter since I decided to serve es sarang burung instead.

Ingredients:

• agar powder
• white sugar
• Indonesian basil seeds
• two fruit cans of your choice

Preparations:

Make the agar based on the instructions given. I usually reduce the amount of water and sugar required to 70%. This agar will be much easier to grate later on.

Soak basil seeds in cold water for at least 1 hour. Leave the boiled agar at cool temperature for 3-4 hours.

When the agar has completely cooled down, grate the agar.

Mix all the ingredients together. Use the syrup from the fruit cans. Add more water and ice to adjust the sweetness.

Beef and Mushroom Pie

 

Thanks to my best friends who gave Westfield/Myer vouchers as my birthday presents. I spent some of the amount to buy this pie maker. It is called Pie Magic 4 by Sunbeam and costs $69.95 in Myer (came with a recipe book).  When I saw it in the store, I knew that I wanted it so much since Thu loves eating pies and I always oppose the idea of buying pies from supermarkets or any bakery shops. Why?!? The reasons are stated in the nutrition information. I also want to make my own apple pies one day. 

I just made 17 beef and mushroom pies today. I planned to freeze most of them for our busy days, when pies and fresh salad will be our dinner. I was very surprised with the results. We both really liked these homemade pies. The pie crust was also perfect. For those who like pies, I strongly recommend this pie maker. It made the best pies I've ever had in my first attempt of using it.

Recipe that I tried: Aussie Bushman's Pies from page 14 in Pie Magic 4 recipe book. Delicious!! I doubled the amount of mushrooms and didn't add water since mushrooms were juicy enough for the pie filling.

Ingredients (for 4 pies):

• 200 g beef round steak, diced
• 200 g flat mushrooms, sliced
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 tbs plain flour
• 1 tsp beef stock powder
• 1/4 tsp ground blackpepper
• olive oil
• a pinch of salt
• 1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
• shortcrust pastry for the pie base
• puff pastry for pie top

Preparations:

Prepare the pie filling: toss steak in combined flour, stock powder and pepper. Heat oil in a wok, cook steak and onion until browned.

Add mushrooms and worcestershire sauce. Simmer until mushroom is cooked (approx. 7 mins).

Prepare pie base: Using the pie base cutter provided, cut each pie base from the shortcrust pastry. Using both hands, overlap the pastry slits by approx. 1.5 cm.

Prepare pie top: Using the pie top cutter provided, cut each top from the puff pastry. Arrange the pie parts in the pie maker. Leave it closed for about 8 mins. All done!!

 

Serve the pie with fresh salad and tomato sauce. If you make some extras, you can keep the remaining pies in freezer for up to 2 months.