Pan Seared Tuna Steak

This recipe is unbelievably easy. You won't believe that a perfect tuna steaks only takes 15 minutes. But I have to warn you, your kitchen will be filled with the smell of roasted pepper!

Ingredients:

200g Tuna Fillet
2 stalks Parsley
Olive Oil
Salt
Grounded Pepper
Cayenne Pepper

How-to:

1. Finely chop the parsley
2. Rub the tuna with oil, cayenne, salt and pepper
3. Let it sit for 10 minutes
4. Coat the tuna with finely chopped parsley
5. Heat the pan over medium-high heat and add clog of oil
6. When the oil is hot, sear the tuna. 2 Minutes each side for rare (longer if you wish it to be well done)
7. Take the fish out of the pan to a chopping board and slice it thinly (optional)


Serve : 1

You can serve this tuna steak with spaghetti aglio olio or mashed potato or any side dish or carbs you like! even bread goes well too!

Italian Meatball Pasta

I always love spaghetti meatballs. And now you can make it yourself at home! It's a very easy and cheap recipe. You should give a try! For the meatball, I use this recipe. When you live alone, this can serve you 2 days meal. Nothing beats healthy home made meal!


Basic Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 tin Chopped tomato
• 2 cloves Garlic
• 1 medium to small Onion
• 4-6 pcs Sun dried tomato
• Salt
• Pepper
• Oregano
• Olive Oil
• Sugar
• 1 tbsp Ketchup

How-to:

1. Finely chop onion, garlic and dried tomato.
2. Over a medium heat put 2-3 tbsp of olive oil into a large pan.
3. Fry the onion and garlic until they all soft and fragrant. Then put the dried tomato into the pan.
4. Pour the tinned tomato into the pan. Mix well.
5. Refill half of the tin with water, and shake it. Make sure that you got all the tomato juice. Pour it into the pan, add ketchup and mix it well.
6. Season with salt, pepper, oregano and sugar.
7. Let it simmer for 5 minutes.
8. Put your prepared meatball into the pan. And let it simmer until the meatballs are cooked through. (15-20 minutes)

Serve: 3-4

*Tips: When you are planning to make a week ahead meal. And you want to make this. You can cook the tomato sauce and freeze it. And you can reheat the tomato sauce, put your meatball in. And Voila! a super quick pasta!

Meatball and Mashed Potato

Ingredients:

Meatball

• 500g minced Beef
• 1tbsp Ketchup
• 1tsp dried Oregano
• 1tsp Hot sauce (Tabasco, sriracha, ABC)
• 1 medium/small Egg
• 2 hand full Breadcrumbs
• Salt
• Pepper
• Butter

Mashed Potato

• 8-10 large Potatoes
• 2tsbsp Milk
• Salt
• Pepper

How-to:

Meatball

1. Put all ingredients into a large bowl. Mix with hand until all combined.
2. Form the meat into a bite-sized ball (smaller than golf ball).
3. Melt the Butter in a large pan over a low to medium heat. Put the meatball into the pan.
4. Fry until golden brown and the meatball is cooked through. (Don't forget to turn the balls!)
5. Turn off the heat, place the meatball on a plate and set aside.

Mashed Potato

1. Boil some water in a pot. Add pinch of salt.
2. Wash and peel the potatoes.
3. When the water boils, add your potatoes into the pot and let it boils.
4. Cook the potatoes until all potatoes are cooked.
5. In a colander dump all the potatoes and put it back in the pot. and mashed it until smooth.
6. Put a table spoon of butter into the pot, a splash of milk, salt and pepper to taste.
7. Mix it until all incorporated.

Heat the meatballs in a microwave. Plate the meatballs and the mashed potato on a plate. Pour the gravy and sprinkle with pepper and Voila!

Serve:4

*For the gravy, I bought the pre made gravy :D But I'll find a way to make it! Stay tune! and I'll post the recipe. 

Creamy Mushroom Pasta

Since I live in a dorm now, I have to prepare my own lunch. I finish my class at 1:15 and get home at 2. You know how hungry I am rite? And I found this recipe is the easiest, tastiest and most important the fastest. Suitable for vegetarians too. A very healthy meal to cook at your home or dorm. Give it a try!

Ingredients:

• 2 Handful Mushroom of your choice.
• 200 ml Cream
• 2 cloves Garlic
• 1 medium Onion
• 1 stalk Spring Onion
• Salt
• Pepper
• Splash Olive Oil
• Parmesan cheese for sprinkle (optional)

How-to:

1. Wash and slice mushrooms. Finely chop garlic, onion and spring onion. Set it aside.
2. In a pan splash olive oil over a medium heat. When the oil is hot, put in chopped garlic and onion. Saute until they sweat and smell nice.
3. Put in chopped mushrooms and stir until the mushroom become soft. (and smell nice too!)
4. Season with salt and paper.
5. Pour in the cream into the pan and let it simmer for 2 minutes.
6. After 2 minutes sprinkle the creamy sauce with spring onion.

Serve : 2

Bolognese Sauce

Ingredients:

• 500g minced Beef
• 4 large Tomatoes
• dried Basil
• 1 large Onion
• 4 cloves Garlic
• Mushroom (sliced) - optional
• Sugar
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 cube Beef stock
• olive oil

How-to:

1. Chop onion and garlic finely and set aside. Cut 2 tomatoes into half and put them in a blender and blend them for 30 seconds. We need the juice from the tomatoes. Dice 2 other tomato.
2. In a large frying pan splash olive oil over a medium heat. When oil is hot, put chopped garlic and onion. Saute until they sweat and the onion become soft.
3. Put mince beef into the pan and cook the beef until turning brown and the juice came out.
4. When the beef is cooked, pour the tomato juice and diced tomato into the pan. Season with salt, pepper, sugar, basil and beef stock. Stir well and put the lid on. Let it simmer 1 to 2 hours over a slow heat and stir occasionally.

Serve : 6-8

Source : My mom :D

This is her recipe. From baby till now, my mom always cook the same bolognese. The difference between her recipe and this recipe is she didn't simmer the bolognese, because my dad love it runny. But I tried the one that simmered for an hour, and it tastes heaven! You can actually taste the tomato on the beef. :) And don't forget to sprinkle it with parmesan cheese :D

Bolu Kukus 200 (Indonesian Cupcakes)

Ingredients:

• 200g Granulated Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 200g Flour
• 200ml Sparkling water/Sprite
• 1 tsp Emulsifier
• Food colouring

Methods:

1. In a large bowl put all the ingredients. Mix with a hand mixer until thick and creamy.
2. Fill a bowl (or more) with the creamy mixture and coloured it with a drop of food colouring.
3. Cover moulds with cupcakes paper and pour the white mixture and the coloured mixture to the moulds.
4. Steam for 20 minutes until the cake rises.

Serves: 24

Source : NCC

Actually, you can you use either sprite or sparkling water. But when you use sparkling water, make sure you add a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Because sprite has already taste in it. and we need the taste of vanilla or the sprite to get rid the taste of the eggs. In Indonesia they have special moulds for Bolu Kukus. The moulds for Bolu Kukus have holes in the bottom. So the Bolu Kukus will rise perfectly. But, here in Germany I can only find muffins/cupcakes moulds. I tried using the cupcakes moulds, and it's actually works. But, the cake won't rise to maximum and the cake is little bit wet when you take it out from the steamer. But still, it tastes like the one in Indonesia!

Rum-free Tiramisu

Ingredients :

• 3 Egg Yolks
• 75g  White Sugar
• 80ml  Milk
• 150ml  Heavy Cream
• 1ml  Vanilla extract
• 225g  Mascarpone Cheese
• 30ml  Strong brewed Coffee (Room temperature)
• 1 package  Lady Finger cookies
• Unsweetened coco powder for sprinkle

How-to:

1. In medium saucepan, whisk egg yolk and sugar until well blended. Whisk in milk and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture boils. Boil gently for 1 minute, remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. Cover tightly and chill in refrigerator 1 hour.
2. In a medium bowl, beat cream and vanilla until stiff peak consistency. Whisk mascarpone cheese into yolk mixture until smooth. Mix cheese yolk mixture with the cream until well mixed.
3. Soak Ladyfingers into coffee, and arrange them in bottom of the dish. Spread half of cream cheese mixture over ladyfingers and sprinkle with cocoa powder. Repeat layers. Cover and refrigerate 4 to 6 hours, until set.

Serve : 4

Source : Allrecipe

The original recipe use rum and mixed it with coffee. But since alcohol is a no for me, I didn't use any rum or rum extract. And the original recipe separate the cream and the egg cheese mixture. I don't really like cream, so I mixed the cream with egg cheese mixture. I had seen a recipe that use the same method, combining the cream and the egg cheese mixture. And cooking the egg is a must for me, to avoid salmonella. The classic tiramisu uses raw eggs. And I had a bad experience with uncooked egg :( So, cooking the egg is the safest way, you can serve it to everyone.