Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts

Ramadhan cooking with the Frakarsas

Ramadhan cooking with the Frakarsas

Assalamualaikum warrahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

I hope your Ramadhan goes well and this blessed month will give us ample time to reflect and revisit our journey in this life, so that we can be a better person.

Ramadhan has always successfully brought my family together. I manage to go home early, prepare the meals with my hubby and my kids, and as much as we can, we always pray together in jamaah. The sense of togetherness and family spirit really brings us together and that what makes Ramadhan special.

Ramadhan cooking with the Frakarsas


Salah satu kegiatan favorit yang kerap saya lakukan bersama anak - anak dan juga suami adalah berkreasi di dapur. 

Entah kenapa, saat Ramadhan, kami sering sekali berkumpul di pojok ini sambil memikirkan apa yang akan disiapkan dan dimasak. Mungkin karena saat Ramadhan jam kerja kantor juga lebih pendek sehingga bisa pulang lebih awal atau karena menahan lapar, jadi berbagai kreatifitas dan keinginan memasak pun muncul. Entahlah. Yang pasti, kami berempat menikmatinya dan saat di dapur ini pun kami banyak bertukar cerita, sharing berbagai hal termasuk hal - hal penting dalam Islam dan dalam berpuasa, maupun bercanda sambil menunggu waktu berbuka. 

Saat berada di Indonesia, kita seringkali dimanjakan dengan berbagai kemudahan, termasuk jajan takjil atau makanan berbuka. Bahkan sampai makanan utama pun banyak yang menjualnya dan rasanya enak serta harganya juga bervariasi. Tapi saat di luar negeri, seperti di New Zealand, kami seringkali membuat sendiri makanan yang ingin kita makan, terutama makanan Indonesia. Memang ada yang menjualnya atau membuka PO, tapi biasanya harganya lumayan banget dan juga tidak selalu ada. So, pilihannya adalah masak sendiri deh.

Nadine was preparing for kaastengels

Biasanya kami masak setelah selesai sholat Ashar berjamaah. Atau kalau di waktu weekend, selesai dzuhur bersama, kalau ada masakan atau kue yang akan dibuat, kami pun mulai memasaknya bersama. Tidak jarang kami recook atau memasak ulang beberapa resep keluarga yang banyak diwariskan dari mama saya ataupun almarhumah mama Rudi, my hubby.  There are times when we called our family back home just to have a chat or ask about the recipes. It was fun indeed!

Karenanya, saya jarang berbuka di luar rumah selama di Wellington. Selain sulit memastikan makanan yang kita beli dan santap 100% halal, berbagai restoran di Wellington tidak memiliki tempat sholat. Bahkan di mall sekalipun, yang hanya ada satu di antero kota Wellington (nanti saya cerita lebih banyak lagi ya :)), tidak ada mushola atau tempat untuk sholat. Well, tidak heran sih karena memang Wellington dan New Zealand pada umumnya memang negara sekuler. Pilihan berbuka di rumah, atau bersama komunitas muslim adalah yang paling tepat memang.


Here are some of the food that The Frakarsas managed to cook during this Ramadhan. Can you guess what they are?










Pastel for Ifthar

Besides the food for our sahoor and ifthar, we had cooked some cookies for Lebaran or Eid al Fitr as well. We usually cook kaastengels or the cheese cookies, nastar or the pineapple jam cookies, and putri salju or cookies with icing sugar.




our favorite kaastengel..




don't you just love the chilies!

And psst, my hubby is a great cook as well. He got so excited in creating his late mom's recipes that we all miss from home. Sometimes he checks the Cookpad and YouTube as well to get some inspirations. I love working with him in the kitchen. He can be super meticulous (and noisy) but the results are usually superb as well. Thanks, love!

can you guess what he was making?

Udi really loves meat.. so he's very good at preparing them

So, that's a little story from our family in this Ramadhan. We are truly enjoying our family time in the kitchen. But of course we didn't spend the entire time in the kitchen as Ramadhan is the perfect month to enhance our observance, worship and prayers to the Almighty. 

Do you love cooking as well? Any particular dishes you and your family love to make during Ramadhan? Share the stories with us at the comment ya.

See you on the next post!

Wassalamualaikum warrahmatullahi wabarakatuh

WW: Cooking time during the Quarantine

What is your favorite pastime during the quarantine?

Besides finishing my assignments (not really my favorite, obviously) and helping the kids with their Zoom meetings, home works and more assignments (frankly, it's a bit burdensome indeed), I do spend so much time in the kitchen.
Well, it's my favorite spot at home after my purple-infused bedroom.

Another simple cooking video at my YouTube channel :)

I have been back to my old 'backyard' which has been quite abandoned since I was pretty much occupied with works and traveling.
Super happy to create various dishes that my family and I love, although some of them are pretty simple.

My brownies cooked with rice cooker :)

I do miss my big oven in NYC though. I don't have one here in Jakarta as it costs us a lot. So I'm trying to work with what I have, cooking at the stove, microwave and rice cooker. I even made brownies in rice cooker and it worked fine! You can watch it in my YouTube channel here.


Let's cook!

During this blessed month of Ramadhan, I also cook simple yet delicious munchies for our Ifthar, breaking time. My kids have been fully observing the fasting month as well and they have been eating a lot lately. That becomes sort of a motivation for me to cook all those delicious food. Well, at least for us LOL.

Here are some photo and videos I took form my cooking session during this pandemic. Some recipes will be shared on separate posts.


Most of the time I was helped by my kiddos, Bo et Obi.
They both love to eat so they are quite adventurous and helpful in the kitchen as well.

the famous premixed brownies

Can you guess what it is? Sambal terasi :)

Our favorite chicken noodle!

Freshly squeezed oranges

preparation for our mini omelette..
 Some cooking processes have been shared in my Instagram Stories as well. 
Check out @insav and @hiddentreasure081 at the Instagram, 







Stay safe, happy and healthy during the pandemic!

Join on on (almost) Wordless Wednesday (click here to join)  and have fun linking up


Cooking with Children and Tips to Enjoy It



“Ma, what's next? salt? pepper?"
My son, Bo, was holding the wok with sauted onion, scrambled eggs and steam rice, busy mixing them all with spatula.
I was cutting the sausages and bakso, Indonesian meat balls, that would be added to nasi goreng, Bo's favorite dish.
"Okay..add a pinch of salt and white pepper, then pour some kecap", I instructed him while adding those sausages and bakso to the wok, cooked it for a while and .
"Hmmm..I love the smell, bang! This will be perfect!" I said.
"Yes ma.. and I'm gonna eat them all!" he said, grining widely.

**

Cooking with Bo is one of the usual scenes we have at home lately.
Well, since we live in NYC, Bo has been showing big interest on cooking or helping me cooking his favorite food, to be exact.
Simple thing like martabak, telur dadar, pancakes, and nasi goreng, are some examples of food we love to cook at home together.

I love cooking!
And I guess my son loves it, too.
Of all the household chores I love,- or rather have to do, at home, cooking is on top of my list.
And that’s the question for #BON30dayChallenge as well.
What is your favorite household chores?

There is something relaxing about cooking.
When you are challenged to create something delicious with your bare hands, you have the power to use your imagination. Doing it with your kids make it even more fun!
Both Bo and I are foodies as well.
We love delicious food and instead of spending so much money eating outside, we love cooking at home using whatever ingredients we have.
Sometimes we revive my mom or my grandma’s recipes and try to compare it with our own creation.
There are time when we peep on YouTube to see certain cooking process.
For sure, cooking is quite a bonding experience for both of us.

And now, here are some tips for you who like cooking with children.

Try something simple

I always try to cook simple things with Bo before I can be sure that he’s up for this chore.
Cooking requires certain procedures that might be complicated.
So instead of confusing our kids and make them traumatic in the kitchen, better try something simple like scramble eggs and fried rice. Then if the kids seem to enjoy it, we’ll make martabak or soup which require more preparation.

Teach them about safety in the kitchen

This is really important! There are so many dangerous items in the kitchen, starting from the stove and the oven, knives and aharp objects, and hot, spicy.
Teach them how to handle those things and if they’re not sure about it, tell them to stop for a while and let us handle it. I always remind Bo that kitchen is not a playground. We can certainly have fun but we have to be fully aware.

Don’t critize them too much

Kids do make mistakes, just like us. 
And cooking can be complicated.
Sometimes we forget that they’re still kids and they easily mess things up. Of course we have to tell them what’s right and what’s wrong, but if we criticize them too much they will get discourage and loose their enthusiasm in cooking. We don't want this to happen, do we?
Let them create, make mistakes, mess things up. 
Then teach them to clean up with you and make things better next time.

Enjoy the process

That will be my last tip!
Don’t forget to enjoy the whole process with them.
Sometimes we focus too much on the results but we forget how fun the process is!
Don't forget that you are spending your precious times with your loved one.
It should worth the effort.

Wishing you all a happy cooking session with your kids and have fun!