The joy of holidays

Ah, the holidays! What I like most about them is the amount of spare time on hand. I can catch up with friends, go shopping, watch movies, finish up loose errands or make up for lost sleep without a tugging feeling at the back of my mind. Out of all these, I have been spending my week meeting up with friends to cook together. We cooked two nights in a row and each night we cooked a different cuisine.

Italian Night: Take Two
The first night we had Italian. 7 of us attempted homemade pasta again (this time tortellini style) and homemade pizza. Suffice it to say, the pizza dough was magnificent! The pasta turned out less than expected but still good. The dough was a bit dry in the beginning and we had to work extra hard in rolling it out. I have to thank V and H for that. Both of them devotedly rolled the pasta to a thickness of 1mm. We filled them with creamed mushroom and spinach ricotta.

My previous experience with dry yeast wasn't a good one so I was slightly unconvinced with making pizza dough at first. My suspicious were heightened especially after the yeast mixture did not show as many bubbles as the magazine's picture even though it had been left for 5 minutes as instructed. We decided to put it in a warmer spot in the kitchen and leave it for another 20 minutes. In the end, we discovered that you have to stir the mixture! The bubbles were hidden underneath the surface. If you don't stir it, it will always look smooth with bubbles only at the sides.

We made 4 toppings for the pizza and the dough goes well with both savoury and sweet ones. I really recommend this pizza base.

Basic Pizza Dough
adapted from Donna Hay Magazine Issue 47
makes 2x30 cm pizzas

Ingredients
1 tbsp active dry yeast
1 tsp caster sugar (white sugar works fine)
250ml lukewarm water
2 1/2 cups (375g) OO flour
1 tsp sea salt flakes
1 tbsp olive oil

Method 
1. Place yeast, sugar and water in a bowl and mix to combine.
2. Set aside in a warm place for 5 minutes or until bubbled appear on the surface.
3. Place the flour, salt and olive oil in a bowl and make a well in the centre.
4. Add the yeast mixture and mix together with well-floured hands to form a dough.
5. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 3-4 minutes or until smooth and elastic.
6. Divide the dough into equal-siz balls.
7. Place on a lightly-floured tray under a clean damp cloth/cling-wrap and set aside in a warm place for 30 minutes or until the balls have doubled in size.
8. Press each dough ball into a round and roll out on a lightly floured surface to the desired size.
9. Add desired topping (see below)
10. Bake for 10-15 minutes in a 220C oven. 

Our toppings (Clockwise from left): 
1. tomato paste, mozzarella, parmesan, mushrooms, salami
2. nutella, toasted macadamia, marshmallows
3. tomato paste, mozzarella, parmesan, salami, pancetta
4. homemade aglio olio sauce, mozzarella, parmesan, mushrooms, parsley

Indo Night
The second night, we were joined by a few others and our pastor from church. We cooked nasi uduk (coconut rice), rendang (Indonesian beef stew), martabak telur (egg pancake) and martabak manis (sweet pancake). Our church has a tradition of pastors passing down the sweet martabak recipe, and our pastor joined us to share the secret and technique to cooking them.

Martabak Telur

Martabak telur in Indonesia is a crepe-like dish filled with curried minced meat, egg and spring onions. The crepe is usually made of spring-roll pastry and the whole dish is shallow- fried in a pan. Here's a snapshot of how we made martabak telur.

Martabak Manis

Now martabak manis is thicker and more like a pancake than a crepe. It's a very popular dessert back in Indonesia, with the town of Bandung noted for its origin. One secret to a good homemade martabak is the pan. It cannot be any random frying pan. The sweet martabak needs even heat to avoid burning so the pan must have a thicker rim (around 5 mm) to generate this heat. Another secret is that you have to be quick when pouring the batter onto the pan. And a final tip is to be generous with the toppings. This is not a dessert for the faint in appetite :D or if you're on a diet. Here are also snapshots of the cooking process.