Challenged enough to create a perfect Belgian Waffle? Below is a simple recipe, perfect for occasional treats with our family and friends. Waffles are awesome served with warm maple syrup or our favourite flavours of syrup, topped with sliced fresh berries, bananas and some yummy vanilla ice cream.

Makes 7 Belgian Waffles

Ingredients

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup cake flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons sugar



• 1 1/4 cups water
• 4 large eggs, separated
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup unsalted butter melted

Preparation

• Combine flour, leaveners, salt and sugar and whisk to mix. Add water, egg yolks and vanilla and whisk until smooth. Whisk in melted butter.



• Beat egg whites in another bowl to stiff peaks, then fold into batter, half at a time.
• At first, it will seem very lumpy, but keep folding and it will smooth out.
• Warm up your Ellane Belgian Waffle Baker and pour the waffle batter into it. Bake for approximately 5 minutes until golden brown.
• Serve hot with fresh sliced strawberries, blueberries, bananas, warm syrup and vanilla ice cream.

Ramadan 2010 is just around the corner, its first day starting on 11 August until 9 September. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and marks the first revelation of the Quran, Islam’s holy scripture, to the Prophet Muhammad through the angel Gabriel.

From the first light until sunset, we fast by abstaining from food, drink and intimate relations. We also try to avoid anger and verbal conflicts, negative thoughts and sinful actions. Ramadan is a month of worship full of prosperity, spirituality and forgiveness.

We are honoured to invite you all to discuss here all traditional delicacies that are usually prepared during the auspicious month of Ramadan at Iftar, often called “buka puasa”, which means “to open the fast”.

The principle of breaking fast is very advisable that we eat food that is easily digested, so it does not upset our stomach that has been resting for so long. High calorific value and fluid food will help recover our stamina and substitute for a lot of wasted fluid from our body during the day.

Eating dates (“kurma”) and drinking a sip of water can be the first two things we can do when breaking fast. Besides the health benefit, both are able to immediately recover the weak condition of our body. Another old-time favourite food and drink that we all love is braised banana with palm sugar and coconut gravy (“kolak pisang”)

”Kolak pisang” is a local dessert that we should all be familiar with throughout Indonesia’s vast archipelago. Some hotels, cafes and restaurants put this sweet dessert on their everyday menu list. To make it ourselves, it only requires a few easy and simple steps. Will this be one of your favourites during this Ramadan season? What is your favourite Ramadan 2010 food?

8 picks, 8 correct, 8 tentacles. Paul the Oracle Octopus is clearly the biggest winner of the World Cup 2010 after recording a perfect prognostication record. Since then, Paul has been an international celebrity of the highest order now, everyone wants a piece of him – both literally and figuratively.

The world hails Paul, most importantly because of him, Spain has won the World Soccer Cup in South Africa! This is more than just a huge world-wide event. In Spain, the streets are empty while the games are played, while the bars with big screen TVs are full.

If you are a soccer fan, you probably are not sitting in the middle of a street, but you are most likely watching with friends. What could be more appropriate than serving Spanish tapas while watching such big events being played? Do you love watching soccer and eating something nice and easy at the same time?

Tapas in Spanish cuisine is the name of a wide variety of appetisers, or snacks. They may be cold, such as mixed olives and cheese or warm, such as chopitos, which are battered, fried baby squid.

Calamares fritos or fried squid is a very popular appetiser or tapa in Spain. Many people know it by its Italian name Calamari. These lightly breaded and fried rings will disappear as soon as you put them on the table.

They are not hard nor expensive to make at all, can be found in any supermarket, and are super easy to cook – especially if you buy them already cleaned and ready to slice! Our next blog we will look into making this tapa using our recommended approach. So, stay tune everyone

To save your gas bills by reducing the consumption of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), we highly recommend the use of our innovative product called Cooking Mama Pot in cooking this recipe.

INGREDIENTS FOR CONTENTS:

• 250 grams mung beans / green beans, soaked in water for 2 hours
• 500 ml water
• 100 grams palm sugar
• 200 ml thick coconut milk
• White sugar
• 2 pandan leaves
• Kraft cheese, grated

HOW TO MAKE:

1. Pour water into Cooking Mama Pot – the Cooking Pot.
2. Add the mung beans.
3. Place Cooking Mama Pot – the Cooking Pot on the stove and cook over high heat for 10 minutes to boil. Add palm sugar, pandan and coconut milk. Stir evenly and add sugar if not sweet enough.
4. Turn off the stove and transfer Cooking Mama Pot – the Cooking Pot into Cooking Mama Pot – the Heating Pot, leave it lid-covered for 60 minutes.
5. Serve in bowls. Sprinkle some grated cheese at the top, ready for consumption.

INGREDIENTS FOR CONTENTS:

• 1 piece of chicken thigh (cut into small pieces) and boiled in 600 ml of water
• 25 g of carrots (cut into small cubes) and boiled
• 25 g of peas
• ½ piece of onion (chopped finely)
• 3 tablespoons of butter
• 3 tablespoons of flour
• 3 tablespoons of milk powder (dissolved in 300 ml chicken stock)
• ½ tablespoon of ground pepper
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg

INGREDIENTS FOR SKIN:

• 150 g of flour
• 275 ml of liquid milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of salt

INGREDIENTS FOR COATING:

• 100 g bread crumb
• 2 eggs

HOW TO MAKE RISOLES:

1. First, make the contents by stir-frying onions onto iPan until fragrant, followed by pouring the flour and stirring until lumps are formed. Pour in the liquid milk gradually and sauté until it becomes smooth.
2. Add chicken, carrots, peas, salt, pepper and ground nutmeg. Then stir until it boils. Take out and let it chill on a bowl.
3. To make risoles skin, mix the ingredients for the skin altogether and form risoles skin similar to pancakes one by one. Take one piece of risoles skin and place 1 full tablespoon of risoles contents from the bowl. Fold the skin to wrap the contents and form triangle-shaped or rectangle-shaped risoles.
4. Roll the risoles on egg then roll it on bread crumb, roll it again on egg then on bread crumb until it is fully coated.
5. Deep fry the risoles until they become yellowish brown over medium heat.

We all love chocolate as much as kids do. Chocolate lovers will love this blog because the chart above depicts the fact that dark chocolate and cocoa contain more antioxidant capacity than any other fruits or nuts that we normally regard as healthy food, such as strawberries, apples, green tea and red wine. Antioxidants are natural compounds that scientists have discovered can protect your body, promote good health and alleviate signs of aging. Surprised that chocolate is good for health? Many people are. That’s because they forget that chocolate is actually a plant-based food.

What’s more good news is that research has found antioxidants like those found in dark chocolate and cocoa have also been linked to some of the hallmarks of good cardiovascular health such as enhanced blood flow, healthy cholesterol levels and, in some cases, reduced blood pressure. So what does this mean? This means not only eating chocolate makes us feel good, but it will also keep us healthy and reduce the risk of various diseases.

Let’s start eating dark chocolate for the sake of our health. For those who seldom eat chocolate, perhaps you should try from light to dark. Start with light milk chocolate (with the lowest percentage of cacao and usually less bitter), and end with the darkest one. This sets up your taste buds correctly to experience the more intense, more complex and more healthy chocolates. Happy chocolate-ing!

Ingredients

• 1 boneless chicken of about 200 grams in weight
• 3 raw eggs
• ½ cup bread crumbs
• 1 tablespoon fresh milk
• ¼ cup flour
• ¼ sliced onion
• Salt and pepper for seasoning
• Sliced of ginger for optional
• Oil for deep frying

Soup base

• 2 tablespoon of soy sauce
• 3 tablespoon of mirin
• 3 tablespoon of water
• ½ teaspoon of bonito soup stock
• ¼ teaspoon of sugar

How to cook

1. Cut the fat of chicken on both sides slightly
2. Flatten both sides of chicken by using a meat tenderising mallet or the blunt edge of a knife
3. Pour some salt and pepper on both sides of the meat for seasoning
4. Whisk one egg with fresh milk
5. Coat the meat in flour entirely
6. Dip the chicken in the mixture of beaten egg
7. Pat the coated meat in bread crumbs until it is completely covered
8. Preheat oil in Ellane Electric Fryer to approximately 170°C
9. Put the meat into preheated hot oil and fry the coated chicken until it becomes golden brown
10. Remove the chicken from the fryer and drain it for about 10 minutes
11. Mix soy sauce, mirin, water, and sugar on Chefer iPan and simmer it
12. Add some sliced of onion into the sauce until the sauce boils
13. When the chicken cools down, slice the meat to two-finger-width pieces. Then put those pieces of chicken onto Chefer iPan containing boiling sauce and simmer it for few minutes
14. Beat the remaining two eggs in a bowl
15. Spill out the beaten egg over the chicken and sauce it
16. Serve steam rice in a bowl and place the simmered chicken on the top of steam rice
17. Put some ginger on the side of the plate if desired

Wonder what “Dirty Duck” in Ubud Bali is? For tourists who are visiting the beautiful island of Indonesia, Bali, should not miss to eat “Dirty Duck”. “Dirty Duck” (famously known as “Bebek Bengil”) is actually a restaurant name in Ubud, Bali. It is very well-known for its crispy fried duck served with Indonesian vegetables and delicate sambal (chili). How does “Bebek Bengil” taste? Tasty, yummy, crispy, delicious and mouth-watering! Well at least that’s the comments from our people who recently visited Bali and tried the food.

Many said “Bebek Bengil” actually came from a secret family recipe, but they eventually shared it. The mystery behind the crispiness of the ducks is that they are marinated for 36 long hours in Indonesian herbs and spices including bay leaves, lime, ginger, galangal, coriander. Why take such long 36 hours? Well, that’s part of the secrets. Once marinated, they are steamed and then deep-fried in palm oil to get the crispy touch, then voila! The famous Bebek Bengil crispy duck is born.

Bebek Bengil restaurant offers the option to dine on balai-balai, which is the raised wooden sitting platforms available around the restaurant. Sitting and eating on one of these raised floor platforms is often called “lesehan” style. If you want to do this, you probably should reserve one of these platforms beforehand. Eating in one of these platforms/gazebos, surrounded by rice fields and a marvelous garden, will indeed elevate your appetite.

With shoes and sandals off, sitting on the platform lesehan style with pillows, just shooting the evening breeze while staring at the verdant rice paddies, the ambience and atmosphere are certainly hard to beat. Our plate of crispy fried duck and rice finally came, to be eaten with our fingers. Under the deliciously crispy duck skin was lean, but tender and full of flavours duck meat. This was served with some nice flavoured urap made with green beans. Perfect! When it comes to price, we have sort of expected it would be heftily priced by the Indonesian standards, but then again it is Bali and one always pays for the great food and ambience.

Bebek Bengil (Dirty Duck Diner)
Padang Tegal Road
Ubud 80571
Bali, Indonesia

Now is your turn to tell us about your Bali or “Bebek Bengil” experience? Please feel free to share and tell us your opinion and experience.