Thursday 26 December 2013

How To Make Caramel Custard / Caramel Pudding

Hi! So today I will be doing something new with my blog. Which is to tell you how to make a dessert! :P I'm gonna share with you on how to make one of the tastiest, yummiest, most delicious caramel custard in the world! Hehe of course this is only according to me. :D But no worries though....every time I made this I will definitely get some form of compliments from the people who tasted it so that verifies that it actually tastes good hehe. Some will tell me, some from my observation of their satisfied smile or nod of approval after their first taste hehe, and some who will ask "Who made this??? This is good!" when there is a pot luck party haha. So now I'm sharing this recipe that I got more than 15 years ago from the mum of a friend of mine. Credits to Pn Zainon. The best thing about this recipe is that it is very simple and really easy to make! So here goes....

Things to buy if you don't already have them at home (another great thing about this recipe is you may already have everything at home so no fuss of going out looking for ingredients!):

1) 7 large sized eggs (of chicken ya. you're crazy if you're thinking of duck egg)
2) 1 can sweetened condensed milk 505g (any brand should be okay)
3) 1 1/2 can boiled water (measured using the same condensed milk can)
4) 1 tsp vanilla extract (must be in liquid form)
5) 7 tbs granulated white sugar (haven't tried with brown sugar)

Now let's start making some heavenly dessert! :)

STEP 1: 
Scoop 7 tablespoons (less if you don't like a lot of caramel sauce) of white sugar in your baking pan directly on your stove. 



STEP 2:
Start caramelizing the sugar while stirring it continuously using low heat until the melted sugar becomes golden brown. Careful not to over caramelize it or your sauce later will be bitter. Then set aside to cool while you continue to STEP 3.

Half way through...
Immediately lift the pan off the heat when melted sugar becomes golden
brown color but keep stirring for a few more seconds just to make sure
the sugar does not get burnt from balance of the pan's heat.

STEP 3:
Crack open 7 large eggs into a mixing bowl.



STEP 4:
Pour 1 whole can of sweetened condensed milk into the mixing bowl.




STEP 5:
Using the same milk can, pour 1 and a half can of cooled boiled water into the mixing bowl. Ensure you get all balance of the milk that were still sticking in the can while doing this. :)



STEP 6:
Pour 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract into the mixing bowl. This will rid the smell of egg in your pudding and also make your pudding tastes much better!




STEP 7:
Start mixing all the ingredients by hand using a whisk until all ingredients are combined. Do not use electric mixer/beater or your mixture will be bubbly and you will end up with pudding with holes. 


Mix them all. No need to beat them vigorously. The aim is to
combine all the ingredients together; not to try to turn them into
whipped cream.

I will not take more than 5 minutes to mix it all. It's okay if
your mixture still have lumps of undissolved eggs as
you will use a filter to get rid of it later....


STEP 8:
Put your cooled caramelized sugar into your steamer. No need for a lot of water to steam. Just enough for around 30 minutes of steaming.

This is my cooled caramelized sugar. It will harden and
looks like a piece of glass. This will later become your lovely
caramel sauce after 30 minutes of steaming.

I just use normal large wok that has lid and put the baking pan
on a tripod from the stove and voila! A steamer.


STEP 9: 
Pour your mixture slowly into the pan with the hardened sugar at the bottom using a filter to get rid of any undissolved material . 




Ready to steam...


STEP 10:
With the lid closed, start with high heat and when water starts boiling which means the steam starts, lower down the heat and steam the mixture for another 20 - 35 minutes. 20 minutes will give you a soft jelly like pudding which gives a sort of creamier taste. 35 minutes or over will give you a harder stiffer pudding. Of course time may differ according to your type of steamer. Make it 30 minutes for your first try just to be safe. 

Try not to open the lid to check on your pudding until it has
steamed for at least over 20 minutes or it will take longer
to cook.  

STEP 11:
After steaming it, take it off the steam and let the pudding cool to room temperature and then cool it in the fridge for at least 1 hour before enjoying it. 


I steamed this for 30 minutes. Not too soft not too hard.


STEP 12:
After cooling the pudding in the fridge, run a knife though the sides of your pan and cover the pan with your serving plate and then turn them together upside down swiftly and carefully and lift the pan slowly to finally unveil your marvelous creation! :) 


Yummy yummy yummy!

Thank you for reading and hope you will love this recipe. Good luck all!  :)




Thursday 19 December 2013

Bali Trip Nov 2013 - DAY 6 (Last Day)

So finally this is my last day in Bali... Yeah eventhough it was my last day we still managed to visit a few more places since our flight back home is at 8pm. We continued using the free shuttle service by Bali Plus Priority Platinum Card that we purchased online from Malaysia. Please refer my previous post here to know more about this card ---> Bali DAY 1 

5 Nov 2013 - Kintamani, Tegallalang, The End

On the morning of our last day, we checked out of Tegal Sari Accommodation and went to the Plus Priority Lounge very nearby (in front of Monkey Forest) to wait for our shuttle to Kintamani.


The view of the villas of Tegal Sari from the reception counter before checking out...

From left, the first wooden villa with the thatched roof is my friend's Wooden Room followed by the gym
and then the massage area next to it... then is the pool area just in front of the 2 tall trees and followed by
another one of our Wooden Room...  There are only 2 Wooden Rooms in Tegal Sari... At the end of this
picture is that tall Tower Room which is meant for walk-in customers only which cost Rp.200.000. The whole
other side of the villas are also paddy fields.


This is the open air Ubud Plus Priority Lounge in front of Monkey Forest while waiting for our shuttle....


From Ubud it took us around 1 hour to Kintamani. Along the way up we passed by Tegallalang where there were endless home decoration shops by the road side. All 6 kilometers of it I would guess from all types of things you can think of made from wood, glass, ceramic, clay, stone, steel, cloth, seashells, recycled items etc. IF YOU JUST BOUGHT A HOUSE, YOU MUST GO TO TEGALLALANG TO BUY YOUR DECORATIONS! Heaven! I am truly sorry though coz I was not able to take any decent pictures of the shops as we were moving quite fast... But trust me... They really are worth going to! Some of my other friends and I did passed by the stretch of road on our first visit to Bali a few years ago and we had to ask our driver to stop every 100 meters because there's always something new to see and buy as we drove along the road. :D


So we arrived at the Grand Puncak Sari Restaurant in Kintamani. The only thing to do in Kintamani is to have your lunch at any of the restaurants lining up the caldera overlooking the majestic active volcano, Mount Batur. So I guess all the restaurants here in Kintamani serves buffet lunch at Rp.100.000 excluding drinks. Food was good but we just ate the seafood dishes though as it was not Halal certified. I actually asked the van driver (3 times!) to go to Batur Sari Restaurant as I read online that it was Halal but he insisted on taking us to Grand Puncak Sari as it was the best. Oh well guess he was looking for some commission from bringing us there and we didn't want to insist and risk our last day of fun in Bali by getting into a fight with the driver right... :) Can always try Batur Sari Restaurant next time. Hehe. Will definitely be back! 


Having lunch overlooking Mt Batur...and the Batur Lake on the right side. You will see it if you focus! :P
The weather was cool and windy.

Mt. Batur. As you can see, almost naked...without any vegetation on it.

Mt. Batur last erupted in 2000 but the traces of the lava field as you can see above (the flat dark area
with no trees) is from the eruption back in 1968. You can see also a small island of trees in the middle
of the lava field where you can imagine it survived the lava flow long ago. (Click picture to enlarge) 

Before boarding the shuttle to leave Kintamani we were ambushed by these sellers. 6 T-shirts for only Rp100.000 

We then left Kintamani back the same road we came towards Ubud and asked the driver to stop by the main tourist attraction in Tegallalang to view the gorgeous Tegallalang rice terraces. The rice terraces are just by the main road so it's pretty easy to go to. Even if you don't plan to go to the rice terraces you will definitely pass by the area going down from Kintamani towards Kuta. There are also a lot of souvenir shops here and a few choices of cozy lovely cafes overlooking the rice terraces. Stopping by here is definitely a must!


One of the cafes overlooking the Tegallalang rice terraces.

Another view of the rice terrace from the main road...

Perfect!

We chose this cafe...

Very refreshing mango lassi...

View of the souvenir shops by the main road....

Another cafe....

Another view closer to the rice terrace... 

This was the souvenirs I bought from Tegallalang. Only Rp 10.000 per piece. Only USD 1/piece.

We then rode the shuttle back to Ubud and then back to Kuta where we took a taxi to the airport. The shuttle doesn't have any route going to the airport...

So that was all from my recent trip to Bali in November 2013. It was definitely a really fun and enjoyable trip and definitely relaxing towards the end.... :)

Anyway... I will later post an entry on the Top Things To Do In Bali.... till then... take care all!



Monday 16 December 2013

Bali Trip Nov 2013 - DAY 5

Hey you.... Hi... Thanks for stopping by... So this is my 5th day of my 6 day Bali trip.... :) 

4 Nov 2013 - Pura Saraswati, Monkey Forest, Tegal Sari

So in the early morning of our second day in Ubud we planned to just ride around Ubud town with our rented motorcycle before checking out of Ani's Villas to transfer to another hotel. We first had our lovely breakfast which was inclusive of the rental of our villa. And I was able to do some snooping around too at the other villa beside ours since the door was unlocked and nobody was in there. Hehe. It was more or less the same as ours. A little dusty though. Perhaps they would only do cleaning when the villa is going to be occupied.

This was the view from the balcony of the other villa I checked out at Ani's Villas. Very calming view indeed.

Healthy ending to our lovely breakfast at Ani's Villas...
So after breakfast we rode our motorbikes along Jl. Raya Ubud towards town and we stopped by Pura Saraswati on the left just before the main intersection of Ubud Market. This temple was small but very beautiful indeed with their water feature and the water lilies filling up both sides of the walkway. And I understand that some nights, there are dance performances staged here and various other venues in Ubud so if your are interested you may check the schedules of the dances around Ubud at the Tourist Information Center nearby Ubud Market. Please ask around where it is as I did not go there thus I could not tell where hehe. :P

Very nice Pura Saraswati. But this is just about it. :) To me still worth stopping by for some photo ops...

Another view of Pura Saraswati...

Closer...

Very Balinese Starbucks just at the entrance of Pura Saraswati. Your landmark if you want to look for P. Saraswati...

So after a few snapshots at Pura Saraswati.... well actually more than a few haha... we rode our motorbike to Monkey Forest. There is a temple in Monkey Forest but closed for public when I was there but the area is still worth going to. Entrance is only Rp20.000. And they didn't name this place just for nothing. There were hundreds of monkeys....errr more like baboons in this small forest! And can be quite intimidating too when they are hungry. 

Note To All: Please be very careful of your loose belongings here such as caps, sunglasses, cameras, bags etc...the monkeys here are so used to humans they are not afraid to approach you and take a look inside your bags looking for some food. Just stay calm and cool if they do approach you and walk away veerrry slowly...when you're safely a distance away, run for your lives! :P


Errrr cute?



Nice looking temple. Closed to public though but you can just go close to the walls and just peek inside.

A good place to have a walk. In less than 1 hour you can cover the whole area. It's not that big.




They are everywhere! Look at how this guy is holding his iPad close...yes you must do that too if you don't want your iPad to become the property of those monkeys. Or maybe he was just terrified haha. :)

That looks a little painful hehe. Oh yeah and check out the pose of that goddess statue.

She looks  bored...

So after exploring around the area of the Monkey Forest, we went to Jl Hanoman to look for a cafe to hangout for some drinks. Jl Hanoman does have quite a few nice looking cafes. It's a must to walk along this stretch of street. There will definitely be something for everyone. :)

The starting point of Jl. Hanoman...

After a few drinks and some relaxing at Jl. Hanoman...we checked out of our hotel and waited for the shuttle from our next hotel, Tegal Sari Accommodation, to pick us up. Yes Tegal Sari provides free shuttle to all its customers anywhere around Ubud town area. Tegal Sari is a very beautiful villa type accommodation built on a paddy field to ensure you experience the true Ubud culture. I really felt like not going anywhere at all after arriving at the hotel. Especially that our balcony had a very comfy day bed facing the lush paddy fields. Complete with a family of ducks out and about in the paddy field. Anyway...Tegal Sari is actually just nearby Monkey Forest. So it only took around 10 mins for the shuttle to reach Tegal Sari from our previous hotel.


Path going to the reception...
The reception...
The cafe area....where we had our refreshing welcome drink.

Going to our room...

Tegal Sari's own gym! Cool...

Tegal Sari's massage area...

The beautiful pool by the paddy fields! 

Our room facing the paddy fields. We took the Wooden Room that cost Rp550.000. The extra bed was Rp150.000.

Very clean & comfy bed with traditional Balinese ceiling.

Very huge balcony area complete with day bed...

Lovely...

Loving the balcony area....

Aahhhhhh.... Don't wanna go anywhere else...

Tegal Sari surrounded by paddy fields.

I seriously...seriously recommend all of you to try Tegal Sari Accommodation as well. But please book very early in advanced if you do decide to since this place is always fully booked throughout the year. I booked my room in March...for my trip in November! And even then some rooms were already booked for the same dates as mine. This place is seriously getting rave reviews in TripAdvisor especially on the inexpensiveness combined with their great service...which explains why its always full. But I know for a fact that Tegal Sari does have 1 or 2 rooms that they reserve for walk in customers only so if your are not able to book through their online website, then you can try your luck by walking in. :) Coz there were one couple who walked in and got a room when I was there at the reception checking in. I asked the reception about it and they said yes the room is only for walk in customers.

After checking in we had some fun in the pool...then we went out walking looking for a place for late lunch at one of the cafes at Jl. Hanoman... We found a vegetarian cafe and since we were a bit far away from the Halal restaurant we went the day before, we decided to try vegetarian food instead. I was in love with their fried noodles! Simple fried noodles with sunny side up on top served with spicy sauce. Just the way I like it. Yummy! :))

The very tasty vegetarian fried noodles...

The vegetarian cafe. Atman Cafe at Jl. Hanoman...

Later that night we went again to the same cafe we went the night before. Kafe. Again had their banana milkshake. :D There are lots of other cafes that you could try in Ubud. All seems cozy and looks cool. Some offer live bands too. You definitely should consider to stay a night or two in Ubud. I recommend you to stay over towards the end of your trip to Bali just to relax and wind down after your few days in busy Kuta. Till the next entry. See ya. :)