Dadar Gulung (Pandan Crepes with Coconut Stuffing)

My old time favourite childhood snacks. Oh boy.. I still remember those days eating so many of these for after school treats.. This dish was the beginning of my love for coconut and my addiction or Pandan leaf. It has been 2 months since I came back from my hometown in Indonesia, as always it takes quite sometime for me to settle back in Melbourne again, even though I have been living away from home for the past 14 years. How weird is that? I miss my family, friends, food, ohh food..

We call this dish "Dadar Gulung", which means Pandan Crepes with Coconut Stuffing. In the meantime, while I'm still settling back here, let me have some nostalgic moment and a bite of Dadar Gulung.

Dadar Gulung (Pandan Crepes with Coconut Stuffing)




Pandan Crepes Ingredients
150g Flour
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 Egg, lightly beaten
85ml Fresh Milk
1/2 teaspoon Pandan Extract from 5 Pandan Leaves
250ml Water
2 teaspoon Melted Butter or Oil


Coconut Filling Ingredients
300g Shredded Coconut
375ml Water
3 Pandan Leaves
1 teaspoon Sugar
1 teaspoon Cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon Salt

Method

1. To make batter, mix the flour and salt together in a bowl, add the egg, milk, pandan extract and water. Stir until batter is smooth. Add the butter or oil and mix well. Cover and allow the batter to stand for 20 to 30 minutes.

2. Place all the sweet coconut filling ingredients in a saucepan and simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally for about 30 minutes until thick and almost dry. Remove from heat, transfer to small bowl and set aside to cool. Then discard the pandan leaves.

3. To cook Pandan Crepes, grease pan with a little butter and spoon 3 tablespoon of the batter onto the pan. Cook over low heat until the crepes sets and browns. Flip the crepes over and cook over a few seconds. Remove from the heat and set aside on a plate.

4.  To serve, place 2 tablespoon of the filling on one side of each crepes, fold the sides in and roll up.

Ninja Ginger Bread

I heart Japan. A lot. That's really all I can say.

If you remember my post about Beautiful Japan couple weeks ago, you may also notice about the links of charity funds I listed and encourage people to lend a hand in times of needs. Australian Red Cross organised the event "Tea for Tsunami Appeal" and gave many great ideas on how we can contribute. I am proud to say that my workplace was part of this event. It was a great feeling to see people participate, how we can help to others in every way we can. 

Few weeks after I came back from my Japan holiday, I found this cute Ninja Ginger Bread cutter from Typo. How cute are they?.. I was originally going to bake Green Tea Cookies but I bought wrong kind of Green Tea powder in Japan. How disappointed. So, I moved to plan B instead..

While enjoying Ninja Ginger Bread and zipping a hot drink, please also check out the links of charity funds below and find out how we can make a difference. 

Japanese Red Cross Society
World Vision
Japan Animal Welfare Society
Tea for Tsunami Appeal

Ninja Ginger Bread



Ingredients
400g Plain Flour
3/4 teaspoon Bicarbonate Soda
2 teaspoon ground Ginger
2 teaspoon ground Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground Allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground Nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon Salt

180g Unsalted Butter, at room temperature

125g Dark Brown Sugar

1 Egg

125g Black Treacle

Method

1. Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and salt in bowl. Set aside.

2. Put the butter and sugar in a mixer and cream on slow speed until light and fluffy. Turn the mixer up to medium speed and beat in the egg and treacle. scrapping any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

3. Turn the mixer back down to slow speed and slowly add the flour mixture a couple of tablespoon at a time. Once an even dough has formed, take it out of the mixer, divide into 3 and wrap each piece in a clingfilm. Leave to rest for few hours.

4. When you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 170º.

5. Take the dough out of the fridge and leave to soften for about 10 minutes. Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour and roll out of the dough to a thickness of about 4mm with a rolling pin. ut out the shapes with ninja biscuit cutters.

6. Arrange the cookies on the prepared baking trays and bake in the preheated oven for about 10-15 minutes. Leave the cookies to cool slightly on the trays before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Royal Icing

Ingredients
1 Egg White
1/2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
310g Icing Sugar. sifted
Food Coloring

Method
Beat the egg white and Lemon Juice together in electric mixer. Gradually start adding the icing sugar, mixing well after each addition to ensure all sugar is incorporated. Whisk until stiff peaks. Stir in couple of drops of food coloring. Once the cookies are completely cool, decorate them.

Osaka...

This was our 2nd trip to Osaka. When we planned our Japan holiday, we were not sure whether we should spent a night in Osaka or Kyoto as both cities are only 20-30 minutes away by train. At the end, we decided we spent 2 nights in both cities and I was so glad that we made great decision. Both cities shows their unique and originality.

We stayed around Dotonbori area on our Osaka trip. We love love love this area, they are so alive especially at night, popular shopping complex and entertainment district. Again, as Osaka is famous for great food lover destination, we mostly took the food pictures. Enjoy...

Bim Bim Bap.. Oishi!

Ramen Stall... 

Vending Machine to buy ramen.. 

Ramen stall around Namba

Hubby enjoyed jumbo size of Noodle Soup at night

Interesting kind of Takoyaki...

Chocolate window display celebrating Valentine's day.. 

Spoil your love ones with chocolate box on valentine's day.. 

Or maybe spoiling your love ones with bags and chocolate on Valentine's day?

These cakes are so adorable.. Lady bug cake cost about 2625 yen (approximately AUD$32) and the chess cake cost about 2940 (approximately AUD $35). I want those for my upcoming birthday cake..

Japanese snacks.. Oh my goodness... I love this store, wish that I can buy and bring every single things home..

Sweet Post Office on Namba Walk, yes they are edible! Apprentice chef from Daicho Cooking School made this amazing and beautiful creation.

The next day we came back, They were done and dusted. Oh my.. I really adored them.. 

Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo..

 

Love Tokyo to the max...  Words can not describe how I and my husband admired the city to every bits.  If you are crazy with Japanese toys, anime, manga like my husband, Akihabara in Tokyo is the place to go and if you are mad with yummy interesting Japanese food, fashion and cute japanese good, then say no more.. Tokyo is the answer..

I just realized that we mostly took food picture while we were in Tokyo, so let me take you to amazing Japanese food journey..

The famous Ramen with extra pork on the side

Another kind of Ramen..

Sashimi Salad.. I am not  a big fan of Salad but this Sashimi salad is really yummy.. Oishi

Grilled Fish.. 

The beautiful multi color macaron and limited edition of valentine macaron.  Aren't this so beautiful?

If you are in Tokyo, make sure to visit Akihabara (major shopping area for electronic, computer, anime and otaku goods) and the famous Maid Cafe where you can experience the waitress dressed in a maid costumes, acts as servants and treat customers as a master. It's not very often they allow to take picture in Maid Cafe but this Ichiban Maid Cafe only allow you to take food picture only. 

Chocolate Ice cream Sundae at Maid Cafe. Isn't this really cute? 

If you are banana lover, make a pitt stop at Tokyo Banana. They are very very very delicious. You can always find Tokyo banana in major station in Tokyo or in the airport for last minute craving.

Bites of Tokyo Banana.. I am craving for one now..

Bento to go. They are available in every major JR station.

I have huge crush on daifuku (glutinous rice cake stuffed with sweet filling)

This below dessert dish may look a bit different but I tell you this Sesame Jelly is unbelievably irresistible. 

Memoirs of Hiroshima

A-Bomb-Dome at Hiroshima Memorial Park. Pictures always speaks thousand of words, isn't it?. This image always gives me goose bumps everytime I take a glance at it. 

Lovely Ladies selling the famous Hiroshima Oyster.. It was really yummy....

I ate lots and lots of yummy food in Japan.. I can't remember the name of this dish, All I can remember is the oyster on the top of fried egg, drizzle with Japanese mayonnaise and BBQ sauce.. I can tell you this was really delicious.. Oishi!

Yes... I ate and ate and ate during holiday.. I'll worry about the weight later..

At the shops, selling Hiroshima finest sweets called "Moniji Manju". They have lots of different flavour, such as green tea, lotus. red bean, cheese, chocolate and more. We had bit lost in translation in this shop when choosing the flavour, the old lady was very lovely and very helpful as well. Looks like the shop has been operated by the same families for generations.