"Tantalizing Chicken Curry with Prata Bread" Cooking Class at Pullman Jakarta Central Park

Next month, I supposed to go to India for a 5 days training but too bad, I had to cancel it because of a silly dilemma. Of course, I'm a bit upset because India is a country on "my countries list" that I want to visit in my life.  So, when I received an Indian cooking class invitation from Pullman  Jakarta Central Park Hotel last week, it really cheered me up. Although I can not go to India yet but at least, I can learn how to cook Indian food.

The cooking class.

The purpose of Pullman Jakarta Central Park to make this event is to introduce Mr. Sunardi Song, the new Director of Food and Beverages and also to promote the Indian Food at Collage in March and April 2013.

Chef de Partie, Ranjit Debnath from Kalkota, has been working at Pullman Jakarta Central Park for five months. He taught step by step how to make “Tantalizing Chicken Curry with Prata Bread” to the cooking class participants.

It was a hands on cooking class. I was in a team with Prawnche. We cooked together the Chicken Curry but for the Prata Bread, we made it by ourselves. I had so much fun during this cooking class :)

Here's how to make the Chicken Curry:

The Chicken Curry spices.

Ingredients:

- 800 gram chicken, boneless, cut into 8 pieces

- 100 ml vegetable oil

- 2 bay leaves (tej patta)

- 6 pcs. green cardamom (choti elaichi)

- 6 pcs. cloves (laung)

- 1tbs. onion paste

- 1 tsp. ginger (adrak) paste

-  2 tsp. garlic (lasan) paste

- 1 tsp. coriander (dhaniya) powder

- 75 gr cashew nut (kaju) paste

- 200 gram yoghurt (dahi)

- 1/2 tsp. white pepper (safed mirch) powder

- 1 tbs. red tomato paste

- 2 tsp. oregano leaves

- 150 ml cream

- 2 tbs. ghee

- salt to taste

- some water

Method:

- Heat the oil and ghee in a heavy-bottomed pan, add cardamom, cloves and bay leaves, then ginger paste and garlic paste. Saute until the cardamoms change color.

- add the chicken, sprinkle salt and pepper.

- add coriander powder, tomato paste, oregano, yogurt, cashew nut paste, cream and water. 

- cook and bring it to boil, reduce heat and simmer until the chicken becomes tender.

- serve hot and accompanied with Indian bread (i.e: Prata bread)

Prata Bread

Ingredients:
- 250 gram whole-wheat flour.
- 4 gram salt
- 15 ml vegetable oil
- 125 water
- butter for greasing the pan

Method:

- sift the flour and salt together. Mix in the oil and water, knead to make a soft dough. Cover with a moist cloth and keep aside for 30 minutes.

- divide the dough equally into 5 balls and dust with flour.

- heat the pan and grease it with butter

- flatten the balls and roll each out to an 8" disc. Place the discs on a greased tray.

- put it into the greased pan.

- fry until it becomes golden.

- serve hot.

My cooking result :)

Location:
COLLAGE
Pullman Jakarta Central Park Hotel
Podomoro City
Jl. Let. Jend S Parman Kav 28
West Jakarta
Tel: (+62 21)29200088

Related posts:
- Collage at Pullman Jakarta Central Park
- Ramadan Delight at Pullman Jakarta Central Park Hotel 
- Yee Shang at Pullman Jakarta Central Park Hotel 
- Italian Menu at Pullman Jakarta Central Park Hotel

Brunch at BonChon

Today, some food bloggers and I were invited for a brunch at Bonchon, Citywalk Sudirman.

Here is the Brunch Menu.

ENTREE

Kimchi Soup, Chicken Soup, Fresh Salad and Bites (original or spicy)

For my entree, I had fresh salad. It's kind of interesting to see fried batter as the salad topping instead of ordinary croutons. A different crunchiness which was unique and good.  

MAINS 

(available starting March 2013)

Classic Myun with Boneless Cutlet 

Myun or Myeon means noodles in Korea. I'm not so sure how the Koreans prepare their noodles but this noodle was a bit soggy. As for the sauce, it tasted pretty sweet and also spicy which was difficult for me to enjoy it because I can't eat spicy food. I wish that the spiciness can be eliminated since there is already Spicy Myun in the menu for those people who love eating spicy food. To my surprise and also the other food bloggers', the batter-fried boneless cutlet chicken was totally bland. First, I thought the chef forgot to put salt or other ingredients that can make it tasty. But then, when I had a chance to ask the chef why it was bland, he explained that the way to eat this dish is that we supposed to mix the batter-fried boneless cutlet chicken together with the noodles and the sauce. Therefore, in order not to overwhelmed the taste of this dish, the batter-fried boneless cutlet chicken was prepared tasteless. Interesting, isn't it? If I may put my two cents in, it probably will be better if they inform or prepare a sign to tell how to eat this dish; instead later on, there will be customers who might complain. ;)

Spicy Myun with Boneless Cutlet 

 DESSERTS

Snowflakes - Blueberry, Strawberry, Mocha flavors

I chose Snowflakes Blueberry for my dessert because I was pretty curious how it tastes. Well, after two spoons of it, I guess it's not really my type of dessert.

I'll stick to these yummy vanilla, strawberry and mocha ice cream Mochi :)

Location:
Bonchon Citywalk
Citywalk Sudirman
Jl. K.h Mas Mansyur 121
Jakarta

Starbucks Gambir Train Station

At the end of January, Starbucks just opened the 142nd Starbucks store at Gambir Station, Jakarta which it is the first store in a train station in Indonesia. The location of the store is strategically at the departure area where travelers can have their favorite beverage easily before or after their train journey. The brewing time is daily from 5 am to 8 pm.

Starbucks Indonesia introduced their Winter Beverage 2013, available from 8 January 2013 to 4 March 2013. There are three beverages: Hojicha Tea (roasted Japanese green tea) served in hot/iced Latte and Frapuccino, Starbucks Signature Chocolate and  Green Tea Latte with an additional espresso shot.

Hojicha Tea Frapuccino 

Green Tea Latte with an additional Espresso shot

Tall - Rp. 36.000, Grande - Rp. 42.000, Venti - Rp. 47.000

Love it! Surprisingly that hot green tea latte blended so nicely with espresso :)

The food to be paired with the above beverages:

Smoked Chicken Croissant - Rp. 23.000

A buttery croissant filled with smoked chicken and cheese.

Tuna Cheese Whole Wheat Panini Sandwich - Rp. 35.000

Inside the Tuna Cheese Whole Wheat Panini Sandwich is mayonnaise, tuna mix filling, red green pepper and cheese.

Verona Cake - Rp. 22.000

Layered cake consists almond biscuit, butter cream and  Starbucks Coffee Verona biscuit.

Starbucks also introduced its four types of tea: Spearmint Green, English Breakfast, Chai, and Earl Grey.

I like this spearmint green. It tastes mild, soothing and refreshing.

Location:
Starbucks Gambir
Area Keberangkatan Stasiun Gambir
Jl. Medan Merdeka Timur
Central Jakarta 10110

AsliCabeIjo - Cooking Experience with Chef Bara Pattirajawane

I experienced a fun cooking class with Chef Bara Pattirajawane together with some other bloggers. It was held at Jakarta Culinary Center Senayan, sponsored by Indomie and organized by Ogilvy & Mather.

Not only food bloggers but there were also travel bloggers.

Chef Bara showed us how to prepare and cook the fried snapper with green chili and coconut milk sauce.

Chef Bara's creation.

Then, we had to cook the same recipe within an hour.

Cindy and I were in a team.

 On the cooking table:

The ingredients:

While Cindy was taking care of frying the battered snapper,

I took care of making the green chili and coconut milk sauce.

The result:

What do you think? Will you order it if it's on a restaurant menu? ;)

At the end of the cooking class session, chef Bara made Pandan Pannacota with chocolate and jackfruit on the top.

Twitter: @indomielovers #AsliCabeIjo
Facebook: Indomie Instant Noodle

May Star, Central Park Mall

There are four May Star restaurants in Jakarta and one in Bandung, but so far, I've only eaten in Central Park mall. Most of the time, this restaurant is crowded especially in the weekends. What I usually order is the dim sum but sometimes, I also like to order from the a la carte menu.

Here is the list of dim sum:

Rice noodle roll with pork (chiong fan chasiew) - Rp. 19.800

Phoenix claws (fengzhao) Kaki Ayam Lada Hitam - Rp. 19.800

Shumai (siew mai) - Rp. 20.800

Xiaolongbao - Rp. 20.800

Steamed pork spare ribs (paigu) with fermented bean (tausi) - Rp. 20.800

Sweet salted egg buns (bao telor asin manis) - Rp. 21.800

Inside the bun, the salted egg yolk.

Har gow (shrimp dumplings) Hakaw - Rp. 22.800

Haam Seoi Gaau ( shrimp & chopped veggie dumpling) - Rp. 20.800

Lotus leaf  rice (lo mar kai) -Rp. 37.600

Sticky rice with egg yolk, dried scallop, mushroom, water chestnut and pork.

Rice noodle roll with youtiao (chiong fan cakwe) - Rp. 19.800

Fried taro cake (wu tau gou) Lobak goreng - Rp. 18.800

From the a la carte menu:

Corn, asparagus and crab soup - Rp. 36.000

Fried pork ribs with sesame seed - Rp. 108.000

Fried rice with garlic - Rp. 38.000

Pickels - Rp. 20.000

 All prices subjected to tax and service charge.

Current currency: 

1 USD = Rp. 9.700

Location:
May Star Restaurant
Central Park Mall
Lower Ground
Jl. Letjen S. Parman Kav. 28
West Jakarta
Tel: 569 85422

Disclaimer: The review and opinion expressed here are purely according to my personal taste. There's a possibility that the taste of the food might change later on, which could affect the review and opinion here. I also affirm that no monetary or non-monetary compensation has been received from this restaurant for writing this review.