Brigadeiro and Pao de queijo (Brazilian Snacks)

For the Brazilian National Night, the Brazilian delegation prepared their famous snacks.

The first one is Brigadeiro which is a Brazilian candy named after Brigadier General Eduardo Gomes, who ran for presidency in 1940's. This candy was his favorite one and his wife served it at every parties. Gomes lost the election, but the candy made a history. In Brazil, no birthday party is complete without brigadeiros - it is as important as the birthday cake itself.

The Brazilian delegation made the Bridgadeiro from a ready to use chocolate condensed milk (Nestle product).
You can also make it by yourself if you can't find the ready to use chocolate condensed milk with the following Bridgadeiro recipe:

Ingredients:
1 can Condensed Milk
2 tablespoons Butter
2 or 3 tablespoons Chocolate Powder
Chocolate sprinkles

Preparations:
1. Combine the first three ingredients in a pan and stir constantly over medium heat, bringing to boil.
2. Continue stirring for about 2 minutes or until mixture thickens enough to coat the bottom of the pan.
3. Remove from heat and carefully scoop hot mixture out of the pot into a separate bowl to cool
4. Let it cool completely,
then the next steps are as follow:

Coat hands with butter and scoop out a tablespoon size amount of the chocolate condensed milk into the palm of your hand.

Roll into a small ball.

Roll the ball in sprinkle.

Let rest on a non-sticky paper or in a paper cup.

Beside the Brigadeiro, Pao de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Roll/Bread ) was also being served as the second snack during the Brazilian National Night.

The Costa Rica leader and me helped the Brazilian leader to make the Pao de Queijo.

It's so easy, fast and convenient to make it from this brand "Yoki Pao de Queijo Mix".

For one bag of Yoki:
- Add 2 eggs and 1/2 cup of water, then mix well with the Yoki powder until become a dough.
- Make small rolls and place them in a tray.
- Bake in oven (350 degrees F) for about 30 minutes or until the rolls become golden color.

Can't believe that the taste of this Pao de Queijo made from the mix Yoki powder is totally the same like the Pao de Queijo (recipe from Everything4sweets) that I made several months ago :)

Tukang Cilok (Aci Dicolok/ Fried tapioca balls)

Hey.... Let's see what is that guy selling?

Oh.. that's Cilok which is an abbreviation from Aci Dicolok. Literally, it means tapioca starch being stabbed.

Cilok is a very simple chewy snack from West Java. It's only tapioca starch mixed with water and a pinch of salt to become a dough, then roll the dough into small balls. Thread the small balls on the bamboo skewers. So... It's ready to be fried in the hot oil.

Before you eat it, don't forget to dip the Cilok into peanut sauce :)

Pao de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Rolls)

This morning, I received an email from my friend. She asked whether my mom can make Pao de Queijo - famous Brazilian cheese rolls. Her daughter is going to give a presentation about Brazil in her class next week and she need to bring something related to Brazil which is a traditional Brazilian food.

My friend even provided the "Pao de Queijo" recipe from "about.com" site as below:

Ingredients:
* 2 cups whole milk
* 8 tablespoons butter, melted
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 4 1/4 cups tapioca (cassava) flour
* 4 eggs
* 2 cups grated farmer's cheese, or any firm, fresh cows milk cheese
* 1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese (optional)
* salt to taste

Preparation:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix milk, salt, vegetable oil and butter in a pot, and bring to a boil. As soon as it boils, remove from heat.
3. Stir tapioca flour into the milk and butter mixture.
4. Stir in the eggs and the cheese, and mix well.
5. Let mixture cool for 15-30 minutes, so that it will be easier to handle.
6. With floured (tapioca flour) hands, shape the dough into golf ball size balls (about 50 gram portions) and place them on a baking sheet.
7. Bake rolls for 20 to 25 minutes, until they are puffed up and are golden. They will rise slowly and puff up mostly in the last 5 or 10 minutes.
8. Serve warm.

Makes about 15 rolls


Mom and I decided that we'd give a try first today. Well, this is the result :)

They supposedly should puffed up but I'm not sure why these rolls didn't.

Anyway, besides of the nice texture - crusty on the outside but chewy and gooey on the inside, it tasted quite interesting for me ;)


Updated: 6 March 2010

Yay!!! I finally made a much better Pao de Queijo. What a big difference, hehehe...
Thank you to Everything4sweets for sharing her nice recipe :)


Ingredients:
150 gr tapioca flour
90 gr milk
35 gr melted butter or oil
50 gr parmesan cheese
1 egg
2 gr salt

Directions:
the same as the above recipe.

Pondok Sanjaya (Pempek - Fish Cake)

My ex-supervisor brought me to eat at Pondok Sanjaya that served delicious Palembang food (Palembang is the capital city from South Sumatra, Indonesia).

The most famous authentic dish from Palembang is Pempek.
Pempek is fish cake made from mackerel fish and sago.
It can be consumed as main meal or as snack.

Different types of Pempek:

No. 1 = Pempek Pistel (grated young papaya filling)
No. 2 = Pempek Kulit Ikan (Fish Skin)
No. 3 = Pempek Tahu (tofu filling)
No. 4 = Pempek Keriting (Curly)
No. 5 = Pempek Lenjer (without filling)
No. 6 = Pempek Telor or also known as Kapal Selam Kecil (egg filling)
Note: There are 2 kinds of Pempek Kapal Selam (trans: kapal selam means submarine, Besar means Big, Kecil means Small). Pempek Kapal Selam Besar is filled with duck egg and in a bigger size than Pempek Telor. Pempek Kapal Selam Kecil/ Telor is filled with chicken egg .
No. 7 = Pempek Adaan (the fish cake dough is mixed with onions and coconut milk)

Aside from the shape of Pempek Pistel and Pempek Telor are almost the same, you can tell that Pempek Pistel got wave edges.

All the pempeks are boiled first before deep fried except the Pempek skin fish and Pempek Adaan which directly being deep fried.

Inside the pempek:
No. 3 = tofu
No. 6 = chicken egg
No. 1 = grated young papaya

Served with a pungent sweet sour sauce made from vinegar, garlic, salt and brown sugar plus a drizzle of dried shrimp.

Pempek is one of my favorite food. I just love the chewy texture:)

3 types of chili sauce:

Bird eye's chili sauce- Peanut chili sauce - Red chili sauce with fermented soy bean

Another type of Pempek which is not fried but directly grilled on charcoal is called as Pempek Panggang or also know as Tunu. Usually, eaten with ebi (dried shrimp) and sweet soy sauce.

A good way to eat it is by adding the bird eye's chili sauce for those who love to eat hot and spicy.

Pempek Panggang

Otak - Otak

Fish cake wrapped in banana leaves and grilled on charcoal.

In Palembang, otak-otak is served with red chili sauce mixed fermented soy sauce, but in other cities, it is served with the peanut sauce.

Model Gandum

The fried dough is made from wheat, served with mushroom and glass vermicelli in soup.

Tekwan
the same dough like pempek but it's boiled like little meatballs in soup

Es Kacang (Red Bean ice)
with coconut milk and chocolate condense milk

Bubur Sumsum or Jongkong

Rice pudding made from rice flour, coconut milk, salt and pandan leaves, eaten with brown sugar sauce.

Address:
Restoran Sari Sanjaya
(Pondok Sanjaya)
Jl. Lapangan Roos Raya No. 1 Tebet
Jakarta
Telp: (021) 52901588

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.

Combro & Misro

Combro & Misro is an authentic finger food from West Java.

It's made from grated cassava root (tapioca) and grated coconut plus a pinch of salt. It always filled with palm/coconut sugar for sweet version called "Misro" and oncom (soybean sediment which is a traditional staple food from West Java) for salty version called "Combro". Thanks to Sepoi who clarified it :)

Making the combro into balls.

And then, deep fried.

Combro & Misro tasted crunchy on the outside and a bit chewy on the inside.

Tukang Siomay (steamed fish cake man)

Remember my post the "Tukang Batagor and Siomay"?

This vendor is also selling Siomay(steamed fish cake) but without the batagor (fried fish cake) and instead selling on a cart, he uses a bicycle to sell the siomay.
Let's see together what's inside the big pan ;)

Siomay (fish cake), bitter gourd, cabbage, tofu (bean curd), potato - everything is steamed.

Cut into pieces.

The peanut sauce, chili sauce and sweet soysauce as the condiments of Siomay.

Pour the peanut sauce and drizzle some sweet soy sauce.

Not forgetting the kaffir lime juice.

I love Siomay because it's savory and tasty. It's also chewable because of the starch. With or without the peanut sauce, I'm OK but yes, the peanut sauce and kaffir lime juice made the siomay so tasteful.
If you like hot, then you can ask for chili sauce on the side of the plate :)

Tukang Putu Bambu

You can only find Tukang Putu Bambu after the dusk. They usually will walk around the neighborhood with their carts until late at night, and you can tell directly when they pass in front of your house from the special sound comes out from their steam.

I believe that some of you are already familiar with the name of Putu Bambu because it's a quite well known snack also in Singapore and Malaysia.

Sometimes, I got confused with the origin of the food because some food in Indonesia are the same in Malaysia. So, again like the cendol drink, I made a little research and found out that Putu Bambu is originally an Indonesian traditional snack (source: wikipedia/kue putu). The famous Putu Bambu is from Medan (capital city of North Sumatra - Indonesia).

So, what is Putu Bambu?

Putu Bambu is steamed cake made from rice flour and filled with aren sugar (palm sugar) in the middle of it then steamed in bamboos.

The empty bamboos ready to be used. Coconut and the grater.

The process of making Putu Bambu.

Steam for about 5 minutes.

While steaming, the vendor prepares the banana leaf, then after the Putu Bambu has been steamed for 5 minutes, he uses a long stick to push the Putu Bambu out from the bamboo case.Adds grated coconut mixed with salt for the final touch.

Putu Bambu has soft and cottony texture with wonderful sweet fragrance from the palm sugar and banana leaf. The best time to eat Putu Bambu when it's still warm.

1 Putu Bambu costs Rp. 1.300 ( about US 15 cents).

Some of the vendors also sell "Kue Lupis" which is made from glutinous rice and grated coconut wrapped in banana leaf before being boiled for about 4 hours, It's eaten with brown sugar sauce.

There're also "Klepon" and "Cenil".

Cenil is made from cassava starch (tapioca) and water plus red food coloring, boiled and then served with grated coconut and sprinkle white sugar.

Klepon is small balls made from glutinous rice flour and filled with brown sugar, the green color is from suji leaf (cat's claw leaf) then rolled into grated coconut and salt.
Whenever I eat klepon, I will put the whole one ball of klepon into my mouth. I love the sensation when I bite it, the brown sugar will pop inside my mouth, so fun and yummy..... hehehe...