Cajun Chicken Taco with Pineapple Salsa

Howdy Brunch Buddies!

I cannot resist myself when it comes to mexican food. It makes a great breakfast, dinner and lunch. I really don't mind having them all day. Well, generally it is quite easy to find a store-bought tor-tee-ya in Indonesia. Sorry, can't resist, how fun it is to keep saying it! tor-tee-ya!

Anyway, store-bought tortilla is great and very convenient, but I'm just very curious how do you actually make tortilla. Read a couple of recipes online and turned out it was really easy! For the sake of my healthy-eating plan, I used olive oil instead of lard. tough decision. but I was convincing myself that olive oil is just as good. With the tortilla skin you could be very creative, you could turn it into a taco, burrito, quesadillas, enchiladas, or make it as a crispy pizza base. My favourite is taco, but quesadillas will always have a special place in my heart.

So for my taco I chose chicken and I slow-cooked them. I have this obsession towards slow-cooked chicken. Nothing beats the tastiness and tenderness of a slow-cooked chicken as it soaks up all the stock and seasoning, it became sooo tasty. I was just checking out my fridge the other day (I did this often in my free time, one day my mom thought I could pull off the fridge door by opening it too often) and found a cajun seasoning mix. I first discovered cajun when KFC came out with a grilled cajun chicken. I was a loyal fan of KFC back in Australia, they always have a special on tuesday and as a student, I was a big fan of tuesday specials, pizza, movie, anything. So for tuesday special they offered two pieces of chicken and small chips for 9,95 and I noticed they have a new menu and instead of the fried chicken you could get a grilled cajun chicken breast with salad. So I tried it and man! it tasted delicious! Anyway, sorry to bore you with my cajun discovery story.

So, tortilla done, chicken done, and it is not a taco without a salsa! So I whipped up just the usual tomato salsa, but I added pineapple to it, the sweet and sour taste kicks in just right in my mouth.

Cajun Chicken Taco with Pineapple Salsa

Yield: 8 tacos
Cooking Time: 5 hours

Ingredients:

Cajun Chicken

4 boneless skinless chicken breast

1tbsp cajun seasoning mix

2tsp chili powder

1cup chicken stock

1tsp garlic powder

salt and pepper

Tortilla

2cups all-purpose flour

1/4cup olive oil

3/4cup warm water

1tsp salt

Pineapple Salsa

1cup chopped tomato 

1cup chopped pineapple

1/2cup roughly chopped coriander

1/4cup finely chopped red onion

2tbsp lime juice

Method:

Cajun Chicken

1. Mix all ingredients together in a slow-cooker pot
2. Slow-cook for 3-4 hours until the meat is tender
3. Shred the chicken using two forks
4. Add the leftover juice to the shredded chicken

Tortilla

1. In a large bowl, mix the flour, salt and olive oil with a fork until the mixture is crumbly and slowy add warm water to the mixture until it sticks together

2. Transfer the dough into a floury surface, knead 5-10 times
3. Divide the mixture into 8 small balls and roll each ball individually into a circle. Roll it as thin as you can 
4. Heat a skillet, cook the tortilla in a medium heat until you see brown spots appearing. Stay in the medium heat, if it's get too hot, it will become crunchy. We are going for the foldable tortilla here.

Pineapple Salsa

1. Toss all the ingredients in a bowl. Taste it to make sure it suits your taste buds. Add salt and pepper to your preference.

Chia Pudding with Dragonfruit

Howdy Brunch Buddies!

I used to love having fresh cherries, blueberries, strawberries or any other berries in season as a snack or as a complement to my cereal. However, berries like those are a bit of a luxury food here in Indonesia because we cannot grow them locally, well, except for strawberries. I was able to get like one crate of cherries for 10 bucks in Australia (if in season), meanwhile in Indonesia we have to pay 10 bucks just for a very small packet. It's ridiculous! and I do crave for cherries now and then. But too bad, it is just way to expensive so I have to find other alternative fruits. 

Indonesia is so famous for their tropical fruits like mangosteen, mango, avocado, papaya, banana, etc. You could get a very good deal on those fruits, even the organic ones. Recently, I have been enjoying this fruit called dragonfruit. You could sometimes find in supermarket in oz like in Coles, but I can tell you it is crazy expensive! and the size was so small and it does not look as good and as fresh as the one we have in Asia, particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia. 

In Indonesia, it is considerably easy to get dragonfruit, you can get it in local supermarket or traditional market and it comes with a very reasonable price tag. Even in restaurants, you could find dragonfruit juice in the drink menus. My mom planted a dragonfruit tree in our backyard and according to her it was sooo hard to grow, we have to wait for a while even just for a single fruit and it takes a lot of work as well, like fertiliser and other gardening stuff (i have no clue!). But eventually we could harvest one or two fruits like every six months. It does pay off with the quality of the fruit we got, it was so juicy, sweet, and so different from the one we get in the supermarket. 

This is the picture of the one from our backyard, it's slightly bigger than my palm. I guess it was named dragonfruit cos the skin resembles dragon skin?

They have two different types of flesh, white and red. The better one is the red one which happens to be what we have in our backyard. The red one is much sweeter than the white one. In general, they are rich in vitamin C and dietary fibre. 

Then it cross my mind to use this amazing fruit as my breakfast chia pudding topping. 

I did not even add any sugar or honey to the pudding, the sweetness from the fruit itself is more than enough for me. Just be careful, the red colour is very intense so it might stain your clothes and it is a bit of work to get it off your hand. 

Chia Pudding with Dragonfruit

Ingredients:

2tbsp chia seed
1/2cup almond milk
1/2cup dragon fruit (cut into cubes)

Method:

1. Soak chia seed in almond milk overnight
2. Cut the dragonfruit into cubes and placed on top of the pudding
3. Mix them altogether to even out the sweetness

Chocolate Chia Pudding

Howdy Brunch Buddies!
It's time for healthy breakfast! So, Chia is a type a seed grown from a plant in a mint family mainly grown in South America. But, recently people was aware of its health benefits and we started to recognise it in Indonesia as well. It somehow reminded me of basil seed, what we call 'selasih' in Indonesia, but chia is bigger in size and it can soak up more liquid compared to basil seed. Generally, it is not very hard to find chia seed in Indonesia, we do sell them in supermarket like The Food Hall or Ranch Market however it does come with an expensive price tag. I got mine from Club Sehat a store that specialises in selling healthy food products, it is slightly cheaper there.

Basically, chia seed is gluten free and it can provide us with essential nutrients like omega-3 fatty acid, dietary fiber and antioxidants. However, based on my research, some people also experienced negative effects by eating chia. For me it works just fine and I do feel healthy eating it, but my mom experienced quite a severe headache after eating it. So, I guess the health benefits is kinda arguable at this stage?

But hey, it tasted good, I like the texture, it's very easy to make and it does make me full longer, I think I'm gonna keep having it!

So the variation of chia that I am making today is chocolate chia pudding. The main ingredients are almond milk, carob powder, dutch cocoa powder and honey. Why Carob Powder?

Dutch cocoa powder Vs Carob Powder

People argue that carob is actually a healthier version of cocoa but in terms of nutrition each one has their own benefits so definitely not a healthier version but can be seen as alternative. I like carob powder because it is less bitter and less intense than dutch cocoa powder. From the colour perspective, carob colour is also less intense than the cocoa powder. That is why I have to incorporate both, as I like the taste of carob and I want the beautiful intense colour of cocoa powder.

Chocolate Chia Pudding

Ingredients:

2tbsp Chia seed

1/2 cup  Almond milk or soy mlik

1tbsp Carob powder

1/4tbsp Dutch cocoa powder

1tbsp Honey or stevia 

Method:

1. Mix all ingredients in one bowl, break the lumps from the cocoa and carob powder and stir until all ingredients incorporated

2. Refrigerate overnight for best result

3. Add any toppings you like. For this recipe I used banana, chopped almonds and a dollop of yoghurt

Mini Profiteroles

Howdy brunch buddies!

Generally, it is hard for me to wake up early especially on Sunday. However, baking does give me an excitement to jump off my bed on Sunday.

The smell of freshly baked pastry or bread in the morning is so refreshing and relaxing at the same time. That is just how I like my weekend to be. 

Last saturday, I spent quite sometime on pinterest looking over recipes and inspiration on my next sunday baking plan. and it came across my mind a cake I used to eat during my uni life, called treasure cake. The base is chocolate mudcake topped with profiteroles coated in chocolate.

When the cake was on the table, everyone was pretty much competing for the profiteroles. But I kinda forgot about this humble pastry for a while but I am about to be reminded :)  

So, finally it was decided! Profiteroles it is for my sunday baking session. I have not had profiteroles in a while, especially when I am back in Indonesia, profiteroles here are somehow different from what I used to have in Australia. They call in cream puff in Indonesia and usually, they fill the puff with custard instead of chantilly creme. 

The version of profiteroles I prefer is the one with chantilly creme filling and an avalanche of warm chocolate sauce on top of profiteroles stacks. That was just how I imagined it before sleep and could not wait to bake them the next morning. 

So, this is basically my first attempt, and surprisingly choux pastry is actually very easy to make, the filling and the chocolate sauce are also super simple. So it is definitely worth a try. Enjoy!

Mini Profiteroles

Yield: 10 small servings
Cooking Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:

Choux Pastry

60ml milk

100ml water

75g all-purpose flour

1/2tsp caster sugar

Pinch of salt

50g unsalted butter (cut into cubes)

2 eggs

Chantilly Cream

150ml whipping cream

1tbsp icing sugar

1/2tsp vanilla essence

Chocolate Sauce

100g dark chocolate

15g unsalted butter

30ml milk

30ml heavy cream

1tsp caster sugar

1tbsp icing sugar for garnish

Method:

Choux Pasrty

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degree celcius

2. Place milk, water and butter into a pan and set over a low heat until the butter melts, add sugar and salt, bring it to boil and remove the pan from the heat

3. Sift the flour then tip it in the pan with the butter mixture. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the dough comes off easily from the side of the pan

4. Wait for 3-5 minutes until the mixture cools down a bit and then crack the egg in the pan and beat them one at a time. The mixture might become clumpy at first but don't panic, just keep stirring, use a bit of arm muscle until you have a smooth paste. 

5. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag with plain nozzle. Line a baking paper and pipe a small blob of the mix about a size of a cherry tomato. Give space between the blob. 

6. Wet the tip of your finger and level the pointy top of the droplet for a bit, not too much otherwise you will ruin the shape

7. Bake for 10 minutes, take it out and pierce the puff with toothpick to let the inside cooked. Put back in the oven immediately for another 10 minutes until golden brown.

8. Cool the pastry completely before filling

Chantilly Creme

1. Mix all the ingredients with electric mixer just until the shape holds. Do not overbeat the mixture otherwise you will end up with butter

2. When the choux pastries are completely cool, cut it into half and pipe the cream in the bottom part of the pastry using small icing noozle so when you put the top part back, you could actually see the beautiful swirls of cream from the side

Chocolate Sauce

1. Melt chocolate in a a double boiler, stir with sugar until the chocolate melts completely, gradually add milk and heavy cream and stir until you reach smooth consistency. 

2. Stack the pastries, sift icing sugar on top of them and pour the warm chocolate sauce on top with a slow motion and classical music background ha!

P.S Feel free to add in more sugar to the recipe as I personally like everything less sweet :)