Serabi Saus Kinca

One of my favorites things to do in Indonesia and Singapore, or if I can say in most of Asian countries I have visited or lived, is getting delicious snacks almost all day long. I love going to the traditional market, looking for local snacks. In Indonesia, we call them: jajan pasar. Jajan means snacks, while pasar means market.

There are different types and styles of jajan pasar. For the same jajan, there could be different styles to prepare it. Why? There are several reasons. One of the reasons is adaptation of the taste to the preference of certain region. Sometimes, it can also be difficult to trace the real origin and history of the jajan.

One of the jajan pasar I like is serabi. In other place, it is also called surabi. The main theme of this jajan is the combination of coconut milk and palm sugar/javanese sugar.

There are a few variants of the palm sugar. I prefer gula jawa/javanese sugar. It is usually darker, and the taste is a bit different than other variants. I have difficulty to describe the taste in words.

Serabi consists of a pancake like snack and the sauce. Both the pancake and sauce are made with coconut milk. The difficult part of making the pancake is to make the holes of the pancake appear. It is actually similar with the trick to make martabak manis, another Indonesian favorite street snack. What I have done to make the holes appear on the pancake is: by beating the batter a few times using the ladle before pouring the batter to the pan. After a few serabis, sometimes we need to add a bit extra baking powder to initiate again the making of the holes on the serabi. It surely needs practice. I still make mistakes that prevent the holes to appear on the serabi.

Nevertheless, we did enjoy eating this during the lockdown time (Covid-19 related lockdown) in our region.

For the kids, since they are not as a big fan of coconut milk and gula jawa (palm sugar) as I am, I modified the serabi. Instead of eating it with the coconut milk/gula jawa sauce, I put different toppings, such as: slice of ham or slice cheese or chocolate, on top of the serabi while cooking the serabi.


Ingredients:
For the Serabi
150 gram all purpose flour
50 gram rice flour
25 gram sugar
1 tsp salt
3.5 gram instant yeast
1 tsp baking powder
250-300 ml coconut milk

For the sauce/kuah Kinca
250 ml santan (coconut milk)
1/2 tsp salt
70 gram palm sugar
2 pandan leaves (you can skip it if you don't have)

Alternative topping: cheese, ham, chocolate sprinkle.

How to make:

1. Mixed all the serabi's ingredients in a bowl until everything the mixture is smooth,
2. Set aside the serabi's mixture and let it rest for a minimum of 30 minutes,
3. Warm a non-stick pan (I used a small teflon pan) without oil/butter,
4. Beat the batter with ladle and pour around 1 ladle of batter into the pan,
5. Wait until holes appear on the serabi, then colse the pan using the lid of the pan. 
6. There are two variants:
• If you eat them with the coconut sauce: check until the bottom of the serabi golden brown before putting it aside.
• If you want to add topping: before you close the lid of the pan, add slices of ham or cheese or chocolate sprinkle. Close the lid of the pan for a while (not too long), check if the bottom of the serabi is already golden brown, then put it aside.
7. Continue with the rest of the batter. 
8. To make the sauce:
• Mix all the ingredients for the sauce,
• Boil the mixture 
9. Serve the serabi with the sauce. If you make the modified ones (with slice ham/slice cheese), serve them without the coconut/palm sugar sauce.

I hope you enjoy them!

Serabi with kinca (coconut milk/palm sugar) sauce

Serabi with cheese topping

Marble Cake

Marble cake is a classic cake. It is easy to find in local supermarkets and bakery. The advantage of this cake is that it is easy to make and does not need special skills to make.

Since we have been staying at home for almost 2 months now because of the Covid-19 limitation of movement, I thought that it may be a good idea to let my children learn to make a cake. This cake is good choice to start learning to bake.

My youngest boy was interested to make something. Since it is his first time making cake by himself, I helped him a bit with preparing the ingredients and when he needs extra help in handling the tools and mixing the ingredients.

In this recipe, I used cream fraiche. The addition of cream fraiche will make the cake moist.

Ingredients:
200 gram all-purpose-flour
200 gram butter (room temperature)
150 gram sugar
5 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
4 tbsp cream fraiche
3 tbsp chocolate powder (if you do not like stronger chocolate taste, you can reduce it to two tbsp)

How to make:

1. Preheat the oven at 180 Celcius,
2. Cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla until we have an almost white mixture,
3. While waiting for the mixing of the butter and sugar, mix the flour, salt, and baking powder. Put aside,
4. Add the eggs one by one to the butter and sugar mixture, and mix until it is fully incorporated. Scrape the side and bottom of the bowl regularly,
5. Add the cream fraiche and mix until it is fully incorporated,
6. Divide the batter into two portion. Add the chocolate powder into one of the portion and mix it using spoon until it has a smooth texture and the chocolate is fully incorporated into the batter,
7. Prepare the cake form. Pour the white batter first. Then, pour the chocolate batter in the middle of the white batter. Using a knife or spoon or fork, make a zigzag movement a few times,
8. Bake the cake for around 30-40 minutes or until it is golden brown. Do a prick test, by pricking a satay stick into the middle of the cake. If it is still wet, bake it a bit longer,
9. Remove from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack before serving.

My children found the cake delicious, but still thinks that the chocolate was not strong enough. They are pure chocolate lovers. That is why, if your taste is in the sweeter side, you can also increase the sugar content to around 175-200 grams. 

Let me know if you also love classic cakes and if you have other ideas of baking to fill in this stay-at-home period with family.