I got to know the taste of cafe food maybe a bit late compared to others my age in my time. Since childhood, I only know food served directly from the garden from the table.
I got to know the taste of food from a cafe or restaurant when I was in college. I was able to get paid for the articles published in the local newspapers at that time. So I can have a source of income and enjoy it to entertain myself with food in cafes and restaurants. It's a pleasure because I can buy food with money from my writing. I never forget that.
Well, this time I will share my childhood meal by improvising certain ingredients. I hope you enjoy it and stay tuned!
PUMPKIN
My late father loved pumpkin more than potatoes and sweet potatoes. That's because pumpkin can be served as side dishes, as well as cakes and sweet desserts.
My late father was obsessed with pumpkins and used to have a garden where only pumpkins were grown.
My late father's favorite menu made from the pumpkin is pumpkin served with hot brown sugar sauce with coconut milk. Then, there is the simplest meal, steamed pumpkin served with a sprinkling of grated coconut mixed with brown sugar.
So, this time I will improvise a steamed pumpkin meal served with grated coconut. The difference here is that I don't use brown sugar. I used generally white sugar and used natural blue dye for the grated coconut.
STEAM PUMPKIN WITH COCONUT
Sweet steamed pumpkin topped with steamed grated coconut. It was a simple taste, but meaningful enough to quell my hunger when I was a child. The original version uses brown sugar as a complement to the grated coconut. Brown sugar makes it taste better.
This time I didn't use brown sugar, so it didn't taste as good as the original one. I ran out of brown sugar and thought about improvising my childhood meal recipe.
So to add more value, I used Blue Pea Flowers to produce a beautiful purplish-blue color. Blue Pea Flowers produces a color that we can adjust, the longer the flowers are soaked, the darker purple will be, while for a short time soaking produces a soft blue color.
How to make this meal is quite simple. We just need to steam all the ingredients together. But before steaming, we have to prepare blue pea flower tea.
STEP 1
Make Blue Pea tea at first about 100 ml with sugar according to your taste. Wait for a moment.
If later the results are less sweet, you can add honey or your favorite sweetener.
STEP 2
Peel the pumpkin, cut it in half. Set aside the seeds. You can use pumpkin seeds to make delicious roasted pumpkin seeds.
I kept the pumpkin shape with a hole in the middle for serving the grated coconut later.
STEP 3
Drizzle freshly grated coconut with blue peas slowly. Don't get too much water. Try not to overdo the grated coconut.
STEP 4
Steam the pumpkin together with the grated coconut at the same time. Add pandan leaves or vanilla for a nice fragrance.
STEP 5
SERVING
Sweet Cookies Crumbs
I added green sweet cookie crumbs to add texture and flavor.
Sweet cookie crumbs are arranged on a serving plate which also functions as a support for one side of the pumpkin. So this will balance the position of the pumpkin on the plate.
Add Colored Grated Coconut
After arranging the pumpkin and cookie crumbs, add the Colored Grated Coconut to the pumpkin.
For more beautiful color, you can drip blue pea water directly from the flower for a stronger and brighter color.
Few Details
Sprinkle more crumbs of cookies on top of the grated coconut. Here I also used my fav biscuit cracker to add a little detail.
What do you think about the shape of the cracker I used for this detailed meal?
The Sauce that Perfects the Dish
Do not forget the role of the sauce to add flavor, as well as to enhance the overall beauty of the serving plate.
Here I use passion fruit sauce which has a fresh, sweet, and sour taste.
Desserts?
Actually, we usually enjoy this meal on the sidelines before eating rice.
We can enjoy this meal as a dessert by adding ice cream.
Oh, sorry for my bad ice cream this time. My ice cream scoop was broken and I had to make some makeshift ice cream. It may be bad, but at least it doesn't make it taste bad. The ice cream saved the taste, even though it had melted badly.
That was my childhood improvisation meal which was my family's favorite to get rid of hunger, especially on rainy days.
Well, I'm missing my late father, and writing this recipe makes me feel better.
I look forward to your feedback in the comments column.
Thank you for reading my blog and reblog if you want my blog this time worthy of reading by others.
All pictures were taken with iPhone 11.
Best Regards,
Anggrek Lestari
Anggrek Lestari is an Indonesian fiction writer who has published two major books. Now She is a full-time content creator. She has a goal to share food content that makes others happy and can get inspiration for foods that are easy to make and contain elements of health.
Make sure you follow her blog as well for some interesting discussions about life other than food.
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Contact Person: authoranggreklestari@gmail.com
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