My Ideas about Photographic

I absolutely have no knowledge and skills in photographic so it is very hard to take a good shots for my recipe book. I came up with an idea, I do quite well in editing photos so I change my ideas about taking photos. I will edit the image so I will take a clear photo of the food then I crop it and after that I will paste images that is related to the food so it can be a great image later in the recipe book. I will use adobe photoshop for this work.

Orange Kanten Jelly

Today I make an orange kanten jelly, a japanese dessert. I make this dessert twice because the first time I make this dessert, it turns out to be bad. I made a mistake by not stirring it as I boil it. The second time I made it. it turns out well. Here is the recipe of orange kanten jelly:

Ingredients:
2 tsp kanten powder
1 1/4 cup water
3 Tbsp sugar (*adjust the amount of sugar depending on the sweetness of orange juice)
1 1/4 cup orange juice
1 orange, peeled and sectioned

Preparation:
Put water in a medium sauce pan and dissolve kanten powder in. Put it on medium heat and bring to a boil, stirring well. Turn down the heat to low and simmer for a few minutes. Dissolve sugar in and stop the heat. Add orange juice and stir well. Place the orange flesh in jelly moulds or serving cups. Pour kanten mixture over the orange. Cool until set.

The negative side of making this jelly twice is that I waste too much time. I get to learn the mistake that I made before so I also get the benefit.

Sinh To Bo (Vietnamese Avocado Smoothie)

Today I make a cold dessert from vietnam. It is very easy to create this dessert. I struggled a bit on cutting the avocado but aside from that I have no difficulties. Here is the recipe of Sinh To Bo:

Ingredients

- Ripe avocado -- 1
- Ice cubes -- 1 cup
- Milk -- 1/2 cup
- Sweetened, condensed milk -- 1/3 cup

Method

Scoop the avocado flesh from its shell and remove the seed.
Add the avocado flesh, ice cubes, sweetened, condensed milk and half of the regular milk to a blender. Process until smooth. Add more milk if needed to get the consistency you like.
Serve in tall glasses with a spoon or straw.

Fruit Salad

Today I made a fruit salad from Israel. This is a salad of fresh fruit in Israel. Actually the melon as a bowl is not mentioned in the recipe. It was my idea to make it looks pretty for the photo later. I did all things by myself in making this fruit salad except for when I have to peel the oranges. I am not good in peeling oranges and I always tore them apart in the end. I asked for my mother's help and it turns out well. Actually I use canned peaches because in Indonesia it is very hard to find a fresh peach. Here is the recipe of Israeli Fruit Salad:

Ingredients:
- 3 oranges 

- 2 apples 
lemon juice
- 
1 tbs. sugar 

- 2 fresh peaches
- 
Grapes, melon, pears, or 1 can fruit cocktail

Direction:
Cut the apples and oranges into small pieces. Add lemon juice and sugar. Add the rest of the ingredients a short time before serving.

I don't use pears for this fruit salad, because there isn't any pears left in my refrigerator. I also didn't use a fruit cocktail because it is mentioned "or" in the recipe and I think too much fruit will just be a hindrance in decorating my fruit salad. In the end, the fruit salad turned out very well. The taste of the fruit is also sweet. There is no amount mentioned in the recipe about lemon juice. I think if I added a lot of lemon juice the taste will not be sweet so I just added a small amount according to my choice.

Ideas About My Recipe Book

I'm thinking of combining the recipe book with a funny comics made by myself. After doing some research, I found out that people likes to read comics rather than other books because it's entertaining and stuffs. Seeing my interest, I also like to draw and making a simple-funny character. I'm thinking of creating 4 simple character in my recipe books, so the 4 character will be a guide in exploring my books. The plot of the story is the 4 character exploring the country of the origin of the food. They will explain about the history of the food in every food I have in the book with some humor, also with some knowledge in understanding things about food. This way, I think my book will be a unique recipe book and I can achieve my specification which is a unique form of book.

Mango Lassi

I make a mango lassi again because seeing my previous post about mango lassi, I think I have to change some things. First, I will not change the recipe because when i ask people to drink my mango lassi, most of them said that it's too sweet so I better not change the recipe. With water added to my mango lassi, it tastes much better for me. Please forgive my previous post.

Sheer Yakh (Afghan Ice cream)

Yesterday I made a dessert named Sheer Yakh which is an Afghan ice cream. This is the easiest recipe I've found so far. Here is the recipe:


Ingredients
Vanilla Ice Cream
Rose Water
Pistachios (unsalted)

Instructions
Pour 1/2 tsp of Rosewater over 1-2 scoops of Ice Cream and then sprinkle finely chopped pistachios (unsalted) on the top of the Ice Cream.  Enjoy!

I didn't find any struggle while making this recipe, I only chopped the pistachios nuts and sprinkle them on top of vanilla Ice cream. On top of all the recipes I've been making, I only found the struggle on photographic.

Watermelon Ice

Today I make a watermelon Ice which is a cold dessert from China. This is pretty easy, I figured to make the easy one first. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
- 3 cups Watermelon juice*)
- 1/3 cup Granulated sugar)
- 1/4 cup Lemon juice)
(* In a food processor or blender, process chunks of watermelon until liquified.)

DIRECTIONS
In a saucepan, heat watermelon juice, lemon juice and sugar until sugar is dissolved. Do not boil!
Cool, then pour mixture into plastic tub. Put into freezer; stir mixture every 20 minutes until frozen, about two hours. Cover. Store in freezer. Spoon the ice into individual serving bowls.

I only find it difficult to record the boiling process. I did all both recording and cooking myself without asking any help. The result turn out to be good but for it only seems delicious for people who likes watermelon.

Mango Lassi

Today I make a mango lassi, a cold dessert from Bangladesh. Here is the recipe:
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of mango pulp
- 1 cup of yogurt
- 3 cup of milk
- 3 cup of water (optional)
- 1 cup of sugar

Directions
Mix and blend them. Done!

I modify the recipe a little, I did not add water because with water the mango lassi will be too watery. Without water the mixing is already suitable to drink and the taste is not too sweet. Maybe it is because people's way of tasting food differ to each other. In the end I put an "optional" to the water part.

I did not face any struggle in making the mango lassi but I think to take a photo of it is quite difficult because I cannot find the right place to produce a good photo. I took the photo in various places and I will choose the best later.

Making mango lassi, is easy basically. Mango pulp is difficult to find but I can make them myself so I can give solution to my problem in this step.

Rasbhari (Milk Balls) First Trial

Today, I try to make Rasbhari which is a classical milk based dessert from Nepal. Here is the recipe:

RASBHARI (MILK BALLS)


 INGREDIENTS
- 4 cups whole milk

- 2 teaspoon of vinegar

- 1.5 cup sugar
 PREPARATION
1. Boil milk and add vinegar to it. The milk should separate into whey (watery part) and solid.

2. Obtain solid part by shifting through a clean piece of cotton (muslin) cloth. Discard as much water as you can.

3. Make paste into a small balls (about inch or less diameter). Add some water if neccessary.

4. Boil water in separate utensil (atleast 3 inches water) in low medium heat.

5. Add sugar gradually to the boiling water to make a light syrup.

6. Gently drop the balls in the boiling syrup and cook for 30-40 minutes.

7. Remove from the heat and serve cold.

8. Rasburi can be stored in container in refrigerate (don't freeze).

STRUGGLE
I followed through the whole recipe, at first it turn out very well, but when it comes to number 6 where I have to boil the milk balls in light syrup, the solid balls started to scatter.

SOLUTION
I changed the recipe by using my own method, I add the number of sugar in order to make the balls sweet and take the balls out of the water before they scattered. At the end I have to build the shape to balls again. After that, to make the balls harder I put them in refrigerator and it seems to turn out pretty well. I will ask my family at home to try them and ask for their feedbacks.

Things That I Have learned
Today I learn that I put too much vinegar, so next time I make Rasbhari, I will decrease the vinegar. I will still use my method to make Rasbhari.

The reason why I have a cooking trial for Rasbhari is because it is a very unusual dessert for me so I figured to try it out and like today, it brings benefits to me because later I can fix my mistakes.

Timeline-2

Timeline

Introduction Essay

Introduction
Most people in life now, only think about fast food and buying food to save their time. Some people think that cooking is interesting especially when it comes to dessert and I was one of those people. I have a special interest in pastry and dessert. When I first came to this school I never thought of cooking but one of the subject in this school which is Design Technology has change my perspective towards food. I found it interesting and fun especially when I have to create a jam for my assignment. When I was first presented about personal project in grade 9, I immediately think about something related to cooking because it was my personal interest out of all things that I have experienced and enjoy. Personal project is not all about impressing people but we have to like and enjoy it in order to create an amazing product that reflects ourselves well. One thing is that if I only created one single cooking it will be too usual for people. I wanted to make something extraordinary but the project has to reflect myself and I have to enjoy it. After I did some brainstorm, I decided that it would be desserts recipes book with unusual design unlike normal recipes book that I usually found in the bookstore to attract people because I like designing things and making desserts. I think this project is well suited for myself.

The Goal
The goal for my project is to enjoy the experiences of making Asian’s desserts and compiles it in a form of book.

Linking my Project to the Areas of Interaction
The project I created will relate to the Area of Interaction, Human Ingenuity because my project aims to let out my creativity, new ways of thinking and it develops new ideas to influence society which really reflects Human Ingenuity. By creating this recipe book, people will be interested in reading and learning about the recipes contain within it. I hope that people will save some of their time to cook and learn that cooking is fun through my recipe book, they will also have some addition knowledge about some desserts through my recipe book. I believe that through this project people will tend to learn more about dessert and be more interested in making desserts. Attractive picture and sample of cooking in the recipe books can make them interested and try to make some of the recipes. I develop 4 guiding questions to help me with my project, which are:

Guiding Questions
- What does Nina - have for skills (dessert, books), like/dislike - dessert, like/dislike about books
- What type of desserts, origin/ history, material, skills, equipment
- Books - design (layout, color, font), printing, unique

The specifications that I created were that the book should:
- Asian country only
- Pictures of each recipe
- Unique form of book

Journal: Outline of Introduction

Identifying the Topic
The topic of my project is about 100 dessert from around the world compiled in one attractive recipes book

Identifying the AOI + the guiding questions
The AOI that will be used for my project will be Human Ingenuity because my project involves creativity to open their mind about something new and how my ideas influenced my society + the guiding question:  how has the creativity of man affected our society?

Define the goal and how do you attain the goal?
My goal is to create interest in dessert to people through recipe books with unusual and attractive design. I can attain the goal by putting evidences like photos of the food that I make by myself, through that people will be interested and try the recipes.

The Product
The product will be a hard cover recipe book with some pop out design of the origin of the food containing 100 desserts from around the world.

Specification
- Some pop out design based on the origin of the food
- Background for every pages 
- Photos of evidence
- Resources
- Be created using pages and photoshop
- Hard cover
- 100 desserts around the world