Radish Flower again - Jul 2012

Holaaa..
Like mentioned in my earlier posting.. white radish is the best material for carving, due to its soft texture...

This time I got chance to practice making this flower. I don't know exactly what flower it is hehehhee...
For me it more looks like Dragon Fruit :D or maybe Ginger Flower... ?!?

I put very light food coloring on its surface, to make natural looks on it..

Flowers made from white Radish, cucumber and carrot

Hi...
Finally.. my flower is blooming.. :)))
After these long journey where my radish flowers were only in half bloom, I finally got the trick (and time) to make the bloomed one... :))
It was not perfect yet, but for sure it could be improved later... :P

And also I got new model of cucumber and carrot flowers.... :)

Roses made from white radish - May 2012

Roses from white radish was my first vegetable carving creation.
The first one was made on Nov 2011, and the second one was created just only (May 2012).. :)
Since in the middle of these period, I was busy with tulip flowers made from carrot. He he...

Please click here to see our Nasi Tumpeng Album.

Beautiful Swan made from White Radish - May 2012

Holaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...........................................!!! :)

On this post, you could see some beautiful swans... made from white radish.

I was so curious about how to make this beautiful decoration.. :) and I was lucky could find out a video in youtube that is briefing the steps in very clear way.. (and for sure you can make it, too..)


Why I'm so interested to make swan is because it's kind of ELEGANT.. Its wings and feathers and shape.. are really beautiful and it reflects beauty and an exclusive look.

Radish swan carving is not too difficult, but we need to handle it gently (put attention to the long and thin neck). Once done we can put it on the fruit platter, or on top of the dishes as centerpiece, and it will give amazing presentation.

When you serve something special to your guests, it will become more memorable to them and they'll feel much respected.

On making radish swan, my tips is: depends to the size you are expecting, it's not always big radish to be used. Small or medium size of white radish are also OK to make the swan.
Like the swan in above picture, in fact it was just about 6 cm tall.
And we could use two bamboo sticks as its legs and to position it in the nice height.

1. Tumpeng with a swan (my second creation), made on May 2012

2. Tumpeng with two swans (my first swans :)), made on April 2012

Click here to see our Nasi Tumpeng Album.

Fruit and Vegetable Carving

Hi Hi...
I don't know why, I'm become so falling in love with Fruit and Vegetable Carving now... :)

I remember.. few years ago.. I was so interested when seeing a caterer guy making the fruits container using watermelon for an occasion in my parent's house in Jakarta. It was just simple shape (yet the result was nice).. but the way he carved was so professional.. the knife was like dancing on the fruit.

I started to learn fruit and vegetable carving when I was making my very first Tumpeng, i.e.: Tumpeng for a friend's birthday, my & my hb's wedding anniversary, and friend's wedding anniversary, too..

Before made the Tumpeng, I learned to make roses from white radish. The idea actually came from Tumpeng for my father (also at my parent's house in Jakarta, on my father's birthday). It was given from one of his patient. And it was so so nice and neat and exclusive. So I tried to make the copy of it.. and voila.. it was really the replica but still need enhancement on the arrangement, size balance, etc.. :)

And it made big surprise to all of my friends, too... :) They said it was so so nice.. He he he... yeah I also felt so.. and it was not an ordinary Tumpeng that people normally makes. And it continues until now.. :)
So if you want to have an extra ordinary Tumpeng, you know already where to order, rite? Ha ha... :D

Thanks God.. for this opportunity..

Creating an art creation is really something fun, satisfying, no matter the result is nice or just so so .. and it can relieve my stress, too... :)

Recently I ordered a set of "Fruit and Vegetable Carving Tools" from ebay.. :) I can't wait to try it..and ready to explore more and more carving creation.. :) Wish me luck, ok.. :)

You can click here to see our Nasi Tumpeng Album.

Tulip Flowers Made from Carrot

I tried once to make tulip flowers from carrot.. But the result was not too nice like what I'd been expected. Since then I was too lazy to retry it. I was more interesting to use white radish for carving.

Until I found a nice pictures of carrot tulip flowers bouquet in a website, and thought why not retry it.

When there was a chance to make Tumpeng Rice, I took a carrot and tried my luck again.. :))
The result was not bad.. :) And it was indeed beautiful.. wasn't it? :) Like it like it ..

About how to make it.. is the same like the step in this post.

As background, spring onion is always the best choice. I noticed that we should use the medium/ big size spring onion..as it's firm enough to stand. And if the leaf is too long, you could trim it using scissors..and the form will be more adorable.

I arranged the spring onion and the tulip flowers in a small bamboo basket (put styrofoam at the base). And used a plastic ribbon (bought it during Chinese New Year on Feb this year :)) to fill up the empty space (tied it up onto the handle).

I put slices of cucumber and mini tomato in this basket (left picture), as decoration of the Tumpeng.

On the right picture, it were candies in the basket. You too for sure can make it! :)

 

Click here to see our Tumpeng Album

Daisy Flowers made from pears and grapes

We transformed pears and grapes into these daisy flowers..

Pears texture is too soft, so we recommend to use white turnip (bengkoang) instead, which is more harder or firm, so that the flower would not drop down.. :)

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

 

This fruits bouquet were really yummyyyy.... really.. 

Cucumber Flowers Bouquet

Hiii.. it's very very easy to make these cucumber flowers.
Just use mini fresh cucumber. And cut it in a big zig zag pattern vertically at the whole of its surface. Pull out the two poles, and voila... you got two cucumber flowers. Put it in cold water for 2 hours or more.
Stick it to a bamboo stick and arrange all of the flowers to make the bouquet, and put in a vase.

Or you could slice up the petals, just along the outer edge of the petals from the top to bottom part (not too thick, but make sure it's not cut off). Put in cold water for 2 hours or more.The outer petal will be curved to outside. And you get nice Lily Flowers.

Since people might eat it, you should use cooked water when you soak it, and put it in the fridge.

You could put this bouquet on your dining table, as a centerpiece and people can pick it as veggie during the dinner :D

We made this bouquet to decorate our tumpeng, as the customer did not pick veggie in their menu. But unfortunately the guests seems did not dare or too "sayang" to destroy the decoration.. Haha...

Click here to see our Tumpeng Album

Pink Tulip Flowers - From White Radish (3-Mar-2012)

When you want to make a beautiful vegetable garnish, white radish is the best veggie that you can use.
It's firm, but not too hard to be carved. And its white color gives you flexibility to make it into your preferred color (yes you can always use food coloring which will be easily found out in baking stores or supermarket).

With white radish, so far I have made rose flowers and tulip flowers.
Making tulip flower is much easier than making the rose flower, as you don't need to really carve the petals.
What you need is just peel off the radish and cut the white radish's edges using a knife, to make the radish into pentagonal shape (with 5 flat surfaces). And then cut down every corner 5 edges from top to bottom center part of the radish (so you will get five petals). You just estimate the flower's height. One medium size radish can produce 8 - 10 flowers (from the tiny small flower to the biggest one).

When the flowers are ready, put in a cold water for 4 hours or more to firm up the texture and spread up the petals. What I do normally is put it in a container with tap water (as people will not eat the flowers I believe - raw white radish taste is not too nice :)) and keep it in a fridge over night. By putting in fridge, we can prepare it long time before the day and avoid it to become spoiled because of the bacterias which is much easily growing in a room temperature.

Voilaaa.. the flowers are ready.

I'm thinking to make the video version on how to make this carving, so that it will be much easier for you to see and know on how to make these flowers... Hmm..I'll upload it ASAP, ok.. :)

 

As mentioned, we could use food coloring to make it merrier and more interesting. This time I used pink color and paint it using a small brush to the flower's petal edges (outer side).

And here how I arranged the flowers. I used spring onion as the background leaves.

Below is one of Indonesian traditional meal set . If you are not an Indonesian, you could make the same, just mould up white rice (you could use Japanese rice or mix the normal white rice with sticky rice) using any shapes of tin you want (e.g.: car for your son's party, etc). And put the dishes surrounding the rice, and decorate with pretty garnishes. You could put it as a centerpiece on your dinner table. I'm sure your guests will be amazed of it and your party will be so unforgettable.. :) :) :)

Click here to see our Tumpeng Album

Fruits/ Vegetables Carving

Hola Friends...!!!

Fruits/ Vegetables carving is the art of carving vegetables and/ or fruits to form beautiful objects, such as flowers, leaves or birds.

Please enjoy our creation's photos below.. :)

If you are interested to know about how to make it, pls. email us at MarFelKitchen@yahoo.com. We will gladly share the steps to you.

Ciao,

MarFel's Mother :)

~~ White Radish Flowers ~~

~~ Chili, cucumber, carrot flowers and leaves ~~