Food Friday: Cookies and Candies

paciencia (patience), very crunchy 1-inch macaron-like cookies but without nuts

Filipino candies

Paciencia cookies, which are of Spanish origin, look like the French macarons complete with tiny feet but they are made with just flour, egg whites, sugar, and vanilla extract. The ones from La Pacita bakery have egg yolks, though, but I like that they are very very crunchy and addicting...you can't stop eating once you start popping one in your mouth. And I just had to grab a packet of Mangorind, combination mango and tamarind, when I saw it at the store. They are sweet and tart and I love its chewy texture similar to fruit leather or pate de fruits. The packet of hard mints with soft chocolate centers was a gift from an online Filipino grocery store. The candies taste a lot better than the ubiquitous Halls mentholyptus (menthol + eucalyptus) candies and perfect as after-dinner mints. I keep several pieces in my handbag so I have something to "eat" when I get hungry while shopping.

Crispy Flaked Chicken and Pork Adobo

I first read about crispy adobo flakes from the Filipino cookbook MEMORIES OF PHILIPPINE KITCHENS by Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan. As much as I wanted to try it at the time I was deterred by deep frying. That was 4½ years ago. Last week, I discovered the flaked adobo doesn't have to be deep fried. A tablespoon or two of olive oil and a cast iron pan do the job well. I was reheating some left over pork and adobo in a cast iron pot and left it for a few minutes on medium heat. The meat on the bottom of the pot became crunchy. I turned off the heat, let the meat cool down a bit, then I flaked them, returned some to the pot with a tablespoon of olive oil and pan fried, while stirring every 2 minutes until dark brown and crispy. There, crunchy flavorful adobo flakes without the inconvenience of deep frying.

Crispy Flaked Pork and Chicken Adobo
1 pound boneless chicken pieces
1 pound skinless pork belly, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 cup coconut or apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 whole garlic bulb, skinned and smashed
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
extra virgin olive oil for frying

• Place all ingredients, except olive oil for frying, in a medium nonstick pan and cook until dry, stirring once or twice. [Do not add water.] Remove bay leaf and discard. Let cool and flake meat. Fry small batches in a cast iron skillet on medium heat until golden to dark brown and crunchy. Serve as appetizer, on pandesal, or with rice.

Daring Bakers: Maple Mousse In An Edible Container

maple mousse in candied bacon topped with chocolate meringue

maple mousse in lemon rind confit topped with ginger-flavored meringue

chocolate boat, split tiny banana, semi-frozen maple mousse,
sweet cream, cherry

The April 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz. Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple mousse in an edible container. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 27th to May 27th at http://thedaringkitchen.com!


The edible containers theme continues with this month's Daring Bakers. Thanks Evelyne for allowing us to choose our containers for the light, airy, and delicious maple mousse.

Maple Syrup Mousse
1 cup pure maple syrup
4 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin
1 ½ cups whipping cream (35% fat content)

• Bring maple syrup to a boil then remove from heat. In a large bowl, whisk egg yolks and pour a little bit of the maple syrup while whisking to temper the yolks. Add warmed egg yolks to hot maple syrup until well mixed. Measure ¼ cup of whipping cream in a bowl and sprinkle the gelatin. Let it rest for 5 minutes. Place the bowl on top of a pan of barely simmering water, stir to ensure the gelatin has completely dissolved. Whisk the gelatin mixture into the maple syrup mixture and set aside. Whisk occasionally for approximately an hour or until the mixture has the consistency of an unbeaten raw egg white. Whip the remaining cream. Stir ¼ of the whipped cream into the maple syrup mixture. Fold in the remaining cream and refrigerate for at least an hour. Remove from the fridge and divide equally among your edible containers.

One of Evelyne's suggestions for containers is crispy bacon cups. I made them sweet and extra crunchy by dipping them in raw sugar before baking. I have candied bacon before and loved them as a snack but never tried it with ice cream or mousse. The crunchy bacon combined with maple mousse and chocolate meringue is heavenly.

Candied Bacon Cups
strips of bacon
golden raw or light brown sugar

• Snip bacon strips on both sides and dip in sugar. Form into coils and place in muffin cups. Bake in a 400°F oven until edges and bottom are dark brown. Leave for a minute in cups to cool and set slightly. Transfer on a plate with paper towel to remove excess grease. Let cool completely on a wire rack before filling with mousse.

I had a few lemon rind confit in the refrigerator and thought the tangy, slightly bitter, and sweet rinds would be perfect containers for the mousse. I added a pinch of ground ginger to half of the meringue recipe and the ginger flavor is just about right, not too weak nor strong. I love this combination too.

Lemon Rind Confit
14 ounces sugar
6 ounces glucose
12 ounces water
4 lemons, cut in half crosswise
water

• Heat sugar, glucose, and water until sugar dissolves. Let cool.
  
• Juice lemons, keep juice for another use. Scrape and clean the insides of the lemon rinds leaving the white pith on. Boil water and add rinds; boil for half a minute then drain. Boil and drain 4 more times with fresh water each time.
  
• Bring the syrup to a boil in a pot. Add the blanched rinds and let simmer for 1 hour, making sure the syrup does not boil and completely covers the rinds. Turn heat off and let rinds cool in the syrup. Transfer to a container, cover tightly and refrigerate until needed.
  
• Trim the bottom if using as a container for mousse or ice cream.
  

Cebu Torta

I'm so glad Kat and Lala, our Kulinarya Cooking Club hosts chose Decadence for April 2011 because I've been itching to make Cebu Torta for a few years now but never had the courage to make them...they're too darn rich for my own good. Reading the amount of egg yolks alone is enough to give me heart palpitations. Cebu torta as described on many websites sounds like the love child of this extra-rich Filipino ensaimada and leche flan...let's see...

large number of egg yolks ✓
loads of lard or butter ✓
tons of sugar ✓
sweetened condensed milk ✓

I made a very small batch following the traditional recipe, replacing tuba (coconut toddy) with sweet wine and a pinch of yeast; the torta was a bit acidic and not very good but still edible. It's probably my fault for adding yeast and letting it ferment longer than necessary. I baked a second torta adapting Market Manila's recipe which uses baking powder as leavening. I used buco juice in place of water and baked one half of the dough in large muffin pans at 350°F which produced dense cakes with a slight bump at the center. The other half of the dough was baked in small shallow tartlet molds in a hotter oven. They came out less dense, not fluffy, just a tad airier than the large ones. I love them both. These cakes are super rich, sweet, moist, and may be addicting (not good). Torta spells D-E-C-A-D-E-N-T and should be consumed only once a year, the best time perhaps is on Easter Sunday when we are allowed to indulge after weeks of temporarily giving up rich food for Lent.

Torta
adapted from Market Manila's Torta recipe

1 cup buco juice or water
1 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
8 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
12 egg yolks
8 ounces sweetened condensed milk
4 ounces whole milk
3 tablespoons olive oil
ensaimada molds, extra-large muffin pan, or tartlet molds
cupcake liners

• In a small pan, heat juice and sugar until sugar dissolves; leave to cool to room temperature.
• Line molds with paper liners, set aside.
• Preheat oven to 350°F or 400°F.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
• In the bowl of a standing mixer with paddle attachment, beat butter on medium-high until light and creamy. Add the egg yolks and beat until well-mixed. Add cooled syrup, both milk, and oil and beat well. Add flour mixture; beat on low until well incorporated. Fill molds 2/3 full and bake for 20 minutes at 350°F until tops are golden, or 12 minutes at 400°F until tops are golden brown.

a slight bump at the center if baked at 350°F

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Kulinarya was started by a group of Filipino foodies living in Sydney (Kath, Trisha, and Trissa), who are passionate about the Filipino culture and its colorful cuisine.

Each month we will showcase a new dish along with their family recipes. By sharing these recipes, we hope you find the same passion and love for Filipino Food as we do.

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But wait! There's more decadent Filipino fare to read here.

Food Friday: Matcha and Sweet Azuki Swirl Bread

I've been busy updating and re-posting old entries from 2006 and 07. Back then I didn't add labels to my posts and sometimes even forgot the titles. Yeah, I know, I was the worst newbie blogger ever. And my photos were really ug-uh-leee and when I changed to the recent template design the positioning of the photos got messed up. I tell you, it's taking me forever "correcting" the photos' colors, brightness, etc., uploading to flickr, and aligning them on the posts. But the positive thing is I get to be reminded to bake my old favorites such as these swirl breads. I added a layer of green tea dough to the sweet bean swirl...perfect match-a. (^-^)

Daring Cooks: Edible Containers

Mac 'N' Cheese on a crispy cheddar cheese bowl

baked hash potato cups with assorted fillings:
egg salad topped with caviar, poached salmon, goat cheese

vegetarian bibimbap with tofu, baby carrots, baby zucchini, soybean sprouts,
fresh shiitake, and egg yolk in a seasoned rice bowl

Renata of Testado, Provado & Aprovado! was our Daring Cooks’ April 2011 hostess. Renata challenged us to think “outside the plate” and create our own edible containers! Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 17th to May 16th at http://thedaringkitchen.com!

This is one of the most fun Daring Cooks challenges and most delicious too. Thank you Renata for coming up with this brilliant challenge allowing us DC members to be as creative as much as we want.

THE RECIPES

Mac 'N' Cheese
I love the crunch and saltiness of the cheese bowls and what could be better than a double dose of cheese.

coarsely grated extra sharp Cheddar cheese
prepared macaroni and cheese, keep hot
1 tablespoon butter or olive oil
1 cup panko bread crumbs
medium-size bowls
cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil (for easy clean-up)

• Heat a non-stick skillet over medium fire and place 3 tablespoons of grated cheese. Cook until golden brown and a little fat has been rendered. Remove fat by dabbing with paper towel. Remove cheese with a large spatula and place immediately onto the bottom of upside-down bowl. Place on the cookie sheet and let set while cooking the rest of the cheese. Once set, remove cheese cups carefully from bowl and set on a serving dish. Add butter or olive oil to the skillet and toast panko until golden brown. Spoon macaroni and cheese into cups and sprinkle with toasted panko. Serve immediately

Hash Potato Cups
I love these for breakfast.

1 pound waxy potatoes
¼ cup finely chopped sweet onion
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon sea salt
egg salad
caviar
poached or shallow-fried salmon steak
goat cheese, cream cheese, or mascarpone
regular or mini muffin pan

• Boil potatoes, whole and unpeeled, for 10 minutes. Let potatoes cool in the freezer for 15 minutes. Peel potatoes and coarsely grate. In a non-stick skillet, heat butter, saute onions until cooked, add to the grated potatoes with the salt, mix gently. Preheat oven to 425°F. Grease muffin cups. Spoon and press the potato mixture on the bottom and sides of muffin cups. Bake until darkish brown and edges are crispy. Remove from pans and fill.

Vegetarian Bibimbap
Korean cuisine has been a long-time favorite specially bibimbap I decided to make it vegetarian with tofu instead of beef strips for a change.

rice
2 cups cooked Japanese short grain rice
1 egg white
2 tablespoon sauce
2 medium-size microwavable bowls

sauce
6 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons gochu jang sauce, or to taste

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon ginger juice
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
1 tablespoon Korean sesame oil

vegetable and tofu

light olive oil
baby carrots, julienned
baby zucchini, sliced into coins
fresh shiitake, julienned or halved if small
kale or spinach
soybean sprouts
1 block firm tofu, cut into 1 x 1 x 2 inch pieces

optional topping
2 egg yolks

• Mix all sauce ingredients and let simmer in a small saucepan for 3 minutes. Remove 2 tablespoons and mix with the rice together with egg white. Line the bowls with plastic wrap and spoon 1 cup rice in each bowl pressing up the sides. Microwave, uncovered for 1½ minutes. Leave to set.
• In a non-stick skillet, add half tablespoon of oil and saute carrots until tender, transfer into a large plate and set aside. Saute the next 4 ingredients, one at a time, adding oil as needed and transfer into the plate separating each vegetable. Keep vegetables warm. Stir fry tofu with 2 tablespoons of sauce until sauce is absorbed and has thickened. Transfer into the platter; keep warm. Fry the egg yolks until the bottom is set and the edges begin to cook.
• Reheat rice bowl in the microwave for 1 minute. Remove the plastic wrap carefully and transfer the rice bowls into plates. Arrange the still warm vegetables and tofu in the bowls. Drizzle sauce all over. Top each with an egg yolk. Serve immediately with extra sauce on the side.

Fluffy Egg White Omelet with Feta and Kale

I have lots and lots of egg whites, I'm practically swimming in them. I already used up some for meringues but didn't want to make any more sweet things that would probably add inches to my expanding waistline. Then I remembered the fluffy egg white omelet I made 2 years ago, so for early dinner I whipped up a light airy protein-rich omelet that is nowhere near boredom city because it's filled with farmer's white cheese, salty tangy herbed (basil, rosemary, dried tomato) feta cheese, and my current favorite green leaf vegetable, kale. I love the combination of the salty cheese and the nutty vegetable and will definitely have this for dinner again.

Fluffy Egg White Omelet
serves one

3 egg whites
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil or butter
½ cup chopped kale
2 tablespoons crumbled feta
2 tablespoons crumbled farmer's white cheese

• In the bowl of standing mixer with wire whisk on medium speed, beat egg whites, lemon juice, and salt to soft peaks. In a large skillet, heat half tablespoon oil over medium heat and saute kale for 2 minutes or until soft. Transfer into a small plate. Add the rest of olive oil, then add beaten egg whites. Cook for 2 minutes. Flip the egg white and cook for 1½ minutes. Flip once more then sprinkle the cooked kale and cheeses evenly on top. Fold and transfer on a plate. Serve immediately.

Machang, Machang, Machang...

seasoned sticky rice filled with pork belly, chestnuts, shiitake,
Chinese sausage, and crispy-fried shallots and garlic

After posting the semi-authentic recipe for Machang 3 ½ years ago, I never visited my page again until I was told of the plagiarist. I admit the shaping is wrong and maybe the procedure is too which I pointed out on the first sentence. Machang suddenly became a mini obssession for me. I searched for a Filipino recipe online, still no luck, but recipes for Chinese sticky rice dimsum called zongzi are aplenty. And there are several shapes, seasonings, and fillings, including desserts, depending on the region and country; Malaysia has its own Nyonya Chang; take note of the name. Well, if there are many versions, then I guess I can create my own seasonings, shape it the traditional way, cook and wrap them in banana leaves just like the ones in Binondo, Manila. I love this machang; they came pretty close in flavor and texture to the ones I had in the Philippines.

Machang
recipe adapted from here

2 cups glutinous rice, soaked in water overnight and drained
1 tablespoon light olive oil
12 fresh shiitake, sliced into 4 pieces
1 pound roast pork belly, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
¼ teaspoon 5-spice powder
2 tablespoons crispy fried shallots
2 tablespoons crispy fried shaved garlic
2 tablespoons sesame seed oil
4 Chinese sausages, cut into ¼-inch slices
1 100gm packet roasted chestnuts, whole or halved
5-inch wide banana leaves
kitchen twine cut into 24-inch lengths

• In a large pan or wok, heat oil and saute mushrooms. Add pork belly and saute for 1 minute. Add soy sauce, sugar, and 5 spice powder. Cook for 2 minutes, add the sesame seed oil. Using a slotted spoon, transfer pork and mushrooms into a large bowl; leave the liquid in the pan.
  
• To the pork belly, mix in the shallots, garlic, chestnuts, and sausages, set aside.
  
• Add the rice to the pan and stir cook until rice is partially cooked.
  
• Take 2 leaves and overlap the soft sides by 4 inches. Make a cone with the leaves and support the bottom with your palm. Spoon 2 tablespoons of rice, tamp gently, then add the meat mixture; top with more rice, tamp to even the top. Fold the upper leaf down, bring together and fold, or trim excess if preferred. Tie with strings. Steam in rapidly boiling water for 1 hour.

Or watch this video from the same site on how to fill and shape machang/zongzi

Pinaputok na Pompano

deep fried banana leaf-wrapped pompano

green mango mixed with spicy shrimp paste

Sometimes Filipino cuisine confuses me or maybe just the names of the dishes like pinaputok na isda (exploded or popped deep-fried fish). I've made this fish dish twice already following the recipe from KULINARYA guidebook. The fish is simply seasoned, wrapped in banana leaves, and deep fried. The fish does not pop nor make a popping sound while being cooked although the leaves make a few crackling sound. The fried fish doesn't become brown or crispy and almost looks like it was steamed. It's not greasy at all and has a nice flavor from the leaves; I like it specially with a relish of green mango mixed with spicy shrimp paste.

Pain à l'Ancienne Focaccia

My favorite focaccia recipe is Peter Reinhart's Pain à l'Ancienne Focaccia from
Artisan Breads Every Day. The recipe is simple to prepare; the dough is mixed the day before with minimal handling and baked the next day or whenever it's convenient. The focaccia has large irregular air pockets, is chewy and very flavorful. I prefer focaccia with very little topping, sometimes with just Parmesan cheese and sea salt.

topped with cherry tomato halves, Parmesan and Romano cheese, sea salt, and Italian parsley

Pain à l'Ancienne Focaccia
adapted from Artisan Breads Every Day by Peter Reinhart

4 ½ cups bread flour
2 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
1 ¼ teaspoon instant yeast
2 cups chilled water (55°F)
extra virgin olive oil
four 8-inch round pans lined with parchment paper
herb oil (extra virgin olive oil with herbs and spices of your choice)
toppings of your choice

• In a standing mixer with paddle attachment, combine flour, salt, yeast, and water. Mix on lowest speed for 1 minute. Let the coarse wet dough rest for 5 minutes.
  
• Drizzle 1 tablespoon olive oil on the dough, then resume mixing on medium-low for 1 minute. The dough should be smoother but will still be very soft, sticky, and wet. Use a wet spatula to transfer the dough to a lightly oiled container. Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
  
• Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled surface. With wet or oiled hands stretch out the dough from all sides, one at a time and fold over to the center. Flip the dough over and tuck it into a ball. The dough should be firmer but still very soft and fragile. Place the dough back into the bowl, cover with plastic, and leave at room temperature for 10 minutes. Repeat the stretch and fold process 3 more times.
  
• Divide the dough into four 8-ounce pieces. Drizzle 1 tablespoon olive oil on the parchment-lined baking pans. Place one dough on each pan; drizzle 1 teaspoon or more olive oil on the dough ball. Using your fingertips, dimple the dough all over and spread it as much as it will allow. When the dough starts to spring back, cover the pans tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate immediately. The dough will keep in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
  
• On baking day, remove pans from refrigerator. Drizzle all over with 1 teaspoon olive oil and dimple the surface until the dough has completely covered the pan. If the dough springs back, let it rest for 20 minutes and resume dimpling.
  
• Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in turned-off oven with the light on, for 1 and a half hours.
  
• Preheat oven to 500°F. Brush with herb oil, add toppings, and bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

topped with rosemary, sauteed red onions, cured olives, and feta and Romano cheese

Another Day, Another Blog Thief *Sigh*

I was alerted by a long-time reader that there is another blog thief who stole parts of one of my posts, Machang.

Simply Marilyn's Machang was published on September 2010, almost four years after I posted mine on January 2007. I can tell she is capable of thinking and writing on her own and she did a good job of using pandan leaves to substitute for banana leaves.

I can't understand why she had to lift paragraphs and phrases from my post. Again this blog thief just like the first one didn't acknowledge my blog nor the author of the recipe I adapted it from, Martin Yan. Is it a disease among Filipino food bloggers? Or are they just shameless people who want to impress their friends with their culinary ability?

And she has the temerity to ignore the Copyright notice on all texts and photos indicated at the bottom of all my posts when she has the same Copyright sign on her blog. Isn't that incredible? Practice what you preach, you shameless plagiarist! I wonder how many more of my posts are on her blog. I will reluctantly check her other posts, then. I had left a comment on her post asking for acknowledgment both to me and Martin Yan, or removal of her post.

Update: April 10, 2011

Marilyn finally responds on her blog comment

Oggie! Sorry for this late reply, i was so busy with my culinary classes. why are you angry at this posts? I f you are a fan of Martin Yan,then it works the same with me too. We got different versions of trying it out, if you can only read my Phil. version of it which makes it so different from yours. You have to admit that. and please stop pestering my buss. page because of this . My business page has nothing to do with this. you just have to act professionally. you are talking about plagi…I don’t know that we got the same cookbooks.Mine was long time cookbooks from my late mom. This is the first time that i discovered we have same Martin’s Yan recipe. What thought are you talking about? this is Martins. if you can read my own version of explanation indicated on the first part. I was about to update it for sources in it, thus delayed a little while. I don’t like this either. i don’t want us both to do the same of Martin’s, i will only remove this if you ‘ll remove your posts, about my name indicated in your website., cause i can also do the same with you. I will remove my posts not because of about plagi,..it is for the reason of –i don’t want us to have the same recipe. I can make my own kind, im a chinese anyway

My response
First of all, Marilyn, I haven’t been pestering your business page, wherever that is. That is not my style. Read my post comment saying I have already gotten over your plagiarism. However, I got an email late last night informing me that he/she has been leaving comments on your facebook pages just to tick you off. If you are so concerned about professionalism, you should examine yourself. You obviously are in denial of your theft. Overseaspinoycooking commented on my post that you lifted several of his posts also and passed as your own, and that he asked you to remove them. Professionalism? You have got to be kidding me! You won’t recognize the word if it hits you on the face.

May I remind you
These are directly lifted from my blog post Machang without Martin Yan's name.
“I know, this is not authentic machang, The rice is a bit soggy, the seasoning was not thoroughly absorbed by the rice and maybe was washed away by the boiling method. The thing is, the machang was still good, regardless. So I searched in all my Chinese cookbooks for something similar, found one.. His recipe has too many ingredients and the rice bundles are wrapped in lotus leaves”

And these are directly lifted from Machang For Real
“It’s like our native suman, except that it is prepared with pork and chicken filling. It’s more like Chinese adobo in taste.”

You added some of your words, but I have my doubts and now suspect you lifted them also from a book or other blogs, who knows; and I don’t really care. I’ve done my job in exposing your kind, yes the plagiarist kind, to the the food blogging community. I am not interested in your business as long as my blog posts don’t appear in any of yours word for word, thought for thought. As I said on my previous comment, I work hard to write a good description of my experiences with regard to a particular recipe and I NEVER forget to acknowledge the book, author, or blog that inspired me to cook and blog about the food. You have no “right” to be upset because you are the offending party, not me nor overseaspinoycooking. You stole from us and we have every right to be angry at you.

She wrote a follow-up comment

i will remove the posts of Martin Yan procedure and i will do completely a different thing. , just gonna change the whole of it. Did you ever think about the pics. that i have posted?, that was an effort..gonna update it the different way following my own version. you can have Martin. and please, remove about what you have written about my name-if not, i will do the same too. If you are entittled to Martin’s ? why others can’t? it was a reference recipes for everyone. i hope this is clear to you..

My response
Marilyn, do you have a reading comprehension problem. I NEVER said you cannot use Martin Yan’s recipe. You simply removed his name from my original paragraph and I wonder why. You should remove this post entirely or re-write it USING YOUR OWN WORDS AND EXPERIENCES. Is that so hard to understand? Sheesh. And what do you mean “I WILL DO THE SAME TOO”. How so? I didn’t do any thieving, you did!

Why couldn't she just admit her mistake, apologize, re-write her post, and move on. I already did.

A warning to future thieves: Do not lift paragraphs, photos, or entire copyrighted blog posts from this blog; otherwise, your blog and name will appea permanently on BLOG THIEVES HALL OF SHAME.

April Fools

Indian gooseberry fool and marionberry (blackberry) fool

Sorry, but there aren't any April Fools Day pranks or jokes on this post, just berry fools, Indian gooseberry and marionberry fools. I bought a packet of frozen Indian gooseberries and didn't know what to do with them. They are not the same as the sweetish American gooseberries. They have a single stone and the meat is sour and has a tannic or astringent tongue feel which strangely I really like. But that's just me. I love sour fruits and I don't mind that they taste like unripe fruits.

Gooseberry or Marionberry Fool
1 cup tart gooseberries or marionberries
sugar, to taste
1½ cups chilled heavy cream

• In a small pan, heat gooseberries or marionberries with sugar. Cook gooseberries until very soft, mash with a fork. Chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours. Whip heavy cream with 3 tablespoons sugar or to taste to soft peaks. Gently fold in the prepared fruits. Spoon into dessert cups.