Grapecicle

For Food Friday this weekend, there is no cooking involved which is just perfect to enjoy the last few weeks of summer.

Have you tried frozen seedless grapes? These tiny champagne grapecicles are a great frozen treat without much work to be done except washing them, then freezing for 2 hours.

champagne or Corinth grapes are cute and tiny

   

White Peaches and Ginger Beer

white peach puree and ginger beer drink

This is my non-alcoholic version of Bellini, a refreshing drink made with white peach juice and Prosecco. I pureed the fruit with a little sugar and added crushed ice, seltzer water, and ginger beer. I also mixed some of the puree with just seltzer water for a stronger peach flavor but I like the one with ginger beer more. You may substitute frozen puree or bottled juice for the fresh fruit puree.

white and yellow peaches

White Peach and Ginger Beer

Ingredients

• 2 ripe white peaches, well chilled
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 cup crushed ice
• 1 cup seltzer or sparkling water, well chilled
• 1 cup ginger beer, well chilled

Cooking Directions

1. Peel peaches, remove stones and discard; dice peaches and puree with the sugar.
2. Divide puree between 2 tall glasses. Stir in ½ cup ice into puree. Pour ½ cup each seltzer water and ginger beer. Stir gently with a metal stirrer.
3. Serve immediately.

also good with just seltzer water

Fresh Spring Rolls

Fried or fresh spring roll is perhaps the food Filipinos are most identified with. Our lumpia wrapper, made with just 2 ingredients, flour and water, in my opinion is the best spring roll wrapper. Because it is very thin it becomes crispy when fried and so light when used as wrapper for vegetable fresh spring rolls.

I made fresh spring rolls with tofu and chickpeas instead of the usual prawns and pork. Because I heart tofu I'm not the least bit surprised that I love this vegan version. I don't eat eat tofu every day but I don't mind having it once a week.

Fresh Spring Rolls
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
½ cup onion, sliced thin
1 cup fried tofu, coarsely chopped
1 vegetable cube
3 tablespoons water
1 teaspoons sea salt, or to taste
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 cup green beans, julienned
1 cup cabbage, shredded
1 cup carrots, julienned
1 cup sweet potato or jicama, julienned
1 cup cooked garbanzos (chickpeas)
¼ cup chopped roasted peanuts, optional
curly green lettuce
store bought lumpia wrapper
brown sauce
minced garlic

• In a wok or large sauce pan, heat the oil and stir fry garlic and onion for 2 minutes or until onion is translucent. Add the vegetable cube and 1 tablespoon water and stir until cube has dissolved. Add the rest of the vegetables except garbanzos and lettuce.. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally until vegetables are tender. Add the garbanzos and stir until garbanzos are heated through. Transfer into a bowl and let cool slightly.
  
• Separate the wrappers and steam one at a time over simmering water or in the microwave oven covered with wet towel until soft, about 20 seconds. Lay a lettuce leaf in the middle of the wrapper leaving a few inches off the bottom. Spoon vegetable filling on top of the lettuce, and sprinkle with a teaspoon of peanuts if using. Fold the bottom of the wrapper over the bottom of the lettuce and wrap one side over the filling. Wrap the other side to cover completely, leaving the top exposed. Serve with brown sauce and minced garlic.

Brown Sauce
½ cup sugar
1½ cups water
1½ tablespoons soy sauce
1½ tablespoons cornflour

• Caramelize the sugar in a medium stainless steel saucepan. In a small container, mix soy sauce, cornflour and a little of the water until cornflour is dissolved. Add to the rest of the water. When the sugar has caramelized to a slightly dark brown color, add the water mixture; it will bubble. Let it come to a simmer over medium heat, stirring and scraping the hard sugar constantly until the mixture becomes clear. Transfer into a gravy boat or serving container.

I read somewhere that lumpia wrapper is made with equal parts flour and water. The mixture is brushed thinly on a moderately warm skillet and more of the mixture is brushed on until it is thin enough and cooked just until the edges are dry. I tried making with just half a cup each but it was a FAIL, not epic but still a fail. Some parts were too thick and the edges were too thin. I was just curious and now I know it's not that easy to make flour lumpia wrapper.

This post is for a weekly gallery of food photography, Pinoy style, hosted by Spices.

Lasang Pinoy, Sundays: Seafood

LaPis Sundays, a gallery of food photography, Pinoy style, is hosted by SpiCes and Feisty Cook

I prepared the salmon a la Bistek Tagalog (beefsteak) seasoned with calamansi or lemon juice and soy sauce, and served on a bed of sauteed sweet onions

Fried Salmon Steaks and Onions
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large sweet onion, sliced into rings
a large pinch of sea salt
2 pounds salmon steaks
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons calamansi or lemon juice
¼ teaspoon salt
ground black pepper, to taste

• Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a nonstick skillet, sprinkle with a pinch of salt, and cook the onion over medium heat until soft and slightly browned. Transfer into a serving plate, cover to keep warm, and set aside.
• Pat dry the salmon and coat both sides of the steaks with a mixture of 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, ¼ teaspoon each salt and ground black pepper. In the same skillet, heat the remaining oil and fry the salmon over medium-high heat until cooked. Spread the onion on the platter. Lay the cooked fish on top of the onion. Heat the remaining soy sauce and lemon juice in the same skillet and pour all over the fish. Serve immediately.

Lasang Pinoy Sundays: Rolled

tamagoyaki, a sweet Japanese rolled omelet

LpaisSundays, a gallery of food photography, Pinoy style, is hosted by SpiCes and Feisty Cook.

4 large eggs
4 tablespoons dashi stock
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon mirin
½ teaspoon soy sauce
salt, to taste

• Beat the eggs and the rest of the ingredients very well until as smooth as possible.
  
• Pour about a quarter of the mixture into a well-oiled tamago pan or non-stick skillet and spread as if you are making a crepe. As the mixture cooks, bubbles and sets, roll it and move it to the back of the pan. Brush more oil on the pan and some more of the mixture, making sure to get some under the roll. As it cooks, roll the old roll back to the front of the pan, then again to the back. Repeat until you are out of mixture.
• Remove roll from the pan and roll as you would a sushi roll, squeezing out excess liquid. You can roll it into either a round or rectangular shape and slice it when it has cooled. The slices can be served as is, or as nigiri, atop a mound of rice wrapped in a thin sheet of nori.

Lasang Pinoy Sundays: ♥y

puso ng saging

lechon kawali kare-kare

Hearty is the theme for this week's Lasang Pinoy, Sundays and I'm thinking more of hearty stews than the greeting card company's holiday. Banana blossom, puso ng saging (heart of banana) in Tagalog because of its shape is one of the must have vegetables when making the hearty ox tail stew Kare-Kare. The unusual version here with crispy pork belly confit is also good but not as yummy as ox tail.

Lasang Pinoy Sundays, a gallery of food photography, Filipino style, is hosted by SpiCes.

Strawberry Flan

Lasang Pinoy Sundays is a weekly gallery of food photography is hosted by SpiCes. The Iron Chef inspired theme for this week is Strawberries.

If you like flan and strawberries, here is an easy and delicious recipe.

Strawberry Flan
1 cup sugar for caramel
1 pint strawberries, hulled and washed
½ cup sugar, more or less to taste
6 eggs
1 can sweetened condensed milk
fanned strawberries for garnish, optional

• Caramelize the 1 cup sugar and pour into the bottom of molds or ramekins. Set aside.
• Preheat oven to 325°F.
• Place the strawberries, sugar, eggs, and condensed milk in a blender and blend until strawberries are minced and all ingredients are mixed thoroughly. Pour the strawberry mixture into the prepared ramekins. Cover each ramekin with aluminum foil. Bake in a bain marie for 1 hour. Refrigerate overnight before unmolding.
• Garnish flans with fanned whole strawberries if preferred.

Vinegar And Chili Dipping Sauce

chili infused vinegar is great with breakfast favorite longaniza patty topped with fried egg, or with grilled fish, meat, and chicken, and with fried lumpia taugeh

One of the most popular Filipino dipping sauces (sawsawan) is vinegar and birds-eye chili peppers. The dipping sauce enhances the flavor of any meal of the day including breakfast. It can be prepared fresh just before eating or already bottled, homemade or store-bought. Seasonings such as sea salt, fish extract, soy sauce, caramelized sugar syrup, or bagoong are added according to individual preference.

Chili In A Bottle (of Vinegar)
fresh red and green hot peppers
2 peeled whole garlic cloves
1-inch piece peeled and sliced ginger
palm vinegar (sukang paombong)

• Fill a clean bottle half-full with chili, add the garlic and ginger. Fill with vinegar. Put the lid on and leave on the kitchen counter for 3 to 5 days for the flavors to meld. Pour a few tablespoons of the chili-infused vinegar in a dipping dish, add the preferred seasoning and a few sliced or crushed chili peppers from the bottle.

a weekly gallery of food photography, Filipino style, is hosted by SpiCes.

Lasang Pinoy, Sundays: Fruits And Vegetables

a weekly gallery of food photography, Pinoy style, is hosted by SpiCes.


For this week's [freestyle] theme, here are a few of my favorite fruits and vegetables. Oh, how I wish I could have atis and green mangoes all year round.

atis

manggang hilaw

ampalaya, patola, sitaw, puso ng saging

Piaya

filled with ube paste and muscovado (raw sugar)

One of the Philippine treats we truly love is the highly addicting piaya, sweet flaky flat bread snacks from the Negros province. These are best eaten when freshly baked and importing them from the Philippines is not possible, unless there are friends and family who are willing to hand carry them as pasalubong. I make them whenever I get the craving which is way too often.:-)

a weekly gallery of food photography, Filipino style, is hosted by SpiCes.

Lasang Pinoy, Sundays: KBL

KBL

KBL or Kadyos, Baboy, At Langka translates to Pigeon Peas, Pork Hocks, And Green Jackfruit Stew, a delicious dish from the Southern Philippines.

a food photography meme, Filipino style, is hosted by SpiCes.

Cornish Hens Inasal

grilled cornish game hens

a weekly gallery of food photography, Filipino style, is hosted by SpiCes.


A simple recipe for chicken inasal is here.

Lychee Frozen Custard

Lasang Pinoy Sundays is a food photography meme, Filipino style, is hosted by SpiCes. I'm sprinkling some fun [and color] this week.

I don't normally put sprinkles on my ice cream or cupcakes but I keep a few containers of assorted colors and flavors including chocolate, butterscotch, and cinnamon.

The only ice cream I have in the freezer is lychee frozen custard and chopped candied ginger as topping would be best but they won't pop out visually since they have the same hue as the ice cream. Chocolate sprinkles don't match the flavor so I used the bright colored unflavored sprinkles. I feel like a kid again while eating the ice cream.


Lychee Frozen Custard
1 can lychee in syrup
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
6 tablespoons sugar
3 well beaten egg yolks
1 teaspoon almond extract, optional

• Drain and finely chop lychee, reserve the syrup.
• Combine the cream, milk, ½ cup of the reserved syrup, and sugar in a saucepan or double boiler; heat until warm and the sugar is completely dissolved. Add 1 cup of the cream mixture to the beaten egg yolks while whisking lightly. Gradually pour the egg mixture back into the cream mixture while continuing to whisk lightly.
• Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula, until the spatula is thinly coated with the mixture, about 8 minutes. Do not allow to boil or the custard mixture will curdle.
• Stir in the lychee and almond extract if using. Transfer into a container, let cool on the kitchen counter for 20 minutes, cover with plastic film, and chill in the refrigerator overnight. Churn using an ice cream maker.

Or for a lighter version:
Lychee Sherbet
1 can lychee in syrup
1 packet unflavored gelatin
1 cup milk
1 cup very cold half & half
¼ cup sugar

• Drain lychee reserving ½ cup syrup. Finely chop lychee, leave to chill in the refrigerator.
• Sprinkle gelatin over reserved syrup and let stand 5 minutes. In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, scald milk. Turn heat off and add soaked gelatin, and stir until thoroughly dissolved. Add sugar and mix well. Let mixture cool in refrigerator. When cooled, add half & half and chilled lychee. Freeze in ice cream maker.

Lasang Pinoy, Sundays: Saba Con Hielo

saba in syrup + shaved ice = chillin' snack

During my two pregnancies in the perpetually hot and humid Philippines, I had saba bananas in syrup with shaved ice and milk almost every other day to cool me off. Not halo-halo which is too rich, just sweet saba, ice, and milk. I could have eaten just milk and sugar on shaved ice and I would probably have been happy anyway. Ripe saba banana, in my opinion, is the only kind of banana that pairs very well with shaved ice and milk.

I added tiny tapioca pearls and used half-and-half for a creamier richer cold treat

yummy saba con hielo

Lasang Pinoy Sundays is a weekly food photography meme, Pinoy style, hosted by SpiCes. Let's CHILL!

Lasang Pinoy, Sundays: Whip EAT! Mocha Chiffon Cupcakes

whip egg whites to stiff peaks

fold into espresso coffee, grated chocolate, flour, egg yolks, sugar mixture

bake for 20 minutes, ice with espresso coffee chocolate buttercream frosting, decorate top with a [barako] coffee bean and voila: Mocha Chiffon Cupcakes

Mocha chiffon cake was (is?) a popular cake in the Philippines. Wheneve I went to birthday party, whether it's a child's or an adult's, the cake served was almost always the good old reliable mocha chiffon. I haven't had one in the last 20 years, that's why I baked these cupcakes for this week's Lasang Pinoy, Sundays: Whip EAT.

a weekly food photography meme, Pinoy style, is hosted by SpiCes.

Buco Ube Pie

creamy buco strips and ube jam in buttery flaky crust

The meat of one of the fresh buco I bought for buco pie is light purple in color and its water is brownish light purple. Isn't it weird? Taking a cue from this unusual buco coloring I added a thin layer of ube (purple yam) jam in between creamy buco filling. The combination is oh so delicious. Mmmm.

light purple buco meat

The past week, I have been busy honing my skills in making lattice-top pie. I have never made one before because I always thought I'd make a mess of it. And I did with the first pie I practiced on, Cherry Pie. I cut the strips too thin and spaced them unevenly and they are sort of crooked which is okay I guess for a first try and I don't mind how it looks because the pie is deliciously sweet and tart.

The first of the small buco pies was easier to handle. I was able to make the remaining top crusts more uniform and acceptable in appearance and I finished each one much quicker too.

The recipe for Buco Pie is here; you might have to reduce the amount of cornstarch because a reader who has made this pie said the filling was gummy. Check and eyeball the consistency while cooking and add cornstarch mixture as needed.

they look much better after 2 tries


4-inch buco pies

This is my entry to this week's Lasang Pinoy, Sundays: Crusty

Lasang Pinoy Sundays is a weekly food photography meme, Pinoy style, hosted by SpiCes.

Lasang Pinoy Sundays: Succulent Pinakbet

my favorite Filipino vegetable dish

Lasang Pinoy Sundays is a weekly food photography meme, Filipino style, is hosted by SpiCes.


Pinakbet is my favorite Filipino vegetable dish. I never get tired of it. Once in a while I cook it without the usual prawns and bagnet (pork belly confit). This time I added just a little bit of cured pork skins and I also used squash blossoms from my garden's acorn squash plant. I planted the squash so I can have fresh blossoms all summer long for my pinakbet. Those tiny green rounds are 2 day old fruits; they are incredibly crunchy and yes, the whole dish is moist and flavorful.

Lasang Pinoy, Sundays: Beef Tapa

a favorite pulutan: beef tapa

This week's Lasang Pinoy, Sundays: Strips. First thing that came to mind was beef tapa, strips of thinly sliced cured beef, then fried crisp and enjoyed with garlic fried rice and a fried egg or two, the original TapSiLog. It is also a favorite pulutan (appetizer) to munch on while drinking ice cold San Miguel® beer.

TapSiLog is eaten with vinegar spiced with super hot bird's eye chili pepper
or tomatoes sprinkled with sea salt

a weekly food photography meme, Pinoy style, is hosted by SpiCes.


Beef Tapa
1 pound thinly sliced beef, cut into 1-inch wide strips
1 cup pineapple juice
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1/8 tsp pink salt, optional
1 to 2 tablespoons oil for frying

• Mix pieapple juice, salt, sugar, and pink salt if using. Coat the meat evenly, put in a gallon freezer zipper bag and marinate overnight in the refrigerator. The next day, drain the meat and discard marinade. Pat the meat dry with paper towels. Put slices on racks and place the racks on baking sheets. Dry the beef in a warm oven (less than 200° F) for 1 to 2 hours. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a skillet and shallow fry beef until crisp.

Lasang Pinoy, Sundays: turns ONE!

ube cupcakes for LaPiS' first birthday

Lasang Pinoy, Sundays, a weekly gallery of food photography, Filipino style, turns ONE. Congratulations to all and thanks to Ces of SpiCes. Now, let us eat ube cupcakes!:-)

Lasang Pinoy, Sundays: Resto-rant

turo-turo in Falls Church, Virginia

the usual: daing na bangus, menudo, pork sinigang, bangus sinigang, ox-tail kare-kare, pork/chicken adobo, skewered pork barbecue, and my favorite, lechon kawali

Lasang Pinoy, Sundays is hosted by SpiCes. This week: Resto-rant

I apologize if I have turned this food photography meme into a long Rant And Rave post.:D

The Resto-rave: The turo-turo pictured above is inside a Filipino grocery store called Manila Oriental [in Falls Church, Northern Virginia]. The turo-turo, located at the very rear of the store, has 3 tiny tables and a few stools which were all occupied when we got there. I am normally not attracted to turo-turo because the food always seem to look dry and stale but this store is a huge improvement. Although the grocery store is dusty and overflowing with stuff, the turo-turo area is bright and clean. It has a lot of customers judging from the long line and wait for the tables, although most are carry-out. I had the lechon kawali and my husband the Kare-kare, both are superb. The hot delicious food which are freshly cooked right there and are replenished constantly while we were eating have changed my view of turo-turo restaurants from meh to a very positive one. When I asked permission to photograph the place, the girl at the counter presumed we were video cam wielding tourists from the Philippines, and said "greetings from Virginia to our kababayans!" :-)

The Resto-rant: I had a rather unpleasant experience with a Filipino restaurant several months ago. The owner left a comment in one of my posts advertising his place, which shall remain nameless, in Maryland. I got excited when I saw sisig on the menu posted on their website which also has photos of the restaurant. It looks large and airy, cozy, and has plenty of tables. I immediately linked the restaurant's website to my blog to help out a fellow Pinoy promote his restaurant. We didn't mind the 1 hour drive through light rain/snow because we are always on the lookout around my area for sit-down restaurants that have the potential to serve really good Filipino food. I was disappointed but not discouraged to discover that most of the food are not a la carte but also turo-turo style that need to be reheated upon ordering/pointing. A few dishes can be cooked to order, one of them is sisig which was what we went there for. I ordered the sisig and he got his usual Kare-kare and a vegetable dish from the buffet (boy, aren't we boring and predictable?). The Kare-kare was okay but nothing to rave about. The moment the not-so-sizzling sisig arrived and set on the table, my pork-eschewing husband said "ugh!, smells awful, rancid, and too porky", whatever the heck porky means. The strong smell of the sisig which didn't bother me was making him ill so I moved it far away from his sensitive nose. The sisig was not good at all not because it was spoiled or something, rather it lacked flavor, heat, acidity, and crunch, but I ate half of it because the owners were sort of "observing" me. I was such a wimp because I didn't say anything to them. Should I have said something? Would you have if you found yourself in the same situation: a promising Filipino restaurant with enthusiastic owners but the food they serve are mediocre at best, at least IMHO. Would you have the courage to tell them the food need some improvements? Maybe it was our fault for not ordering something like okoy or spring rolls, I don't know. But that was not the worst part of our food trip, though. A few minutes after we got home I became sick from a mild-to-almost-bad case of food poisoning. I never contacted the owners but after a month I removed the restaurant's link from my blog.:(