Mizu Yokan

I came across the Japanese sweets called mizuyokan while reading a Japanese novel REAL WORLD written by Natsuo Kirino. The sweets I found out are made with a mixture of kanten (agar or gelatin), water, and azuki (red bean paste). One of the websites I visited has a recipe for matcha and white bean paste. The white bean paste may be dried navy or lima beans. I used a pound of dried lima beans to make the white paste. The flavor is very mild on its own which is great when used for the matcha (green tea powder) bean cakes. I also made with sweet azuki paste I already had in the freezer and adjusted the sugar to my taste. I love the smoky flavor of azuki beans; still my favorite.

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Moroccan Date and Nut Candies

While rearranging the book shelves, the Moroccan cookbook caught my eye and I started browsing. It's been a while since I opened it. I've used it to make almond milk, clarified butter, and stews. I don't know if the recipes are authentic but so far most of the dishes I already cooked were delicious.

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Halo-Halo

pastel halo-halo topped with ube macapuno ice cream

Our weather has been rather wacky since Saturday. When I woke up Saturday at 7 AM it was foggy and the temperature was 85 degrees F which is unusually warm at this time of the year. By 10 AM the temperature rose to a scorching 95 with a heat index of 100 degrees. And it was more of the same 90+ yesterday and it's going to be hot hot hot today until tomorrow. Although the AC is on I still feel warm and have to use my paypay (hand-held fan). The only cool thing about this hot weather is I am motivated to make halo-halo, literally mix-mix, which is a Filipino dessert/snack composed of a mixture of sweet things such as leche flan (custard), saba banana in syrup, ube jam, white beans in syrup, glutinous rice crispies, jackfruit, sweet red beans, macapuno preserves, kaong (palm fruits) topped with shaved ice, milk, and a scoop of ice cream served in a tall glass. You can add any sweet stuff in halo-halo, check out Dale's halo-halo, and it will surely keep your cool in the summer heat. Aah, I don't mind eating halo-halo all day long.:-)

sweet saba bananas, macapuno preserves, buco-pandan nata de coco,
kaong, leche flan, jackfruit, and pinipig brittle

Polvorones

One of the many many sweets and snacks that Filipinos inherited (and made a better version of) from the Spanish is polvorones. The Spanish polvorones are baked after shaping by hand, they're not quite cookies nor shortbread, somewhere in between. The candy-like Filipino polvoron is never baked but the flour is also toasted before mixing with sugar, powdered milk and butter, then shaped using either a round or oval mold that are made in the Philippines and nowhere else (they can be purchased from Filipino groceries or eBay). I grew up eating plain polvorones and sometimes the ones with crushed peanuts or toasted sesame seeds but recently various flavors and add-ins have been popping up in the Filipino grocery: the ubiquitous buco-pandan, ube, langka, crispy rice or pinipig, crushed oreo cookies, and the latest, graham crackers. Well, why not join the crowd and here is my contribution: raw cacao nibs. They are so addicting! What's not to love: sugar, butter, milk, and raw crunchy bitter chocolate. Mmmmmm.

Peruvian raw organic cacao nibs

The package says they are nutritious and I think these are highly recommended by vegans who advocate eating raw food. I bought the cacao nibs to add to candies, baked goods, and to eat with cereals but I also love munching on them like peanuts. They are a teeny bit bitter, they are pure chocolate after all, but I love extremely dark chocolate anyway. Cacao nibs, a guilt-free and healthy super yummy snack.

Polvorones

4 cups flour

3/4 cup powdered milk

1½ cups super-fine sugar

1 cup very soft butter

• Toast flour in a skillet or in a 300°F oven for about 10 minutes until light brown.
• Into a bowl, sift toasted flour, milk, and sugar. Add the butter and mix thoroughly.
• Fill mold and press lightly, unmold onto individual pieces of rectangular or square (depending on the mold) multi-colored or white tissue paper, twist ends of paper.
• Tip: To prevent crumbling, refrigerate unwrapped molded polvoron for a few minutes or until set.

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with cacao nibs, graham crackers, buco-pandan, and toasted sesame seeds