Ube

For the umpteenth time, I'm writing about ube,a variety of yam that's naturally colored purple. The root vegetable is used in the Philippines as an ingredient in sweet snacks and desserts. I have yet to see it added to savory dishes though.

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Ube, Buco-Pandan, and Ensaimada Yeast Waffles

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Steamed Flower Rolls for Kulinarya Cooking Club

steamed flower rolls (pao)

Sefie and Connie chose Flores de Mayo (May Flowers) for this month's Kulinarya theme. Flores de Mayo is a colorful month-long festival held all over the Philippines honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary, with small girls all dressed in white offering flowers. The highlight at the end of the month is a combination religious and beauty pageant procession [held after attending a novena in church] called Santacruzan (from the words Holy Cross) featuring pretty young ladies dressed in beautiful elaborate gowns, each portraying biblical and historical women such as Veronica, Queen of Sheba, the 3 saints/virtues as queens of Faith, Hope, and Charity, and the last spot in the order of the procession is the queen of all the queens, Reina Elena (Empress Helena of Constantinople who is traditionally credited with finding the one true cross), escorted by a boy portraying her son Constantine. This spectacular religious flower festival is a must-see for anyone visiting the Philippines during the month of May.

Now on to the challenge. I was initially stumped and couldn't think of any Filipino dish to make that has flowers or at least flower design on it. I made a paella-like dish with whole banana blossoms, clams, prawns, and pork. The dish was delicious but not photogenic and was eaten right away before I was able to take photos. I didn't want to make a cake or another sweet stuff so I braised pork belly with soy sauce, sugar, fermented black beans, and dried banana blossoms and lily flowers. But heeding Sefie's suggestion to think outside the "flower box" I ended up making steamed buns (pao) but followed the shaping method for making Chinese flower rolls. *I need a little more practice to have perfectly looking flower pao.* These are so good with the braised pork and great for soaking up the greasy sauce.(^-^)

pork belly braised in soy sauce, fermented black beans,
brown sugar, dried banana blossoms, and dried lily flowers

And because I'm an ube (purple yam) fiend, I couldn't resist adding ube jam to a small portion of the dough, layered it on top of another small portion of the dough for a sweet ube pao. They don't look like a flower at all but they are delicious.

Steamed Flower Rolls (Pao)
1 recipe siopao dough
light olive oil
sea salt
chopped scallions

• Prepare the dough. After the first rising, divide into 3 portions. Flatten each portion into a rectangle, about 1/8 inch thick or thinner. Brush all over with oil, sprinkle salt and scallions. Roll from the short end jelly roll style and cut into 1½ inch slices. Press a plastic chopstick in the middle of the sliced dough all the way to the bottom being careful not to sever it; place on a piece of parchment paper. Repeat with the rest of the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 45 minutes. Steam over rapidly boiling water for 10 minutes.

See more flowery dishes from KCC members here.

Psst, check out my "flower" desserts, Apple Carpaccio and Cherry Blossom Friendship Cake, and drink Almond Milk with Rose Essence.

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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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A photo courtesy of EricRP of a moderately attired reina, the Queen of Justice. The list of procession participants is here.

Santacruzan, originally uploaded by EricRP.

Ube Flan

If you are an ube (purple yam) fanatic like myself, you'll love it in flan. It makes a deliciously smooth and delightful dessert specially with a few pieces of slightly tart fruits like blueberries or strawberries. The recipe is a basic ube flan but you can adjust the amount of eggs without major alteration to the consistency of the flan.

Ube Flan
½ cup sugar for caramel
1 ½ cups ube jam
1 cup water
5 eggs, well beaten
1 can sweetened condensed milk

• Caramelize the sugar and pour into 4 or 5 ramekins or a llanera mold.
  
• In a large bowl, slowly add water into the jam and mix until mixture is smooth and has no visible lumps of ube jam. Add the beaten eggs and milk and mix well. Strain into the prepared ramekins or mold.
  
• Steam in rapidly boiling water or bake in a bain marie at 325°F oven for 1 hour. Refrigerate overnight before unmolding.

Ube Macarons

they have monster "feet"

Here I go again. This is my third macaron blog post. Sorry but I can't help it, they're so freaking cute and so yummy too.

I finally got Hisako Ogita's i ♥ macarons book after reading about it again in David Lebovitz's blog. When I saw the purple yam flavored ones, I swear I heard it calling my name. Ube + macarons, oh yesss!

The very thin paperback is actually more like a manual with basic instructions on making macarons. The book is not perfect, with a few head-scratching instructions like the Italian meringue cooked in the microwave oven, but what I like about it is the different flavor and cream filling pairing suggestions. It also has an adorable packaging section with teeny tiny boxes and ribbons, read extreme cuteness a la Hello Kitty, and recipes for the egg yolks. At $9.50 it is definitely a good buy.

For the purple yam macarons she suggests to add 2 tablespoons of purple yam powder [which I presume is not ube but the Japanese purple yam, an entirely different root crop that is closer to sweet potato than the Filipino ube] into a basic 3-egg white macarons recipe.

sweet puff and cream sandwich

Lasang Pinoy Sundays: Swirls And Twirls

ube, maple paste
matcha and chocolate, chocolate buns, rye

Swirls and twirls must be two of my favorite words in the English language. How else do I explain my obsession in making swirly bread loaves, buns, and cookies. I seem to be attracted to anything swirly. A few weeks ago I made meringues with swirls. It's very easy to do: Using a small brush, draw three thin lines of paste food dye on the whole length of a disposable icing bag, form the meringues with a large star tip, and you'll have swirly pattern on the cookies. Next time I make these meringues I'll use Filipino flavors such as ube, langka, and buco-pandan. I bet those will taste good.

matcha and lemon meringues

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

The Ube Swirl bread recipe is here for those who are interested. :-)

My Ube Is Broken

it doesn't look pretty but it's yummy

Yes, my ube roll is literally broken in several places. I have been trying to make ube (purple yam) roll cake and failed, twice. The first one was too tall and dense for a jelly roll cake and as expected broke into many pieces. Not to mention it was absolutely inedible! I was a little bit suspicious of the amount of flour in the recipe from the Filipino FOOD magazine but went ahead and baked the roll. I should have listened to my gut instinct and reduced the amount of flour by half. The second ube roll (pictured here) is so soft, has a very tight crumb, and delicious but should be spongier/springier because again the cake cracked in several places as soon as I rolled it. The cake is very good though and will probably make it again as a layer cake or cupcakes. The only problem is I can't remember the measurements, silly me.

I am posting the Ube Roll recipe for the cake from the FOOD magazine but not the frosting because I have read a similar recipe online that is proven by users and readers to be unreliable. I am also not able to provide at this time the recipe for the second cake. I used this Pumpkin Roll recipe as a guide, substituting ube which has a different consistency and behavior than pumpkin and forgot to note the adjustments I made. I eyeballed the consistency of the batter as I mixed it. It will not be helpful either because there is something lacking in the (adjusted for ube) recipe to make it spongier and therefore more resilient, maybe eggs or cake flour. Or maybe I need to take ube cake baking lessons. Or tips from experts. Help!:-)

Ube Roll
recipe from FOOD magazine
2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon rum
½ cup milk
1 cup ube, peeled, mashed, and strained
½ cup light corn syrup
7 egg yolks
½ cup corn oil
1 cup egg whites
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon violet food color

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Butter a 15 x 11 x 1 inch jelly roll pan. In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder, salt and ½ cup of the sugar. Set aside.
• In a blender combine vanilla, rum, milk, and ube. Blend until smooth.
• Add corn syrup, egg yolks, and oil into the ube mixture. Blend well. Stir into the flour mixture until smooth.
• In a large bowl of a stand mixer, beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until soft peaks form. While beating, add remaining sugar gradually and beat until stiff. Fold in ube mixture and food color. Pour into pan.
• Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until done. Turn the cake on a piece of cheesecloth or baking paper and roll immediately. Let cool before filling.

half of the broken ube roll, filled with custard and macapuno

Layer Cakes - Sapin Sapin And Kueh Lapis

I have never made sapin sapin nor was I enthusiastic about it before. To me it is just a three-color layered bibingka. The sapan sapin that I remember had only 4 ingredients: sweet rice, coconut milk, sugar, and food coloring, which probably is the Laguna style. The recipe in my Little Kakanin book uses three kinds of milk: coconut, sweetened condensed, and evaporated, and has ube and langka (jack fruit). Well, I made my sapin sapin with more flavoring, the ever present buco pandan and anise extract for a 4-layer sapin sapin. It was not easy to remove from the pan because it sticks everywhere but I love it!
While browsing the internet for the recipe I found several Malaysian layer cakes called Kueh Lapis and I was attracted by the thin beautiful layers. Looking at the ingredients and procedure, it's very similar to the sapin sapin. The finished cake has a firmer texture, more like a softer Chinese tikoy and not as sticky as sapin sapin, and therefore easier to slice and makes a lovely but yummy snack. I also love it.

Sapin Sapin

2¼ cups sweet rice flour
1¼ cup rice flour
1 cup sugar
2 cups coconut milk
red, yellow, and purple food coloring
optional ingredients:
1 cup finely minced buco
pandan extract
4 tablespoons ube powder
½ cup finely minced langka
½ teaspoon anise extract
banana leaf

• Line a 9-inch round pan with banana leaf, set aside. Mix flours, sugar, and coconut milk until smooth. Divide into four portions. Color one portion with red and add anise extract, add buco and pandan extract into the second, add yellow coloring and langka into the third, and add the ube powder and purple coloring, if a deeper purple is desired, to the remaining portion.
• Preheat the pan in the steamer for 5 minutes. Pour one color of your choice and steam for 15 minutes. Pour the next 3 portions, one at a time, steaming for 15 minutes each time.
• Cool completely before removing from pan. Serve with cooked until brown thick coconut milk (latik or budbod).

Malaysian Kueh Lapis

>

950 ml coconut milk
400 gm rice flour
280 gm tapioca flour
½ teaspoon salt
550 gm sugar
10 pandan leaves
350 ml water
food coloring and flavoring

• Mix coconut milk, flours, and salt. Boil pandan, water, and sugar until sugar has dissolved. Remove pandan and stir into the flour mixture and mix well until smooth. Divide into 3 portions. Add green pandan paste to one portion and pink color to another portion, leave the third plain.
• Lightly oil a square baking pan. Steam pan for 5 minutes in boiling water. Pour 1 cup of white mixture and steam for 10 minutes. Pour 1 cup of green mixture on top of white mixture and steam for 5 minutes. Pour 1 cup of pink mixture and steam for 5 minutes. Repeat with white and green mixtures steaming 5 minutes each. Add more pink or a drop of red coloring to the pink mixture and pour on top of green. Steam for 10 minutes. Cool completely before cutting into shapes.

pretty yummy

Puto (Steamed Rice Muffins): White, Purple Yam, And Pandan

Several of my readers emailed me or left comments requesting for puto recipes. The last time I made white puto was either a year ago (or maybe 4 months ago?). I made pandan flavored puto just once two years ago. Nobody including me liked the pandan and never made them again.

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Ube Waffles

I wanted to make stroopwafels, unfortunately I don't have a pizzelle wafer iron but I have a 10-year old Belgian waffle maker and that's good enough for me. I have been reading about stroopwafels in other blogs and magazines for the last year now that I want to try them so badly. Strange thing, I went to visit The Netherlands in February of 1982, never noticed a single shop that sold these, or maybe I didn't know what they were, but I could have seen other people eating or lining up to buy them to get my attention but I did not. Oh, well. One thing I acquired from the Dutch and glad I did is eating French fries with mayonnaise.

Anyway, I made regular waffles using baking powder instead of yeast and replaced ½ cup of the flour with purple yam (ube) powder. I love the milky smell, taste, and texture of ube in just about any bread including puto. The butter-rich dark syrup, actually thick caramel sauce rather than syrup, the recipe I got from a Dutch recipe website, is super yummy but beware of the fat and sugar content. This snack/breakfast treat should be eaten in moderation.:=)

ube waffles with dark buttery syrup, sooo yummy

Ube Waffles
1½ cups all purpose flour
½ cup powdered ube
2 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon sea salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups milk
½ cup melted butter
2 eggs

• Preheat waffle maker. Mix ingredients until smooth. Bake waffles according to manufacturer's instructions. Serve hot topped with warm syrup. Or slice the waffles and spread caramel/syrup on one slice, top with the other half and eat like stroopwafels. Either way it's delicious.

Dark Treacle
1½ cups dark brown sugar
1 cup butter
6 tablespoon dark corn syrup
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

• Mix syrup ingredients in a small saucepan and heat until sugar is melted and mixture is smooth. Serve warm with the waffles.

I recently read that ready baked wafers are available at Trader Joe's. I guess it's time to go to TJ's.:-)

Guinatan Halo-halo

warm anise flavored coconut milk sweet 'soup' with jackfruit, assorted root vegetables, glutinous rice balls and bananas; weird ingredients to non-Filipinos but so delicious, and uniquely ours

I was cleaning my overstuffed freezer and found frozen ube, saba bananas and jackfruit. I went out and bought 2 small taro and a small sweet potato, made a few bilo-bilo and voila! Guinatan halo-halo.

Guinatan Halo-halo
1 can coconut milk
4 - 5 pieces ripe jackfruit, cut into strips
1 small sweet potato, diced
2 small taro, diced
1 small ube (purple yam), boiled whole and diced (optional)
5 small ripe saba, sliced
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon anise, optional
pinch of salt
½ cup glutinous rice powder
water

• Prepare the glutinous rice balls by mixing water, 1 tablespoon at a time, with the rice flour to make a very stiff dough (galapong); form into ½-inch balls, set aside.
• In a saucepan, heat the coconut milk and a canful of water, add the taro and sweet potato, cook for 2 minutes. Add the rice balls, saba bananas, jackfruit, anise, sugar and salt. Simmer until cooked. I add the pre-cooked ube in individual soup bowls just before eating because it colors the guinatan a purplish hue. Serve with a drizzle of thick coconut milk, if desired.

Ube Pandesal

I baked ube (purple yam) pandesal (breakfast or dinner rolls) today, the recipe from the Filipino cookbook Memories of Philippine Kitchens. The bread is so soft and has a fine texture. The ube taste is faint, though, but I really like the nice light purple color. Add ½ cup of ube powder with every 3 cups of flour to your recipe for hot rolls or pandesal.

I was running late as I had a lot of errands to do today but was able to bake a batch of Cherry Sultana cakes and the ube buns. Every Christmas season I buy cakes and other goodies like marzipanstollen and pfeffernüsse cookies which are only available this time of year. I made the Cherry Sultana because I haven't seen them here in the US. The ones I had in the Philippines were from Australia that came in a sealed tin, I remember them so moist and filled with lots and lots of cherries. This recipe says there is no need to ripen but I still moistened the cakes with Kirschwasser syrup and will cure them for at least 2 weeks. I altered the recipe by adding 1 more cup of cherries, the more cherries, the better, trust me...

moist chock-full of cherries and sultana cake

I fried some thick bacon rashers and added them to baked beans, so good with the hot rolls.

breakfast food at 7 in the evening, yum, yum

Swirl Bread

I just had to bake these swirl breads filled with sweet azuki bean paste and ube jam that I read about in a Filipino blog. My version is not so perfect, I haven't baked loaves in more than a year. Hmm, now I'm wondering if the yeast was still good. Both are yummy, however I love anything with sweet red beans and ube whether it's mochi or ice cream so even if these loaves came out rock hard (thankfully they did not) I'd still eat them.