Pancit Luglug

It's not easy making vegetarian pancit luglug but I tried anyway using tofu puffs and just 1 tablespoon of fish sauce for flavoring. I didn't use soy sauce as it will alter the taste of this Filipino dish. With other seasonings, boiled eggs, green onions and calamansi, puede na, it's not bad, I really like it. It's very light I had a large serving. It's a good thing our Philippine grocer sells these frozen calamansi in individual packets, very convenient. I can do without prawns and chicharon but not without calamansi and patis.

Tortang Talong And Salted Eggs/Tomato Salad

tortang talong with Jufran, don't you just love this vivid red banana ketchap? I do

I have a few Asian eggplants to make torta using tvp instead of ground beef. First cook the eggplant: pierce eggplant skin all over then grill over stovetop fire until skin is charred, place in a glass container, cover with plastic wrap, set aside to cool. Prepare the vegemeat filling: soak 1/2 cup tvp in 1/2 hot water mixed with 2 TBS kikkoman, set aside. Saute 2 crushed garlic clove and finely chopped half onion in 1 TBS olive oil until onion is soft and cooked. Add tvp and saute until heated through and excess liquid has evaporated. Cool slightly, then add 1 egg. Remove skin from eggplants, then flatten. Beat well 2 - 3 eggs, heat pan, spread 2 TBS beaten egg, put 1 flattened eggplant over egg, spread 3 TBS vegemeat over the eggplant, fry for 2 minutes on medium heat, spread another 2 TBS egg beside the eggplant and carefully flip the eggplant onto the egg, fry for another 1 -2 minutes. Repeat with the rest of the eggplants and vegemeat. You can also make this without meat filling and serve as a side dish.

chilled salad of salted eggs and tomatoes

Bibingka

I made bibingkas because I have some kesong puti (white cheese) and 2 salted eggs, ingredients for topping bibingka. I used rice flour (instead of soaking rice overnight and grinding it in the food processor) and lined the pans in banana leaves for that authentic Filipino flavor. I estimated the proportions and although the rice cakes are yummy, they don't have the same pillow softness of Ferino's. Maybe I should use less liquid, mostly coconut milk, butter and eggs, to make them more cakey. The white cheese, which I love in hot pandesal (buns) for breakfast, is good but they can't compare with the Los Baños kesong puti. I'm going to make putong puti and putong ube next.

Italian Torrone

Every Christmas season the local groceries sell 2 kinds of Spanish turrones, Alicante and Jijona. The last 2 years the alicantes were hard as rocks I didn't buy any and bought just a few boxes of jijona. About 7 years ago I made the soft nougat much like the Italian soft torrone. It was not easy to make, it sticks everywhere and I never made the thing again. Recently I found these individually boxed Ferrara torrones, they are sooo good specially the lemon flavor, they're soft and chewy and not so sweet. I think they are very similar to the Montelimar French nougat. Since I'm into ice cream these days I thought I should make turron ice cream but did not want to use up my Ferrara torrones. So I made soft nougat this afternoon using honey in place of corn syrup. I got the recipe online and is surprisingly easy to make, the only thing missing is the thin rice paper which is impossible to get here in the US. I used to buy the German made ones when we were living in HongKong. I will try the edible "rice" paper made from potato starch that are used to decorate cakes. However I found a way to avoid the candies sticking to papers, fingers, etc by rolling them in sweet rice powder, then individually wrapping them in parchment. Yay, I can make turron ice cream tomorrow.

my torrone is on the left, I used sliced almonds because it will be easier to eat in ice cream. I cut mine to almost the same size as the torrone, about 1½ x 1 inch.

they look and taste the same to me, mmmmm. I can do this regularly using lemon, orange or vanilla flavors, and dried fruits instead of nuts. I'll still buy Ferrara torrones, though.

Montelimar-style nougat recipe is here
Soft chewy Italian pistacio nougat is here
Soft Chocolate Nougat is here