Vietnamese-Style Prawns And Fresh Figs Compote

The other night we had Vietnamese grilled prawns sprinkled with golden deep fried spring onions and chopped garlic and Thai basil. The dish is served with rice noodles (bihon), shredded romaine and mung bean sprouts and fish sauce (nuoc mam). It's utterly delicious. For tonight I cooked prawns with the same ingredients (I think), fried not grilled and served with rice. I only have a few spring onions so it's not worth heating up oil and the kitchen so I sauted them. I already have deep fried sliced garlic which I crumbled on top. It's really, really good. I will have to buy a LOT of spring onions to deep fry so they're ready for topping any Asian dish.

Fresh Figs Compote

I have a lot of fresh figs this week, it seems I'm the only one eating them. I cut them in half, mixed with calamansi or lemon juice, 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 tablespoons honey then let them chill in the fridge for 3 hours. I did not want to stew them, I prefer the uncooked method but substituted calamansi for lemons. For one serving, about 5 halves, I added a small squirt of whipped cream on top. The taste of honey/calamansi (honeymansi in the Philippines) is surprisingly a perfect match with the figs and with just a hint of cream it is wonderful. Mmm.

Spaghetti Hos

The easiest sauce to make for pasta in my opinion is the alla puttanesca. I don't have to describe what this is as I think everybody knows this style and its origin. I have regularly made this for more than 20 years since I and some co-workers got an impromptu lesson during lunch time from another office worker whose boss was Sicilian. I was going to use those large red/brown olives but couldn't use my olive pitter as the stones are too large and it takes too long to pit them by hand, they also break into uneven pieces so I used the black ones instead.

Unrelated to the above dinner, just want to share this hilarious video with everyone who loves sushi. Incidentally we were supposed to have sushi/Japanese food last night but the sushi place we wanted to go to was closed for no reason and ended up at the Vietnamese place, same thing happened 2 months ago , the same Japanese and Vietnamese places, deja vu all over again? Oh gee I never thought I'll ever use that awful phrase.

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.

Sans Rival Cake

My daughter asked for the Filipino sans rival cake for her birthday. I don't make this often as it's unhealthy, eh all cakes are unhealthy. My recipe is from Pat Limjuco Dayrit's cookbook but changed some of the procedure. The cake is pretty easy to make although time consuming, cooking sugar to mix with egg yolk then has to be chilled for an hour before blending with the butter. I also leave the meringue in the oven (turned off) for another 2 hours to crisp properly, then I freeze the finished cake for at least 3 hours. This cake will stay crispy for about 5 days, I keep it in the freezer pre-sliced and ready to enjoy. This cake is of course French in origin (dacquoise). Most probably a rich kid from the Philippines went to France perhaps to study, came home, recreated this cake and named it gateau le sans rival.

Meringue
5 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1½ cups chopped cashew or almonds
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

• Beat the egg whites until stiff. Add the sugar gradually, continue beating. Fold in nuts and vanilla. Divide mixture into 4 - 5 very thin 9 inch rounds.* Bake in a 350°F oven until golden brown. Turn off oven, leave in the oven for total of 2 hours.**

*I do not bake these in cake pans. Using an 8 or 9 inch cake pan as guide draw 2 rounds with a pencil on a piece of parchment to fit a large cookie sheet without sides. You will need 2 to 3 sheets of parchment. Flip the paper so that pencil mark is facing pan. Using the round shapes divide mixture equally, spread and smooth with an icing spatula.
**After turning the oven off, leave meringue for 1 hour, remove from oven, touch the surface if dry, turn paper meringue side down on a clean surface and carefully peel paper. Turn meringue bottom side up, still on paper return to oven and leave another hour to dry. There, no more sticky meringue and it will turn out super crispy.

Filling
¼ cup water
2/3 cup sugar
5 egg yolks
1 cup butter, room temperature
½ cup chopped nuts

• Boil water and sugar until it spins a thread. Pour mixture gradually over well beaten egg yolks and continue beating until thick. Transfer to a bowl and chill in the fridge for an hour. Cream butter then add the well chilled egg mixture. Fill layers, sides and top of cake. Sprinkle nuts all over. I freeze mine for 3 hours before slicing and leave leftovers in the freezer.