Marrons Glacés

The marrons glacés are almost perfect, I have to adjust the icing though as it crystalized overnight. I only learned this morning I should use glucose to prevent the icing from crystalizing and they have to be consumed right away (no problem there). The broken ones are wonderful as vanilla ice cream topping. I would have preferred the European or Japanese jumbo chestnuts but they are not available here and the fairly large Italian ones I bought the past years were not so good, half of them were rotten. These same size as Italian chestnuts from Korea were fresher and there were very few bad nuts (they probably are in the North, just kidding). I will be featuring, actually reminiscing about, chestnuts in future post. I was going to throw the glaze that's stuck on the cookie rack and sheet but my daughter suggested we use it to sweeten coffee or tea. And she is absolutely right, the sugar has a faint vanilla and chestnut flavors, we started picking and eating them! Mmmm, sugar...

Marrons Glacés and Candied Pomelo

Since I am temporarily giving up on making Aplets & Cotlets (we have 2 18.5 oz boxes, that's more than 2 lbs of candies), I am attempting to make marrons glacés and candied pomelo. Both are tedious to make, but I know I can do it! The marrons need at least 3 days to make and the candied pomelo a week perhaps. At the insane price of $18 for a 1.5oz of French marrons glacés and the readily available Korean chestnuts so cheap at $1 a pound it's worth making. I am also making Black Forest cake today, it's been maybe 2 years since I made this. I'm taking a short break from ice cream, there are other fatty unhealthy food to consume, hehe. The chestnuts were shelled then boiled for 30 minutes, then the inner skins were peeled, then boiled for 30 minutes in syrup (with vanilla). They will sit in syrup overnight. Tomorrow I will fish them out one by one then boil the syrup, dip the chestnuts, boil the syrup again, then dip again....you get the point ....until the chestnuts are properly iced or glazed. I'm making them now and if they turn out great I can make more for Christmas.

I will start with the pomelo tomorrow. The cake is just to satisfy a craving for dark chocolate cake moistened with kirschwasser...filled with morello cherries...iced with sweetened whipped cream...decorated with chocolate shavings/curls...... Why so much sweets? Well, why not?

Aplets & Cotlets

I have been going frequently to Costco to see if they have Aplets & Cotlets which they usually have at this time of the year. After 2 weeks it seems there won't be any so I ordered 1 box of Aplets & Cotlets and 1 box of Fruit Delights from their website. I don't understand why these candies are not available in stores. While waiting, I tried making my own using one of the recipes available online. 2 batches were palpak (disasters), the first was snotty in texture, yuck, and the second had a strong cornstarch feel on the tongue, blech. I might rethink the title of my post I can do that! because I can't do this. But searching online I found another recipe that sounds promising and will try making again tomorrow. Now that the costume is finished I have time to do other things. As for the Aplets I got a call from the seller that delivery will be delayed by at least 2 more days because of some shipping snafu, whatever. I want my Aplets & Cotlets now!

Lechon Kawali (Fried Pork Belly) and Snow Pea Shoots

I was going to make Pinakbet (vegetable medley) with Bagnet (fried pork belly) that I got from my cookbook Flavors of the Philippines by Glenda Barreto of Via Mare restaurants in Manila. I got this cookbook as a 2001 Christmas gift. It is a very beautiful, clear, direct and precise cookbook showcasing the best recipes of different regions in the Philippines. The photographs done by Japanese American Neal Oshima are fantastic.

The vegetable medley is not the one I grew up eating, we have a different version in my hometown. After deep frying, the pork looked delicious I ended up chopping and serving half of it as Lechon Kawali (pork belly roast/fried in a wok) and reserved half for the pinakbet that I will make this week. This lechon kawali is eaten with either Mang Tomas sauce or vinegar, soy sauce and garlic dip, I had both. I also cooked these fine looking veggies snow pea shoots I spotted at the Korean grocery. They are very tender young leaves that I just washed thoroughly then steamed in a little water and 1/4 tsp salt until just wilted and still a little crisp.

I like the simplicity of just adding a little calamansi juice or lemon juice to this side dish. It does not need garlic, onion or some meat flavorings, I'm really loving it more than spinach or Swiss chard, this is the perfect veggies to serve with the fat laden pork.