Time for Something Green

For the past 2 or 3 weeks now we have been eating mostly meat and only a few vegetables so it's about time I prepare something green and therefore healthier. I first tasted this dish at a Chinese restaurant called Mama Wok. They serve the best and most authentic Chinese food in my area, in my honest opinion. I have made this a few times already, it is very simple with only 5 ingredients and really delicious.

Edamame with Tofu Skin
1 pound frozen shelled edamame
3 dried soybean sheets
light olive oil
3 cups shredded napa cabbage or any green leafy vegetable
4 spring onions, sliced into ½ inch pieces
1 tablespoon vegetable bouillon
water
2 teaspoons cornstarch
sea salt to taste

• Tear tofu sheets into medium size pieces and soften for 5 minutes in 2 cups water mixed with 1 teaspoon baking soda. Boil edamame for 3 minutes, drain and set aside. In a wok or saute pan, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil and stir fry spring onions for 2 minutes, add the napa cabbage, cook for 2 minutes. Drain the tofu and rinse, drain thoroughly. Add to the pan together with the bouillon and 2 cups water, simmer for 5 minutes, then add the edamame, let boil again then thicken with cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoons water. Cook for another minute until sauce has thickened. Adjust seasoning with salt.

Machang

I know this is not authentic machang, I don't know its ingredients nor how to cook them. All I remember is it is pyramidal in shape, a little bit sweetish and brown in color. One online site describes them as glutinous rice with mushrooms, pork fat and chestnuts seasoned with soy sauce, sugar and sesame seed oil, wrapped in banana leaves, tied with strings at the top and submerged in boiling water and cooked for 30 minutes. I made a batch yesterday according to that description and was not satisfied with the result. The rice is a bit soggy, the seasoning was not thoroughly absorbed by the rice and maybe was washed away by the boiling method. The photo is on the right. The thing is, the machang was still good, regardless. So I searched in all my Chinese cookbooks for something similar, found one in Martin Yan's cookbook. His recipe has too many ingredients and the rice bundles are wrapped in lotus leaves. Since I prefer the essence of banana leaves and the simplicity of our machang, I adapted Martin Yan's method with the ingredients I used yesterday and the result is very very good.

Filipino Chinese-Style Rice Bundles
2 cups Japanese rice
¼ cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons sesame seed oil
4 Chinese sausages, sliced
12 dried mushrooms, softened in warm water and julienned
1 100gm packet roasted chestnuts, broken into chunks
1 small can diced water chestnuts
banana leaves cut into 3 x 7 inch pieces

• Wash rice well, drain and set aside for 30 minutes, add 2 cups water and boil/steam for 25 to 30 minutes. In a large wok, fry the sausages until brown, drain well, remove the rendered fat and return to the wok, add all the ingredients, cook for 1 minute, then add the cooked rice, separating the grains and making sure the meat, mushrooms, chestnuts and the seasoning are evenly distributed. Spoon rice in a small cup, tamp a little bit. Put 2 pieces of banana leaves on a large platter, lay one across the other, invert the cup on the middle and tap until the rice comes out in one piece. Enclose the rice with the first piece of banana leaf then pull the second towards the middle, gather and pinch, tie with twine or thin strips of banana leaf, making sure the rice is not visible and completely covered. Steam in rapidly boiling water for 30 minutes.

An updated and better recipe is here.

Happy New Year!

Beef Morcon

beef
2 pieces beef round, about ½ inch thick, butterflied
2 tablespoons calamansi or lemon juice
¼ cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon sea salt

filling
Vienna sausages sliced lengthwise in four
Cheddar cheese strips
boiled eggs, sliced in strips
sweet whole pickles preferably very small (cornichons), otherwise cut into strips

stewing liquid
2 16-ounce cans diced tomatoes
1 large onion, chopped
2 bay leaves
water to cover meat rolls
soy sauce, salt, pepper to taste

• Mix ingredients and marinate beef overnight in fridge. Drain meat, reserving the marinade. Lay on a large platter, place one set of filling on one long end, roll up, place another set of filling up to just halfway of the meat, roll up completely. Tie with kitchen twine all over, crosswise and lengthwise. 
• Place in a large pan, add the reserved marinade and all the sauce ingredients, simmer in medium low heat for 2 hours. 
• Fish out the rolls and let rest. 
• Remove the bay leaves, adjust seasoning, then puree with an immersion blender or let cool a bit and transfer to a blender, blend in batches. Spoon sauce on a serving platter. 
• Remove twine, slice morcon, arrange on top of sauce. Serve hot with lots of sauce.

Macaroni Salad

1 pound cooked elbow macaroni
1½ cups mayonnaise
1 16-ounce can pineapple chunks, cut into four
1 fresh red bell pepper, diced
3 Nathan's all beef hot dogs, sliced thin
salt and sugar to taste

• Mix all ingredients and chill overnight before serving.

New Year's Eve Menu Is Halfway Done

The macaroni salad is cooling in the fridge and the morcon is already stewing. Oh, yeah, I remember now why I never make morcon: it is so tedious to prepare. It took me almost an hour tying the rolls and maybe used up a hundred yards of kitchen twine! I made the yema balls last night and baked the meringue for the silvanas. I still have to prepare the buttercream though and I'm not sure if I still have the energy.

Philippine Yema Candies

6 egg yolks
1 can sweetened condensed milk
½ cup sugar
toothpicks
pieces of cellophane to wrap candies

• In a small saucepan, mix milk and egg yolks. Cook over medium-low heat to a paste, stirring constantly. Form into 1 inch balls. 
• In a heavy stainless steel pan, caramelize half the sugar. Moving quickly, dip the balls with toothpicks. Remove the candies by gently twisting the toothpick then pull out. Set the candies on a piece of aluminum foil to cool. 
• If the caramel turns too brown throw it out. Clean the pan, caramelize another ¼ cup of sugar and dip the remaining balls. 
• You can also roll the yema balls on white sugar, if preferred.
• Wrap in colored or white cellophane.

I don't use non-stick pan to caramelize sugar to be able to see the color progress of the caramel properly. Once the caramel gets too dark, throw it out and heat up another batch, ½ cup at a time.