Campari Tomatoes

Have you tried these Campari tomatoes? I bought a container of these bright red super sweet vine tomatoes that are about 1½ - 2 inches in diameter. Although they are grown in greenhouses these tomatoes are very tasty. They are good in salads, of course, on pizzas, flat breads and savory tarts but they are good by themselves with some sea salt. The other day my daughter washed a few and dipped them in ranch dressing, ate them with gusto like fruit, wait, tomato IS a fruit. She reminded me of my weird self. When I was about 4 years old I used to snack on ripe tomatoes with some rock sea salt. On days that my mother would go to the palengke (market), she would hand me a brown bag full of tomatoes, then I would sit on the front porch and munch on the tomatoes and by the time she was home all the tomatoes were finished. I could have asked for other fruits like macopa, sineguelas, atis, guavas, etc. but my mother said I preferred tomatoes.:D

I made some tartlets with these Campari tomatoes, feta cheese and sage leaves. I used puff pastry but pie shell is also good. Brush the pie shell or puff pastry with egg white and blind bake for 15 minutes before filling the pie so the bottom doesn't become soggy.

Campari Tomatoes & Feta Tart/Pie
store bought or homemade puff pastry or pie shell
sliced Campari tomatoes
feta cheese, crumbled
dried or chopped fresh sage
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt

• Blind bake pie shell.
• Arrange sliced tomatoes and sage, drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt, then add feta cheese, arranging evenly.
• Bake in a preheated 375°F oven until the crust is golden brown, about 15 minutes. Drizzle with more olive oil before serving.

Bicho-Bicho & Goldilocks Bakeshop®-style & Spanish Ensaimada Recipes

I received several email asking for the recipe for the Filipino donuts, bicho-bicho, which I wrote about when I reviewed Michael Chabon's new novel.
This recipe is quite large and may be halved. I prefer eating these donuts simply rolled in white sugar. They have to be consumed right after frying, which I think won't be a problem because they are very good.

Bicho-bicho

1. Put in a mixing bowl:

1 cup lukewarm water

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups bread flour

2. Beat thoroughly. Cover and let rise for ½ hour. Add:
¼ cup melted butter or grape seed oil
1 cup light brown sugar
2 well beaten eggs
1½ cups bread flour

3. Beat well. Cover and let rise again until dough is light, about 1 hour. Punch down.

4. Add more flour if dough is too soft to handle. Turn out into a well-floured surface. Divide the dough into 2 parts. Cover each and let rest for 10 minutes.

5. Roll dough to ½-inch thickness and cut into 6 x 1-inch strips. Set on baking sheets, cover and let rise for 1 hour.

6. Fry in hot oil until golden brown, roll in granulated sugar. Enjoy!

There were also a lot of readers who emailed me for the Goldilocks Bakeshop ensaimada which unfortunately I don't have. I don't think anybody, except for the people who work in that bakeshop, has the exact recipe. I have one from my cookbook FAVORITE FILIPINO RECIPES by Pat Limjuco Dayrit which comes closest to the Goldilocks Bakeshop ensaimada in taste and texture. It takes the whole day to make, though.

Ensaimada
½ cup lukewarm water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 level teaspoon dry yeast
1 cup flour
6 egg yolks
9 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons butter, softened
2 cups bread flour
extra butter, softened
1 cup grated cheese, preferably queso de bola
sugar

1. Put lukewarm water in a stand mixer bowl. Add sugar and yeast. Let stand for 10 minutes.
2. Add flour and mix with a wooden spoon.
3. Cover with a damp towel and let rise in a warm place for 40 minutes to 1 hour or until double in bulk.
4. Add egg yolks, sugar and butter to flour mixture. Add to this the 2 cups of flour and knead with dough hook attachment.
5. Cover and let rise again in warm place for 3 hours.
6. Divide dough in 12 portions. Roll each portion to ¼-inch thick. Spread butter and sprinkle with grated cheese.
7. Roll up, starting from one end and twist like a knot.
8. Place into an ensaimada mould or large muffin pan lined with parchment then greased.
9. Keep in a warm place to rise for 4 hours.
10. Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 10 - 12 minutes.
11. Brush with butter and sprinkle with sugar and grated cheese.

Ensaimada (Spanish)
And for Spanish nationals who live outside Spain and would like to make ensaimada, here is the recipe adapted from THE CUISINES OF SPAIN by Teresa Barrenechea. This one doesn't have a single pat of butter, it uses lard and she explains that in Majorcan saim means lard. I have made this ensaimada and I think this is the best recipe.

Makes three 8-inch diameter coils
4½ teaspoons yeast
2/3 cups whole milk, heated to lukewarm
3½ cups flour, sifted
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cups sugar
2 eggs
6 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for oiling rolling pin, work surface, and baking sheets
½ cup melted and cooled lard
½ cup confectioner's sugar

• In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in 1/3 cup of the warm milk and let stand for 5 minutes. 
• In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center and add the remaining milk, eggs, olive oil, and the yeast mixture into the well. Using a spoon, gradually pull the mixture into the well, stirring as you do. When a uniform dough has formed, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and no longer sticky; if dough is too sticky work in a little more flour. Gather the dough into a ball, cover with a kitchen towel and let rise at room temperature for 1 hour.
• Divide the dough into 3 equal portions. Oil a work surface, a rolling pin and 1 or 2 baking sheets. Roll out 1 portion into a 10 x 6-inch rectangle. Brush with lard and fold in half lengthwise. Brush with melted lard and fold again in half lengthwise. Roll again into a 10 x 6-inch rectangle and starting from the long side, roll up into a tight 10-inch cylinder. Shape it into a snail-like coil. Repeat with the 2 remaining dough portions.Place the coils on the oiled sheets, cover with kitchen towel and let rest in a warm spot overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake the coils for 30 minutes, or until they are airy and golden and springs back when pressed with a fingertip.
• Remove from oven and let cool on wire racks. Dust with confectioner's sugar and cut into segments just before serving.

Pistachio Nougat & Lemon-Buttermilk Sorbet

I made nougat/turron last year and recently found a recipe using pistachio. The light green color caught my eye and since I love both turron and pistachio I just have to make it. It is very chewy and bad for the teeth but so delicious, so who cares?:D

Pistachio Nougat/Turron
2 cups sugar
1½ cups light corn syrup
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup water
2 egg whites
½ teaspoon pistachio flavor oil
green food coloring
4 tablespoons butter
1½ cups toasted pistachio

• Prepare an 8 x 8 inch pan by covering it with non-stick aluminum foil or potato starch wafer both at the bottom and on top.
• Combine the sugar, corn syrup, salt, and water in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved and continue to cook until mixture reaches hard-ball stage, 250°F.
• While mixture is cooking, place egg whites in large bowl of stand mixer and whisk until they hold stiff peaks. When sugar syrup has reached 250 degrees, remove from heat and slowly pour one quarter of the mixture into the stiff egg whites, with the mixer running constantly. Continue beating until the egg whites hold its shape.
• Return the saucepan with the remaining syrup to the stove and continue to cook over medium high heat until the mixture reaches 300 degrees, or hard-crack stage.With the mixer running, pour the remaining sugar syrup slowly into the egg mixture and continue beating until mixture is thick and stiff.
• Add the flavoring and a few drops of food coloring gel or paste to tint the nougat a delicate green. Add the softened butter and beat until the candy is very thick and satiny. Add the nuts last and stir until combined.
• Spoon the nougat into the prepared pan and press it smooth and evenly. Allow to set to room temperature and cut into small squares to serve.

I also made Lemon-Buttermilk Sorbet (from David Lebovitz's THE PERFECT SCOOP) before the buttermilk from the butter I made spoils. It is so light, yummy, and very refreshing, the tangy lemon and tangy buttermilk are perfect for each other. This flavor is excellent with ginger thins.

Lemon-Buttermilk Sorbet
1/3 cup water
2/3 cup sugar
1 lemon
2 cups buttermilk
¼ cup lemon juice

• In a medium stainless steel sauce pan, mix the sugar and water. Grate the zest of the lemon directly into the saucepan. Heat, stirring frequently, until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and let stand until the syrup reaches room temperature, then chill thoroughly in the refrigerator. Whisk the buttermilk into the syrup, then whisk in the lemon juice. Freeze in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions.

According to David Lebovitz, you can make ice cream without an ice cream maker. He suggests you freeze the mixture and stir with a mixer every 30 minutes until the ice cream is smooth. You can read his tips in making the perfect scoop of ice cream with or without ice cream maker here.

lemon buttermilk sorbet and ginger thins sandwich

Maryland/Virginia Blue & Alaska King Crabs

crab cakes and relleno


blue crabs in coconut milk and hot red pepper sauce

Two of my favorite Filipino bloggers recently featured crabs in their posts. It was sheer torture reading their posts, my only consolation is at that at least I know what they taste like ;D. I have eaten A LOT of the sweet curacha with coconut sauce and of course steamed alimango (mud crab). What we have here is the Maryland/Virginia blue crab which is a cousin, I think, of our alimasag, also called blue crab in the Philippines. My mother rarely bought blue crabs, she said they are not as meaty and tasty as the mud crabs. I myself don't buy crabs in their shells because only my daughter and I have the patience to eat them. I buy the canned lump crab meat from Indonesia, Thailand, or the Philippines and make crab cakes to eat with rice and as crab sandwich, or plain with vinegar and chile dipping sauce.

I bought a few blue crabs and prepared some with coconut and chile sauce, crab cakes and crab relleno. I also bought a few Alaska king crab legs which I have not tried before because they look freakingly ugly with their ipis (cockroach)-like spiky legs, they scare me. I steamed them and ate them with garlic infused butter and lemon juice. I did not like them at all, maybe because they were previoulsy frozen and did not taste fresh. Eh, nothing can equal alimango and curacha, period!:D

blue crabs

scary looking Alaska king crab legs

Speaking of crabs, I had a strange but funny encounter with them. Many many years ago I used to work as a domestic flight attendant and being one of the newbies I was stationed at Cebu. We fly to the Mindanao region, stay overnight in Zamboanga City once every 2 weeks, where I had those curachas. We also go to Cotabato City where I ate the biggest and tastiest mud crabs. I had a regular passenger whose family had crab and catfish farms in Cotabato City. One night after I got off the plane and was ready to board the company van to take us home, the driver informed me I had a tall can filled with live catfish in water and a dozen crabs tied together with palm fronds that the aforementioned passenger left for me as a gift. How he knew it was my off day the next day I never found out. It was very late, the housemaid was already in bed, and I did not know what to do with the fish and crabs. My friends and I left them on the kitchen table and went to bed. Early next morning the maid was laughing and making all sorts of racket, woke us up to tell us some of the crabs had "escaped". Two lazy or perhaps clueless crabs were still on the kitchen table, some were halfway through the living room floor and some were crawling through the weird perfectly round holes on the living room concrete walls. The holes were decorative or part of the design, which is the oddest thing. When we rented the house we were just concerned with the bedrooms and baths, we didn't care about the living room and kitchen because we were never there. We ate at hotels and restaurants, we never had a meal in that house, we never cooked. So we didn't mind those holes, they were not big enough even for a child to get through and we also never thought of criminal elements at the time. So we caught maybe 4 of the crabs trying to crawl out of the holes and 4 on the floor, unlucky bastards. I never got to eat either the crabs or the catfish (I didn't eat catfish then) because my friends and I already had planned to go out that day, then went to work the next day. The maid and the 3 pilots who shared the house with us told me they were fantastic!

Crab Cakes
1 pound lump crab meat
1 cup finely diced potato, optional
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 medium onion, finely minced
2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
¼ cup parsley, finely minced
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
2 eggs, beaten
olive or grapeseed oil

• In a small skillet, fry the potatoes until light brown, set aside. In another skillet, heat 1 T oil and saute the garlic and onion for 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook for 2 minutes. Add the cooked potatoes, salt and parsley and stir for 1 minute. In a bowl, mix the crab and potato mixture, add the eggs, mixing gently. Form into patties or fill crab shells. Heat oil in a large skillet and fry crab cakes or crab rellenos 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown.