Stuffed Edam Cheese Ball

I bought a cheap, at $6.00, domestic 2-lb baby edam cheese ball for the Via Mare recipe. The aged edam from the Netherlands that traveled to Manila before being exported here in the US (it went on a trip more than halfway around the world) is much too expensive to make into a vegetables and bread sticks dip.

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Matcha Roll Cake

I made this cake once before and I really like it. The green tea flavor is so subtle and the cake is not extremely sweet, is so soft and spongy, and with the clean taste of slightly sweetened heavy cream this cake is just so dreamy, mmmm. I will add more matcha next time or maybe food coloring to intensify the grassy green color.

Matcha Roll Cake
¾ cup cake flour
2 tablespoons matcha powder
¾ teaspoon baking powder
4 eggs, separated
¾ cup sugar
2 - 3 tablespoons milk
filling: beat 2 cups heavy cream until almost stiff, add 1 - 2 tablespoons sugar

• Pre-heat oven to 400°F.
• Sift together flour, matcha, and baking powder 3 times, set aside.
• In a clean bowl, beat egg whites until stiff but not dry, set aside.
• In another bowl beat egg yolks until very light. Add sugar gradually and beat until light. Add flour mixture, stir on low speed. Add 2 tablespoons milk, continue stirring until mixed. Fold in beaten egg whites.
• Spread mixture on a parchment paper-lined jelly roll pan. Bake for 8 minutes.
• Trim edges. Using paper as guide, roll cake from short side, leave on a rack to cool completely. Unroll cake, spread the whipped cream. Re-roll cake, peeling paper as you roll. Refrigerate for 2 hours before slicing.
• Note: Jelly roll cake recipes usually say to transfer the cake on a towel sprinkled with powdered sugar. It is not really necessary and the powdered sugar will make the outside of the cake whitish and of course add to the sweetness. The paper is better because it will remove the brownish surface layer of the cake and the result is a cleaner, prettier cake.

Check this out. They sell the cake and also has a similar recipe.

Pink Hot Dogs

Have you ever had these Swift brand bright pink almost red hot dogs from the Philippines? I spotted these in the Phil Asia grocery and had to get them. The hot dogs here in the USA pale (no pun intended) in comparison not just in color but also in flavor. These mini hot dogs are super delicious, smooth, meaty, tender, juicy, and most important not as salty as the US hot dogs. The only brand I buy is Nathan's but lately they have become saltier and saltier, sometimes I can't eat them at all. There are some bright red hot dogs in our groceries but they look nasty unlike these cute but yummy Swift babies. Of course, because we are Filipinos, we ate the pink hot dogs for dinner with garlic fried rice and omelet.:D

We also love hot dogs filled with crushed pineapple mixed with yellow mustard, topped with partially fried bacon then baked in the oven until bacon is crisp. This hot dog dish is my version of my mother-in-law's which uses whole strips of bacon wrapped around each hot dog. I cut the bacon in half, fry them to remove some of the fat, then lay each half on top of the hot dogs. They're not as pretty as my M-I-L's hot dogs but they are just as yummy.

hot dogs, yum...plus bacon, double yum

Puto Bumbong

Watching the Via Mare recipes makes me think this early of the coming Christmas holidays, Stuffed Queso de Bola and Stuffed Turkey (or a large chicken) are already on my menu. And I have also been dreaming of Filipino Christmas treats like puto bumbong smothered with butter, plenty of shredded coconut and sugar while drinking hot tea. Black glutinous rice from Thailand (I wonder if the rice is originally from the Philippines just like the jasmine rice, more on this later) is readily available here in the US and procedure for making them is all over the Internet, the only thing missing is the steamer. But when I get a craving I can't seem to stop until I get to eat it. Luckily I have an Ikea silicone ice mold that has long and thin cavities meant for water or soda bottles which worked surprisingly well. Now I can enjoy puto bumbong any day of the year.:-)

Puto Bumbong
1 cup black glutinous rice
½ cup white glutinous rice
½ cup regular rice
water
banana leaves
butter
shredded fresh coconut
sugar

• Mix rice with water to cover top 1 inch, set aside for 2 hours.
• Grind in blender until smooth. Pour the mixture on a large piece of muslin, twist the cloth and tie with kitchen twine, place on a large sieve. Put the sieve on top of a big bowl, weight down with a sauce pan filled with water, and leave 4 hours or overnight.
• The next day, crumble the damp rice paste and fill well-oiled molds loosely. Steam in boiling water for 12 minutes. Remove with a plastic chopstick onto banana leaves. Spread butter all over and serve with coconut and plenty of sugar.

I had these with cold-brewed green tea (instead of hot) which I declare is the perfect drink with puto bumbong.

About the jasmine and the black rice, I don't know if it is a unique Filipino rice because China also has its black rice variety, although non-glutinous. Thai black glutinous is the one being sold here in my area and I read somewhere that this variety is now being grown in California. Could the Thai black rice have come from the Philippines or China or maybe it's native to Thailand. I'm sure most Filipinos my age know that the white Thai jasmine rice was developed, or what is now called genetically engineered, in the Philippines in the IRRI, International Rice Research Institute, based in Los Baños, Laguna in the early 1960s. The GE rice was named and branded MILAGROSA (miraculous) and when it first became available to the Filipino public my father refused to eat it and had forbidden my mother from buying it. He was not willing to eat this 'frankenrice' because he honestly believed part of it is a variety of weed, yes weed, in the Philippines.

Read related article here: Part II, item I and if you LOVE to read here is an even longer study on rice varieties and development in the Philippines. It seems milagrosa has been around as early as 1915! I didn't know that.