Almond BucaJoy Is Lasang Pinoy

bucayo squares, almond bucajoy, bucayo

I have always wanted to make dark chocolate coated Almond Joy candies at home and when I learned that the current Lasang Pinoy theme is coconut I immediately thought now is the perfect time to make them. The event is being hosted by Kai of bucaio and the name gave me the idea of filling the candies with bucayo instead of plain white coconuts. The candies are so delicious, I can eat them all day. I kept popping one in my mouth while photographing them. And for an interesting added flavor I toasted the shredded coconut in a 400 degree oven until it has turned dark brown and burnt at the top. This is called burnt coconut which I read about in Amy Besa's cookbook Memories of Philippine Kitchens. She writes "one of the most exciting discoveries of Filipino cooking techniques happened in Tiaong, Quezon" when she visited the potter/artist UGO BIGYAN who showed her how to prepare burnt coconut. He returns the freshly grated coconut back into the shell/husk and places a live coal on top to burn the coconut. The milk extracted from the burnt coconut gives a smoky barbecue flavor to any dish, dessert, or dipping sauce. I might try that in the summer and will make his suggestion of adding a little grated green mango and chiles before extracting the milk for a slightly tart, smoky flavor with a little bit of spice.
I made a second recipe of bucayo with plain grated coconut which is so good as pan de sal filling or to spread on toasts. Although the plain and burnt coconut bucayos are equally delicious, the burnt coconut is simply superb when paired with dark chocolate, they complement each other very well.

Almond BucaJoy

2 cups grated fresh coconut
2 cups packed dark brown sugar or 1 pair panocha
juice/water of 1 buco (young coconut), reserve 1 tablespoon
meat of 1 buco, cut into 1-inch strings
2 tablespoons cornstarch
toasted whole almonds
dark chocolate chips

• Put the sugar and buco water in a medium non-stick sauce pan and boil on medium-high heat, uncovered, until sugar has dissolved and the mixture has thickened, about 20 minutes. Add the grated coconut and cook for 20 minutes. Mix the cornstarch with the reserved buco water and stir in thoroughly. Add the buco meat, stir cook until coconuts are completely coated with syrup. Continue to cook while stirring until very thick, about 10 -15 minutes.
• Turn the heat off, transfer mixture into a shallow container and let cool for 10 minutes. Line an 8-inch square pan with plastic film. Transfer bucayo into the pan. Cover with another piece of film, press the mixture to compact evenly. Freeze for 1 hour. Remove from freezer and cut into 1-inch squares. Put one almond on top of each square, press slightly. Dip in tempered chocolate and let set on the counter.

bucayo squares for dessert or for snacking

Check out these coconut dishes and desserts from my archives:
Bicol Express
Laing
Maryland/Virginia Blue Crab
Coconut Leche Flan With Caramelized Macapuno
Guinatan Halo halo

5 Random Facts - A Meme

I got tagged by Dhanggit for a 5 random facts about me meme. It took me longer to come up with 5 things since I just did the 7 weird things less than a month ago.

1. Believe it or not, I hated HomeEc in High School specially cooking and sewing. I did not help my Mom nor did I show any interest in cooking while growing up. I volunteered to do household chores, shopping at the market, etc. but begged not to help in the kitchen. In college I learned to fry stuff, cook rice and other food because I had to. Most of the food I know how to cook now I learned mostly from cookbooks, magazines, and some from both my mother and mother-in-law. For someone who was averse to cooking for more than half of her life, I never thought I would enjoy cooking and baking as much as I do now.
2. I don't have a single picture of myself as a baby. My mother probably destroyed them or did not allow anyone to photograph me. And I know why, when I was about a month old my maternal grandmother declared that I was the ugliest baby ever. When I was in HS my Inana (grandma in Sariaya, Quezon) described to me what I looked like at 1 or 2 months old: bald, neckless, fat lips, cheeks drooping and almost resting on my chest similar to, say, a bulldog, and to add to the unprettiness my Mom dressed me in bright red clothes which to my grandma was a no-no and I totally agreed with her. She was not being mean, she was just trying to emphasize her amazement that I was transformed from being an ugly duckling or bulldog into a movie star beaut, just kidding about the movie star, heheh.
3. I went to sing on TV once in HS in a noon-time variety show: sing, dance, skit, games, etc. Every day a singing group from various High Schools in the Philippines was invited to perform and they were cheered on by 2 busfuls of their classmates. I remember we were dressed like sailors, white blouse and skirt trimmed with navy blue collar. Don't ask me what year, it was many many many moons ago.
4. To continue being baduy, which roughly translates to unfashionable or for the masses, I once had a blind date with that comedian Jimmy Santos. I was living in Cebu and he was a student and player for the Jose Rizal College basketball team. My best friend at the time was dating another player, Norbie Rivera. When their team came to Cebu for college tournament games Norbie arranged the blind date. To my dismay the guy was too tall, thin, extremely awkward, very shy, and mumbled...all the time. My friend and I were annoyed with her boyfriend for playing a joke on me. When he became a TV personality/comedian after his pro basketball stint I couldn't believe he was the same ungainly guy my friend and I endlessly made fun of as soon as we got home. BTW, he was and still is not qualified as a hottie, faaar from it.:D
   
5. I don't think reading about me being a neat *and control* freak will be interesting so I decided to make a treat for you instead: Calamansi and kumquat chocolate filled turon (fried lumpia). Enjoy!

Calamansi And Kumquat Chocolate Turon
2 calamansi
3 kumquats
8 ounces dark or milk chocolate, finely chopped
½ C heavy cream
1/8 tsp salt
1 egg yolk
1 T cointreau, optional
1 T soft butter
Filipino lumpia wrapper (do not substitute with the Chinese egg roll wrapper)
grapeseed or canola oil for frying

1. Place chocolate in a food processor or blender.
2. Remove seeds from calamansi and kumquats and reserve juices. Slice the rinds.
   
3. In a small sauce pan, mix cream, juices, rinds, and salt. Heat mixture until bubbling at the sides.
4. Pour into the chocolate in blender and leave for 2 minutes. Blend on medium until smooth and glossy. Add egg yolk and liquor, if using, until incorporated. Blend in soft butter.
5. Line an 8 x 4 inch loaf pan with plastic film. Pour chocolate mixture and let cool.
6. When cooled put in freezer for 20 minutes. Remove from freezer, remove plastic film and cut crosswise in half. Slice into 36 pieces, about 2 x ½ inches.
7. Wrap in small pieces of lumpia wrapper and freeze for 10 minutes.
8. Heat oil and fry until golden brown. Serve immediately.
   

I'm passing this meme over to marvin, g_mirage, caninecologne, Ruy or Liv, and raissa. Thanks dhanggit for making me reminisce once again.

Bicol Express

I wrote the draft for this dish/post the second week of January and forgot about it. I have several drafts that I fail to go back to for posting. I recently cleared all my posts in draft but kept this one so I'm posting it rather late.

Bicol Express is one of the simplest but yummy Filipino dishes you could make. The dish, named after the train that goes to the province of Bicol where they like their dishes super spicy, was invented by the owner of The Grove restaurant in the Philippines. I had visited their Makati branch countless of times and loved their buffet lunch (see photo below), and Bicol Express is one of my favorites along with guinataang kuhol (snails in coconut cream ). The chiles usually used in this recipe are the long thin light green medium hot ones. I used a combination of green, orange, and yellow and included 1 red for color. I made it with lots of sauce, almost soupy which is so good poured, not drizzled, over steamed rice. I also prefer Bicol Express with very little pork, you can add more if you want it meaty.

Bicol Express
¼ pound pork shoulder, sliced thin and julienned
1 tablespoon grapeseed or light olive oil
1 tablespoon finely minced garlic
1 tablespoon finely minced shallot
2 tablespoons shrimp bagoong
3 cups sliced or julienned green long chiles
3 cups coconut milk
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, heat the oil, add and stir fry pork for 5 minutes. Add garlic and onion and saute for 2 minutes. Add the shrimp paste and coconut milk, cook for 1 minute before adding the chiles. Taste and add salt if needed. Turn heat down to medium low, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. If you want the dish drier, simmer until sauce is very thick and the oil separates from the cream. Serve immediately with steamed rice.

The photo below from one of my Filipino cookbooks is a small portion of The Grove restaurant's buffet table array. This was taken most probably in 1976, I'm not sure if the retaurant still exists and if it is I can't be sure if it still offers this lunch buffet.

Food and iPod

a Filipino breakfast of chicken tocino, garlic fried rice and fried egg

My regular readers may have noticed that I have been cooking food that I have seen in movies or songs I recently played from my iPod list. I have written about The Beatles' Savoy Truffle and Cibo Matto's Le Pain Perdu and very recently Puerco Pibil and Crepes. Some bloggers include the songs they were listening to while preparing the food for their posts which gave me the idea of associating my song list with food. The songs should not necessarily be about food but have the potential to be associated with food. My daughter suggested that I set my iPod to shuffle for the surprise aspect, then choose one of the songs out of the first 5 or 10 songs and prepare a dish for that song. To my utter surprise the 5 songs have food or at least subjects that can easily be related to food.

1. Umaga (morning), Susie Ibarra - breakfast
2. Big Eater, The Bad Plus - a dinner of T-bone steak, mashed or baked potato, Elaine's The Big Salad, and a slice of apple pie a la mode fit for a king, i.e. David King of TBP
3. Criss Cross, Thelonius Monk - hot cross buns or chocolate pretzels
4. Beef Jerky, Cibo Matto - beef jerky
5. Midnight, Jimi Hendrix - a light snack or a nightcap

Choosing which song was sooo easy, of course it's Umaga by Susie Ibarra, a Filipino-American avant/free jazz drummer and percussionist. The song is from The Susie Ibarra Trio album FOLKLORIKO which is a tribute to Filipino migrant workers. To hear samples of her songs click on the album title. On this CD she plays the kulintang in one song and in the second part of the CD titled Lakbay (journey) the drums and percussions accompanied by piano and violin.

Umaga (morning) of course starts with a substantial breakfast and for Filipino workers it means fried rice and meat or fried dried fish such as danggit from the Visayas. I myself did not eat fried rice for breakfast while growing up, we ate pandesal and sliced bread and up to the present only eat it on weekends, sort of a special treat when we are more relaxed and do not have to hurry for school or work. I decided to make chicken tocino because I wanted to try the homemade anise liqueur I recently made and because someone asked for the recipe.

Chicken Tocino
2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs, sliced thin
¼ teaspoons pink salt (Instacure #1)
1 tablespoon sea salt
2 - 4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoon anise liqueur or red wine
1 tanlespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon ground white pepperMix seasoning ingredients. Rub chicken pieces well with the mixture. Place in a ziploc gallon freezer bag and refrigerate for 3 days.

• To cook: in a non-stick skillet arrange a few pieces of the cured meat with 2 tablespoons each of water and vegetable oil. Turn heat on to medium low, cover, and cook until all the liquid has evaporated. Uncover and shallow fry until browned on both sides. Serve with garlic fried rice, fried eggs, diced tomatoes, and vinegar dipping sauce. Freshly brewed Barako coffee is optional.

Fried rice: In a non-stick wok, heat 2 tablespoons light olive oil, add 2 cups warm cooked rice, sprinkle with 1 - 2 teaspoons crumbled fried sliced garlic (available from Filipino/Asian stores), and 2 teaspoons sea salt. Stir fry for 2 minutes or until rice is heated through. You may also use fresh garlic. Fry it first in the oil until golden brown before adding rice. I prefer using the fried garlic from the Philippines for the convenience and stronger garlic flavor.

I think this would be an interesting food meme exercise. Go ahead and try it for yourself, food and music association will occupy your time and mind instead of agonizing on whether your favorite candidate will lose to the opposition.:D