BBAC: Casatiello

with steamed asparagus for brunch

and fresh strawberries for breakfast

I love the fifth bread in the BBAC, Casatiello. I am so glad I joined this baking challenge because I would never have paid attention to this bread if I hadn't. Whenever I flip through the book I always skip it thinking it's just another version of brioche and it actually is. The difference is, this Italian cousin of brioche is filled with meat and cheese. It's a savory buttery delicious bread which I enjoy very much for breakfast with fresh fruits and for brunch with steamed asparagus. It's also very good with a sprinkling of powdered sugar or a drizzle of maple syrup, both sugary additions complement the toasted slices.

I filled the bread with diced mortadella and grated Asiago pressato. I like the mild flavor of the mortadella, think Spam only better, and I love the bits of fat and whole black peppercorns in it. The meat and cheese came out evenly distributed throughout the bread but I would have liked more filling and should have increased the amount by at least ¼ cup of each.

baked in a small loaf pan and 12-ounce coffee cans

I like this bread so much I baked a second batch (half a recipe), filled it with sopressata and a combination of diced Asiago pressato and coarsely grated young Gouda, and because I wanted to celebrate my "discovery" of this bread I baked it in a bundt pan. Taking a needed break from too much butter, I used extra virgin olive oil to replace almost all of the butter. I'm not sure if it is the olive oil but the second batch is more tender and flakier but just as delicious as the all-butter Casatiello; the flavor of the oil is very subtle, btw.

I can't believe this is half a recipe: the dough more than doubled in bulk after 50 minutes of proofing and had a good oven spring too, filling the pan almost to the top

it looks purty durn yummy

specially with sweet wine

Rating:
flavor 5
texture 5
visual appeal 5
ease of preparation 5
performance 5
worth 5
Total: 30
Average: a perfect 5, another winner. Woohoo!

Lasang Pinoy, Sundays: Resto-rant

turo-turo in Falls Church, Virginia

the usual: daing na bangus, menudo, pork sinigang, bangus sinigang, ox-tail kare-kare, pork/chicken adobo, skewered pork barbecue, and my favorite, lechon kawali

Lasang Pinoy, Sundays is hosted by SpiCes. This week: Resto-rant

I apologize if I have turned this food photography meme into a long Rant And Rave post.:D

The Resto-rave: The turo-turo pictured above is inside a Filipino grocery store called Manila Oriental [in Falls Church, Northern Virginia]. The turo-turo, located at the very rear of the store, has 3 tiny tables and a few stools which were all occupied when we got there. I am normally not attracted to turo-turo because the food always seem to look dry and stale but this store is a huge improvement. Although the grocery store is dusty and overflowing with stuff, the turo-turo area is bright and clean. It has a lot of customers judging from the long line and wait for the tables, although most are carry-out. I had the lechon kawali and my husband the Kare-kare, both are superb. The hot delicious food which are freshly cooked right there and are replenished constantly while we were eating have changed my view of turo-turo restaurants from meh to a very positive one. When I asked permission to photograph the place, the girl at the counter presumed we were video cam wielding tourists from the Philippines, and said "greetings from Virginia to our kababayans!" :-)

The Resto-rant: I had a rather unpleasant experience with a Filipino restaurant several months ago. The owner left a comment in one of my posts advertising his place, which shall remain nameless, in Maryland. I got excited when I saw sisig on the menu posted on their website which also has photos of the restaurant. It looks large and airy, cozy, and has plenty of tables. I immediately linked the restaurant's website to my blog to help out a fellow Pinoy promote his restaurant. We didn't mind the 1 hour drive through light rain/snow because we are always on the lookout around my area for sit-down restaurants that have the potential to serve really good Filipino food. I was disappointed but not discouraged to discover that most of the food are not a la carte but also turo-turo style that need to be reheated upon ordering/pointing. A few dishes can be cooked to order, one of them is sisig which was what we went there for. I ordered the sisig and he got his usual Kare-kare and a vegetable dish from the buffet (boy, aren't we boring and predictable?). The Kare-kare was okay but nothing to rave about. The moment the not-so-sizzling sisig arrived and set on the table, my pork-eschewing husband said "ugh!, smells awful, rancid, and too porky", whatever the heck porky means. The strong smell of the sisig which didn't bother me was making him ill so I moved it far away from his sensitive nose. The sisig was not good at all not because it was spoiled or something, rather it lacked flavor, heat, acidity, and crunch, but I ate half of it because the owners were sort of "observing" me. I was such a wimp because I didn't say anything to them. Should I have said something? Would you have if you found yourself in the same situation: a promising Filipino restaurant with enthusiastic owners but the food they serve are mediocre at best, at least IMHO. Would you have the courage to tell them the food need some improvements? Maybe it was our fault for not ordering something like okoy or spring rolls, I don't know. But that was not the worst part of our food trip, though. A few minutes after we got home I became sick from a mild-to-almost-bad case of food poisoning. I never contacted the owners but after a month I removed the restaurant's link from my blog.:(

Confetti Slaw

The weather is getting unbearable already and it's only the first week of June. When it gets hot I crave for vegetable salads which are very refreshing and a breeze to prepare. I was in the mood for coleslaw yesterday but I didn't have cabbages nor green pepper. What I had in the vegetable bin were 2 aging purple carrots, a yellow beet, and lots of sweet peppers and I imagined these vegetables together would make a good slaw. Well, they are more than good, they are great as a slaw.

I used the food processor's medium shredder for the beet and carrots and I sliced the peppers by hand. I added a cup of golden raisins into the mix for a slightly sweet crunchy colorful slaw. Sooo yummy with chicken teriyaki. I will make this salad again with just carrots and jicama with maybe toasted sliced almonds for variety which I think sounds as good if not better.

Confetti Slaw
1 cup shredded yellow beets
1 cup shredded carrots or purple carrots
½ cup thinly sliced sweet yellow pepper
½ cup thinly sliced sweet orange pepper
1 cup golden raisins
3 tablespoons rice wine or cider vinegar
½ tsp salt, or to taste
3 tablespoons sugar, or to taste

• Put the vegetables and raisins in separate piles in one container. Mix the rice wine or vinegar, sugar, and salt and stir until sugar has completely dissolved. Pour all over the vegetables. Cover and chill for at least 1 hour. Toss and transfer into a serving plate.

BBAC: Brioche

à tête

loaf (Nanterre)

BBA Challenge fourth recipe: Brioche. The book has three options: Rich Man's with 1 pound, yes, 1 pound of butter, Middle-Class with half a pound, and Poor Man's with a quarter pound. I chose the middle class because I've made the poor man's version several times already and although I am more than satisfied with the PM brioche which is perfect for making Croque Monsieur, I want a richer brioche with more butter but not THAT MUCH butter.

The middle-class is very rich and I can't imagine how the rich man's will turn out. I won't know because I have no intention of baking it soon; maybe after we are done with all the recipes I'll take a stab at it. I'm happy with the middle-class with its soft light-as-feather delicious crumb and flaky crust. It's a little bit richer than poor man's as expected but there's very little difference in flavor and texture. Brioche is one of the breads that I will never get tired of. It's easy to prepare and on the eyes, versatile, and did I mention very yummy?

proofing in 9-wave brioche (or tortilla) molds

After the first bite of this brioche you'll hear yourself nomnomnom-ing whether it's

torn off by hand

(I love the flaky crust)

or neatly sliced

Rating:
flavor 5
texture 5
visual appeal 5
ease of preparation 5
performance 5
worth 5
Total: 30
Average: a perfect 5, yes we have a winner!^__^