Butifarra And Mashed Potatoes Tapa

tiny Spanish sausages and mashed potatoes appetizer

Tapas are small plates of Spanish appetizers usually eaten in between meals to go with wine. The most common tapas are potato tortilla (omelet), fried chorizos, mushrooms in garlic sauce, cured olives, and prawns also in garlic sauce.

I borrowed this tapa combination of Spanish chorizos on a bed of mashed potatoes from the Food section of The Washington Post. The tiny chorizos were grilled and served on a very silky soft mashed potatoes. I made butifarra, another type of Spanish sausage which is very mild compared to chorizo, twisting them every one inch and cooked them on a skillet instead of the grill. I separated them after they were cooked. For the mashed potatoes, I boiled yukon gold with salt and a whole garlic clove. I used the cooking water to make a very soft fluffy mashed potatoes and added about 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in place of butter. This is a very delicious appetizer or dinner.

My recipe for Spanish chorizo is here. Twist every one inch to make into tiny chorizos. Or slice store-bought chorizos into ¾ inch pieces after cooking.

Next time I'll attempt to make José Andrés' deep fried chorizos wrapped in paper thin slices of potatoes. This one sounds really good.

Ciabatta

5-ounce ciabatta

The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge recipe 7: Ciabatta. This Italian rustic crusty chewy bread shaped like a slipper has become so popular and when a restaurant started to serve sandwiches using ciabatta several years ago I was eager to try but was so disappointed at first bite. The bread was incredibly leathery or maybe flip-floppy; I thought I was chewing on rawhide. And the bakeries are no better with their mediocre ciabatta but thanks to BBA and other cookbooks, not to mention several websites, I am now able to have freshly baked ciabatta at home that are flavorful and yes chewy but not rubbery.

For this challenge I [again] forgot to take photos of the unbaked dough. Sorry about that. Anyway, I divided the dough into four 5-ounce sandwich rolls and the remainder of the dough I shaped into a long thin baguette. The rolls were shaped like a letter just like in the photos and I put them on individual pieces of parchment, uncouched. It is easier to slide them one by one from the peel onto the baking stone.

For this recipe I used a poolish which I left in the refrigerator for 2 days to develop more flavor. The ciabatta recipe is easy to follow but I find the dough a little bit dry and had to sprinkle a lot of water while kneading because the wetter the dough the more hole-y the bread will turn out. I honestly thought even with the additional water I felt the dough was still dry. And this is what's odd about this batch: three of the sandwich ciabatta rolls have random large air pockets but one didn't have any, just a few medium and small ones. The baguette also has irregular medium and tiny holes in them. I can't believe these are from the same dough. I suspect my oven has cold spots and I should have baked them in batches. But overall, I like this recipe; the bread is chewy, crusty although not as dark brown as I would have liked, and definitely more flavorful than store-bought. I love it with crisp-fried pancetta, lettuce, and tomato or simply halved and baked topped with mozzarella and parmesan cheese seasoned with dried Italian herbs. I probably will NOT use this recipe again for my next ciabatta as I have PR's ciabatta test recipe for his upcoming book.

the baguette and one roll have few small air pockets, the one at the front right is hole-y

PLT: pancetta, lettuce, and tomato

crunchy crust, chewy crumb, gooey mozzarella, yummy Parmesan

Rating:
flavor 4
texture 4
visual appeal 4
ease of preparation 4
performance 4
worth 4
Total: 24
Average: 4

Guinomis

Guinomis, also spelled with a U, guinumis is a Filipino dessert or snack similar to Halo-Halo. It has diced sweet gelatin, tapioca pearls, puffed pinipig (pounded young glutinous rice), sweetened with raw sugar and pandan syrup, and topped with shaved ice and coconut milk. You will love the different textures of chewy sago and gelatin, crunchy pinipig, creamy coconut milk, and cool mouth feel of the shaved ice. Perfect for summer and sooo yummy.

Guinomis (adapted from KULINARYA guidebook)
diced cooked red agar or gelatin, flavored with lemon extract
cooked sago (large tapioca pearls)
puffed pinipig
2 cups water
3 pandan leaves
2 pieces panocha (or 1½ cups muscovado or raw sugar)
thin coconut milk
shaved ice

• Prepare the syrup: Boil the pandan leaves, water, and panocha or sugar. Simmer, uncovered, and stir until sugar has dissolved completely. Reduce until syrupy. Let cool. Discard pandan and transfer syrup into a serving container or bottle.
• Assemble the guinomis: Layer 3 tablespoons each: sago pearls, gulaman, pinipig. Drizzle syrup to taste, top with shaved ice, pour 3 to 4 tablespoons of coconut milk. Enjoy!

panocha and gur

Philippine panocha is available at Filipino and Asian groceries. Gur, the Pakistani and Indian raw sugar lumps are available in the international food section of most groceries (at least in my area). Dark muscovado sugar and raw sugar are also available in many groceries usually at the baking/flour/sugar aisle. You can use regular dark brown sugar but the flavor won't be as good as the panocha.

Lasang Pinoy, Sundays: turns ONE!

ube cupcakes for LaPiS' first birthday

Lasang Pinoy, Sundays, a weekly gallery of food photography, Filipino style, turns ONE. Congratulations to all and thanks to Ces of SpiCes. Now, let us eat ube cupcakes!:-)