Black Tea Blondies

This week's recipe is brought to you by the book Going Shogun, a free Amazon Kindle download. The very funny SciFi-ish mystery thriller is set in a dystopian USA where a caste system of society is in place and everybody works hard to "Ascend" to the next level. The novel has nothing to do with shogun or the Japanese. The protagonists work in a popular restaurant that serves outrageous food items such as Stuffed Pigeon Cactus topped with a strawberry pop marinade, or Sausage Gravy Ice Cube, or Cheesecake Meatloaf. The only "normal" sounding item is Butter Tea Brownies which gave me the idea of making Black Tea Blondies. 

BTW, Butter Tea is actually a salted Tibetan tea drink which is very good and is more like soup because it has no sugar. 

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Tikoy Turon for Chinese New Year

2014 is Year of the Horse in the Chinese Calendar and New Year starts on January 31, 2014. Many Filipinos including myself have Chinese ancestry which is evident in our culture, language, and specially food. For me it's that time of the year to make tikoy.

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Chicken Liver Adobo Pâté

I don't know why but I've been into liver pâté the past few months. Growing up I never liked liver of any kind but now I'm really loving it specially in pate. And being a Filipino whose favorite food is anything edible cooked adobo-style, I prepared the pâté with chicken liver adobo; yummy on crusty pandesal. I covered the jar of pâté with rendered pork fat instead of the usual melted butter.

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Sourdough Country Bread

It's been months since I baked sourdough bread. And I also neglected to feed my starter for months and months until last week when I made waffles. I was certain it was dead but after waking it up just once, it proved to be stronger than ever before. So I decided it was time to try baking my version of the famous Tartine Bakery Country Bread using my sourdough starter instead of preparing a new one. The bread came out flavorful with a thin crispy crust and moist soft crumb. Although I'm happy with the flavor and texture, I'd have been happier with a more open crumb with large holes.

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