Caramel Apples

pumpkin pie granny smith, simple caramel crab apple, mint chips and milk chocolate chips fuji This is one treat during Halloween and/or Thanksgiving weekend that has never appealed to me *psst, because you're old*. I prefer to eat apples as a snack, not candy, with sliced Manchego cheese as dessert, or in grilled cheese sandwich. I am not so sure why these jaw and teeth breaking caramel apples are so popular here in the US and of all places in the Philippines. And why in the world would you coat the apples with so much chocolate, why???

Anyway, I have some leftover caramel and coated 3 apples to see what the attraction is and also to add the pictures to my flickr photos, heheh. I actually like the pumpkin pie coating which is a mixture of ground graham crackers, raw sugar, and pumpkin pie spice but is still not as appealing as, say, caramel enrobed in bittersweet chocolate. Anybody in my house is welcome to eat them, but I doubt if they will. I bet the apples will stay on the counter forever and ever.:D

coated with a mixture of graham crackers, coarse raw sugar, and pumpkin pie spice

You can use caramel candies available from the groceries, I think it won't make any difference in taste and go wild with your coatings: rice crispies and peanuts, mini marshmallows and chopped almonds then drizzled with melted chocolate, chopped butterfingers, white chocolate and butterscotch chips but don't make them look so gaudy. But then, maybe the gaudy ones on display shelves or on the dinner table are more attractive specially to children.:D

Pinakbet

I usually make this vegetable dish when I have leftover crispy fried pork belly. The pinakbet I made today is similar to the Ilocos style of layering the vegetables and cooking it just until the vegetables are al dente. I used half of a medium size bitter melon (ampalaya). I don't recommend the very small Indian variety because they are super bitter unless you love bitter things. To prepare bitter melon, cut in half lengthwise, scrape the seeds and the white soft innards until you can see the light green meat, slice into 1 inch pieces, blanch in salted water, rinse with cold water 2 or 3 times. This process is supposed to remove some of the bitterness but I'm not sure if this really works, though.

Pinakbet

1 cup diced bagnet/lechon kawali (pork belly confit)
a 2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
1 cup yard long beans (sitaw), cut into 1 inch pieces
1 Asian eggplant, halved and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 large tomato, sliced
2 tablespoons sliced shallots
10 pieces okra
1 cup kabocha squash, cut into ½ inch pieces
½ bitter melon, prepared as above
¼ cup bagoong alamang (salted shrimp paste) mixed with ¼ cup water or ½ cup fish bagoong (may substitute 2 tins anchovy filet mashed in ¼ cup water and strained)

• In a medium pot, arrange the pork evenly at the bottom, add the ginger on top of the pork spreading it evenly. Layer the vegetables, with the bitter melon either on the very top or if you want some bitter taste, in the middle. Pour the alamang mixture all over the vegetables. Cover the pot.
• Over high heat, boil rapidly for 10 minutes. Do not mix while boiling. Serve with steamed rice or as a side dish.

Bagnet
2 ½ pounds boneless pork belly
1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise
2 bay leaves
1 ½ tablespoons sea salt
water
vegetable oil

• Put pork in a large pot. Add bay leaves, garlic, and salt. Add water to cover pork. Boil for 1 hour. Remove pork, drain well, dry with paper towels.
• Transfer to another pot. Add enough oil to cover pork, fry over very low heat for 1 hour to remove excess moisture. Remove pork and transfer to a large plate to cool completely.
• When cooled, reheat the same oil over high heat and fry the pork belly until skin is golden in color and very crisp.

For flexi-vegetarian pinakbet omit pork.
For vegan pinakbet, omit pork and substitute 4 tablespoons soy sauce for the shrimp paste. Adjust seasoning with sea salt to taste.

Kabocha (Japanese Squash)

At the Korean grocery, a bin of dark green, tough skinned squash labeled kabocha caught my eye and I remember seeing this squash in one of my Japanese cookbooks. They are smallish, ranging from 1 to 3 pounds. I am not particularly fond of squash or pumpkins, except for the annual pie for Thanksgiving and pumpkin butter. When I make pinakbet I put maybe just half a cup of diced squash. I can't say why it's not one of my favorite vegetables, maybe it reminds me of the mashed squash that my children ate when they were babies.

Because I am curious about this vegetable, I bought the tiniest one. My cookbook describes the vegetable as similar in smell and flavor, although not as sweet, as chestnuts. I got so excited with the mention of chestnuts, heheh (it really smells and tastes like chestnuts when cooked). The cookbook has 3 entries: steamed sweet cake served with sliced pears or persimmons, simply steamed with sea salt, and savory with chicken sauce. I prepared the simplest which is salt-steamed and sprinkled with more sea salt before serving. I am loving this vegetable! I made the steamed cake and I have fuyu persimmons that have been ripening on the counter for the past 3 days. They aren't fully ripe yet but already so sweet and pair perfectly with the steamed cake. My cake does not look pretty but it tastes absolutely divine! I must get more kabochas for our Thanksgiving pie and to make sweet filling for siopao buns.

steamed kabocha chips: healthier than fries and yummier too!

Kabocha Cake
1 12-oz kabocha squash
2 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1½ tablespoons water
2 egg yolks, beaten
sliced persimmon or pear, optional

• In a medium pot, heat ½ inch of water, put whole unpeeled kabocha, and steam for 3 minutes.
• Remove the kabocha and cut in half. Scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Cut into chunks.
• Steam in a covered steamer for about 15 minutes.
• Remove the skin and mash the flesh in a food processor. Transfer to a mixing bowl, add the rest of the ingredients except fruits. Mix well.
• Roll out a sushi mat, line with a piece of slightly wet muslin. Spread the kabocha mixture evenly. Hold the nearest end and lightly roll up the mat to the other end. Fold both ends of muslin to close.
• Steam for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let set for 5 minutes. Open the sushi mat and cut cake into 1 inch thick slices. Serve with the sliced fruit.

steamed kabocha cake with sliced fuyu persimmon

Pâte de Fruits And Fruit Leather

apple/apricot and apple/cranberry pâte de fruit and fruit leather

I have been looking for the perfect recipe for pâtes de fruits and quickly realized there's no such thing because while some fruits like cranberries, quinces, and most citrus have natural pectin, others need pectin powder and/or a little citric acid for the pâtes to set properly. I made the pectin-less recipe from my cookbook DESSERT CIRCUS AT HOME by Jacques Torres but almost got burnt by the blorp blorp blorping lava-like mixture. I did not want to spend an hour over the stove stirring while dressed in protective gear so I added 2 packets of liquid pectin. The paste set perfectly and after shaping and rolling in sugar, the fruit candies turned into these delightful little edible gems. I love the slightly chewy and crunchy (from the sugar) exterior and the soft incredibly fruity sweet center. The fruit leather recipe from the same cookbook is very good. I spread the cooked mixture a little bit thicker than fruit roll-ups. I love it too, specially the sweet and tart apple and cranberry which tastes like soft haw flakes. Hmm, what fruit shall I make into paste next, Philippine mango or raspberries?

If you have the time and the patience and have an obsessive personality like myself here are the recipes:

Apple Pâte de Fruits
3 apples, peeled
water
1¼ cup sugar plus extra for dusting
½ tablespoon butter
6 ounces liquid fruit pectin (2 pouches)

• Line an 8 x 8 inch square pan with aluminum foil lightly sprayed with oil. Place apples in a medium sauce pan half filled with water. Poach apples for 25 minutes until soft, let cool slightly. Core apples and coarsely chop. Put in a blender and blend until uniform in texture. Pour the puréed apples in a medium saucepan, stir in the sugar and cook over medium heat stirring constantly for 4 minutes. Add the butter and continue to cook for 2 more minutes. Stir in the pectin. Immediately pour into the prepared pan. Let cool completely at room temperature or in the refrigerator.Cut into squares and roll in sugar. Variations: Use the same amount of sugar and pectin and procedure for 2 large quinces, increase poaching time to 45 minutes up to 1 hour until quince is very soft. Tint with red orange color paste, if desired. Replace 1 cup apple purée with 1 cup canned or fresh apricot purée or cranberry purée.

quince pâte de fruit

Fruit Leather (recipe adapted from DESSERT CIRCUS AT HOME by Jacques Torres)
1 cup strawberry purée
juice of ½ lemon
1 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
¼ cup powdered pectin

• Lightly spray a 16 x 24 inch piece of parchment paper with oil, set aside. Combine the strawberry and lemon juice in a stainless steel saucepan over medium-high heat. Combine the sugar and pectin and add to the purée. Whisk well to combine. Allow the mixture to come to a boil while stirring constantly and continue to boil for 3 minutes. Remove the mixture from the heat and pour into the prepared pan. Using a large offset spatula, spread the mixture evenly over the parchment paper. Set aside to cool. It cools very quickly and develops a skin. For fruit roll-ups, cut into preferred size and simply roll one end into the other.

strawberry fruit roll-up and mascarpone filled ravioli

The Bad Plus And Jason Moran Concert

I went to see a double bill performance concert last night in the Lisner Auditorium in Washington, D.C. First on was jazz pianist Jason Moran who did an excellent show. He was accompanied by a small band: alto and tenor sax, trombone, trumpet, tuba, bass and drums. His program was based on a 1959 Town Hall concert by Thelonius Monk. Before every song begins, a visual and audio of Monk being interviewed or talking with his band was shown on a screen behind the band. It was like a TV special with live music, interesting and entertaining. All the musicians are exceptional although in one instance I hardly heard the piano during the loud playing of all instruments specially the 2 saxophones. I did not expect to love it but I honestly did regardless of the sax. I haven't listened to anything with saxophone (thanks Kenny G for ruining sax for me and probably for everyone else on this entire planet!) but with excellent musicians playing avant-garde jazz style I might start liking the saxophone again.:=) Click on his name to check out the next two performances. I highly recommend his show.

The Bad Plus as usual did not disappoint and was LOUD when it was time to be loud. Some parents who accompanied their teenagers left the auditorium when they thought nobody was looking, I guess they didn't like tbp's music. Well, their music is not for everybody. If you like classical piano AND hard rock, you will probably like them but if you are into smooth jazz you'll probably hate their style of music which is hard to categorize, they are jazzy with a little bit of rock and a touch of classical piano playing. (One example is their cover of Black Sabbath's Iron Man, the tune is familiar but with semi-classical feel with the piano and bass sound, plus relentless drumming.) They played 4 new songs and 4 songs from their records. What I like is they vary their sound each time they play a song. And the last song they played, Silence Is The Question, from their first album GIVE (I played this song over and over for maybe 6 months non-stop) started very slow and soft, as it should be, for maybe 5 minutes then they gradually got louder, more forceful and the ending was magnificently heart pounding! I love tbp!

Nuts About Nuts!

It's the last week of October which means party, party party! which will probably last until early next year. It also means you have to think of what food to bring to these events. Because I love nuts I recommend sweet or savory nuts. They are easy to prepare and to transport unlike cakes which can easily get squished or the quick to spoil macaroni salad. They can be served as appetizers or desserts or dinner/lunch munchies.

Read more »

Mushroom And Wild Rice Soup

Finally, it feels a teensy bit like fall. Usually by this time of the year I would be making soup at least twice a week but since the first day of autumn the temperature started rising and stayed at a summer-like 80°F until today. Actually it still isn't as cold as it should be but I'm in the mood for mushroom soup and because I have a container of assorted dried mushrooms: morel, porcini, Brazilian caps, ivory portabella, shiitake, oyster. I adapted the recipe on the container using vegetable broth and added fresh baby criminis and cooked wild rice. The wild rice is a wonderful addition because of its chewy texture not to mention it's good for you.

Mushroom And Wild Rice Soup

2 cups re-hydrated mixed wild mushrooms (cut big ones into bite size pieces)
2 cups fresh baby crimini
2 cups cooked wild rice
¼ cupbutter
¼ cup olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
8 garlic cloves, sliced
1/3 cup flour
½ cup dry sherry
6 cups vegetable broth
salt to taste
½ cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme

• In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter, add oil, onion and garlic and saute until onions are soft and translucent. Add the mushrooms and cook until all the moisture is mostly gone. Add the flour and stirring often, cook for 5-7 minutes until the flour looks and smells lightly toasted. Add sherry and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in vegetable broth and salt. Let come to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Add rice, heavy cream, and thyme and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Serve hot with crusty bread or garlic bread sticks. Or top spaghetti noodles with this thick soup, it's incredibly delicious.

Marzipan Halloween Candies

marzipan pumpkins


marzipan fingers

A large bag of almonds has been sitting in my freezer for I don't know how long. I had to use them up before they go rancid so I made marzipan. Making your own marzipan is time consuming but costs just a fraction of what you'll pay for several 7-oz cans of ready-made marzipan which will probably yield just a dozen of miniature fruits per can. The other advantage of making your own is you are sure there are no additives in your marzipan. And I had so much fun making the miniature pumpkins and "severed" fingers. This is a great project for children. Making fruits like bananas, cherries, and oranges is similar to working with clay, the difference is they are cute, edible, and yummy.

Marzipan
4 cups skinless almond meal
2 egg whites
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup water
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
powdered sugar for kneading
1 teaspoon almond extract, optional

• In a large saucepan over medium heat, mix sugar and water, stir until sugar is melted. Add cream of tartar, bring to a boil. Cover pan and cook for 3 minutes. Uncover, attach candy thermometer and cook to 240°F. Turn off heat, stir until the mixture has thickened slightly. Stir in almonds and egg whites. Turn heat back on and cook for 4 minutes. If using almond extract, stir it in now. Transfer the mixture into a silpat-lined board or surface. Using a spatula, turn and knead until cool enough to handle. With gloved hands, knead until pliable, sprinkling powdered sugar if too sticky. Divide into 8-oz pieces, form into rounds, and wrap in plastic film. Refrigerate until ready to shape.

Marzipan Pumpkins
8 unces marzipan, homemade or store-bought
orange food color paste
dark brown food color paste
powdered sugar for kneading
toothpicks

• Set aside about 2 tablespoons of marzipan. Sprinkle a little powdered sugar on a silpat-lined surface or large baking sheet, knead the remaining marzipan, add 1/8 tsp orange food color paste, knead well until uniform in color. Add more coloring if you want it brighter than the ones I made. Cut a small piece and shape into a 1-inch ball. Flatten the balls slightly. Using a toothpick, make vertical marks to resemble pumpkins. Set aside.
• Add brown food color paste a little at a time to the 2 tablespoons marzipan until it is dark chocolate brown in color. Roll into a very thin long piece. Cut into ½ inch pieces. Using the tip of a Japanese plastic chopstick, make tiny holes on top of the pumpkins and insert the stems.

Marzipan Fingers
8 ounces marzipan
10 pieces whole almonds with skin
red food color paste
toothpicks or small food-safe brush

• Divide marzipan into 10 pieces and form each into fingers. Using a toothpick, make marks to resemble fingers. Using your nails or toothpick fray one end. Using toothpicks or a small brush, dab color paste on frayed end. Taper the other end and press an almond. You can brush the almond the same red food color paste, if desired.

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.

Fried Lumpia Taugeh (Mung Bean Sprouts)

fried lumpia with vegetables, mung bean sprouts and tofu

My daughter's friend is coming home from working overseas and he asked her if I can make him lumpia. Lumpia and pancit are the most popular or maybe the only familiar Filipino food here in the US. I asked my daughter what kind he likes because there are several ways to prepare lumpia:

• fresh with vegetables or heart of palm and wrapped either in egg and cornstarch mixture or flour lumpia wrapper served with a sweet and salty sauce
• fried with vegetables and prawn filling
• fried with mung bean sprouts, vegetables and firm tofu, true vegetarian but so delicious
• lumpia Shanghai filled with either prawns and ground pork or a mixture of both, the difference from 2 & 3 is these are thin and sliced into 2-inch pieces before frying, these are also served with sweet and sour sauce

My favorite is the one filled with mung bean sprouts eaten with vinegar and garlic dip. When I was working at the Asian Development Bank one of our co-workers came in the morning with all sorts of food stuff to sell and these were the ones I bought regularly. I never cooked fried lumpia of any kind in Manila and rarely here in the US because it is tedious to prepare. Separating the wrappers alone takes time and patience. We usually bought them or had them in restaurants and in Manila the maids cooked them for us and sometimes I asked my mother to make them, she is an excellent cook. This is only the second time I made fried lumpia and I was only able to make 3 decent looking ones that are photo worthy. The others are sort of ugly looking but nevertheless yummy. I'm not sure if I can make good-looking lumpia for him or if I have the enthusiasm to make them. Maybe she should bring him to the Little Quiapo restaurant near Washington, D.C. where the food is decent but not spectacular.

Lumpia Taugeh
8 cups mung bean sprouts, washed and very well drained in a salad spinner
3 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 small onion, sliced
1 cup firm tofu, diced
1 cup julienned green beans
1 cup julienned sweet potatoes or carrots
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon soy sauce
ground pepper
lumpia wrappers
grape seed oil for sauteing and deep frying

• In a large skillet heat 1 tablespoon oil and saute garlic and onions for 3 minutes. Add tofu, salt, soy sauce and pepper. Saute for 2 minutes then add beans and sweet potato. Cook for 2 minutes. Turn off heat and stir in mung bean sprouts, mixing well. The mixture should be dry. Let cool for 20 minutes before filling wrappers. Deep fry in hot oil until golden brown and crisp, drain well on paper towels. Serve immediately.

Ube Waffles

I wanted to make stroopwafels, unfortunately I don't have a pizzelle wafer iron but I have a 10-year old Belgian waffle maker and that's good enough for me. I have been reading about stroopwafels in other blogs and magazines for the last year now that I want to try them so badly. Strange thing, I went to visit The Netherlands in February of 1982, never noticed a single shop that sold these, or maybe I didn't know what they were, but I could have seen other people eating or lining up to buy them to get my attention but I did not. Oh, well. One thing I acquired from the Dutch and glad I did is eating French fries with mayonnaise.

Anyway, I made regular waffles using baking powder instead of yeast and replaced ½ cup of the flour with purple yam (ube) powder. I love the milky smell, taste, and texture of ube in just about any bread including puto. The butter-rich dark syrup, actually thick caramel sauce rather than syrup, the recipe I got from a Dutch recipe website, is super yummy but beware of the fat and sugar content. This snack/breakfast treat should be eaten in moderation.:=)

ube waffles with dark buttery syrup, sooo yummy

Ube Waffles
1½ cups all purpose flour
½ cup powdered ube
2 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon sea salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups milk
½ cup melted butter
2 eggs

• Preheat waffle maker. Mix ingredients until smooth. Bake waffles according to manufacturer's instructions. Serve hot topped with warm syrup. Or slice the waffles and spread caramel/syrup on one slice, top with the other half and eat like stroopwafels. Either way it's delicious.

Dark Treacle
1½ cups dark brown sugar
1 cup butter
6 tablespoon dark corn syrup
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

• Mix syrup ingredients in a small saucepan and heat until sugar is melted and mixture is smooth. Serve warm with the waffles.

I recently read that ready baked wafers are available at Trader Joe's. I guess it's time to go to TJ's.:-)

Peanut Butter Truffles & Grape Jellies

peanut butter truffles with various coating: ground peanut butter, cocoa powder, dark and milk chocolate and peanut butter chips

grape jellies

A few weeks ago I borrowed from the library the gigantic and super heavy THE FRENCH LAUNDRY COOKBOOK by Thomas Keller which has really superb and elegant recipes but some are too complicated for everyday meals. I prefer to cook simple dishes and if I want fancy I'd go to a restaurant. The desserts are very good, though, some are simple to make. I'm still deciding if I'll buy my copy. I got the peanut butter truffles and fruit jellies idea from this cookbook but did not follow the recipes for both the truffles and jellies.

Peanut Butter Truffles
1 cup crunchy or creamy peanut butter
1 cup chopped milk chocolate (chips are fine)
½ cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter
suggested coating: ½ cup each semi-sweet chocolate, milk chocolate and peanut butter chips, ¼ cup ground roasted peanuts, ¼ cup cocoa powder

• Melt all ingredients except coating in a small pan over low heat. Pour into a metal square pan. Place in freezer for 30 minutes.
• Using a melon baller, scoop out portions and place pieces on a piece of aluminum foil. Working quickly, shape the candies into marble-size balls. Divide balls into 5 portions. Keep 4 portions in freezer for 1 hour. Roll the remaining balls in ground peanuts. Refrigerate.
• Coat another 1/5 of the balls in cocoa powder, refrigerate. Melt chips one at a time, coat each portion, sprinkle tops with ground peanuts, if desired, then refrigerate. Transfer candies into individual paper cups, if preferred. Refrigerate leftovers.

The recipe for jellies is here.

Salmon Tocino

I never had or heard of dried fish tocino when I was still in the Philippines and learned about it recently in Christine's blog. While looking for Filipino recipes in Gene Gonzalez's The little ulam book, I got so excited when I saw the Bangus Tocino recipe which does not require drying time. The marinated fish is fried in a little oil just like pork or chicken tocino. I have a piece of wild salmon in the fridge and used it in place of the boneless bangus. It is very very good but should have added a little bit more salt to the marinade.

Bangus or Salmon Tocino
2 pieces boneless bangus or salmon
2 tablespoon calamansi or lemon juice
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
2 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoon anisado wine (I used Pernod)
¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
¼ teaspoon prague powder (pink salt), optional

• Combine seasoning ingredients. Marinate fish in the mixture for at least one day. Fry and serve with steamed rice and hot pepper-vinegar dipping sauce.

I have a jar of pickled santol which goes very well with the salmon tocino. I will make tocino again with another kind of fish and will dry them in my food dehydrator.

I Heart Chuck!

CHUCK, that's the new NBC show that debuted last night and it was love at first watch. The show is Mission Impossible meets Beauty And the Geek, the difference is the Tom Cruise-like character died, which is good, and the beauty who is actually smart, works as a CIA agent and is adept in using knives to defeat her adversaries of the moment. The whole show is funny, not slapstick, but intelligent funny and action-packed. Read more here. Chuck, the lovable geek and social nerd, works at a BestBuy-like store and drives a tiny geekmobile. He shares a house with his sister and her boyfriend, also his co-worker and best friend is even geekier than he is. The dead guy sent him an email containing government secrets that got embedded in his brains when he opened it which will eventually lead him in coming episodes to work with the agents. My favorite scene: When Chuck and the girl were preparing for their date, in their respective houses of course, she was strapping on her ankle a thin belt full of small knives and wore 2 deadly metal chopsticks as hair accessory which she later used against a group of NSA agents while they were dancing in a club. Chuck did not notice the approaching men in black and that they were falling one by one except for one. But he wised up to the government agents' agenda, prevented an assassination, disabled a bomb, then went back to his job the next day. All in a day's work. Excellent show. I now have something to look forward to every Monday evening.

For the past 2 or 3 years I have been watching only a handful of the regular network's TV shows, Heroes, Medium, and Law & Order SVU are my favorites. There were no sitcoms or dramas worth my time. I occasionally watched Dancing with the (has been)Stars and regularly some of Bravo's reality series like Project Runway and Top Chef and the very funny Showdog Moms & Dads a few years ago. I think I'm the only person on this planet who hasn't seen a single episode much less a single minute of Grey's Anatomy, I got tired of Desperate Housewives pretty quickly, and lost interest in the second season of Lost.

The new TV season looks promising. The Journeyman is okay but has the potential to improve. I'm not sure about Bionic Woman but Ill watch it, Pushing Daisies from ABC is also interesting. Sitcoms are hopeless, though, nothing new that will make me watch. I miss Seinfeld. I'll continue watching America's Next Top Model and Beauty and the Geek, at least they're entertaining.

Apple Butter

I bought a lot of ginger gold apples last week and discovered a few days later that they were no longer crunchy, in fact they were already getting mealy. I don't like eating mealy apples, who does, but did not want to throw them away so I made them into apple butter. This is the first time I made apple butter and I am glad with the result. The best recipe in my opinion is this one.
It took a long time to cook but this apple butter is very good and sooo perfect with these savory cheddar biscuits. I used aged cheddar which gives a salty savory wonderful flavor to the otherwise bland biscuits. I'm now starting to like biscuits specially with sweet and spicy apple butter.;=)

apple butter on hot cheddar biscuits - sweet, tangy, & spicy + salty & cheesy

Pork Belly Cooked In Pineapple

Via Mare's Pork Jamonado
1 kilo skinned and trimmed whole pork belly
1 cup dark brown sugar
1½ tablespoons sea salt
¼ teaspoon instacure (saltpeter or salitre), optional
1 32-oz can pineapple chunks
2 cups pineapple juice
2 bay leaves
6 whole cloves

• Combine sugar, salt and saltpeter. Rub the mixture all over the pork belly. Roll tightly from long side, tie with twine, marinate overnight.
• Put pork, marinade, and the rest of the ingredients in a large pot. Let boil, lower heat and simmer for 1 ½ hours.
• Transfer meat to a platter, let rest before slicing.
• Boil the remaining sauce for another 5 - 10 minutes to thicken slightly. Pour on top of sliced pork.

This is a very good dish. It's salty and sweet and tastes like ham with the addition of the cloves. I love it!

Notes:

1. It is difficult to find whole pork belly in groceries but finally found it in the Korean supermarket. The butcher will not cut the slab so I got the whole 10 pounds! I divided the slab into 3 pieces, made 1 into jamonado. The rest are in the freezer and will make bagnet (lechon kawali) later.
2. I don't think the saltpeter is necessary because there is no curing involved. I think this is added for the pink color. You can eliminate this ingredient altogether.

Via Mare Recipes On DVD

I just viewed a Filipino cooking for entertaining dvd, the food prepared by a pretty Filipino actress (Carmina Villaroel). All the recipes come from the restaurant Via Mare owned by Glenda Barretto who appeared at the end of the show for a brief period.The DVD is called Celebrate Special Occasions with the Best Recipes of Via Mare which I borrowed from Netflix.

The recipes that made me drool:

• Stuffed Queso de Bola
• Pork Pineapple Hamonado - I will make this first and will post it soon.
  
• Pastel de Lengua
• Stuffed Roast Turkey - The meaty stuffing looks so goood, I kid you not.;D
• Cassava Bibingka - I am not sure if I will find the same Filipino style cassava flour here in the US but will try to substitute frozen.
  

Other recipes:
Cuchinillo with Paella Stuffing
Lapu-lapu With Mayonnaise
Pears Poached in Red Wine
Strawberry Fizz
Kiwi Fizz
Tsokolate Eh
Salabat Tea

Although the whole cooking show is in Taglish, the recipes and procedures are shown in separate boxes in English. I highly recommend this dvd to meat loving Filipinos.

Peruvian Canary Beans Stew

There is a large variety of dried beans in the Latino section of most groceries in my area. One that I'm not familiar with is canary beans. They're as big as pinto with yellowish, slightly greenish tint. Any bean dish like baked with onions and bacon or fabada is always welcome in my house. The Goya package has a recipe for Peruvian stew that sounds interesting, with familiar ingredients like bacon and beef/pork/chicken, except for the cilantro and annatto seeds seasoning. The only Peruvian dish I know and have eaten is the pollo Inca, spit-roasted chicken much like our lechong manok, which is not really that unique. The other Peruvian dish, actually a drink, I have read about in the excellent, very funny and with lots of strange characters travelogue book TRAIL OF FEATHERS -IN SEARCH OF THE BIRDMEN OF PERU by Tahir Shah, is the saliva fermented manioc (cassava) drink served at dinner. Tahir Shah did not dare refuse the drink so as not to insult his host and he was also perhaps scared of being beheaded and having his skull shrunk.;p

Anyway, this stew does not require any saliva fermentation. Sauteing and boiling are the only steps to do and the result is a delicious hearty bean stew that's so good with steamed white rice.

Peruvian Canary Beans Stew
8 ounces canary beans
2 rashers bacon, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ pound beef, chicken or pork, cubed
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 packet Sazón Goya with Culantro y Achiote
1 teaspoon salt

• Soak the beans overnight in water. The next day, drain and add 4 cups water and the bacon. Cover and bring to a boil, lower heat to a simmer. In a skillet, heat the oil and saute the rest of the ingredients until beef is browned. Stir the meat mixture into the beans. Cover and simmer until beans are tender, about 1 hour. Adjust seasoning. Serve with rice.

Jimi Hendrix Videos

Jimi Hendix - yeah!

VOODOO CHILD

ALL ALONG THE WATCH-TOWER (BOB DYLAN)

Isn't Jimi awesome? The hair, the clothes, the jewelry!;D

Chicken Pie

This morning I was reading an article in the Travel Section of the Sunday Washington Post about the annual pie suppers in Vermont held in September and October. The picture of the chicken pie topped with biscuits instead of pie crust made me get up and prepared one for lunch. That's some power of suggestion, heheh. Mine is actually more of a chicken hash pie because I used leftover Dutch oven baked chicken (AKA pinaupong manok) which has other stuff like bacon, tomatoes and onions and then I added carrots and peas. I topped the pie with biscuits just like the Vermont chicken pie and made some gravy to pour on top of the pie. It's so autumn-y and yummy!!

Chicken Pie
3 - 4 cups cubed cooked chicken
2 cups chicken gravy (recipe below)
salt & pepper to taste
store bought or home made biscuits
1 tablespoon melted butter

• In a square baking pan, mix the chicken and gravy. Add salt and pepper to taste. Arrange biscuits on top. Brush with melted butter. Bake in a preheated 425°F oven until biscuits are golden brown, 15 - 20 minutes. Serve with gravy on the side.

Chicken gravy (makes 4½ cups)
4 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon onion powder
3 tseaspoons chicken bouillon powder
¾ cup bisquick
salt & pepper to taste

• Mix all ingredients in a blender. Transfer into a saucepan and cook until thick. Adjust seasoning. Reserve 2 cups for the pie. Serve hot with the chicken pie or fried chicken.

Flaky Biscuits
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
6 tablespoons very cold diced salted butter
¾ cup very cold milk

• In a large bowl, mix flour, salt and baking powder. With fingertips, mix in the cold butter. Slowly mix the cold milk using a fork. Transfer onto a flat work surface and roll into a 6 x 10 inch rectangle. Fold both short ends to meet at the middle. Fold in half again to form 4 layers. Roll into an 8 inch square. With a sharp knife cut into 9 squares or rounds with a biscuit cutter.

White Nectarines With Honey

white nectarines fried in butter and sweetened with honey

If you love summer fruits I recommend white nectarines. I was never into nectarines but I'm liking the white variety because they are sweeter than the yellow ones. I already canned some and cooked a few pieces by frying in butter with a couple of fresh bay leaves. I heated ¼ cup of honey until it's a little bit brown then added 2 T of water (you can add port or marsala). I drizzled the honey syrup on top of the cooked nectarines. There is a hint of bay leaf flavor and the honey is perfect with the mild sweet flavor of the fruit. This fruit recipe pairs very well with vanilla flavored yoghurt or ice cream, simply delicious! A sprinkling of in-season berries is optional. Also good with nectarine is ginger syrup and topped with chopped candied ginger. Yum.

Kesong Puti (Filipino White Cheese)

While I was churning butter my daughter asked me suspiciously and with one raised eyebrow, "You're not going to make cheese next, are you?". I said, "No, of course not, it won't be as easy as butter". But then one of my blog visitors lamented that it's not that easy to find mascarpone cheese in Manila. In my reply I linked a website that teaches how to make mascarpone with heavy cream and tartaric acid. That gave me the bright idea of looking for the recipe for making kesong puti online. The ones I remember being peddled by ambulant hawkers were milky white, soft, slightly salty, and wrapped in banana leaves. I haven't had them since we left the Philippines in 1988 and I was craving for it so badly all of a sudden. I found this which is rather vague and of little help with the amount of ingredients. I borrowed a cheese making book from the library and tried the paneer and farmer's cheese which require no special ingredients, you only need milk (not ultra pasteurized), lemon juice or vinegar, a heat-proof spatula, and a large pot. I combined both recipes using whole milk then soaked the sliced cheese in the salt, water & vinegar bath from the Filipino recipe and voila - kesong puti that is so soft and tasty and almost like the real thing. If I had used carabao (water buffalo) milk, the cheese would have been authentic Filipino kesong puti. Buffalo milk is actually available in Vermont, I think, but the milk is being sold exclusively to mozzarella cheese manufacturers here in the US. BTW, in Italy mozzarella is made from water buffalo milk.

Kesong Puti (Fresh White Cheese)
1 gallon whole milk or a combination of whole and reconstituted instant non-fat dry milk
¼ C white or apple cider vinegar
2 C hot water (optional)

Salt bath
4 cups water
¼ cup vinegar
¼ cup salt (add more for saltier cheese)

1. In a large pot, heat milk to a rolling (gentle) boil, stirring often to avoid burning the bottom.
2. Drizzle the vinegar, cook for 15 seconds while stirring.
3. Turn off heat and continue stirring until curds form (whey should be clear and not milky). For softer cheese, stir in hot water now.
4. Once you obtain clear separation of curds and whey, let set for 10 minutes.
5. When the curds have settled below the whey, ladle the curds onto the muslin lined colander. Tie corners into a knot and hold the bag under running lukewarm water to wash off the vinegar. Gently twist the top of the muslin to squeeze out more whey.
6. Shape the cheese in the muslin into a 2½-inch thick log, return to the colander and place a bowl of water or a 5-lb weight on top for 20 minutes.
7. Unwrap cheese, cut into ½-inch slices and let soak in the salt bath for 15 minutes.
8. Store in refrigerator with a little of the salt bath. Will keep for 2 weeks.

the bad plus prog review

I've been listening to this cd prog by my favorite jazz band the bad plus for the past four months now. It's time to write what I think of the songs. I rate this cd A++.

the bad plus is:

• ethan iverson, piano
• reid anderson, bass
• david king, drums
  

1. everybody rules the world (tears for fears) - a wonderful and sweet cover of one of tff's best songs. hushed but beautiful.
2. physical cities (reid anderson original) - very original and exciting music, a jazz purist perhaps will not like it but I LOVE IT! the pounding of all instruments in perfect sync is just magnificent.
3. life on mars (david bowie) - my favorite of the four covers. the bad plus playing a david bowie song = perfection.
4. mint (ethan iverson original) - playful and fun, I wish it's longer than 5:20.
5. giant (reid anderson original) - what can I say, this song makes me hum along with it, which is extremely difficult to do when there are no lyrics and the tune varies. I just love love love this song.
6. thriftstore jewelry (david king original) - easy on the ears with a slight latin beat, I thoroughly enjoy the drum solo, brilliant as well as entertaining.
   
7. tom sawyer (rush) - always a crowd pleaser at live performances. I didn't know this song but when I first heard it live I instantly liked it (I listened to the original song several times after the concert). excellent deconstruction without losing the original tune.
8. this guy's in love with you (burt bacharach) - my least favorite but does not mean it's bad. I just don't like the tune itself.
   
9. the world is the same (reid anderson original) - oh my god! my current favorite song. this starts very very slow, building up as it goes, quickening the pace, becoming more urgent towards the end of this most beautiful song, and the conclusion is almost orgasmic, further emphasized by the fade out of drums and bass, then the coda.
   
10. 1980 world champion (david king original) - what an ending to david's trilogy of medalists (this one is for ski jumping) and anchoring this cd. the song is so lively and fast paced, I can't help but tap my foot or hands each and everytime I listen to it. it has a good mood feel and the champion's speech near the end of the song is a nice touch. I imagine myself right there when the champion made his jump and won. this song makes me happy, want to dance or ski jump.
    

I am in a dilemma right now because the bad plus is coming to Washington, DC in late October but my daughter and I also want to see La Boheme this month. La Boheme is a bit expensive, the cheapest is $100 for a not-so-ideal-seat and I'm sure the tickets for tbp will also be higher than the normal they charge because of the venue. And there is a tribute concert to Jimi Hendrix also in October. Sigh, can't decide.

Peaches in Wine Syrup

fresh peaches in wine syrup

I got the scare of my life today. I was preparing the wine syrup early this morning for the locally grown peaches I bought last Monday when the alarm went off indicating high natural gas level of 228. I opened some windows, went outside with the alarm, reset it, changed its battery, plugged it. It kept going off although I could not smell anything. Finally, I called 911 after 15 minutes and 3 minutes later a firetruck arrived with 3 young [good looking] firemen. They checked the kitchen, the gas fireplace, and the basement and their monitors all got zero reading. It was a false alarm, damn those made in China things!! I was relieved that my house is safe and nowhere near in danger of exploding (as several houses did, not in my community, though). Whew! I was a bit embarrassed to bother the firemen but as the saying goes, it's better safe than sorry. My daughter called to get an update and I told her the good news. She commented that one of the firemen might be the guy she went out with a few times. When I asked her for his name she said "douchebag", 'nuff said.:)

Anyway, every summer I like to take advantage of fresh produce, especially locally grown that I preserve for the off-season. I got a few peaches from Wegmans that were grown in a farm an hour away from my house, they were just picked and arrived at the store early that day, I was told by the produce guy. I let the peaches sit on the counter for 4 days to ripen. They should be a little bit soft to the touch but not mushy.

Peaches in Wine Syrup
fresh peaches
white wine
sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

• In a medium stainless steel sauce pan, combine white wine and equal amount of sugar, add the vanilla bean and seeds and bring to the boil. Lower the heat to medium, simmer for 10 minutes. Remove vanilla, rinse, dry, and keep for later use. Continue to cook the syrup for another 15 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the peaches. Boil a large pot of water. Dip the peaches, then remove the skin. Cut in half or into quarters, discard the stones. Add the peaches to the syrup and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes. Fill pre-boiled and dried jar/s. Let cool completely, then refrigerate.

These sweet and tender peaches are great for breakfast with cereals and yogurt or for dessert/snack with the rennet custard. I will properly preserve more of these peaches, which means boiling the jars with the cooked peaches, therefore no refrigeration is needed so we can enjoy them all winter long.

It is easy to peel peaches when they are fully ripe but not mushy. If the peaches are not fully ripe the skin will stick to the flesh. Also, make sure the water has boiled, then turn off heat, before dipping the peaches.

Rennet Custard

vanilla flavored custard with honey and pistachio halva

While grocery shopping I happened upon some boxes of rennet tablets for making cheese, custard, and ice cream. I remember reading about custard made with rennet from 80 Breakfasts' blog a few weeks ago so I got 2 boxes (8 tablets per box) and experimented with whole, 2% fat, and fat free instant powdered milk. Of course, the whole milk tastes better but if you are on a low fat diet or the only available milk in your area is ultra pasteurized (UP), the powdered milk or fat free milk are not bad at all, as long as the fresh milk is not UP. I also have a large container of Lebanese pistachio halva which I crumbled on top of the vanilla flavored custard and drizzled a little sage honey. You can also add lemon, orange, or almond extract or diced canned fruits like peaches and pears, the recipes are inside the box. I will add ginger infused syrup with the next batch of vanilla custard.

The consistency of the custard is somewhat gelatinous but creamy, I can accurately describe it as more like taho (Chinese-Filipino soft tofu eaten with brown sugar syrup). I love that it is very light but so delicious. I also like that since there are no egg yolks, the custard doesn't taste eggy.

To make custards using rennet you will need a thermometer that reads from zero to 220 degrees F because the right temperature of the milk is essential to make the rennet work.

lemon flavored custard made with instant powdered milk

This rennet is called junket rennet which is fine for making custards and ice cream and also for some soft cheeses but not for hard cheese because it is weaker than regular rennet.
The 2% fat milk is the favorite in my house. It is light, creamy, excellent plain, but pairs very well with ginger syrup.

Campari Tomatoes

Have you tried these Campari tomatoes? I bought a container of these bright red super sweet vine tomatoes that are about 1½ - 2 inches in diameter. Although they are grown in greenhouses these tomatoes are very tasty. They are good in salads, of course, on pizzas, flat breads and savory tarts but they are good by themselves with some sea salt. The other day my daughter washed a few and dipped them in ranch dressing, ate them with gusto like fruit, wait, tomato IS a fruit. She reminded me of my weird self. When I was about 4 years old I used to snack on ripe tomatoes with some rock sea salt. On days that my mother would go to the palengke (market), she would hand me a brown bag full of tomatoes, then I would sit on the front porch and munch on the tomatoes and by the time she was home all the tomatoes were finished. I could have asked for other fruits like macopa, sineguelas, atis, guavas, etc. but my mother said I preferred tomatoes.:D

I made some tartlets with these Campari tomatoes, feta cheese and sage leaves. I used puff pastry but pie shell is also good. Brush the pie shell or puff pastry with egg white and blind bake for 15 minutes before filling the pie so the bottom doesn't become soggy.

Campari Tomatoes & Feta Tart/Pie
store bought or homemade puff pastry or pie shell
sliced Campari tomatoes
feta cheese, crumbled
dried or chopped fresh sage
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt

• Blind bake pie shell.
• Arrange sliced tomatoes and sage, drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt, then add feta cheese, arranging evenly.
• Bake in a preheated 375°F oven until the crust is golden brown, about 15 minutes. Drizzle with more olive oil before serving.