Crispy Pig Tails

The love affair goes on. This time it's crispy breaded and baked pig tails. They are incredibly delicious to die for crunchy melt-in-your mouth tender pork delicacy. I love it simply dipped in vinegar-hot pepper-soy sauce dipping sauce.

One of our all-time favorite Filipino dishes is Ox Tail stew but I have never thought of cooking pig tails. After getting a small package of pig tails already sectioned into 6 inch lengths, I found a recipe from one of my cookbooks CHARCUTERIE AND FRENCH PORK COOKBOOK by Jane Grigson. The tails are brined for 3 days, are simmered with lots of vegetables then dredged in bread crumbs and grilled. I didn't use that recipe as I didn't want to wait 3 days but instead I adapted the one from gourmet.com which is from the Fergus Henderson's cookbook THE WHOLE BEAST that I read about here. [I want a copy of the cookbook, right now!]

Next time I cook these I'll take my time and brine the tails and cook them using Jane Grigson's method. And maybe deep fry them just like crispy pata (pork legs).

they're good by themselves or with steamed mix of Israeli couscous, spinach and carrot orzo, baby garbanzos and red quinoa

Crispy Pig Tails
adapted from gourmet.com
2 pounds pig tails, cut into lengths
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 carrot, coarsely chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
6 cloves peeled garlic

2 sprigs Italian parsley
2 sprigs thyme
zest of half a lemon (removed into strips using a vegetable peeler)
1 bay leaf
4 whole black peppercorn
1 cup red wine
2 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoons sea salt
1 tablespoon dry mustard
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup fine dry bread crumbs
3 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Arrange tails in a large roasting pan, then add onion, carrot, celery, garlic, herb sprigs, zest, bay leaf, peppercorns, 1 teaspoon salt, wine, and broth and cover tightly with heavy-duty foil. Braise in oven for about 3 hours. Cool in cooking liquid, uncovered, to room temperature, about 2 hours, then chill, covered loosely, until tails are cold and firm, about 3 hours.
• Put a heavy shallow baking pan on middle rack of oven and preheat oven to 450ºF.
• Remove tails from braising mixture and remove adhering vegetables and aspic. Sprinkle tails with 1 teaspoon salt.
• Whisk together mustard and eggs in a wide shallow dish and put flour and bread crumbs each in a separate wide shallow dish. Working with 1 piece at a time, dredge tails in flour, knocking off excess, then coat with egg, brushing it into the crevices and letting excess drip off, and roll tails in bread crumbs, coating thoroughly. Transfer as coated to a plate.
• Remove hot baking pan from oven and add butter to pan, tilting it to coat. When foam subsides, add tails. Using tongs, turn and coat tails with butter on all sides. Roast until underside is browned, 10 to 15 minutes. Turn tails over and roast until other side is browned, 10 to 15 minutes more.

Chicken Wings With Chestnuts

This post is for Joelen's Culinary Adventures Wine & Dine Event: Japanese

I seldom make Japanese food because I prefer to eat it at restaurants. Sometimes, maybe once a year I make pressed sushi, onigiri, or beef robatayaki. For this event I wanted to cook something different other than sushi or teriyaki and found a chicken stew recipe in my Japanese cookbook. I had all the ingredients except for dried shiitake which I replaced with dried wild mushrooms. The stew is delicious, a little bit sweet and has a variety of flavors and textures.

Chicken Wings With Chestnuts

1½ pounds chicken wings, jointed (or 1 pound cubed boneless chicken)

1 tablespoon light olive oil

1 cup tiny baby carrots or sliced carrots

6 dried shiitake or ½ cup mixed wild mushrooms

20 chestnuts, peeled, skinned, and parboiled

2 pieces small taro, peeled, cubed, and parboiled

1 cup dashi stock

¼ cup sake

3 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 cup edamame in pods

water

salt

• Rinse the mushrooms and soak in 1 cup boiling water for 20 minutes, remove mushrooms. Let cool slightly then cut into bite size pieces. Pour the mushroom liquid through a small coffee filter, set aside.
• In a large skillet, heat the oil and stir fry the chicken wings until light brown. Add the carrots and mushrooms and stir fry for 1 minute. Add the dashi stock, mushroom liquid, taro, and chestnuts and let come to a boil. Cover pan, lower heat, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add sake, sugar, and soy sauce and let simmer uncovered until sauce has reduced and is slightly thickened. Taste and adjust seasoning.
• While stew is cooking, boil the edamame in salted water for 5 minutes. Let cool slightly, then shell.
• Transfer the stew into a large serving bowl. Sprinkle top with edamame. Best eaten while hot with steamed Japanese rice.

Lychee Babycakes with Rosewater Buttercream Frosting

I wanted to make lychee macarons but couldn't find lychee powder. I will have to order it online when I find it. I'm sure someone is selling it. Nowadays there's nothing that you can't buy online if you search long enough. I didn't want to wait for either freeze dried or powdered lychee so I baked lychee babycakes and topped them with buttercream frosting flavored with rosewater essence. The flavors are a perfect match. The cake is buttery soft and not too sweet but there's too little lychee for the amount of flour. I should have used 2 cans. Well, next time.

Lychee Babycakes
1 14-ounce can lychees, drained (reserve the liquid)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 24 brownie (square) cups with paper liners (or line an 8 x 8-inch squaree pan with parchment paper).
• Chop the lychees, set aside. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl and set aside.
• In a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together on medium speed for several minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla. Mix to combine. Add in slowly about 4 to 6 tablespoons of the reserved lychee liquid. Mix between additions to fully incorporate before adding more.
• Toss the lychee pieces in the flour mixture to coat (this will help keep them from sinking to the bottom of the batter). Add flour and lychee mixture to the batter and mix to combine.
• Scoop batter into prepared pans. Bake for 20 minutes for cupcakes and 35 to 40 minutes for square pan until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack before frosting.

Rosewater Buttercream Frosting
adapted from MORE FROM MAGNOLIA
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 or 2 teaspoons rosewater

• In a medium saucepan, whisk the flour into the milk until smooth. Place over medium heat and, stirring constantly, cook until the mixture becomes very thick and begins to bubble, 10 - 15 minutes. Cover with waxed paper placed directly on the surface and cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.
• In a large bowl, on medium high speed of an electric mixer, beat the butter for 3 minutes, until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the sugar, beating continuously for 3 minutes until fluffy. Add the rosewater and a drop of red food dye and beat well. Add the cooled milk mixture and continue to beat on medium high speed for 5 minutes until very smooth. Cover and refrigerate for no less and no longer than 15 minutes. Use immediately.

birdienumnum: moist, soft, and buttery babycake

Mellow Bakers: Grissini

The Italian bread sticks Grissini is one of the MellowBakers breads for May 2010. The bread sticks are very easy to make and the whole process takes less than 2 hours which goes: mix water, flour, olive oil, butter, salt, and yeast; let ferment for 1 hour; roll into a rectangle; cut into thin strips; bake without proofing for 20 minutes or until golden. The garlic studded dough didn't give me any problems other than the bread sticks got eaten very quickly. Easy come easy go.

I had these yummy sticks for lunch dipped in sour cream and gorgonzola and also for dinner with a pasta dish that has been a favorite of ours for more than 10 years, Farfalle with Asiago Cream Sauce.

8 ounces bow tie pasta
2 ounces pancetta or unsmoked bacon, diced
1 small red onion, thinly sliced

1 cup heavy cream
1 cup grated Asiago cheese
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
salt and black pepper to taste

• Boil the pasta in salted water for 11 minutes. In a large skillet, fry the pancetta until golden brown. Transfer into a plate and remove all but 1 tablespoon of rendered fat. Add the onion and stir fry until soft. Using a skimmer, transfer the pasta into the skillet and stir cook for a few minutes. Add the heavy cream and pancetta. Mix well, add salt and pepper to taste, then remove from heat. Stir in both cheeses. Serve immediately.

Join us, we're mellow!

KULINARYA Puto

The puto recipe in the KULINARYA guidebook is slightly different from the more popular recipes. It doesn't have coconut milk but has instead cooked rice added to the soaked rice. Using uncooked rice makes the recipe a bit involved with an added step of straining the blended mixture in a cheesecloth or fine sieve. The procedure uses greased plastic wrap to line muffin cups which is also time consuming.

The flavor of simple plain rice and sugar is very good and I really like it but I am not going to use raw rice and plastic wrap again. I prefer the easier to use rice flour and my puto molds lined with banana leaves.

Puto
adapted from from KULINARYA: A Guidebook to Philippine Cuisine
1 cup rice
1 cup water
1 tablespoon cooked rice
½ cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
plastic wrap
oil for brushing plastic wrap

• Wash rice and soak in water for at least 5 hours. Add the cooked rice. Put the rice in a blender. Add enough soaking water to reach the level of rice. Blend for 1½ minutes.
• Pour the blended rice into a bowl and add the rest of the water, sugar, and baking powder. Mix until smooth. Using cheesecloth or a very fine sieve, strain the mixture into another bowl.
• Brush the plastic wrap with oil, line each well of muffin pan or 1¾ inch puto molds. Trim the wrap so that each one fits snugly into each well or mold. Pour 2 tablespoon of the mixture into each well or mold. Steam on high heat for 15 minutes, undisturbed.
  
• Remove muffin pan or molds from steamer and let cool. When cooled, pull up each puto using the plastic wrap, discard plastic. Serve with butter or grated coconut.
• For puto pandan: Wash 6 pandan leaves, cut into 1 inch pieces, mix with the water, and blend. Strain and use the water to soak the rice. Add a drop of green food dye if desired.

Pork and Me: A Love Story

My love affair with pork came late in my life. Growing up we didn't have much pork dishes because my parents specially my dad didn't like it. He didn't mind small portions of pork as a flavoring in vegetables, noodles, and in chicken pork adobo, and maybe once a year he was fine having grilled pork chops. I myself didn't cook pork very often and only have been cooking it more frequently since I started this blog 4 years ago. Better late than never in discovering its goodness, I guess.

I read in our local news here in Ashburn about a competition among chefs to prepare locally produced ingredients and this year pork is at center stage. The winner will be named King or Queen of Porc. Read more about the competition at their website: Cochon 555. I'd like to crown myself the princess of pork but I know there are many others who can out-pork me.^_^

Well, pork, how do I love thee, let me count the ways:

bagnet, lechon kawali, or pork belly confit

I made these bacon appetizers today. They are so porklicious specially the bacon candy.

Chestnuts Wrapped in Bacon

a few rashers thin smoked bacon, cut into 3 pieces
whole roasted chestnuts (or water chestnuts)

• Wrap the chestnuts in bacon pieces and place on a wire rack cut side down. Place the wire rack on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Bake in a preheated 350°F oven until bacon is golden and cooked through.

Bacon Candy

crrrunch!

thin smoked bacon rashers, cut into 1 inch pieces
brown sugar

• Dredge the bacon pieces in brown sugar. Place on a wire rack and put the wire rack on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Bake in a preheated 350°F oven until caramelized and darkish brown (do not burn). They will become crisp as they cool.

Candied Jalapeños

I found a new victim to candy: jalapeños. These small moderately hot but flavorful chiles are perfect candied to fill dessert flour tortillas or to garnish cupcakes. The sweet and spicy candied morsels are rather addicting, specially paired with chocolate paste made with dried chiles and dark chocolate.

I brushed 6-inch flour tortillas with melted butter, sprinkled a little sugar, then cooked in a dry hot skillet until the edges are crisp. A tablespoon or two of the chocolate paste is spread on the tortilla then topped with a few slices of the candied jalapeños. I stacked about 4 or 5 more tortillas before cutting into 4 pieces. Each wedge is served with whipped heavy cream and garnished with a piece of candied jalapeño. Sweet...spicy...sweet...Yummy.

Candied Jalapeños

6 jalapeños
1 cup sugar
½ cup water
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
sugar for dredging, optional

• Cut off both ends of chiles and cut into thick slices. In a small skillet or saucepan, heat 1/3 cup of the sugar and ¼ cup water. Let come to a boil, turn down heat, add the jalapeños and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain and transfer jalapeños on a plate, set aside to cool. Discard the syrup. Heat the rest of the sugar, the remaining water, and corn syrup. Let come to a boil, turn off heat, add the jalapenos and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove jalapeños and let cool. Repeat 2 more times or until the syrup has become really thick. Transfer the slices on a rack and let dry slightly. Roll on sugar if desired or leave overnight to dry completely.

Sweet Mole Sauce/Paste

2 chile ancho, washed and seeded
water
4 ounces panocha, piloncillo, or demerara
4 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Place the chiles in a small saucepan and add enough water to cover. Boil for 10 minutes or until chiles are very soft. Remove half of the water and reserve. Puree in a blender, return to the saucepan together with the sugar, cloves, and cinnamon. Simmer for 3 minutes or until of desired consistency, adding the reserved water if you want it saucier.

Dining with Sherlock Holmes

Sherry Syllabub

Sherlock Holmes's character in the movie with Robert Downey Jr. is IMHO so outrageously inaccurate I could only tolerate the first 15 or 20 minutes. I wouldn't mind the comic book idea of Sherlock but portraying him as an unwashed, unshaven, and prone to street brawl is too much for me. He's an expert boxer and swordsman but does not engage in fisticuffs; does not mumble incoherently with an unrecognizable accent; and he is meticulous as a cat in his grooming habits, clearly indicated in The Hound of the Baskervilles when he secretly stayed in a hut where he made sure his chin is always smooth and his clothing and linen are as clean as if he were in his own home in Baker Street. I guess the movie is not for someone like me and is catered to 12-year old boys and Transformers fans. The only amazing thing I found out about this movie is the director, Guy Richie made a great success in turning normally good actors into talentless amateurs.

Anyway, I watched one of the old Sherlock Holmes movies [which are not perfect either} and again borrowed from the library THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES. While browsing through the library's long list I came across the cookbook Dining with Sherlock Holmes by Julia Rosenblatt. Most of the recipes are simple and easy to prepare and I imagine Holmes and Watson having the dishes at home or in some inn.

Marrow Toast
4 two-inch center sections of marrowbone
4 slices bread, toasted
a pinch of salt
ground black pepper
lemon juice, to taste
chopped chives for garnish

• Push the marrow out of the bone and soak it in cold water for 20 minutes. Slice the marrow and place it on the slices of toast. Season with salt, ground pepper, and lemon juice. Put it under the broiler until the marrow has melted. Sprinkle with chives and serve hot. (I roasted the marrow and spread it on bread just like butter.)

marrow on toast

Sherry Syllabub
1 cup cold heavy cream
½ cup sherry
juice and zest of half a lemon
2 tablespoons sugar

• Whip the cream until stiff. Fold in the rest of the ingredients. Chill before serving.

Guyabano Lassi

I never knew guyabano and yogurt are meant to be together. Their flavors complement each other that they almost taste the same. I got a few cans of guyabano drink and combined 2 cans with 3 cups of thick Greek-style yogurt and half a cup of sugar. I put the mixture in ice pop molds and reserved a cup of the mixture to which I added half a cup of ice and put the mixture in the blender. Guyabano lassi, so good. The fruit pulp, if I can find it, I'm sure will taste even better.

Monay, Pinagong, and Putok

Filipinos love to give unusual names to things, food, and even people. There is a fried fish dish wrapped in banana leaves then deep fried called Pinaputok na Plapla (tilapia) and sweet buns called simply Putok. Putok is the Tagalog word for explosion/firecracker and crack/fissure. I looked online for the recipe and found it in Manang's blog. The putok refers to the star cut on top of the bun and I started to wonder where it originated because I never heard of this bread before. It turns out it is a variation of a bun called Pinagong, which means shaped like a pagong (turtle). Pinagong is a bun that comes exclusively from Sariaya, Quezon province and I remember eating those buns as a kid when we visited my maternal grandparents. I still remember it being sweet and dense and milky and had a hard crunchy shell just like another bun called Monay. Sariaya and other nearby cities and towns sell an abundance of various breads. At the time they even sold buns named after popular movie celebrities obviously catering to their fan base. The buns were shaped exactly the same and made from the same dough but they were given different names and sure enough fans bought their favorite's namesakes. I'm not kidding.

The funny thing is I can remember the flavor, texture, and aroma of the pinagong buns but I couldn't recall the shape. I just snipped the top of the buns with scissors before baking. They were already baking when it suddenly occured to me that they should have about 4 or 5 parallel cuts on top and the lower portion is formed to make a tail of sorts to resemble a turtle. Why a turtle, I have no idea.

I adapted Manang's recipe using powdered milk instead of evaporated, omitted the baking powder and soda, and I also didn't let the dough rise the second time to have the hard dense texture that I remember. The buns were baked as soon as they were shaped. When I took my first bite I was transported back to Sariaya. The crunch of the crust...the sweet yellow milky crumb that doesn't need any butter or jam...the aroma...this is the pinagong of my childhood. Sooo yummy.

I don't know the origin of monay, it's great for cheese ice cream sandwiches

putok with coarse raw sugar

wrong shape of pinagong but has the same flavor and texture

I baked a second batch using concentrated evaporated milk and made a proper pinagong shape although the scores should have been a little more shallow. Well, next time. I didn't like the flavor of evaporated milk. I still prefer fresh whole milk or powdered nonfat milk. Maybe I should get the full-cream milk powder KLIM for a deeper milky taste.

the crumb is dense and tight but surprisingly soft

Monay, Pinagong, and Putok
1¼ cups lukewarm water
2 teaspoons instant yeast
½ cup sugar
1½ teaspoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons soft butter
2 egg yolks
4 cups bread flour
½ cup milk powder

• Preheat oven to 400°F. In a standing mixer with the kneading hook attachment, add the ingredients in the order as written. Mix on low until combined. Knead on medium for 5 minutes or until smooth. Transfer the dough into a greased bowl, cover tightly with plastic film, and let rest on the kitchen counter for 1 hour.
• Lightly knead the dough and divide: monay and pinagong into 4-ounce portions, putok into 2-ounce pieces. Shape into rounds, flatten slightly, and place on a baking sheet 2 inches apart. If you want dense hard-shelled buns, make star cuts on top of putok, a deep slash right down the middle of monay, and 4 quarter-inch deep slashes on pinagong rounds. Immediately bake in the preheated oven until golden, about 15 to 20 minutes.
• If a softer bread is desired, let the buns rest for half an hour, covered with plastic film, before baking. I don't recommend letting the buns rise for an hour because they will be too fluffy and won't have the right texture.

Daring Bakers: Traditional British Pudding

steak, oysters, and mushrooms suet pudding

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

Suet, lard, tallow, and other fat such as coconut oil have gotten a bad reputation from the food police but they are actually better for us than hydrogenated vegetable oil and they make fried food taste so much better too. I fried some potatoes in suet, they were delicious and then I remembered McDonald's fries used to taste so good because they were fried in tallow, until the company was told to switch to vegetable oil. I always thought that suet would render a beefy flavor but it doesn't. It is almost neutral and now I firmly believe is perfect for tender baked or steamed pie crusts.

The suet shreds and crumbles very easily with gloved hands. And if you don't like the caulfat-like membrane you can throw it away (I didn't and they don't seem to affect nor are they visible in the finished pudding). After shredding I weighed and wrapped them individually into 6-ounce portions and put them in a freezer bag, ready when I feel like British pudding. I rendered a small piece and I find the rendered suet is much harder to shred than the fresh one.

This was a true challenge for me as I have never had British pudding, with suet or otherwise. One of my dessert cookbooks which has mostly British recipes is hardly ever used. I have been curious though and regularly browse through the book almost always looking at the Sticky and Steamed section specially the boiled Spotted Dick and Christmas Pudding but never dared to make them. Thanks to Esther and the Daring Cooks challenge, I finally had the motivation to try them. I was not expecting to like it but I was wrong because not only do I like but I love them, both the savory and the dessert pudding.

Suet Crust
12 ounces all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon sea salt
6 ounces shredded suet
a little less than 1 cup water

• Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix in the suet. Add the water, a tablespoonful at a time, mixing until it forms an elastic dough that leaves the bowl clean. Don’t over handle the pastry or it will become tough.
  

Steak, Oysters, and Mushrooms Pudding
I made a steak pudding, used oysters in place of kidney, and added fresh mushrooms. The pudding is very yummy with just enough sauce, not too watery nor too dry. The crust is perfectly tender, a little flaky and soft. Because it is steamed instead of baked, I wasn't expecting a golden brown color. I couldn't believe my eyes when I removed the foil after 4 hours of steaming that the crust has turned perfectly golden. The meat is very tender and the oysters has melted, yes melted because I couldn't find a shred of them in the delicious stew.

1 recipe suet crust
1½ pounds chuck steak, cubed
1 cup fresh or frozen oysters
½ pound button mushrooms, sliced
1 medium-sized onion, chopped
2 teaspoons flour mixed with 1 teaspoon salt and a pinch of black pepper
water
salt and ground pepper
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

• Reserve a quarter of the crust for the lid and roll out the rest and line a well-greased bowl.
• Toss the steak in the seasoned flour. Mix in the oysters, mushrooms, and onion. Fill the pastry-lined bowl with the meat mixture. Add enough cold water to reach almost to the top of the meat and sprinkle with Worcestershire sauce. Season with salt and pepper.
• Roll the final piece of pastry out into a circle big enough to cover the top of the bowl, dampen the edges and put in position on the pudding, pinching the edges together to seal. Seal well and cover with a double sheet of foil, pleated in the center to allow room for expansion while cooking. Secure with string, and place it in a steamer over boiling water.
• Steam for up to 5 hours, you may need to add more boiling water halfway through or possibly more often.

Sussex Pond Pudding
This is one of the suggestions in the challenge and I was skeptical at first. The filling has a total of 3 ingredients, one of which is a whole lemon. How can it taste good. I'm telling you it tastes great. I love the sweet tart lemony sauce gushing out and creating a "pond" on the plate, the soaked crust is heavenly soft, and the caramelized very soft lemon is amazingly delicious. You just have to try it.

1 recipe suet crust
4.2 ounces coarse raw sugar (demerara)
4.2 ounces unsalted butter
1 large lemon

• Reserve a quarter of the crust for the top.
  
• Roll out the rest and line a well-greased bowl. Cut the butter into small pieces and put half in the bowl with half the sugar. Prick the whole lemon, preferably one with a thin skin, all over, using a thick skewer. [I cut the lemon into large chunks]. Place on top of the butter and sugar in the bowl. Cover with the rest of the butter and sugar.
  
• Top the pudding with the remaining crust. Seal the edges together. Steam for 4 hours, or longer for a really tender lemon, adding more water in the steamer as needed. To serve, turn the pudding into a dish with a deep rim, when you slice into it the rich lemon sauce will gush out. Make sure each person is served some of the suet crust, lemon and tangy luscious sauce.

Figgy Pudding
This is a cake-like sponge type of dessert pudding. Some sponge pudding doughs are wrapped in several layers of muslin and boiled directly in water. The recipe for this Christmas pudding mentioned in the song We Wish You a Merry Christmas is steamed, not boiled. The pudding is moist, fruity and utterly delicious! And very Christmas-y.

½ cup shredded suet
½ cup sugar
1 large egg, well beaten
½ cup milk
1 tablespoon rum or brandy
1 small apple, peeled, cored, and finely chopped
8 ounces dried calimyrna figs, chopped
½ cup chopped nuts
½ teaspoon each grated lemon and orange zest
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
a pinch of ground cloves
a pinch of ground ginger
1 cup dried bread crumbs
1 teaspoon baking powder

• Grease a 1-quart glass or ceramic bowl, set aside.
  
• In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients well. Spoon into the prepared bowl. Cover with a piece of aluminum foil and steam for 4 hours. Serve with sweetened cream, or custard sauce.

Thank you again Esther. I truly enjoyed making and eating these puddings.

Ube Macarons

they have monster "feet"

Here I go again. This is my third macaron blog post. Sorry but I can't help it, they're so freaking cute and so yummy too.

I finally got Hisako Ogita's i ♥ macarons book after reading about it again in David Lebovitz's blog. When I saw the purple yam flavored ones, I swear I heard it calling my name. Ube + macarons, oh yesss!

The very thin paperback is actually more like a manual with basic instructions on making macarons. The book is not perfect, with a few head-scratching instructions like the Italian meringue cooked in the microwave oven, but what I like about it is the different flavor and cream filling pairing suggestions. It also has an adorable packaging section with teeny tiny boxes and ribbons, read extreme cuteness a la Hello Kitty, and recipes for the egg yolks. At $9.50 it is definitely a good buy.

For the purple yam macarons she suggests to add 2 tablespoons of purple yam powder [which I presume is not ube but the Japanese purple yam, an entirely different root crop that is closer to sweet potato than the Filipino ube] into a basic 3-egg white macarons recipe.

sweet puff and cream sandwich

Mellow Bakers: Light Rye Bread

For someone like me who didn't like sourdough rye breads that much, Jeffrey Hamelman's Light Rye bread is a welcome surprise because I love its slightly sour and slightly sweet flavor. As the name says, it's light on rye, that is, the recipe has very little medium rye flour so I heeded his suggestion of using whole rye flour for a more pronounced rye flavor, and I also used rye sourdough starter instead of the white flour sourdough starter. Ground, not whole, caraway seeds were used sparingly at a quarter teaspoon, which to me is just about right, maybe less of it or none at all would be better. I love the flavor of caraway seeds but I think it masks the true flavor of rye flour which only recently I'm starting to appreciate.

The bread is another simple dough to make. The sourdough is built the night before and left on the kitchen counter to ripen for 14 hours. The next day high gluten flour, water, salt, yeast, and caraway seeds are mixed together with the sourdough. I did not have any problems with the mixing of this rather stiff but not dry dough which was made to ferment for 1 hour. I decided to shape the dough into a boule and baked it in a cast iron pot. It rose well, although the crumb is tight which is okay because its smokey flavor is more important to me. I also love its thin-ish chewy crust and soft but chewy crumb, perfect for ham or pastrami sandwiches.

ham sandwich on rye lunch

join us and discover great tasting breads

Chicken Wings

crispy fried chicken wings with vinegar and hot pepper dipping sauce

finger-lickin' good Buffalo-style wings with sriracha

I got a ginormous bag of chicken wings already separated into drumettes and flats. They will be seasoned and cooked then stored in the freezer so they're ready when needed, just like the ones from the stores but homemade.

For the first batch the wings were seasoned in fish extract (patis) and sea salt, dredged in a little flour then were deep fried. In this batch I left half of the cooked wings plain and served with vinegar and hot pepper dipping sauce and to the other half I added a Buffalo-style hot sauce made with vinegar, sriracha, garlic powder, and Worcestershire sauce. I like them both. Which one do you prefer?

Here is a recipe for Buffalo Wings sauce which is a little bit more vinegary and not as spicy as the Thai sriracha sauce

Buffalo Wings
30 drumette and flat chicken wing pieces
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons flour
oil for frying
1½ tablespoons white vinegar
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
¼ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons Louisiana hot sauce

• Rub the wings with salt. Place the flour in a plastic zipper bag and add the wings. Shake the bag to coat the wings with flour evenly. Deep fry in hot oil until golden brown. Drain on paper towel.
• Prepare the sauce: In a large skillet add the remaining ingredients and cook until heated through. Add the chicken wings and mix until evenly coated with sauce. Serve with celery sticks and blue cheese dressing.

Punschtorte Bites

I was considering signing up for another baking community but reading through the assigned cookbook, The Modern Baker by Nick Malgieri, I decided not to join. I'm not in the mood to bake 150 breads, cakes, biscuits, tarts, and cookies. However, the very last recipe caught my eye because they are very pretty pink iced sandwich cookies called Viennese Punch Cookies, the author's take on a cake called Punschtorte.

I have never heard of this cake before. There are very few recipes online, one has layers made of cake crumbs moistened with a syrup made of citrus juices, rum, and apricot preserves then formed into 2 round layers. A layer each of marzipan and apricot preserves are sandwiched between the spiked cake layers. I thought the make up of the cake is strange.

I didn't like the cookie recipe and after reading the other recipes, I combined 2 of them with the book's cookie filling, baked a thin sponge cake, cut shapes with small cookie cutters, and made iced sandwich bites.

I love small cute cakes and they're easy to store too, although preparation is too involved and labor intensive. I made a mistake in the icing adding too much pink gel icing, I had to scrape them off. You will notice the cakes are not smooth at the edges and some of the pepto bismol pink icing is visible in a few places. The icing also is too thin which was done on purpose because I didn't want too much sweet icing. I like the cake but I was not wowed all that much. Maybe it'll taste better tomorrow because it's supposed to age at least a day for the flavors to meld.

Punschtorte Bites
cake
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
4 large eggs, room temperature
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon each finely grated lemon and orange zest
1 cup sifted cake flour
syrup
1 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips, melted
1 cup marzipan
icing

• Line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
• Mix eggs, sugar, vanilla, zest, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer, whip egg mixture until it has tripled in volume, about 4 to 5 minutes. Fold flour into mixture, one third at a time, just until incorporated.
• Pour about 1 cup of batter into the melted butter, and fold just until combined. Return butter mixture to reserved batter, and again fold to combine. Pour batter into prepared pan. Smooth batter evenly. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 15 minutes or until top springs back slightly when lightly touched. Cool completely then brush with syrup. Cut into squares or rounds and pair them up.
• Crumble the scraps and mix with the melted chocolate. Roll into a 1/16-inch thin rectangle between 2 pieces of plastic film. Cut into squares or rounds. Place on top of half of the shapes. Roll the marzipan into a thin rectangle and cut out shapes. Place on top of chocolate shapes, top with its cake pair making sandwiches. Pour the icing straight over the cake. Smooth the sides using a palette knife but avoid touching the top.

syrup
4 ounces sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice, strained
3 tablespoons orange juice, strained
2 tablespoons apricot jam strained
3 tablespoons dark rum

• Dissolve the sugar in the juices over gentle heat. Add the strained jam and boil gently for 3 minutes until slightly thickened. Remove from heat and stir in rum.

icing
2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice, strained
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, strained
1 tablespoon rum
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 drop red food coloring

• Mix the liquids. Slowly add the liquid to the sifted sugar in a bowl, stirring all the time. Do not add all liquid at once, the icing may become too runny. It should be thick and smooth enough to coat the back of the spoon. Place the bowl over a small pan with simmering water, and warm until the icing thins out and runs easily from the spoon. Remove from heat and use immediately.