XO Sauce

We lived in Hong Kong for a little over 3 years from 1988 to 1992 but never heard of XO sauce. I don't know when this sauce started becoming popular and it certainly is very popular now not just in Hong Kong but also here in the USA. I wasn't able to find it at our Asian stores but they are available online. I was a bit surprised at the price, a jar of less than half a pound of this sauce costs about $17.00. It must be really good.

Well, it's very very good. I love it! At least the one I made at home. It's spicy and delicious in fried rice or simply with steamed vegetables.

XO Sauce
makes about 2½ cups

warm water
6 pieces large dried hot red pepper
1 cup dried scallops
5 ounces tiny dried shrimp with shells on
2 ounces Virginia ham, chopped
2 ounces salted fish
¼ cup shelled large dried shrimp, chopped
¼ tablespoon coarsely ground sichuan pepper
1½ cups light olive oil
1 cup minced garlic
1 cup minced onions

• In separate containers, soak the peppers, salted fish, and tiny shrimps.
  
• Place the dried scallops in a small saucepan, add water to cover by half an inch and simmer until scallops are soft; do not let mixture get dry. Let cool then shred by hand; set aside.
  
• Drain the soaked ingredients. Remove the seeds from the hot peppers and coarsely chop; set aside. Coarsely chop the tiny shrimp and fish; set aside.
  
• Heat 1 cup of oil in a large saucepan and add the garlic, onion, and chopped tiny shrimps and let fry on medium heat for 10 minutes. Add the peppers, fish, and ham and continue to cook until peppers become translucent. Add more oil if needed. Turn the heat to low, add scallops, large shrimps, and sichuan pepper and simmer until all the liquid has evaporated. Remove from heat and transfer sauce in jars, let cool. Keep in refrigerator until ready to use.

Brats or Primanti®?

sauerkraut, fresh sausages, spicy brown mustard, cheese on a chewy crusty sandwich bun



Primanti-style sandwich: layers of chipped (shaved) ham, provolone, fries, coleslaw, and sliced tomato on Italian bread

Take your Super Bowl XLV pick. Brats (Green Bay Packers) or Primanti®-style (Pittsburgh Steelers) sandwich. Both are really delicious. I'm not too sure about the teams though and I won't be watching the game anyway.

Vote for your favorite. May the best sandwich win!

The recipe for fresh Jalapeño and Cheese Sausage is here.

Food Friday: Sinigang Mix Crusted Salmon

Who knew that a packet of sinigang mix powder would be perfect as seasoning for baked salmon fillet? Well, Yummy magazine did.

Now you must be wondering why I'm not slurping hot sinigang soup, what with the terrible cold weather we have been having lately but I was really intrigued by the idea of using sinigang soup powder as a rub. I wasn't disappointed; the baked salmon fillet is tart, salty, and delicious. I steamed some camote (sweet potato) tops to complete the "sinigang" theme.

Crispy Fries

I love watching America's Test Kitchen. They do all the work for you and always come up with recipes and cooking tricks that are interesting and helpful. One such recipe is the easier to cook 'crispy on the outside, creamy in the inside' French fries. And it really is not complicated at all. The secret to the crispiness is adding uniformly cut [into batons] Yukon Gold potatoes to room-temperature oil instead of preheating the oil. Once the oil and potatoes start boiling [over high heat], the potatoes are cooked without stirring for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, the chips are separated with tongs and cooked for another 5 to 10 minutes until golden brown and crispy. I love it sprinkled with flaked sea salt and dipped in malted vinegar.

for added yumminess, I added a cup of rendered duck fat to the oil

The Daring Bakers: Biscuit Joconde Imprime/Entremet

white chocolate mousse cake with raspberry

The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe from the blog, accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremet dessert.

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Wow! I've never made a cake as elaborate and labor intensive as this one. It took me almost half a day to prepare, bake, and assemble this easy-on-the-eyes and delicious dessert. Thank you Astheroshe for a choosing an exceptional challenge. I enjoyed every minute I spent making and every bite of this wonderful cake.

I followed the recipes for biscuit joconde and decor paste without any changes, except I only made half a recipe of decor paste. I added 1 whole tube, about 1½ tablespoons, of gel food dye to the decor paste to achieve the intense red color. I used a metal pastry comb to create the pattern on the decor paste which had to be frozen to prevent it from leaking into the biscuit joconde batter. Since my freezer is not big enough for the size of a half-sheet pan, I left it outside (25°F) until the decor paste firmed up.

I placed the silpat inside the pan before spreading the joconde batter evenly on top of the frozen decor paste all the way to cover the sheet pan. It took just 7 minutes to bake the cake which was immediately flipped onto a parchment paper. 1½-inch thick strips were cut to fit an 8-inch round springform pan (bottom removed and flipped) lined with parchment paper. Parchment paper is not the best thing to use for this kind of dessert because it bends and creates creases on the mousse. I would use an acetate sheet next time I make the cake. I made a mistake and did not fill the bottom with enough mousse before putting the raspberry insert and added too much on top by about half an inch; and the raspberry gelée should be thinner. Well, next time I'll try to do better, I hope. It takes a lot of patience to build the entrement cake dessert but I will definitely be making it again. Yes, definitely.

The inspiration for the design and white chocolate mousse and raspberry combo filling comes from my cookbook ADVANCED BREAD AND PASTRY by Michel Suas. The mousse is light as feather, not too sweet, super delicious, and perfect with raspberry.

White Chocolate Mousse
adapted from ADVANCED BREAD AND PASTRY by Michel Suas
1 envelop unflavored gelatin
3 tablespoons cold water
25 ounces heavy cream
16 ounces white chocolate
8 ounces milk
4 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 egg yolks

• Sprinkle gelatin on water to soften; set aside. Melt chocolate, set aside. Whip heavy cream to soft peaks, set aside.
  
• Make a crème Anglaise with milk, vanilla, sugar, and egg yolks. Strain through a fine sieve into a bowl, add the gelatin and stir until well combined. Add the melted chocolate and stir until emulsified. When the mixture has cooled to 80°F, fold in the whipped cream.

Kulinarya Cooking Club: Favorite Birthday Treats

coffee ice cream topped with mangosteen preserve

What savory or sweet food would you like to have on your birthday? This was KCC's challenge for this month.

It's kinda tough because there are too many dishes to choose from (noodles: palabok, canton, guisado, lasagna, spaghetti with tomato and meat sauce) and I'd rather have lots of sweets and desserts (cakes: mocha chiffon, chocolate, ube, sans rival; ice cream: cheddar cheese, ube, langka, coffee with mangosteen preserve; and leche flan, of course).

I chose to feature Coffee Ice Cream with Mangosteen Preserve, my all-time favorite dessert since it was first introduced in the 80s by Magnolia. I can't remember when and why the flavor was discontinued by the company. About 6 years ago, I started making mangosteen preserve from tinned mangosteen. The fruit preserve is simple and easy to prepare at home. I spoon a large dollop on top of store-bought or homemade coffee ice cream and I enjoy this flavor whenever I want but most specially on my birthday.

To make: boil the syrup from 2 cans of mangosteen with 6 tablespoons sugar until almost caramelized, add the fruits, separated into sections, and cook until thick and dark brown in color.

Kulinarya was started by a group of Filipino foodies living in Sydney (Kath, Trisha, and Trissa), who are passionate about the Filipino culture and its colorful cuisine.

Each month we will showcase a new dish along with their family recipes. By sharing these recipes, we hope you find the same passion and love for Filipino Food as we do.

Thank you Tressa and Jen for hosting this month's challenge.

The Daring Cooks: Cassoulet

Our January 2011 Challenge comes from Jenni of The Gingered Whisk and Lisa from Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. They have challenged the Daring Cooks to learn how to make a confit and use it within the traditional French dish of Cassoulet. They have chosen a traditional recipe from Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman.

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I have seen cassoulet in my cookbooks and several blogs but never cooked nor tried it before. Thanks to Jenni and Lisa for choosing cassoulet and Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman's recipe for this month's Daring Cooks challenge, now I have and can say this is an amazingly delicious bean stew.

It was easy for me to decide to make this seemingly intimidating dish as I already have most of the ingredients such as duck legs confit, which I made last month following Michael Ruhlman's recipe, pork belly, pork rind, sausages (with thyme and sage), and herbs. The only ingredient I had to get from the store was the dried cannellini beans. Making the dish is a bit involved but it's all worth it. The beans absorbed all the flavors and fats from the meats and they tasted even better the next day.

Cassoulet
5 cups dried Tarbais beans or white beans such as Great Northern or cannellini
2 pounds fresh pork belly
1 onion, cut into 4 pieces
1 pound pork rind
1 bouquet garni (tie together two sprigs each parsley and thyme and one bay leaf)
salt and pepper
¼ cup duck fat
6 pork sausages
3 onions, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
4 confit duck legs

• Drain and rinse the beans and place in the large pot. Add the pork belly, the quartered onion, ¼ pound pork rind, and the bouquet garni. Cover with water, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for about 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste and continue to simmer until the beans are tender, about 30 minutes more. Let cool for 20 minutes, then discard the onion and the bouquet garni. Remove the pork belly, cut it into 2-inch squares, and set aside. (If you plan to wait another day before finishing the dish, wait to cut the pork belly until then.)
  
• Strain the beans and the rind and set aside, reserving the cooking liquid separately. In the sauté pan, heat all but 1 tablespoon of the duck fat over medium-high heat until it shimmers and becomes transparent. Carefully add the sausages and brown on all sides. Remove sausages and set aside, draining on paper towels.
  
• In the same pan, over medium-high heat, brown the sliced onions, the garlic and the reserved squares of pork rind from the beans (not the unused pork rind; you'll need that later). Once browned, remove from the heat and transfer to the blender. Add 1 tablespoon of the remaining duck fat and purée until smooth. Set aside.
  
• Preheat the oven to moderate 350ºF. Place the uncooked pork rind in the bottom of a deep ovenproof non-reactive dish. You're looking to line the inside, almost like a pie crust. Arrange all your ingredients in alternating layers, beginning with a layer of beans, then sausages, then more beans, then pork belly, beans, duck confit and finally more beans, adding a dab of the onion and pork rind purée between each layer.
  
• Add enough of the bean cooking liquid to just cover the beans, reserving 1 cup in the refrigerator for later use.
  
• Cook the cassoulet in the oven for 1 hour, then reduce the heat to very slow 250ºF and cook for another hour. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Refrigerate overnight.
• Preheat the oven to moderate 350ºF again. Cook the cassoulet for an hour. Break the crust on the top with the spoon and add ¼ cup of the reserved cooking liquid. Reduce the heat to very slow 250ºF and continue cooking another 15 minutes, or until screamingly hot through and through.
  

The complete recipe including how to confit duck legs is here.

Got Sauce?

a few must-have sauces and condiments: Thai sriracha, Mang Tomas lechon, Thai sweet chilli, Jufran banana ketchup, Tabasco, tomato ketchup, KFC barbecue

this is my enabler, the Korean store's fully stocked shelves on both sides of the aisle: Asian sauces from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam and (not pictured) on another aisle, Korean and Japanese sauces

How many bottles of opened sauces and condiments occupy your refrigerator and baskets? Me, I have lost count. Some that are labeled "refrigeration not necessary" are in a basket near the breakfast table and the rest, too numerous to list down, are scattered all over the fridge. I wonder if there is a support group for my sauce hoarding ailment.:D

Miso Salmon with Sake Butter Sauce

my version of Cheesecake Factory® Miso Salmon with Sake Butter Sauce

I went for the first time to Cheesecake Factory for lunch yesterday and had Miso Salmon with Sake Butter Sauce, a large enough salmon fillet broiled and served on a bed of rice, surrounded by a shallow moat of sake butter sauce, and garnished on top with finely shredded scallions. The plate is also garnished around with snow peas. I didn't know it is one of their most popular entrees and it's easy to understand why. It is delicious and I love it! So I went to the store before going home and bought salmon steaks. I cooked them today following the widely available recipe online. The salmon dish tastes almost exactly like the restaurant's. Delicious!

my yummy lunch yesterday: Cheesecake Factory® Miso Salmon with Sake Butter Sauce

Miso Salmon with Sake Butter Sauce

salmon
¼ cup dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons hot water
2 tablespoons miso (soybean paste)
4 six-ounce salmon fillets
1 teaspoon light olive oil

sake butter sauce
1-inch piece ginger, peeled and julienned
1 tablespoon minced shallots
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
½ cup + 1 teaspoon sake
1 tablespoon heavy cream
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into large dice
½ teaspoon fresh lime juice
sea salt to taste

to serve
scallions (green parts), finely shredded and blanched
cooked rice

• Prepare Salmon: Preheat broiler. Whisk together sugar, soy sauce, miso, and hot water. Brush a shallow baking dish with oil and place the fillets on the dish. Spoon miso mixture evenly over fish. Broil 10 to 12 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork, basting twice with miso mixture. Prepare the butter sauce while salmon is cooking.
• Prepare the Sake Butter Sauce: In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, saute the ginger and shallots in one tablespoon butter for two to three minutes. Add ½ cup of the sake, bring to a boil, and reduce by two-thirds, approximately three minutes. Remove ginger and discard. Puree with a hand-held blender if desired. Add the heavy cream, bring to a boil, and reduce by half. Add the cold butter to the sauce, one piece at a time, whisking constantly over medium-high heat until emulsified and sauce is thick and creamy. Once all the butter has been incorporated, remove the pan from the heat. Whisk in the remaining one teaspoon sake and the lime juice. Season to taste with salt.
• Plate the Salmon: Using a 5-inch mold, press a half-inch thick rice on a plate. Spoon sake butter around the rice. Place a fillet on top of the rice. Garnish top of the salmon with blanched scallions. Serve immediately.

Now, about the wheat bread. Last year I made a copycat from online recipes without having tasted it. I can now say the bread I baked is pretty close to taste and texture although mine is not as sweet. I think the CF whole wheat baguette doesn't have rye flour though, but I'm not too sure. Anyway, I liked it so much I just had to buy a whole loaf to bring home. The whole baguette is about 2½ feet long and costs $3.45. I love its soft sweet crumb and the slightly chewy crust and the crunchy oatmeal coating is definitely a plus.

Peanut Kisses

Does anybody have a recipe for these peanut kisses from Bohol? My husband got these from the Philippines about 3 years ago and I have been searching for the recipe for a few years now but haven't been able to find one that makes cookies with similar texture. After baking many experimental batches using dozens and dozens of egg whites, I can say I'm not successful at all. They came out too flat or too puffy like the peanut meringue below.

Can you tell I'm obsessed? I eventually gave up when I saw them here and bought 5 boxes. They are so yummy, crunchy, peanuty, and the best thing is, they aren't very sweet. Totally addicting!

Breakfast Pizza

with grated Romano cheese, Virginia country ham, and egg

Have you had cold leftover pizza for breakfast? If you do, then why not make individual pizza for breakfast. They're hot and delicious!

I used my favorite pizza dough from ARTISAN BREADS EVERY DAY by Peter Reinhart and topped them with country ham and eggs. You can top the pizza with sliced and cooked breakfast sausage or half-cooked strips of bacon. Put the egg/s in the middle surrounded by the meat to prevent the whites from running all over. Then bake at 500°F oven on a hot stone or on top of a preheated inverted cookie pan until dark brown on the edges, about 10 to 12 minutes.

I got a bit lazy to type the recipe but you can read it at Peter Reinhart's Pizza Quest website. It's a great website for pizza enthusiasts. It has Peter's stories, recipes, and videos on everything pizza. Enjoy!

Food Friday: Chestnuts

candied chestnuts

Roasted and candied chestnuts are my all-time favorites during Christmas season. I specially love the aroma of roasting chestnuts. And when I have the time I candy (marrons glacés) some of them which are a real treat...sooo delicious.

The Daring Bakers: Stollen

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book.........and Martha Stewart’s demonstration.

Stollen is one of the regular Christmas goodies that we have in our house year after year for more than 20 years. This is the second year I have not bought them from the store since discovering homebaked is much much better.

For this challenge, we were given a choice of shaping it into a wreath. I baked a small batch of stollen a few days before the challenge was announced and they have been shaped into the usual rectangular cakes. I wanted to try this recipe and the wreath shape so I baked just half of the recipe. To view the complete recipe and instructions click here. A few changes I made: I used 2 tablespoons of sugar instead of half a cup, omitted the cinnamon and orange and lemon extracts, used almond flour instead of flaked, and added 1 more cup of dried fruits and candied peels. These are the fruits I used: golden and dark raisins, dried cranberries, dried tart cherries, and candied citron, lemon, and orange peels. I also used vanilla infused powdered sugar for the coating because I love the extra vanilla flavor. The fruit cake is very yummy and I can't wait for it to age for 1 week which is how I like stollen. And I always leave some slices on the kitchen counter for weeks until they are very very dry and crunchy, sort of like biscotti without baking them a second time. The crunchy stollen slices are very good for dunking on my morning coffee.

These are the ones I made November 29, 2010 and last year both using Peter Reinhart's recipe from The Bread Baker's Apprentice.

2010 Christmas stollen

2009 Christmas stollen

Kulinarya Cooking Club: Homemade Food Gifts

pan de leche

Kulinarya was started by a group of Filipino foodies living in Sydney (Kath, Trisha, and Trissa), who are passionate about the Filipino culture and its colorful cuisine.

Each month we will showcase a new dish along with their family recipes. By sharing these recipes, we hope you find the same passion and love for Filipino Food as we do.

The December KCC theme is Homemade Food Gifts and our hosts are Joy and Maribel. Thank you ladies.

The easiest and most convenient for me would be either baked goods or candies and desserts. I chose to bake pan de leche (milk bread) and filled half of the dough balls with yema made with caramelized condensed milk and egg yolks and the other half I topped with chopped macapuno preserves. I didn't like any of the recipes I found online and adapted the pain au lait (milk bread) from ADVANCED BREAD AND PASTRY by Michel Suas. They are basically the same milk bread but Michel Suas' recipe has less sugar and eggs and the dough requires an overnight refrigeration producing delicious, soft, milky, and not too sweet [even with the addition of 1 more tablespoon of sugar]. They are perfect little rolls in a gift box that I believe anyone would love for breakfast on Christmas morning.

Pain au Lait/Pan de Leche
adapted from ADVANCED BREAD AND PASTRY

14½ ounces bread flour
6½ ounces warm (90°F) milk
2 eggs, room temperature
1½ ounces sugar, less or more to taste
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1¼ teaspoons instant yeast
5 ounces butter, room temperature
egg wash, optional

• In the bowl of a standing mixer with the dough hook attached, mix all the ingredients except egg wash on first speed for 5 minutes. Increase to second speed and mix for 8 minutes. Transfer dough into a container, cover with plastic wrap and leave on the kitchen counter for 1 hour. Refrigerate overnight.
  
• Remove dough from refrigerator and scale into 1½ ounce pieces, shape into balls, cover lightly, and let rest for 15 minutes. Flatten each ball and fill with half a tablespoon of preferred filling. Gather the edges and pinch to close. Place each filled ball seam-side down on paper-lined cupcake pans . Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 1 hour to 1½ hours. Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until tops of the rolls are golden brown. These are best eaten while still warm. Rewarm leftover rolls in a preheated 325°F oven for 5 to 8 minutes.
  

top: filled with yema
bottom: topped with macapuno

Food Friday: Duck Soup

We had our first snowfall of the season today. It's very light though, accumulation is only 2 inches but it's very very cold, as in below freezing. Brrrr! It's time for an easy to make steaming hot duck soup. I had several cups of duck broth and added to it a little of the duck meat, scallions, cubed tofu, sliced snow peas, ginger, rice wine, dried shiitake mushrooms, sea salt, and soy sauce. Very yummy, and together with hot freshly brewed loose jasmine tea leaves, I'm now warm, toasty, and ready to watch Duck Soup.:D

The Daring Cooks Poach to Perfection

Jenn from Jenn Cuisine and Jill (jillouci) have challenged The Daring Cooks to learn to perfect the technique of poaching an egg. They chose Eggs Benedict recipe from Alton Brown, Oeufs en Meurette from Cooking with Wine by Anne Willan, and Homemade Sundried Tomato & Pine Nut Seitan Sausages (poached) courtesy of Trudy of Veggie num num.

Thank you Jenn and Jill for choosing this wonderful challenge. I love eggs, specially fried sunny-side-up with runny yolks. I also like poached eggs but it's too much work and I tend to lose a lot of the whites during cooking resulting in a much smaller egg which means less protein. For this challenge, I poached just one egg according to the recipe and the smallish egg reminded me why I bought an egg-poaching pan many years ago which has an insert [with several nonstick cups] that sits on the simmering water in the pan without the eggs touching the water. This way you cook perfectly poached eggs with all the whites intact.

Well anyway, I had the egg on top of a toasted thick slice of brioche and a slice of home cured pork belly ham but did not top it with hollandaise sauce. I sprinkled the egg with sea salt and chopped Italian parsley and had it with slices of the yummy seitan sausage. My sausages are not perfect because they're a bit soft rather than chewy which is how I like seitan sausages but the flavor is fantastic. I'll make them again and will use less liquid; I'm also inspired and will be making Spanish seitan chorizos later this week.

Homemade Sun-dried Tomato And Pine Nut Seitan Sausages
¼ cup pine nuts, toasted
½ of a red onion, diced
1 red chili, chopped
1 cup whole sun-dried tomatoes
¼ cup olive oil
1 cup vegetable stock
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2½ cups vital wheat gluten
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon paprika

for the poaching liquid:
6 cups vegetable stock
3 garlic cloves
2 bay leaves

cheesecloth to wrap the sausages

• Place 6 cups of stock, the garlic cloves, and the bay leaves in a deep sauté pan or stock pot. Heat on medium.
• In a food processor finely mince the toasted pine nuts, red onion, chili, and sun-dried tomatoes. Add the vital wheat gluten, dried thyme and paprika to the pine nut mixture and process till combined. In a measuring bowl, whisk the stock with the tomato paste and olive oil. Slowly add to the vital wheat gluten mixture and pulse until you have a smooth dough. You probably will not need all the liquid. Start with ¾ cups of the liquid and add more if needed. Whatever liquid you have left can be added to the poaching liquid.
• Divide the dough into 10 portions and shape into 6-inch sausages. Wrap each section tightly in cheesecloth and tie off the ends with twine.
• If the poaching liquid is not yet boiling, turn up the heat until it does. Add the sausages and turn the heat down to a simmer. Simmer gently for 45–50 minutes, or until the sausages are firm. Remove the sausages from the poaching liquid (reserve the liquid if you don’t plan on eating all the sausages immediately). Allow the sausages to cool a little and gently unwrap. These may be refrigerated in their poaching liquid for a week.

Click here to view more Daring Cooks Poached to Perfection

Food Friday: Cookies

I'm a bit Christmas-y lately and baked shortbread cookies adding two of my favorite Christmas goodie ingredients, candied cherries and golden raisins. I baked the paciencia with red and green swirls, the recipe will be on a future post.

Cherry Sultana Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
¾ cup sugar
2 tablespoons milk
2½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons tapioca flour
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup chopped red candied cherries
½ cup green candies cherries
½ cup coarsely chopped sultanas (golden raisins)
3 tablespoons cherry brandy

• Soak sultanas in brandy for 1 hour. Drain, reserving the brandy, then toss them in 1 tablespoon of the flour. Set aside. Whisk together the rest of the flour, tapioca flour, and salt.
  
• In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat butter on medium speed until softened. Gradually add sugar and beat on medium-high until fluffy. Add milk and reserved cherry brandy and beat on low for 1 minute. Increase speed to medium and beat until smooth. Add the flour mixture and beat on low until well incorporated. Stir in cherries and golden raisins.
  
• Shape into two 9 inch-long logs. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
  
• Preheat oven to 375°F. Cut the logs into ¼ inch-thick slices. Place on ungreased cookie sheets 1 inch apart and bake for 12 minutes or until the edges are nicely browned. Remove from baking sheets and let cookies cool on wire racks. Store in airtight containers.

Bibingka Muffins

Bibingka, a Philippine rice cake, baked with slices of native white cheese and salted duck eggs is an all-time Filipino favorite merienda (snack) specially the ones from Ferino's and Via Mare restaurants. I remember them so soft, fluffy, and buttery and topped with more butter, a sprinkling of sugar, and freshly grated coconut. These 8-inch cakes are baked on top of small clay ovens filled with live coals and the top of the clay oven is covered with an iron sheet filled with more live coals. It takes just a few minutes to bake them. The cakes can be baked in regular ovens but I find the toaster oven on a very high heat does an excellent job similar to the clay ovens.

A package of store-bought bibingka mix has been waiting for a few weeks now for my attention. I have always made bibingka from scratch with rice flour but sometimes I get lazy and want to have them right away. The thing is, there's really not much difference with the flavor and the amount of time I spent mixing because the packaged bibingka has only baking powder and salt added to the rice flour and maybe preservatives or anti-caking agents and nothing else. I baked half of the mix in muffin cups and the rest in small molds, all lined with cut banana leaves. I didn't have salted duck eggs and topped the muffins with small pieces of kesong puti (farmer's white cheese) which you can substitute with Indian paneer or well-drained and salted cottage cheese. You can also use mild white cheddar cheese or better yet, make some kesong puti. Heck, you can even top the bibingka with chocolate chips, Nutella, or salted caramel and they will still be soft and fluffy and will taste heavenly.

Bibingka
banana leaves, optional
1½ cups rice flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
pinch of salt
¾ cup powdered sugar
4 eggs, beaten until thick and lemon-colored
1½ cups coconut milk
6 tablespoons melted butter
kesong puti (farmer's white cheese), sliced into 1 inch x ¼-inch thick pieces
grated or scraped fresh coconut
butter and sugar, optional

• Preheat toaster oven to 425°F.
  
• Line muffin cups with banana leaves. In a medium bowl, mix all the ingredients, except cheese, grated coconut, and optional butter and sugar, until well incorporated. Batter should be runny; add more milk to adjust consistency. Fill the cups half-full. Top with 2 pieces of cheese and bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until tops are golden brown.
  
• Spread some butter and sprinkle sugar on top, if desired. Top with grated coconut.

soft, fluffy, and buttery